Little Notes From January

Happy new year everyone! (…is it still ok to say that even though its the end of January?)

I hope you all had an amazing evening, whatever you were doing. And be honest — how many of you ate grapes under the table?

So, in true me fashion, here’s a little summary of my first month of the year so far:

Dates - 0

Followers on TikTok and Instagram - 4,047

Art blocks - 2

Art jobs - 0

Illness - 1

Shows binged - 3

Food devoured - Infinity

Emotional breakdowns - surprisingly 0

Meanwhile, my feed has been bursting with New Year, New Me messages, healthy-eating articles, and “how to get your life in order” videos. Everyone seems to have that January surge of self-improvement…while I always feel the exact opposite.

Growing up, I spent so much time trying to change myself to fit in. Honestly, I tried every version, from girlie girl to full-blown emo. So now, as an adult, I’m not trying to reinvent myself so much as discover who I actually am. I’m learning to be comfortable in my own skin, in my own company, and brave enough to share my art without that horrible imposter syndrome whispering in my ear.

The main goal for next month is finally updating my portfolio and sending it out into the world. There’s only so long I can keep writing “Art jobs — 0” before it starts to feel a bit personal. Recently, I received some really helpful feedback from an agency about what my portfolio was missing, so the plan is to work my way through it and take you along with me, because us creatives don’t gatekeep.

One thing that did come up (and perhaps this is super obvious and I was simply oblivious) was the importance of including mock-ups. Since I’d love to move into editorial illustration, I’ll be hunting down articles that inspire me and creating the kind of artwork I would have made for them. It’s a simple way to show how you would approach a brief and how your style actually lives on the page.

So, a small but mighty top tip: add mock-ups.

Speak next month where the blog theme will be Valentines related,
Lora x

p.s. Keep an eye on my socials, I’ll be sharing the process of updating my portfolio and tackling mock-up briefs, and hopefully, in the next few months, I’ll finally be able to put at least a 1 next to Art jobs.