sarucatepes

New Spring Stickers!

Hey! 

I'd love to start showing you guys some rough sketches for projects I'm working on, and I've been thinking about what rewards you would like to see! I'm definitely going to start being consistent here and showing you behind-the-scenes stuff, so here are some sticker designs I'm working on!

I'm going to make a small process for how I get these sketches into the finalized stickers, so stay tuned for that! I decided to make these spring themed and pastel colors, and I'm hoping to make them bigger so they can be used on water bottles or laptops. I'm also deciding on whether any of these should be holographic or mirrored, so if you have suggestions, feel free to let me know!

ask me anything! life updates

Edit: reuploaded because I accidentally exported the video incorrectly.

Hey guys! 

Here is a little video just talking about how life is going at the moment and what I think about some random things you asked me on Instagram.  

Song Recommendations and Playlists: 

I've been loving this playlist recently: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX873GaRGUmPl?si=2RNJnioTTTeYtmxMRBNVYg 

I made a playlist of Lana Del Rey's old tunes I used to listen to in high school. They're all "podcasts" because she hasn't officially released them, but they're all still bangers: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5ihIivsI3xupxoXkiWsGt9?si=QixSyVaCTnCusmOtHjxFOQ 

This is my quiet, instrumental music playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1w1cijm37RPNJGvxRPmyFL?si=kiYoTXdwQ7696LfCR3SxgQ 

MY REPEATS THIS PAST WEEK!! Some explicit stuff so be forewarned: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5FwWBCZXVt6tdxXOf6RD7Q?si=w2NEg-QNRqSwuRNyoBr9fQ

March 2020 Sketchbook PDF

Hey lovelies!

Here is a collection of my Procreate and traditional drawings and paintings! I also included some of the work I do for my campus job as a designer; a lot of it consists of hand lettering as well as illustration. I thought it would be a cool part of my life to share with you guys! 

There are a lot of failed sketches in this batch, but I think it's good to show the ugly parts of my process as well. I create more failed pieces than successful ones!

Coloring Page Process

Here's the Procreate process for the quarantine coloring page! It's pretty satisfying to watch not gonna lie.

FREE COLORING PAGE!

Hey guys! Here's a little coloring page I made for you while you're under quarantine! If you like it and send me your versions, I can make another one!

Hashtag it #sarucacoloringpage on Instagram so I can see what you make!

Let me know your thoughts. :)

Let's Catch Up

Hi hi!

Long time no see; let's catch up on what's been going on with me, and then I want to hear about you guys!

First off, I was supposed to go to Charleston with my best friend Kayla for her birthday this spring break, but with Covid-19, we decided to go to her family's OBX beach house and quarantine ourselves and get some busy work done! It's less than ideal compared to what we had planned, and we didn't pack any heavy clothes or essentials for the conditions we're in (we planned to eat out a lot and packed lots of light clothes, and we really needed to bring a lot of food and warmer things for this house), but honestly, it's kind of a God thing that told us to slow down and focus on relaxing, sleeping, and focusing on things we've been neglecting due to business of life in general.

Our college semester has been indefinitely moved online while this pandemic is going on, so we don't need to be back for classes, but both she and I have jobs at our college that are supposed to continue as usual, and I have my business, art supplies, and house stuff going on at my apartment, so we're heading back to our parents on Saturday, and then driving back to college on Sunday. 

That being said, I have a big announcement! I'M BUYING A HOUSE?! I'm going to be in Lynchburg for another two years probably, and my rent is too expensive to continue being stressed about paying it monthly, so I found the cutest little cottage close to historic downtown that I'm planning to slightly remodel and turn into the coziest little home. I signed on my offer and submitted my deposit yesterday, and my home inspection is on Monday. Hopefully, I can remodel the bathroom before I move in (I have two weeks between closing on the house and moving into the house), so I need to contact some contractors for estimates on  the renovations so I can get a better idea of what needs to be done and how much it will cost.

I need to do taxes with a CPA this year, get finances figured out and begin budgeting better so that I can get back all the savings I've lost through moving, buying all new electronics, and purchasing a car by myself. I'm really proud of the workload and big things I've been able to handle by myself, but it's all gotten to me in terms of stress and anxiety. This break is perfectly placed to tell me to slow down a little bit and breathe.

I have bigger Youtube videos planned for the future, and I'll be getting back into lots of tablet and art supply reviews, so as soon as I get back to my apartment, I'll begin working on those things!

