Looking Back at 2022

Happy New Year!

Six months ago, on the third of July, I was posting an article entitled “Setting Goals for the Next Six Months.” Now that 2022 is over, it’s finally time to share a review of these last six months, just to see what I was and wasn’t able to accomplish.

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Last summer, I wanted to improve at drawing different kinds of characters, as well as most realistic animals, and things like that, so I could update my portfolio, and show more varied pieces of work. Now, I just realise that you actually can’t be like “Yay I wanna have a better portfolio, so—boom!—here it is—a new masterpiece!”

I got better just every time I tried to do something new, different, or that I didn’t feel extra-confident doing. And it didn’t just happen during summer, but all these past six months. You can’t set a deadline to becoming better at something—what you can do, though, is to tell yourself, “Okay, if I want to get better at drawing animals in a more realistic way, I’ll need to draw dogs for the next three days, then do three days of cats, then horses, then bunnies, lions, etc.”

In some ways, I think I can tell that my “Illustrator Level” has improved, but if I’m completely honest, I didn’t draw enough “more realistic animals” to notice a great difference.

Anyway, in the end, my portfolio now looks way better than it used to, but I didn’t print it, contrary to what I had initially planned—I have been told printing a portfolio was, in most of the cases, useless, and that it would actually better to make it easily accessible by just sharing a link or QR code, or even a PDF with potential clients.

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Last summer, I also said that I wanted to add new things to my Etsy Shop, the MoonyBearCub. I added some clipart sets, seamless patterns, and tried to make it look a little better—though I’m not completely happy with it, even now. But at least I was able to add a few Halloween-themed designs on it, and then, Christmas-y ones as well.

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My summer review is almost done, but I also had one last project to talk about—and one that taught me a lot of things—, since it was the Instagram Art Challenge I was co-hosting along with other amazing artists, the Twisted Summer challenge.

Hosting a challenge is not easy at all, and I was more than happy not to have been doing this alone. It takes a lot of time, because you obviously have to create something for the different prompts, but you also have to check other artists’ entries, comment their posts, share them… Sometimes, even spending one hour per day doing all of that didn’t feel enough, and it was hard to keep the pace, especially at the end of the month.

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I think I’m done with the summer part of my goals.

Except for one thing: I got my very first contract to illustrate a children’s book in the middle of summer! It was super exciting, but also quite hard to put together my contract, talk about the price of my work, etc. But in the end, I was able to create 11 illustrations that I’m super proud about! There was then one last illustration that would be required for the cover, but later on.

Not everything flew quite perfectly during this project, but, once again I learnt a lot of things.

But, spoiler alert: this project made me confident enough to do, a little later in the year, something I never thought I would have been to do. (Don’t worry, you’ll know more about it if you keep on reading this post, or if you browse through my website!)

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So, here really comes September.

I basically wanted to continue the online classe I’m taking with the London Art College, but I got carried away by lots of things—starting with the creation of these 11 illustrations for that first book I was working on.

On a different field, I also got some personal issues, that made both my mental and physical health quite down.

I moved away from my home in October, thinking I’d be back in three weeks maximum. I didn’t work at the very beginning of the month, but then things got better.

I didn’t necessarily draw a lot during the month of October, it was actually mostly paperwork and things like that, but I felt like I was still growing on the professional level, and all in all, that helped me restore my health a little as I felt better with myself, and a little more confident, too, I guess.

By the end of October, or the beginning of November, I got contacted again by the author of the book I did the illustrations for back in summer.

But, in the meantime, I also had started my very own personal project: writing and illustrating my own children’s book! And I wanted it to be published for Christmas, so I had to focus on it and work hard for it.

I wasn’t able to start the last illustration for the author super quickly after she contacted me again, but I still managed to get it done before December. I haven’t had any more news about it so far, though.

And finally, my own book was ready! I self-published it with Amazon KDP, and struggled a lot to figure out how all of this worked, but I still ended up having it published on the platform before Christmas! Party time again!

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Finally, I moved back after the holidays—so, yes, my “exile” lasted quite longer that I expected. And though I wasn’t able to do everything I had planned six months ago, I still did things—other things. And they helped me grew, and grew my confidence, too. So, all in all, what I did wasn’t “less good” than what I’d wanted to do at first—what I did was different, and taught me different things.

Now, I also feel better with myself, and feeling like this is vital to me if I want to be able to continue working as an illustrator.

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I have plenty of other projects for 2023 already. There also are so many things that I want to do, try, and learn. I’m not sure how things will get, if I’ll get contacted soon to illustrate another book, or not…

But for now, I’ll just focus on the things that I can do, and control—I finally was able to continue my course with the London Art College, and I believe that I’m almost done with it now. I also still have a lot of Domestika courses that I want to take—and got a bunch of new ones, too!

And, of course, having been able to write, illustrate, and self-publish my own book only makes me want to do it again!

So, for now, that’s all I’m able to tell about what I’m planning to do this new year. I may not have a super detailed plan or anything, but at the moment, it feels good enough to me—and I know that I’ll be detailing my plans as the days and weeks go, when I can see a little clearer—for now, I still feel a little in “holiday mode,” though I’m still working.

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I hope this article was interesting enough! I really wanted to review the past six months, and I feel like it’s going to help me see clearer in 2023, too, and hopefully set myself more realistic or reachable goals.

Again, I wish you a Happy New Year, and I hope you can try the things you want to try, start that project you were waiting “the good moment” to start, contact the clients you never dared to…

I hope to write again soon,

Ilona