so today was fine, woke up super late again, ugh. but in my defense I streamed for 4 hours the night before. It was surprisingly a good stream, we got raided and our final view count was like 78 or something. I’ve been using twitch to stream now for the last 3 years and its been very cool and very challenging. on one hand it has helped me get closer to drawing the things I want to draw. its forced me to finish things like fan art and it has given me the confidence to talk and draw at the same time.
the bad part is the allure of becoming popular on it. Every new follower could be a subscriber and every subscriber could be someone who buys art or supports my new zine. To take it to that next level would be very challenging and it would become my job and that combined with my buddy who i share the channel with having a child killed the momentum we were building on that platform. I am freelance. so im always in need of money especially nowadays so that idea of doing a stream a few times a week for free and then getting nothing really out of it except really low advertising money is annoying. but while typing this I remembered something. Using twitch helped me get a lot of fun drawing done. yes those fun drawings didnt turn into sales but they turned into a lot of drawings being made on the fly. I always have to remind myself that if i didnt have twitch id have a bunch of half finished fan art drawings or unfinished personal work laying around my studio. twitch really helped me level up and become more confident. mainly because people are watching me as I draw. I have to figure out the task at hand live. For the most part I try to come in with something prepared before hand, as penciling live is not very fun. Penciling is one of those things that takes an ungodly amount of energy and concentration. trying to talk about whats bothering me or trying to be funny while doing that is next to impossible but ive somehow managed to do it quite often. Hell sometimes I’ll even take request and do a full on drawing from start to finish on the streams.
Its a pretty neat trick to have in my sleeve and its something i dont want to stop doing but i wish it was a little more fruitful. Besides getting work done I wish i was better at cultivating an audience that would get behind me and support what I do, and sometimes I am so mad that more people aren’t doing that. But then I take a look at my instagram and im literally just posting images. just giving an image away. I should post an image that is for sale or is a part of something. maybe that will help rally an audience.
Currently mine is in shambles. But I think I am finally understanding the use of instagram and social medias in general. you cant just have a throw away post. sometimes it works sure. like random post have gotten me gigs cause they see that i can draw. but it somehow needs to be more focused.
Anyway. my day was decent. Woke up super late, went to this little sandwich shop down the street from me called the dil pickle. I got a corn beef sandwich with a can of squirt. it was delicious. Probably the best tasting marble rye i’ve ever encountered, with corned beef hash that was piled high. mustard and sautéed onions. it was a great breakfast to eat up the alcohol i had the night before. after that we drove to this chocolate place in wicker park. I got a s’more treat which was insane and the smoothest coffee i’ve ever tasted. drove home got to work. i’ve decided to keep my phone out of the studio now as i already have a laptop and Ipad that are distracting enough. the phone sucked me in like a fortex but i got some more shit done on a page i was working on, i didnt get a chance to ink it though which I should’ve done but what ever. I’ll finish it tomorrow.
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