hopeartfro

Fundamental stuff in visual art I wish I knew

Hi! You want to go into art and you hear words described as ‘art language’ but can’t seem to get your head around it, well, I’m here to help.

Now that you have been inspired to take part in visual arts for instance painting, you have scrolled through lovely art on social media, followed your fave artists,or maybe not. There is still a bunch of things you need to be familiar with. Keeping them in mind can be of help as you grow to the level of a pro.

This is a bunch of visual art fundamentals I wish I knew as a young beginner artist. It would have left me with lesser mistakes — that I ended up making in earlier artworks.

There are a lot of materials out there by the PROS on visual art for every topic, so, I will be introducing these terms and topics. If I have a another post that discusses it extensively I will link to that post. If there are other websites that discusses a topic at length, as well, I will drop their links. It’s about learning and I want to provide you with the materials to get it.

Color theory

saturation: Refers to how intense or rich a colour is. When you mix a colour with another, it tends to be less saturated than before. Look at the colour wheel.
value : refers to how dark or white a thing is. You see this mostly in shading. Value goes hand in hand with shadow and tint. We tend to darken a colour (that’s apart from changing the hue a little bit) when we are shading, the value of that colour is darker than before. When a colour gets lighter, it seems like it is fading away.
Hue: basically the colours on the color wheel
— Warm and cool colours – reference color wheel. In art, both warm and cool colours are used in artwork to achieve contrast, it makes the artwork more appealing or it can serve as a way to attract the viewer’s eye to an object. For instance, use a picture.

Tip
Don’t pay excess attention to this. I’ve found out that when I pay too much attention to sticking with ‘the rules of colour theory’, it sometimes comes out too rigid, no exploration of different shades because I’m trying to stick to what I perceive would be accepted, and it just takes out the fun off of colouring. To an extent pick whatever colours you want to. However when the colours seem to be off together, then you know your choice of colours, their values or how saturated they are is what is wrong.

Perspective

Perspective comes to play when you try to draw a three dimensional object (the object has a height, width/breadth and depth) on to a two-dimensional surface, for example, a canvas.

You are trying to create an illusion of depth. Two-way perspective was a bit complex to me — sometimes, it didn’t look realistic and that made me feel bad😔. However, with a couple of practices, I got better. I found out that if you weren’t getting it right, it was best to use perspective lines.

Artist network wrote a good article on how to draw in perspective. There’s also this quite interesting article on When to use different perspectives
Angles.

Tools

I really underestimated the need for variety of tools, not a lot, just the essential. I had a very limited set of brushes and that didn’t work well. I thought brushes were brushes, no matter the type (I’m self taught, don’t go hard on me 😩) For a traditional artist (that’s one that applies paint on a canvas, their tools can be held, the paint can be felt) we know his tools will be:

Pencil
Eraser
A sketchbook
Canvas
Paint brushes
An Easel

Tools for example, different sets and types of paint brrushes help you achieve your desired shapes and when adding texture. We know that for you to paint a tree, a fan brush is recommended. Same thing with digital art. When painting digitally, there are different brushes to use at your disposal and they all give a different look. It’s really good to change your brush while painting so you wouldn’t make repetitive brush strokes.
That’s why I really like autodesk sketchbook (this is not an ad). There are a lot of free brushes to try out if you decide to do digital art. Also, some cool artists make their brush designs available for purchase. So, there, tools!

Characters (anatomy)

Characters are the main conveyors of the message in an artwork. They may take a human or animal form.

anatomy--fundamental-stuff-in-visual-art-i-wish-i-knew--hopeasfro.blog — Teach me how to play art by Idoroenyen

Starting out my character drawings were a bit messy because I didn’t bother to master anatomy. If you are going to be drawing characters close up you will need to learn anatomy to make it as realistic as possible. Even those who draw figures in an abstract way need to know the basics.

