July Update

Warning: this is going to be a long post.

I’ve been sort of dreading and avoiding writing this post. If you’re a regular follower you’ve maybe noticed a lot of radio silence on my end after I posted about doing a drawing course and promising weekly updates about that.

I still have my course to finish. I ran out of room in my sketch book and got distracted by other things, but I would really like to get back into it seeing as I did pay for it and I do believe this drawing course could do nothing but help improve my artwork. That being said, I’m stepping back from being a “content creator” and actively selling my art.

I am still an artist. This is the part I’ve been struggling with. I saw a post yesterday by an artist on Instagram that actually made me feel so much better. I think it was a re-post, but I’m not sure who shared it originally so I’m not giving them credit. I saw the post by @bserway and it is the following:

I am still an artist, but I’ll be stepping back a bit as “Artist” as my career choice. In the end, this was a very difficult decision that I know was also the right decision. My family and I can’t live off the “income” I make off my art. I am proud to say this is the first time I haven’t made money at it in almost 10 years. I used to at least break even or make enough to support myself to continue to create art. But more and more I am not buying new supplies because I can’t afford it. I sunk too much money (not an extraordinary amount but more than I feel comfortable with) into stock and trying my hand at selling in a brick-n-mortar. Not only was I not able to support myself but I lost money. I hold no fault to the store owner at all, Nikita has done so much for all of the Artisans, and I know she’s done a lot to try to get my bookmarks to move. It’s a very niche thing to sell and I of all people know how difficult they can be! They are still at So Divine Artisan Boutique until the end of July if you’d like to snag one! You can check them out in person if you’re local or head over to So Divine Online and Nikita will ship it to you! You can also get them as a freebie in the super fun Blind Date With a Book that she’s doing.

I think I will still sell my art from time-to-time. I will likely still do the Craft Fair in the fall, and if you’re interested in a commission send me a message and I will let you know if I’m available to do it or not. I will ALWAYS be available to make the Classic Horror Crew bookmark. I will not be putting a lot of effort into advertising on Facebook or Instagram. Whether I keep my bookmarks in my Square shop or not, I haven’t yet decided. I’m kind of thinking I probably will because I’ll need that set up to do the Craft Fair anyway, but we’ll see. It depends on how much effort it is to maintain. At the moment it is more effort with the stock being shared in Nikita’s shop but after that I think it should be pretty easy to manage. You may get an occasional update on Instagram/Facebook from me, but I won’t be putting in the effort to make sure I post every week. When I do get back to my course I may share my progress on my Instagram stories, but it won’t be weekly updates or posts about it.

I’m sorry for the inconvenience and/or disappointment that this may cause anyone. I did not come to this decision lightly, but I know in my heart this was the right decision for myself and my family.

So what will I be doing instead? I’m so glad you asked. I’ll be focusing my efforts back onto the career I dreamed of since I was 5 years old; dog training. I became a certified Master Dog Trainer when I was 20 but I didn’t do it for very long. I loved dogs and dreamed of being a dog trainer since I was a little kid and first trained our cat to sit (and concluded dogs are less frustrating to train). In high school my career counselor told me to go to Emily Carr Art Institute and I thought that sounded so ridiculous because I knew my dream was to train dogs. Even when I was a teenager too cool for anything I was still a geek for dogs. I still ditched my friends to hang out with my dog. After I went to school and came back to Fort St. James I set up my dog training business and was so excited. The disappointment hit hard when I realized I wasn’t training dogs; I was training people. I was never a people person, especially back then. Half of the reason I wanted to train dogs was because I didn’t want to work with people. Realizing that in order to train dogs I had to train people was really hard for me. I know it seems like something so obvious, but I honestly had never even considered it. I got frustrated dealing with people who wouldn’t listen to me, who’d argue with me, who’d cancel and reschedule over and over again, who wouldn’t pay me in full, and the dogs were always way easier to train than their people. I gave up training and started focusing on selling my art. Giving up dog training broke my heart, but like being an artist just because I wasn’t professionally training didn’t mean I stopped being a dog trainer. It was still so deeply a part of who I am, no matter how hard I tried to shove it down.

