I spent my weekend resting (and coughing) but I finally got some time off. It was a good break.
How did you spend your weekend?
This lettering series has been rather exciting and exhausting but overall – FUN! I did get a lot of new ideas to incorporate in my own work as well.
Why work on personal projects?
You see, when you work on personal projects, you are doing it for fun and getting better at what you do is an added bonus! It’s true!
When I started my handlettering project last January, my only goal is to finish the year doing more handlettering projects. I may have not done it daily like I intended too but I was able to do more projects than I had predicted. My style has gotten better and I liked what I was doing.
I did more of it – practised on different mediums and eventually discover my love for drawing letters in pencil. So that’s what I did. I drew letters, words, quotes and more! Eventually, someone took notice! When you do something consistently, you will get noticed.
This project landed me 2 major jobs this year – one on children’s toys (coloring books in particular) and a collection on paper crafting supplies! Below is a sneak peek of one of the coloring books I did. You’ll get to see more if it in January 2016.
Both of these clients came unexpectedly.
To be perfectly honest, I did lettering when I was suffering from depression. I want to do something else to free my mind from the ugly stuffs running through my head. I knew lettering since I was grade school but I stopped doing it when I got into college so re-uniting with it was the best feeling.
Personal Project is just as important as Client Work
We see a lot of successful artists out there – with agent representations, clients and have an amazing portfolio. But they do personal projects as often as they do client work.
You might be wondering why they do so when they have already established a name for themselves.
When you have reached the point when you start selling products and you are earning money. You might think that’s enough.
WRONG!
For me – personal projects is just as important as client work because:
- It gives me creative flexibility. I can do whatever I want without reservations
- I lean new things from experimenting and I can only do what when I do personal work.
- It keeps your creativity flowing.
And the best part – you will have an amazing new and fresh portfolio to showcase to your clients.
When you stop learning, you stop growing.
To learn better is to create outside the boundaries you’ve set for yourself. That has worked for me so far so I’m leaving that as your take away for today.
If you’re interested in learning more about handlettering – you can get my FREE ebook called Styling the Alphabet. It will definitely help you jumpstart your career in lettering!
Thank you so much for putting this together, Mye! So generous of you. I didn’t manage to keep up with the daily schedule, but have the book now and plan to work on it properly.
You are so very right about making sure to include personal work, even when you’re really busy, because that is how you grow and fully understand what you love. And then putting it out there for people to see means that people who need the work that you love can find you and you can do more of it – virtuous circle.
You can totally tell what a huge difference a daily (or close to daily) project makes, both in growing into a style, finessing technique and also getting work.
that is exactly why Tasha! thank you for the kind words 🙂 xo