Effects

In photoshop and most digital art programmes, you will find things like overlay, lighten, screen, multiply, darken, glow. These are photoshopping effects that digital artists use to add life into their artwork. It’s not a must to use it, it just make things pop… That’s If you properly use it. There are tons of tutorials out there for you to watch. Some of these give similar outcomes like overlay and screen for example. They both lighten the colour underneath. However, screen leaves it lighter, like a higher tint.

In this illustration on top, we can see how these effects work. It’s in the shading of trees and where the sunlight hits surface of things. This is part of a wallpaper collection I’m working on. Some of them will be used for giveaways on my Instagram page, so stick around 🙂.

In the mean time subscribe to the newsletter for early bird updates and news.

Reasons why drawing from your imagination is complex and how to beat that!

Taking a picture from your imagination or head and replicating it on a canvas or paper is quite different from drawing from reference or observation.

Drawing from observation is basically studying things like your surroundings or an object and replicating what you see on a flat surface. What you observe is the object(s) structure, lighting —where the shadows fall, colours involved, angles. An artist drawing from reference is basically copying what he or she sees. We’ll, drawing from your imagination is also copying from what you see, but it’s more of what you think you see. Although it takes a level of skill to be able to replicate what you see in an object, the reference picture is more concrete.

hopeasfro.blog why drawing from your imagination is complex — Drawing from observation is basically studying things like your surroundings or an object and replicating what you see on a flat surface.

That’s where it gets complex. You imagine this beautiful scenery in la la la land—so beautiful you want to immediately put it in paper so you can show the world! However, it’s not coming out right. This is not what you imagined, and why can’t you draw what you imagined? I mean, you can draw! But, that is not the case.

Here are

Reasons why drawing from your imagination is more complex

1. Product Your imagination is fuzzy

Truth be told, your imagination is not 100% clear. A real life object sitting in front of you is more concrete, even though what’s in your head feels so alive. Some parts are blurred out and the main object in your imagination seems to be the somehow clear part, the rest of the other objects just seem to be in the background. This makes replicating what is in your imagination a lot harder, ’cause you’d have to fill in a whoke drawing surface! Also, the colours. The colours need to be got right for what you are drawing on paper or canvas to resemble what you imagined.

2. Your imagination is in motion

What you are be imagining might be in motion. For example, a moving bus with kids sticking their heads out of the window, screaming for joy as they make it to their camp spot. This is what is going on in your head. Now the question is how can you pause what is playing in your head and replicate it on a surface? Sometimes applying life and motion to your artwork can be quite complex and what happens when motion characterises what you have imagined. If you aren’t able to put life into the artwork, then it’s likely not to resemble what you imagined.

3. Applying what you have in your imagination on a flat surface

When you were imagining a nice waterfall in the heart of the jungle, you weren’t thinking of it on 12×14 inch board. Your imagination spanned a large surface with more and more trees behind each other, you could take a 360° hop around and still see the land and its waterfall. However, you just need to put a section on it, on paper. Angles are necessary, precision is much necessary.

Reasons why drawing from your imagination is complex and how to beat that!

4. Old-fashioned texture needs to be applied

Texture, texture, texture! Texture is what brings a drawing to life and most times, objects imagined have texture but it’s not paid attention. Instead what is paid attention is the surreality of what you imagined. I am just like “wow!” We tend to forget a lot of things make u p what we see everyday and what we imagine are objects we see everyday but in a different reality. Objects we see have texture.

Reasons why drawing from your imagination is complex and how to beat that hopeasfro.blog hopeasfro

5. Need more practice

Drawing from your imagination requires a lot of practice to get it right. Try taking part in exercises that will help you recall what you have observed, you might be able to recognise an object but not able to draw it. That’s because there is something called passive memory. Passive memory is what helps you recognise day to day objects like a tennis ball. It helps you subconsciously remember a thing that you have seen once or a lot of times. Active memory on the other hand, helps you recall something you consciously put in memory, like the name of a town you once visited. Because you recognise some thing doesn’t mean you really know it (its different parts, real colour and feel). For instance, you can recognise a friend as soon as you see them but if you decide to draw them when they aren’t present, you will find out you have no idea what the shape of their eyebrow really is.

