Update #10 - Where I have a major breakthrough, bask in the glory of YouTube, and revisit an abandoned painting

This is where I share what I’ve been up to behind the scenes to move my art career forward - the good, the bad, and the as-yet-to-be-determined. 

March has been a challenging month, where I ended up not having nearly enough time as I would have liked to do all the things I wanted to do, but somehow I’ve still managed to move things forward. I’m looking forward to having a bit more breathing room in April (fingers crossed!). Here’s how it all shook down…

March’s Rose, Bud, & Thorn

The Rose is something that went well, the Thorn is something that didn’t go so well or is challenging, and the Bud is something that is still percolating…

ROSE

I am beyond delighted with how my new YouTube channel is performing. It’s been just over a month, and I’ve been blown away by how quickly it’s grown and how lovely all of the feedback has been. After the last couple of years absolutely failing at Instagram and feeling completely disheartened and disillusioned by social media, YouTube has felt like a breath of fresh air. I love everything about it, and it has been a huge confidence boost. I even received a brand collaboration request (apparently I’m an “influencer” now 🤣🤣🤣). I cannot wait to see where it takes me and my art next…

I’m also really happy with how my new Patreon is doing - I only have a few paid members so far, but then I haven’t given it much in terms of marketing yet, so that’s no surprise. I’m happy just finding my cadence with producing the content, and I’ll be doing more on the promo side of it once I start the podcast (more on that below).

Painting-wise, I’ve been spending more time in my sketchbook and I can feel the creative tension rising within me. A new collection is brewing!

I’m currently working on restarting a painting I abandoned last year - a huge, glorious nude. Too many people saw her whilst I was working on her and I ended up getting extremely tight and frustrated. She’s been sitting face to the wall for months now, and I’ve just started analysing what went wrong and making plans to fix her - I’m putting all of that into a video for YouTube so I’m excited to share that with you all soon!

BUD

I could really feel things starting to fall into place this month. Even with the time crunch (see below) my workflows are starting to even out, things are happening faster, and my systems and processes are starting to emerge. I’m really beginning to be able to see how all the different moving parts of this business are coming together, and it’s fucking amazing. I cannot tell you how much fun I’m having and how much I’m enjoying all of it.

I didn’t manage to draw/paint every day in March, which was my tentative intention, but just having that intention in my mind meant that I did draw more often which is great. One thing I’ve been doing which has really worked, is pushing one of my wheely tables up against my desk at the end of the day (see the photo above), so when I come into the studio in the morning, the way to my computer is literally blocked by art-making stuff. It’s a bit of a sledgehammer, but sometimes that’s what my delicate neurodeviant brain needs.

Finally, I’ve been fleshing out the details of my new podcast! I’m sure if you’ve been around me for any length of time it will not surprise you in the least to know that a big part of my marketing strategy revolves around having casual chats with cool people, and in this instance I’ll be recording them too. I’ve been talking about making a podcast for ages and it’s finally happening… but not just yet. I’ve made my guest list, and gotten clear on what it is and who it’s for, but I realised fairly quickly that I need a bit more breathing room after the huge push to launch both the YouTube and the Patreon last month, so I’ve given myself more space and I’ll revisit this in a month or two.

THORN

I completely miscalculated my time this month. I came down with a nasty stomach bug which took me out of action for a week, and I hadn’t realised that Easter fell ridiculously early this year, at the end of March, so I lost a week there too (I always take at least a week off at Easter with my love).

That meant that I had to produce a month’s worth of work in two weeks, which was a bit squeezy but it did lead me to an important breakthrough. I had a couple of days where I found myself getting super stressed out and a bit meltdowny, but I was able to nip it in the bud by realising that everything I’m doing right now is supposed to be FUN.

I’ve chosen to do these things because I enjoy them, and there’s no point in living this life if I’m not enjoying what I’m doing. So, I made a conscious decision to chill out, get off the struggle bus, and just take things one step at a time - and if it’s too much for me to handle then I need to readjust my workload, instead of trying to push harder and deferring rest to a (fictional) later date.

Once I did that, phew… Everything changed and I started to relax and enjoy things again. I didn’t get absolutely everything done that I wanted to, but I’m incredibly happy with not only the work I did complete, but also the lovely chilled out way I managed to complete it. This is huge for me.