Painting Challenge - #25

"Heritage Tulips"

4"x 6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

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This is the last painting in my month long Painting A Day Challenge. It's been quite a ride, certainly more exciting than I expected. There were a lot of ups and downs, and quite a few times I wasn't sure I'd even finish it. So I can truly say how happy I am to be posting this final painting! I learned a lot this past month and I think it's safe to say that I've grown as a painter too. Thank you for following along with me - celebrating my successes and tolerating my failures. I hope my journey has helped to inspire you to challenge yourself as well. Happy painting!

To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #24

"Hibiscus"

4"x 6"

Original watercolour

For Sale: $24

Free shipping in North America

Please contact me for more information.

To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #23

"Black Eyed Susan 2"

Original Watercolour

4"x 6"

For Sale: $24

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To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #22

"Trillium"

4"x 6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

Free shipping in North America

Please contact me for more information.

To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #21

"Balloon Flower"

4"x 6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

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To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #20

Well, it had to happen sometime and not surprisingly it happened with the one subject I am the most afraid of - Birch Trees. Everything went wrong in this painting, which is why I'm entitling it:

"Comedy of Errors"

4"x 6"

Not for sale

(I couldn't live with myself if someone tried to put this up in their home :))

To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #19

"Violets"

4"x 6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

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To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #18

"Sparkles on the water"

4"x 6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

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To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Challenge Painting - #17

"Black Eyed Susan"

4"x 6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

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To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Challenge Painting - #16

"Blue Clematis"

4"x 6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

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To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #15

"On The Wall"

4"x6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

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To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #14

My apologies for the quality of this picture. It is a very cloudy, overcast morning and no matter how much extra light I use, the paper still comes out with this neutral tone. The original is white - no paint whatsoever.

"Birdbath"

4"x 6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

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Please contact me for more information.

To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #13

"Sentinel"

4"x 6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

Free shipping in North America.

Please contact me for more information.

To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #12

"Garden Pot"

4"x 6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

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Please contact me for more information.

To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #11

"Blue Bell"

4"x 6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

Free shipping in North America.

Please contact me for more information.

To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #10

"Busy Bee"

4"x 6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

Free shipping in North America.

Please contact me for more information.

To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #9

"Blue Morpho"

4"x 6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

Free shipping in North America.

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To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #8

Monarch on Pine

4"x6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

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Please contact me for more information.

To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #7

"Fawn"

4"x6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

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Please contact me for more information.

To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #6

"Lucy"

4"x6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

Free Shipping in North America.

Please contact me for more information.

To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #5

The Hotel

4"x6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24 Sold

Free Shipping in North America.

Please contact me for more information.

To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #4

White Monarch Emerges

4"x6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

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To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #3

In The Garden

4"x6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale: $24

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Please contact me for more information.

To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #2

Purple Irises

4"x6"

Original Watercolour

For sale: $24 Cdn

Free shipping in North America.

Please contact me for more information.

To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Painting Challenge - #1

Dawn Mist

4"x6"

Original Watercolour

For Sale $24 Cdn

Shipping is free for North America.

Please contact me for more information.

To see a gallery of the challenge paintings click here

Preparing for Painting A Day Challenge

I'm a little behind in posting this (my apologies), but I am not behind in my schedule to prepare for my painting challenge (yay!). Over the last week I collected my various images, prepared my paper and printed my pics. I formatted the pics to be the same size as the watercolour paper, just to make it easier for me to sketch.

This week, I will work on sketching the images onto the watercolour paper, make sure I have all the paint colours I need ready and available, and prepping the sketches with masking fluid as necessary. This is the last week I have to prepare and I'm starting to get a little nervous - especially after seeing the pile of paintings I have in queue! But I'm also excited, which is helping to keep me motivated and moving forward.

October this year is a fun month to start this challenge in as it starts on a Wednesday. I have a bunch of options on how to handle this: do I start on Wednesday? the Monday prior? or the first Monday of the month? I've decided it will be best to start on the Monday prior (which is technically September, but I won't tell if you won't). This gives me 5 weeks of painting to look forward to! I've also decided that there's just no way I can paint continuously for 31 days, so I'm giving myself weekends off and only painting Monday-Friday each week. This should give me 25 paintings by the end of my challenge, depending on the number of hiccups I encounter along the way (smiles).

