May Newsletter: Life Lately...

Sneak Peek of a Calendar Illustration!

Happy June, My Lovelies!!!!

As I'm writing this, I'm finding myself a bit fatigued (Physically and mentally). I have a habit of putting too much on my plate. I've talked about this before. I've been trying to give myself fewer to-dos, so I feel more accomplished as a whole. It's a strategy that definitely works, but sometimes makes me feel like I'm cheating the system. The thought that "I'm not doing enough" often eats away at me. But I'm tired lately, so I try to offer myself grace. Sometimes I accept it, and sometimes I toss it aside. But this month I have been feeling a little blah, and writing down what all I did last month has made me realize how much I actually have done, even if it's been at a little bit of a slower pace. And now, I shake my head, wondering why I feel like it's not enough. So, in order to boost my morale a little, I'm going to walk through all the things I've worked on in May!

Sneak Peek of an illustration I worked on this month...safe to say I was eating pretzels, peanuts, and popcorn afterwards!

Okay, so May started with 2 different chalk jobs for weddings! Wedding-related work was something I did, almost exclusively, when I first started my career. While I loved it, I really wanted to pivot to illustrative work. So, I started to only take on select jobs for weddings to free up my time. One of those jobs is chalk art for two restaurants in Houston that have beautifully massive chalkboards! They host events, such as weddings, and I get to work with the clients, drawing fun pieces to act as a cool backdrop for their evening. I would classify them in the "mural" category of my work. I had two events back-to-back the first two weekends of May. I pictured both below, along with the corresponding sketches. I typically pull inspiration from the stationery, florals, and decor for the event, so it's nice and cohesive. I also get to work on the chalkboards while the restaurants are setting up, which is fun to experience all of that happy but stress-filled, organized chaos!

The sketch for the first chalk job - a seating chart with some floral elements.

The finished chalk art. Super clean and simple on one of the prettiest chalkboards!

The second sketch. Super floral heavy to match all of their stationery.

The finished design! The colors are hard to see in this pic, but they popped a bit more in person.

I've slowly been chipping away at the calendar illustrations. So far, I've been able to illustrate one design each week. I'm currently painting the design for September. This has been a lovely, relaxing activity this month. I throw on an audiobook and paint away for an hour here or there throughout each week. This past month, I listened to "Tom Lake" and "The Art Thief" audiobooks. After finishing the Harry Potter series, these were a fun change of pace but still super calming while working.

Sneak Peek of the September Illustration

May saw a good amount of client and licensing work. I've been working on a set of 4 commissioned paintings for a doctor's office. These will have a whimsical foliage design paired with the four different anatomical pieces that the office operates on. The idea is to give the patients in the waiting room a lighter feeling, almost taking their mind off the "blood" of it all. I have pictured below my sketches for these pieces. They will be 16x20. I have them all penciled in on watercolor paper (no small task) and will start painting them this coming month.

Sketches for the Commissioned Anatomical Illustrations

A local Houston stationery company commissions me to create custom illustrations. The designs vary widely from pets, maps, houses, and so on. This month, they asked me to illustrate a client's cat in a line drawing style.

Drawing out a Commissioned Line Drawing of a client's cat named Fig

I also worked on some holiday designs for my wholesale licensing agent. This is just a smidgen early for holiday work. Usually, it's closer to July when these requests start to come through, but every company is different. They were asking for a couple of different styles, one of them being "folk," and it got my creative juices flowing.

Sneak Peek of the Christmas Art I was working on for my wholesale licensing agent

May saw lots of fun Etsy orders. I always enjoy it when new designs are trending. This month, stickers, cards, and some of my silly art prints were the bells of the ball. So far, the designs below are taking the cake!

Speaking of birthdays, May was Ricky's birthday month, which always brings about the fun challenge of creating a hand-drawn card for Ricky. This year, I made him banana bread as a yummy sweet treat to enjoy, so I made a banana-themed card to go with it!

Go, Bananas Card, I made for Ricky's Birthday!

Going back through the month, I can now see how much I accomplished. But "OOF," my friends, it's a challenge to accept that I'm doing enough sometimes, especially when I'm in a month of feeling a little more tired.

So here's to keeping on and offering yourself grace. Your best will look different each day. So, when your best is only 50% of your normal capacity, but you're giving that full 50%, then you're giving 100%!

Cheers to June, ya'll!

See you in July!

xoxo

Rachel