š #052 - minimum value newsletter, a zine and the least amount of ink information possible.
In which I detail three things I've started. It's a short one this week, and I mean actually short!
Way back in issue #20 I wrote āThree Rules for Newslettersā - which you donāt need to go back and read although it certainly helps my stats if you do.
The short version is that; often artists set up a newsletter for a ābehind the scenesā view, which is fine ācause everyone likes to peek behind the curtain a little. But, unless each newsletter offers some nugget of wisdom, or āvalueā, people quickly tune out; itās only so interesting for so long.
My Three Rules for Newsletters, basically says this: newsletters can have varying amounts of āvalueā, sometimes theyāre small snippets, other times a whole slab of helpful stuff. Then, when youāve offered enough value you can drop in an āaskā, you can draw back some of that value for yourself.
Or, you can cash in some of that value, to get away with a value-free newsletter!
Iām sure you can guess by now where this is going, because dear reader, since the last newsletter Iāve basically done fuck all, and have no advice or help to offer. Iām cashing in my built up value chips to get away with a short newsletter.
Here we go.
# NEW JOB & TWO OTHER THINGS
More on this in the next newsletter, but yes, Iāve started a new & different job. Itās doing something I love, which isnāt pen plotting (but is something else Iāve been doing in the studio), so sits nicely along with everything.
It does however take up a perfectly reasonable amount of time, so Iāve just had to get more efficient and less slack.
Which has boiled down to deciding what not to do each quarter and picking just two or three projects instead of all the things.
A quick example, I am not working on my online shop this quarter, even though I need to. Thereās actually a lot of things Iām not doing this quarter, and somehow deciding that has been somewhat freeing.
So now Iām spending the next 11 weeks doing my job and two other things.
# STUDIO OPERATING MANUAL, WINTER 2025 EDITION
Thing one!
Over the holiday a friend (hi Laura) suggested that as my studio was now pretty much how I wanted it to be, it could be a great time to do a traditional ā[insert current year] Studio Tourā YouTube video.
But, Iāve already covered bits and bobs of that in my #Weeknotes videos already, so I figured Iād reframe it a little.
Instead of pointing at various areas of the studio and saying what they do, I wanted to flip that around and say āhereās what I/we do in the studio, and those things are facilitated by those areasā.
Saying āI ship plots and prints out on a Tuesday & Thursday, and that happens over thereā, rather than āThatās the shipping area of the studioā.
A change so subtle that the moment I thought āOh, I could make a zine about the function of the studio, a āstudio operating manualā if you willā and started writing notes I immediately went back to describing what various bit of the studio do rather than why.
Oh well.
But, now that Iāve decided that Iām only doing a couple of things a quarter, and those things take about 12 weeks, I figured I should do a better job of documenting those things as I go along, even if I havenāt yet done much and thereās not much to show.
So, shown above; me figuring out how many pages Iāll need for the zine, and which page goes on which side when printing because itās super confusing.
Partly inspired by Tom Sachsā Caprice Owner's Manual, and Ten Bullets Zine (this isnāt my version of Ten Bullets, but rather a different set of ten rules than can be run in parallel, apart from rule five).
# THE SEA HOWLS FROM THE WEST
The other project only has a name, a vibe and one ink test (shown above) so far.
The name is āThe Sea Howls From The Westā, and the vibe is; dark grey seas, dark skies, fog, Welsh coastlines, and words.
Itās going to be a series of pen plots of various sizes, some generative poetry, and a zine.
Although the zine isnāt going to happen this quarter, Iām using this quarter to make a test zine where I can make a bunch of mistakes (see project one), before I do it āproperlyā next quarter.
Once again though, the idea is this isnāt going to be a quick thing where I go āhey, look at this thing Iāve madeā, but rather a longer thing where I go āhey, look at this tiny amount of progress Iāve madeā.
So weāll see how that works out.
More next newsletter (or maybe not) and on the social media.
# THE END
I said this one was going to be short and here we are already, delightfully at the end, go us! I shan't take up any more of your time, because letās face it, weāve both got to get on.
I will see you again in the next newsletter with MORE zine, MORE pen plot project, and MORE value, on the 23rd of January.
Love you all, and stay awesome,
Dan
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Hi back! Also, the studio tour was requested mostly because Iād like to see what storage things you use so I can get them too š