However if they come to you with newly groomed eyebrows, you will immediately recognise something just doesn’t fit — even though you might not immediately point out the groomed eyebrows. That is passive memory. Active memory is what artists use. Start by memorising an object and keep recalling it. Try to see if you can draw it on your own later.

When I started digital art, I skipped drawing by observation and straight up started to draw from my imagination but still drew from observation sometimes. Over the years, this has helped me a lot.

Bonus tip: When drawing from your imagination, take time to step back a bit, observe your artwork in process and check if you are on track.

How to draw from your imagination

Another bonus tip

Try as possible to observe your own imagination. Assess what you understand about the objects you imagined. Make a rough sketch to see if it fits proper.

Ways to make extra cash | LIFE ON CAMPUS Ep 4

On the last episode of the Life ON CAMPUS series, I talked about managing your expenses and how to cut down on costs as a student. Now with this post I will be touching on Ways to make extra cash living on Campus.

It is best to have a little income coming in from the side and not rely so much on student loans or sponsorships. Thus, I’ve put together a list of ideas to try out- as they can fetch you some money.

1.Hair dressing

The hair industry is booming now more with the way people are transitioning back to being natural. If you’re able to braid, make different styles with coily and other textures of hair without over manipulating it, then you might want to try this. Not many naturals would like their hair blown out or flat ironed before it can be made, and this is what some street salons now require. So, you are solving a problem.

2. Sale

Buy something cheaper and in bulk, then sell them off when demand is high and supply is low. This is one of the popular ways to make money and you can join in too. Find a problem or shortage, and bring in the solution. I have a post on Tips for self branding. It is going to be helpful if you want to take this path.

3. Use your blog

Think about monetizing your blog. For instance, help ‘trusted’ brands advertise their products on your website — be it on the homepage or in any related post.

use-your-blog--hopeasfro.blog-ways-to-make-extra-cash

Make sure you trust these brands, assess how their products are like. You don’t want to be advertising something fake, it will reduce your credibility before your viewers, and it is just not nice.

3. Birthday planner

Events are good ways to make some extra cash. Try branding yourself as an event planner or to niche it down, a birthday planner.

That’s if you have some fun ideas for a birthday in your head waiting to be shown out to the world! Of course this job requires you to be well organised, give great attention to detail, able to negotiate prices and able to adapt to change of plans. Try starting small as well, you don’t want to be planning over the top events whilst facing school work— but hey, if you can, OK.

4. Graphic designer

Due to a high need for visual presentation(the brain tends to process visual content faster) graphic designers have been on high demand for the purpose of advertising, even Web designing and for magazines.

5. Illustrator

Just like graphic designers, demand for illustrators have been on the rise too!

An illustrator simply makes clear a literary work. An illustration helps the reader comprehend and fully grasp what has been written, through pictures. So if you are able to draw or put pictures together, you can be an illustrator for magazines, books and so on. I am a travel illustrator, and pleasant lifestyle-magazine illustrator as well. You can check out what I do on my Instagram or on the website’s gallery.

6. Research assistant

hopeasfro.blog ways to make money - life-on-campus

While this might not fetch you money, it helps with your portfolio later on. You are also adding more value to yourself by what you learn in the course of research as well as being indirectly mentored by who you are assisting in the research.

7. Work part-time

Work in places like restaurants, sales (check out counter), supermarket, cleaning stadium (services basically), virtual assistant: I see virtual assistants more like a personal assistant to someone from the comfort of your room.

That’s it!

These are some of the few legit ways to make extra cash, because, woahh things do take up some of your money. I have a post on Living expenses on Campus, it includes ways to manage your funds better.

Big sis advice…

Take it easy on your school life. Always try to celebrate the small wins and find a good and loving community like your community church. Remember, God loves you and you can always begin to speak to HIM.

Living expenses | LIFE ON CAMPUS

You’d be surprised what you spend your money on living on Campus. However, in this post, I’ll be showing briefly, ways you can cut down on these costs and spend your money on things better.