I trained my own dogs, I gave advice to friends and family, but otherwise I tried really hard to push down that part of myself because it was too painful to think about how I “failed”. Then I met Winston. I didn’t mean to start dog walking. I just sort of happened upon a post by someone looking for a dog walker. I did dabble in dog walking a bit when I was early in my pregnancy with my first daughter and I really enjoyed doing it but stopped when my pregnancy made it too difficult. It happened that at the time my husband was home a lot because he’d just quit his job to start a new career. I started walking Winston in the fall and did it throughout most of the winter and spring. Being able to work with the dog on my own without the owner was absolutely so much fun. Having the excuse to get out 5 days a week for an hour long walk got me in pretty decent physical shape. Getting paid for it was nice too! Winston is a big dog spending long hours waiting for his owner to come home so I knew he needed a REALLY good walk during our hour. I started exploring the area and fell in love with my home all over again too. I started hiking in the winter and we had a blast on the trails behind the graveyard before they were cut down this year.

One day I was on Facebook and I just got so sick of seeing posts on the community page EVERY DAY about dog problems in this town. Dogs at large, dogs biting people, dogs attacking other dogs, chasing cars, eating garbage, barking, you name it it’s a problem here. I also needed a way to get Winston more exposure to other dogs in a controlled environment so that I could work on his dog reactivity and have more peaceful walks (to clarify; dog reactivity does NOT equal aggression). So I made a post on the community group and asked if anyone would like to come train together (but at a distance and with dogs on leash) in the park with me and Winston. The response was overwhelming, I had mostly super positive feedback and interest and one guy who thought it was a recipe for disaster.

I’ve heard so many comments from people who’ve said they won’t walk their dogs a certain way or won’t walk their dogs at all because of dogs at large (which is the biggest problem here). I realized that while we can’t control what other people do with their dogs and how they keep them, we can teach our dogs to handle any situation where a dog at large may approach them. Keeping our dogs locked away was the opposite of a solution. They need to learn basic obedience around that big of a distraction. I knew in my gut that this would be just one piece (but a vital piece) to the puzzle of finding solutions. People were a bit unsure at first, I didn’t get a lot of people showing up to train in the park but it was enough to keep me trying. Most of the people were those who are already out there training their dogs, but slowly I started getting other people asking about it and showing interest, but it’s taken some time to teach enough people what it is about, I think.

I didn’t want to clog up the community group with my dog training posts so I made my own group called Fort St. James Dog Owners and I wrote a bunch of articles about everything I could think of and filled the group with it. I then started to spread the word about it and invite people to the group. In just a few days I went from 0 to over 100 members. I expected to be just one person talking to myself in an empty group and today it has people who post regularly, comment often and ask questions. I see people planning their own get-togethers in a safe way and I’m so proud of that.

About a month ago I injured my foot while hiking with my husband and my dog Zelda. It was our first hike together in YEARS and we had so much fun. I tripped over all kinds of rocks on that trail and at one point I felt a tweak and thought “ouch that might hurt tomorrow”. I forgot about it and kept training in the park and kept walking Winston around the loop for a whole week before it started to swell up. It progressively got worse. I went to the clinic and had it looked at by a Nurse Practitioner who sent me for x-rays. The x-rays showed nothing abnormal and I was told to rest and ice it.

It was about this time I realized I needed to get back into dog training. Not only did I rekindle my love for it but I also realized I could be making way more money at training dogs than I make at selling my art. Way more. At the end of the day it’s not about the money; I got back into this because I love it and I want to help people. I am tired of people getting mad about the dogs and I want to teach people we can train our dogs to be calm, happy, healthy minded individuals that we can take out in public in a way that is respectful to our neighbors and fellow community members. The money certainly helps during uncertain times though. My mindset is different this time and I’ve had more experience in life and with people that at this point in my life the idea of teaching people doesn’t sound so awful. I also have found that people are different now than they were 16 years ago. People are more open to training their dogs. People want help with their dogs. My career choice doesn’t sound so cooky that the career counselor would try to get me to choose art school instead (which just seems so laughable to me in hindsight). I can also charge a lot more now than I could back then and it still feels weird. My prices are extremely reasonable compared to other dog trainers in the surrounding areas and yet I feel like I’m charging too much because it’s way more than I charged when I was 20 years old. I’ve also designed my schedule, contract and how I structure my training sessions in a way that supports me better than I did back then.

