And done!

All good must come to an end. I’ve done all the newsletters and scheduled them on these release dates:

• 17th of Nov, Issue #1: Role Icon Phone wallpapers
• 19th of Nov, Issue #2: Twitter Headers
• 21th of Nov, Issue #3: Extra secret issue with Job Icons files

All newsletter have free digital items and they can be found at my Twitter. The newsletter is embedded on my Twitter profile, you can’t miss it.

Here are the final preview images.

What I learned?

I learned that making art CONSUMES time. Yet again I learned that creative work takes always more than you think. Design, drawing, fixing…is a cycle that keeps on going. Still I’m happy with the results. The files look nice and on the side I learned how to make a newsletter work on my Twitter.

Now I can finally close this project and say thanks you to all who read my stiff posts. Have a great day!

Plan C

I decided that I’ll give all these wallpapers as a freebie content because of reasons in last post. It is much more easier solution for this moment and I hope that they will bring more joy in that way.

I’ll not add these on my Ko-Fi page though because it wouldn’t make sense to put them there anymore. I rather have them somehow connected to my Twitter account and I have learned that I can do that with the Revue newsletter tool. I tested the newsletter and it work pretty okay for my standards.

I’ll give more updates next in week when I’ve finished newsletter design.

…and I got more to show by then…but they are secret designs.

Let’s goooo…or maybe not?

Today I continued the project with new found energy! I made lot of small tweaks here and there, changed the font styles in the headings and even tested them on my phone! And love them! They look nice and cool! I’m somewhat of proud of my work!

So regal, yet so beautiful!

After all that hard work, I decided to search and look for more information about the Ko-Fi shop’s VAT and tax policy in Finland. BTW You should always check your own country’s laws and regulations when you open any kind of shop.

And there I found unfortunate news for me; here in Finland it is almost impossible to sell anything without having a legal business. I don’t have a business and that means that I can’t open a shop…great… Really smooth for me, indeed!

Only way to dodge this mess is to … give them free…? That could work. Less hassle with bureaucracy and free stuff for everyone!!

Long sigh

I’ll look more options later this week. At least I managed to make the wallpaper completely, and I should be happy about any progress on this matter.

Time to squeeze the some results!

My mood for Thursday’s drawing session was sour but I forced myself to draw the last flower for the role icon. I’m not going to give up now, when I’m this far! After few hours of sketching, and listening way too long videos in the background, I found myself enjoying the creative work. I trashed the lily flower and took in a lavender instead, and I’m not bragging or anything…

But I think the lavender is the nicest looking of all the three.

Luckily the coloring work can be messy, because this lovely flower will never be this hugely displayed.

I learned to loosen up and let the Wacom pen glide on a tablet while I was drawing. Not worrying too much of the look of the flower or the colors. Just letting it go as it wants to go. And be in the zone.

And before I know it, my drawing was completed! I started pretty early in the morning and I think I finished the drawing in 4-5 hours. (that includes the reference image searching and breaks) After the victory shoulder pats, I quickly smashed the flowers to the wallpaper files and did some minor fixes.

Finally some process! Look, I made THINGS!!

What I learned?

Drawing takes TIME and BRAIN JUICES!! I always tend to forget that creative work is very taxing on the mind, and I easily over work. I noticed that if split the drawing sessions to smaller parts, it helps me to concentrate and focus on.

Some of the third weeks goals will bleed to the fourth week, which is slightly annoying for me. But nothing in this life is perfect and this projects is great example of that.

ARGHZDSSS!!

Today I started the remaining drawings for the wallpapers but I’ve been feeling quite crappy while drawing these. There wasn’t much joy in the process and I don’t like how the lily turned out. :(

I’ve already spend too much time coloring the lily even though I didn’t like the color or the shape of it. I’ll stop for now and hope that Thursday gives me more energy to draw.

Baby steps…

This week didn’t go as I planned and it shows. I noticed that creative work takes a lot of time and I barely finished the icon scalings. It was lot of work and unfortunately my right arm and wrist decided to show the symptoms of over working.

In my third week I try to make the final drawings and wallpaper designs. I hope that I can finish them in time.

Here is the work in process image of the healers icon.

And here are the all icons lined up. Still I’m proud of my work which is a good thing!

When plans don’t go as you planned

Well… Today I planned that I would continue with the second wallpaper. But life threw me a curve ball and sudden relative visit happened. The visit was super nice, I got to eat an apple pie and I was gifted with a handmade traditional Finnish folk lore dress! Super cool!

But unfortunately my designing time today was much shorter. I barely manage to re-make the dps icon. I will try to get more done by the week.

The design is almost the same but not there yet. I need to tweak it it more!

Creating first product

Today I’m excited and terrified. What mixture of feelings! I decided to roll with the idea of digital wallpapers and if I happen to have more time, I might do something extra. But it is big IF for now.

I had this gnawing feeling that "everything I do is crap" and was bit fearful to continue my project. I still forced the Photoshop open and started to re-make the FFXIV Tank Role icon. And boy…

What an energy spike I had! It was fun to tweak the values, shadows and highlights, and it felt like I was on the right track. I manage to finish the first role icon in few hours and even did little victory dance at the end.

