Transcript of SVA Artist Talk 🎙 sharing my post grad experience, branding, social media, online shop, etc... & Q+A

like looking at the slides on my ipad too so i remember what the next slide is so if you see that just i am paying attention i'm just like speaking from nuts too okay hello everyone i'm about to present okay do i have the screen share let's see desktop share yes cool okay [Music] okay can you guys see everything is it good oh no my mouse is disappeared okay anyways um hello my name is ronnie rahman i am an illustrator i'm from queens i'm a freelance illustrator and i graduated last year in the middle of the pandemic i have my bfa in illustration and you know as yukis and mark marcus you you go and market see this yesterday i was rehearsing to julian and i kept getting tongue-tied so here we are i was in hugo and marcus's class last year for their portfolio class um so i am one of their former students they are my former professors and i use the she they pronouns that's that's all good that is me this is this is me um okay if i click will it change yes okay cool so a little bit about myself i am a first generation bengali american i was born and raised in new york city so this is my home this is all i know and a lot of my work has to do with tying the duality of those two cultures together i am part of the alphabet mafia when i heard this term i started like laughing so hard because like it was just a like um a code word for lgbtq i am queer to be precise tomorrow i'm actually turning 23 so i'm 22 right now but that is my age and some of the things that i enjoy are plants some good old coffee and cats so let's see this is what i probably look like to you you know may 2020 graduating art school sva and then suddenly here we are now april 2021 almost a year later and i am now a full-time artist and uh that sounds really intimidating and uh this is just the the illusion of what and it's like the easier version of taking everything into perspective but the reality is this timeline however don't let that overwhelm you because this whole slideshow presentation and me speaking today is going to explain everything that i've done from then until now so it seems bizarre how quickly the progress has come to and also kind of amazing honestly because if you were to tell me last year all of these things would happen and i would be a full-time artist by now i would probably freak out and not believe you but here i am today um so i thought i would start off by sharing a little bit of the work that i've made at sva so you have a better taste and flavor of what i do and how that art has just changed mainly i will be talking about you know post-grad life and how i have branded myself and kind of harnessing technology because technology has definitely shifted the way traditional illustrators are making money because we have technology and social media as a tool to advertise ourselves and market ourselves so we should take advantage of that um and i think i i've somehow managed to do that but let's start with me entering school so this was freshman year of college at sva foundation class very boring you know i was trying to figure out what i was going to do trying to incorporate bits of myself what was important to me lots of oil painting i'm not a fan um and then trying to incorporate my culture you know um my family is muslim i'm not particularly religious but you know having those aspects still live with me today you know at the same time experimenting and exploring all of my possibilities and just figuring out like what the hell like i was up to and what i wanted to do um this is my second year at sva and as you can see there is a dramatic change so you can start to see the the color palettes develop i am really compelled towards uh pink and blues and fluorescent colors you can see my style is like sort of jumping around the place and this all that you see on the screen right now is traditional work so um i would try to figure out exactly like what medium i wanted to harness so those are those are two oil paintings on the top some watercolor in the corner those are lino cut books we made i made a book i print made printed yes printmaking yes um i printed my own like lino cut book and i dabbled in a bit of rhizograph and i also took some cartooning classes so i took how to storyboard comics because i also enjoy like writing and making comics so there was a bit of that and the second year is truly when i felt like i was able to like take a grip at the things that i wanted to do and the artwork that i wanted to produce however as you can see i was struggling with style and finding my voice um here is work from marcus's second year drawing class so he let me work digitally and this is when i start oh is new data loud well it doesn't matter anyways we're seeing it on the screen whatever it's art school um so uh this is the marcus has been amazing when it came to just like opening my brain as to what i wanted to make and why you know like he was asking all the right questions and he was also putting me down he was just like no you got to redo this they're like no just scrap that and he was right and you know taking that advice and putting it into practice and seeing what worked what didn't and you can see the like the vast diversity and the like art style and clearly nothing is like staying in the same realm but there were certain similar aspects i was bringing up so marcus was telling me how important it was for him to be someone who was gay and then for me to be someone who was queer and you know like having an admiration towards women and femininity and also taking into account mental health so the reason that you saw traditional pieces and now digital pieces is because this is when i also started therapy so the medication that i had completely messed me up and my hands kept shaking so obviously if i was painting i would literally have a whole stroke go across the page or my pen would fly out of my hand so i thought how do i have more control if i'm able to undo things and like render them hence digital but as you can see i'm still learning you know like this whole entire process i'm still learning and even where i am right now i am still learning so you can see the aspects of my culture with like the hindu goddess kali and then yoga and meditation and aspects of mental health where you know like taking medication is sort of just like getting jolted out of bed and uh i haven't really had the best relationship with food so like what what it's like to have an eating disorder um and just like a nicotine addiction but also like loving women and like things that relate to like self-harm and places that i'm trying to grow out of essentially and basically making those assignments into works of art that are a reflection of me this is now my third year so this is when i'm dabbling in silk screen you know like allowing those colors and the vibrancy of my work to exist and there's more culture added in there more things that i like a little bit of fan art a little bit of fun this was the year for for the illustration students this was our junior project so that sucked up a lot of my time and i desperately wanted to make work that was kind of in the fun zone of the second year at sba and so you can see like a little bit of fan art of like tyler the creator um a little spider-verse sona thing going on there and in the corner this uh imagery called rare and lovely and it was like a play on this skin lightening cream and used a lot of south asian like culture that lightens your skin so you're fair because there's a huge issue with colorism but long story short it was basically to counter the beauty standards that is like you don't have to be fair to be beautiful or you don't have to be lighter skinned to be accepted and to like thrive or like you know just it was a whole misogynistic thing of like telling women what to do um and some of you might have seen the the cat print in the middle or the little catchy sparrow hands print which was printed on a shirt later um and i think the next image that i have is my entire junior project so this was a very like turning point for me because when you have strong beliefs and when you want to prove things to people you kind of have to fight them and so for our junior year the theme for our thesis thesis junior project was locationist character and i decided to illustrate the novel norwegian wood by haruki murakami which is a japanese novel made by a japanese author said in japan and while i was reading that book something sparked in me like the main character kind of gave the reflection of me like going through that hollow feeling and like hooking up with people or whatever and just like a lot of those psychological aspects reminded me a lot of the like movies from bangladesh as well which is where my parents are from and like the culture that i was raised with and i was like why not change the location to