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.

How to be Happy as a Struggling Artist and Achieve your Dreams

I am suffering from an artistic slump.  I have a thousand really great ideas, but it seems that when I put pencil to paper, the idea falls very short.  I haven't stopped trying, but I'm not comfortable sharing what I consider to be "failures" or at the very least "failures to launch"!  I actually get the feeling that with a little focus I could tweak these ideas and change them into the light bulbs of inspiration I think they are.  This being the holiday season, however, I am finding it difficult to focus on artwork, so I've decided to commit my energy to reading and learning for the remainder of the year (likely with some sketching on the side - I could never leave it completely).  I find that the important thing to do when I get into a slump is to find some way to keep moving forward - don't lose momentum and fall behind.  Take a different direction for a while and come back when I'm ready :)

On that note, I wanted to write today about a book I finished reading called "The Artist In the Office: How to Creatively Survive and Thrive Seven Days a Week" by Summer Pierre (2010).  The purpose of this book is to help creative types (artists, musicians, photographers, crafty people, etc), who are unable to commit completely to their art full time, find happiness in working a "day job" and still continue to create as their spirits demand.

I felt a strong connection with this book.  Until recently I was working full-time in a job that I was not very satisfied in.  I was working an off-shift, Monday to Friday, with a husband and 2 small children I almost never saw (except for weekends), I was always way too short on sleep so I could see them in the mornings, and I felt like I had no time for my creative endeavours (and felt guilty when I did find the time).  Does this sound familiar to you too?  I know a lot of artists out there are working full time (non-creative) jobs just to pay the bills.  Jobs they feel under-appreciated in.  "Soul sucking" I believe would be the term used.

Having been laid off, I have decided to take this as an opportunity to improve my life.  My previous job paid well, but I wasn't happy in it.  Time to find out what I can do to make changes so that my next job feels like the positive growth experience I want it to be.  That's what I hoped this book would deliver to me.  Tips and tricks to discover what I actually needed to be happy with a "day" job to help support my family and still keep my sanity as I work toward my dream :)

So, what does Ms Pierre suggest to artists everywhere?  LOTS!!  The book is divided into four parts: Why We Work, Your Artist At Work, Doing Your Work, and Ideas For Change.  Now, she is very firm in stating that no matter what you do at work, you must still DO YOUR WORK!  The work you do is the deal you made with the company in exchange for the money they pay you and it's important that you follow through with that commitment.  However, that doesn't mean that there aren't things you can't do to stay true to yourself too.

One of the first ideas that I resonated with was the idea that an artist (no matter your art) is "always at work".  You go to your day job, work your 7-8 hours, then go home and continue working the remainder of the day doing your "art" work and "home" work.  Many creative types (and a lot of the rest of the world too), consider that when they are working on their art that they are in down time.  This can be even more true for those that must use weekends and vacation days to promote, or work on their art.  But it isn't true.  The time spent on your art is still work and the sooner you recognize that, the happier you will be.  Yes it feeds your soul, but it is still work and should not be considered "down time".  On that note, be sure you take real down time occasionally to prevent burn out.

The second idea that I needed to hear from the author was "The Obstacles Are Your Life!".  How many times have you complained that your life hadn't started yet?  Have you ever looked back at your life and regretted that you didn't start sooner?  I know I have.  Comparing myself to other successful (and frequently younger) artists always made me miserable and I frequently wished I had started sooner so that my real life, my dream, could be realized sooner.  Ms Summer argues that there will always be obstacles in your life, even when you realize your dream.  That's what life is, a stream of obstacles.  But some of the obstacles, like learning a skill, improving a skill, discovering an easier way to do things, are necessary and should be acknowledged!  However, if you want to make a living doing your art you are going to have to take action on what you've learned too.  For me, that's the act of actually making art :P  I love doing it, but I'm sometimes nervous that I don't know enough to do it justice which leads me to more research and less art.

With these 2 ideas in mind, what can be done to feel less like I am in a soul-sucking rutt, depriving myself of being myself and working towards my goal of making a living off my art?  Well, according to the author, there are many things to work with and I'm going to list some of them for you (this is only a few of the ideas she offers).

Keep your creative self at the office, as well as at home:

- find ways to keep a positive attitude: limit gossiping and complaining about work (negativity sucks the soul out of creativity)

- appreciate your job by making a list of things it provides for you (being as specific as possible in the details)

- find ways to make the commute more enjoyable (listen to books on tape, do guerrilla artwork with chalk on the sidewalk, walk some part of the way, take pictures of the trip, etc)

- take lunchtime adventures (visit a nearby store: books, flowers, gallery, etc, go to the park, write in a journal, etc)

- collect all the squiggles and sketches you make while on the phone and paste them into a sketchbook

Get out of the rutt by actively moving towards your goal at home:

- make a list of things that you could do to work toward your goat that would take 10-15 min (sketch, write, research agents/galleries/etc)

- make a list of what you spend your time on in a day - you will likely find that there are items you could remove as being "time wasters" to help give you the time you need (tv and internet are good first sources to limit)

- join a group - there are groups out there for EVERYTHING!  Some require you to pay a membership fee, others are free community groups, both are beneficial.  Joining a group can help to provide motivation to take steps toward your goal as well as provide support and advice to do so.  A quick google search can help you find something suitable.  I am a member of a group that meets once a month, and a group that is only connected online through a forum.