Last week I went back to the clinic and had a doctor examine my foot, as it hadn’t gotten any better. She ordered the x-rays again, an MRI and an ultrasound. I’m waiting for those appointments now. One of my training clients generously gave me a support boot for my foot. It’s exhausting and like dragging around dead weight but has definitely made a difference on my foot healing. It’s way less swollen by the end of the day.

I’ve had a few training sessions with people now and it just makes my whole day. When I walk away from doing a craft fair or market my attitude is usually “yeah it was fun, but I’m exhausted”. I am pumped after doing a training session. It’s so exciting to see a dog learning and to see how happy it makes the owner, and I especially love seeing that owner and dog connecting and working together. It’s something so magical and the owners feel that too because I get endless thank yous and you can see the joy on their faces when their dog finally does what they are asking from them.

It’s also been a really tough fire season for BC, record breaking bad. We’ve had fires surrounding us and we have been locked inside because of all the smoke. We’ve had a few clear days but as I sit outside and write this I can see and smell the smoke growing thicker and today is worse again. Still clear enough we can continue to enjoy outside for a bit. We’re fortunate that the fires around us have been managed by firefighting teams and are now getting under control. A lot of people have not been so lucky. It has been stressful to watch the BC Wildfire Service app show 4 fires “near me” pop up to 9 in just a day and then 14 by two days later. I’ve had to consider what we need to have ready in a go-bag just in case, and how we’ll manage to fit everyone and everything we need into our car. The car we have now is smaller than we had in 2018 during the last fire season we evacuated from (and we had less family members then too). It’s been stressful. There’s a lot of things that have been stressful this year (and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that…). Getting back into dog training has felt really right to do.

Just like I have always been a dog trainer since I was 5 years old and trained the cat to sit; I will always be an artist too.

I’m Ready to Say Goodbye to META

I know I’ve complained about this so many times before… but I really hate META. For a company so large it’s impossible to get any sort of tech support (probably because they’re aware of how absolutely broken it is and they just don’t care). I’ve been having all kinds of issues trying to connect my Square shop to my Facebook and Instagram. Putting a shop on my Facebook page has been an on-going issue. I finally thought I got it to work and was so excited but nope, it’s not quite how it should be. For one, it’s not showing up on my Instagram. When I go into META Business Suit it tells me there’s an error connecting it to Instagram. When I dig deeper it tells me my email address is unverified. Okay… so I go into the Instagram settings and go to see what I need to do to verify my email and see a little green check next to it that says “verified!”. So I give up on that dream because who knows what the actual issue is.

Next, I got an e-mail from Square saying it couldn’t connect some of my listings to META because it goes against META’s standards. What? How? What standards does it go against? Nowhere does it explain this so that I can rectify it. Just a hard “not today, Buddy!“.

This is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my META frustrations. I gave up on Facebook a long time ago. I deactivated my page for years and then recently decided to bring it back. I felt like I wasn’t connecting to my local audience very well and that is where most of my local followers can be found. You can’t know anything happening in this town unless you’re on Facebook. I spent a month posting 6 days a week on there and do you know what my highest “likes” on any post was? Four. It was always the same people who are family and close friends. I love their on-going support, of course! Family and friends were my fans and supported my artwork for years before I found fans (and even collectors) outside of my personal circle. I’m so ready to just delete all of Facebook from my life, though. I hate how toxic everyone is on there. I hate how Facebook censors everything. I don’t use the app I only ever use a browser and run in to all kinds of issues when I try to use it on my phone. I despise the desktop version it’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen (do they think all Facebook users who are on a desktop are 70 years old? Why is everything so big!). I hate how if you link all your accounts you end up with 3 copies of the same notifications and even after you view, reply etc. to one you still have to acknowledge the other copies for them to go away. Don’t even get me started on the Instagram flaws. Reels? I ain’t got time for that. I won’t go further but I will say Meta Business is the most convoluted bullshit I’ve ever had to deal with.

