I think it's about time I wrote another update, they are always a great tool in getting my thoughts in order.

Positive -My confidence in my artwork is steadily rising (I think my quality is looking better and better these days, the portfolio is varied and strong.) and I've been lucky enough to have a few commissions over the past few months. I've managed to garner even more focus than before too and cut out a few small distractions that were holding me back.

Negative -  I wanted a job to go alongside my illustration stuff; something in schools would be great, but it's not panned out yet. I'm doing something wrong on that front I think..or just allowing myself to slip into illustration stuff too much when I should be focusing on job search. My overall market research and plan of action regards my illustration stuff is still lackluster..I bounce from one thing to the next in a desperate attempt to improve and gain some recognition and money but it's not really the best way of doing it.

I have had the following commissions over the past few months;
- Kickstarter artwork design including characters, spaceships, boards and more.
- Dress Up game artwork
- Christmas E Card artwork
- Never Lose Faith book signing tour artwork

and the possibility of
- A children's book commission
- Artwork of five characters and a background
- Illustrations for a blog

The commissions I'm getting ARE an improvement over where I was and that is in no small part thanks to the improvements seen in my quality in my opinion. However I am not getting consistent enough work to be able to justify making illustration my main aim and so I need to have something else too.

It's an annoying feeling to explain to someone but I'm feeling my age (30..pretty damn young I know, but not as young as I was yesterday hehe) and I'm feeling confounded by my own approach to my career..I end up going around in circles and its got to stop.

I'm going to keep doing art all the time of course. Be it fan art or other it all helps to improve my skills. What I need to rediscover is where my art belongs..do I focus on crafting a complete children's picture book next? Do I look at fan art commissions? How about illustrations for magazines?

If I can remove some of the pressure of needing money by having a different job in place then maybe I can allow myself more time to really get something like a kids book done.

I'm sure there's something I've forgotten to mention and frankly I should perhaps detail some of the other things I've been up to but that'll do for now! Not sure if any of it made sense to anyone but me but thanks for reading and the best to you all.