something that brings and calls me to familiarity and you know pitching this to thomas woodruff was a little bit difficult because i don't think he understood my vision and i don't think i was doing a good job of explaining my vision to him and that was a learning process and essentially i was like hey you know the mannerisms are similar you know i'm not japanese so i'd rather share like a little bit of like where i'm from like you know if you're having someone illustrate something you your best intention is to grab the person that is most familiar with it so i felt like i don't see enough of representation when it comes to my background so i ended up making these images you know he wasn't too happy with the first initial like approval of the project but these were the images he said you did it you know and i proved a point i proved a point and i got into the show and that did it for me you know i i had to put up a fight and put up a challenge and in the end i made it happen you know i delivered um this is when we get into my fourth year and this is when i am in marcus and yuko's portfolio class i'm also doing some pattern work i'm also in a fiber arts class a lot of exploration so this year i was like building exactly what my voice was going to be the work that i wanted to do exactly what work i was looking for as well um so you can see that there's a lot of like experimental stuff and works in progress that i kind of abandoned but what i didn't abandon ended up being pretty nice um so here are like the finished final pieces that i had you can see some gouache paintings more silk screen pattern work children's book illustrations and everything is starting to piece together you can put things side by side and it looks like it belongs in the same world which is exactly what i was hoping to do for those past three years um and this was like just as we were starting 2020 you know like this this final semester of college and that's when the pandemic hit okay so you know i found that i had more time so i was able to be more creative so here here are some other pieces little spot illustrations of my cat the little house party on the bottom of the first illustration i did for for the portfolio class which it's actually like massive like bigger than my head and then on the side this was a po an advertising poster for one of the clubs at sva for a art fair and uh it ended up getting cancelled but i really enjoyed it and i felt like i was able to figure out how to utilize spaces which i used to suck at but um i also did a comic i also did a comic it was literally a spontaneous choice and um it was basically about having glasses and getting laser eye surgery and it was a 24 panel comic and not only did i get published in the uh illustration book the graduating book i also got published in the cartooning graduate book which was very cool uh these three pieces i will always refer to because it's always the work that i never intended to make that brings out the the like good brain juices so essentially this project you know this this trilogy triptych whatever you want to call it had to delve into exactly like what i was trying to portray you know i am a brown woman i'm bengali you know i didn't know anyone else who was like me when i went to school so it felt like the situation i was facing was very isolated and the experiences that i had were not represented in artwork and as someone who has been raised here in america in new york city in particular i felt like new york had its own culture and then i had my own culture at home and finding the middle ground between those two so as you can see like traditional clothing with street fashion street wear and like things like henna on the hands and feeling okay with it and basically taking pride in exactly where i came from and putting it into my artwork this is my website okay when i graduated i had to shell out some money and pay for a website this is something you should have it is my professional landing page where people can find my best bodies of work okay you can take a look at the stuff that i've done who i am clients that i've worked with interviews that i've had exhibitions uh in features etc it's also where i have my online shop which i'll get to later on throughout the slides um so after i graduated in this panini okay uh i was wondering what the hell i was gonna do you know because i just had this expensive piece of paper that is my diploma and suddenly being at home and you know i was essentially catapulted into the work from home setting and being confused because now it felt like there was this layer of pressure to you know email 500 art directors and beg people to accept my work and hire me um also i do not come from any generational wealth i am not a trust fund baby my parents are immigrants okay i went entirely on loans when it came to college so i have like a hundred thousand dollars in loans and suddenly that dropped on my head but as you know we are all in forbearance the people who have graduated um but that was something terrifying i was like how the hell am i going to pay this off too like i need to start looking for work and not only that but in june of last year i got laid off from my part-time job so it was like stressor after stressor so first you have a pandemic first you have then you have like me getting laid off and then this was also around the same time that the black lives matter movement gained momentum again and that brings up a lot of grief for by poc communities and marginalized communities and it's really difficult to work when it feels like the world is quite literally on fire and not knowing if i should be taking a break but at the same time struggling to essentially survive and um this is when i was just like i i just didn't know what to do i didn't know what to do and i didn't know where to go i didn't like i just felt incredibly lost however thankfully um yuko and marcus are constantly looking out for me and they understand exactly how dedicated and hardworking i am and you know my desire to do better and yuka reached out to me uh with her agent this is also marcus agent his name is aaron and i was offered a full-time position as a junior agent which sounds great because you're like wow you got laid off and now you just got offered a job amazing you know like things will work out in your favor and it was a salary it wasn't even just like part-time it was a whole salary so i was thinking okay i could pay off my loans in a couple years just doing this however i realized that you know uh this is a full-time position in a non-creative space it's more like the business end so suddenly i had to weigh whether or not i wanted to take the money working or if i was going to decline it and allow space for my creative freedom you know because i when i got laid off i realized that i had a bunch of things that i could basically bunch of products i had left over for an online shop and i was in the middle of working on that so suddenly i was feeling as though i needed to detach myself from all the creative work that i was doing and because this was a very much on-call full-time position i knew that i wouldn't really have the time the space or the energy to take something on and such a huge responsibility as well because i wasn't even like exploring my options at the moment it's kind of like just landed on me and the thing is i declined i turned down a full-time job and my asian parents were like what are you doing why are you doing this you just turned down money you said no and the thing is like i learned to believe in myself because of just my general work ethic and um uh funny enough you know when you are saying no to something you definitely want to keep in contact with people this is the whole thing of like you know make friends don't just network and i told aaron i was like hey this is my situation right now but let's talk again if you have anything come up if you want to work together in the future lo and behold this man comes back and he's just like hey i have a project with skull candy do you want to take it and i was like yes yes i am taking the project here is the project i signed an nda you guys can see this i got permission um and i worked for two months on this over the summer and it was great it's like i turned down the thing that i didn't want and suddenly a thing that i did want just like zoomed and like entered my life and i don't know if it's like luck or fate or whatever it is but this just happened okay um and this was amazing i couldn't talk about it well while it was in the works so uh when i did tell my friends when it launched they were like oh my god um and while i was working on that uh i opened my online store and these were some of the things that i literally just had on hand from when i was at school so i kept putting off my online shop because i was like oh it's okay like i can go to local art fairs and whatnot um and like these were