Post-Illuxcon Recovery

Wow.

Illuxcon was... Wow.

Being surrounded by living masters of painting...

The kindness and generosity of everyone...

What an amazing show!

It was my first public showing of my work and I am blown away by the reaction I had from everyone who saw it.

Thank you!

What I learned was invaluable - and again thank you!

I am so excited and inspired to do more good work!

Let's see what happens next year!!!

Almost ready for Illuxcon!!

No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth - I am learning why doing shows is such an ordeal... All of the preparation, the ordering of business cards, making prints to sell, setting up a portfolio and sample pack to give out to art directors, dusting off equipment, forgetting to eat..

Wishing I had time to paint! Well I have updated my website with some new stuff that I will be showing at Illuxcon in Allentown (www.Illuxcon.com) during the two nights of the Showcase. Stop by if you get a chance! It is such a thrill to be involved in the show this year, and I know when I get home I will be creating my "Do Not Panic" package of "Stuff for Shows"

(Above is my painting for the Amanda Palmer Tarot card Kickstarter project that was wildly successful! 78 different artist took part and I was so lucky to be one of them! (Reference photo by Elliott Franks) I will have this painting at Illuxcon and yes, it is for sale!!

The power of the crit group

I have been lucky enough to have been invited to two crit groups - and I have to say they have proven invaluable to my growth as an artist. Having other artists look at your work with the full intention of making everything they see better is the greatest gift artists can receive from their colleagues! Here is what a crit group has done for the picture I last posted:

This is a MASSIVE improvement over the original drawing. If I had not been a part of these crit groups I would have happily stopped where it was previously and tottered on my way thinking I was hot stuff.

Crit groups make you realize you are not hot stuff, you are actually a lazy bum that is a little too in love with whatever happy little marks you make... They push you because they don't want to see something that COULD be good not quite get there...
vAnd that is such a great great gift! Now back to being chastised again for not pushing harder!!!

Oh and here is another one that has been hugely improved by critique:

Now back to work!

Fireflies...

I am finally starting to recover from this year's Illustration Masterclass. This is a piece I started before I went but it seems to be picking me up again with the new level I had hit this year. I can't believe that only two years ago I had painted my first painting in almost 20 years! What an amazing journey it has been...from fireflies to the moon...

Commitments

One thing I have learned in the past few years on this journey to becoming an independent working artist is that commitments LOVE company! I have committed myself to becoming the best artist I can be, meaning working on my skills, working on my concepts, learning professional attitudes... and that has brought on the need to make other commitments. I am now committed to saving money like I have never done before. It sounds foolish NOT to but it is very easy to justify so much of your daily spending as "necessary" when you have a regular paycheck coming in. So now - I need to treat my income as if it were money earned as a freelancer BEFORE I make the leap into becoming a freelancer.  I realized all this painting and drawing means after sitting in a chair all day at the office I am sitting in a chair all night at home - and things are starting to atrophy. I want to enjoy a LONG career as an artist and that means I need to get in shape! It means committing to a gym and working out three times a week (to start - I am definitely an endorphin junkie!) no matter how much laundry needs to be washed...

Committing to my painting and Illustration dreams means committing to taking care of myself in every way possible...AND taking care of my family and friends which all becomes easier as I build a foundation of commitment to a better life...

It means growing up and taking responsibility for myself... in a way I never understood before.

All because I wanted to draw really cool pictures of characters in books I love to read.

What a great book!

I have so many anatomy books so I didn't think I needed this one. However - this one has anatomical images of so many different animals not available in most animal anatomy books, as well as excellent human anatomy. 

This is a must have for any artist's library!

Learning never stops...

I am already participating in two classes on with www.smarterartschool.com and then I get the sale announcement from www.schoolism.com ... I have been dying to take the Tom Fluharty oil painting course and with the sale I could not resist.

I am at the sketching stage now and already I am pushing myself harder than I normally do. I cannot WAIT to see how these come out!

I know that sometimes the best way to learn is to just dive in and do it, but even though I have been in and out of art schools for years I have never been taught anything about painting in oil in any particular technique (except what I had learned last semester in Greg's class) and I had to take this opportunity to learn Dutch Flemish technique.

This is going to be fun!!!