Ragon

Emerald City Comic Con 2019

Hello friends and patrons! How's it going, did you have a nice weekend?

This weekend, from Thursday through Sunday, I had the joy of attending this year's EMERALD CITY COMIC CON, and I want to tell you all about it!

ECCC is Seattle's central annual comics and entertainment convention, held every March in downtown Seattle. It's a convention for comics mainly, but also everything related to nerd and pop culture, including books, games, science, movies, podcasts, ...

Sunday Thoughts (Ep. 42)

Hello hello hello! Happy Sunday Patrons and friends! It's Ragon here with another weekly update! 

How are you? Is it getting warm and sunny where you are? Seattle has been on and off cloudy and sunny. But on the sunniest days I get tricked in to wearing spring-y clothes only to find that is is still very cold. But the spring spirit is hitting the city, bringing a few tentatively blooming crocuses, daffodils, dandelions, and cherry blossoms. Lovely!

2019-03-10 23:52:18 +0000 UTC View Post

Sunday Thoughts Ep. 41

Hello hello lovely darling Patrons, and happy March!

And happy ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY to my business and this Patreon! Can you all believe it? Thank you so much for being here, hooray!! To celebrate I have FINALLY updated my Patreon with all new post series, tiers, all new rewards, and all new goals!

Updates to my Patreon:

The biggest change is that I've added a $2 tier, which means you in the $5 tier are now the higher ups! You're welcome ...

Friday Thoughts (Ep. 40) Audio Edition!

Hi friends, happy Friday!

Today I‘m taking my own advice of “just get started”. I am sweeping aside my self-consciousness and nervousness to share with you an AUDIO version of my weekly newsletter updates! Play it while you do your dishes, doodle, drive, clean, or walk to the grocery store.

Featuring: self-consciousness, sounds of sculpting a batch of ...

Sunday Thoughts (Ep. 39)

Hello Patrons, good afternoon, or good evening! Another Happy Sunday to you, another week on this earth in the books.  I hope you had a great first week of February!

This week for me has been delightful, as Seattle has been hit by two snow storms in the past seven days, making it the snowiest February since the 40s. I LOVE snow, love bundling up, love hygge and coziness, love winter and autumn and unexpected changes in the daily same same. I am an undeniable lov...

Friday Thoughts Ep. 38

Hello Patrons, happy Friday! Welcome to another episode of.... Friday Thoughts with Ragonia! Where you can read all about the weekly inner workings of a slowly and painfully developing art business!

Okay, I say painfully, but it was a pretty good week, and a good month. I can't complain. But my neck does hurt a little bit right now...

Anyway! I hope you had a nice end to your January, I hope your resolutions stayed resolute and you inched (or jumped!) a little ...

Sunday Thoughts (Ep. 37) New Studio Tour!

Hello Patrons and friends and buddies and pals! A very happy Sunday to you, I hope you're having a lovely, cleansing January. I missed posting last week, I hope you didn't miss me talking about myself too much. Don't worry, I'm back again ready to share more than you'd ever want to know about this work-from-home artist.

Last weekend a pretty big change happened around here, I moved my studio! As I've mentioned a thousand times before, my "studio space" meaning my des...

Sunday Thoughts (Ep. 36)

Happy Sunday from Sunny Seattle!

No kidding, my friends and patrons. As I type the sun shines in a perfect blue sky, and its been this way for most of the week. And of course that means all of the Seattelites walk with their dogs and families in their flannels and vests, or sit to bask in the sun (like me!) Camellias have already started blooming in my neighbors yard. 

Weather like this tricks you into thinking it’s almost spring. But I know better, Seat...

Work In Progress - Lana Jay Redraw

Hi Patrons, happy Friday!! 

For once I didn’t finish a piece in one sitting, so I hope you enjoy this lil super special sneak peek of a new draw this in your style challenge, by Lanajay_art on instagram!

And here’s the original that I’m referencing:

I hope you’ve had a lovely week! I’ll be in on Sunday for a my weekly update!

xoxo

Ragon...

Sunday Thoughts (Ep. 35, New Year Edition)

Hello Patrons, darlings, dears, friends, family, artists and art-curious. Happy happy happy 2019 to you! I hope you’ve had a lovely first week of the year, and have taken some time to reflect on 2018 and where you hope to take yourself in 2019.