just a small selection of things that i had at the time and i remember getting like 50 sales and i'm like oh my god yes i can pay my student loans you know and the whole reason that i opened this up is because i didn't have my job anymore i wanted to open up another avenue where it could be supplemental income um and that was the store launch i love doing like little infographics for my social media but at the same time i was entering like contests and submissions and i had filled my sketchbook because i finished my one of my sketchbooks in the middle of the pandemic and i uploaded this to youtube and suddenly like it just blew up and i don't know how or why but like i had no intention of ever starting a youtube channel or like uploading anything sharing my work i enjoy filming myself doing stuff not like specifically me but like filming the process of doing things and having all this footage and i never really knew what to do with it so when i uploaded the sketchbook tour which was for a contest um it got like over 100 000 views and i was a little confused but that is what caused people to suddenly pour into like my instagram people were asking like more things from my shop and like this sudden surge of followers just like rained out of nowhere um and people wanted more and i wanted to do more and so i was like okay cool um and then in october this is when the final skull candy project launched um and i was able to actually talk about it in a video of mine and as you can see rico nasty and rena savannah were part of it too um and i was a little bit starstruck but basically i started realizing that there were some connections when it came to my work like the cats the colors and i was like huh like like i'm starting to draw a couple lines together and it feels more like conclusive um and now i will get a little bit into branding and i feel like branding is very much identity and here i have a very little like very cute like graphic um of art and artist and i feel like those two things are no longer becoming separated you know i think people are holding themselves more responsible and accountable either for good reasons or bad reasons um and those two are somehow intertwined and i like to think of a bridge between it where suddenly we are allowing that bridge to go back and forth across of it across it and learning about ourselves and learning about our art and by making i am learning um and this is how my brain works you know i take my feelings my identity my goals fears aspirations experiences in my brain does the brain juice thing and it translates into artwork and you know i don't think for some people that could be the case but for me it's that and that's the material i have that is my branding you know i'm a queer south asian woman of color i like cats and cute things i am exploring this area of femininity i am someone who is vegan and ego conscious and then you just like put everything a little like rice cooker then it comes out and that's my brand um and the thing is page turn uh you know i didn't realize that i was suddenly cultivating an audience so that is a little bit nerve-wracking um but the thing is that i am going to make work regardless i am going to make work no matter how many followers i have you know i'm going to be myself i'm not going to curate a personality i'm not going to create a facade for people um what something that i was doing is sharing my passions and insecurity i was being honest with people i was being honest with myself and i was building a connection people will want to follow you if they feel connected to you and also working within my comfort zone obviously there were moments where in terms of work i had to push myself out of my comfort zone to learn but when it came to presenting myself on the internet i was working within my comfort zone and what i was comfortable sharing with the rest of the internet um so algorithm girl i don't know um who uh so the thing is with social media we have this thing called the algorithm and i don't know what it is i don't think anyone does maybe people that run social media know what it is but essentially when you post something on the internet you have the algorithm which spits it out somewhere either people see it you you get increased engagement or it doesn't do well doesn't do well and then it feels like you're just a failure but do not let the internet tell you you're a failure okay like likes and follows do not determine your worth okay um also social media is constantly changing and it's not in favor of artists if you think about it instagram is literally built for you to post every day because it wasn't meant for artists it was just meant for like people to take selfies or like photos of their food or whatever and do not let branding lose focus of the quality of your work okay because make you know when you make art that's for you it's more valuable rather than focusing on what you think other people might want to see from you and that is exactly how you lose originality and you lose flavor in what you love doing and it's also not the best idea to make work that everyone else is making i know there are certain trends that can gain follow like making artwork or doing drawing challenges all those things are great but at the end of the day like is that what you want to do is that what you want to share um and i found that people gravitate towards your work when the work speaks for itself and i've never paid for advertisements i think the only advertisements i've had were like through skullcandy and like the printing company that i had but like i just sort of post things and just let it exist and i uh that's really what it is i don't have a posting schedule i just share work whenever i feel like it and uh you know you can also use hashtags there's other ways of like sharing your work and making sure it gets out there and people sure sorry people sharing your work too so the thing is i found that when my friends share my work more people get to see it and it's amazing these are certain things that have gone into the little algorithm machine and somehow came out quote successful like i have about 25 000 followers on instagram that little brush cat holder thing got like 34k likes i don't know how i don't know why the two the first two videos that i posted on youtube got just a lot of views and i and at the same time i just do not know how i don't know how i don't know why it just did um and it's it's i don't know if it's luck i don't know if there's like a little robot on the internet picking and choosing favorites but certain things do well certain things don't at the end of the day don't let the internet tell you your failure this is my youtube channel um as i've mentioned i never intended to make a youtube channel it just sort of happened and my youtube channel essentially serves as a visual diary that i can look back to you know obviously i am also sharing content and understanding that is publicly available but i do enjoy sharing my process i love just like looking back and like editing not so much editing when it comes to like 10 plus hours of footage but it's something that i like doing and it's something that i take my time with doing um and i think after the first two videos i was able to monetize my content so this served as a passive income but i never thought about like okay i'm just going to upload and upload and upload so i can make more money but it was more so i wanted to upload because i wanted to build that connection like people were able to see the way that i was speaking my thoughts and feelings um they could see that i'm a person i'm a human behind the artwork you know they can they can have this experience with me this journey with me and essentially i just filmed things that i saw in other people's videos that i enjoyed too and i was like okay cool like i'm just gonna take like what i like maybe seeing people draw or seeing people like i don't know what they're eating for breakfast and i'll film bits of that too what i find interesting essentially and it's like a little bit of a vicarious friendship you know it's also a way of like being accessible because anyone can see this i'm also sharing like tips and knowledge and advice as someone who's gone to art school and uh talking about important issues like talking about things like racism xenophobia and all of that you know i don't think it's my responsibility to talk about them but if i have a platform i'm going to use it in ways that i could help other people or educate other people and talking about bits of my culture as well um also i don't think i've seen another person like me on the internet you know i don't know a lot of bengali people unfortunately that do what i do so i think it'll be nice when someone can see this and then learn from it and then maybe their path is just a little bit less hellish than i had um yeah and i was also able to where am i i was also able to start