New Website Coming Soon!

 Hi, everyone and Happy Belated Thanksgiving. It’s been awhile, again, but I got some news to share. 

After getting some comparison research done, I’ve narrowed down where I would like to host my new website soon.  I plan to have 2 websites overall, 1 showcase site and 1 story site (for possible upcoming project) but I’ll be getting my showcase site up and going first.  Within the remaining part of this year or early next year the latest, I’ll be moving my whole domain over to the new site.  

What that’ll means for the old content here?  I’ll be removing some of the older works that not part of my usual stylings of drawing and painting anymore.  Either for being ineffectual in their deliveries of the concept and too tedious to repeat for many different works.  Frankly, some genres need to be beefed up somewhat however once I have a starting amount of my works ready, I’ll be uploading them online.  For now, it’s mostly will be short works: emojis, spot icons, single pieces and gradually more longer, grander works will be uploaded.

For a good while now, I’ve been busy with putting some things in the past. Old things to donate/toss, scrap materials to use up and including changing old habits (the last one is always a work-in-progress).  I’ve learnt it’s okay to NOT get everything ALL DONE in one day or one week as everything in life is like a routine. With many things on people’s plates or to-do lists, even a bucket list, the most you can do is set aside a small amount of time for each item to make a bit of progress on them or deal with some things on only certain days so there’s more equitable time to work on them.  I’m ready to move onto building my future rather just clearing out my past, but there’s still plenty of things and relationships of people I want to keep maintaining as I go forward.  I hope that a lot of you had been given that chance over this pandemic and are probably feeling the same way about refocusing your goals and aims in the near future too.

So, that’s it for now.  When I get the roughs ready, I’ll showcase what I generally plan for my new website is to look as final.  Fairly soon, hopefully.  

Spring has Bloomed!

Hi again, everyone! Spring (for in Toronto anyways) has returned.  I don't see any crusty ice banks around now, getting more rain than snow for the plants to come and everyone are more than eager to come outside to enjoy the fresh air at least, more so than ever as the pandemic continues.  While you're all anxious about getting things back to normal, please upkeep with ALL the safety rules for COVID: 

• Keep about 6ft apart
• Wear your masks inside public areas
• Wash often your face and hands

And finally please, please, PLEASE, BE PATIENT in the line-ups, especially when the store staff has to clean after each customer to avoid cross-contamination between people.  To stop the virus' spreading and reduce cases, including deaths.  We're NOT out of this YET and until at least most of us gets vaccinated for against this virus, we have to keep at doing this so we can get our normal lives back sooner!

Well, as of late, I've been getting some spring cleaning done and getting ready for the warmer weather to come while storing away my winter gear.  Tossing some things and using 'em up too; it can be an ever-ongoing life trend for myself.  I don't want to have too much junk being held on for trivial reasons, mostly for practical or sentimental values. Letting go of some things is a lesson I've been doing some insight about of late too.  Use it up, Give it away, Let it pass or just Toss it, determining what is worth it or not in the end with my aims and goals. 

I'm still doing artwork though I'm going for short works right now.  Something to help beef up my portfolio with more recent works.  A while back, I did small spot illustrations with the year-end holidays for some banner art.  It seems fine enough for short works, plus could also be used as emojis too.  Figured that I make some sets of them for assets.  Right now I'm doing holiday themes.  So far, I did Valentine's, St. Patrick's and the upcoming Easter Day.  I can draw other themes like the weather, sports or anything with enough content to make a series of.  

So, other than making sketches, I've made an Easter card for my niece.  I didn't paint it in, only inked it in brown liner.  I could've paint it before sending it off to her for Easter but I thought she might like to colour it in herself with some new pencil crayons while snacking on the chocolates that I've sent too.  Hopefully she'll send a photo (or her Dad or Mom could) of the finished work.  Other than some rubber band crochets and doodles on greeting cards, I don't get to see much of her artwork.  She's not yet at the age to have social media accounts to showcase her interests and achievements.

So that's it for now.  I'll like to start rendering the spots into finished works soon but I want to get around to getting that new website business all done too.  I have to get better with my time management with not only my home routines but getting not too tired out from my current day job.  With the lockdowns being lighten now, more people are coming inside but they want to act like things are back to normal (FAR OFF from it still).  Please keep being considerate of ALL Frontline Workers; they had to do their jobs all the while facing increased risk of catching the virus with double the usual efforts of sanitation.  Think of how it's like for being in their positions while dealing with yourselves please.  Happy Easter/Spring, be safe and be kind.