As for classes, I decided to take only 12 credits this semester (two classes online, and two residential), so my workload has been much nicer than before. The two residential classes have been much more intensive than other classes I've taken, so I'm glad to have scheduled with enough time to get the big projects done well, work at school, get my business stuff done, and also have time for relationships with people again!

How have you guys been doing? What are you doing during the quarantine? I'll be posting a coloring page later today for you guys so you can have something fun to do!

Kayla and I got a Toy Story 4 coloring book with crayons, and we plan on getting crazy later tonight and color up a storm. Have some hot chocolate or a good drink, get some Netflix on, write or draw or plan! We got this :)

Real Time Process- Landscape Oil Study

Hello!

Here's the real time process for my latest oil painting. I haven't worked with oils in a while, and I really want to get back into it!

EARLY ACCESS- my procreate workflow+ brushes

I'm gonna start posting early-access links to my videos! This is my Procreate workflow and what brushes I use. :)

february postcard painting timelapse

Hey guys! Here's the Procreate timelapse for this month's limited edition postcard; let me know if you like seeing these short and quick Procreate videos or if you'd rather only see real-time painting process videos.

SUPER IMPORTANT: MESSAGE MEEEE

Please message me about what rewards you've been missing!!!!!!

I've been trying to refund you all for months that I neglected to send over rewards, but Patreon won't let me bulk refund per month, so I manually have to go in and refund each of you. SOMEHOW I always manage to let some patrons slip through the cracks, and neglect to refund. Could you message me and let me know which month/months I'm missing rewards for you, and I'll refund you as well as send you the rewards!

I'm so sorry for being MIA and not on top of my game. I want to get all the rewards I didn't send over printed and shipped off to you guys, as well as to refund you for waiting so incredibly long for everything!

So just send me a message or email at sarucatepes@gmail.com and let me know what your situation is so I can fix it ASAP!

You guys are super cool and great to me, and I really appreciate your constant support. I'm super sorry for committing and not delivering on time. I definitely am still sending everyone all the rewards that you signed up for (I just want to make sure I send everything you signed up for!!)

September-October Assignments!

Hey guys!

Heeerrree are some of the projects that I made this month for school; I haven't included all of my photography assignments (every week we have 25 photos due and they're just not my best work-- if you want to see them in the future comment and let me know and I'll show them to you!), and I haven't put in my publication work (since I'm going to actually publish it and I don't want to put out the pdf of it.

First off, Brand Elements and the Dream Co Style Guide are my branding work for my made up clean beauty brand. I worked had to put together an identity package consisting of all the type, colors, patterns, and elements of this brand (to be used for packaging and social media and web design). I know there's two typos on one page at the end (I'm going to go back and fix it!) I also had to make mockups for products and identity elements.

The other pdf has samples of all my work from this month:

Hey bud, how's it GROWIN' - this is for my advanced type class. We had to make typography out of actual tactile elements, and the photo was to be used alongside a made up article in a magazine. I used my cricut to cut out all the letters, and then I spent a couple of hours hot gluing the flowers on the san serif letters. I edited the photo in Lightroom and Photoshop.

The hands- this was for my semiotics project for Art as Communication; I was supposed to use symbols to communicate a message about my ethnicity or something like that. I decided to create a piece about the effects of communism (I made the drawing in thirty minutes the day it was due!!)

Black Sheep poster- this was for my Photoshop class and the finished product from the last update I had posted. I chose actors that were insane and I copied credits from a Christopher Nolan. I got a 1000/1000 in this class which is INSAAAANNNEEEEE.

Photos- some of my favorite photos that I've taken this month for my Advanced Photography class. I wish I had more time for photography in general; I've been spending no time on these assignments since I've been so swamped with all my other school.

The last drawings are some of the work I've made for my fairy book! I'm going to be finishing it this month, and I'm soooo excited to have it completed! It's been sucking up all my time.. I'm exhausted.

Ahh thanks for keeping up with all of my work and for your constant support! It's kind of crazy the kind of school work I have compared to my illustration.

October Livestream!

"Strawberry Milk" Real-time Process Video

Hey guys! Here's the real-time process video for my latest painting "Strawberry Milk"! I've been trying to get better at painting deeper skin tones, and I chose an unlikely combination for the colors of this piece (pink and brown). I hope you guys enjoy seeing my workflow!

Update!!

Hey everyone!