sponsored content this month um which which is also another way to make money um but these are some comments i don't expect you to read all these but like these are some lovely comments that i've had and trying to figure out exactly why people kept coming back so it's not like you just post it's like peop there are people that are watching you consistently and want to watch more of you and that connection that exists um uh i also like i filmed everything with my phone you do not need fancy equipment just use what you have and it wasn't until later that i like invested in a camera a tripod and mic and like also this recording microphone that is like the video from my first ever vlog which is like a video blog um i just didn't expect any of these things to happen and now let's get into running an online shop so i also have a small business it's currently closed right now because i am in the process of moving and just like moving my entire life elsewhere but you know when i had like youtube instagram people were pouring in and asking to buy my stuff and the thing with an online shop is that i had an existing demand there are people dming me and asking hey are you gonna make more of this are like is this for sale like oh by the way like if you turn that into a print or a sticker like i would totally buy it so it's not like i was just blindly making things or like picking and choosing but it was because people were asking and what i was comfortable turning into products and some important things to keep in mind when running an online shop is that you know you have to have a budget so because i worked part-time i had money from myself that i could put towards running a shop also including getting an e-commerce site or like i run my shop through squarespace some people use etsy but i found that having my website and shop in one place is just more efficient you'll you can also think about production are you going to outsource or are you going to make things like prints or stickers or whatever at home uh presentation you're going to be the one to take photos of these things and advertise them to people you know are you posting on social media are you just keeping it on your website or shop uh how are you presenting it like is the lighting good like are you showing the details of what this particular item is are you giving it the proper descriptions packaging you know you need to send this physical item to some place unless it's a digital good i also have some digital goods on there but you have to consider that these things cost money like there's so many things that no one tells you about running an online shop and also these things i never learned in art school so i was basically playing it by ear learning about packaging and shipping sending something from point a to point b uh weighing it realizing how much postage costs do you need to buy a label printer um or are you going to the post office and buying the postage there also customer service are you going to be able to offer people refunds or like if something gets damaged like you give them a replacement uh you know like and bookkeeping how much inventory do you have are you going to make more of that particular thing how much money are you spending on supplies how much are you pricing your stuff and you know like what are your profits taxes all of that etc um that's a little image of what my one of my shop updates look like um and i actually have a whole video on like how i pack orders and the thing is a lot of people gravitated towards my shop because of the branding like my cat became my cat's name is queenie he's a little black cat he's super adorable um he became like the the brand behind my work and like although i am sharing my experiences as a brown woman i'm also like hey i should be able to enjoy cute things too like i'm allowed to be more than just tokenized for my culture um and so the thing is because i am someone who is eco-conscious i want that to translate into my shop as well so considering things like 100 recycled mailers things that are compostable you know going plastic free uh you know creating as less waste as possible being mindful of where i'm getting things manufactured where it's coming from if these things are environmentally you know or like sustainable and uh ethically made and learning along the way uh which is which is a lot um here are some products in my shop after the like first slides that i showed you and i made fabric out of my own designs and made some masks more stickers i done like handmade goods notepads stationary keychains pins um and it was a lot you know at the very beginning i i was ordering maybe like 50 to 100 prints or stickers and then suddenly it became a thousand and i had to order bulk mailers and you know had to keep proper inventory and track of everything otherwise it would have been really chaotic um and uh i think i have about 2 000 orders that i've fulfilled thus far and it was i think last december that i had the biggest shop update and i literally have to buy a wagon because i had packed 700 orders in a week and i sent it off and i think i might have made the local usps upset because i was just like bringing in like 100 orders at a time every single day of the week but yeah i i i started to realize that i was making more money from my online shop than i did working part-time and then you know also realizing that shop uh what is the word profits the profits that i was making for my shop would fluctuate so it's not something that was consistent during the holidays people are going to want to buy gifts support small businesses etc however during months like january february like people are kind of like they're they're done the holiday shopping is over until you know it it just comes and goes and waves and so i was wondering you know like how do i make this more consistent you know and then suddenly uh i was like okay we gotta open up more avenues of income and i started to take on sponsored content for youtube meaning that i could collaborate with brands and you know choosing to work with brands that align morally with me and environmentally with me um so suddenly i had this label of content creator which is a little weird um uh sending invoices for basically advertising products and integrating them with in my videos my youtube channel and i got to work with companies like native skillshare function of beauty um yeah that's that's that's it so far but it added a layer of pressure but i can i can answer questions about that later um and then i entered uh like this group it's like a talent agency group specifically for you know marginalized communities in new york uh called so our scope of work and i'm doing an independent study right now where i'm pitching kind of like my own stationery brand um and as you can see like i've made stationary in the past but this was essentially like a grant based independent study of pitching an idea and if you if they go forward with it like having the money to make that idea happen so i'm currently working on some washi tapes which is really fun but that's something that i'm part of and it's been really helpful i can also leave links later so they take people who are like 18 to 24 based in new york city um and i think that's a wonderful avenue they have like master classes and whatnot and then um in the middle of this i also had covid that's i'll just leave it at that but um that was a huge hiccup for me in terms of work and that's why you see one of my previous illustrations featured in adult swim because there was actually another bengali bengali american woman that reached out to me asking for an illustration so i was intent i was a intentionally intentionally i was originally supposed to do a fresh illustration for adult swim but because i was just going through it all with covid um we settled on having like a reuse fee and taking a previous illustration that i've that already exists and having that featured so i got paid for it and on top of that i was featured in a buzzfeed video which was pretty lit you know just one of my followers reached out was just like we want you to do something for us and i was like cool am i getting paid and they're like yes and i got to request a secondhand pair of overalls and draw on them so there's that video um where are we let's see oh and then uh i started a patreon and if you don't know what a patreon is it's basically a monthly membership thingy there's an official google info thing on the side um but essentially it's a subscription based platform non-algorithm-based and this is what i have been working on since the beginning of the year to provide a consistent income for me and the thing with patreon is that it's an intimate lens into my work uh like there's already this content that's available for free and public view however i wanted to dig deeper with that and the thing with my patreon is similar with my shop where people were asking if