Friday, January 15, 2010

3 Musketeers Mini WIP #3

Its now officially at 'the ugly stage'.I skipped quite a few in between steps, and am showing you where it is now. Lots of red and the start of some blue, mostly. Now is where it gets really fussy (like it wasn't already), and I'll spend time with each little section, really fiddling. There's a lot of subtle nuancing that will happen in the next few steps. I'm leaving the red "3 Musketeers" type to the end, since that kind of red tends to smear easily. Also, its the icing on the cake.

So some of you have expressed an interest in my PLAN. I know, I know, you all just want to see what I do then copy off my paper. Well, I didn't say I could guarantee the plan would work or be successful - its just a plan, a roadmap of sorts, of where I want to go. I mean, we all have a sort of plan as we go when we schedule jobs, or if we're really good and do regular self promo mailings, that sort of thing. But I want to include some deadlines for myself outside of that for getting some more new art done, some picture book dummies actually done, some colored pencil art (like the above) done, some competitions entered, some galleries contacted, some publishers contacted, some art licensing people contacted - stuff like that. I just think that if I actually write it down and stare at it every day, and commit to it, I'll stand a much better chance of accomplishing something. I'm not saying I'm going to get to all of it in this first "semester" ~ but eventually.

I would also like to redo my website (which means learning a new program), maybe get and learn Painter, do more with my Wacom and try to be more digital, and finally figure out Illustrator. ha No, I'm not kidding. Illustrator has always scared me a little.

And that's my plan, in a nutshell. Nothing spectacular. Nothing that a lot of you probably aren't already doing. (did that make sense? those double negatives -)

One thing I've decided is to forget about ebay altogether, and CafePress and Zazzle, and maybe even Etsy. I still have my knitting shop and art prints shop on Etsy, but I'm not sure how long I'll keep them going. Its all a lot of work to do well, and if you don't have the time to commit to it, it ends up just being a drain, both financially and timewise. Just saying.

Its supposed to start raining cats and dogs this weekend, so I'm going to burrow in. We're stocked up on coffee and kitty treats, so we should be OK.

Ta ta ~

3 comments:

Vicki Greene said...

I looked and looked and I just could not find anything ugly about your pencil painting. I think it is coming along beautifully. We all need to review and set goals. I have a Wacom table that sits by my computer that I have never even plugged in (and I have had it for a year). Maybe I should give it a try.........lol.

Melissa B. Tubbs said...

Paula, I really like the idea of seeing short-term goals as semesters. I've called 2010 my year of change. That means goals, exercise, everything! I want to make changes that stick. I don't mean I'm going to overwhelm myself, but do it systematically. I'm sticking with etsy too--seem to get better results for least amount of money. Can't wait to see the finished 3 Muscateers!

Teresa Mallen said...

You have a fine list of goals. The 'enter competitions' one always gets me every year (okay,I am making sure I get something into the CPSA). I always seem to remember to check on deadlines just after they have expired! Grrrr....