- write down what your ideal life looks like.  Who are you with?  Where do you live?  What foods do you eat?  What is it you do full time?  What do you do in your down time?

- look at that list and see if there's anything you could change in your life right now to make that dream life more real

- limit worrying as much as possible.  A lot of energy can be spent worrying on something that may never happen.  It doesn't help move you forward unless it's something you can take action on - in which case do so.

- Give yourself space to work (and think) by removing all the items in your home that make you feel shabby or guilty or in some way make you feel down on yourself.  Donate the items to charity or give them to people you know would enjoy them.

I truly recommend this book.  It's full of original drawings and exercises (I barely scratched the surface), and motivational quotes from famous artists and writers.  I am working through the exercises myself and finding ways to re-think my life and what happiness means for me.  I am working to be more active in the groups I have joined, acknowledge the work I have done as much as the work I haven't to achieve my goals, and I'm trimming away the clutter.  Already I feel much better about my life and where it's going, and I feel that I can be in control of my life again :)

Staying organized

(image curtesy of teachersatrisk.com)

I must start this post off with an apology.  I have been neglecting my blog lately and I am sorry.  If it makes it any better, I have felt increasingly guilty about this over the last several days. :(

Why, you may ask, have I been neglecting my responsibility and commitment?  To be honest, I have to blame multiple factors:  the up-coming holiday season, the various projects that I have planned and initiated (nothing to do with art unfortunately) for the holiday season, the upcoming plans I have been arranging for the girls' holidays since they will be home full-time for 2 weeks!  And oh so much more that my brain feels like it might collapse under all the weight of stuff to do (not unlike that desk up there)!!!

I'm sure I'm not alone in this situation.  There must be an entire planet - maybe even this one - of people feeling overwhelmed with their various commitments this time of year.  So I thought I'd try to help out a bit by presenting some of the tools I use to help keep myself in order.  Of course, these tools work best when you actually use them, which I also sometimes neglect to do.  I admit that lately I haven't been using them as much as would help me either.  Gonna see to that.

So...to my list.  Speaking of lists, I LOVE lists!  I find I am most productive when I can write down all the things I want to get done in a day; the big and the small, the easy and the more difficult, the likely and the "I wish".  But my absolute favourite thing about lists is crossing off items when they are complete :)  What I don't like is all the paper I use and the pieces lying around after.  This brings me to my first tool:  Wunderlist

Wunderlist is a free app that you can download to your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows, Android, Kindle and the Web.  It's a pretty basic app, but also very versatile.  You can pretty much create lists for anything you want to.  Here's a shot of my copy:

 You can see I have multiple lists ranging from things for my house (like Weekend), and Things to Sell, and of course, projects to work on in my Studio.  There are more features that I haven't played with yet, like a timer option so you can set up WHEN you want to get something done or done by.  

When an item has been completed, you just check the box and the item moves from the top to the bottom and is "greyed" out.  What's neat about this is for things like my Weekend list, where some items are the same every week, like groceries or laundry.  So the next weekend, I unclick the repeat items to return them to the top area and voila!  I'm ready with my list quick and easy!

Speaking of timing and getting things done "on time", my second tool is the good old calendar
function that comes with my OS - either Outlook for PC, or Calendar for Mac (or if you're online a lot, Google has one too).  Appointments are obvious things to put in, but other things I have in there are things I want to be reminded to do.

For example, I like to work my brain with Lumosity daily, but I don't always remember to do it.  I type this item into my calendar and tell it to repeat daily and send me a reminder message 15 min before a time I that have set up.

You could also put things in there like dates bills are due, or reminders to shop for birthday presents/cards.  You can assign priorities to the items as well so that you can stay on track for the most important things (my problem with this specific function is that I feel that if I bothered to put it in the calendar - it's important so prioritizing won't help :P).  There's almost no limit to this tool and you can print it up and put it on the fridge if there's a lot of family items on it to help keep the family on track.

My third tool might be a bit less obvious - Pinterest.  Pinterest is like an online version of a bulletin board.  Just like you could pin up notes and ideas on a bulletin board, you can collect website address links (say blog posts for example) and create multiple boards (or you can think of them as folders if you like) to "pin" or save the link for future reference.

I am a creative person and there are probably about a million things that I want to do, or see, or set up.  I'm not really sure how other people use it, but for me it's a great place to put ideas for recipes I want to try, sewing projects and other DIY things I see on the internet that I think are really cool, or even tips I might find on decorating my house or gifts I think would be perfect for so-and-so.

At the moment I have 16 boards with 617 pins.  That's a lot of ideas that I don't have to go searching around for on the internet in one of my frantic moments when I'm looking for something specific I saw, and oh man, what site was that on again?  What search words did I use to get there?  The boards are organized the way that's most useful for me.  I've actually become a bit addicted to pinterest because I love finding something new and adding it to one of my boards to read in more detail later.  Then, if I don't like it, I just delete the pin!

There are oh so many more tools available in today's advanced technological age - and many of them are free!  You can also find apps that are more specific to a particular niche - for example, try googling "Apps for artists" and you will get 186,000,000 hits!  That's a lot of potential help!

I'd love to know what tools/tricks you use to keep yourself on track!