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2016 in Review
January 2 2017
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January 2 2017
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So the last half of 2016 kind of got away from me blog-wise, huh?
If you follow any of my social medias then you haven’t missed anything, but I’m just really terrible at sitting down and writing long blogs (or even letters – sorry Grandad!) I guess at this point all I can do is my year in review, and catch those of you in the dark up on the last half of my year!
So 2016 was one hell of a year! I know most people had a terrible one, but for me a LOT of amazing things happened to balance out the bad (I mean, it does take a lot to balance out the passing of people that influenced me as a person, and my art, from a young age -Bowie, Rickman, Fisher)
Here are some of the amazing things I got to experience this year:
I started my YouTube channel on the 11th of January 2015, but I didn’t really understand how amazing the platform was and got serious about it until this year. This year I have had 3 subscriber milestones in quick succession, 100 to 1000 and now have a little community/family of 2000+ amazing subscribers who inspire me daily. I know 2000 isn’t much on the grand scheme of YouTube channels but 2000 is 2000 more than I ever expected!! I am eternity grateful to have anyone enjoying my work and engaging in my practice, and always surprised haha.
I did my first ever RAW Artist Showcase (and then ANOTHER later in the year!) I was so surprised to even be accepted as a RAW Artist let alone finding myself doing multiple shows! Both were more successful than I could’ve imagined, I am hoping to do an overseas RAW Show at some point soon!
I had multiple novel covers published this year, and seeing my covers on actual books in actual bookstores was insane! (this is my dream!) It makes me particularly happy to hear from the authors that my covers are constantly remarked upon and helping with the popularity and success of their books.
(Speaking of being published, I also had works in a few magazines - there’s one out right now: the 2017 Summer edition of Art/Edit Magazine!)
I got MARRIED and went off to Japan on Honeymoon (2 months is the longest I’ve taken off work/art since I was 16!) I taught myself how to make cake-shoes for the wedding, I designed countless invitations/placecards/seating charts etc, and I painted parts of my dress/veil which I’m sure is something brides are not supposed to do…
I stocked up on artbooks and supplies in Japan, and got the once in a lifetime experience of seeing Naoko Takeuchi’s very first exhibition (she is who inspired me to start drawing) – please take a moment to feel sorry for my husband being dragged through all of this :P
I finished the final artworks for the Children’s Book I’ve been working on for the last 2 and a half years, and was very confused about what to do with my new spare time that had previously been taken up by this book.
I was accepted and got to participate in the very first MadMan Anime Festival, which is, yes, a new convention, but I found it to be a different experience than the others. I really really enjoyed myself and got to meet SO MANY new artists I had never seen at conventions before who I am lucky enough to still be in touch with now!
I also got to participate in Classic Comics celebrations twice this year with both Free Comic Book Day, and their Halloween Comic Fest where I got to draw lots of free sketches for everyone!
And of course, I was lucky enough to be invited back by PAX Aus with the Popculture Painters to do live painting over PAX weekend. As always it was my favourite event of the year and every year it gets better and better (when we think the year pervious, ‘there's no way it could get better than this!’)
We had people contacting us all in the weeks leading up excitedly asking if we were going to be there again. So many people dropped by excitedly telling us what they voted for that day (and what they'd voted for in the previous years) we had those who won the artwork in the auction drop by to show us, people excitedly running to our tables yelling "CURSE YOUR SUDDEN BUT INEVITABLE BETRAYAL!" in order to receive a Popculture Painters pin, and lots of new people really enjoying what we were doing. A couple of us even filmed the artworks this year and will be putting up time lapses for those who couldn't make the event.
The craziest thing for me was having Playstation representatives stop by regularly over the weekend, taking photos of me and my work, and sharing them online! Just totally nuts!!!
If you follow any of my social medias then you haven’t missed anything, but I’m just really terrible at sitting down and writing long blogs (or even letters – sorry Grandad!) I guess at this point all I can do is my year in review, and catch those of you in the dark up on the last half of my year!
So 2016 was one hell of a year! I know most people had a terrible one, but for me a LOT of amazing things happened to balance out the bad (I mean, it does take a lot to balance out the passing of people that influenced me as a person, and my art, from a young age -Bowie, Rickman, Fisher)
Here are some of the amazing things I got to experience this year:
I started my YouTube channel on the 11th of January 2015, but I didn’t really understand how amazing the platform was and got serious about it until this year. This year I have had 3 subscriber milestones in quick succession, 100 to 1000 and now have a little community/family of 2000+ amazing subscribers who inspire me daily. I know 2000 isn’t much on the grand scheme of YouTube channels but 2000 is 2000 more than I ever expected!! I am eternity grateful to have anyone enjoying my work and engaging in my practice, and always surprised haha.
I did my first ever RAW Artist Showcase (and then ANOTHER later in the year!) I was so surprised to even be accepted as a RAW Artist let alone finding myself doing multiple shows! Both were more successful than I could’ve imagined, I am hoping to do an overseas RAW Show at some point soon!
I had multiple novel covers published this year, and seeing my covers on actual books in actual bookstores was insane! (this is my dream!) It makes me particularly happy to hear from the authors that my covers are constantly remarked upon and helping with the popularity and success of their books.
(Speaking of being published, I also had works in a few magazines - there’s one out right now: the 2017 Summer edition of Art/Edit Magazine!)
I got MARRIED and went off to Japan on Honeymoon (2 months is the longest I’ve taken off work/art since I was 16!) I taught myself how to make cake-shoes for the wedding, I designed countless invitations/placecards/seating charts etc, and I painted parts of my dress/veil which I’m sure is something brides are not supposed to do…
I stocked up on artbooks and supplies in Japan, and got the once in a lifetime experience of seeing Naoko Takeuchi’s very first exhibition (she is who inspired me to start drawing) – please take a moment to feel sorry for my husband being dragged through all of this :P
I finished the final artworks for the Children’s Book I’ve been working on for the last 2 and a half years, and was very confused about what to do with my new spare time that had previously been taken up by this book.
I was accepted and got to participate in the very first MadMan Anime Festival, which is, yes, a new convention, but I found it to be a different experience than the others. I really really enjoyed myself and got to meet SO MANY new artists I had never seen at conventions before who I am lucky enough to still be in touch with now!
I also got to participate in Classic Comics celebrations twice this year with both Free Comic Book Day, and their Halloween Comic Fest where I got to draw lots of free sketches for everyone!
And of course, I was lucky enough to be invited back by PAX Aus with the Popculture Painters to do live painting over PAX weekend. As always it was my favourite event of the year and every year it gets better and better (when we think the year pervious, ‘there's no way it could get better than this!’)
We had people contacting us all in the weeks leading up excitedly asking if we were going to be there again. So many people dropped by excitedly telling us what they voted for that day (and what they'd voted for in the previous years) we had those who won the artwork in the auction drop by to show us, people excitedly running to our tables yelling "CURSE YOUR SUDDEN BUT INEVITABLE BETRAYAL!" in order to receive a Popculture Painters pin, and lots of new people really enjoying what we were doing. A couple of us even filmed the artworks this year and will be putting up time lapses for those who couldn't make the event.
The craziest thing for me was having Playstation representatives stop by regularly over the weekend, taking photos of me and my work, and sharing them online! Just totally nuts!!!
And I also got to experiment a LOT this year with new techniques and products which I’m really excited about using more extensively in 2017.
I need to take the time to thank every single person who supported my work this year (wether you bought artwork, commented on my posts, or just shared my work) and I could not’ve done ANY OF THIS without that support.
THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU!
I hope everyone can look back and reflect upon the good things form 2016 too, and here’s to a great 2017!
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