New Month, New Beginning

One of my favorite months - October - has passed here in the Northern Hemisphere. The leaves have turned a beautiful cornucopia of warm, fall colors. I'm not looking forward to the long cold months ahead, but it is currently gorgeous outside and the weather has been lovely of late with at least another week or so to come. As we kick off another fall month, I thought I would look back over the last month and showcase the art I posted while reflecting a little on this journey that is life.

October Art in Retrospect

I joined steemit at the recommendation of @jae5086 in September (actually, he pretty much runs the account, I'm just the artist) but October would be the first full month I spend on the platform and there was plenty of personal journey to be had. I thought this "recap" post might help give me some perspective.

I left my job over over 2 decades just a month earlier, at the start of September to make art my full-time interest. I learned quick that marketing is vital no matter how great your creations are. After all, if no one sees it, you can't sell it. I always made art for myself in the past but now, I need to sell it to pay the bills and, like most artists just branching out on their own, I overlooked the "business side" of the business. This is why I have @jae5086 to keep me in check sometimes!

Now let's look back at my journey on steemit through the last month! Click the images for the original post.

Calvin and Hobbes

A month ago, I was new to the platform and was motivated to learn what I could and to make posts. I was posting in various communities and going through basic newbie programs just to keep active and figure things out. This post I accidently posted to the wrong community thinking it was going to my blog. I had a lot to learn!

I do love Calvin and Hobbes though, as do so many others. That's why it is one of my top sellers and I make a ton of them.

Fantasy Maps

Maybe a week later, I got my first trending article, which is still my largest "payout" to date, though not by much. I make a lot of fantasy maps because people always want them so I can be sure that if I keep one in stock, it will eventually sell. I didn't think that would be my first post to trend however, especially since maps are relatively boring compared to my other works.

Golden Fox

Things really started to gain traction when I met @bambuka and was invited to join the 14 Days Diving Program. I made sure to create posts almost daily for a week before I would even apply and it really worked wonders. This, I believe, was my first post at that point.

It was a very challenging piece, as you will learn in more detail if you read the post. I am happy to say I was able to recover this art from near disaster, even though several other smaller pieces were not so lucky.

Drogon (Game of Thrones)

These next two pieces are my most recent posts...my "Halloween" posts. This art of Drogon, a dragon from the HBO series "Game of Thrones", was a favorite of mine that I sold last Christmas. I loved how well the blowtorch charred the wood and I put a ton of time into the details. I was so happy how it came out!

The Joker (Batman)

I created this as a commission for the daughter of a former coworker. It was her birthday and a rather amusing story how it all came about. You may want to read the article for that one. It was a very fun piece of art to create. My only lament was that I didn't record it. This would have made such a wonderful time-lapse video.

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If you like my creations, consider checking out my other social media sites and my Etsy site by clicking the links below. Thanks and have a great day!