I hope you all are having a good October; I'm here to talk about some stuff that's been going on with me recently!

I've had an insane time with school and I've barely had any time to breathe; I'm in all 400 level design classes and taking a full load of credits so I'm struggling to stay afloat. I'm sorry for not updating you guys!

I'll have two real-time process videos up hopefully by tomorrow, and I'll be uploading all of my school work and explanation of projects!

Let's talk about meeee; the biggest thing going on at the moment is that I'm working on a book. For my publication class, our entire class project is to make a magazine. Our professor (omg she's the best) has a love for print design, so when I explained that I'd like to make an art book instead, she was wild about the idea. Because I am making an actual book (it's between a zine and a hard cover art book) that I'm going to have available in my shop, I've been working hard on it to make this beautiful. I'm writing articles, drawing, creating textures, scanning, editing, making layouts, templates, etc. AHHHH! I'm using Photoshop to edit all my scans and then importing into InDesign for my templates. I'm so proud of what I have so far, but I'm not halfway done with it and have only two more weeks until I have to send it to print. Would you like me to make a video recording one of the drawing processes? I feel like it would be so cool to post a process video on YouTube on how I made it, but I'm so bad at video editing.

So apart from that, I've been working on my advanced graphic design class creating a brand identity. This is another huge project, creating a logo and then turning it into a brand with all the elements, deliverables, and mockups. It's a cool project, but I decided to make a beauty company logo since I'm not strong in my feminine design and wanted to work on that (why did I challenge myself even more?!) For this project, I also have to make two small books that will showcase all the elements created. I also have to make digital or real mockups of products, and so that's pretty exciting! This is due this coming Tuesday, so I'm gonna have a couple of late nights finishing the book up.

A big setback this week was that my laptop's battery died, and so I couldn't bring it to class to do work and get revisions done. I pulled out my backup laptop, and it couldn't even connect to the wifi, so I freaked out a bit. I ordered a new battery which just arrived today, and I opened up my laptop and changed it up. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but I have a really big gaming laptop that I use for video editing and design, and I had to pull the whole thing apart to get to the battery (it was surgery). But now it works! I'm so happy to have it back so I can actually do my projects.

Lastly, I've made three big purchases this month (I'm going to be eating ramen until tax season); an archival printer, a Cricut, and a newww laptop (a smaller one that is easier to carry to class and for work). I am going to be making giclee prints for my shop!!!! They are going to be 13"x19" at largest, so I'm really excited to have some bigger prints available and to make some new artwork for those prints. 

Would you guys like a print reward tier in addition to postcards and stickers? I'm going to start making my own stickers for you guys, and maybe I can up the stickers in the sets that I send out each month. Let me know your thoughts!

Sketch reward tiers are going to be mailed out super soon! I've been busy with all the above and also I am going to be sending some sketches that are going to be in the art book for any sketch tier patrons!

Thank you so much for supporting me and helping me out through this season of my life! It's crazy, but I'm so grateful for allll of your support!!!

September Patreon Livestream!

Real-time Painting Process for "Laffy Taffy"

First Pack of Junior Year's Assignments!

Hey all!

I've attached a PDF for most of my first assignments this Fall semester. I'm taking 18 credits- 6 classes, all major specific! Advanced Digital Photography, Publication Design, Graphic Design 1, Advanced Typography, Digital Imaging aka a Photoshop class, and Art As Communication. The last two are online, and I'm just starting week 6 of 8 (so I'm almost through with them, and once they're over I'll be down to 12 credits). If you're new here, you might not really know that I'm a graphic design major, and I really don't get to do much illustration for school. As you'll see from my assignments, I always take opportunities to add illustrative elements to my design, but most of my projects are insanely different than my usual work.

The only pieces I haven't shown in this PDF are those for my Publication Design class. I'm going to be making an art book (technically the prompt is a magazine), but I'm planning on making a pseudo-scientific journal from the 1800s documenting fairies! I'm going to be making it very old-timely, writing articles about fairies, and putting in lots of my illustrations. Wish me luck! It's going to be a big undertaking, especially since I want to make it right and sell it as an actual book in my shop once I'm done with it! I'm suuuper pumped for it though. I haven't done much design for it, and I'm not going to be sharing too much of that since I want it to be a surprise, but I'll be sharing my illustrations and some of the design process with you guys as well. 

The PDF has comments on each image explaining the prompts and how I executed them! Hope you enjoy looking at what I've been obsessing over this past month.