There are few things that large amounts of your money go into. One is accommodation; the second, living basically. This includes, feeding, transportation, Internet. Third is entertainment, shopping — secondary things basically. These are what I’ll be touching on in this post.

1.Looking for Uni accommodation

If you’re out looking for where to stay, go for cheaper accommodation, a uni accommodation close by saves transport money but rent can be expensive. Weigh your options, if rent of accommodation closer > accommodation’ rent farther + transportation cost, then you might want to choose accommodation farther off— that’s if both rent and cost are less that accommodation closer to uni. I say this because accomodations closer to uni can be pricy for such quality they give, they can be small and cramped.

Tip: when you move into your accommodation write down things available in your flat – including the state they were in (Like is it in good state, in bad state? ). Show it to your landlord and both of you should agree or if possible, get it signed. That way, you reduce the chances of paying for things that were never there or had spoilt before you came.

Tip2: look out for hidden payments, let what you are paying (anytime, for anything) be clearly spelt out!

Reduce how many times you eat out, there is food at home

I think most of us remember disliking this sentence as a child whenever, we asked for a snack in the grocery store. But having food at home instead of eating out, saves a lot. Cook up your meals on Sunday and stuck up your freezer for the week. If you’re not so good in cooking or recipes, YouTube!

If you’re somewhere you can’t cook your food, not a problem, there are other ways to cut down on living expenses.

Note! Please eat properly, try to get nutritious foods. Neglecting yourself isn’t good. On a post, I talked about how I skipped meals and how it affected my body’s health Here.

SAVE! SAVE! SAVE!

Save, find out where your money is going into and try to reduce it, review your bank statement and see why you withdrew money each time you did, I can’t stress this enough. For example, is your money going into data, try to see how you can cut down on spending that much, does your mobile network provider have any plans for students or one you can use that is cheaper for you?

Also, you want to cut down on raves, weekend trips, unnecessarily spending on food and clothing. Check out my tips on saving Here. With saving, you can be able go on better, ‘new experiences’ holidays.

I hope you liked these tips, what other ones do you have, please share in the comments. If you have questions concerning this topic, leave them in the comment box, I’ll be happy yo answer.

How to write a good personal statement | LIFE ON CAMPUS

So you’re looking for internship placements…There are many job/ internship placement opportunities that will require you to submit a personal statement.

There are many job/ internship placement opportunities that will require you to submit a personal statement. Some people are already familiar with what a personal statement is, as some universities require you to have one as a requirement to be accepted– as well as with your certificates.

Not only universities require personal statements of interested applicants, you might need one to get internship placements, industrial training. In fact, it is sometimes recommended to attach a personal statement to your CV (if you are strictly required submit just a CV, you might not want to attach a personal statement as they strictly require a CV).

How to write a good cover letter

What is a personal statement?

A personal statement is a short (2 or 3 paragraph essay) summary that describes who you are, your skills, achievements, goals and the reason for your application. You are trying to convince the recruiter that you are a perfect choice.

how to write a good personal statement - life on Campus - hopeasfro.blog — You are trying to convince the recruiter that you are a perfect choice.

While personal statements can vary pertaining to organisation or position (for instance, a personal statement by someone looking to get into university and someone looking for an IT slot), there are few basic things to add into your personal statement and tips on writing a good one.

1. Know about the organisation

First things first, any student looking for IT placements needs to know about the organisation they intend to apply for. What type of organisation is it, is it an accounting firm, a law firm? How does the nature of the institution correlate with your career path? If you would like a paid internship, if possible find out if the organisation pays its interns.

2. How can the organisation be of value to you?

Think about how the organisation can add value to you. That is, in your skills, experience and strengths. This needs to be spelt out, as that will help you write your statement.

3. Plan your essay structure

It’s OK to have few drafts, as long as you get the right one. Your first draft is where you plan your essay structure. Like I said earlier, personal statements are used to tell whoever is reading who you are and everything about you they need to know.

Most importantly, talk about yourself a bit more, do not over define the specific role or subject you studied. For example, if you are studying business and want a placement in an office, do not spend a whole 30 lines paragraph on who a business person is. Instead, write how you can be of help to the company, how you can add value with the skills you have been able to learn after a year in university.

