Hello friends!

I'm currently writing to you on a train journey so this may be a very bonkers post not as well formatted as I'd want it to be.
This will be sectioned into different parts to make it easier for you to read whatever you might be interested in!

Surgery and Recovery

I deeply have to apologize to all of you for taking so very long to get back to FA. I vastly underestimated the surgery I had done and thought it would be a simple recovery process. It wasn't. There are certain things that I'm not very good at and apparently gauging surgery times is one of them as this is the second major abdominal surgery I've had, and on a side note I go back in on December 15th for yet another consultation with my doctor about my hysterectomy that is still on the cards. Joy of joys!

It's been quite an adventure since September and I've needed the MIA time to not focus on furry things though I was trying to work through it whenever I could. I'm on the last two images now and those should be done soon, which will eventually lead me into reopening commissions so that will be another section.

There is a massive rant I want to give in this section but this is not the time or the place.



Just Fur The Weekend 2017 - Guest of Honour

I am very pleased to announce that I will be attending JFTW for the very first time and be a guest of honour as well! I honestly can't believe that anyone would ask me to do it, but I hope that I can shed some light on others on what it's like to be a freelance anime artist in the fandom and try to help others on setting up their businesses, how to stay proactive and generally how not to get discouraged with art slumps.

I don't know if I'll be able to have my sketchbooks here in time for JFTW because if I did I'd happily let people at my panels see my progress form when I was younger to today. Art is NOT a quick thing to achieve and we all work at different paces. I want to shed light on how to build your presence on websites like FA.

Discussing with Heartlilly about the options of panels, it sounds like I'll be doing two seperate ones. One will be a Draw with Me where we can come together as artists and just bounce work off eachother. Sort of an artist "cafe" if I can borrow that term from my dear friend Ara. I'm not the sort of person who will condemn another artist for being at a certain level. There are people who are so much more advanced than I am, and others who are just starting out.

The one thing I don't want to hear at my panels are anyone saying "I'm not good enough" because you are. No matter who you are. You are.

It will be designed as a build up session for us to get to hang out and chat about things!


The second panel I want to do is the basics of freelancing which will include a brief bit on taxes (I am not a tax adviser) and basic book keeping, over to paypal and using invoices, and then some other basics on how to talk to others. I come from a professional background in Real Estate and Administration so I use the things I've learned there in how I handle my artwork.

My little disclaimer is there is no "This way is the right way" or "thats wrong." You have to find your own path in the artist world but I'll do my best to give you the foundational building blocks to make yourselves successful in what you do if you want artwork to be a profession.

I will say its not glamourous. It's not high dollar rolling but if you're in a position like I am it's definitely what works for me.

So please, come on by to JFTW and say hello. I'll be all over the place! I've never been the sort of person to shun others at meets or conventions and pride myself on being very personable.


Thank you to the JFTW team for including me into your festivities and I hope to do you guys proud!


Commissions!

I'll be reopening for work in the next few days as I am on the last bits of one and then finishing the other. Once those are closer to being finished I will reopen for Christmas work of which you have to understand that I will not be given a deadline except before Christmas - I'll have a list of items I'll be taking on and if you do not have a Christmas gift image for someone else I will ask that you please state so, then I can figure out in what order to do my work in. If yours is personal and can wait a few extra days, then that's great.

Again I'm NOT open now, but I will be opening.

I know it's taken me way too long to finish the last group of images but I couldn't draw for a while. I kept trying and it was nothing I'd be willing to give to anyone as they've purchased my usual level of artwork. Now that I'm back at it, I'll be mass uploading all of the work I had completed over the last couple of months.

Charity Work


Another side to things is I've turned into the colourist for a UK run Charity. I'll probably disucss this a bit more later on more towards JFTW but I'm so pleased that the publishing pack is finished and is off to Leah Moore (the daughter of Alan Moore) for her scripting. I'm working with lovely people on this and hope that it'll take off and help make differences for other people. xx


Manchester Meet

Tomorrow we're making our way up to Manchester here in the UK to visit friends and to participate in the Winter festivities. I hope to see some of you guys there and please let me know if you're going!! :D Would love to see you guys again!!!!



I think thats all for now, and I hope that this isn't as random as it sounds like to me. @_@ I'm not the best at writing off the cuff and we've just come to the next train stop. Long trip today across the country and then back. Joy of joys!


See you guys soon.

xx

-Lappy