Peta's Process - Illustrator from JamRock

[Peta of JamRock]

Good day, gentle people.

I've been absent for a very long time and, to cut a long story short, I got terribly injured within my neck and shoulder/upper back within the first two weeks of my new animation studio job last August and the pain left me able to do little but go to work and come home to pain killers, heating pads, and pain rubs hot enough to make me feel like I was a piece of pork on a jerking station. On top of all that, there's my autoimmune connective tissue disorder (I'm not looking for sympathy; I'm just being open and honest about my situation) and BOY does that thing love injured spots! The colder months were the worst of it and I barely felt able to be self-productive vs. work place productive (which was a trial in itself) until a good way into the warmer months. Talk about lost time.

Moving on, I finished and launched my portfolio website over on langilalastudios.com. I'm now focusing on creating a blog and maintaining it so that it will remain active and keep attracting new eyes to my work, and learning how to best attract clients and customers to help me grow. Even though I'm creating branded IP for future sales, I'm focusing on providing services for now.

I'll keep you up to date on my entrepreneurial joys and pit falls.

 

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[Peta of JamRock]

Hi again! I haven't been around the forum in over a year but that doesn't mean that I haven't been doing anything at all. I have been inching along, albeit slowly due to my work-related health issues (see last post), but I can make a quick summary of all that's gone down since then:

• Germinating my Business: With all of what I had to deal with physically, it's a bleeding miracle that I managed to do anything at all on my humble little biz. I did start the blog as mentioned, but updating it has been a problem that I need to overcome - and fast. I've been brainstorming topics to cover (both useful information for other art-oriented readers as well as personal ones) and I need to buckle down and write them, but I've also been preoccupied with needing to rest and earn in my spare time. Pretty hard to write or type when you feel like someone shot and stabbed you between neck and shoulders almost 24/7, but I'm determined to get there.
  
  
• Learning Opportunities Pt. 1: I entered Marie Forleo's B-School 2017's scholarship contest and I won a spot! I was on the tail-end of a cold when I made my entry video but I'm glad I did anyway. I'm also blown by how many spots were available - I had thought it was much more than that! Anyway, I'm now a B-Schooler for life. *happy dance* Currently, I'm focusing on the Start The Right Business program that she has in conjunction with B-School and I'm already looking at my business idea from different angles. I'll share my progress here as I go along.
  
  
• Learning Opportunities Pt. 2: Coinciding with the start of B-School was a free 8 week 3D animation training course in Character Modeling. That was in April-June, and it was intense but rewarding as they packed a lot of training into 8 weeks. Even the meals were free. It's part of a project funded by the World Bank, the Ministry of Science Engineering and Technology (Jamaica), the Korean Trust Fund, and a 3D studio based in Latin America that's seeking to open a branch (or branches) in the Caribbean. Even though my primary goal is to build my business, having a job to cover the health-related bills and fund my hustle wouldn't hurt - assuming I can handle working in a studio again. Speaking of jobs...
  
  
• The 9-5 From Tartarus: I quit the literal back breaking one on June 30. I held out long enough to work with my team mates to finish the one animation project that the studio had on its roster, learn all I could from my supervisor before his contract had expired, and squeeze enough money out of my meager two-years worth of salary into an emergency fund for after I left. I'm also very grateful to have the financial and emotional support of relatives, which is something I know a lot of people don't have. Since I'm currently reading Unscripted , you could say my FTE was when I got injured two weeks into that job and had to deal with my boss's lackadaisical response. Boss just wanted the job done and they didn't care that their ergonomic nightmare of a cubicle
  1. would fit right in with the other torture instruments in the Tower of London, or
  2. that the continued damage was affecting the quality of the work that they wanted.
  Since said damage was making it extremely difficult to build my business in my off hours, something had to give. I had to leave. I know the smart thing would have been to have something lined up before I left, but I didn't have anything else left in me. I was already running on Tramadol and Iboprofen just to get through the day (plus, I suspect the place is on its last legs but you didn't hear that from me). Besides, they made it abundantly clear that I was expendable. 'Skilled worker' or not.

• Road to Recovery: With me being free from Spinewreckville, I can refocus on getting my neck and shoulder better with specialist visits and physiotherapy. It's not cheap, especially without insurance, but it's necessary if I'm to have a prayer of moving forward with my business and/or getting another job (home-based or outside of home) to tide me over while I build it. Speaking of insurance, I have sought coverage and I've been flatly denied. Boy, they really hate you if you have preexisting conditions. But I press on.
  
  And there you have it, a summary of what I've been doing outside the forum so far. I can't promise that I'll be updating frequently but I do plan to keep chugging on outside of the forum. Until next time!

 

[Peta of JamRock]

I ust want to take a moment to hail up the biggest resource I have at my disposal: supportive friends. Serious, my best friend who turned herself into a web developer over the past few years took time out of her sleep schedule to walk me through how to set up a store on my site. AND then she turned around and cleaned up my list of plug-ins - something I didn't ask her to do; she just offered. For better point of reference, she lives in England and it was 10:41 PM there when she was half way through cleaning up my dashboard.

All hail supportive friends!

 

[Claude Roy]

Wow, that's fantastic my friend. That's a true blessing of a friend that you have right there and that is worth the whole world. Congrats on your progress and keep hustling mate

 

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[Peta of JamRock]

Wow, that's fantastic my friend. That's a true blessing of a friend that you have right there and that is worth the whole world. Congrats on your progress and keep hustling mate

Thanks, Claude! Yea, I can't imagine I'd ever have gotten this far without their help. I hope I can return the favour for her soon!