Hello! Super late post tonight. I was thinking of just posting this and then sharing it tomorrow. I dunno, I’m pretty tired. That being said, I do have a few things to talk about. First off, I’m still loving these design things. I think I could do these forever. Don’t worry though, I’ll move on. Eventually.

Today was a special day as I hit an important milestone. Well, maybe not a milestone, but for me personally it was an important day as I created a new page on my Facebook fan page as well as on this website. In the top right you’ll see a “Leave Tip” tab. On my Facebook fan page there’s a tab as well as an app button on the left side of the main artist profile page. I’ve spent a good deal of time researching how to go about asking for people’s hard-earned money in the best and most respectful way possible. Was this a normal thing to do? Apparently yes. As I see it all the time on many different types of websites. It’s often referred to as a “donate” button, but I definitely don’t want to think of it as a donation. I like to consider it a gift exchange.

How is it a gift exchange? For awhile I was trying to figure out how to sell my artwork, or make some kind of a living, through my work. I’ve been considering adding a donate button for a few months now, but it never felt right. I don’t want to do anything, ever, if I don’t feel 100% positive about it. I don’t want charity, I want to give people something in return. However, finding anyone out there, especially complete strangers, who want to buy any of my artwork just seemed incredibly daunting. It’ll no doubt be something I’ll try to achieve later in life, but for now, I was open to fresh ideas on how to go about making money doing what I love to do. My best friend, who lives out in the Yukon, suggested that rather than simply receiving donations, think of it as a gift exchange. They send you money to help you continue with your work, while you send them a personalized drawing in the mail.

Her idea kinda blew my mind. It makes perfect sense. I’m still unsure whether I’ll even receive a single “gift”, but the fact that they pay money to help me out, and I send them something, physically, in return as a thank you, just absolutely flips all the negative feelings I had about the whole thing. I’ll also be mentioning them (with their permission, of course) in blog posts and on Facebook, whenever I receive a gift. It’s always nice to get a little recognition when you help someone out like this. It’s a fantastic idea, and I’m not really sure if it’s been done before. I certainly haven’t heard of anything like this. It’s exciting.

Hmm… just entertaining a funny thought here, but what if I get an insane amount of donations. I mean, there aren’t many people that even know about this website, so that’s next to impossible. But I just mean… how busy will I be drawing and sending out all those pictures?