Or well, I’m in the middle of moving. My ancient Blogger blog is dead, and I’ve finally moved this whole site to WordPress. We’re fixing up the sidebars, changing up the portfolio, and generally trying to give it a face lift without actually doing a whole new design in the middle of the rest of the madness.

If you were one of the awesome few reading off my RSS feed, the new feed is here, so pretty please update yourself!

Otherwise, you’ll see a few things changing around and getting spiffed up over the next week or so, but feel free to point out if anything isn’t working for you!

Also, I’m doing a Big Giant Sale over at Antemortem Arts in order to get plane tickets to my 72-year-old mother’s wedding. This includes my Be a Cartoon service, so if you’ve been wanting a cartoon (or for me to draw your Monster for you), please take a moment to check it out!

Also, please enjoy this photo of my cat, Pod, who tucked himself into my bed for a nap and then got annoyed when I woke him up with the camera.

One of the things I’ve been doing lately is trying to change my relationship with money — feeling like there’s plenty of it, like I’m really allowed to have some, and like I have enough to share. I’ve also been trying to shift my professional focus from design to art and illustration, to let my creative side feel like it has plenty and let go of the ingrained image of the starving artist.

As of yesterday, I’m doing two things:

1. I’m posting some kind of art every day at Antemortem Arts, whether it’s a sketch or a finished painting, for sale or sold, unsaleable or just something I want to keep around for myself.
2. I’m donating 10% (of the gross, rounded up to the nearest dollar) of all my art and Etsy sales to charity.

I’m starting with Kiva, and at the end of May I’ll give them a lump donation of everything I’ve saved up for April and May. Then I’ll change to a new charity — probably the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I’ll rotate every month or two so that I can give to the causes that call to me, that always seem so endless when trying to choose just one.

So, what do you think? Would it feel better to you, as a supporter of the arts, to know a part of your money was going directly to another good cause?

My little Draw Your Monster sale was a success! I’ve got 3 Monsters in the queue, two of which are already sketched up and waiting refinement. Once they’re done, after the coloring book comes out, I might revisit the idea, so if you were waiting to see how things turned out you’ll have a chance.

I also got some great advice today from Naomi at Ittybiz about my Be a Cartoon sales page, and have added a bunch of new people to my Cartoon portfolio page, so check it out! I’m thinking of doing a Cartoon sale for Mother’s Day — maybe including some free greeting cards or something, what do you all think?

March was a hard month for a lot of us, but it seems like (once those tax payment checks clear, anyway) April is starting to look up. The sunshine, despite all my efforts to keep it out of the apartment, is starting to cheer me up and bring in some much-needed energy. Not to mention secret burblings of site updates, possible joint offerings with other people, and maybe even something teleclass-ish.

How’s it going for all of you?

Everyone has Monsters.

They’re those voices in your head that whisper discouragement and negativity, those stucknesses and blocks and fears that keep us from moving forward. I’ve got a few of my own, and I bet you do, too.

The little guy on the left there is one of my Monsters — he just wants to be friends, but his big scary teeth can get in the way of safe snuggling. Still, having seen him out in the light, I know he doesn’t really mean any harm.

The brilliant Havi Brooks has an awesome-looking new product in the works: The Monster Manual and Coloring Book*. And I really, really want it! But it’s tax time and money is tight, so I’m doing a limited-edition offering to help fund my own Monster adventures:

Draw Your Monster

We’ve all got our Monsters, real and imaginary. Do you have lurking fears that you’d like to bring out into the light? Is your dog sometimes a wicked creature? Do you just really want a cartoon of a cute monster?

I’ve got you covered!

For $59, you, too, can have your very own Monster — I’ll even mail you the original, or a high-quality print if we end up going digital.

What I’ll need to get started:

• A snail mail address for your original monster to be mailed to you.
• To talk about your Monster! If you’ve already got a vision of your Monster, great! If not, we can email back & forth until we have a clear idea of your Monster’s form. Questions to start with:
  • Fuzzy? Lizardy? Bat-winged? Multi-eyed? Insectoid? Tentacley? Fog? Wall? Creeping Black Void?
  • Is your Monster growling, hiding, making puppy eyes? Sheltering, blocking, posing nonchalantly?
  • Color preferences?
• Generally speaking, I will decide the medium (ie, pen and ink, watercolor, whatever) based on the special needs of your Monster.

I’ve temporarily reopened commissions for these — if you’d like one, just buy my Be a Cartoon package and let me know you want a Monster instead.

*Not an affiliate link so there nyeah.