Hi friend!
I know, it’s been a while! It feels like a lot has ramped up recently, and I’m so excited to share what’s been happening in my studio. Here’s a preview of today’s newsletter:
August exhibits
Querying limbo
New portfolio work
Link roundup
First off, I wanted to let you know about two exhibits I’m in this August!
I was lucky enough to snag a slot for one of Curio’s annual Pocket Art Swaps!! Sixteen artists create a collection of fifteen miniature pieces—each about the size of a playing card. At the end of the event, each artist will receive one piece from each other artists’ collections.
This year’s theme, myth, felt right up my alley! I decided to carve a collection of block printed images of mythical creatures. Working in block print always feels like such a treat. The graphic nature and lovely textures are always a fun change from watercolor.
If you’re in Lancaster, I hope you swing by the exhibit opening! I have extra prints that I’ll be handing out to anyone who’d like one.
📆 Friday, August 2nd
🕰️ 5:00 - 8:00 PM
📍106 W. Chestnut Street, Lancaster PA 17603
I also have a few pieces in the current exhibit at Third Story Art—including this new chickadee fairy piece! If you visit the gallery, you can also get a peek at my studio space. Feel free to message me if you swing by. I’m often in the studio and would love see you!
🕰️ Gallery hours:
Tuesday, 10am-2pm
Friday, 10am-2pm
Saturday, 11am-3pm
📍44 North Christian St., Lancaster, PA
This summer, I’ve been deep in the trenches of querying agents.
Right now, I’ve sent out eight queries and received two rejections. However, the rejections have been personalized and positive—a small win!
They each stated that they’re only looking for author-illustrators at this time, and both asked for me to query again once I have some completed manuscripts. Good to know there’s an open door for down the road!
Nevertheless, that leaves me still in limbo waiting and crossing my fingers. In the meantime, I want to keep myself busy and have a plan to keep moving forward.
Portfolios always continue to evolve and improve. So I’m going to focus on making work that fills in any gaps and refresh older work.
To get some support in this, I started mentorship program with The Illustration Department. Recently, I’ve been feeling a need for direct, actionable, and industry-specific feedback, so this opportunity seemed like a great fit. I’ve only had one meeting so far so far but already feel like I’m going to be learning a lot from this program!
After my first mentorship meeting, I was encouraged to work on an email list of art directors. So I’m slowly going to start building this up on a weekly basis with a goal of having a list of 200 by January. I know—it’s a lot!! But we’re going to get there.
Eventually, I’ll use this list to market my work and get my portfolio in front of folks who may eventually hire me. Even though I would prefer to have an agent before doing this, I think it makes sense to take these steps now.
Finally, I’ve avoided starting a writing habit. 😅 I had always envisioned tackling this skillset AFTER getting a few illustration projects under my belt. However, it seems many agents are seeking out author-illustrators, and I think it’s worth starting this habit now.
Ideally, I’d like to start working on writing consistently before worrying about quality. Right now, I plan to start small—perhaps writing 5 minutes a day and then ramp up slowly over time.
Have any other questions my process querying agents? Please ask them in the comments!
Speaking of portfolio work, here’s some new stuff I’ve added recently!
You might recognize this from the piece in the Wild & Precious exhibit. I scanned the original piece and then drew over it in Procreate to get it portfolio-ready.
I also repainted an older piece that I thought could use an update. In this instance, I added more textures to the sky, made the star a character, and shrunk the size of the city in the distance.
I also decided to paint another piece of the star collector character. This also adds some composition variety to the portfolio.
Here are some things I’ve been loving lately!
Game: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
This game holds a core childhood memory for me, so you can imagine how thrilled I was when Nintendo released a remastered version for the Switch! The characters are so charming, and the humor is excellent. Even 20 years later, the game still slaps.
Show: Delicious in Dungeon
Here’s the pitch: a D&D campaign meets cooking show anime. I’m so obsessed. The characters and world-building are both so well-written. Please give it watch! It’s incredibly charming!
Book: Delicious in Dungeon Art Book
Okay, okay. It feels like I’m cheating listing Delicous in Dungeon twice. But after watching this video on character design, I had to snag the art book. It’s helping me learn a ton about anatomy and character art. I’m always reaching for it when I need references for my sketchbook time!
That’s all for this month!! I hope to get back into a consistent newsletter schedule for y’all soon!
If anything stood out to you, please leave reply or leave a comment! I always love hearing from you, and I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can!
Later friends,
Reagan
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