It amuses me that this challenge is something I could only do now, being unemployed. I mean, there's no way I could take a month off work to do this, and I don't think I would have enough time in a day to complete a painting while working! Way to take advantage of what is usually a bad situation (smiles)!

You won't hear from me again until my first painting is complete. The plan is to post each painting at the end of its day. There won't be a lot of commentary attached to these posts, they will be quick and dirty. Wish me luck!

Month of Painting Challenge: A Painting A Day

As if my life isn't hectic enough (smiles), I've decided to start a Painting a Day Challenge for October 2014!

I've been only dimly aware of this movement, but it wasn't until I saw a local artist offering a workshop in it that I became inspired to jump on the band wagon (as it were). The only difference is that I haven't found any postings online where someone did this with watercolour paintings. I can't imagine that I've stumbled upon a completely new take on this. I think it's more likely that I just haven't found them yet!

I plan on following the majority of the rules for other Painting a Day Challenges:

1) size will be either 4x6 or 5x7
2) any topic I choose
3) commit to at least 1 painting/day

That's it! Over the course of the next few weeks I will be planning my month out (choosing photos/subjects, collecting supplies, arranging my schedule, and prepare my "studio"). And because I bore easily, I thought it would be a good idea to set weekly "themes" so that every week I paint something a little different.

I will post each painting as it's complete, with a bit of description and whether it's up for sale or not.

I would love to know if you have ever done anything like this and what your experience with it was (loved it/hated it, what you might do differently, would you do it again?) and you are more than welcome to join me and post your paintings here. I'm sure we'd make a wonderful support team! Wish me luck :)

Orchid

Many moons ago now, I bought an orchid for a botanical drawing workshop.  Two personal disasters soon followed: the orchid lost most of its flowers 2 days before the workshop, and I only managed to attend one of the two days scheduled for the workshop.  I was disappointed in both.   I was so inspired by the orchid flower, but I wasn't sure at all how to express the delicacy of the flower!  As well, add in all the difficulties involved in painting a white flower in watercolour and you may well appreciate my problem!

Anyway, I was scrolling through Pinterest recently and came across some flower portraits that just called to me.  The style had so much energy to it and yet wasn't overly busy or complex looking!  I just had to try it out for myself!

There was one remaining flower on my sad little orchid plant, so I took a few minutes and sketched it out on watercolour paper.  I did some quick painting of the details, using some violet, blue-red, and cobalt.  Then I mixed a much paler version of these colours, applied a wet wash to the background along the edges of the top of the flower.  I added some darker elements immediately against the petals.  

Voila!  It isn't perfect, but I am in love with the technique!  The colour palette stays simple throughout, the delicacy of the petals is still clearly stated, and the background is definitely interesting without commanding all the attention.  I am definitely trying this technique out again!

Using a sketchbook

One of the ways to know you're an artist is that you own a sketchbook.  Funny isn't it?  I mean, I've owned a sketchbook for many, many years (several in fact) but I've never really understood what to do with one.  I always used printer paper or scraps of envelopes, etc to doodle out ideas and then been really frustrated when the idea turns out well, because I went too far.  

There's a point in all this.  First, that I think I've finally figured out what to do with a sketchbook.  And second, that there's a stage in sketching where you must stop or it's no longer a sketch and you should really consider using better paper (who wants to frame an old bill envelope, no matter how good the drawing)!

Third, one of the blogs I subscribe to, Senior Artist, recently sent a newsletter with great tips and advice (like always) but there was one in particular that I wanted to share.  It was titled "Turn Your Doodles Into Lasting Memories" and it was about how to start a sketchbook, with a 30 day sketchbook challenge.  The article is actually a bit dated since it was originally published in May 2013, but I think it still has very useful info in it.  A slightly more recent article published in September 2013 takes it a little further.

If you're really interested in the author of these articles (Michelle Morris), you can scroll to the bottom of the webpage for a link to her blog and see her artwork.