I was honestly thisclose to deleting it all the morning after thinking about it. Why support a company I absolutely hate? Because it’s where you guys all are. My followers. My fans. My collectors. I love you guys dearly. You encourage me to keep going. You help support me so that I can financially keep going. You help with ideas and you help me spread the word about my art. I wouldn’t be making sales without you guys. But wait, am I making sales? Not exactly. I’m currently making about one sale a month and that is usually not even enough to buy a loaf of bread these days. I’m not reaching new people, I’m barely reaching those who actively follow me now. Like I said, I adore my collectors and the people who keep on supporting me. But it’s a handful of people. I certainly can’t expect them to fully support me financially. I can’t expect to keep selling to the same people all the time. I love seeing collections of my bookmarks and other art so large that it’s more art of mine than I own myself. It warms my heart so much that there are some people out there who love my art so much, but I need to find new collectors too.

I don’t know what the solution is. I’ve considered finding a new platform but I love that Instagram is image-based. I love the old Instagram, the one I started with. The one that focused on connecting people to friends and family; connecting communities. I really miss my Bookstagram community. I feel I am partially to blame for not keeping up activity. I no longer do challenges and I don’t read fast enough to do more than one post a month. But even so, when I look around I just don’t see the same community I use to. I don’t see anyone I want to see in my newsfeed anymore. I have to actively go to their profile to like their posts, and then while I’m doing that I see ads. Since when do we see ads on profiles?! META has gotten beyond greedy. They just care about money and collecting data. That’s all META is about is our data. META isn’t here to connect us it’s here to farm our information out to companies. I’m not here to drag you down the rabbit hole of all the bad this company does, but rather I’m trying to take a step back and ask myself do I want to associate with a company that goes against my morals, is frustrating to use, and doesn’t even connect me with my audience anymore? Is it worth it? That’s the question.

I don’t know what the answer is but deleting it all is more and more appealing every day.

I know I’m not the only artist (or the only person in general) who feels this way. Everyone I talk to about how much I hate using Facebook (and these days Instagram too) agree and they feel the same way. They also have a myriad of problems when trying to use either platform. Problems that never get fixed. I sent a report to META about my Facebook and Instagram problems but had very little hope of them actually replying (never mind actually helping) seeing as the last report I sent them has sat unanswered since 2019.

I ran a few polls on my Instagram stories to see what my followers thought. The interesting thing is seeing how many people (and who) viewed my stories without voting anything (come on guys, it takes 2 seconds to read and then click on a button). This alone is a big part of my problem. Everyone is just doing the endless “Zombie Scroll” and nobody seems to care to actually engage with content creators anymore. We’ve become endless channels you just flip through. One poll I asked if people would use Patreon for my content. As I look at it this poll has ran for 19 hours with 72 views and 6 votes. Out of 72 people who saw my story only 6 took a moment to engage with it. The results have hovered around and finished at 50/50. I had Patreon back in 2018/2019 and ended up sort of just forgetting about it because I was essentially just talking to myself (which is how I sometimes feel with this blog). I resurrected my old Patreon account and dug through it a bit. I’m not entirely happy with the way it’s run now either; they have changed a lot and it seems to be a big money grab now (just like everything else). So I made another poll and asked if people would be interested in an e-mail subscription if I wasn’t on IG and FB. The results were (surprisingly) a very high yes. When I last looked (13 hours into the poll) 45 people had seen it. In the end there were five yes votes and three no votes. The thing with e-mail subscriptions, however, is they very easily get lost in the inbox/junkbox and are hardly looked at. After sleeping on it I got up this morning and asked if people just want me to go back to Etsy and stay on Insta. It ran for 24 hours like the other two polls and the results were 5 votes for yes and 3 votes for “I’ll follow you where ever you go” (those were my handful of devout collectors). Those people who voted for me to suck it up and just stick with Etsy and Instagram clearly don’t understand the struggle behind using these platforms. Either they’re unaware of it or they just don’t care and want whatever is most convenient for themselves. I am not trying to be bitter or rude, but I feel like if people really understood how frustrating these platforms are they wouldn’t even think of asking me to keep at it.

