For this weeks #colour_collective, I would like to introduce, Copper. She has an entire book written about her I haven’t published yet. Once the current Grey Moon story ends, we join Copper and Iron on a road trip through decaying lands.
Werewolves
Once again, Layne, Alex and I will be watching a Saturday film flick. This week, some nostalgia and biteyness on the moors, American Werewolf in London. Want to watch and prattle along with us? Find it on your favourite streaming service and look us up on Twitter.
Put simply, if you enjoy any of my groaners, fearful horrors and helpful blog posts, and you want to keep that going and see more of it, Patreon is the place to support it.
You can pledge as little as $1 a month. Are the groaners over breakfast worth more than a few gems on Candy Crush Saga? Are they worth more than a McDonald’s coffee? How about the price of a scratchcard? No, not that one. That’s a winning card. I mean that one there that the lady just wasted a dollar on. She looks a little sad, doesn’t she? We all know that feeling.
Should you deem Little Fears worthy of support, please think about supporting me. Thank you.
A super short post, with some handy courses and links below. A comment to Mr Bongdoogle about Threadless the other day.
Ahh, OK. The service has been great. The quality took a drop about May this year on the Tees, however, it’s still the best out there along with Society 6.I can’t stand Zazzle and CafePress who use paper thin, Fruit of the Loom and Gildan. My sales are about 95% tees and 5% prints. I don’t know why the prints don’t sell from Threadless. I think I need to make a return to Etsy for the art prints and keep the Threadless store as tees. My store shows I have never had a returned item to Threadless.
Between Threadless, Redbubble and Society 6, there’s not much difference. I’m going to stick with my Threadless store as I still feel the Tee quality is good and I get regular sales from it. I get between $3-$5 per sale, Threadless get the rest.
For my art prints, they will return to my Etsy store. I do have some sexy as feck canvas effect 220gsm art print card. It looks awesome and everybody at markets loves them. If anyone has any requests, let me know in comments. Also, Layne, I haven’t forgotten about Cloud and Barn!
If you want to visit my Threadless store, click here.
If you want to visit my Etsy store, it’ll be back in a few days, link pending.
Below are a couple of courses from Jeff Staple. A creative entrepreneur who’s dabbled in t-shirt design.
Between his global streetwear brand Staple Design and renowned retail store Reed Space, jeffstaple has designed and sorted through thousands of t-shirts over the past two decades.
In this class, he celebrates the power of the “tee” by providing insights on how to concept, design, and manufacture a shirt that can form the foundation of your business.
This class is perfect for aspiring fashion entrepreneurs, designers, and everyone looking to spread a message in one of the most effective ways: a t-shirt. Learn everything you need to know about the types of tees available and what to expect when you dive in to making them.
As an added bonus, students who submit their actual t-shirt creations in the class have the opportunity to get purchased and placed in jeff’s store, Reed Space.
In this non-traditional class, you’ll gain access to a series of interviews that cover essential topics for the creative entrepreneur like marketing, design, and branding. These interviews were originally part of an initiative called The Board, which is a group of 100 creators that are working together to redefine the K-Swiss brand.
Blogger Natalie Suarez sits down with some top creative entrepreneurs to go through their experience building their businesses. You’ll learn from:
Sharmadean Reid, founder of WAH Nails over in London, will provide some pointers on developing your business plan.
Scott Sasso, founder of 10Deep here in New York, will speak on brand positioning, which will allow your consumers to distinguish your brand/business from everybody else.
Tyler Gage and Dan Mccombie – founders of Runa Tea, a tea company supporting indigenous farmers in the Amazon. They’ll give some tips on building community and conscience into your business.
The Fat Jewish, everyone’s favorite instagrammer, who gives some insight on social media strategy and how you can leverage today’s platforms to build your brand.
Rachel Wang, fashion director of Allure Magazine, speaks on the importance of your lookbook and Brand Imagery as a product company.
Jeff Staple provides tips on telling a story through your products.
K-Swiss is committed to outfitting and inspiring this generation of entrepreneurs. For additional creative inspiration and product updates, make sure to follow the brand on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The lead Fear of this weeks update. Awwww, the littlest of little fears. A teensy fear for this weeks #Colour_Collective.
Walker
The creature I showed off earlier this week. She’s now on a tee over on my Threadless store and she’s available from $12.95.
Semi-related, I’ll be sharing my experience selling tees on Threadless for Monday’s process blog post. If you have any questions about Threadless, let me know, and I’ll get them on the Monday blog.
Head on over to Patreon and pledge $10 or more a month and not only will you help with Hydra’s feed bill, but you will also get that weekly shout out with a link back to your site. https://www.patreon.com/littlefears
I’ve mentioned before I draw and write every morning. My usual aim is six tales, six square panels and one full page of monsters by 11 am. I thought I’d share a page today of doodles and how they look up until final use.
I’ve used a couple of the creatures for the Colour Collective on Twitter. The other’s haven’t been touched yet. Some separated out monsters from the image above first. I take a photo of the page, then select by colour in GIMP to get the monsters digitized.