The past week here at Ragonia studios has been fairly quiet, with a few exceptions. My first week back in Seattle was spent cleaning and organizing my apartment, unpacking, putting away gifts, reorganizing the spice rack. I ...

Friday Update Ep. 34 (Super Quick Holiday Edition)

Hello Patrons and happy holidays! It has been a surprisingly busy end of the year and I’m sorry for my long absence. I wanted to give you a quickie update to remind you that I love you and am thinking of you! Quick because I am currently in my parents home in my hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and it’s my last day here!

A few things that have happened this month:

I celebrated my 25th birthday by getting my nails done for the first time in years and ho...

Speed Paint: 10k Style Challenge

In all it’s messy crazy glory, for the first time in quite a while, I have for you a speed paint/ process video!

I decided to leave in a true part of the process for me, all of the experimental sketching before I decided on the final look for this gal. I sometimes feel like other artists are so decisive in their art but maybe they’re just trying to streamline for their videos!

Anyway I hope you find it useful, or soothing, or interesting, or entertaining!

Ha...

Friday Thoughts (Ep. 33)

Hello hello Patrons, happy Friday, and happy first week of December! The month of the holidays, of my birthday, of coziness and darkness and chilliness. I hope you had a wonderful week! Did you set up a Christmas tree or menorah? Have you started your gift shopping/wrapping? Are you enjoying the setting in of winter or feeling the sad effects?

This week has been fairly quiet in terms of Arty Business. I am coming off the tail end of my portrait sales and holiday product sal...

Friday Thoughts (Ep.32)

Hello hello lovely patrons, another happy Friday to you!

November is over, can you believe it? I'm normally connected enough to the present that it doesn't feel like time is whizzing by, but that's not the case with this season. It's been a busy busy month, and I'm excited to tell you all about it!

The biggest mountain I climbed this month has been the Holiday Commissions that I had on sale! I limited myself to 20 commissions and told the customers it would take aroun...

Friday Thoughts (Ep. 31)

Hello friends and Patrons, and another Happy Friday to you! How are you, how’s it going? 

Is it snowing where you live? It’s not snowing here, but the Seattle grey winter has arrived and smoke from the California wildfires along with it, so it is really starting to feel like winter. I’m combating the grey doldrums with lots of candles, cozy sweaters, leggings, socks, and blankets. I must say, it’s working!

So the past two weeks have been fairly eventful i...

Friday Thoughts (Ep. 30) Convention Edition!

 Helloooo Patrons and friends! Happy November, and happy Friday! I come to you finally, FINALLY, filled with joy, pride, enthusiasm, and energy! After what felt like a month of negativity, I feel like I had a great win! Get ready for a long update because I have lots of pictures and lots of thoughts!

Last weekend I... drum roll please... tabled at my first convention! I achieved my largest goal for this year, a goal I didn't think was possible to reach! 

I'v...

Monday Thoughts (Ep.29)

Hello friends and patrons! Another happy week to you! And another week that my weekend update turned into a beginning of the week update. 

It’s felt like another relatively busy week, with unfortunately the thing falling behind has been my art practice. I’ve been trying to keep up with Inktober, with a new illustration every day, but I am currently five- count em, FIVE- days behind. 

I’ve been helping fill in a little bit with one of the coffee shops I...

Monday Thoughts (Ep. 28)

Hello patrons and friends! I hope you had a wonderful week and weekend!

I had a loooong weekend so this update will be very quick, we’ll be back to longer updates next weekend!

This week I continued to work on my daily Inktober updates! I kept up with the daily practice of making a marker illustration. Until this weekend that is! This afternoon I’ll be playing catch up and making three quick illustrations. I am determined to make 31 days of marker illustrations by...

Friday Thoughts (Ep. 27)

Hello my darling friends and patrons! I hope that you had another happy week, and that you enjoyed the first days of October. As I write this rain is falling gently on the red and yellow leaves of the plants outside, high schoolers walk by on their way to school, car tires hiss and splash on the wet concrete. And you know I’m burning an apple cider scented candle, drinking water from a halloween cup, and wearing doubled up Halloween socks and a thick, big house sweater. Lif...

Sunday Thoughts (Ep. 26)

EDIT: A day late on this, I‘m sorry my dears!! Happy October!