i had one you know there was an existing demand there were like people waiting for me to make a patreon they're like oh do you have a patreon like i would love to like join your patreon and i was like i don't um and then figuring out exactly what i wanted to offer so um this is my patreon page i get that amount a month it's like it can it can like fluctuate but it usually stays around the same so i'm very very grateful to have like a consistent income so i make three thousand dollars 3100 a month just from patreon and that is after that is after taxes and like patreon fees but this is my creator page um and i was trying to figure out exactly what i wanted to offer on there so you basically get benefits by pledging into a specific tier like i'll show you in a little bit but i was like what what am i going to post on there like i'm posting all this stuff in multiple areas what am i going to post on there so pitching my own suggestions and taking what people want and finding that area in the middle and that is the good stuff so here's a glimpse into the content that i have on patreon so having things like behind the scenes early access to my shop and videos exclusive podcasts and more videos printable and digital goods uh look into my sketchbook from every month and this is part of my job now it's a responsibility of mine to fulfill these month-to-month and it's non-algorithm based so when people pledge to you they are seeing exactly what you are posting they're not going to miss out and you know it's a thing of trust it's it's like a symbiosis uh a mutual relationship if you will because i'm getting financially paid and able to have creative freedom in what i'm doing and people are able to get more you know i'd like to think about the cherry on top and this is content that i would have been making anyway it's just more of like a documentation and uploading it onto there and having like a little like club thing and i think some of my patrons are actually in this zoom call because i've invited them here today so thank you patrons for being here today um and at the beginning i felt really weird about accepting money but then i realized you know that two-way relationship and understanding that these people were here because they wanted to support me they wanted me to have the creative freedom and the space in the room to take a break maybe or you know like maybe we can start something or like learn together or uh they're like my little art director sometimes i'm like i don't know if i should make this product guys help me or like i don't know what video to make this month guys help me um and you know i needed to have the financial competence to have the financial confidence to make bigger moves um quite literally and like physically and metaphorically speaking um and then i felt less guilty about not having to constantly like email people for work because suddenly the work was coming towards me like people were emailing me being like can we have you on this project and i have to actually decline two projects this month because i'm so freaking busy all the time um and i'm also moving so like i can't take on things like midway um here is some artwork that i have that was like post-graduation i started painting more because i'm no longer taking medication and you know the art versus artist thing it is the month of ramadan now so like having a fragment of you know a piece of me and where i'm from uh into like work that i'm still doing um let's see i don't know what the next slides are okay this is my desk so this is the this is the zoom background that i everyone saw during the whole pen pandemic um but what i'm what i work on this is my studio desk i share i have a bedroom that is half living space half studio thankfully i will be able to move soon i don't have a spot yet but this is what it looks like when you walk in through the door it's a 9 foot by 11 foot room not that much space and i have had a good majority like 90 of my life crammed into here like everything that i have every every thing that i've produced has come out of here including packing those two thousand orders okay um so you don't have to have a lot to get everything you want done and now it's a time for me to like now this is a time for me to reflect you know like i'm constantly checking in with myself i'm asking like why am i doing this like what does this mean for me where am i going what is shifting you know why like why am i doing the things that i'm doing because if you're not asking yourself those questions you're going to feel lost you're going to feel those periods of art block and then you're going to feel impostor syndrome um and you know plan and organize uh take preparations um for me i work full time like 30 to 40 hours a week and the thing is your productivity does not equal your worth i found that like i felt productive answering emails but it was just like admin work and i would rather be drawing and you know figuring out the little changes that i need to make into my schedule and planning out exactly what is due when all of that and if you're not doing well you're not going to work you're not going to be able to work health over wealth always if you're not functioning if you're literally like on the like you feel like you're dying okay you're not gonna be able to function properly you're not gonna be able to do the things that you want you know um i'm also asking myself like am i putting time into my goals like am i turning my visions into realities you know am i putting in that work um you know making and meeting deadlines you know are you making those deadlines for yourself or are you like meeting deadlines for other people keeping track of prog like projects keeping track of projects and your invoices you got to kind of chase after those invoices and make sure you get paid um and also digital organization a lot of the things that we have right now are digitally filed stored um if your desktop looks like an absolute nightmare clean it please just like take the weekend to clean it because you will thank yourself on a year-to-year basis especially when you're also doing taxes um yeah just just make make life a little bit easier for yourself and finally listen to your curiosities like if i didn't listen to myself i think like i don't think i would have been here today you know if i just listened to what everyone told me that was good for me i don't think i would have followed the path where i am now and you know these are some sentences that i put up here you know take what you particularly will um if you don't ask the answer will always be no you know ask for help if you need help ask ask the people that can help you you know uh marcus and yuko are here to help you make friends you guys are in an academic situation obviously it's different because everything is remote but when i was art school i was surrounded by like-minded people who were artists so making friends and exploring things getting to know what other people are up to and doing what you love you know if you're not loving making art then maybe this isn't for you or maybe you have to kind of harness something an area of it that's that's causing that irritation for you and if this wasn't something that i loved doing i wouldn't have pursued it and be patient things take time i am a bad example because it's been a year but i have been making art my entire life i also went to an arts high school in manhattan um and the work has drastically changed but things take time also everything that i'm showing you right now is not a formula okay um this is just what has worked for me this is the event the chain of events that's led me to hear and learn from failure and leave room for yourself to grow because if you're not learning from failure and let it beat you down you're not growing you're kind of just accepting that things will continue to get worse and obviously we're in a pandemic so not everything is going to go according to plan but leave room for yourself to grow i realize that being an artist i'm learning about myself every single day like i'm learning more things about my art and also just to myself as a person i realize that the clothes that i wear and the way that my room is decorated it's a huge reflection of the things that i love to make and success is different for everyone i don't think i think i've made progress but this is not where it ends i'm still learning there is years ahead of me there's so many things that i'm probably going to do that i don't even know about yet there's probably so many things that you're gonna do that you don't even know about yet and what is success can be defined by so many different things and ultimately it depends on what you think is successful for you um yeah you're you're growing you guys are graduating you know um it's a scary road ahead of us but just work with what you have and if i if i let all the things that people told me beat me down i think