today i sorted out my tax and as ever, it was a messy confused business which left me wondering where any money i’ve earned this year has gone, how the hell i did my tax last year since i can’t find any evidence of it, and whether you can go to jail for simply being an idiot. i mean really, i think artists choose their career because the other side of their brain dun wurk so gud, so we live and draw our own mad little fantasy world to live in and when the real world reminds us we need to do, y’know, sums n tings, we go a bit mad. i’m not smart by any stretch, i can just about count to seven.
anyway i hope it’s done now, and i look forward to the massive tax bill in december (they usually time it for the week before christmas, nice). at the moment times are lean anyway, like every other profession being a freelance illustrator is drying up and the work is disappearing. at the moment i can say there is practically no paid work about. personally i don’t mind, in my stupid naive way i was hoping to take a month off to work on my own projects and to hell with earning a living, but now i’m actually there the panic starts to set in. still, while i have a lot more free time i may as well make the most of it, and i’ve been working hard on new things.
at some point i’m going to set up an etsy store, and have been working on a series of paintings like the one above to make into postcards and prints. it’s been wonderful painting again after all this time, but i remember why i stopped doing it, a day of brushwork leaves me body all bone-cracky. still, soon as i can find a decent printer i should get these babies done, i hope soon because i know i’m terrible at selling my own work and it’s only momentum that keeps me going. hopefully etsy might be a good avenue for me though?
also working on the Find Chaffy website, its long and slow but when the Chaffy thing begins i hope it’s gonna be really exciting to see! alongside that i’m trying to work on two different comics, one of which is Corporate Skull. i’ve written the first seven pages and, although it does involve brutal murder and furry porn, i’m not sure if it’s working.
and there’s other things. there’s always other things. i think there are too many things, my brain flits from idea to idea and gets excited about the newness of something without seeing through the finishingness of the thing i started before. to be honest this feels like a creative time, but a frustrating one. i need something big to sink my teeth into, to force me to concentrate, because at the moment i’m like a five year old being distracted by seventeen different tv screens, and then having a pissy tantrum.

well, thats the jamie update. beep beep beep beep! tune in later for flange, spink, and flutulatory smagasm.

jx