Any Illustrators in Utah?
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So, I'm not sure if anyone is in a similar situation, but I basically work from home which means I have limited interaction with others. It's kind of a new experience for me, and I thought it wouldn't be a problem. However, I've come to the conclusion that working in isolation isn't always a good thing, especially for extended periods of time.
I'm wondering if there are any illustrators in the area that have a similar situation and would want to form a sort of group meetup and just discuss anything whether it be illustration or something else. Maybe even drawing sessions.
For those not in the area, if you've been in a similar situation, how have you coped with it?
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Unfortunately I am no longer in Utah--but I totally feel your pain. Being alone in my office all day has really helped me to boost my artistic skill, but it really does not help me to get in good interactions with people.
One thing that has helped a little bit is this forum. No, it isn't meeting in person, which is important, but it is a community of artists who are more or less in the same boat as me. They help remind me that I'm not alone in this experience.
I also have started going to the local SCBWI meetings, and that has been fun. The meetings are mostly attended by writers here, but since I want to write and illustrate its nice to have some time to nourish that side of my creativity.
But really, I'm still trying to solve this problem myself. It doesn't help that while in Utah I had a really tight group of artistic friends that I could count on for critiques and general support, and out here its like the rug has been pulled out from under me so to speak. I still have contact with them, but I miss voices and faces and hugs. And even if I returned to Utah, one by one they're finding different places to put down roots.
I'm slowly putting feelers out, though, and hope to find some artist friends out here in time. I wish you as much luck as I hope to have myself
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I didn't know what SCBWI was, so I looked it up. I'll have to try to become active in that community somehow.
And thanks for your reply. I'm assuming that a fair amount of people within the freelance/creative industry faces this issue in some form or another. Which means that sooner or later, I should bump into some like-minded individuals sometime, right? Hopefully the same goes for you
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One thing that helped me here in Omaha was to create a Meetup on meetup.com. It costs like 15 a month to create/host the group but once you get a steady group of people, like we did, we essentially moved it to a facebook group. I created one for digital artists (was thinking production pipeline type stuff) and we ended up having 110+ members with about 15-20 that show up on a consistent basis. Maybe that would help some.
