About buzzing April
Dear Imaginary Friends,
How is May/ Spring treating you so far? Here keeps sunny most of the days and when cloudy days show up, I get happy. Sunny days stresses me out a bit.
I’ve got my coffee, It’s Tuesday after lunch - quite unusual day for me to be writing here but my days have been feeling quite unusual lately. Once again, April was one of those months that was super busy and yet, nothing much to show (sorry again) Every time I sit here to write I wonder, why I don’t write every 2 weeks?! Oh yeah, because I simply forgot. Maybe next time…
How change happens
I’ve been living, since April, in a magic land of no more excuses. These past months working on my own book project gave me the mind space - and kick! - to access what I wanna do, where I wanna be, which kind work I wanna do….
I have been talking about my dummy book since January and, as you can imagine, there was a lot of timededicated to one project. There is a lot of myself in this journey, including making all decisions. There is also love and a desire to show the world.
My agents requested a presentation with videos and such for showing to clients. They also asked me about my expectations, goals and story behind.
The questions were quite focused on the project but somehow felt deeply. First time in a long time that I had to stop and think these things. Probably because it’s been a while that I haven’t work in a project that mattered so much for me. And every question about my book made me also think about my entire work future. With the answers ready, I confronted my agency, request changes, different clients, different focus and asked for help to move to this new direction.
Turns out, I had a lot of thoughts and goals. I was afraid to speak up and loose my cozy routine… but, the truth is, It’s not been that cozy for a while.
I truly like my agency. Sometimes is a bit confusing because they are big and innovative but I alwaysI have the best support from them. My requests were all welcomed. Turns out, nobody can tell your struggles if you don’t share.
The thing about requesting changes is that you have to know what do you wanna ask for. And I was not ready until experience my own project. I needed all the steps.
After Bologna I was super inspired but also had lot of thoughts to process.
My before plan, was to jump straight into creating a pretty calendar. Well, THAT didn’t happen. Instead, I had to finish what I’ve started: give my dummy book the best chance and access and review my professional goals and expectations with my agents. Not as creative and fun but turns out, a very essential step.
My April highlights:
So, April was filled with accessing and communicating my new goals. It was exhausting and took longer that I expected. Very worth it and I’m glad I had the time and space to do so. I’m still on a break from client work - I extended until June. that means I’m poor investing on my future self -that better get some good clients!!!
I spent a week + most of the Easter holiday creating a badass presentation for my Dummy Book. It was intense but totally worth it! I am very proud of the result and now my agents are working to sell it around (all fingers crossed!)
(I wish I could show you…but not yet)
I requested a new champion and had a super meeting with her about new directions I wanna go and how to make my folio good for it. It was over an hour chat and she guided me through all my questions. I have now a very clear vision and a long to do list! I should a bit of this new folio look by June. It’s going to be a lot of tweaking and some new drawings. I’m honestly super excited about it!
An author of a book about chickens that I made a couple of illustrations in 2020, kindly wrote me telling all about rights to UK Library lending moneyand even sent me a link - a beautiful link! - that I’ve been struggling to find myself, living in Denmark. There were so many books with my name there! It was a very emotional day for me. I drew and sent dear Becca Heddle a couple of thankful chickens.
There was this starter pack challenge on Instagram and I was happy to get my agents push to make it. I used Procreate - which I’m happy to report, have been becoming friends with. I was quite pleased with the result overall.
Me and my friend Effi started a monthly accountability meetup for creatives with big ideas. Used to be just us. Our first meet had 2 new creatives. Exciting times!
I created a huge 30 days plan for self promotion. Social media is a mess but It’s time to get back on the sharing mode. I’ve been avoiding for way too long. I will start this week. So next post I can share all about it - and hopefully insights.
Every month I join Owen Dawey on his virtual Portfolio Chats initiative for marginalised illustrator around the world. . I try to offer 3-4 mentoring of 30min every month. If you wanna get involved or get orientation, follow him!
I’ve been mostly listening random playlists on spotify this month. I really binge watched A discovery of Witches on background while working.
It was my bestie friend bichinho’s birthday in April and in the middle of my chaos I managed to draw a quick post it happy birthday to her - Another proud moment.
#100DayProject (that I started February 23), drawing one little thing on Procreate to keep getting used to draw on iPad is still going. I will make a post about it next. I’m reaching 80 soon, can you believe it?! Here another 10 of each.
I still haven’t started The Picture Book Course by The Good Ship Illustration. I hope to join for real next week. I will keep you posted!
What’s next:
I should make a post about my last year projects. I know I keep writing this. And I do wanna start posting every 2 weeks. This monthly post is perhaps too long? I would love to simplify a bit… Can I even simplify anything?! :D
Happy May everyone!
love and birthday wishes
xx Malu
(soon to celebrate birthday on 27th May! )