Headache of Doom

Apologies to everyone who's been asking and patiently waiting.....the new products that I was finishing off last week - stamps, necklaces and paintings - will all be in my online shops very soon. I was planning to photograph and list them this week, but alas I have been plagued with an eternal headache and only just able to keep up with my job and work on my book.

All being well, next week should bring new products at last and the long-promised photo tour of my new studio!

Fingers crossed for a swift end to the Headache of Doom.

Chaos in my Studio

This week I've taken a bit of time out from my graphic novel schedule to get some new products ready for New Cross Turn Left, a comics and craft garden party this weekend (if you're in London, please do come along and say hello...it sounds as though it's going to be great! All the details are here).

As usual, I had more ideas than time but tried to do everything anyway, and the result is a vast array of half-finished jobs spread out across my studio. Work is still very much in progress, but I thought I'd show you some sneak peeks of my new products (and the return of some old favourites!) that I'll be selling this weekend, and online from next week onwards...

I Love My (Other) Job

For those of you who don't know, on the days when I'm not in my studio illustrating, I have a part-time job. I'm lucky enough to work in Creativity, a wonderful independent craft shop which is not only a nice job, but a constant source of inspiration (if a major drain on my finances!)

I rarely come home from work without making any purchases, and on days when we receive new products I just can't help myself. Today's delivery contained some new trimmings, including these fab green pom-poms. What could be better to make myself than a new craft fair table cloth in time for New Cross Turn Left next weekend?

A Little Interview

I had the great pleasure of being interviewed/interrogated by Janee, of the blog Yellow Bird Yellow Beard earlier this week. Hello to my new followers who've joined me since then, and thank you :)

The interview is still up and has a little giveaway at the end, which is still open until tomorrow if you want to be in with a chance to win a copy of the latest Green Bean. I also highly recommend enjoying the rest of Janee's blog while you're there, because it's lovely!

Routine

The last couple of weeks have been quite eventful in my studio. Last week, we set an official publication date for my book (it's September 2013, just before my 30th birthday!), and along with that a much earlier deadline by which I need to finish it. A real one set in stone. Scary.

With that deadline finally in place, I set about the none-too-small task of organising my life, or at least organising the work I have left to do on my book. I broke it down into manageable parts, and then divided those between then number of months, then weeks, and then days that I have in the next year and a half to finish it.

You all know I'm a control freak, but I felt the need to say something about how helpful this breaking down has been. For the last few months what with moving house and various other things getting in the way, I was unable to work on my book at all. I literally didn't have the time or headspace for it. Not working on it makes me panic, and the longer I didn't work on it the more overwhelmed I felt by the amount of work I still had to do before the deadline. The more I panicked the less able I was to even consider doing any work on my book, and so the cycle continued....

But last Tuesday I put together a wall planner/calendar that takes me right up to my deadline. I got my head around what needs to be done by breaking it into manageable pieces, and showed myself, with some maths and my lovely new wall planner, that it's all under control and I can meet my deadline without a problem! Now, each day I spend on my book, I need only worry about the task in hand - whether that be editing a chunk of storyboards, pencilling a short section or inking a few pages - and not worry about every aspect of the entire 400 page epic all at once. Phew!

I've made wall planners and schedules before. I used to make them with no time for eating or sleeping and completely unrealistic work expectations. This one is a little more sensible, with targets that are achievable in the timescales I've given, a day off every weekend and even a couple of holidays built in. What luxury!

Why am I blogging about this? I guess as a reminder to myself that this stuff is important, and in the hope that it might be useful/interesting to someone else, too. I easily forget, and get wrapped up in panic and working late nights and early mornings and every available hour until I am too exhausted for any more.

These last couple of weeks I've been getting to bed at a sensible time, getting up early (but not too early) and taking a walk to the farm to visit the baby goats and piglets before coming back to start work. I take several breaks, but work until the scheduled work for the day is done, which has been anywhere between 2pm and 8pm. I feel calm, relaxed and comfortable with the pace, and the knowledge that this will get my book done on time.

