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[Late] Sunday sketch. More like Monday.

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Here’s the thing:

Doing what you love for a living is fantastic. It’s great and I wouldn’t trade it. But, when it’s a creative field.. sometimes that means you can get burnt out and not want to do any personal work. I design allllllllllllllllllllll day long and it’s a dream – but it also means that when I come home, I don’t want to be anywhere near the computer or think about much art at all. I’ve been way out practice with my drawing and it’s been ages since I did a digital illustration.

I’ve been working on this freelance project for months and months – or I should say, it’s been in the works. And I’ve just dragged my feet on it. Not because the project isn’t cool, but because when I get home from work – I’m lazy. Period.

But, deadlines happen, as they so often do, and I have been pulling some late nights to get caught up on my workload – it’s a bit too soon for me to have this feeling of being in school again, losing sleep, but at the same time… it’s a little fun. But it also takes away from my previous commitment to posting a Sunday Sketch every week.

So, in lieu of that, here’s a very rough sneak peak into what I’m working on: cars! Not really my forté, but.. at least it’s art.

Image
I win the award for messiest, most vague layers.

P.S. You’ll find that this design is very similar to my mini-cooper design – and you would be correct! That is how the client heard of me and asked me to create them something very similar to that. Since my mini illustration was not chosen for the contest it was created for and therefore never published, I figured… why not! It’s also inspired me to do a series of posters in this style.. except, probably not more cars. I’m really not a huge fan of cars. I think I’d like to do other objects and perhaps even animals if I’m feeling adventurous enough.. hmmm…

Overwhelmed.

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“I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed,
but can you ever just be whelmed?”
– 10 Things I Hate About You

 I have been very absent from my blog lately, due to having just too many thoughts going through my head lately and not wanting to bog this blog down with heavy stuff.

But, as you may have guessed from the title and the quote – I am overwhelmed. There is just too much going on right now.

The Boy and I are in the process of trying to find a cheaper apartment, to save money for wedding; I’m trying to plan said wedding; I’ve taken on some freelance, to earn some extra money, but it means I have no free time. And then there’s general life things that keep cropping up and I just can’t seem to catch a break – or my breath – lately.

It’s hard to find somewhere to move when you’ve lived in the same place for nearly 6 years. Almost our entire relationship has taken place in this apartment, it’s hard to let go of all the memories here. We’re also faced with the fact that downsizing and saving means going for somewhere that may not be entirely fantastic. We currently live in a really nice apartment, but we’re also paying for that niceness. At this point in our relationship, I’d like to be moving up – possibly to a house – but the reality is, to save money we’ll need to move down on the apartment ladder. Give up some luxuries, give up the extra space. And it’s hard to do that, while still finding somewhere we can be comfortable in for the next year or two.

All I want is a home with hardwood floors, a porch and a fenced in backyard for Ghost to play in. Is that too much for a girl to ask?

At least, among all the stress, we took some time to spend the evening together on Valentine’s Day. I’m not too keen on the holiday. I’m not one of those people who reject it or bash it for all that it stands for and I’m also not someone who’s going to get upset if I come home to discover my significant other hasn’t set up a city-wide treasure hunt with clues of poetry, ending in a pot of chocolates and roses. We had thought to go see The Lego Movie, to be honest.

Buuuut… we got our second flat tire in two weeks, so instead we spent money to repair that.. again. Thank you, Penn Dot. So we stayed in. We ordered Chinese, drank wine and watched a “Love” movie marathon in our PJs. He had never seen Moulin Rouge, so we watched that – and he loved it. Then we watched The Fountain, a personal favorite of ours from our very first months of dating. And I admit.. I made him watch an episode or two of my favorite Doctor Who. Okay, so we like tragic love stories. We had planned to watch more (Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet!) but me + wine after a work day = sleep by 1am.

Unfortunately, I do not have the holiday off tomorrow. But I believe my clients do, so at least it’ll be a slow day at work, which can sometimes be a bad thing, but I will just try and make the most of it. Then again, maybe I’ll sneak my e-reader in…..

Caturday #5

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Mothers: Are your children unable to entertain themselves and so they crawl on you, disrupt whatever you’re doing, knock over every drink you set out, ultimately causing you to end up spending the majority of the day stopping them from damaging things instead of actually getting tasks done?

Because I just described my cat when she’s bored. Someone take her for a playdate, please..

No picture for this bad kitten today.

Reading right along.

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It’s February 1st and I’ve just finished reading the 11th book in my 50 Book Challenge. (As in, I read it in its entirety today.)

I am excited enough to make a post about this because last year, I believe it was mid-Spring when I hit my 11th book. Oh the wonders of not being in school!

Granted, some of them have been fairly short books. But still. That’s 11 books in one month.

I think I’ll buy myself a drink.

The Rants of Wrath.

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I have a bit of a pet peeve that many of you creative people will likely understood –

For those of you not in a creative field or have never experienced this in your line of work, take heed to what I say –

My work and talent is not free. Just because your child/friend-of-a-friend/distant cousin can draw does not mean that it’s a) easy and b) not a job. This is my career. I work my ass off for it. I went to school, put myself into debt to obtain a degree in it. Just like that doctor/lawyer/dentist whose paychecks you don’t seem to question the validity of. Unless you’re living in a very delusional bubble of complete and utter ignorance on how the world works, you will not ask your doctor to operate on your brain for 1/32 of the actual cost. You would not hear the lawyer say, “These are my rates” and then brush it off and think to yourself, “Those are just numbers. I know what you’re really worth.” You wouldn’t ask your dentist to do the work for free on the promise that you’ll pay him a fraction of any future earnings your teeth may bring you.

Also, you cannot volunteer someone to work on a “donation” basis when you contacted them about hiring them to do work for you. Keyword being hiring. Also, you cannot ask that person to copy someone else’s artwork that you found on the internet – but that’s another rant for another time.It is insulting to invalidate everything creative people have worked for and continue to work for,  just because you don’t understand it and think that you should get it for free.

The only way you’re getting free work from me is if you’re my friend and I like you and I volunteer to do it for free, as a gift.