Quality of Life

Some people like to say, "Eat well, do good, get exercise, and die anyway," as some sort of excuse for partying, being unhealthy and/or being inconsiderate. This logic has no place in a happy, fulfilling and successful life. Regardless of when you die, you want the life you live today, and tomorrow to be the best life you can possibly have. There is no excuse for not doing the best for yourself and the best you can for those you love. Even if I were going to die in six months, I still would continue my diet exactly as I do (if not do even better) because I want the highest quality for my life. The quantity is quite irrelevant.

~Raederle Phoenix Jacot

"Are you really sure that a floor can't also be a ceiling?" ~ M. C. Escher

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Board Game Illustration

It's a dream of mine to illustrate book covers of fantasy novels and also to illustrate board games (and creative card games as well.) I love digital painting, and have even decided to create a blog dedicated to talking about my art projects and thoughts on art overall. Perhaps I'll even create tutorials in the future on digital painting.

I went to a board game gathering recently and met a couple board game designers and played their game. I told them I was an artist and was interested in working for them if they needed someone. One of them gave me their card, and I wrote her today:

Awesome Girl,

Hi! I just checked out the website. I'm also a web-designer so I had to check and make sure your site was good. I know a lot of people struggle with online presence because of a poor template, but I was glad to see that your site is perfectly functional, well organized, and designed in such a way that is appropriate, even if it isn't exactly exciting.

I notice your card says you're the "Marketing Director." I'm wondering what methods you're using besides attending board-game meetups and having a card, website and facebook. If you don't have a blog and a twitter, you should consider it. It's a great way to bring attention to yourself and what you're doing and keep people checking back.

(I run five active blogs at a time, as well as a twitter and constantly updating my facebook to keep people traveling to my site. Although I'm mostly trying to spread word about my cause more than what I have to offer in services/products at the moment. When my book is published though, it'll be good that I already have such a well-established online presence.)

My online portfolio is here: http://phoenix-muse.darkfolio.com/

I really hope you're interested in hiring me for something or other because I'm very passionate about board games and really want to get involved in creating them. I've done artwork for logos, websites, an array of graphics for fliers, banners, buttons, shirts, etc, as well as designing countless signs, postcards, business cards, and pamphlets.

I've done custom artwork for tattoos and even for a writer who wanted a drawing of their main character. But I've never done board game illustration for anyone but myself.

I actually have three very extensively designed board games that I created entirely myself, but being a freelance artist doesn't make me the kind of start-up money to even create prototypes of any of games I created. My only prototype was so cheaply created that I couldn't even get into testing it because I'm so aesthetically inclined that playing with a cheap mock-up made the game experience difficult to enjoy.

Even if you don't require an artist, I also can write professionally (as well as creatively), edit, run a twitter and/or blog for your business, create any of the things I named above (for example: new spiffy business cards featuring your next game), or even offer my ideas for new game designs.

Perhaps I'll see you at another meetup soon and we can talk in person more about what your business needs are, what your budget is, what the goals are, and so forth, after you've seen my portfolio and had some time to think about it.

Best wishes, hugs, and a Happy Halloween!


Well, let's hope it develops into something awesome.

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