San Smith

Ask San: A few career questions!

It's been a while since I've posted an "Ask San" type post! Victoria Black, a student at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, recently emailed me a few questions to answer for her class and I thought I'd share them here...

 

1. What or who is the most valuable contact you made in your career - and how did you make that contact?

I don't think I have a "who" but I do have a "what" when it comes to valuable contacts… I feel the internet and my blog has really opened up the world of networking for me. Through networking on the internet I have met tons of amazing and interesting people who sometimes hire me or recommend me on projects. My career as a freelance artist wouldn't have been possible with out the internet.

 

2. How do you know when a piece is done?

 When it's getting close to it's due date! Hahaha! Just kidding, although I have worked on things up until the very day they are due because I have a slight perfectionist streak in me… But when I finish up early, its usually when it just feels right. Sometimes you just know it's time to stop!

 

3. What inspires you? How do you tackle artist block?

At the moment, I find a lot of inspiration from Tumblr and Pinterest… but outside the internet I feel inspired by my toy collection, cartoons, children's books, fashion and music. I keep my eyes open and try to take in the environment around me while I go through day to day life, and I often take photos of things in my town that interest me to use for inspiration later on.

 

4. Does your art completely fund your living?

Yes, but in past years I did have spots where work wasn't as steady and I'd have to live off some of my savings until more work came in. It can be tough, but its always worth it.

 

5. What stimulates you other than art?

Spending time with loved ones, traveling, photography, fashion, music, cartoons and movies! 

 

6. Who are your favorite artists?

Bruce Timm, Brigette Barrager, Tara McPherson, Katie Rice, and so so many more… I made a Pinterest board a while back actually with some of my favorite illustrations/artists, you can see it here: http://pinterest.com/sansmith/illustration/ My list of favorite artists is forever growing.

 

7. What is the first thing you do when you enter the studio?

Open the blinds so sunshine can come in, turn on all my lights (there are a lot, it's dark in there!) and turn on some music! Doing that stuff helps me get a good start on the day.

 

8. What was your favorite toy as a kid?

Oh gosh - I didn't have just one! A few things I loved were Ninja Turtles, Muppets, Fraggles, my Rainbow Brite doll and a pink plush puppy. I love toys!

 

Have any questions you'd like to ask me? Send me an email or leave them in the comments! :)

Pink Hair: Frequently Asked Questions

I've been getting a lot of hair questions over the past couple of months, and the FAQ I used to direct people was very old... so I thought I'd make a new Pink Hair FAQ for reoccurring questions I get!

 What products do you use on your hair? 

• Back to Basics color protecting shampoo
• Pureology antifade hydrating conditioner on the ends of my hair
• A little cucumber melon baby powder during in-between days as a dry shampoo
• TIGI's Bed Head "After Party"

 What kind of dye and bleach do you use? Is your dye permanent? 

I use Special Effects Atomic pink dye diluted with conditioner, and the Beyond the Zone bleach kit. I only bleach and dye my roots once a month. When applying touch up dye, I only apply the darkest of the diluted dye to my roots... And ever 2-3 months I apply it all over my head when the rest of the hair has faded significantly. Special Effects is a semi-permanent dye. The atomic pink color is extremely long lasting compared to any other brand's pink I've used, and it's easy to maintain. Fun fact: Atomic Pink glows under a black light!

 How much conditioner to Atomic Pink dye do you use to diffuse it?

I just add conditioner until it looks the color looks the way I want it! Here is a photo example - mixed dye is on the left and straight up dye on the right. You can use whatever conditioner you want, as long as it doesn't have color to it so you can see the dye properly. Also, I recommend using a container you don't mind staining since its very possible... I use old glass paint jars so I can see if the bottom of the dye is mixing equally to the top.

 How do you keep your hair from looking damaged?

