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.