See an example of a personal statement structure —

– First paragraph : Start by giving an overview of what you study, your career path, why you chose to study the course, what you intend to do with it, your interests and skills that further propelled you to study that course. Why you want an internship. Make it interesting to read, something captivating!

Remember, the first paragraph is the charm

— Second paragraph : Give the reasons why you are interested in getting a placement at that organisation, explain how the organisation can be of help to you (for example ; “ABC firm is a reputable establishment and with a large share in the market, it has become a household name. I would love to serve as an intern as I can surely learn and sharpen my marketing skills” . It’s just a quick example but I hope you get the gist).

In the second paragraph, you also explain a little how you can be of help to the company, again highlighting your skills and strengths. Put in some of your achievements in school or in your community other work experience (you can add why you want this one, how it can be a valuable addition to your other experiences). Show off what you have learnt being in university and be detailed about it. I am guessing you would have spent up to at least four semesters in uni before your uni program asks you to go for industrial training.

Portray how much you’d love to have a placement at that workplace or organisation, in the body of your letter.

Impress the recruiter with your knowledge on the company – that requires extra reading.

— Third paragraph : Discuss your hobbies and interests and link them with how it can help you in the workplace. You can also discuss vaguely about your future plans career wise and how interning will help you. You can write down what you expect to learn after your IT program.

You’re probably wondering “well, didn’t I write that in the first paragraph?” it’s best you touch on it a little at the end, sort of reminding the recruiter who you are.

Conclude with a call to action. For example , “I would love to, or I’ll be looking forward to your acceptance”.

4. Tweak Tweak

rewrite your statement, remove unnecessary information and add what’s necessary.

5. Give an expert to go through it

It might be a lecturer friend, someone who has interned before .

6. Reread with fresh eyes.

What to check out for in your personal statement review

1. Don’t copy – be original, don’t copy a personal statement you saw online, you can get caught and it doesn’t say nice things about you. You can learn from personal statement structures or formats online.

2. Make it readable and easy to understand. Do a grammar check, make sure to put punctuation marks where necessary, avoid words or phrases that are cliché. Crosscheck your work, ask if it all makes sense.

Don’t skip meals | LIFE ON CAMPUS

Hi and welcome. If you’re new to the blog, it’s Hopeasfro and it centres around Lifestyle Art and Literature. This post is on the lifestyle segment.

Life on Campus is a new series that’s about living as a student on campus. I’m going to be touching on things such as spending, saving, studying and lifestyle changes as we go into it. There are few people who have always been living in bubbles (not their fault! ) and come into uni like ‘what’s going on?’, if you’re like that, then these series is for you. Or if you want to learn some tips, for you too.

Don’t skip meals

School requires almost every part of you, including your time. Skipping meals can become a habit, especially if you’re like me, that loves finishing up what’s being done before going to the next task. In a year, I lost up so much weight. Apart from risking being under weight, I risked falling sick. It might not look like it, but your body is taking too much.

I only got to know this when I stood in front a mirror. Dang I was skinny! I didn’t really feel hungry anytime I didn’t eat ’cause my stomach got smaller.

What I did to stop skipping meals

We are all about healthy living, right? And we’ve all come to the conclusion that there’s no point skipping meals, right? I mean, no one intends to faint in a pile of homework, at least not me.

I became very serious with mealtime : This meant setting reminders on my phone. I assigned specific times to eat and that includes getting up in the morning so I have a lot of hours to space my meals in-between. This includes eating three times a day and taking light snacks between.

don't skip meals life on Campus hopeasfro.blog — I assigned specific times to eat

This does not mean the three main meals were large, or just a chunk of carbohydrate, I became more specific with the nutrients I was taking. A balanced nutrition is key to staying healthy.

I downloaded a fitness app. Currently, I’m using myfitnesspal and I’ve been loving it. On the app I have a sort of diary where I can write down the meals I’ve had, the snacks I had and also the amount of water I took. It can also calculate how much calories you’ve lost in a day (that’s if you connect it with your step tracker).

