2019 Personal Projects
Hello everyone! Hope you are all doing well. My name is Alyssa and I'm from Baltimore, Maryland. I've just started freelancing in 2019 and building my brand on social media at the same time. So far, I've had only a few clients, but I've been learning a lot since I started taking illustration seriously. Here are a few of the personal projects I worked on to develop my art style in 2019. I just wanted to share my progress here because for me 2019 contained a lot of pivotal moments in my life career-wise. I'd like to note that my focus on the artworks attached here was more on applying color theory and learning the software, and they are also personal projects, so my work may not be very conceptual.
Here it goes!
This was one of the first ones I made, and I posted it on my Instagram and Facebook page and it was this illustration that first helped me gain followers online. From around 500 followers on IG, I've gained around a few hundred, while on my Facebook page, it jumped from around 100 likes to 3000 likes. I didn't get any clients from it, but it really helped boost my confidence!
At this point I've garnered 13k likes on my Facebook page, however there's not a lot of engagement, and up to this day I'm still trying to figure out how to interact with my followers more. On my IG however, I was at maybe 1,300 followers, but still very little engagement. No clients either, since I was focusing more on developing my art style and wasn't really actively finding clients.
This is my favorite one ^_^
Around this time I've finally had my first client. However, I didn't search for her myself. She actually found me through Instagram. It was for a self-published children's book. I started working with her from October 2019-December 2019. She has yet published her book, as she is still developing her website for her book. But I will be sure to post some of the illustrations from her book here on my profile once she releases it.
Now it's 2020 and I've uploaded new art work on my social media. I also have made an original Webtoon on webtoon.com with the purpose of helping myself develop better work ethic. Since publishing the webtoon, I made some ads on Instagram and now I'm at 1,600 followers on IG. My facebook page 20k followers (but sadly still not a lot of engagement in terms of comments, so still a lot to learn there!)
I know the amount of followers don't necessarily mean a lot of clients (because nowadays I'm still actively searching for new horizons! and also in the middle of updating my portfolio with better art) but it helps me stay focused and inspired in some way. Social media has also helped me find new artist friends (I have not been to art school but I'm planning to) and it's been a lot of fun! I've learnt a lot from other artists' profiles and journeys too. There are so many talented people in this world! I do need to get out of my room soon and meet other artists outside of course!
The world of freelancing is so daunting for a beginner like me, but honestly making art/ illustrating is probably the only thing I'm really good at (aside from eating good food and petting cats), so I'm putting my faith into this. My new goal for this year is to build a portfolio more specialized in editorial illustration and children's books. Still a long way to go!
Well this is all, guys. I hope you enjoyed my little story. Best wishes to everyone! You're all amazing!
Best,
Alyssa
Here are links to my profiles/webtoon if anyone is interested to check them out:
Instagram:
Website:
FB Page:
Webtoon:
