Welcome to the Steckley ‘Stack!
Before I start get to the actual artwork, I feel an obligation to share a pile of mental vomit?… pontification?... uh… insight into where I'm coming from with this newsletter hoopla... (it'll get better, I promise!)
Buckle up: a little background on my wiring: The older I get, the more I have a problem with social media. (I know, I know: I’m a hero for taking such a brave stance!) Specifically, how social media fits into my world as a freelance illustrator. You do a piece of art for a client, you deliver that piece, you get paid, you move on, hope they liked it enough to give you more work. That’s what I’m used to. But, modern times call for extra steps (read: social media) in order to survive as a freelancer. My interpretation, the common denominator of those steps is Marketing.
I hate marketing.
My personal take on posting artwork to social media to me always felt ‘braggy’. “Look at me! Look what I did! Praise Praise!” I’d prefer to finish a job and move on. But that ain’t the way of the world no mo’, as myself and other artists are basically on their own to reach potential new clients. I fought it for years. (At worst I’m absolutely a victim of Imposter Syndrome. At best, I always feel like I’m just not quite to the level of being ‘good enough’ to benefit anybody. Though I do believe I have it in me to get there, I’m still a student at all this!) I have all the Instas and Facebooks, but I seriously have to be in a super confident mood to muster up the strength to toot my own horn, and that doesn’t happen as much as I’d like. (Case in point, It took me way too long to convince myself that including those links in the sentence was necessary! I’m hoping there’ll be some humor in the irony!) Often it comes down to putting myself out there when work is slow and I know I need to get back on potential client’s radar.
Well, I’ve swallowed the idea that sharing what I do isn’t as much narcissism as it is necessary. I’ve come to accept that sharing drawings, sketches, thoughts or whatever’s going on in my professional world I can’t imagine anyone would be interested in, is a bit of narcism, but more importantly, a matter of contributing to an artistic society where people maybe DO wanna see what you’re up to, and that indeed, we all do learn from each other. Hopefully I’m right.
The tinge of ‘who am I to assume that what I do in my little corner of the industry would be of any benefit to anyone, artist or not’, will always be there, I’m sure. However, I have to follow a different way of thinking (hopefully a much healthier one), and who knows, maybe what I do and what I’ve learned actually CAN benefit people. The spoonful of sugar to help that medicine go down is the hope that if nothing else, all of this putting-myself-out-there business will be entertaining to a select group, and to me, that makes it more worthwhile.
Also, I need to work on my writing! There’s a reason for that, and when t
Then comes the three words that make me cringe: Like and Subscribe!
Coming up…
Art stuff!
Not just drawings, but the thinking that goes into what I do. Yeah, psychology!
Process nuggets from jobs I think would be interesting to share
Technical crap- wanna talk ink? pen nibs? I’m your guy!
Industry stuff
AI? Oh… I have thoughts.
Flat out creative writing.
What??
That’s right. Brace yourself.
Spoiler alert: This was my true motivation for doing this substack. But don’t let that get out!
All this and more, in this season of the ‘Stack!
I'm right there with you. I pretty much loathe the major social medias and found it did little to promote my art. Plus i hate the privacy invasions of it all. But alas, i too took the jump to Substack to expand my work in different ways as well, plus maybe get material for a few books. But again, i hold my nose when hitting the "submit" button every time.
Well said, E.R.!