But what I'd love to know is whether or not you've ever used a sketchbook.  Maybe you use one to paste keepsakes like movie tickets, or restaurant stubs when you travel.  There are so many ways to use one and you don't even have to draw in it!  I use mine for notes and drawing ideas.  Please post in the comments :)

Draw Fu - drawing for beginners

I know a LOT of people who say they can't draw.  Are you one of these people?  Drawing frightens many because it can look complicated and secretive - sometimes magical!  Well, if you are a person that feels you couldn't draw a straight line if your life depended on it (or you know someone who feels this way), the following site may be for you.

I recently came across this website.  It's pretty new by the looks of it, starting this year.  The Art of Draw Fu by Luis Escobar tackles the drawing concept from a different angle.  When you click on the link you will see the home page.  Click on the "If you're new start here" tab at the top to get into Mr Escobar's reasons for why Drawing is like Kung Fu.

He's only just completing the notes for level 0 (beginner), and I suspect it will eventually go towards cartoon/animation illustration eventually, but there will ultimately be 6 levels of drawing instruction, and it's free!

If you scroll down to the levels section, you can download a free digital book for level 0.  Further down the page, you can subscribe to weekly newsletters, tips, etc.

I don't think of myself as a beginner level in drawing, but there's always something new to learn!  I love how the flavour of this site is so unthreatening!  Considering that it's basing it's teaching structure around Kung Fu, that seems pretty funny to me.  I've signed up for his newsletter and I have a copy of his digital book - very cool!

DIY light box

Okay, so I'm sure you'll agree that making art can be an expensive pursuit.  Fortunately, there are many frugal and creative artists out there more than willing to show their personal hacks for DIY art equipment.  I found these two links for VERY inexpensive tutorials on making your own artist light box (which can cost into the hundreds of dollars at the art store) for under $20!

This one uses 2 glass picture frames and a light piece from a lamp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCRzCrsnLnw

But, let's say you only have an old lamp, a cardboard box and 1 glass picture frame.  No problem!  check out this instructable:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Your-OWN-professional-arttracing-ligh/

I'd be interested to know if you've tried either of these, or maybe some other hack has helped you out, let us know in the comments.

A Busy Week!

Happy Family Day!

It's been (yet again) a very busy week at my house.  We hit a landmark here - Valentine's Day is the official last day of high calorie eating for the season.  Yay!  While I've enjoyed all the good eats from the last few months (maybe a bit too much) I am very excited to start working towards fitting into my jeans again :)

On the art front, for my birthday my wonderful hubby got me a copy of the book "Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make drawing Fun" by Carla Sonheim.  The first exercise is to take about 10 min or so and draw as many cats as you can.  Judging by the examples in the book, I took this to mean that you should stretch your skills and NOT try to draw a super-realistic one.  Here's my attempt:

What I thought was so amusing about this exercise was afterwards, when I asked individual family members which were their favourites, everyone chose different cats!  There didn't seem to be one uniquely popular cat!  It was LOTS of fun to do, and I can't wait to give 10 min to the next exercise :)

Earlier this week I did one of those online quizzes, something like "Which Jane Austen Heroin Are You?".  I got Elinor Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility.  But that wasn't my point.  One of the questions was "what would you do on a Sunday morning?" with various options to choose from, one of which was "Sketch".  I thought this was such a lovely and romantic idea!  Something I've always wanted to do without knowing it!  So I decided to incorporate it into my Sunday yesterday.  I didn't try to overcommit myself.  There was no set amount of time I had to fill, but I did have an objective: to draw the goldfish in our aquarium.  

I don't get a lot of opportunity to draw live creatures.  There's got to be some sort of trick to it, or maybe fish isn't the best creature to start with.  Anyway, the biggest trouble with drawing a living creature is that they move.  A lot.  And perhaps they were excited because they thought they'd get fed or something because they were particularly active when I sat down.  Consequently I didn't get as much drawing in as I'd hoped, but it was still fun!!

On the courses front, I have completed 3 tests (some with better results than others :P) and 1 assignment.  It's reading week this week and I will be taking the time to catch up on my studies and start work on the 2 essays that are required.  I'm actually looking forward to this.  I know essays can be very dull and boring and hard, but, if I can get past the hardest part, determining a thesis statement, the rest can be full of creativity and excitement (I know, nerdy right!?).

