Creative Entrepreneurship 2023
A few months ago, after seeing a post by a friend on Instagram, I started researching, applied for (after my friend’s insistance), and was accepted onto a postgraduate course at RGU called Creative Entrepreneurship. I’ve been studying my little socks off for the last couple of months.
To say it’s been really helpful would be an understatement, but I’m not sure exactly how to put into words what it’s done for me in the last couple of months. I feel more equipped and more confident than ever in running my little business, and it’s helped me look at and think about the structure of the business in a completely different, but I would think, even better way.
My last week is this week coming, and I have a lot of reading to get through before my class on Tuesday, where I have to complete a 2 minute pitch in front of the class, so that’s taking up a lot of my time at the minute, but I have managed to get some drawing done, so keep your eyes peeled for that later in the post.
I think because it’s a course for creatives, by creatives, it takes what can be very dry material about business, and makes the people on the course apply it to their own Creative Entrepreneurship. You would think that would be a simple proposition, but not a lot of education content exists like that in the Creative Sector. The provision is definitely better, and is getting better all the time, but when I was at university, there was no discussion about how to make a living using the creative skills you had spent years honing. We were all prepped with the skills to be creative but not how those skills applied to the real world, and how to make money.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I am in no means obsessed with having money, but I have bills to pay like everyone else, and it’s nice to feel like I at least have a framework I can apply to my business and to use it to try to be more successful.
100 sketch ideas to beat artists block
With these new (or maybe not new, maybe dusted off) skills, I finally managed to apply myself to finish the first copy of my new book 100 Sketch Ideas to Beat Artists Block! It’s available for purchase on Amazon, and it contains 100 Sketch Ideas, plus space for you to sketch directly on the page. It’s like a little sketchbook friend you can turn to whenever the dreaded spectre of Artist Block rears its ugly head and you don’t know what to draw.
There are a collection of prompts, some of which are nice and simple, like ‘draw the contents of your pockets’ and ranging to the more bizarre, like ‘draw yourself as a cult leader’. I had a great time coming up with the prompts, and I’m really looking forward to doing some of the prompts and posting them to my social meda (lets face it, we all know I’ll probably do all of them).
I’m really proud, not only at how good the books have turned out, but also at myself for managing to bring together a project that I think I had the original idea for over a year ago. I hope that if you decide to pick up a copy, for whatever reason, you enjoy it and that it helps you on those difficult days when you just quite can’t think of anything to draw.
July Sale
I’ve also decided to put everything that you can find on my online shop on sale for 20% off to try to make some space for some new products in my glamorous product warehouse, which is really just a couple of shelves in a built in wardrobe in my studio.
Absolutely everything on the site is 20% off, except Commissions, and the discount is applied automatically whenever you add anything to your basket.
If you’ve had your eye on something for a while, there has never been a better time than now (or until the end of July if you need to wait until payday, because the sale is on until the 31st of July.
If you’re not interested in purchasing anything, but still want to help out, sharing my site on social media is always very much appreciated, and always comes in very helpful, so feel free to whack it up on your Facebook or your story.
Brideshead Revisited
Picture the scene, It’s a Friday night, and I’m sitting in the middle of my floor, surrounded by half empty McDonalds boxes. The shiny cardboard letters glisten softly in the warm lamp light. You can make out some of the words; ‘Chicken Nuggets, McChicken Sandwich’ wink at you in between half empty fries boxes. In the middle of the apparent explosion of fast food paraphernalia sits me, hunched over my ipad and scribbling intently. If you look closely enough, you can see a few errant fries bob around outside my mouth as I chew my way through them.
You glance up at the TV screen I’m sitting in front of, and you can see a film playing. It’s Brideshead Revisited (the 2008 version, with my faves Ben Whishaw, Matthew Goode and Hayley Atwell) and I am flitting my face between iPad screen and TV Screen watching a film I must have seen 100 times before, easily and sketching furiously.
I know that this might sound like a resounding confirmation as to why I’m still single, and you might not be wrong, but I just wanted to give a bit of background before I shared the process video of the below piece. It’s just a short video (30s) but it shows the sketching, inking and colouring process for the piece. You might find it interested, and if not, you’ll at least have an insight as to how I like to spend my Friday nights.
What I’m Reading
I’m currently reading ‘Start with Why’ by Simon Sinek. It’s on the reading list for my course, and while I might disagree with Sinek on the Gen Z approach to packing in jobs that they don’t think align with their values, it’s been an interesting read none the less.
What I’m listening to
I’ve had Loving in Stereo by Jungle on for the last couple of days, almost on repeat, in preparation for their new album, Volcano, being released next month. It’s an almost perfect summer album, with great hooks and beats that makes you wish you could sack your job off, wear a Hawaiian shirt and a straw hat and sit in the sun drinking white wine, but that might just be me.
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