Hello hello and Happy Sunday, happy last day of September! Happy day! It’s been a wonderful week here at Ragonia Art, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

First and possibly most exciting, I designed and ordered my first batch of enamel pins this week! After waffling back and forth over what to make as my first pin, a lot of sketching and doodling and thinking, I found inspiration during my week...

Sunday Updates (Ep. 25)

Hello Patrons! Happy first days of Fall! Yesterday was the Autumn Solstice, but as you know it’s been Autumn in my heart for weeks now. How’s it going? Did you have a great, autumnal first week! Is fall anyone else’s favorite season? Let me know in the comments! 

Okey dokey!! Let’s get in to the week!

Here’s a few of the items I grabbed last week at Artist and ...

September Wallpaper

And one of my favorites! I hope you enjoy these fall themed wallpapers for you phone and tablet, and a tile image for your desktop! Let me know if you use one, I’d love to see!

Sunday Thoughts (Ep. 24)

Happy Sunday! Another week gone by, I hope it was a good one for you!

I’m writing to you, my friends and patrons, having just energetically cleaning my entire apartment with a classical record spinning on the record player I got for Christmas. A very aggressive classical record. Zach calls it “Beethoven’s Amped Up Mix”. I have a glass of the last of the Trader Joe’s boxed Shiraz and Zach is prepping our pasta dinner of what he calls “Summer is Dead Pasta” (usi...

Sunday Thoughts (Ep. 23)

Hello Patrons and friends and family! Another happy Sunday to you!

This was an alternately productive and un-productive week. 

I kicked off the week with creating the sketch for a commission from one of my top repeat customers. She and her roommate have ordered three commissions and multiple products! This time was a watercolor portrait of her sister and their late cat Oreo. It feels like such an honor to create this portrait, like it will remain with he family f...

Sunday Thoughts (Ep. 22)

Hello Patrons, and happy Sunday! Or happy Labor Day! Or whatever day this letter finds you on!

Its been quite a busy week, and I’m coming close to completely missing an update this week. But I want to keep you all up to date with some of the goings on at Ragonia studios. So here’s a quick update!

Last Friday evening I had the joy of attending a relatively new art event called Art on the Rooftop, along with Zach and my friend Tori. Tori and I were both invited to t...

Friday Thoughts (Ep. 21)

Hello, Patrons and Friends! A very happy Friday to you from here in Ragonia: population 1. 

Okay, population 2, as my studio manager stares me down angrily.

Today was a weird week for this independent business owner. I had a closing shift at the cafe on a Tuesday evening, which kind of threw me off my routine. That, and the skies were filled with so much wildfire smoke t...

Friday Thoughts (Ep. 20!)

Hello again Patrons, happy Friday part 2! 

Can you believe this is my 20th week of writing these little updates? Are you tired of me yet? Cause I‘m not tired of me!! Let’s go, twenty more weeks, and more!

How was your week? Are you super busy this summer, or has it bee pretty chill? I was thinking this week about how some jobs are very seasonally dependent, like how the restaurant I worked at was crazy town in the summer and less crazy town in the winter. And...

Symmetry Speed Paint

Hi followers, happy Friday! 

Your weekly newsletter is coming in an hour or so but in the meantime I thought you might be interested in a little speed paint video!

Procreate, the program I use on my iPad to do my illustrations, has recently added a few new features including a guided symmetrical tool. This means whatever your draw on one side is automatically mirrored on the other. Late one night I sucked myself in to doing a little semi-realistic doodle of a fac...

Sunday Thoughts (Ep. 19)

Hello again, Patrons! Happy Sunday! I have a bit of a delayed newsletter for you this week because I wanted to cover my second art walk!

So this week’s focus was preparing for my second art show, this time in my home neighborhood of Ballard. The original paintings I did for the Fremont show are hanging for all of August and September, and I wanted more original paintings to show in Ballard.

So Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were spent essentially repainting 7 of the...

Friday Thoughts (Ep. 18) Art Walk Edition!

Hello Patrons, happy Saturday! I decided to share this a day late so that I could update you all on my first show at Fremont Art Walk!

It’s been quite a whirlwind week preparing for my first show/market/Art Walk. I knew it would be busy but I didn’t anticipate so much detail work and errand work that would come up to prepare. I learned so much about planning, printing, packaging, and pricing that I know will carry over into the other market opportunities I have coming u...