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.