Adding Sauce to the Maintenance
One animated loop at a time!
Howdy from a snowy and absolutely frigid Brooklyn! Who else is rewatching Bad Bunny’s halftime show over and over again to feel something? Hope you guys are staying warm and safe. And of course, ICE out!
Today I wanted to talk about my approach to the the obligatory freelance artist content I have to make. If you’re a fellow hired gun, you know what kind of content I’m referring to. These are the assets you’re supposed regularly maintain: your demo reel, your website, social media posts. Specifically, I’ll be diving into the Available for Work (AFW) post I recently made.
The AFW post in particular can feel like a dreaded chore, but only if you let it so. Instead, I view this as another opportunity to showcase my skills.
My perspective is this: I have to advocate for myself anyways, so what’s a way I can have fun and make something feel more authentic to me? How can I update this from years prior? How do I add some sauce?
Examine the Old
Here is the last AFW post I made in 2024:
2023 was the first year that I started riso printing, and since then, risograph has informed my art style a lot. I knew I wanted to keep some of that grain and have a vibrant, limited color palette, but it was time to update the hero animation.
I’m also drawn to typefaces that feel vintage and I felt like the text here was working, so I decided to keep it for my 2026 post.
Styleframes
I thought it would be fun to cycle through different work-related objects, animate some playful morphs and be a little less literal with what I’m depicting. More whimsy, more unexpected transitions in 2026!
I designed these styleframes in grayscale so I’d have more flexibility in deciding colors later, something I do similarly for RISO.
Roughs + Layout
Roughs always help me figure things out. For personal projects like this I like to adjusting designs as needed and allowing myself to edit things that aren’t working. Sometimes this means changing styleframes, canning assets — whatever feels right!
I ended up changing the computer moment entirely, killed the clock moment, and blocked in some dates for the calendar. Later I ended up changing the pencil/scribble moment too.
Clean Up
Clean up is finally when I can turn my brain off (for the most part). Kept the fills to grayscale and a solid yellow to play around with color in AE afterwards. One thing I wish I did here is add some boils — but alas!
Color Hell
Once cel animation was nearly complete for this project, I worked with a few friends at the Ace Hotel lobby. On the leather couch with my laptop, I mocked up so many color combinations for them to help me decide on (and of course I couldn’t decide), so I spent another couple hours the next day making more palettes and debating on what will look good on my grid… Usually I have an idea on what colors I’d like to have, but I really wanted to have some stuff animated before hitting this inevitable roadblock. Thank you to all my friends for voting on their favorite and weighing in. Don’t be me!
Peep the colors that did not make the cut…
Final Result
And this is what I ended up with! A small but significant update to freshen things up. It’s more fun for me to frame the mundane, “maintenance” projects as a way to sharpen my skills and let the world know I have some charm to offer.
This way, my work ends up being more engaging. And whether it gets a lot of likes or not, I feel good putting some TLC into the little things.
Things I enjoyed in January:
Heavy Metal by Cameron Winter - Love takes miiiiiles
The Pitt - Outstanding!
Redline - Incredibly action packed anime film about a daredevil racecar driver in space. 10/10, no notes!
Father Mother Sister Brother - Jim Jarmusch’s newest film. 3 stories focused on adults and their parents, so sweet.
No Other Choice - Park Chan Wook has such a distinct style. I love the cinematography in this movie, so many crazy cameras. I felt like this film and Decision to Leave both felt very tame and sophisticated compared to his earlier work. Absolutely love!
Ruth Asawa Retrospective @ MoMA - Meditative and inspiring
Rodeo - Best friend had a birthday party here and it was just the most darling local wine bar!
And that’s all folks! If you read this far, thank you so much for your support and interest. Next month’s post will be interesting — I’ll be going to South Korea for an important family trip! Stay tuned for more.
~ Suejee