the last time i was this productive (creatively speaking) was while working on within arm’s reach, and before that, it was during covid, back when i picked up bosca ceoil and studied a bit of music theory. at some point i should probably give that another go, but right now i don’t have a project that really calls for any tunes.
so, yeah! i’ve been learning so much about web design lately, and i’m finally at a point where i can troubleshoot things on my own, which is such a huge improvement from 2 weeks ago in which i still struggled to wrap my head around the difference between classes and ids, or how flexbox worked. on top of that, i started messing around with 3d modeling, which has been on my bucket list for at least 3 years! it still blows my mind that just a month ago i was looking at 3d decorations online thinking “wow, i could never make something like this.” and now i actually can. once i set up a gallery on this site, i’ll share them (they’re obviously way below my 2d skillset, but hey! small victories.)
in the meantime, i’m still figuring out what to do work-wise.
a little bit of context: my main thing is that i work as a colorist for a well-known italian comic artist. the workload changes month by month—sometimes it’s just enough to cover food (just food. no other basic necessities), other times it’s a full-on livable income. of course it all depends on how many comic pages he has for me. it’s clearly meant to be a side gig, and ideally i should be doing online commissions on the side too, but over the years i’ve been doing less and less of that because, to put it simply, drawing has started to really stress me out to a degree which i can’t bring myself to do it when i don’t want to.
a few months ago, a friend mentioned a 5 month course for becoming an administrative assistant which, at the end, helps you connect with offices to ensure you at least get a few calls. i called, and it sounded like something i could handle—even if it's full of interruptions and involves dealing with people. the plan was to do it part-time while continuing to color for the comic artist.
but then, right around that time, i got a huge amount of work from him and i realized something: there’s no standard part-time job that would let me keep this side gig. sometimes the coloring takes up so many hours in a day, for weeks on end, that it just wouldn’t be compatible.
this is something i should have already realized months ago, when i worked part-time at a fast food chain for a month, and during that time, a big project came in. i had to ask a friend to help me with some of the pages because there literally weren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.
the thing is, i am not willing to give up this gig. it’s a type of work i enjoy, with a guy who is nice, pays on time, keeps coming back, and with a good hourly pay that i could never get anywhere in retail or any other job with my current skillset. it would be absurd to throw this away for a job i will most likely hate, so the next best thing is to find a job around this project-based work.
so now i’m thinking of applying to the place where my partner works. it’s basically museum security, but it’s an on-call contract and you choose the days you work (they can be as little as one day per week, up to 6 days a week). only issue would be that you must give your availability weeks in advance, but that’s still a more versatile alternative to a standard job.
well, i have two months to think about it: i have a lot of pages queued up that i’ve already started on. i’m trying this new thing of like, working 5 days and resting 2, you know, like normal people. because usually my mo is that i work 18 consecutive days and then i can’t even look at the folder for two weeks, so i figured that since i’m turning 30 this year it was time to establish a better work-life balance. to brighter days!