Etsy keeps jacking up their fees. It costs me 25 cents (Canadian) to post one listing. Each time an item sells I pay that again. So if I list 1 bookmark print with 10 copies I’m paying $2.50 CAD on the whole listing to sell PLUS the extra fees they throw in. I can’t even pinpoint what those fees are because they’re based on percentages off the sale and there’s always something new. When I was looking through my records on Etsy there was a whole page of one cent fees. One cent doesn’t seem like a lot but it adds up over time. The labels put on these fees sounded made up and often didn’t show consistently on all sales so it really does feel like they’re just pulling fees out their butts. I like Square because I am charged a percentage per sale instead of per listing. I don’t have to invest anything in order to just list my products which is nice because sometimes I change my mind and remove listings. Sometimes listings don’t sell very well and so I remove them and keep them for giveaways etc. I hate paying for something to just sit there that isn’t successful.

The handful of collectors who continuously support me have DM’d me to tell me they’ll follow me where ever I go. This is the kind of connection I’m looking for with my audience. I want you guys to be addicted to my art (laughs). I want to know you’re here for it. That it’s not just another image flashing into your brain as you endlessly scroll. I want it to be something that makes you stop and think. Take a moment to actually truly connect with something. Nobody really does that anymore. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t very often. When I’m logged into my art account is where I connect the most, though. I have FOUR Instagram accounts and I use each one for different things. When I’m logged into my art account the only thing I’m seeing in my feed is art accounts. I’ve worked hard to keep it this way. I don’t look at reels from this account (it always ends up back to useless memes, stupid dances and garbage opinions when you randomly flick through reels) I try to just engage with only artist accounts. I follow a few feature accounts and if i see something that resonates with me I make an effort to go to the original artists page to give them some love instead of the feature page. You literally have to work to keep your account and feed from being invaded with random crap you didn’t ask to see.

I’m tired of using these platforms that eat up my time and don’t actually make me feel any more relaxed when I use them. If anything they make me feel more anxious because I’m focusing on things like how many people follow my account, see my posts and it’s never balanced numbers. I’m not making connections I’m just another piece of media flashing on your eyeballs as you keep scrolling.

This post is already so long and feels like one big ramble. It’s a topic I’ve written about and deleted many times because in the end it feels like this machine is too big to fight without being devoured whole. But I think I’ll actually post this one this time. The handful of people who read it will probably enjoy it still. I try not to ramble too much when I write these and I’ve gone through and re-written a lot of this post already. But I think it’s been important for me to not only share how I’m feeling about it with you guys but also to just work through those feelings by writing about it. While I don’t think it’s necessary to explain myself I do want to put it out there for you to understand how difficult it’s been for me and when I ask you questions about what you’d prefer and where you’d like to see my content the most I’m not being wishy-washy I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it to keep struggling against the machine.

I think what I’ve concluded is that I want to have better connections with a wider audience and I also want to have more time with my feet firmly planted in the here and now. I want to spend less time on my phone and more time creating meaningful things. Artwork that people respond to. Artwork that makes you stop and think.

I told my husband I was just about ready to give up on selling my art. I end up focusing so much of my time on that I no longer have time to create the art. I feel like I do all this work with very little reward (sales). So if I just stop focusing on selling it maybe I can get back to just doing it. I started doing art when I was a child because I loved it. I loved seeing what I’d create because when I sat down with pencil to paper I rarely knew what the result would be. When I was in my late teens/early twenties I realized how important creating art was for my mental health. That became my sole purpose for creating. I could never quit creating art, it’s deeply a part of who I am. So if I quit selling it what do I do with all this art I make? So then I’m back to the question of how to reach the most people to sell all this art I’ll be making.

I’m starting to run myself in circles and this post is getting really long. I’m not leaving Facebook or Instagram yet but you should expect some changes to happen at some point. Whether that means leaving the META platforms or changing the way I use them. Hopefully the end result is more time for creating artwork for you guys and most of all for myself.

