Well, it’s officially been a whole year of being self-employed (unemployed?) and I wanted to take the time to look back on 2024.
For context, I actually left my prior employer in 2023, but spent the majority of the time immediately after dealing with the logistics of being self-employed (taxes, registrations, etc) and wedding planning (happy 1-year husband!). I did accomplish some things, but my time was not as focused on this “art life” thing as it was in 2024. I may do another post talking about 2023 accomplishments later though.
But without further ado…
2024 Highlights
Art Explorations
I started out the year spending a solid portion of time exploring “what I want to do as an artist” and getting into the mind of “the artist’s way”.
#Art Start Challenge
I did AngryMikko’s #ArtStartXXIV Challenge, which helped me explore the elements of illustration rendering (I also challenged myself by doing the entire challenge in Procreate only) and I discovered that, while I admire a lot of ‘painterly’ illustrators, I enjoyed drawing the bolder styles (i.e. lineart or bold brushwork instead of soft blending). This may have had to do with the way I use Procreate though… but it helped me look beyond what’s desirable in terms of mark-making and more on what I enjoy doing.
Itch.io Game Jam
I actually used to work in the games industry, but as a producer, not as an artist. This game jam was a crash course in 2D animation (in Procreate) and working as an artist on a team. While I love teamwork, I… didn’t really love this one. Our ad-hoc volunteer team was spread out across the globe and had little communication and no leadership. Kudos to the engineer who put something together at the end, but it was really like creating assets in a vacuum and not knowing how they were going to be used… or if they were any good for the project.
You can check out the finished jam game on itch.io: Ature’s Journey
I think post-college me had aspirations of being a designer/producer hybrid (which, now that I’m older, I know that’s called a “creative director”). As much as I enjoy the creation part, the manager part of my brain values organization & communication even more at times.
Comics
I visited home during the summer and while there, I dug up some old comic work I had done from when I was a kid… all the way from 3rd grade up to my college years. It surprised me and mentally… I felt something just click. I have been drawing comics all my life… resisting the pursuit of it because I never felt I was “good enough”, or that comics as a career were “viable enough” (and honestly I’m still not sure if it is), but I never actually stopped drawing. If anything, this trip validated to me that despite all the “no’s”, on a perhaps subconscious level, I really wanted to do this.
Beyond the Road – Pitch Deck
I actually started working on this book the year before and was intent on completing a full graphic novel by mid-2024. However, after doing a portfolio review with an established graphic novelist, I was convinced to instead focus on creating a pitch deck and not work on the comic until I got an agent or publishing deal since “they’re gonna want to change things anyways”. It was good advice, and it made a lot of sense to me coming from my corporate career designer world, but ultimately it ended up not being good advice for me. Drawing pages is the fun part. And because of the longevity and “black box” nature of the pitch process (especially cold pitching), what sounded like a good strategy became sitting on my hands and waiting for permission to draw when I could have just drawn and completed my comic myself. I regret taking that path and not finishing the book itself, but I did complete a distributable pitch deck, and learned the pitch process, so that’s something.
Adventures With Titan
Needing a way to vent out creative energy from the pitch process, I started drawing a mini comic about my dog, Titan. Intended to be a 1-off minizine, it ended up being a lot of fun and I made 5 more, before switching to a 4-panel style and posting them online. They ended up getting a small surge of active readers, so now I release 1-per-week episodes of Titan’s silly adventures. Drawing these comics helps me to consistently create work and gives me breaks from the more serious things on my plate.
Adventures with Titan can be read at: www.AdventuresWithTitan.com
Artist Alley Vending
I wasn’t initially going to pursue the “event vendor” path this year because of last year’s experiences (they weren’t all bad, but they were a lot of work and 2023 was plagued with “work” getting in the way of “art”), but after feeling FOMO at not being part of my local comic con (I actually got rejected b/c they’d grown more competitive and I was too indecisive to put my best foot forward), I kicked myself into gear, polished out a portfolio, and applied to a bunch of things all at once. In the same timeframe, I also learned about how prolific the zine scene had become over the years and felt I could do well the niche as a “new comic creator”. This resulted in me tabling at SF Zine Fest, San Diego Zine Fest, Berkeley Library Comic Con, and a local arts and crafts fair in my nearby town.
Verdict? Artist Alley is fun, but brutal. Honestly the same sentiment I had last year, just with more evidence. But for a quick pros and cons list….
Pros:
- I met a lot of other artists – and got to know a few from being a vendor at these events. THere’s not a whole lot of time to get to know them all, but it’s good networking, which is TBH something I need to do more of.
- I actually met fans! – My favorite interaction was meeting at girl who reads Adventures with Titan on Webtoons! Considering I only have like… 400 followers on Webtoons, the chances I’d meet one IRL was rare so that’s going to stay in my memory for awhile!
Cons:
- High work load, low returns – With the prep effort, inventory management, product manufacturing, paperwork, event setup, teardown… not to mention the basic on-site selling which is what the visitors see… artist alley tabling is a lot of work with unequal returns. Very unequal returns. I didn’t make much in terms of sales and sunk a lot of time in to being part of these events. I don’t regret them, but they are a lot of work.
In the end if you don’t “succeed” you at least “learn.” Ultimately, I’ll continue to table, just a lot more selectively. I want time to actually draw comics, not just prep and sell. That’s being a retailer, which is not what I signed up for. Which still leaves the thought of “how am I going to make money from pursuing this dream?” Maybe the answer is that I won’t….
In Summary, 2024 taught me:
- Retail is a full-time job that I don’t want – Happy to do it as a side hustle or hobby (again, could go into a whole other blog post about why that’s difficult), but I don’t have time for it as my main income stream
- I really love drawing graphic novels & comics and that’s what I want to do, with or without publishers or assistance
Which brings me to 2025!
I’m going to split off talking about 2025 in another post since this one is already long. Thank you for the eventful 2024 year!
