Oh man, so much has happened this past year. Where do I begin?
Well, firstly, I graduated from college. That was marvelous and terrifying all at once. I thought I was ready to leave the school, and honestly, on my graduation day, I thought, “NO MORE FREAKING PAPERS!” But now…
After I graduated, I went straight to work at Cedar Point for caricatures. I did that all summer and even up through October. I thought I would stay with the caricature company and work with them in various parks after the season. But I realized I wasn’t exactly happy there: true, I got to draw everyday, and there was some flexibility with being myself more so than any other job I worked. However, it wasn’t as rewarding as it used to be. And when I tried to change the situation, it just got worse. Applying for promotion, changing work stations, it didn’t matter, because it didn’t help. Customers became ruder and ruder, the weather became worse and worse, things within the caricatures department and other departments fell apart. Then in September and October, our hours were cut when the manager promised huge benefits and didn’t deliver. So I left, and I don’t plan on going back.
I moved back home and picked up two part-time jobs: one working at Subway and the other working at customer service in the mall. And I thought vacationers at Cedar Point had entitlement issues…they still do. It’s a universal constant: people feel entitled to things they probably don’t deserve, and/or people are too stubborn to understand the other person’s point of view and want things done THEIR way.
But I appreciate being here: I get time to make art, MY art. Not caricatures, not anything else. Just my comics and my character designs and paintings. Things are getting better. I know I can’t stay here forever, and next year, I want to make strides to move forward.
That’s all we can do is keep moving forward. When things turn to shit or plans go awry, pick yourself up and keep moving. Something will come along, even if it’s two months or two years or whatever later.
AND DON’T DO THIS ALONE. Oh sweet zombie Jesus don’t do this alone. Keep talking to your friends and your family. Make new friends. If nothing else, they’ll listen to your ramblings about how you weren’t expecting this crap. Hopefully, though, if you have awesome friends and family like I do, they’ll give you ideas and suggestions that will help you keep moving. It’s thanks to Kia, my little sister, that I became inspired to revise (very deeply, mind you) a graphic novel I wrote a rough draft for this past July. I’m even planning to revise another graphic novel I scripted last year. With any luck I’ll get that one pitch-ready by the end of March.
So this next year, I want to, hope to, and plan to keep making art, get work ready for sale for conventions (because I’m planning on attending three of them next year), revise my graphic novels, and get one of them ready to pitch to publishers. Whether I move to a new town, get a new boyfriend, travel…well, I’ll leave that up to chance. My only big travel destinations this next year are Bowling Green, Columbus, and Sandusky, OH, and New York City for New York Comic Con.
And on a more tragic note, this will be my last post here on Blogger. I’m moving my blog over to Tumblr.
This is something I’ve been thinking of off and on for the last six months. This time, though, I’m making it official. I’m moving the blog to Tumblr. Why? Because I know FAR more artists on Tumblr than on Blogger, sharing posts on Tumblr is much easier, the layouts are simpler and easier to handle, and really, Tumblr is better suited for artists because it’s so visually simple, so it puts more focus on the actual posts you make than on its layouts.
Also, it’s easier and faster to update, and it’s more fun.
You are awesome for sticking with me this long. I hope we can stick together even as I move to a new blog. It’ll be at kelcidcrawford.tumblr.com
I’ll stick around on blogger still. It’ll be a while before I can convince myself to delete this. And besides, if you have comments to leave behind, I want to read those.
Thank you. Really, thank you. And good luck to you.