Have a great week all!  I hope you find some way to express your creativity this week!

Week 6? and JD Hillberry

Wow.  I have to say that the last 4 weeks have been...interesting.  I know, I know, and I'm going to say it: I give up.  I freely admit that I have taken on way too much and that no amount of time management is going to keep me sane AND get all the things I want done.

That being said, here's the new plan: I am going to temporarily put my artistic endeavours on hold until the end of this term.  Now that isn't to say that I won't still be researching new techniques, imagining new projects, or even (dare I say it) creating the odd piece.  But I am relieving myself of the pressure to follow my prescribed schedule for the time being.

It isn't that the art I do isn't important, because it is.  It helps keep me sane and balanced.  But at the same time, priorities have changed since I drafted my work breakdown structure and I simply can't keep up and maintain the standards I want/need to succeed.  I'm still young.  I have lots of time.  And I can't help but think that if I was lying on my deathbed today I wouldn't be saying to myself: I wish I had not taken those extra courses.  I'm just enjoying them too much!

So what does this mean in terms of the blog?  Well, to be honest, I'm going to allow myself a bit of freedom here too.  Obviously I won't be reporting on my weekly progression through my WBS, and I won't have a lot of updates regarding new art projects and the like.  But my hope is to at least find something interesting for you each week.

For example, this week I have an interview for you to watch!  JD Hillberry is a fantastic black and white artist, working in charcoal, pencil, etc, as good as (or I might say even better than) MC Escher (another personal favourite of mine).  He and I share more than that in common, we are both members of the LinkedIn Group: B&W Pencil Artists & Illustrators.  He is author of the book 'Drawing Realistic Textures In Pencil' which has sold over 75,000 copies and was recently interviewed by our group owner Cindy Wider.  His drawings are incredibly realistic and are remarkable in that they are done using fairly inexpensive media.  Watch the interview by clicking here.

While I don't own his book, I have read it and the techniques and tips in it are amazing!  The interview is full of good info and insight.  I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did.

Have a great week!

Week 5 - the plan...

Okay, so with these 2 online courses I'm taking I've had to take a good hard look at my plans for the year and make some adjustments.  Have no fear, I'm not giving up!  This is what the plan was for - to help see where and how to get things done.  Now I admit that the situation has certainly gotten more interesting with my unexpected leap into not one, but two extra classes to do, but I'm confident that with sheer persistence and stubbornness I can carry through!

So, what can be done about my increasingly limited time?  I started with my weekly schedule.  For the next few months my top priority has to be completing these classes (they cost way too much money for me to bow out).  So with that in mind, I've re-arranged my schedule to include class note readings, text readings, exercises, and project work during the day and my evenings to work on my art objectives.  After the girls go to bed at night I have about 2-2.5 hours before bed myself that I intend to use to advantage.

Next, I took a look at my Work Breakdown Structure to see what needed to be moved further into the year and what I could still easily accomplish.  There were a few items I had to move, like that third art business book I wanted to take notes on will have to wait until May, but the second workshop that I wanted to take this year happens in April so I can't change that.  Also, I will need to scale down my expectations of what constitutes a "drawing" or "painting".  I don't see why I can't do smaller, simpler projects in the time frame available to me.  I know I'll go crazy if I remove these completely so that's simply not an option!  However, keeping things simple may be an advantage in the long run as it will force me to focus on composition elements and technique more than detail to maintain a strong image.  Skills I most definitely could improve on!

So, this week my plan is to complete the notes on book 2's reading and do a completed, simple, painting by the end of the week.  Wish me luck :)

Week 4 - ???

You may have guessed from reading about week 3 that week 4 was going to be a question mark.  You would've been correct.  Sigh.

Week 4 accomplished pretty much zero of what was listed on my calendar for the week.  Due to a family emergency, I also wasn't able to attend part 2 of my 2-weekend workshop in coloured pencil.  In fact, I didn't even have time to finish it as my youngest came down with whatever the latest stomach bug was and had to stay home for the week.  It's been very exciting in this house the past week or so :)

On the plus side, I did get caught up in both of the courses I'm taking, found some of the added references suggested by the instructors, and started thinking about the required projects coming up.

