Woke up this morning to discover a rather large project in my in-box--the art director needs it ASAP, not much in the way of guidelines, use my imagination, do work like the last set I did for them, but please help! Using my imagination is generally much easier for me than having to meet strict image requirements, so this is a good thing. And I'm eager to do it because I have learned that if you help out an art director in dire time straits, you have often made a friend for life, which is a VERY good thing, but combined with all the other good things currently on tap, including a logo design dumped in my lap the other day, the ongoing Fans work (three-quarters done, but still a ways to go yet, with deadline starting to loom on the horizon) and the commissions I have ongoing, and some other projects I agreed to, and of course, Digger, I have an embarassment of work.
This is pretty much how freelancing goes, mind you. Feast and famine. I'm delighted to get it all, but it's a little mentally overwhelming. I just have to not think about the totalities and just keep doing the Next Thing To Be Done.
The irony is that I was so grumpy yesterday, I had planned to take today off to work on a painting that I'm really enjoying and wanted to work on.
And goddamnit, I'm gonna do it anyway. It will mean having to work this weekend, but I don't care--strike while the iron is hot, and if you don't work on the stuff you do for love, it's a lot harder to enjoy working on the stuff you do for money.
I had sent out a mailing to White Wolf and WotC a few weeks back, thinking "Hmm, I could use the work, and it's worth a shot," and the even greater irony is that now if they wanted to get some work from me, I'd be in--well, not quite a world of hurt, but a smallish planetoid of distinct discomfort, anyhow. I'd still take it, just to get my foot in the door there, of course--I've been trying to get my foot in those doors for years!--but I would be forced to turn hermit.
Well, more hermit...