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!!!

How art is improving everything in my life

I think these needs to be another theme I would like to share. When I go to lectures about the business and professionalism of working as an artist I am that person who is slowly sinking in my seat from embarrassment realizing I am that artist they are talking about who did NOT have a professional attitude. It's not terribly uncomfortable mostly because I am finding out what I was doing wrong and what I need to do to correct it.

What I have learned from the pros I have been studying with is the mindset of the professional, the attitude of a professional, and the behavior of a professional artist. That has been, for me, the most wonderful discovery of all.

What I did not expect is how it affected my attitude in my day job. I have finally learned to love it! It is helping me to get to my goal of being a self-supporting professional artist. It pays for my education and materials. I am learning how to handle business aspects such as working with print vendors, invoicing and filing and archiving. I am especially learning to leave my ego locked up in a little cage at home and to not miss it at all.

Learning how to be a pro as an artist has taught me how to be a pro at the job I don't really WANT to do and it has made me so much happier with my situation in general. I love this job now. I love that I make things good for other people. I love that I feel a sense of fulfilled responsibility that allows me to indulge in the thing that is my passion and my current goal (I have many!).

Drawing, composition, color, value, technique, mediums are all so fun to learn. But the sense of pride in myself that I am building comes from learning how to be professional. THAT has been the best lesson of all.

My current best source (other than the teachers with SmarterArtSchool and Illustration Master Class) is a wonderful book call "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. I highly recommend it - especially getting the audio version. It's like having a coach in the room with you while you work.

Learning to love my day job: AWESOME!!

Rose Red and Snow White - Final

Here it is!!!

Now it's time to move on to the next one...

Rose Red & Snow White in Progress

Here is an in progress shot of my Rose Red & Snow White painting for Smart School. This is my second go round with it and I am already so much more pleased. I am finally starting to find my painting method (it's still very much an amalgamation of what I have been learning from other artists) or I should say my brush confidence and this has been going more smoothly. I've also begun to learn how to use less saturated color and to reference my value scale for better values. I would say this is at about 1/4 of the way through. I'll keep you posted at to how far it gets!

Here is what I started for the first round (it is not finished and will most likely get gessoed over a year or so from now). I feel like I am riding a rocket - but I make sure I look at the masters to keep my humility firmly in place!!!

I really cannot say enough about Smart School - I have already begun the first week of the new semester, and even though I am only on "lurk" mode my head already hurts form the sheer amount of information I have received. These two paintings are only about six weeks apart. I am STILL growing!