How to deal with a part time job as a freelancer.

A while ago I decided to try to write a piece, maybe a small book, about how to deal with a part time job as a freelancer. But maybe I'm just not the type for writing a book. I finished the start of it though and it's a big piece of text, if you're reading this blog casually then you might want to save the article or bookmark it).

Also: feel free to comment or if you have any ideas on how to proceed or any suggestions... anything is welcome!

How to deal with a part time job as a freelancer:

My first Dutch picture book...illustrated by me!

So, this isn't any real news, that I worked on Boom en Kraai some months ago and I also shared photos of the launch and signing session last weekend, but of course a bit more in-depth article on my blog is always nice and here it is!

The printed illustrations have a bit more contrast than on my computer screen, but it still turned out very beautiful, bright and really just like any other picture book of high quality. The weight and size of the pages and the book is also just what I like. This is thanks to the author Susanne self, in cooperation with the printer I guess.

Some pictures:

 

The launch was a small gathering at a really beautiful location (very fitting to the book itself) and it was really special, signing all the books, receiving compliments and seeing people enjoy reading the book. Definitely also very cool to meet the author in real life and give her a big hug!

 

I'm very happy that I was part of all of this and I'm looking forward to illustrating books like this many more times (which will hopefully happen)!

Time for a give-away!

I'm giving away illustrated egg cups, it's almost Easter after all!
This time the give-away will happen on Facebook. Check this link.

Find your online medium

Here is something I learned and wanted to share:

Promotion by social media is a good thing.

Just don't do everything, every social internet platform.

It's ok if you're not (that) active on all of them. 

Just take those ones you like and the ones that you think will work for you.

Sounds simple, but it's actually more effective than using all of them and think that will work.

Trying is not bad at all, but just try to learn from it (and move on if it's not working for you).

A bit of history

Last week I had a conversation with my boyfriend/fiance about blogs, about what makes people get interested, about what is interesting anyway. And I said something to him about that I think what is interesting in this world, at least to me, is to have a small look in people's minds and show and share something personal. But I wasn't even doing a lot of that in my own life, or on my own blog. I thought about sharing something personal with a deeper explanation to the 'why' and all. And I thought about combining it with something like a theme. The theme is passion, fandom, inspiration. Or short: 'love' (this is totally not related to today being Feb. 15).

When did I began drawing? Not at any different sort of time than any other kid I think. I can't say something that a lot of illustrators can, which is "I have been drawing from whenever I could hold a pencil in my hand". I wasn't obsessed with it, I still don't think I am, but that might only be because my definition of 'obsession' is something like an unhealthy thing, whereas I think my love for drawing and painting is healthy. Well, usually.

Update

Hello all!

I'm a busy bee at the moment, I'm working on a picture book and am just over the half of the Chris Oatley Academy Painting Drama course. Which is amazing by the way, it gave me a lot of insights that are so obvious when you know. But you need to know and not a lot of resources on the internet or in magazines give you the reasons why certain things work in art and illustration. So it's already worth it :)!

A tip of the iceberg that is the homework for the Painting Drama course.

Next to that I've done some secret things that I can't really tell you yet about. Or maybe I can a little bit.
At the moment I'm writing (a short book, or a very long article, I don't know yet) about being a freelancer whilst having a part time job next to it. There are so many reasons why I'm writing it, but it's mostly because it is exactly what I am doing and I thought it was time somebody should write about it. There are SO many resources, articles and blogs out there about freelancing and succeeding in it, but nobody every really tells about how to handle that while you're having a part time job next to it. And I have firsthand experiences with it that I think could be very useful for a lot of 'starters' out there. I don't have any clue when the book is going to be finished though.

Some weeks ago I did some character sketches for the visual novel-game by Tim Bruls / GameFoqus called S.P.O.O.N., which is a story about futuristic cooking! Honestly a very original subject in my opinion.
You can read more about it (or play the first version of the game) here.
The idea is to make a more polished version of it later on, I'll keep you posted about that!

First character sketches for S.P.O.O.N.

And last but not least: I've updated my website a bit, I changed the sketch-section into an editorial section, since it's more relevant and recently I've been creating more illustrations for magazines and booklets as well!
Next to that it was time for a change of the concept art page, because it needed a better arrangement of subjects, which is hopefully a lot clearer now. Some new things I made for GameFoqus projects were added and I hope that I can add more concept art sketch work to it after I finished the Painting Drama course, already looking forward to it!