Setting Goals

I've decided it's time to set some goals for myself. I still don't know if I'm moving to North Carolina (I have a "probably, but maybe, but we'll see... probably know by July 1st. Maybe." Nice, right?) This has been going on since February, and I think I've gone insane at least four times over. I don't do well with my life out of my own hands. I suppose I am a control freak, now that I really think it over.

But then, I suppose if I look at how I approach my art, that probably makes sense. I think, if I were to come up with a word or two I want applied to my art I would say they are Striking and Whimsical. (If you create, what words do you want to describe your work?)

Anyway in order to let my control freak fly her little flag (it's rainbow, with swirls and sparkles on it) once again, I am setting some goals and starting something new!

First: I'm going to post a blog post every Monday. So, I won't update this as often as I once thought I would, but Monday seems like a good idea and will be more than I am pulling together now. Hopefully the posts won't be so long winded, but that's also a part of who I am. Believe me, if you knew me in person you would probably carry a roll of duct tape around with you just to get me to stop.

Secondly: I am starting a new exercise that will help me both creatively and technically. I am going to do a "sketch a day". This is different to when I tried to do my Daily Art, which quickly turned into a time consuming obsessive project because I wanted to make it perfect. Suddenly, what should have taken maybe an hour was taking six, and that just wasn't acceptable. I quit that shortly after I started it. *cringe*

SO! I am going to be doing a sketch a day, but I am going to be using my iPad to do it. I have played around with the idea of digital art for a while, but again I went to the obsessive side of things and then had to set it down because it started looking like I was trying to launch another art career - and I hadn't even started anything. *head*desk*

However, I realized that I have my iPad and a really cool pressure sensitive stylus, and some good art programs. I have figured out a way to let myself play by doing illustration rather than painting or creating a whole piece. Literally, more of a daily sketch, but digital. AND with a set character in mind!

For a while, I thought BUNNY! Because, well, I have a bunny.

But then I thought that wasn't fantastical enough. Then my mind drifted to this painting:

Now, he was supposed to be a dragon. However, the more I look at him, the more I see a Griffin. So, what about a cute little griffin? Maybe with a bunny friend (the bunny is gonna be there, I'm telling you. Also, a duckling... I can see it!)

I settled on the griffon, and started in on trying to learn the digital program on my ipad (I have ArtRage, but I also have ArtStudio. I think I like ArtStudio better at this point. It lets me smear stuff. I bet you can do that on ArtRage too, but I haven't figured out how.) My plan is to actually read through the manual and some of the tutorials, and in the meantime start creating a daily illustration and sharing them on my Facebook Page - Starting today, if I can make it happen! I spent a good portion of the morning drawing a bunny before I went this direction.

So those are my goals I'm putting into place, along with working on my other "deeper" paintings (like my queen of hearts.) I'm hoping it'll be like exercise; get me better in shape to complete the things I really want to do! I'll share my drawings on my Monday posts, too.

Since I last posted, my daughter turned 16:

This is the cake I made. It's chocolate inside too. SOOOO good! Except for the KitKats. Turns out, I hate KitKats.

I put the white rabbit in my Queen of Hearts painting:

And I started working on another Whimsical Misfit, as well as another on an ultra smooth board - I'm having problems with that. it has NO tooth at all, and I'm not sure how to work with it. I thought I wanted no tooth, but now I'm realizing I need some of it. Maybe just a tiny bit. Eeek! All the paint just slides off this thing!

And that's where I am at. Next post will be coming on Monday, because I will MAKE it happen. Oh, yes I will!