Reptile.
Two-headed reptile scorpion.
Possibly snot.
Some of the characters ended up in the Colour Collective posts.
Walker.
One of two-headed reptile scorpions heads.
Walker was based on an image in an upcoming story. The story image was doodled about five months ago and was an undefined creature on the road to the afterlife. I find something very appealing about her. She had a single tale doodle and was never used again.
Last use, their appearance in my Threadless store. Most of the leg works been done digitizing the creatures so turning them into prints and tees is pretty easy.
I quite like Walker on a tee. She’ll be available on my Threadless store shortly.
I’ve said a few times now. The Little Fears were never meant to be an actual income stream. It started as a daft side project to combine the silly doodles and silly stories from the Blue Moon series. Six months later and they were beginning to earn their keep.A year later and I am seriously questioning if they should be my sole focus for my income. When I quit my terrible job last year, I never thought a portion of my income would be coming from scribbled monsters and awful puns.
The next 270 tales I post here, cover the following three books. Grey Moon, the current stories in which Reala finds herself the landlady of a pub. Starring Yuffie, Fuen and Lucy. Brass City, focussing entirely on two new characters on a road trip through a post-apocalyptic landscape. Then DCI Lily, centred on another two new characters chasing a serial killer. All three of these books share one thing in common. They feature barely any of the characters I’ve been writing about for the last year.
I am a sentimental, soppy twit for sure. I’m not ready to drop Hydra, Red, Spectre, Sprite, Serpent, Clouds, Spiders or any of the other regular characters of the Little Fears into the abyss of forgotten tales. They have given me an alternative to returning to a 9 to 5 (or in my case, 6 am – 8 pm and beyond). They have introduced me to some fab new friends on the internet. They’ve spread a lot of cheer and given a lotta people a smile on their morning commutes.
So now I don’t have to worry about characters and stories colliding from old books, I shall be posting the last of the January tales and the Spiders stories with new videos. Every Tuesday and Thursday evening will see a retro Little Fears. The ones that never had a video the first time around.
This blog post reads a bit like a teens Tumblr update. Don’t care; my characters mean a lot to me. I imagine most writers feel something for the personalities they create on paper.
Speaking of new stories, the next books pretty much ready to publish. Just trying to figure out a cover for it now.
Something like that maybe? I do like it, but I think I need to alter the sizes and shades of grey a little. Dunno, I’ll figure it out.
Thinking I should start selling my spare book covers as well. I have piles of the ruddy things on my hard drive that look fab but don’t fit the books I’m releasing.
Ah, an old character I doodled but hasn’t been in a single published tale yet. A quick re-doodle and she’s in this weeks #Colour_Collective.
Threadless – Sale
Last chance to get free shipping on our Threadless store orders. Good Christmas presents, just saying! Use the promotional code CHEER7cca8e at checkout. Offer ends December 15th.
Alex, Layne and I will be watching Land of the Dead and having a laugh on Twatter this weekend. We’ll be hitting play at 9 pm GMT or 4 pm EST for our American friends, and tweeting like zombie splatter fangirls. You can find our Twitter handles at @Chew_On_Glass, @SynBoomstick and @TheLittleFears. Watch along with us if ya fancy.
Have you noticed my weekly update posts have had links to my new patrons? Well, not for the last couple weeks… Do you want a shout out at the bottom of my weekly update posts? Head on over to Patreon and pledge $10 or more a month and not only will you help with Hydra’s feed bill, but you will also get that weekly shout out with a link back to your site. Hit me up on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/littlefears
A super short update today. The character portrait for this weeks #Colour_Collective is Seed. One of my four main bugly characters. Seed used to feature in an art print I sold on Etsy. I have it in my head, and once I have a studio, I want to do a stop-motion animation of the bugly’s. Roughly tear them out of card leaving rough edges and cement them in hairspray, so they hold shape. A South Park’esque style animation with Fears style humour.
A very big thanks and shout out to mcaimbeul of BongDoogle for a donation to the Fears this week. Thank you again, sir!
Next week, new stories as three ladies walk into a bar. I hope you all enjoy!
Is that a book? Is it free for 1.5 more days? Is it awesome? Is that another cushion… Yes… Yes, it is…
Also, my book is still free, but as the title suggests, only for 1.5 more days. Head on over to Amazon and buy it for $0.00 and you can download it to any PC, tablet, iPad and Kindle ereader.
If you grab a copy and enjoy, please do leave me a review. It helps me so much! If you leave me a review, let me know in comments and I’ll give you and your own website a shout out during the week.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking holy heck does this man have a lot of soft furnishings. Well yes. Yes, I doodley do!
Also, my book is still free, but as the title suggests, only for 2.5 more days. Head on over to Amazon and buy it for $0.00 and you can download it to any PC, tablet, iPad and Kindle ereader.
If you grab a copy and enjoy, please do leave me a review. It helps me so much! If you leave me a review, let me know in comments and I’ll give you and your own website a shout out during the week.
Little Fears 