“The ground beneath our feet is spinning at 1,000 miles an hour and the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at 67,000 miles an hour, and I can feel it. We’re falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go… that’s who I am.”

– the 9th Doctor/Doctor Who

So Long, Etsy

I’ve decided to close my Etsy shop.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Shara Walsh (@slsartistry)

When I made the announcement on Instagram that I’m closing my shop Sept 1st I was met with a few people asking if I’d still be selling my art through something else or privately etc. I didn’t have anyone asking me why I was closing my Etsy shop. It’s as if everyone just already knows. If you guess the exuberant fees then congratulations, you’re a winner! For some Etsy sellers the jack up in fees probably doesn’t mean a whole lot. But for all of us little guys it’s just one more thing. The increase in fees also came with the Instagram release of reels and their heavy push for users to make them. My average stagnant post reaches 8-30 people (depending on the day, time, content and if I share it to my stories or not). I created one really crappy reel (it was suppose to be of me drawing and you couldn’t even see what I was doing) and it reached HUNDREDS of people. I’m a stay at home mom of a 5 year old and an 8 month old. I don’t have time to dedicate to making videos. I just don’t. Instagram was my niche where I found my people. I was connected with collectors on a scale I’d never had before. All of a sudden that avenue to connect to my people was being barricaded. I had less traffic being driven to my shop, less sales after a hiatus to have my baby to begin with, and now I was having to pay more fees while I was making less money.

I looked into it and there is an Etsy program that will share your shop more often on ads and if it drives traffic to your shop and they make purchases then Etsy will take a large chunk of that sale just for helping drive the traffic there. I’m sorry, but isn’t that sort of the whole point of Etsy? To connect collectors to artists? Why would I pay extra for it? They suck you in with the “it only costs 20 cents!” shenanigans but then it turns out that is PER item/listing sold. On top of that they pile on the fees for processing etc. Meanwhile I’m doing 99% of the work in this. I checked my insights, most of my traffic was being driven there through Instagram and of the people who found my shop through Etsy 0% bought anything. ZERO. Etsy was just a place to hang my shops hat and they handle processing the money, which at the end of the day is the biggest part they play.

Which brings me to… how am I going to sell my art? Well, a lot simpler and a little old school but it’s much more personal! You’ll be talking with me the whole time. I will be the one handling all aspects of the sales. My shipping prices are going to go up but there will be some options to choose from and for most people tracking will be available. I could never do multiple shipping profiles that were best suited for my shipping needs on Etsy. I had to either let them pick one for me or create a single profile and just use that (which is what I did). It meant my shipping prices were incredibly low, but I couldn’t choose different options if I wanted to send something with tracking or insurance. You can read more about my shipping options and if you have any questions please feel free to shoot me a message at slsartistryinfo(at)gmail(dot)com.

I will be able to accept PayPal from everyone, E-transfer from Canadians and cash from in-person sales. Read more about how I accept payment.

If this makes buying my art too difficult for you then I’m sorry! I hope that for the most part people will find this to be a more enjoyable experience. You will know exactly where your money is going, who it is supporting and you get to chat one-on-one with the person who made what you’re buying! You will also find that there will be more available in my shop than currently. I have a bunch of bookmarks that I never re-listed (usually because it wasn’t worth the fee for 1 or 2 of them) so you’ll see a limited number of some old favorites available.

This is only a temporary solution until I feel I can afford to purchase what I need to set up my own shop on my website. But that won’t happen unless I still have your support now! Please if you see something I list in my shanty shop that you want then give me a shout! Let me know you want it and I will make it happen.

From now until September 1st when you spend $10 or more you can get 20% off in my Etsy shop with the code FINAL. Come Sept 1st the whole shop will be closed. I am hoping I’ll have listings ready on my website by then, but as always I can’t make any time guarantees. This is the goal, at least.

Right now, I’m in the process of retaking all of my stock photos and creating a listing on my website. The photos alone take forever to take and edit, so please be patient if it takes me longer than projected! While I’m doing all this I’m also making snacks and meals, cleaning up, making more snacks, cleaning up more, putting baby down for naps, going to groups and play dates and all the other fun stay at home parent things. My oldest is going to Kindergarten next month. I’m hoping that will help give me a bit more time to spend on my art projects. Stay tuned by subscribing to my blog or following me on Instagram (@slsartistry).