This was my new year goal: to prioritise my graphic novel above everything else, and this schedule does just that. The downside of course is that everything else: blogging, correspondence, crafting, sketchbooking, other creative projects, socialising, reading, all have to come second and fit into what spare time I have left. But here's the interesting thing. Have you noticed how many blog posts I've written in the past couple of weeks compared to the past couple of months? How many other side projects I've had going on? It seems that finding and settling into a routine, and the calmness and brain-space it has given me, might have helped me find a productive and sustainable routine in other areas of my work too.....

Custom Stamps Are Go!

I'm so happy to announce that I just listed my first custom stamp design in my etsy shop! This is a bit of new territory for me, though it's an idea I've been toying with for a very long time. Thanks to everyone who left feedback on my post last week, I decided to begin with the design that got the most votes, the bird. I only received my own one last week and I've already had hours of fun stamping packages and everything else I could lay my hands on. I'm really looking forward to creating these for others to enjoy too.....and there will be more designs soon!

Laydeez Do Podcasts

If anyone's interested, mine and Andrew Godfrey's talks from Laydeez Do Comics last month have just been released as a podcast, which you can listen to here.

I'm too terrified to listen, I hate the sound of my voice recorded. But if you do listen, I'd be interested to hear what you think :)

Birmingham Zine Fest

I will be selling my wares (Green Beans, Sheep Zines, Little Epics and badges) at Birmingham Zine Festival this Saturday. I'm excited; I've never been to Birmingham before. And check out this list of all the other awesome people who will be there!

Hope to see you there too?

A New Green Bean!

First of all, thanks so much for all the feedback on my rubber stamp designs...It was a close call with the balloon bunny losing out by just one vote. I chose the bird, and can't wait for the package to arrive in the post (don't worry, I think I will order the others too, but change the text so they have some other purpose than addresses....). If all goes to plan, they should all be available to order with your own custom text in the next week or so!

But without further ado, today's big announcement is all about the new Green Bean. I've been working away on this new issue for the last few weeks, and today I approved the proofs at the printers so I'll be able to send them out tomorrow. This issue is all about the new house, with pages on decorating, (dis)organisation and exploring my new local area (including meeting the piglets at the city farm. I always enjoy creating the Green Bean, but this one seemed extra special somehow. I hope you'll enjoy it too!

The Start of Something Exciting!

This announcement has been a long time coming, but I'm almost ready to start offering some custom rubber stamps in my online shops!

I'm really excited because there is a lot I love about rubber stamps. They were one of the first crafts I tried, probably when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I love the hands-on nature of printing, the huge range of inks and effects available now, and most of all designing my own. There's nothing more satisfying than seeing my own design mounted on a beautiful hardwood handle (but perhaps getting compliments about my envelopes from the staff in the Post Office is almost as good). I also love that stamps are an ideal way of combining illustration and typography, image and text....two of my favourite things!

I'm planning to offer a few basic designs to choose from that can be customised with your own words in my hand-written text. The best way for me to get started with this was to design the new stamp that I need for myself: because I've just moved house, I'm in need of a return address stamp to print on the back of all my outgoing packages and orders. I came up with a few designs, picked my favourite three, and now I'd like you help please dear readers....

Which do you like the best?

Which, if any, do you think people would like to buy (with their own text)?


The truth is that I will probably offer all three and more in my shop, and this is just the beginning. I have plans to offer bookplate/ex libris designs, perhaps some business cards and a few small creatures that wouldn't be customised, and therefore a bit more economical. In fact any more ideas for what kind of custom stamps might be interesting, please do add those in the comments too. However, for now I can only choose one to have made for myself and I just can't decide which is my favourite.

Thanks in advance, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts :)

2011: Halfway Through

When posted my 2011 new year goals in *ahem* February, someone suggested that I review them at the end of the year to see how I did. But I've decided that a halfway review is better as I still have 6 months left to achieve what I haven't managed yet. And when I looked back at my goals for the first time since February and did this check up on how I'm doing, I was very grateful I still have time!

Here are my thoughts on how I'm doing so far....

1) Make a new portfolio. Er no. I haven't done that or even made a single step towards it. However, it doesn't feel like a priority right now as I already have more work on than I can handle. Perhaps making my new portfolio can be transferred to next year's list, as it goes hand in hand with making a new website (which is also on my 2012/13 list).