After inputting the meals I had, it then calculates how much calories I’ve taken and compares it with my daily nutrition goal, apart from this, I get a rough picture of my nutrient intake. One good thing about myfitnesspal is that it has data for not just popular foods but less popular ones like indigenous afro-carribean foods.

I set up bodygoals. Now, It’s perfectly OK to be slim and equally OK to be plump. However, it’s not OK to be underweight or overweight, if we’re being real. I’m slim and I love it that way. However, during that period I lost considerable amount of weight and I was in the brink of being so unhealthy. In fact, I looked unhealthy, stressed, I just looked like a mess! What I did was look up healthy looking pictures of me and others, and sought to get to that look. However, I was being realistic. Can you be that size if you take care of yourself better?

Set up a diet timetable. I drew up a timetable of foods I could be eating to meet up with my daily nutrient goal. As a student in campus, you can be tempted to just eat anything.

Well, while some foods are super healthy, others add nothing much to your body, they just take up space. So, I had a mental note or list of foods I could eat, that I ticked off when I was going to get food or eat out.

So that’s it guys for this, there will be more to come later on. Remember y’all it’s not advisable to skip meals as that’s what gives you part of energy to study. Also, be very careful on what you eat, every food you eat should serve a purpose, that is giving you the needed nutrients.

If you have questions or comments, feel free to comment down below and I will see to that.

Have a nice day!

How to build a daily routine timetable for better productivity

Do you have tons of work but less time? Are you unable to fit things you love to do in your tight schedule? Do you find yourself neglecting other aspects of your life or just finding it hard to juggle out everything? Well, if yes, this post is hopefully going to help you manage all of this.

With this new season comes reflections, new goals and to dos. For me, I have decided to be more caring to myself. I’ve been working on routines and I think I have it in check now, last year, there was somehow a change for me and that came with an entire routine I couldn’t keep up with. There were tons of work, with less time to fit other aspects in my schedules. I even used to forget food… Can you imagine? Sweet sweet🍿 savoury🥗 food because, I would loose my appetite after I’m done with everything.

I just love to finish stuff I started, can you relate?

Well, you just need to find a daily routine that works best for you. A day starts in the morning and if you don’t want to end up worn out in the evenings, it’s good that your routine starts in the morning. Without much ado, lets dive in.

1. Compare the amount of work you want to do that day, with the time you have

This first step helps you figure out the things you need and want to do. It also helps you check if the amount of work is reasonable for that amount of time. If you have 8hrs free, what can you do in those 8hrs? Probably not a 12hrs activity. Listing out these to-dos help you stay focused in writing down your plans and also achieving them. This way, you can understand what to prioritise and not end up engaging in something you didn’t plan for with little use to you.

2. Put physical or mental strenuous work in the morning

People tend to be more active in the morning (that when they’ve come out of sleep dizziness) to midday. Thus, put activities that require more physical strength or activities that involve constant calculation like tidying up a rundown garage, in the morning or a little before afternoon. That way, you have the energy to finish that activity done & dusted.

I even used to forget food… Can you imagine?

hopeasfro.blog how to build a daily routine timetable for better productivity

3. Make mealtimes important

This one is for me LOL. Skipping meals because you need to finish work, and ending up not eating much at all is bad for your health. You need to have good healthy habits for productivity. So, make mealtimes important. Set reminders for snacking and follow it.

4. Have your siesta

A 30 minutes break to take a nap goes a long way, trust me, I know. It acts like sort of a refuel to get you going after the first part of the day.

5. Are you a morning or evening bath person?

Yes, this is a thing. If you do not take a bath twice a day but just once, you might try taking your baths in the evening instead. This helps people who have a long morning preparing process relieve off some activities. If you take long to groom yourself in the morning then rush instead to the next thing, you can try doing most of these night before. You’re still clean if you think of it, you’re washing off the dirt from outside off your body and getting in bed.

