In April  I finished my first full-length children’s book. It’s been tough trying to freelance, work full time and still have time to do fun things, like see my friends and family. Plus I have always been horrible at personal deadlines; you just have to look at my list of things to do to realize that. I am the worst procrastinator out there when it comes to myself, which is surprising since I was so successful in art school and I am successful at work deadlines. Yet still I have always put things off and let something else take precedent. For example I have put off unpacking for 9 months!

I’m working on my second and third children’s book at the same time right now, and it has been stressful trying to balance my full time work with what I want to be full time work.  Today I woke up and thought to myself, I am sick of waking up at 6am and working until 7 or 8pm only to come home and work on what I really want to do.  So now is that time to make changes.  It’s time to do some promotions and make my studio fully usable, since I’m still living out of boxes and I moved in October. Yikes.

I found Holli Conger somehow through a vast sea of websites, I really don’t remember what I was searching for but I found her website, or should I say websites. She inspired me to document my journey to becoming a full time illustrator, not just a part time one.

I want to wake up and illustrate nine to five because I’m not good at having a boss. Clients are different; you set deadlines with them and meet them. Where I work full time my boss sets deadlines for 2 months out but really wants it done now. If you want it done now, don’t give me a 2-month deadline. I like timelines and I’m pretty good at knowing what I can do and what I can’t.

 I have always wanted to be my own boss, maybe it’s the only child part of me, but I hate being micro-managed.  I can work with little or no supervision.

I have had a website for about 5 years now. While it has yielded me a decent amount of work for a part time job it is no way near full time status. This is partly my fault because I have done little to promote that fact that I exist.

I had postcards printed when I first finished my undergrad and I printed 500. I still have 300 left over and I yielded no jobs from them. I was disappointed, but let me tell you that first postcard sucked. I don’t know what I was thinking. There was too much writing about what I do instead of having room a larger image. Like I said I don’t know what I was thinking.

So I have a plan: A 3 postcard series for the end of the year.

•  One in August with a School Theme
• One in October with a Halloween Theme
• One in December with a Winter Holiday theme

Wouldn’t one postcard be enough, well maybe, but I want people to see my name over and over. How can you forget the name Shielaugh Divelbiss, well it’s easy when you only see the work once in a flood of postcards. If this doesn’t yield any work, I have another plan up my sleeve yet to come.

I was thinking about a revamp of my website, but my website is simple and hosted by http://www.zhibit.org which is fine with me. I have another hosting service that ends this month but I wasn’t happy with their control panel anymore. Probably because I have forgotten how to actually design a website. Okay maybe not forgotten because it’s not hard, but I don’t have the time at the moment, so zhibit works for my needs. I own www.svdart.com, which I redirect to point at my zhibit site.