So for week 5 I'm going to re-prioritize my objectives a little.  I'm thinking I should finish taking notes on the one art reference book (get it out of the way so I can put it away), maybe do a sketch/practice painting, and that may be about it, aside from the coursework of course.  I will take a closer look at the schedule tomorrow and make a more complete update then.  Hopefully my brain won't explode between now and then trying to do it all :D

Week 3 complete

Overall, I have to say that week 3 showed some excellent progress.

1) Workshop painting - since my orchid didn't make it through to the end of the week, I ended up taking an african violet.  I'm hoping it will be much easier to care for :)

The workshop was loads of fun!  We really only got to start the drawing and preliminary work with the coloured pencils, so I have more work to do this week in order to see a finished work at the end of the workshop next Saturday.

2) Make notes on book #2 - this is going very well, I have to say.  I am more than 50% through the book and I don't see any problems with completing this on schedule.

I did finish (but can it ever really be finished?) the weekly schedule for myself and so far I think it is working well.

UPDATE!!

One other thing that I was doing this past week was registering for two courses through Ryerson University for their Publishing Certificate.  I was a little over a week behind when I signed up, but I had hoped to be able to catch up quickly.  The Universe, however, had different ideas...

First, when I reviewed the courses I didn't find any mention of textbooks being used (and trust me I looked).  So I was more than a little surprised to find that I needed to buy not two, but three books!  I could've purchased them through the Ryerson book store, but I could get it through Amazon much cheaper.  The problem with Amazon was the delivery date.  The books wouldn't arrive until beginning to mid February if what they said was true.  I have ordered from them before and received my books well before the ETA, so I thought for the cost I would take the gamble with them.

Second, I did not get access to the courses until Saturday (I registered on Tuesday).  As far as I can tell, this is unusual, but I did email the department and they said I just had to wait.  This means that I am now a full 2 weeks behind in my courses, not just one.  Plus, I have the next week to get through as well!!

Needless to say this will heavily impact my objectives for the next few weeks.  Week 4 may have to be pushed into week 5 and week 6 so I can catch everything up.

The moral to this story: don't register for courses late.  It's not worth the stress.  Really.  Just wait until the next term.  I will do my best to catch up and recover to what I had hoped to achieve in the beginning, but it will be hard work and will distract from my other goals (at least temporarily).

Objectives week 3

Assigned taks for week three include: continue work on painting #1, attend workshop #1, make notes on book 2.

My plan for work on painting #1, since I planned to keep this with workshop #1, was to commingle it with 10 min sketches and other drawing/painting exercises.  I was so disappointed in my lack of art practice last week that a change had to be made.  I have a whole whack of various tutorials either on my Pinterest, stored on my computer, or in my bookshelves.  They aren't doing a whole lot for me just sitting there, so I figure I should start practicing :)

My second book is "How to Make Money as an Artist" by Sean Moore.  It's a bit dated being published in 2000, but I know there's still a lot of valid information there.  I have 2 weeks to finish the notes on this book, so I'm not going to push myself to finish this week (however, if it happens that way then yay!).

I'm also continuing working out my weekly schedule.  I'm trying to keep it flexible, but purposeful too.  It should be done this week.

That's all for now.  Have a great week everyone, and I'll post again at week's end :)

End of Week 2

The finish of week 2 saw some ups and downs (already!?), but overall it was all good :)

Formal Objectives for week 2:

1) work on painting #1 - this was a mixed bag.  First, my workshop class for this week was cancelled due to low registration.  I did get all my supplies ready and even bought my very first orchid!

I even made a nifty pencil crayon holder out of a bamboo matt and some elastic I had around the house.  I got a set of 4 matts at Value Village for under $3. Way better price overall than buying one for over $15!  It holds the 24 colours I need for my class, plus the blender and burnisher pencils.

I am disappointed not only that the class was cancelled, but also that I didn't work on anything art-related this week.

2) Make notes on the book "Start and Run an Art Teaching Business" by Tanya Freedman - complete!!  I am very pleased with this result.  There was so much really good and useful information from her book that I didn't want to lose any of it in the ether when I gave it back to the library.  I also wanted to take action on some of her points and making notes helps me to remember what I want to do.