i would have been doing something different i don't think i would have even been an illustrator um yeah and that concludes the presentation thank you for listening to me thank you for sharing your time with me today and thank you marcus and hugo for having me here today i am sweaty and nervous and happy at the same time i'm very glad that i i am a student you have chose to come speak today and i'm glad that you have believed in the work that i do and trust that my process ended up working and where i am now and i wouldn't be able to do it without you i wouldn't have been able to be here without the people that supported me on the internet my patrons everyone everyone in my life and i wouldn't have been here if i hadn't pushed myself to this point too here's where you can find me that is that concludes the presentation okay i'm going to stop hearing now thank you so much it was fantastic marcus was texting me while you're talking he said like he's he's about to cry i'm so moved too it was fantastic okay i'm so sorry if we like went over time it's like already seven no it's fine fine you know like students rather listen to you than to us so are you okay taking some questions oh absolutely i was just i was hoping that the presentation would take up so much time that we like didn't have time to like ask stuff but i'm open to anything if anyone wants to say anything or put it in the chat i'm here literally anything anything i'm gonna do so anyone you know our students or students from other schools and classes all the patreon people like anyone can ask any questions she's here to help you um i see someone like raising their hand in the video we love tingzhou she always asks questions hi um you mentioned that you should be yourself and listen to yourself when you were a student would you listen to tom woodruff's advice if he criticized your work or would you rather be yourself i listened to advice listen to his advice and i tried to like sort of decrypt what he was saying because it obviously comes out of a place of professional practice and his own experiences however that doesn't mean if he's in a position of authority that he's necessarily right and that's what i realized um and i realized that there are intentions that i had and intentions that he had that kind of like went up neck to neck and there were certain things where you know it's not like i was ignoring what he was saying i was listening to what he was saying and exactly taking apart what he meant it's like you need to be more specific you need to show instead of tell um and essentially be prepared and be ready and he was also saying that um you know i was making a major change i was making a major change to the location but the whole point in the end was proving to him that it's possible and that it worked you know delivering it um which is very difficult when it comes to you know being the artist behind someone else's manuscript or anything or project you know you have to follow a guideline and so i was breaking that guideline but i had to show to him that it's it was worthy in the end um and that's that's what it means by like not listening to him um yeah and i put i put up a little bit of a fight but i was like i did it what did i tell you thank you thank you i'm gonna ask do you find it like difficult to balance like work and personal life and stuff because i find that to be a struggle with me and i don't have a normal like sleep schedule because of it oh i forgot to mention i'm a night owl so you know if someone tells you like you're waking up way too late like honestly just work within what your body functions if you have the like the freedom to obviously if you're waking up for a 9am class you better wake up for the 9am class um but i wake up at like 9 10 11 and then i work until like 1 to 2 a.m but in the middle i'll have like chunks of working chunks of just like doing whatever the hell i want to or taking a walk outside um i have a really problem a really big problem with uh giving myself more breaks and like sometimes working on the weekends and i find that i have my family or my partner pulling me to uh like stop working you know like telling me like let's go and hang out like let's watch this movie in the living room uh stop being in your studio because it's very difficult as you can see i literally live in my studio hopefully they'll change when i move but it's difficult to stop those two things from intermingling and you know making sure i'm not getting distracted while i'm working or when i'm working overworking myself and it's a thing of it's not going to happen overnight you're going to have to set rules for yourself if if that means you're going to tell yourself i'm going to work exactly from 12 p.m to 3 p.m and give myself a 20 minute break whenever i want to in between stick to that and if you realize that you can start disciplining yourself that way in a way that's not like um exhausting yourself then that's good and it'll feel good and rewarding when you are giving yourself the time for personal stuff yeah i hope that was helpful uh someone asked in the chat when you move are you thinking of having a separate studio in the apartment or having one outside of the apartment to help with that work-life balance okay so in just a little bit of my situation right now i am moving with my partner and my best friend emma so it's gonna be three bodies in an apartment and we are all artists um when it comes to money like i feel like i am finally able to take a little bit of liberties there um i don't think i will get an external studio yet because that means not only signing one lease but two leases and figuring out where i'm gonna live and then based on that location finding a studio that's local to me and one that fits within the criteria that i need i definitely do need an external studio because i have a small business and i don't want like my living room overrun with like mailers and products but we are hoping to have like a two bedroom and maybe a spacious living room where the workspace is separate so i can close the door and not have to look at my office or having a three bedroom and utilizing one room as our like communal studio so we can all just like not have that in the living room either um so whatever is in our fate you know like exploring those options and you know i'm gonna pay money for rent anyways it might as well be a space that can have those things and with the pandemic too i saw that a lot of people were ending up like breaking the lease with their studio because they couldn't go there you know um so i found that i have no problem like working from home but i think it would be much easier if i just had a separate room that was my studio and that's totally fine like this is still my studio it's just that i wish it wasn't like together um i have a question related to your online shop okay um do you use print on demand websites or do you just work with like print shops i work with uh like print shops that are as local to me i know there are print on demand websites like imprint there's also things like redbubble however like i found that work can get stolen pretty easily when you send things off to someone else um and you know it's a lot about doing research and trusting the companies and what they're using um you know you usually don't have that issue in america but also there's like prison labor but going back to what i was saying um uh if you do not have the time or you don't want to pack orders and like think about all of that messy stuff you can do it but the issue with the print-on-demand stuff is that you get a very small portion of like the profits and also you don't really have much control there but with my the way that i run my business i have complete control over who i'm choosing to work with what products i'm choosing what materials i'm using how i'm presenting it and like adding the personality in it like i write a little thank you note with the name on it when i send it out and you know that emits a very different feeling than having something drop shipped in like a poly mailer and then that's it thank you yeah any other questions and i have a question and good morning sorry my english is not it's not really good and it's okay not my first language i think one of the scary things about being a new artist is like going out to the world and getting new jobs and you don't really know if you're being well paid or not and i know there's the thing about having agents or people that have knowledge and i would like to know about your experience about knowing and i know you talk about this but if you can talk a little bit more about that about how do you know if the job you're getting is the right for you and how do you know if you're being well paid for what you're doing okay so i don't have an agent but i have spoken to aaron who i mentioned before uh he's not like my dedicated agent but he i do go to him if i if i have questions