Fruity Artsy

So, what to say after about a week has gone by?  Not much has gotten done.  Still reading thru tax guides, still sorting thru old papers of resumes and art promos, and I'm still looking up possible web hosting sites.  On top of all that, there's my necessary chores to get done between shifts at my essential retail job, if I got enough energy and time for it afterwards.  So, yeah, not much done art-wise. The most creative thing I've done this week is sand and varnish a wooden foldable table stand that I use regularly so to have it be more water resistant and easier to clean. 

(This is another reason why I want to change from Blogger: struggling to get the composition I want in a blog scroller frame is tricky. I can't always get it to look the way I want it.)

Fruit Sketches

Fruit Vectors

I could at least show you what I got finished last month though.  I had the thought on drawing vector icons of fruits during the summer for a Keto Ingredient Guide I wanted to make as I'm regularly eating toward that diet to lose weight (down to 310Lbs or less now).  I've since found a better guide of it with Wholesome Yum (they're a great site for food facts and keto recipes, you should definitely browse the site for low-carb/sugar diet help), but I wanted to finish what I drew. I did also a quick water mark to see what I could do to deflect infringement, might need work still.

I thought to make a set of icons as stock assets to eventually put up for sale (once I worked out the market part of it). Was going to draw a few sets of foods for the guide idea but got side-tracked with finishing off other projects like the last of my Halloween Decor ideas.  I'm glad now to be all done with trying to use up old materials for the sake of avoiding wasting them, so now I'm mostly  about my artwork with the occasionally DIY house work.  

 

I'm not sure exactly when I'll be able to start freelancing as I got a lot to catch up on, even with my retail job being part-time (it can get usually exhausting on front cash, foot traffic depending). While I'm not wanting to stay on my current job permanently, I don't want to quit it cold-turkey and be without a steady income for a long time.  That was one thing I've learnt from being jobless for about 6 years, except for having brief temp jobs, welfare and my parents' support to fall back on.  Once I can finally make a sustainable living with my art, I can consider going full-time into it and quit doing retail work.  For now, I'll be building up my portfolio while getting more informed with the business side, providing I don't have to keep doing a lot of small things like restitching worn clothes or refurbishing damaged items in a DIY fashion.

That's it for now.  Going to apply that second coat of polyurethane so I can reassemble my table again tomorrow, part of it anyway.

New Year, Refreshed Start

 Hi again everyone!  Welcome to the new year and hopefully to the turnaround of this whole pandemic.  This virus is still kicking the Earth's bum here but at least with vaccines now getting made and being distribute among the populace, things are starting to improve for the long run. Let's keep at being safe!

For me personally, I'm finally all done with projects to just use up extra crafting materials (it's taking WAY too long for them anyway while still working an essential job).  This year, THIS YEAR, I'm now all about my artwork and to freelance or at least to get work as an artist. Okay, I'll be making time for other things like my health & fitness (the Keto Diet has been doing well for me) and purge away what I don't need or compact down my storage for more space and less excess materials. One good lesson to learn with managing your stuff is to figure out what purposes each item has for you and to know what you really need from them.  It's really that you want it very badly or you need it essentially, otherwise don't buy or collect it. Unless you can trade it for what you want like money.

What I'm doing right now is brushing up my knowledge on the legal and accounting side of freelancing: GST/HST, T-Forms, Canada Revenue Guides, Business Essentials, any legal advice with freelancing.  After that, I can start working on building up my portfolio with new works. With freelancing, I'm NOT understanding about Canada's legal business obligations and how to file taxes as a freelancer and that is baffling me.  I was taught about it somewhat way back at my OCAD years but ultimately it wasn't possible to narrow it to only Canada's way of business start-ups and registration as it was an international university with students across the globe.  I've done some artwork jobs before but only as an individual, not as a registrant business owner.  I want to change that so I'm studying on the business part of freelancing so I won't be afraid about it anymore. One way to overcome a fear to learn more about it, that's my thinking behind it.

Lastly to talk about is that I'll be considering a new site to host my artwork soon.  While I've relied on Blogger for years due to being free to host on, it doesn't allow much design freedom for displaying your content online.  I've tried my old web comic on this site for a while but the navigation was terrible.  Unless there's been changes for available formats since then, I want to build a more professional website to not only showcase my artwork better but also allow me to do a webcomic again.  Maybe to restart my Crystalium series again but I'll need to dust off that project too, refresh my work and revise how to tell it eventually after I get the ball rolling again on my freelancing.

If not weekly, then bi-weekly or monthly updates are going to happen from now on.  I want to do this full-time eventually and not working still at a supermarket (as long as I can support myself by artwork alone).  Either with a tidbit of news or maybe a doodle sketch, I need to start talking on social media more to re-grab people's attention again as well as drawing. So that's it for now.  See ya next month.