3) 10/10 min sketches -  an abysmal failure :(  I didn't manage to do a single sketch this week.  I think that in my mind if I couldn't do a sketch while my family was home, then I couldn't do any type of sketch period.  I will definitely have to work on that!!

Other things I have done this week include setting up a weekly schedule to better manage my time.  There are about a million things I'd like to do, and I need to find a way to prioritize them and put them in my schedule.  This was a suggestion made by Ms Freedman in her book and it made good sense to me.  

I've also been looking into what volunteer opportunities are available in my community.  Since I'm not currently working full-time, I'd like to find a way to contribute to the community.  As well, I started looking into the local Toastmasters club.  Another suggestion of Ms Freedman's to improve self-confidence and public speaking.  I'm not necessarily concerned about my speech-giving skills, but I would definitely like to improve my public speaking in general - always a good skill :)

Still, not too bad a start on my year.  Some improvements to be had, but that's to be expected I guess since I'm starting something new.  Talk to you soon about week 3 :)

Objectives week 2

Yes, unfortunately because I was behind in creating my objectives for the year, I am already in week 2!  I'm not all that far behind, except in my notes for last month's reading.  My assigned duties for week 1 included visiting a gallery/museum, start painting #1, and start notes on the book "Start and Run an Art Teaching Business" by Tanya Freedman.

Assignments for week 2 include continuing work on painting #1, attend my first workshop of the year, and continue notes for Ms Freedman's book.

I took my family to visit the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery last week.  There were some unique pieces of artwork up, including an interactive piece involving two spheres attached to speakers.  When you moved the spheres, the sound changed coming from the speakers.

I'm going to leave painting #1 to the botanical art workshop I'm attending starting this weekend, so that should leave lots of time to catch up on my notes for Ms Freedman's book this week.  I also have to really pull myself out of my rutt and comfort zone to start my 10 min sketches while my family is home.  Since I'm planning on 10/month, I only really need to pull off 2-3/week.  I'll see if I can rope my husband into helping me push myself until the habit kicks in :)

Objectives for 2014

Happy New Year my friends!

2013 was a very positive year for my development as an artist.  I started this blog, I created a website, I created 2 drawings and about 4 paintings.  I joined KWSA (Kitchener-Waterloo Society of Artists).  I've learned a lot about different painting and drawing techniques and the business of doing art.

December is always a horrible month for me, but this last one seemed particularly rough.  It seemed that I spent most of the month getting over one illness or another, in between bouts of holiday festivities and planning.  The positive to this is that I spent the month reading.  I found some valuable books on working the business-side of being an artist as well as several blogs by artists with helpful hints and tips.

1) How to Make Money as an Artist: the 7 Winning Strategies of Successful Fine Artists, by Sean Moore

2) Artists Survival Skills: How to Make a Living as a Canadian Visual Artist, by Chris Tyrell

3) Start and Run an Art Teaching Business, by Tanya Freedman

From these books I have learned the importance of structure and written objectives for success in a business, even for an artist.  One tool for determining/creating successful objectives is to follow the SMART model.  SMART stands for:

S: Specific - the objective must detail exactly what needs to be done
M: Measurable - progress or achievement of the objective can be measured
A: Attainable - of course the objective needs to be something you can achieve
R: Realistic - the objective is possible to attain
T: Time - a time period for achievement is clearly stated

With this model in mind, I have drawn up my objectives for 2014.  In order to break down my objectives effectively, I've laid out my plans and goals, some of them specific (S), others more vague.  I've tried to write them so that each has a measure to know when it's complete (M).   I believe I am capable of achieving all the objectives in that I have the necessary skills to make them attainable (A).  I think they are all realistic (R), especially if I can keep towards the habits I wish to develop for time management. Then I've broken down the year into month segments and assigned one of my objectives (or a part of an objective if it was a large one) into each month so each has a time period for completion (T).

