Day: November 11, 2024

Personal Update: Birthday Contemplation, Death of the Art Career?

I celebrated my 43rd birthday this past Nov 7th! Another jog around the sun has made me more contemplative than ever.

To be quite honest, it’s been a rough year for my husband and I. Things have been extra stressful ever since my husband was laid off in February of this year. We thought surely he’d pick up work within a few of months, but the extreme layoffs in upper level tech have meant crickets for job opportunities.

This reality has made the future of my art career an uncertain one. We simply cannot survive off of my income and savings alone, with the art industry looking as bleak as ever for so many reasons (AI art, inflation, layoffs, the list goes on). I’ve returned to accepting freelance work and am trying to return to working conventions, but I’ve also met crickets so far and shows take the risky investment of table fees, not to mention the health risks that made me quit cons in the first place.

The long of the short of it is that if by the end of this year, if our situation doesn’t change, I’ll be re-assessing this career path (after 10+ years of working at it) and likely pivoting into a different industry altogether.

This place may become even more quiet as my pace slows down to accomodate my schedule as I study to earn my A+ cert and move into more consistent helpdesk work that I can do remotely since we share one car.

January 2025 will be the deadline for me to decide what to do as we near the annivesary of a whole year of unemployment for my husband. If anyone is looking for Technical Account Managers or Sys Admins, drop me a DM!

We have a couple of months before that dreaded deadline…so let us hope against hope that things start looking up!

A Little Bit of Happiness 

Thankfully this post isn’t all doom and gloom. On my birthday, I was so blessed that even with all this extreme stress, my family went the extra mile to help me feel special with a ramen lunch at a new place that just opened up nearby, cookies and cream mousse cake, an art book, and a video game I had been looking forward to for years (Dragon Age Veilguard!).

Even with all of this going on, I’m so lucky and loved! Where there is ramen, there is always room for happiness.

(I made my old Shadowrun character, Aurora, into a sarcastic Elf who loves to smash things. It’s been therapuetic to play her right now.)

As hopeless as the post no doubt sounds, I’m never going to stop making art. There are too many stories I want to tell and cool characters I want to draw! Hopefully, I can keep on sharing that journey with you all, even at a glacial pace.

No matter what happens in this next year of life, I want to thank everyone, old and new, who has stuck with me here or moved through my life at various times to give me hope and succor. The little bits of support have meant the world!

Much love, friends. Stay inspired and keep up hope! There are still good things and people in this world.

<3 Ang

Project Status: CASSIEL’S SERVANT Art To-Do List

I wanted to check-in as I’ve been silent for a little while thanks to a busy, busy month. I’ve been off toiling away on the Exalted Art Challenge, launching my 2025 Birthstone Goddesses Calendars, and finishing up my readthrough of CASSIEL’S SERVANT so I can finally approach the much-anticipated task of creating my own cover for it!

Art To-Do List

The ultimate goal for my Patreon’s focus right now is to draw cool art for books I love, while also making cool stuff for my Illustration portfolio. With that in mind, here’s what I’m hoping to achieve for CASSIEL’S SERVANT:

  • A Variant Wraparound Book Cover – (Planning)

  • Two Full Page Interior Illustrations – (Planning)

  • An Enamel Pin – (Sketched)

  • Sticker Designs Using the ‘rejected’ pin designs – (Sketched)

I absolutely adore the illustration work I’ve seen for special editions of books like Tran Nguyen’s work on the Subterranean Press editions of Phedre’s trilogy, which included a custom wraparound cover and interior illustrations in a gorgeous tome signed by the author.

Tran’s cover of KUSHIEL’S AVATAR from Subterranean Press.

The interior illustrations of KUSHIEL’S DART from Subterranean Press by Tran Nguyen

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These kinds of illustrated editions always get me so excited and inspired! I had to try doing this for myself and figured I’d take you all along for the ride. I’m nowhere near as amazing as Tran, but I hope I can bring something unique and full of passion for the story to my own renditions of art for CASSIEL’S SERVANT.

My Final Thoughts on CASSIEL’S SERVANT

I went in expecting a re-tread of KUSHIEL’S DART, which is one of the much-beloved Fantasy classics I hold sacred as a formative inspiration. I wasn’t sure we could learn much from a retelling of DART, but I am so happy to be proven wrong! Joscelin’s meditation on his religious upbringing, his tactical POV, and unique perspective made for an intriguing journey and fresh perspective.

For my full final thoughts on CASSIEL’S SERVANT, as well as a chapter by chapter discussion of my journey through the book, check out the Book Club thread on my Discord server here!

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Now, it’s time for me to get busy planning and sketching! In the meanwhile, I’d love to hear what illustrated editions you like best? NAME OF THE WIND also has a gorgeous edition by artist, Dan Dos Santos, if you haven’t seen it!

Project Status: Birthstone Goddesses – New Calendars Launch!

Hoo boy, who has an ADHD Muse this month because they’ve been running between projects that got delayed and overlapped with other planned projects? (Hint, it me!). The Birthstone Goddesses, which were this Patreon’s previous theme, still had a lot to give, especially because they were specifically created to make calendars!

After much blood, sweat, and tears, I’ve refreshed the first calendar with 2025’s dates/holidays, as well as created two NEW calendars featuring the Masquerade, Little Gems, and Visage collections from the Birthstone Goddesses series!

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I’ve filmed a little tour of all three you can watch here. Give it a watch and let me know which calendar you’ll choose!

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I’m printing these calendars with a printing partner so that any profits made from them will directly support the artist. There is no publisher as a middle man, so getting one of these lovelies means you’re directly supporting me!

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Find them in my shop here.

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This launch wraps up the final FINAL chapter of the Birthstone Goddesses. I hope to still revisit them for an art book, gift bundles, etc at a later time, but for now, I’m just about done with what I had endeavored to achieve with them as a body of work.

Thanks for all of you who were here throughout that years-long adventure! Your support over that time really warmed my heart and kept my husband and myself going.

Enjoy the loveliness and may my shining gals guide your year with inspiration and elegance! Maybe we’ll see them again someday once my muse circles back around to future gemstone-themed offerings.

– Ang