Extra Drawing Time!

 This week I have found a fun and easy way to draw every day outside of my studio. It all starts with my "day job".  From what I have been told and from what I have read, many artists who are working today are not able to create their art full time. Many of us have to have a "day job" to help with the financial strain of trying to make it as an artist. I am no exception to this. I am working toward being a full time artist, but currently I have 2 different part time jobs that help me to pay for rent, bills and groceries.

     One of my part time jobs is a van driver for my church's after school program. Our day care center is called 7C's, which stands for "Camarillo Community Church Christian Child Care Center". About 3 years ago I took my Bus Driving test at the DMV and now have a Class B licence. I take kids to school in the morning and I pick them up throughout the afternoon. Check out the buses at my work! They are a rainbow of fun!!! I drive the blue van. And yes, we do park them in color order everyday. 

     My schedule is a split shift. I get to work at 7am, take kids to school, and after I get off work at 8:30am I have designated that time for my studio work. I go straight to my studio (which is also in Camarillo) and stay there until about Noon when I have to return to work for my afternoon runs. In the afternoon I drive to different schools and wait for the kids to get out of class. In the past while I was waiting for the kids to get out of school I would do a number of things within the 10 or 15 minutes before the bell rings. I have read books, my bible or magazines. I have taken quick naps and most of the time I play games on my phone.

     This is where my drawing comes in. Now instead of doing all of that other stuff I will be creating small 4" x 6" drawings. I have a small case with my essential drawing utensils (pencils, erasers, sharpener and blending stumps) and my sketchbook. Inside my sketchbook I place a 4x6 photo that I want to draw next to a 4x6 blank paper. When I am waiting for school to get out, I take my sketchbook and pencils out, place the sketchbook on my lap or lean it against the steering wheel and draw for a few minutes at a time. It takes a few days for each small drawing, but I was able to complete 2 drawings over 8 days of bus runs. Here is my set up:

These are the 2 drawings I did this last week

The start of this year has been....

The start of this year has been.... Overwhelming

   After starting a "lifestyle change" of eating good and real foods, and not eating what I used to (i.e. fast food, soda and junk food) I felt like I was in a panic, stressing about what I could or could not eat. The hole first week of the new year, food consumed my thoughts to the point where I couldn't really focus on anything else. However, after doing this for a few weeks I am finally getting the hang of things and being a lot more calm about it all. 

The start of this year has been.... Frustrating

   I have mainly been frustrated with myself for doing and scheduling other things when I should be in my studio drawing. With 3 commissions ready to be worked on and 3 more on the way, I need to be proactive about not doing anything during my studio time except draw. Today (January 19th) was the first day I was able to sit down at my table and draw for most of the day! It was awesome and felt good to be able to do it. Hopefully that will help jump-start my studio time again.

The start of this year has been.... Encouraging

   I have been able to talk to a few of the artists at my community art studio during the new year and have received some great advice and help on some of the things I have been struggling with. One of those things was raising my prices for commissions. I have was hearing from those who are asking me for commissions that my prices are “a great deal” and other comments like, “Are you sure that will be enough?” or “I know you gave me a discount on that.” And even others that flat out tell me my prices are too low. All the comments pushed me to raise my prices, so I talked to a very close artist friend of mine who helped me figure out a starting price for an individual portrait and then a formula for adding one or more portraits on the same paper. It is a great system and I am interested to see how it works. Now my challenge will be to be confident in these new prices when I am talking to people about them. Only time and experience will tell how this will all work out.  

   Another helpful adviser talked to me about what I was doing, what was taking the most of my time and energy. Taking all of that into consideration, was I being compensated for what I was putting in. I learned a lot from that session and will be making adjustments soon. 

Overall I would rate this month low at the beginning, but that rate is climbing higher each day.  There are a few other things that I will be working toward over the next few weeks and months. Being financially stable in my business, submitting my drawings to drawing competitions, learning to market my business efficiently and networking with other artist. Even thought I had a rough start to the year, I look forward to moving ahead, growing, and becoming a more confident artist.