I also created a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in spreadsheet format.  It's basically a spreadsheet with the months and weeks of the year at the top, and all the tasks I want to accomplish along the left-side.  Then I went through the dates, assigning the tasks and spreading them out through the year.  I also put in any "home" projects that might interfere like March break or our vacation time so that I could schedule around these "known" obstacles ahead of time. (Incidentally, my original objectives were much bigger, but when I tried to assign them in my WBS I realized I couldn't possibly get them all done, so I pared them down to a more manageable scale.  I can always do more than my objectives state if I find the time)

I will be using this specific post regularly to check on my progress and/or spur myself forward toward the assigned deadline.  You, my friends, will be my accountable contact as I am sure you will be anxiously waiting to hear how things are progressing (or not as the case may be, but let's not get negative)!

Objectives for 2014

References/Books to read in 2014:
1) Start and Run a Creative Services Business, by Susan Kirkland
2) The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People
3) Guides to collecting art (not a book per se, but several websites have the information I'm looking for)
4) How to increase traffic to your website (again, many websites cover this)

My plans to help develop as an artist are as follows:
- visit/attend 5 art galleries/museums/exhibitions
- enter at least 2 art exhibitions/juried shows
- create 6 paintings on the following: landscape, portrait, still life, floral
- create 3 drawings on the following: portrait, floral, still life
- set up and sell at least one print from my website

In order to do the above, I will need to:
- join at least one more art group
- develop the website to incorporate shop potential
- find a good artist printshop in my area
- improve website following
- research on best materials for prints

The habits I plan to develop include:
- working while my family is home (i.e. in the house)
- reducing the amount of time I spend on distractions (tv, email, Facebook, etc)
- regular/daily sketching (10 min or so total time for each session)

January
I've signed up for a botanical art workshop at the Toronto Botanical Gardens this month with Nellie Sue Potter that I'm hoping will make up one of the 6 paintings for the year.  The workshop ends Jan 25.  I plan to visit the art gallery at the University of Waterloo this month.  I also plan to make notes on the books I read last month.  To help reduce my distraction time, I will use a timer and set it for 30min or so for email, etc each day.

February
If I have any extra time in January, I'm hoping to start work on another floral piece - a poinsettia, that I intend to finish by the end of this month.  I will move my website from my host/domain to the Weebly page proper as I've noticed it offers more usability and features in the free version.  Read and make notes on one of the 4 books listed above.  Do at least 10 (10 min) sketches while my family is in the house by month's end.

March
Time to tackle a drawing.  I'd like to do a self portrait (because I've never really done one).  Find another gallery/museum to visit in the area.  Join SONSI. Begin planning my next painting for April.  Do at least 10 sketches while my family is in the house by month's end.  Begin research on best materials for prints.  Review my progress to date.

April
Complete planned painting.  The 10 sketches.  See if there is an upcoming exhibition in the groups I'm in that I can enter some work.    Look into registering for another workshop with the Button Factory on urban drawing that looked interesting.

May
Look up a good artist printshop in my area.  Make contact with them and ask questions.  10 sketches.  Read another from my assigned reading list and make notes.  Setup the store on my website to sell prints, etc.  Start painting #4.

June
Finish painting #4.  10 sketches.  Research and implement methods to increase traffic to my website.  Review my progress to date.

July
The next two months have lighter expectations to make room for vacations over the summer.  I will try to do the 10 sketches, but I'm only committing to 5 as I expect to be very busy.  Find another gallery/museum to visit.  Start drawing #2.

August
At least 5 sketches.  Finish drawing #2.  Look for another exhibition to enter.

September
Create painting #5.  Back to 10 sketches.  One more gallery/museum visit.  Start my final reading and write up from the assigned list. Review my progress to date and check on website traffic.

October
Create painting #6.  Finish final reading.  10 sketches.  Start drawing #3.

November
Finish drawing #3.  I've left the remainder of the year open for 2 reasons: 1) this allows some extra room if I get behind for any reason, 2) I really like to make things for the Christmas season and gifts so I've given myself plenty of time for that.

December
Review my progress for the year, including website traffic and sales.  Write year end summary and determine objectives for 2015.

I plan to print out both this post and my WBS and post them in my studio so I can refer to them throughout the year.  I also plan to post 2x per week - one at the beginning to state my goals for the week, and one at the end to report on my progress on the week's goals.