Better Late Than Never

Oh boy, over 6 months since my last blog post. Sorry about that, guys! It’s not as if I’ve been doing nothing. I’ve been working steadily on the bookmarks (other than a bit of a break at Christmas). I’ve been revamping my website and revamping my studio. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes and I try to share as much as I can but let’s be honest; it’s hard to share everything on social media and still be productive.

I’m up to 119 bookmarks created since 2019. This is exciting and I’m trying to challenge myself to make that number 222 by 2022.

I have a bit of sad news to deliver. I know a lot of people started following me because of my Goosebumps bookmarks, and I had promised more hand painted ones as well as to sell more prints… but I have since changed my mind. I’ve decided to discontinue this series. I have two main reasons for this: I do not like copying another artists work for profit (as much as I intended for them to be Fan Art, the issues with this are obvious); and I prefer to create my own artwork in my own style and design. I enjoy crafting an image based on stories I’ve read because I can put pieces together and make something unique. I had a ton of fun creating the Goosebumps bookmarks. I learned so much about colour and I LOVED working with all those brights and creating creepy monsters. I enjoyed the nostalgia and even did a buddy read with a friend for a few of them. I still have a bunch of prints in my Etsy shop; now is your chance to grab one if you’ve had it sitting in your cart for a while. Once all the Goosebumps prints are sold I will be done with them. There will be no restocks.

I do have TWO hand painted Goosebumps bookmarks left. They are Night of the Living Dummy I and II set featuring Slappy the ventriloquist dummy. I literally HATE ventriloquist dummies. I’ve never read these books because I’ve had this aversion to these creepy dolls since I was a kid. I had zero intentions of drawing him until I had it requested several times. They sat in my Etsy shop for 4 months and expired. I put them in my flash 50% off sale and they still sat there. So I decided to see if I can give them away! See my original post on @slsartistry and @the.eyes.of.the.dragon for entry details. I am running the giveaway across both of my accounts and there will be two winners. The first winner will get the hand painted Slappy set and the second winner will get a pair of the Slappy prints. I need a bunch more followers for this giveaway to happen so please share across Instagram!

The last two bookmarks I’ve made have been ones for myself. It’s been a while since I’ve really done this, and I had never actually made myself a bookmark before. First I made one based on the Stephen King book The Eyes of the Dragon (you can view it and others in my shiny new Stephen King portfolio) and the second one is of my dog Zelda with my favorite book (Christine by SK). This was a good example of taking a reference and changing it to fit my ideas. The original photo Zelda was resting her chin on my hardcover copy of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grardy Hendrix. I have no doubt this is a great book and I really like the cover but I haven’t read it yet. If it turns out it’s not one of my favorite books I might not want it painted on my lovely bookmark forever. So I decided to put my favorite book in it’s place. I don’t particularly like the Viking cover I own and a quick google search told me I wasn’t into a lot of the other covers either. Once I started planning I also realized I didn’t want to put any script on it. I’m not that good at it, my past experiences have taught me I always regret writing out anything by hand in my art and let’s face it; 80% of the cover on King books is usually just his name. I liked the idea of the skull in the blood splatter under the car and I really wanted to just focus on the car rather than the title (or his name). I decided it didn’t matter anyway, I knew what book it was and I liked it without the title so that’s how it stayed. I feel I made the right call. This is my new favorite bookmark – I mean, it’s of my favorite dog with my favorite book so how could it not be!?

Which brings me to a new announcement. I will be adding Custom Pet Portrait Bookmarks to my Etsy shop soon. I will make an official announcement once it’s published (it will be in the next couple of days at least). If you have wanted a pet portrait from me but the large price tag has made you wait then maybe this is an option for you? If you love your pet and love books maybe this is also something right up your alley! I love drawing pet portraits and I had a blast experimenting with this one for myself. I learned some new techniques that I am eager to try out again! Feel free to message me on Instagram or email me if you would like to set up a commission of this type of bookmark (or you can wait until the listing is added, either way I will want to talk to you about it to make sure I best capture your pet).