First - I think I should mention I have very very oily hair, so bleaching it kinda balances it out and makes my hair more manageable. However, all the stuff I do to my hair would work well for regular or dry hair too: I only use a wide tooth comb when I brush my hair - wet or dry. When I blow dry my hair I do it in sections and always blast it with cold hair after drying each section. Sounds weird, but those actions really seem to make a difference on reducing damage... I also put TIGI's "After Party" on the ends after drying to make my hair have a little more shine. I don't flat iron my hair except for my bangs, and I try to get trims every couple of months. Also - I cannot stress enough to use conditioner for colored/damaged hair. A good conditioner is SO important. Without doing these things my hair can look extremely dry and damaged. 

 How do you style your hair?

I like to curl the majority of my hair with Remington hot rollers (with pins, not plastic clamp holders). I purchased them over 10 years ago and they still work great! You can get a lot of different effects with hot rollers, but I prefer to brush out the curls for a softer look. To hold the style I use Suave extra hold hairspray in 7, and to give my bangs a slight curl, I use a 1" flat iron by conair.

 Does your hair stain your clothes or skin?

The first week that my hair is touched up it can stain my finger tips or nails if I touch my hair or scratch my scalp... but that's about it. When I put a lot of dye on my ends (such as when I do an all over color touch up) I can see a little staining on my neck or light colored jewelry for the first week, but it stops by the second week. Any dye showing up on my skin can be removed with face wash. My shower is often stained pink though! 

 How do people react to your hair? And what did your parents think when you first started dying it?

I live in an eccentric sort of area so I'm typically left alone, but while I had a part time job I got a lot of comments from customers. Most of the time it was stuff like, "I like your hair!" or "How did you do that/is that your real hair?!", and then sometimes I got creepy requests to touch my hair or unwanted "compliments". It can be a mixed bag, and having strangers talk to you a lot can be intense sometimes but you get used to it after a while. Over all, people are generally nice and curious about it, and comments from children can be really cute. I try to focus on the fun stuff because I don't want to change my appearance due to a few negative or weird comments. 

As for my parents, I've been dying my hair off and on for over 10 years now... While they prefer me with my natural hair color (which is a dark brownish black), they didn't give me too hard of a time because they felt it wasn't permanent and I could be doing a lot worse things as a teenager. Now that I'm an adult, I think my family just finds it fun and quirky. 

 A few pink hair photos from the past year:

   

 For any other questions - you can leave a comment below or check out these links:

• The Pink Hair community on LiveJournal - a fantastic resource for anyone wanting to go pink
• My previous post on hair questions from 2009 - covering all colors and questions I've had over the years

Ask San: Art and Finance related questions

I've been getting a lot of art related questions on my formspring and in person lately... along with a lot of money related questions. It's been almost a year since I made my last "Ask San: Art related questions" post, so I figured it was time to update it! Here are my most frequently asked questions and comments about art, money and my career - some I've already answered on my formspring but I elaborated on the responses here. Hope this is helpful! 

Working for yourself and Finance related questions

1. How did you start working for yourself? 
   
   The short version of how I quit my job and started working for myself: I paid off all my credit cards the first year I started working towards this goal, and and then for the next two years I started saving money while building up a portfolio. While I did this, I had a full time job and I usually worked 50+ hours a week at it. After a long day at work, I'd come home and work on freelance in the evenings and on the weekends. Eventually I had enough work completed and money saved that I felt comfortable enough to put in my two weeks notice. I left my job in February and I had 6 months worth of income saved just in case things went horribly wrong. Truthfully, I wish I had saved more, but I don't think I could have handled the stress of what I was doing for another 6 months or year... Preparing to quit your job to work for yourself isn't always fun or easy, but it is completely do-able. You just have to figure out an exit plan that works with your goals and your current life situation.
    
2. What do you do about health insurance or your 401k?!
   
   I still have Health Insurance! I have an inexpensive medical plan through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia. I did have dental coverage through my boyfriend's company, but he just recently changed jobs 2 weeks ago so now I'm looking for a new dental plan. When I quit my job, I never intended on going with out health insurance. I made sure my monthly budget included paying for that! As for my 401k, I haven't been adding to it since I left my last job 6 months ago. However, I do plan on doing that once I have a better grasp on what my income will be.
    
