Surrounded in Books, Edits, Deadlines, and MORE!

Hi Folks!

Can you believe it?! It’s the end of the year already. Well, not quite. We still have about half a month left. Some CRAZY things have popped up in my life the last few weeks, so I’m currently dealing with that.

I wanted to update at least once more last month, but c’est la vie. I can tell you what has been happening now that I have a moment to breathe.

BOOKS

Some of you may have noticed I had a book sale going on. My Ko-Fi has been doing wonderfully, and I sold out of We are all Superstitious! I have a few more books available, along with Maddi Gonzalez’s book, which I have been doing fulfillment for. It’s been a fun experience. I’m looking forward to maybe doing some more small fulfillment services for my friends next year.

I’ve been slowly shipping out over 150 preorders of Looking for Her… which I do by myself. HA! It’s been quite the journey… I’m humbled as heck that anyone would want my books.

EDITS AND DEADLINES

There were some typical publishing hiccups with my next book that need to be sorted. There is a bit of delay, particularly because of the holidays and my team being sick! It’s been so very stressful that I grew my first grey hair!!! I plucked it because I want to believe the myth is true and that I will grow more grey hairs. (I know this is not how it works.)

I will be retouching some of the colors, which are over 40 pages, along with some overdue commissions that I owe. You know… in the span of a month! Yikes! Incredible how fast time passes.

GINKGO PURSE

It’s happening! My manufacturer had to step away for a few months due to their zero covid policy in China. It’s a relief to hear that my representative is okay and the bags are COMING. I knew they would not arrive this year, but I did not expect them to be here January-February. It’s amazing!

I’m still figuring out how much to sell them, but I might have a discount code for those who are members. OR I may figure out how to launch a tiny Member Only store…

Looking at the tracking number is DAUNTING, as I am going to receive ten whole boxes. This is a problem for future Chan to deal with.

ART

Regarding drawings, I’ve been pushing myself to make something. ANYTHING. It’s not been easy with all the things I’m doing above, but I’ve managed to make some indulgent pieces. They aren’t much. They aren’t outstanding. They feel like regurgitations of things I’ve done before, but I’m forcing myself to learn that it’s okay! It is hard to believe this sometimes, even though I love it when other artists just draw what they love repeatedly. It’s beautiful!

Anyway, some wips!

Clark Kent knight inspired by aspects of the Dark Knights of Steel aesthetics.

This image is a tribute to my love for sewing machines. I do not sew. I like to look and appreciate them though.

This is an old picture of a witch adding paintings to frames. I haven’t picked it up in a while but hope to return to it, even if aspects of it feel quite outdated for this current day Chan.

Thanks for reading! Hope you all are NOT having crazy holidays and will get to relax in the upcoming weeks.

SLJ Poster FREE GIVEAWAY!

Hi folks!

My poster for the School Library Journal and Children’s Book Council was released a few days back, which was during my trip to Boston, MA for MICE.

I was approached by the lovely Mark Tuchman, creative director for SLJ, to make a poster with LGBTQIA+ as the topic. It was an extremely great experience, and truly humbling to have my work in libraries across the nation.

Here’s some process!

I gave Mark four different options to begin with, a few of them being more illustrative and a bit more trans focused, because of our current climate with book censorship. They chose the more diverse option, which I labeled as “corporate safe” basically. Which I totally understand why they went with it! Maybe I’ll end up making the other posters.

I gave some color options and suggestions at this point. I tried to go for things that I enjoyed but also thought of what maybe people want to see? I was scared at this stage, but I figured something out! Somehow!

This is the final image!

The Every Child a Reader gave me two posters to give away! They came folded upon arrival, so unfortunately they are not in a condition to be hung as mint artwork! However, I will sign them!

This is a First Come First serve situation! Leave a comment below and I’ll email you asking for an address to ship to you.

If you would rather print it out yourself, below is a link to the high resolution download!

Parts of Us is getting Printed and Life Update!

Hi folks!

A little blog update about how things have been going! Thank you to everyone who has subscribed so far, I hope you have been enjoying the gentle updates this month. I’m still figuring out new tutorial material for the next month, but I have been making some artwork while the month of July has been chugging along.

Here are the UPDATES!

There is a new, tiny timelapse in the downloads section! Check that out!

Parts of Us is getting a print run! It’s been so long, but I’ve finally had a chance to set up my book for self publishing. It’s crazy to think that a few years have already passed since I made this short for ELEMENTS: EARTH, and I had already forgotten how to draw the main character, Aviva. I haven’t colored in what feels like a long time, so this was a great exercise to get back into it.

These are just some process pictures (which you can kind of see how my previous tutorial influences my covers too), hope you enjoy!

Glad that square space allows a slideshow view, because it’s awesome to see how a piece progresses without having to upload a timelapse! Yeehaw!

Other than this, I am going to be working on some new stickers soon and a SECRET PROJECT! This secret project will take up some of my time the next few months on top of doing this blog and other odd jobs, but if everything works out, it could be life changing for me. I hope you all will cheer me on if it ever works out. I’ll also see if I can work with my client to allow you all to get first looks and exclusive updates!