Hi! How are you?
After nearly 4 months of lockdown I am writing to declare, almost entirely to myself, that I am back to work as of today. Not that I really stopped working, but you know what I mean. This is a tentative declaration as things are still far from ok but, given the situation here in Scotland, I feel like I can now return to my studio responsibly and work more regularly.
My lockdown has been unremarkable in the grand scheme of things and I'm thankful for that. Everyone in my life is safe and all our difficulties are pretty surmountable. I've not done... much, but I'm trying not to give myself a hard time. I reckon I've been a good dad. I'll take that. I also used my exercise quota to get good at rollerblading. That's not a joke.
Working from home started out great for the first couple of months then slowed to a crawl by the end. That's entirely on me because Alex and Beth are THE BEST and gave me loads of time and space. Still, I found working during lockdown difficult and, as every working-from-home-during-lockdown article says, that's ok.
I have a small backlog of jobs to work through (apologies to anyone who's waiting on something) and then I'm good to go on new stuff. What that new stuff is, I'm not sure. THE FUTURE is a lot more uncertain than it was a few months ago and my priority is making a feasible plan to continue earning a living doing what I do.
With that in mind, I hope to diversify my income a little so that I'm not relying on a single source of cash. While I don't want to spread myself thin, a few steady earners would help to settle the nerves. I've got some ideas I'd like to try.
The first, and least concrete, is to fiddle with Patreon. I've made one here. I mention this with the massive asterisk that I understand that the whole creative world is crowdfunding everything right now and I'd be daft to assume that it'll work for me. It's worth exploring, though.
For now, I've no specific goals or content to offer anyone who supports me and I'm making no promises about my output until I properly figure it out so I have zero expectations that anyone'll sign up yet. I'll share more when if/when I'm ready to commit to something. That said, I'd be delighted if you have a look. Can I triple-underline 'no promises'? Ta.
Other than that, I'm really looking forward to making things again. I'm most likely to talk about new stuff on my Instagram and on my Twitter. I'm also looking forward to interacting with non-family members again. That'll be weird.
Hope you're ok btw x