5 Years of exciting art adventures! So excited to bring you this new website and a better shopping experience!
I'm documenting here my freelance journey and how my art business grew through these 5 years to keep it as a diary, so feel free to take a look if you'd like. I also share all the cool stuff you can expect in this new website.
Hope you enjoy reading!
Becoming a Full-Time Illustrator
Let's travel back to 2019/2020.
At the time I was finishing my degree on Computer Engineering and was starting an internship as a Cybersecurity Analyst. I was running a small Etsy shop on the side to help pay for college bills and started to look for ways to improve my products and also my art.
I never thought of freelancing as an option since a stable income was super valued in my country and no one from my close family members were running a business. Not having a boss and a paycheck every month was a big no-no.Β
Until I found artists like Frannerd who talked about having multiple income streams as a freelance artist and were thriving on the internet. Suddenly things started to make sense and I started getting ideas on how that could work.
At this time I didn't plan on becoming a full time artist yet. The plan was to create cool products to sell on my shop as a side gig instead.
However, with time I started to grow terribly bored in my internship. Being a Cybersecurity Analyst sounds exciting but as an intern I was mostly sitting at the computer the whole day looking at hundreds of lines of text hoping there was any problem to solve. Not to mention being in a room with 10 more tech dudes just staring at their screens, wearing headphones, without talking and almost not taking any breaks. Now imagine that every day from 9 to 6. By the last months I was so drained I just wanted a way out.
I was already designing some new cute products for my Etsy on the side, but after my daytime job I was left with such little time and energy to also work on my art business. And on the weekends I wanted to spend time with my family and partner, so I was left with only a few hours to work on my art business.
The pandemic hit and we were sent to work from home. It was sooo much better. I noticed I could be doing the same job from the comfort of my home and at least I could stretch my legs more often, go get a drink or just have a short break every time I needed. Aaaand I didn't have to spend any time commuting so I could dedicate myself to my art business after work.
I figured that once the pandemic was over things would return to normal and I would be left with no time to work on my side gig again. I saw a lot of people starting their online businesses and I wanted to do the same so bad! So once the internship was over I didn't continue with the company and decided to jump head first into freelancing!
I'm not romanticizing freelancing. There are rough times and it can feel like the rules of the game are always changing and you have to keep up. Some guy decides to change laws, the economy crashes and I'm right in the middle of it. It requires a lot of planning, savings, learning and so much more to keep running this business.
But every day I wake up energized to work on something exciting, my mood gets lifted everytime I design a new collection, and when I see you loving my art and products it keeps me going. So I wouldn't trade it for anything else.Β
A Timeline of my Art Business
Before becoming a freelancer I began selling my art through commissions on DeviantArt. That was soooo long ago and oh boy it was fun!
Then I began selling stickers on Storenvy, a very old platform that was popular with artists back then.
I then moved over to Etsy and my Hobbit stickers were quite popular!
(Again very old so some pics are unavailable)
In 2020 I started selling digital goodies on Etsy and launched my own shop on Big Cartel and it has changed a bit over time!
My Shop in 2020! Looked minimalistic but quite pretty β₯
A little upgrade to add my Patreon and adjust some images!
And its latest design! More colour and extra silly!
New Shop Design!! π
My inventory has grown a lot over these 5 years. I love Big Cartel with all my heart for its simplicity but it lacked some features to keep my storefront organized, to highlight products and collections, to offer digital goods and to offer you more cool content.
So come take a look at your new shop!
The menu is more complete now and you can view all the product categories on the front page!
It should be easier to add items to your cart and filter through all the products now!
Exciting Stuff to Look Forward to
In addition to improving your shopping experience I'm also working on more cool surprises for you! I want this to be more than a shop but also a place where you can chill and have fun! These pages are still in progress but this is what you can expect:
You'll have a page full of free digital goodies, from colouring pages to wallpapers! I think you'll like it!
I'll be opening commissions in the future and there's a cute page with all the info ready to launch!
And finally I'm very excited about this blog! It's still in progress but I'll be sharing stuff about the shop, birding adventures, craft ideas and more! I know people don't read blogs as much nowadays but I really want to have a space dedicated to long form content!
As I'm still navigating the new website, please leave a message if you encounter any issues or want to make any suggestions!
Thank you so much for all your support! So excited for this new adventure! β¨