MONTHLY LIVESTREAM SCHEDULE

This month's livestream will be on Thursday (Sept. 26, at 8 p.m. EST). Let me know what you would like to see me draw or paint+what medium!

I'm Back!

Hey guys! 

I'm FINALLY back on Patreon! I've had an insane couple of months, and I've been traveling a lot, dealing with anxiety, and figuring out my priorities when it comes to school, work, and relationships.

Let's start with the summer. 

   I went to Romania for three weeks with my best friend Kayla! She and I went on a school trip that counted towards our community service (still really expensive though), and we did children's ministry and photography. It was an incredibly unique experience. There were so many ups and downs on this trip, and I dealt a lot with social anxiety and panic attacks since I was constantly interacting with people in both English and Romanian. Since I was the only fluent speaking student in our group of seven, I constantly had to translate informally for activities, as well as formally when my professor spoke. It was very stressful for me, and while this trip was amazing being able to see more of Romania, hanging out with my photography buddy, and hugging kids every day, I came back exhausted from the trip.

  I had a little break when I came back, and then I went up with two college friends to Pennsylvania for the 4th of July. We rented a log cabin, went kayaking, made smores, and spent a couple of days together, and this was a pretty cool internet and social media break for us all. 

  After coming back from PA, I started to pack for my move. I signed a lease for off-campus housing at a cute apartment complex, and I made the decision to rent a three-bedroom apartment by myself (originally it was two bedrooms, but I had a hiccup with my housing arrangement and had to switch to three bedrooms or not have an apartment for the beginning of school). I had lots of packing, seeing friends, and trying to hang out with my family knowing that this was the last time I was actually living with my parents. This time was really stressful for me since I felt like there were so many things to do and so many people that I was letting down by not seeing or talking to. I've been really struggling with my social anxiety and relationships and I've felt so overwhelmed for the past couple of months. I stopped texting most of my friends since I was focused on my family and move, and that caused some tension that I've had to deal with now coming back to school.

  I was invited to go to a Krita convention at the beginning of August, and I made plans to visit Amsterdam and Paris with my mom for 10 days before the convention. I will be completely honest, this wasn't one of my best experiences. There was a lot of tension, anxiety, and unfamiliarity, so I wish I could say I had a better experience traveling, especially in Paris. I know that one day, I need to go back to Paris to revisit all the sights and enjoy my time more fully, but I think all the tension surrounding this trip and my move made the time less enjoyable. I got sick toward the end of the trip, and I had a bad fever at the Krita meet-up, but it was cool to see how small Krita's nonprofit is and how informal of a meeting we had.

  I got back on the 10th of August, and moved out officially on the 13th to my new apartment. I'll be honest, I love my new place so so much. I love how quiet and peaceful it is and how much light I get! School started on the 19th, and I also started a job on campus.

  Since then, I've been struggling with anxiety and my relationships quite a bit. With being constantly engaged with people for the whole summer, my inner introvert is screaming. I've had panic attacks for the first time in a long while, as well as many afternoons and nights where I've cried because of how overwhelmed I've felt. I'm taking 18 credits again, and I'm working 18 hours a week as a sketch artist and graphic designer at my college. I'm really struggling to find time and energy to see my friends, and one of my best friends from home started his junior year here at my university, and that has put a lot of pressure on me to see him and hang out with him when I don't have either the time or emotional stability to hang out with people at the moment.

  I'll be completely honest, I love how immersed I am in schoolwork, my school job, and my freelance business, and I don't feel that at this time of my life, my social life is a priority. It stresses me out so much, gives me panic attacks, and makes me feel awful. The best time I've had these past two weeks has been coming home and playing with my bunnies and turning on some jazz while getting work done. I've been working out to try to deal with anxiety, and it helps but isn't permanent. I've tried to tell my friends I need space and time, and they think I mean two or three hours away from my phone, but I really mean weeks. It's so difficult trying to explain this, and I don't know how to get out of this rut. I feel so overwhelmed and socially exhausted. I'm at school from 9 to 6 every day, and I have so little free time to do assignments now with my new school job. I'm struggling to figure out finances living alone, paying for utilities, and meal-planning, and while I'm so excited by this new chapter in my life, I'm trying to deal with my anxiety. My older bunny is also struggling with eating again, and I need to take him to the vet asap to have his teeth filed. I'm a little stressed about him as well since he's reaching the end of his life and he's been my bud since I was 11.