2) Keep up with The Green Bean and inbetweenzines. Yes! The Green Bean is still going strong, with the twelfth issue coming out some time next week. I also published my Sheep Sketchbook which has been very successful. There may only be one more 'inbetweenzine' this year but I won't say too much in case it doesn't come together. But if it does, I'll be releasing it in time for Thought Bubble in November.

3) Launch Little Epic. Yes! This little collaborative poetry and illustration zine curated my my sister, Jemma, and I has also been a success this year :)

4) Expand my etsy shop, including rubber stamps. I'm working away on this behind the scenes, and till hoping it will happen in the next few months. It will hopefully include a little range of rubber stamps I've designed, plus also some custom designs like address stamps and bookplates.

5) Start a new etsy shop: sewkatiegreen. This is very much something I still want to do, but I've come to realise it is an unreasonable expectation for this year, next year or even the year after. Keen as I am to do it, it needs a real investment of time that I can't give until my graphic novel is finished. I'm afraid the sewing patterns in the Green Bean will have to do for now.

6) Find more commercial work and commissions. Again, this is something that I haven't achieved or really tried to, mostly because I wouldn't have time to accommodate any more work than I'm doing. This goal doesn't really make sense any more.

7) Find more time for personal and one-off projects. I am still trying to find a way to squeeze personal work into my schedule whenever I can. By 'personal work', I mean things that are not directly intended to become products to sell. The most important aspect of this for me is keeping a sketchbook: a vital process which can easily become sidelined when I have too much work on. I haven't achieved this goal yet, but I hope to find a way of setting aside at least a little time on a regular basis for sketching. Watch this space.

8) Draw more comics. I'm undecided whether this goal is something I'm still working on or something that has been laid aside to attend to next year or the year after. I suppose I've been working on my pieces for Nelson and for Solipsistic Pop 4, which are both comics and therefore I've drawn more comics than I did last year. Perhaps this oal is on it's way to being achieved after all.

9) Work on a 2nd edition of Bake Me A Cake. This is happening so slowly that the progress is barely perceptible. I am gradually adding to my repertoire of recipes, and I have also been looking into print and publication options for a second edition. It is happening, but you certainly shoudln't be holding your breath for the book!

With a points system that scores 1 for a goal being achieved, half for one that's on its way and 0 for one that has been relegated to next year, I make that about 4 out of 9 so far. Oh dear!

As for my second set of goals, they were more things that I know I need to keep in mind in order to remain sane. I think I'm actually faring better with those than the first lot, which is unusual for me!

1) Prioritise my graphic novel above all else. Though part of me feels that the only way to truly fulfil this goal is to work on my book 24/7, I know that isn't the case. I think that in order to prioritise my graphic novel I also have to find a way to balance my inspiration and working energy, and that does mean spending time on other projects too so that I don't get bogged down. On occasion the balance has tipped in favour of the Green Bean or other projects, but overall I have spent more time in the past 6 months on my graphic novel than anything else (except perhaps moving house, which I don't think should count). I consider this goal on the way to being achieved, with perhaps a few improvements to be made to my schedule for the second half of the year.

2) Get enough sleep.
3) Take a whole day off every week.
4) Take more breaks.
5) Let go of what I do not need to be doing.

Yes! I've got much better at all of these things! You've probably noticed that I've been blogging much less. Though that makes me a bit sad, it is just one of the sacrifices I've made in order to spend more time either on my book, taking much needed tea breaks, or sleeping ;)

6) Limit my time on the internet. Nope, I'm afraid I'm completely failing on this one. Is this a problem? I'm not sure.....

7) Remember I am not superwoman. No, I think I'm also failing miserably on this one. I still write myself schedules based on 48 hour days, no food, no sleep and no days off, then wonder at the end of the week why I've only ticked off half of my to-do list. Anyone who knows how not to do this, pointers would be very welcome!

That's 5 out of 7. Not bad! And a grand total of 9 out of 16. At least it's more than 50%....

What about you? What were your goals for 2011, and how are you getting on with them?