Sounds a bit like a film about a mid-life crisis.
Hello everyone, it’s refreshing to be creating constantly once more.
Long story ahead. There’s a LOT of catching up to do! All future posts will be shorter!)
(Short version: I did some stuff, I’m doing some stuff, there’s some stuff coming in the future, you win, I win, we all scream for Ice cream.)
Long version (more satisfying):
Although during this munting awful pandemic I’ve been producing a shed-ton of artwork for charities, the NHS and other worthy places, a lot of my usual production, (especially my website!) have had to take a back seat. Life’s been tough. For many, of course, not just myself. It’s still tough now to be honest, but I’m pushing everything I have to remain connected, always trying to produce better and better quality work, but essentially, the two most important factors are:
1) Connect, communicate, and stay in touch.
2) Make some money. Somehow. Anyhow. – Time is money but although I love doing favours, it’s not paying the bills! I’m not going to shy away from all charitable work, but the balance needs addressing.
So what’s happening?
I’m spreading myself thinly, but as many fingers in as many pies as possible is my current way of thinking. 4 or 5 ideas, with branches that can stem off each will keep me focused on things with much more clarity. I’m resisting the urge to add more ideas to these 4 or 5, as I’m itching to oil paint, make animations, continue working on the musical ‘album’ I started a while back and I’m really intrigued about this NFT Art movement, I’ll probably be too late to the party, but I also lack ideas (and probably level of skill) to succeed in this field.
But, there aren’t any money possibilities in these endeavours, unless people buy my album (highly unlikely) or flood to buy my oil paintings, (also highly unlikely, and I’ve not painted in oils for years, so they might be a load of rubbish!) and I still don’t know enough about NFT or have the time to research enough about it.
So, I need things that might make a few quid, stickers, prints, maybe T-shirts, Mugs etc , and also taking my recent foray into Pyrography to a new level with engraving, etching and the like, so awesome keyrings, signage, custom stencils and SOOO much more.
This, coupled with a fantastic, but currently secret project with a great friend of mine, this project together has the feels of something with a very promising future. It’s been very fun to work on, and delightfully time-consuming and interestingly, it has also been pushing me to step my quality, organisation, focus and ideas up several notches, which is always a good thing for any artist. Always learning. I’ll be saying more in the future about this exciting project, so keep ’em peeled!
Why I’m blogging again.
I’m going to try to blog more! Not huge posts, like this one, perhaps a few words, perhaps just a quick pic or link, but my intention is that with SO many social media outlets, this will be the quickest way to keep up with everything I’m doing. Typing in ‘ deanperry.co.uk ‘ is relatively easy, so you can say to yourself for instance, “I’ve run out of lives on (insert phone game here), what can I do now? I wonder what Dean’s doodling today? But! Where will he be posting? Insta? Facebook? Facebook groups? Deviantart? B3ta.com? Aaaaargh!”
Then your brain explodes. That’s not good.
But if you pop here, and I’ve just posted, for instance, on Insta, I’ll mention it here if it’s worth mentioning.
I’m still getting used to how to work WordPress, rather than HTML, but this ‘HUB’ should blossom and grow like a finely tended garden. Sprouting wonderfull floers and fruits for you to consume and look at, to enjoy. (and buy). That’s the dream.
I’ve also set up a page on ‘Buy me a Coffee’ which is a site that offers fans, friends, customers, admirers, to donate the price of a coffee (or 3, or 4, or 10 etc, etc) as a simple gift, or to pay for small (or large, i guess) work or creations). Although I’ve always been hesitant about setting up a Patreon or similar account, because I don’t think anyone would be interested, especially if the volume of work isn’t as flowing as it is currently. And I don’t write a fantastic newsletter (yet!) that people would want membership. Also, it does feel a bit beggy to presume people will throw a couple of quid at me because they enjoyed a piece I’ve made. Feels odd.
So why did I set up a buymeacoffee page then? Well, partly because a lot of people are doing it, whether it’s pence or bigbucks is unknown to me, also irrelevant to me, but it is popular and importantly, it’s a great way to reward those of you that are fans and friends. If anyone donates,if they are that kind, I’ll reward them with their choice of digital or Real-life artwork. For example, Joseph McBloggs ‘buys me a coffee’ and donates 2 GBPounds, I’m a happy Pickle, so I’ll doodle her a little cartoon, and post it either as a digital email, or snail-mail (their choice) to say ‘thank you’.
Her Brother, a rich banker in Basingstoke ‘buys me a coffee’, donates £1,050 GBritishPounds, once I’ve recovered from fainting, I contact Her brother and chat about a personal bespoke piece of artwork. No futher charge, just me saying thank you back at people who might be saying thank you for seeing my art.
But, fact is, when people want a quick sketch, it’s nice to chuck ’em at people free, but every now and agin, there’s an rare, awkward moment when someone offers to pay a couple of pounds, or buy me a pint (I can’t drink beer anymore), so now there’s somewhere to point them:
www.buymeacoffee.com/pickledpizza
Other news,
Tik-Tok has been interesting, within the first month, I’d managed to amass over 1,000 followers! Mostly thanks to a bunch of other artists, sharing etc. Sharing IS caring, so they say. I’m hoping to continue to grow my audience any way possible and when certain products become available, for example stickers, it’ll be a fantastic platform for progress videos, live streams and generally whoring anything I can sell, but making people smile in the process. It’s always about the love first!
If you’ve popped here because of the link in Tik-Tok (or anwhere really) THANK YOU for sharing. ON any platform, every time I see someone taking 2 secs out of their time to share my stuff, it really means the world, and not just for 2 secs, it really does make my day when someone (other than my own Mum!) shares my daft artwork, music or otherwise. Thankyouthankyouthankyou!
(Slightly) Older news…
Over the past year, I’ve drawn a few portraits, all of which had their own special charm, their own individual back-story, every one a task*, but a dream to draw. I’ve created a whole load of quick-drawn ‘colouring in’ pages, making them available for people almost daily during the first lockdown in the U.K. They were fun, but I still cringe at the quality of some of them and for some reason, they bulk out places like instagram will such a stark lack of depth and colour that too makes me wince a bit. Also, during high-speed video creations on Tik-Tok, I went a bit cute and drew a cute little piglet in pencils, which was kindly purchased by a very wonderful Gent, young at heart, but wise beyond his years. I’ve never met him, but I’ve seen him loads on Telly, read his book and chatted over messenger a bit and can confirm, he’s a thoroughly nice bloke. An inspiration, to be honest. That man is Farmer Chris, (Yorkshire Vet, Celebs on the Farm) and the most famous client to date.
So, strap yourself in. Hold on tight.
I don’t know what for, I’ve just always wanted to say it.
Anyhow, the future looks bright and although you can’t see 90% of what I’ve been up to recently, you will soon and I hope you’ll get excited about it too! It might take a little while, but rest assured, there will be a flood of visual creations, tons more funny stuff and finally, loads of places to buy really funky, awesome but different things you’ll be ahead of the crowd! Woo-hoo!
However, I can show you this chicken.
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