I never knew that re-making an icon would made me so much giddy.

Next I added this sparkly new icon on 16:9 ratio wallpaper file and I decided to go with a flower theme! Yup, very unique, right? Hahaha… I know it isn’t much, but sometimes simple is enough. And today simple will do!

And then the perfectionist artist kicks in… I’m bit fearful of my drawing skill. What if it looks really poopy? What if I don’t like it? Should I trace the flowers? It is much faster than normal drawing but… Tracing sounds bit like cheating and I know that even professional do tracing. After pondering awhile, I decided go with the reference method in Clip Studio Paint. I took a long breath and braced my negative artist mind.

Trying to do is better than doing nothing! Now draw!

Luckily the perfectionist side of mine did loosen up when I was in a sketch mode. And before you know it, I had completed simple shaded Freesia flowers.

That took quite many hours… 2-4 hours, maybe?

I already started arranging the wallpaper back in Photoshop, but then I noticed that I’ve been doing this over 9 hours! Upsy-daisy! I better save the progress and close the programs for today.

Over all I’m happy with the result thus far and Thursday I’ll try to dive into another role icon.

Ko-Fi research phase

*Note: Because I missed the start day in my project, I made a speedy research for my project. *

I was surprised that Ko-Fi’s own search engine isn’t the best one to get more info about other creators. The search results only show me The Featured Creators who have bought the upgraded option. And quite large quantity of those pages have minimum of interaction or barely any signs of use.

With little hard work, I found a handful of nice looking pages that have good number of interaction and products for me study. Let’s start looking and studying!

butterberry café

https://ko-fi.com/butterberrycafe

This one has lot of interactions from the community and the commision page is super well done! The products they offer are pre-made icon sets which can be slightly customized. I must say, this Ko-Fi page scream “the slice of life” feeling. Calm, cute, caring! They also have strong presence on their Twitter account which drives more eyes on their Ko-Fi page.

Simz art

https://ko-fi.com/simzart

Look at those cute witch girls! They are so lovely! This art creator has a smaller Ko-Fi page than the earlier but it is well done in my opinion. There are many posts from the creator which indicates that they are very active with their work and community. This is a thing I lack in my art and I should be more aware of it. Do you notice that this page only takes Ko-Fi donations! And it is still going on strong with their follower base and donations. I think the page’s banner picture is eye catching and draws supporters in. Smile goes for a long way!

illusbyjo

https://ko-fi.com/illusbyjo

The supporter numbers are big on this Ko-Fi page but the donations numbers are small! Interesting. This creator’s strengths lays in their shop page. The products are simply eye catching and inexpensive, from 2 to 5 dollars. The sale numbers are quite big on different products. But most sales comes from the phone icon packs which includes icons and wallpapers. They also happen to have a Shopify page and a good Twitter presence.

bib / kapebeans

https://ko-fi.com/kapebeans

Oh my lawd! Look at the CUTENESS, but back serious research mode. This is one of kind Ko-Fi page, and it offers a shop where you can buy icons and wallpapers. The price point varies between Free to 5 dollars which makes me wonder. Should you sell your products so low number? I noticed straight away that this creator post mainly on the Twitter, TikTok and Instagram and uses these platform as customer magnet pools. Now I understand why many marketing experts love to shout “Use many platforms!!”. Also note that the donation is 5 dollars which is quite big for a normal Ko-Fi donation.

What I learned?

• You can technically make any product work in Ko-Fi shop page!
• Many successful artists drive their customers from different socials to their Ko-Fi pages.
• The prices are low on many shops but products are flawless. This drops a question, should you sell your art so inexpensively?

My main goal is not to grow my visibility in a social media (it is still important thing in any e-commerce) but I’m here to learn how to make Ko-Fi page pop up and look cool! These few shop case are very inspiring and gave me even more ideas for my own shop. I can’t to wait to start the next part of my project!

Late at the party!

First I scheduled my project days to be on Tuesdays and Thursdays in my calender. I almost forgot this whole project?!

CORE IDEAS

Here are the main ideas that popped up in my mind while researching possible ideas from my head space.

1. FFXIV themed wallpapers

• Job icons
• Role icons
• Logos / Quest markers

Lately I’ve been obsessed with Final Fantasy XIV. And I love the game. As an artist, I love art and FFXIV art I love even more. Why not have both happening in my project!?

2. Commissions

This is tough cookie! I’m not brave enough to make commission art but I can knit! A LOT! If I consider making knitting commission, they have to be easy/enjoyable to make. Maybe scarfs? They could be high end product that I could offer. I can see it in my eyes: “Super duper quality yarn that is smooth and shines like silk.” Me like, the idea!!

3. Stream layouts

Shouldn’t stream layouts be on Fiverr than Ko-Fi? I could make little pop ups, follower alerts etc. But this doesn’t resonate with my art style form. I’ll think about it.

ART STYLES

I always liked minimalistic art and manga style. And pastel colors are pleasing to the eye, but some odd reason I can’t make pastels look good. (exception the dragon picture) But I’ll try make this work on this project! My strengths are rooted in flat coloring and this project gives a good challenge to spice up the game with shadows and values.

Here are some of my work which are closest the color work I’m looking for.