Website, Online Store and Blog launch - What's next?

Willkomen, Bienvenue, Ayup me ducks! 🦆

Thanks so much for stopping by not just my website but where you find yourselves now, here, on my itty bitty blog. I won't lie, it's been quite a while since I last attempted to write a blog post and the experience is giving me some especially niche de-ja-vu to my days doom-scrolling through the depths of Tumblr as a university student... alas, I must endure.

To those that haven't navigated to the "about" page yet - Hello! I'm Ces. I'm an Illustrator based in Lincolnshire (East Midlands, UK) with a soft spot for the silly, whimsical, expressive, stylised and colourful aspects of sequential arts. Everything you find on my store page I've designed, illustrated, printed, and packaged myself and I take a lot of joy in the process (no A.I. or drop shipping malarkey here). My first passionate endeavour into drawing was when I was around ten years old and started making comics featuring characters based on plush-teddy-bear-keychains I was especially fond of at the time to get a giggle out of my younger brother and friends...which in retrospect seems like it could've served as some level of ominous foreshadowing for my mischief to come (I might share some of those comics here someday). I take a lot of inspiration from animation and comics and one of my long term goals is to make a graphic novel myself some day.

I'd like to keep this first post brief just to outline what you'll find on the website as-of-writing on launch day and my plans for it and this blog for the future.

Fanfarilllus.com Launch - Website Version 1.0

• Fanfarillus Online store launch featuring new, old and improved stock

• Blog Launch (Fancy seeing you here!)

• Contact page & Social links
  

Coming in Website Update 2.0

• Portfolio of curated Illustrative works (if you'd like a sneak peak for the time being, you're best bet is my Instagram page)

• Custom commission information

• Wholesale & Licensing information

• Upcoming Market / Convention exhibiting details (Find out where you can come see me & peruse my wares in person!)

• Even more new additions to the shop!
  

So then, what's next for this blog? I've had a few ideas and I'd love to hear your thoughts but a particular one that comes to mind comes from the personal reflection that as a freelance illustrator, I find there's a lot of self-taught learning involved, whether that be art-work adjacent or otherwise. In the past I've found it a bit of a headscratcher trying to find online resources and peer-advice relevant to this particular niche and have had to wing it more often than not to answer burning questions with varying results;

What paper works best for the type of artwork I want to make prints of? How can I customise a table for markets and where can I find the right materials? How can I stop my Cricut machine from sending my blood pressure through the roof?

(Pictured) Night of a thousand bloomin' paper/print tests. My printer has yet to recover.

In short: I'd like to use this space, in part, to share tips, tricks and resources as I trial them by fire myself (so less of us have to expend the blood, sweat, tears and finances). Got a burning arty-curiosity yourself? Leave a comment below and it might become my next puzzle to solve.

Otherwise, expect to see some arty-commentary relative to portfolio and shop updates, that I hope are informative, insightful and if all else fails, has you utter a quiet snort of mild amusement!

I'll be sending blog post and shop update notifications out via my mailing list which you can subscribe to now back on the home page.

I'll be back again very soon, but for now, I'm off to wrap my head around my next great endeavour; vanquishing the "millennial pause" in my video content.

Tarrah for now!

Ces