3. You are so lucky to be working at home! (or) Do you like working at home alone?
   
   I don't like to complain or talk about the negative aspects of it online, but there are just as many bad points as there are good ones about working for yourself. The good: there are the perks of being able to decide when you will take a day off without asking for permission... if you accidentally sleep in nobody is going to fire you (unless you are on a tight deadline! eeek). The bad: there is the issue of being lonely... I'm a people person, and working from home alone can be very hard sometimes. The nice side of being lonely during work hours is that you become eager to keep in touch with your loved ones even when it isn't convenient. The downside is sometimes you are too busy with work to see them, so you can end up being alone a lot. Also, sometimes work just doesn't come in! Which is the worst - it can be so frustrating to want work and have no paying projects coming through. When this happens I try to find other things to keep busy on and make money with, which can be challenging and make me miss the constant flow of work that came steady employment. And to be honest, work has been slow the past month and half so I'm probably going to get a part time job for a bit. I'm looking forward to a small consistant paycheck and having a job where I can visit with people. It'll be a refreshing change and probably help with my creativity!

Updated my Etsy shop + Formspring!

So there have been a few changes over here as of late... I'm have a new site design - and have added pages for shopping, hiring me for commissions, and much more. A lot of the text is still being developed - but I'll let you guys know when I complete pages! Something else that is exciting: I updated my etsy shop which you can now browse on my site!

I added some new original art pieces to the store and lowered prices on already existing items! I'm getting ready for new inventory in a few weeks - there will be new Stickers, Jewelry, Notebooks, Stamps, Postcards, Art Prints, and more! :D http://www.san-smith.com/shop.html Check it out! I'm really excited about it.

Also, after being asked about it I decided to open back up my Formspring for a little while. If you have any questions you'd like to ask, or want to see answers to already asked questions, click here: http://www.formspring.me/sansmith

Like my silly picture for it? I have a telephone chair in our house, and this old fashioned telephone sits on it where a real one would go... I'm always picking it up and admiring it, but I don't think I've ever actually taken photos with it! Its one of my favorite things - if I could I would love to collect a ton of rainbow colored phones and display them on one of those square Ikea Expedit shelves. I think it would look super neat!

Also, I found TONS of sketchbooks and journals at my mother's house this weekend...23 of them to be exact that date from 1994 to 2004. I couldn't believe how much of my life I had documented over the years! So many drawings, confessions, dreams, stories, photographs... it really blew my mind. I've been flipping through them slowly and reminiscing about a lot of stuff, and took some photos of my 1997 journals... except I blurred out a lot of the text because some of it was pretty darn embarrassing ;)

Ask San: formspring.me questions answered!

Alright! here are my replies to my formspring.me questions. If your question wasn't answered, it is probably because I answered it a while back on my FAQ section. I picked 18 questions from my formspring.me account, and some of them are pretty long - so I put half of my post behind a read more link! Hope you guys enjoy, and if you have any other questions - just ask! ;)

Ask San: Formspring.me questions!

1 - What does it feel like to know someone as awesome as Stephan Turano? I'm so jealous of anyone that knows him!
Hahaha. It enriches my life everyday. Especially when he comments on my blog... ;) If he used his blog more often, my life would be complete! Get to it, Stephan!!

2 - Watching any cartoons or reading any comic books lately?
I was reading Scott Pilgrim for a bit, but I had to stop due to lack of time...I really need to finish!! I also recently read the graphic novel "Spiral-Bound" by Aaron Renier, which was really cute - and I like the Nedroid webcomics. I've been so busy lately that I haven't had a lot of time to read or watch things, but I really want to make more time for that later this year.

3 - Whats your beauty routine? You have lovely skin.
I have really sensitive skin that breaks out easily, so I have to be pretty careful with it. I use: Hot water and a clean cloth to remove make up, The Clinque 3 step system for oily skin twice a day (soap, toner and lotion) and Proactiv repairing lotion in the evenings. I also take Vitafusion Omega-3 gummy vitamins which helps my skin tons.

4 - Did you do the pink streak/black hair by yourself?
I did! I go into that more in-depth here: http://www.san-smith.com/2009/08/ask-san-hair.html