However, I will advise you do some sort of activity before bed, to get your body temperature up and not use cold water so you wouldn’t get a cold.

6. Draw up your daily routine and a to do list.

Finally, the last thing is to draw up your daily routine / timetable after..

1. Comparing the amount of work you have and the time you have

2. Deciding to be a morning or evening bath person

3. Having it in mind to make mealtimes important, have siesta and most importantly, seeing if you can fix physically and mentally strenuous activities in the morning.

Your daily routine / timetable does not have to be very detailed, you can have room for flexibility. For instance, you might want to put a 10–20 minutes break after each activity.

I can’t stress how to do lists are so useful. They help you stay focused to finish up stuff you need to do. They help you keep in track. So, drawing up a to do list helps you notice things you do everyday and designate time to it.

Essential Tips on self branding

So you are a media consultant, a social media manager, influencer, entrepreneur, a human being or simply a content creator and interested in knowing how to brand yourself, I’ve got you.

Your brand is all about what you want your customers or your audience to feel or take from your persona. This includes you and your products. Personal branding is the practice of marketing people and their careers as brands. It’s a process of developing and managing a reputation or an impression, as a person, a group or an organisation (according to Wikipedia).

Essential Tips on self branding - hopeasfro.blog

As a customer and you too, there are things you expect from a supplier or producer. For instance, a fashion consultant. You expect them to be welcoming, you expect a level of expertise, knowledge, nice and reliable.

These are the 5 things I (and every other person) expect from who I’m working with. As you are trying to build a reputation through self branding, all these need to be in place. Your self branding should try to meet up with these qualities.

Here’s a reminder, customers are more likely to go for people who deliver.

Now without much ado, let’s dive in with my…

Tips on self branding

1. Know about yourself, improve that

Work on what you want your audience to feel about you. What you say should be how you act. If you promote being ‘reliable’, work on things like your customer service or work on how you answer customer questions. Here’s a reminder, customers are more likely to go for people who deliver.

Want to learn more on how to get set for a productive new year? Here’s how

2.Do you know about your field?

This is a question for you to answer. Do you know much about your field? People want some level of expertise and you need to know most basic facts concerning your field to improve your personal brand. There are few sites out there to learn from. YouTube is a start. Personally, I’ve learnt some content creating hacks from YouTube and online classes.

3. Consistency

To build a good personal brand, consistency is key. Do your plans and content go with your motto? It helps to be consistent in how much you put out there, social media feed, brand voice and brand design & colours (even in things that seem unimportant like your Pinterest pins’ design).

Do your plans and content go with your motto?

4. Pick 2 or 3 social media platforms to concentrate on

As a young blogger, I wanted to have as many social media platforms as possible because, it promotes the popularity of the blog,, right? Well that didn’t really workout. I ended deleting some unnecessary accounts because I hated some platforms and my content just didn’t fit. So, one of my tips is to pick few media platforms to be active in.

Pick 2 or 3 social media platforms to concentrate on - essential tips on self branding - hopeasfro.blog

These social media platforms can be categorised in two ways.

1. Long interaction & short interaction platforms.

For example, long interaction platforms include YouTube. With YouTube, brands or content creators are able to express themselves or give long answers to questions (Like a review of a gadget, asked by audience).

Getting set for the new year? See 18 stuffs to do

A short interaction platform on the other hand, is Twitter. This is because it only allows you to express your self in few words as tweets. This is good for bloggers or influencers that want to keep close contact with their audience.

2. Picture based or word based

Social media platforms can be categorised in this form. Picture based platforms include Pinterest, Instagram. Word based platforms on the other hand, includes Twitter. YouTube is a mix of both.

That’s it! These are my tips for successful self branding. I hope it’s helpful. Please remember consistency is key (we hear that a lot but it’s true), also improving your skills and knowing more about what you do goes a long way.

18 Things you can do to get set for the new year

Happy new year! It’s 2020 and we are going in well prepared and ready to be productive. This is the year to unveil that hidden talent and use it for good.

In this post, I share things I did and things you can do, to prepare you for the new year. You aren’t late if you do them now anyway , we are in the beginning of January.