  At the moment, work is the best thing for me. I feel fulfilled, busy, and happy knowing I'm putting effort into school and my business, and I know I need to solely focus on this part of my life for now. I'm so glad to be back on Patreon, to have a little alone space and to be able to share my work with you once again!

Thank you for all your support, for sticking through everything with me, and for listening to me. I know that Patreon is a place where I really share personal things about me with you guys, and I'm sorry that they've not always been the most positive. I'm a very anxious person, and it's something I deal with every day, and I want to be honest with you guys about my struggles! I think that all these things really affect my creative process, and I also want you guys to know that I don't have my life figured out and perfect. My life motto seems to be "fake it until you make it" and I'm just trying to survive at the moment!

With allll that being said, I do want to reaffirm that art, my business, and school make me the most fulfilled and happy right now. I love all you guys! I'm extremely grateful that you guys make it possible for me to have my own place and space to create and be calm and happy. I know that this next year will be so different than my past two years living on campus, and that having a studio to create is going to really push my creative process!

Thanks for all your support!!

Taking a little time off!

Hey guys! I'm just checking in to let you guys know I'll be gone to Romania until June 10th so I won't be able to post! I'll get back on Patreon later in August!! Thanks so much for your support!
I'll be sending out April rewards after my trip and I'll be putting in an extra postcard since I'll be sending them out late! Love you all!

🧡🧡🧡

April Sketchbook PDF

Hey guys! Here is this month's sketchbook PDF; I barely had any time to sketch this month, so I mostly worked on original sketch rewards and some drawings for Jacob Lee! Sorry for such a small PDF!

All the assignments I've been working on!!

Wordmarks-- What I worked on this morning; I had to create a restaurant logo and and designer logo for typography. If you're wondering about typefaces, I used Harriet bold for the Silver Spoon logo and Muchacho and Avenir for the Grimm design logo. This project is super big, but I've been finding typography kinda easy... ? My professor gives no feedback, but she's always satisfied with my work? No idea what grade I'll get in this class since she doesn't put points up in my gradebook-- just letter grades, and I'm at an A- rn so freaking out just a little bit.

Simple Environment-- This was created for my vector illustration class, I worked on this until four in the morning today. It could be sooo much better, but but but--- I've lost 29 points in my class so far, so I'm not really stressing about grades. Besides, this professor is A) the best designer and person ever (he's insane), and B) he loves me and my artwork, so before a sports logo project that I completely botched (i'll show you that in a second), I had only lost 9 points in class. The prompt was a simple environmental vector with gradients, and no lines/strokes.

Monster Final- This was such a fun project to work on, also for vector. We had to come up with a backstory to a monster, and my guy's name was Walter, and he loves to knit. He used to knit with his grandma and then she died when he was a teenager, so he became a hermit and just knits on his front porch all day long. I had fun making him look insane, and my color choices were based on a little girl's color palette. The best part of this project were the saggy boobs, and he came up to me to see what I was working on, pointed to the boobs, and said "I love that". Also mentioned this project to his wife, who is also a graphic designer, so all in all, super enjoyable project!!

Green, Pink, Purple-- this was a series of magazine ads for typography. We had to come up with three cohesive furniture advertisements, and I made these in an hour before class hehe. She didn't have any corrections for them, even when I did them in so little time and with so little effort. Easy class.

Lions- 5000% the worst project I've ever submitted, but I got a 130 out of 150 on it? We had to create a bold sports logo for college or high school. I did this literally during my other classes before vector. Biggest example of terrible time management on my part, we had to present these in class and I didn't even know what to say other than laugh about it. He told me in my grade comment that he could definitely tell this isn't on par with any of my other work. Yikes. Still, my two other friends in that class made super cool logos and got 140 and 135 on them? No idea how I got such a good grade holy moly.

Thankfulness In Class Poster- We had to make an in class poster based on a random prompt during vector illustration. The point of in-class projects is to show us how demanding graphic design is when you're working under certain perimeters. We had forty minutes on this project; I wanted to emphasize "full" in this poster, so I filled a glass with the word "thankfulness". Not amazing execution I know!!! The concept is cute though, if I had more time and planning, it could have looked pretty cool.

Photography Spring '19- some photos I've taken for photography this second half of the semester. Each week, we have different prompts and have to submit at least 25 pictures. Not super difficult, just busy work. This is an insanely easy class though; my professor is so so chill, he doesn't really care about quality as long as it's done, so I have a great grade in this class as well.