Giveaways Galore!

Hey Friendly Followers! I’ve been super quiet on Facebook and here lately so I thought it was about time I check in! Just because I’m quiet certainly doesn’t mean I’m not busy. I’m more active on Instagram, so of course I encourage all of my followers to find me there @slsartistry and give me a follow if you want the most current updates on what’s happening with sLs Artistry.

I just finished a giveaway on Instagram that was hosted through both of my public accounts (@the.eyes.of.the.dragon for book related posts! Mostly Stephen King/horror related). It was a really fun giveaway to host! I posted all of the Stephen King bookmarks I’ve made so far with corresponding letters so that everyone could easily vote for their favorite SK design. I asked that everyone vote for their top 1-3 designs. You could earn entries by tagging, sharing and voting. You could also earn double entries by entering on both of my accounts. It was a really quick giveaway that ran over the weekend. 30 people participated with 226 entries! I was able to collect information based on which designs were most popular that is really helpful for me to know which designs to spend money to reproduce. There were 3 winners of the draw, and those winners could choose one of the top 3 winning designs to receive a free bookmark print of that design. I ended up actually ordering the top 4 designs, but I haven’t let anyone know which one placed 4th (except my dad of course, he’s my #1 fan!).

With current COVID conditions the snail mail is slower than a snail. What’s slower than a snail? Molasses? Sloths? Whatever it is, it’s slow. It’s going to take up to 10 days for me to get my prints (I use to receive them in 3 days) and then I have to ship out the winners bookmarks. I am so glad everyone is really patient and understanding about it! It’s a long time to wait for one little bookmark! If you want one of these rad bookmarks when they come in just give me a shout! They are $3 CAD ea (+ shipping) and are 2×6″.

Meanwhile, on Facebook, I’ve had small giveaway happening for FIVE WEEKS now. The conditions are that the draw will happen when I reach 300 followers, and to enter you must tag friends in the comments, share and of course, follow my Facebook Page. We’ve literally been waiting for THREE more people for 4 weeks. At one point I joked to my husband that I can’t even bribe people to follow me on Facebook. All fun jokes of course, I hold zero hard feelings about it. Facebook isn’t my platform of choice, so I know I’m not going to get as many followers as where I’m most active (Instagram). I know that not having any friends on my personal Facebook account means it’s more difficult for me to share my giveaways and things like that with the people who would want to know! As I write this I received a notification that the 300th person has liked my page! I’m about to pick that winner and announce it on Facebook.

I’m use to multi-tasking at this point. That’s the Mom Life! When I was JUST at the final stages of ordering my bookmark prints my kid ran to the bathroom and used the toilet on her own for the first time. I had to drop what I was doing and go congratulate her on this big milestone. There’s lots of little moments too, of course. Lots of times when I get 5 minutes into a project and have to pause to help my daughter with something, or get her a snack (oh the endless snacks). This makes watercolour very difficult to do. I thank everyone for their patience with how long it takes me to produce another round of bookmarks or another piece in my new series. I get the most work done usually between 9pm – 12am. Of course, this is also when I like to sleep. I am working on another round of bookmarks right now but I’ve also been going to bed early this week so it’s taking forever to finish them. Once they are done I’m going to have a really fun announcement to go with them, so keep an eye out for that!

One project that has been taking up a lot of my downtime is revamping my website. If you cruise around you may find it’s a bit of a labyrinth of links and not everything works or looks right. I apologize for this. I’m trying to do as much of it as I can “behind the scenes” so that it doesn’t disrupt your browsing too much but it’s hard to integrate old with the new without having some kinks to work out. I hope to have this completed about the same time I make my big announcement with the next round of bookmarks.

My commissions are still open. I may not actively advertise, but I am keeping them open all year this year. I’m also focusing on bookmarks a lot this year, and less galleries (due to COVID). I understand 2020 has been hard on everyone and I’d like to keep offering small, affordable original works of art that are accessible by everyone.

Stay safe, everyone! Keep washing your hands often and looking out for others… etc.