Get set for the new year, things to do

1. Email detox

2. Wardrobe detox

3. Bank statement check

4. Social media detox (This is unfollowing accounts that add no value to you and following one’s that do. I hope I do😉).

Music detox- 18 Things you can do to get set for the new year - hopeasfro.blog

5. Music playlist detox (Remove songs that you can’t dance to on a good day and fill up your playlist with uplifting music).

6. Create a calendar for the new year and set reminders. This can include events or dates.

7. Find and try out new food (try foreign foods🍜).

hopeasfro.blog 18 Things you can do to get set for the new year

8. Make a diet plan🥗

9. Experiment on daily routines to see which one helps you be productive.

This is the year to unveil that hidden talent and use it for good.

10. Get more (better) stationary

11. Check your skincare routine 🥑

12. Detox your cosmetic bag

13. Research natural remedies (some berries 🍓reduce phlegm and mucus, shea butter for hair prone to sun bleaching, aloe Vera for skin burns)

14. Make a list of books to read📚

15. Draw up a list of places to visit🏖️

18 Things you can do to get set for the new year

16. Make a list of activities to take part in in the new year 🎨(including new hobbies).

17. List of online courses to apply for

You aren’t late if you do them now anyway , we are in the beginning of January.

18. Set goals in aspects

– Spiritual goals (more closer to God, faith, trust)

– saving goals

– work goals

– attitude goals🤗

– hair goals

– hydrate goals🥤

So these are stuff I did just to prepare for the new year. It helps to draw out plans and mind maps to help visualise your goals.

This is going to be a productive year for us, I prayed for this and I can just smell it already!

Remember to take time to spoil yourself (wisely) and celebrate the wins little and big.

5 Reasons I started a Gratitude journal

The mind can sometimes get clogged with everyday life and forget the blessings. It’s easy for most people to not remember, at those times where they question if God answers their prayers or they’re just tripping. Try writing down your blessings and you’ll see how one – two – three will run over pages.

I started a gratitude book mid 2019. Apart from seeing it somewhere and being advised to do so, I also felt I didn’t really pay attention to the little blessings —sometimes I wouldn’t even regard them as blessings or things I should be grateful for. Thus, some months ago and led by the Holy Spirit, I started a gratitude book (or journal). I started putting down a lot and was surprised…like wow! I’m not really used to keeping journals so I don’t write in it as often as I should, but I try to push myself to and find time.

With that,

Let’s cut to the chase!

Reasons why I started a gratitude book

Record of blessings

This is basically why I started it. It’s a gratitude journal, where I put down all the things I’m grateful to GOD for, day to day.

The mind can sometimes get clogged with everyday life and forget the blessings.

Makes me more conscious of GOD’S work in my life

The best thing you can dare to do, is to be conscious of God’s hand in the workings of your life (most especially if you give it all to him).
Like I wrote earlier, sometimes the mind gets clogged up with daily activities and one might forget. Journalling and referring back keeps one grounded. I need to say, being conscious of GOD and the Holy Spirit makes all the difference. It gives hope 😀.

To look back at things I’ve overcome by His grace

Ah, ever prayed “Lord help me love” then you get pissed but immediately remember not to cuss out or kiss your teeth, but respond with a smile? Yess. That’s the Lord’s doing and worth being grateful for.

Reference

A gratitude journal is simply used to refer back. I can’t stress this enough.

Ignoring the liar

    “Am I tripping”
    _ when you pray but it’s just bueh😛

      What do you do? You pick up your Bible and speak God’s promise, then you go on to your journal and see what HE has been doing for you.You cannot write down everything, there’s a lot of things we people ignore or just look over — if we plan to, it wouldn’t contain the biggest books on the planet.

   However, it’s best to write down things you remember and are dear to you.If you can’t find any, being a able to crease your lips into a smile is one of them..being able to read or listen to the Bible is a blessing 😊.

Have you started a gratitude book?

How is it going?
What are your reasons for a gratitude book/ journal?

Please share with us in the comment section.