I have other assignments as well, but mostly just essay quizzes and exams for Philosophy. Let me know your thoughts! This is a big mix of some stuff I love and other stuff that is insanely sloppy.

Finals Week-- ask me some questions!

Hey guys! This month has been crazy; with the end of the semester coming up, I've been working on tons and tons of projects for school! My professors take their time with assignments at the beginning of the semester, and then they freak out and assign multiple projects at once by the end, so I've just been working on them like crazy! 

Realistically, I've been staying up nights to make my projects, and I spend my days reading and studying for quizzes and working on photoshoots, so I'm sooo burned out right now. I got three hours of sleep last night since I've been working on two design projects-- I enjoy having prompts so much, but my time management sucks (especially since I need to flush mount my work and that always takes at leeeaaast a couple of hours before pickup, so there is no way that I can work on my assignments up till the last second I need to submit them!). This month I also had to do my taxes, and then my PayPal was suspended because of "suspicious activity" so it took about two weeks to get everything verified and unlocked again. 

Yesterday was a pretty cool day though; I was missing my best friend from home and we drove and met each other halfway. We went on a long drive through Blue Ridge, got sushi, and watched Endgame, so that was really cool seeing him. He's the same age and year as me, but he's been working full time since high school and doing community and online college, and back in the old days, he said he was going to come to college with me and never ended up coming. He was about to go to JMU and then all of a sudden, plans changed, so he's gonna be coming down in the fall! I'm so excited. We didn't get to hang out too much in high school, so it's gonna be crazy living five minutes away from each other and making dinner and hanging out all the time! Okay, geeking out.

This Wednesday is reading day, so the semester is almost over. My last exam is on the 6th, so I'll be going home on the 7th and I have one week before traveling to Romania. I'll be gone for three weeks with one of my good graphic design buddies, so I'm excited for photography, traveling, and working with kids! 

I also have realized that I'm not going to be able to keep up with Patreon for a couple of months-- I will be gone for half of May and June on my Romania trip, so I'm going to be coming back in July! 

Ask me some questions about whatever you want to; I haven't caught up with you guys in ages, and I have no idea what to type out right now since I'm half asleep and I have bad memory, so I can just record a super quick video answering your questions and have that uploaded by tomorrow!!

MOVIES

I went home for a couple days for Easter break, and my mom told me to watch Shawshank Redemption, and oh my goodness, it was amazing! Highly recommend.

MUSIC

Wait- Jay Warren

Just Say It- Fly By Midnight

Sticks and Stones- FRND

Morning Glow- Plake

out of my mind- Plake

Put It All On Me- Phil Good

Blame- Westover

Saturday Nights- Khalid (well, the whole new Khalid album)

Cemetery- COIN

Rain in Paris- Saint Nomad (this song is my obsession!!)

Sailboat Bed- The Devil Music Co.

One That I Want- PUBLIC

Rose- Honest Man

Evergreen- Painted West

APRIL LIVESTREAM

MARCH LIVESTREAM

Hey guys! I'm going to be livestreaming tomorrow (Saturday) from 5:30-7 p.m. EST! 

Feel free to drop by; hopefully all my camera gear will be set up properly!

March Sketchbook PDF!

Hey guys! Here is this month's sketchbook PDF! This is a mix of sketches for stickers, projects for school, and some random experiments! 

The little bug-eyed dude in a couple of the pages is a monster design for my vector design class! His name is Walter and he knits O.o

Hope you like this month's work! 

March Livestream!

Stickers+ Update

Hey everyone!

So, I've been gone for so long, and I don't think I've been able to inform you of anything that has been going on with me recently! I definitely need to explain why I haven't send out rewards yet, and what you can expect!

Okay, first off-- for reasons that I will explain in just a bit, I'm super late on all your rewards, and I'm just now getting to order postcards and stickers, which should arrive to me and be shipped out to you in about a week, depending on how fast they are delivered to me! To make up for being so frickin' late with the rewards, I'll be adding an extra sticker and mini print into your packages. 

These are sketches for the first sticker pack I'll be sending out (for the sticker reward tier; they were witchy themed). I am going to color them in tomorrow and order them right after, so you can expect to receive those if you signed up for my sticker tier (and the hand and flower design is gonna be the extra sticker that I'm gonna sneak into all packages I'll be sending out)!

