Short answer: Yes, I pay taxes on everything I earn… such is life. I keep track of expenses vs. income all year, and have more knowledgable people assist me with the actual tax paperwork.

Long answer that is still short because someone already explained this better than I could: Read this very helpful Taxes for Freelancers guide by illustrator Kali Ciesemier!

Oh my gosh! That’s totally absurd that you haven’t received your shirt yet. That’s definitely not normal - I would open a help ticket with Threadless ASAP! I’m sure they’ll send the shirt out right away, or at worst give you a full refund (plus some store credit for your trouble maybe.)

However, I’m going to take this opportunity to state once and for all (since I occasionally get messages like this) that I personally have absolutely nothing to do with orders made on any website except alicexz.com. I have nothing to do with Threadless or Society6 products, so even if you bought something with my design on it, it’s not coming directly from me - I don’t know where your order is, I don’t know how long it will take to ship, I don’t know when a product will be restocked. These companies keep the majority of the profits from my art BECAUSE they do all the work involved with customer service, distribution, shipping, etc. so that I, the artist, don’t have to. So just letting ya’ll know that while I don’t mind if you send me a polite message inquiring about your order, there’s not much point in doing so because I can’t do anything but be indignant on your behalf and advise you to contact the company directly.

Sorry and hope you guys understand! Thank you to all of you who bother to purchase my prints and products - I really appreciate your support. :)

I tried, it went something like this:

Here’s the thing, which might be surprising… I never let myself “commit” a ton of time to an artwork unless I can already see the end result in my head. When I commit a long time to a painting, it means that there’s already a certain way I imagine the piece to look and only x amount of hours put into it will achieve what I want. If you have really good, well-thought-out vision and plenty of references and/or research to back it up, the hours of rendering work should come naturally.

Remember - time spent doesn’t automatically equate to great art. The danger of spending too much time on something is getting too attached to an idea, making you blind to any flaws; a poor initial composition is still just going to end up a well-rendered but poorly composed piece, and you won’t be able to start clean because you’ll think “I’ve spent too long on this to let it go.” Further, it’s much, much harder to take criticism on something you pour too many hours into.

I am in no way saying that being dedicated can’t lead to great results. Plenty of artists create only very involved and time-consuming pieces, and it’s amazingly admirable of them. But if that’s just not your thing right now, you shouldn’t feel bad about it! If you’re like me (short attention span!), mentally telling yourself “I have to spend a million hours on this piece! It’s gotta be BIG!” is a sure way to get discouraged and impatient unless you are incredibly enthusiastic about the idea. Don’t feel like you have to spend a ton of time in order to post it on your artblog. Listen to people’s feedback, look at inspirational work, and collect reference photos. Sketches, studies, and idle doodles are just as important, if not more important, than an artist’s “big pieces.” Each one will nurture your skills and make you more confident for the next piece, until one day you’ll have spent double, triple the time you normally spend and you won’t have even noticed!

For everyone who asked about that silly doodle!!! HERE IT IS free shipping until tonight too…!

Hi there! “Carry On My Wayward Son” is a limited edition print (ed. of 100) available here on Bottleneck Gallery’s website for $80! It’s a 13”x19” Giclée print that I will be producing myself (so the quality will be on par with my official shop’s prints.)

Part of the proceeds go towards the Make a Wish foundation as per Bottleneck’s usual policy. Thank you to anyone who purchases it!

UGH THANK YOU

BWUHHHH thank you Licia and thank you to everyone else who sent me kind words already (I don’t want to flood ya’ll by publishing all of them but just know I’m hoarding all your messages in my inbox like a squirrel hoards acorns in the winter.)

Yes, it’s fine with me, because it’s for personal use. I put my art online for people to enjoy and it doesn’t matter to me whether they enjoy it on a computer screen or somehow make themselves a physical copy. The reason people buy prints of my art at all is because obviously the quality would much, much better than a print out from a web resolution JPG. But there’s no way I could or would stop people from printing my art for non-commercial use. So go ahead! Print them out and eat them for all I care.

And thanks for your support. The Roar of Our Stars might be available as an open-edition poster in the future but I’m still working things out with the company that’ll be doing it.