on pricing i also go to yuko and marcus if i have questions on pricing but you can definitely look up like what the average rate is for the particular project if you are doing like freelance work and just taking on projects rather than having like in-house job related in the field like maybe you're doing graphic design etc um and the thing is this can vary from country to country there are countries that don't pay artists the wage that they're supposed to be getting and in america it's a little bit different so like in a country they're like we can pay you fifty dollars for this cover or here it could be like three thousand but maybe in like i don't know england they're like we'll pay you three thousand you know and the currency also changes um it's you you kind of have to poke around and ask and that's why i've i have the number on my patreon public i'm trying not to get robbed you know like i hope no one sees that and they're like wow look at her making that much money and like the thing is artists really don't make that much money but having transparency with how much i got paid for certain things like if i'm having a one-to-one conversation with someone i can let them know hey this is what i got paid and maybe and especially with like gender you know women get paid less you know women or femmes like and like queer folks get paid less marginalized folks get paid less because they're like we live in a society where a lot of those art fields are white white and wealthy and having to navigate that and you know i've asked people i'm like hey like if you don't mind me asking like how much you get paid for that project like how much did you get paid for that cover um and i have no issue like letting someone know like how much i got paid like that skullcandy project i got paid six thousand dollars it was a lot you know for the way they used the artwork it was uh i could have gotten paid more but i was like that's the first thing i'm getting i'm just gonna take that number and there's certain areas where you have to kind of consider like oh like do i want that name of the client there or not like you know for the buzzfeed thing i got paid 200 um and i was doing a lot of work i was filming it too and i kind of felt like i could have gotten paid way more um i originally was pitched 150 and i bumped it there is no issue with you asking for more money because with the buzzfeed thing where we were sitting on settling on a reuse fee i was like i have no idea what i should be charging to use something that already exists and i spoke to aaron and with yuko and we we figured like it should be several thousands because adult swim is such a huge company um however we overballed it we we went high we went high high high okay but that's okay because you can always bring it back down and that's the thing you should always price up no one's going to turn away and the thing is when i when i'm talking with people the first thing i ask is budget because it depends are you talking to a very big company or you're talking to smaller artists a small company that may not have that much money to pay you on a commercial scale and so you know we asked for 3 000 on the adult swim they're like we only have 500 to pay you and aaron was like can we do 750 never like we can do 750 and it's like yes good okay cool um uh there's there's just a lot of it's like a game of ping pong um and also looking at the labor you are putting into something you know because i know painting is a physical process some people charge by the hour some people have flat fees or there's so many other things when you come into like royalties um and uh licensing fees it's it depends on what you do but i would suggest like asking someone that does like similar work in your area and kind of poking around prices and also if you're from a different country like figuring out like what is the price range for that there's also a book called like the ethical guideline guild handbook it's a very general yes marcus thank you okay perfect um it's a book on commercial level work pricing um and what the average price is like the lowest and like the highest people have gotten paid um and that's like an average it's just an idea of like numbers to look at when you have no one else to ask um and then from there you can sort of work on it um yeah that was it's a very packed question to ask like how to price um there's also another artist that i absolutely love let me actually pull up her video her name is anusha syed and she's a pakistani uh canadian illustrator you might have you might have heard me mention her in a video um let me see she has an amazing video called how to price your artwork and like how do i get an agent okay i just have the agent video popped up let me actually just get her entire channel upon here okay i don't know if marcus is already beat me to it okay no okay cool so that is her youtube channel and she has amazing informational videos on like things like do i need to get an agent or like children's book stuff because she does children's books and how to price your art because she does work at a commercial scale but she's also done commissions so that is also another amazing resource that exists on the internet for free but all of what i told you are things that i actually like learned throughout art school because i would have had no point of reference when it came to pricing and i would probably like price things at like 50 for illustration rather than 500 or 6000 good cool i'm sweaty again do we have any other questions hi i also had a question about like the time management and monetizing art but in the end um it was answered so i think that like what i wanted to know is that when you monetize all of your or not most of your art and like what your work is how do you balance like what you create for yourself and that you don't really show anyone like how do you still keep something personal and also you know because artists post things on patreon that are still personal to them so do you have anything like that for yourself well i think you know there there is like illustration work i'll have to advertise it because that's what i do um so when i'm filming like process videos like you know i unders it's like the thing of like do not monetize all of your hobbies and i have kept some hobbies non-monetized for example the knitted sock that i just showed like knitting is one of my hobbies or um like cooking even though i do film myself like there's some some things where i just like turn on the camera i just forget just like leave it there but i don't put a like lens on every single thing because when you start like making videos you're like oh my god that'd be so cool to film but there's certain areas where it's like it's an intimate part of my life like i'm not gonna film like every single minute of the day um and there are some moments that i just wanna experience with my heart and my brain and my eyeballs um and there maybe maybe i'll take a photo and i'll have it like up as a little photo alongside a different clip um and uh you don't have to share all the details of your life also remember this is the internet there are dangerous people out there you know like making sure someone doesn't find out where you live i have to get a p.o box um no one don't threaten me don't worry um but i just have to get a p.o box for the sake of like not sharing my home address publicly um and you know uh like what are you gonna talk about are you gonna talk about very deep things about you or do you want to just skim the surface that's all you like you have 100 control there's no one like pointing to me and threatening me telling me you have to say this you have to do that um and when i'm not feeling well i state that i'm not feeling well you know and people will understand like i kind of try to keep a tempo with exactly where we are catching up etc um and you know knowing that i have control over what i share and what i don't and like if there are breaks that i need letting people know that i'm like in my i did a podcast recently on patreon i was just like guys i'm a little overwhelmed i'm not gonna lie you know it's been a very stressful week um and just just letting it know be known you know if i'm going to take leave it's kind of like because these social medias are kind of like part of my job no one's really like paying me to post things but it like adds to um my availability on the internet i guess uh it's like if you're taking leave let it be known you know if you're if you need a break let it be known so people aren't like where did you go did you die you know um or it's like is this over isn't it is this it uh yeah um i was gonna ask how like i guess what would your main points to like building a following on line b i know you said some of it was an accident but like do you have any like key things that you should focus on um unfortunately when it comes to people when it comes to