Secondly, let me tell you guys what's been going on with me/rewards/school. This has been the hardest semester yet in terms of school workload and being in a creative rut. All of my classes have projects and research papers due weekly (and essay exams of all things). The worst part is that my tablet broke and I wasn't even able to use it for those projects! I needed to use my laptop's touchpad to complete so many of those projects, making them take about three times longer than neccessary, and also uglier. 

Apart from school, any free time that I have to spend on personal art is so unproductive. I've had a huge artistic block in which I hate everything I create, so I haven't even been able to create something even halfway good for you guys! I'm so sorry for being late with postcards and stickers, but I'd rather be late and send you something good rather than just send you crappy art for the sake of finishing the job. The biggest reason that I've noticed I am not able to create is my environment. In the nicest way possible, I hate my roommate, room, environment!! I don't have a quiet, tidy space to focus and create. My room is constantly a mess because my roommate doesn't care about tidiness or cleanliness at all, so whenever I sit down and try to draw or paint, it feels like my mind is drowning and I'm all over the place until I can't help getting up and bleaching the whole bleepin' room. She leaves all her stuff all over my desk, her clothes and dishes everywhere, and the shower drain is constantly flooded with her hair, and I have to man up and clean up.  Okay, my little rant is over (she's nice otherwise), but I'm sure anyone who is even the tiniest bit OCD can relate. If I'm not in my room, I try to draw at the library or somewhere on campus, but usually, that just means I'll bump into friends or not have all the supplies that I need with me, as well as be distracted by everything going on around me.

I thought maybe I was just finding excuses for this rut I've been in, but I've been home for just a day and a half and I've able to make 10 sticker designs that I super love! It was so simple to zone in and focus on creating and drawing today, and I'm kinda dreading going back to college and school and the mess. The only thought that really keeps me going and gives me hope is that I'm going to be moving out and living alone and off campus next semester! I applied for a two person bedroom so that I can make one room a studio and have the rest of the apartment be mine, and I'm so excited to live alone and have silence and order so that I can create. I considered living with one off my best friends, but after a lot of consideration, I realized that the wisest solution would be to live alone. I can basically guarantee that I'll be so much more on the ball in the fall, but for the moment, I need to figure out how to tolerate my living conditions. 

So, now that we've established how stressed and OCD I have been, spring break was so tiring but great. I think I was able to disconnect from all the crap for long enough to breathe and enjoy and get back to school refreshed, albeit still tired. My friends and I went to Universal and Disney in Orlando, and this was my first time going to either. The trip was insane; I've never traveled without my parents before, and I kinda had to take the reigns when it came to transportation and all the housing. I felt so adulty figuring out rides to and from places at midnight, where to get dinner, and what to do next. I know, I'm lame for thinking this is so big, but hey! It was big for me. We went to Universal for four days, which was definitely way too long, and then spent one day at Disney. If I were to go back and change the plans, I would have done two and two days since I ended up loving Disney so much more than I anticipated! I thought both would have more rollercoasters, so I was naturally disappointed at the long lines and small rides, but I loved Hogswart and Diagon Alley ( I was grinning like a kid the whole time). I went in to Disney hating it honestly; I had no idea why people paid so much to go, but the more we wandered around and saw more things, the more I started to geek out and my 1940s Disney loving self shown through. By the end of the night, I felt like it was so magical and I never wanted to leave, and now, I keep thinking about how cool it must be to work for Disney. 

Lastly, I am trying to figure out a cute tote bag design, so if you have suggests for cute quotes/slogans or subject matter, please let me know!

MUSIC

The Japanese House

The band CAMINO

None of My Business- Cher Lloyd

Collide- Swim Season

MOVIES
I watched Legally Blonde for the first time and really enjoyed it! It was super cheesy but cute. Otherwise, I watched some of the new season of Queer Eye (it's soooo good by now), and tried to watch the new Arrested Development episodes, but it started at the beginning of season 5 and we never got to the new episodes. Hopefully sometime in the coming weeks I'll have time to watch it!

Sketchbook PDF- February

Hey guys! Here is this past month's sketchbook PDF; I have been really struggling with keeping up with personal art. I've been extremely stressed and tired, and it's been showing in my art. :(  I'm hoping this next month I can regroup and be more motivated, but anyway, enjoy seeing a lot of my messy doodles!

FIRST LIVESTREAM!

Hey hey! This is my first Patreon livestream!