this internet people will just look at something and debate whether or not they like it or not because when people look at something it's all visuals they're going to see your feed they're going to look at a tick tock or like they're going to maybe sit for like 10 seconds in a video and dictate whether they want their attention to continue or they want to move on um and you know you really don't want to take any crappy photos you know like you're making you're putting all this effort into your work you know document it really nicely doesn't have to be professional i literally use my phone to take photos most of the time um and just just make it presentable you know uh my instagram isn't like my portfolio but it's like a portfolio of the things that i've been up to and um sometimes i upload stuff and i'm like oh my god this made my feed look so ugly but it's okay it's fine it's not the end of the world but it's something that i have to consider because you know when it comes to people also trying to get to know who you are like having that information in your bio that's why it's called a bio making sure you're accessible like i have a link tree so i have links to more links so when people are like i want to learn more and they're not like lost and having to dig they know exactly where to go what to see and if they're looking for something specific using tags or hashtags or when they're searching for you like what do they need to find um and just making work that's cohesive you know it's the consistency that matters um if you're making work and then you're posting something else and it doesn't look it looks like someone else did it like people are gonna get a little confused and that is difficult when you are learning um but maybe finding maybe you have two pages of a sketchbook and you upload one page and the other page the next day or like whatever um or you know the whole thing of like art versus content because art is not content what surrounds the art the process of what is surrounding the art is the content so maybe you have a painted photo sorry not a painted photo a painting right and you're like wow these art materials look so cute next to it and you take a photo of the painting with the materials around it cool you've you've successfully did that maybe you go outside and like you're having a drawing day like maybe take a photo of that like as long as it stays within the same realm and you're not like shooting in different places or like suddenly there's like a food picture or like i don't know vacation photo and it doesn't make any sense like there are some people that have like their personal lives and like their art intermingled or what they do um but it really depends on like knowing your audience i think that's the main thing knowing your audience because suddenly that instagram or like whatever that social media is is being shared it's not only for you but it's also for other people to get to know who you are on the internet yeah um someone in the chat said you wanted to know you did an excellent job i noticed that when you transitioned into digital art your style became less focused on achieving a sense of realism was the change a conscious one yes yes when i was making those oil paintings i was like i hate this i hate having to like cry over every single detail um and then i realized that it was easier for me to start simplifying things and making it like not necessarily loose but like sort of looking at something from reality and finding what line comes out of my hand finding what colors come out of my brain it's basically a translation um and i realize that with realism it's it's very static for me and what i wanted to do was make fun work and i wanted to emit that feeling of playful fun vibrant fresh cool rad you know um and when i started to move away from that i was like this feels more comfortable i feel better making this type of work because i feel so much tension when it came to making real realistic work and i know some people like that but not it's not for me you know i liked it better i like myself now uh we can take like one more question see if anyone has any otherwise uh rad must be tired speaking for like an hour and a half oh my god my throat is just dry i'm just like drinking water 10 minutes so everyone cool burning desire no so then thank you so much brad oh yes thank you are you are you practicing around with them girl i just drank water that's how it's gonna say i don't think so but like if the sun well something hasn't set yet but yeah like my parents are about to have after i hear them like yelling and cooking um yeah they're they're observing ramadan so they are fasting i used to fast and then like health complications are like fainted one day and my doctor was like girl you gotta eat and i was like okay um and then i realized like i was not so religious and i was like yeah you know but i still like sit with my parents to eat if star and like we celebrate eid and whatnot but no i'm not i'm not fasting but you know this will be my last like ramadan and eid with my family together which is a little daunting but you know it's going it is what it is well thank you so much for all the information and like you know incredible it was an incredible lecture okay i'm glad because i was looking and i was like i have 40 slides i was like this is it's gonna be a lot but i'm gonna hit the vitals yeah i personally learned a lot and there's yeah i learned a lot from you okay i hope you have a great week from a patreon person so oh okay yes yes thank you for joining yeah they're they're great we have a discord server and it's like so nice like i just it's just a whole different community of like love and like unconditional just support and people getting to know other people like i i literally made different areas so that they can get to know each other too and you know just pouring in resources because the whole point of my patreon is having a library that you can access so when you do pledge you get access to previous content in that tier as well so i have a whole master list up there of all the places that i get stuff produced printers that i use uh my favorite art shops things in new york city that i love materials that i use and it's like sharing that with someone else doesn't take it away from me you know the whole thing of like community over competition do i think competition exists yes but i think that the community will create more avenues of artists getting paid more like we have bigger fish to fry like we already get so marginalized that it's like why are we why are we going neck and neck like me sharing who i use to print doesn't make my artwork less you know like it's like now someone else has another area of like finding a place to grow um and that is the whole point of my patreon just like having all of that information that is i i do mention it in my vlogs like if you're ever curious about what i use i mention every single thing in my video and if it's not in that video it's in another video but it's all up on patreon it's just this like cloud of me just sharing what i'm doing and sharing as much that i can leave to help other people because i wish that i had that when i was starting this because i literally had to learn all of these nitty gritty things because sva didn't teach it sva taught me other things but it definitely didn't teach me how to market myself through the internet yeah yeah because there's no one i was going to feel young enough to have gone through that so like you know like you should like i mean like we're not in position to hire anyone we hope you in like next how many your ears come and teach to the next generation of artists because you know there are things marcus and moo and i can teach but we definitely cannot teach what you're doing you know you're starting out in a completely different world but also you know one thing i want to like highlight um it's been said before i just love your intentionality and how like the space that you're occupying through your work is not something that i feel like was around when i was coming up or when yuko's coming up you know this is really fresh and honest and inspiring so yeah i just wish you lots and lots of great things it's like fantastic fantastic seriously yeah i as i said i wouldn't be able to do all these things if i didn't have you guys believe in me and helping me along the way you know cool much love yes much love thank you so much and those of you thank you everyone for coming and those of you who are our students as well as were not um it was great it was a huge audience there were like 50 50 people in the audience um so uh those of you who are in our class it's like 7 20 like uh can we take a little bit of break and we meet like when mark was 7 30 7 30 40 7 35 7 40. 35 on the you know the regular class link and brad julian everyone thank you and see you soon and i'll send you the video okay thank you all right