One Finished and 4 To Start

This week has been more "normal" than past weeks. I still have not been able to keep my "one drawing a day" challenge this week, but I was able to finish a commission. I should clarify that my "one drawing a day" is a small 5"x7" line drawing. The other drawings, commissions and portfolio drawings, are my detailed value drawings, that, on average, take between 20 and 50 hours over the course of a few weeks to many months. At times I need to focus my efforts on drawing my value drawings over my daily line drawings.

The commission I finished was a drawing of my family friends, The Boykins. Last year they purchased a gift certificate of mine from the Heart of Hope Silent Auction. Heart of Hope is the non-profit international ministry organization that focuses their missionary work in Romania. I have been apart of going on mission with this organization for 3 years. Below is the drawing that resulted from last year's Auction Gift Certificate.

Finishing a drawing always gives me hope that I can complete drawings. That might sound a little funny, because I know in my head that I can finish drawings, but sometimes it takes so long that I feel I will never finish. So right on the heals of finishing a commission, I now have 4 new commissions and a personal commission to start and try to complete by the end of January. I would like to say that this would be no problem for me to accomplish, however, I know myself well enough to know that completing these drawings is going to take a lot of hard work, long hours and focus during the time of year when distractions, gatherings and events are plentiful. All of this on top of drawing classes, holiday travel and the SCIART Holiday Market coming soon.

I'm getting ready for a very busy drawing season! I better start this all off with a good night sleep.

Roller Coaster

Well, as awesome as Saturday was with a sold drawing, new commission, and last week being able to complete 4 new line drawings... this week has been pretty much the opposite.

Monday: My week started out positive with a trip to City Hall to see the plaque I helped with for Camarillo's 50th Birthday! It is being displayed at Camarillo City Hall, not sure for how much longer though.

I then went to my studio to start the new commission I received on Saturday. Since I was told I was on a time crunch to finish it, I decided to start as soon as I got to my studio on Monday [Side Note: when I am told I don't have much time, I don't waste time getting started, knowing how long some of my drawings take. I prepped the photo Sunday night and stated at 8:30 Monday morning]. I spent about 4 hours on it, making significant head-way and really excited that my energy about the drawing was up and my focus was all there.

  (There is a sketch on the first image)

However, about 4:30pm that afternoon I was called by my client and told that the commission was canceled.... I took a deep breath and sighed. The drawing was turning out well enough that I wanted to finish it, so thankfully the man who was originally wanting it done is allowing me to still finish it, and I will be putting it in my portfolio. He now wants another drawing done, but this time with no time constraints.

Tuesday: This is usually the day I look forward to the most because I have nothing planned except my job. That means I get an entire day of drawing, w/o meetings, plans or distractions (usually). Yet, that morning I woke up in a completely drained state, both physically and emotionally. I felt like doing absolutely nothing all day... So I did exactly that, nothing... It was hard knowing that I had so much time to draw and get things done, but I did none of it. I didn't feel good about it, but I also didn't feel like doing anything about it either.

Wednesday: I woke up feeling refreshed! I felt like my day of doing nothing might have paid off and now I was rejuvenated for a day of productivity. I was able to work more on a drawing I have been trying to finish for the Boykin Family, as well as get some errands done before Friday. Overall it seemed to be an average day, which felt better given my state of mind the day before.

Thursday: I woke up in a state of physical and emotional lack, again... However even though my day was wrought with internal conversations, dilemmas, and planning for decisions that need to be made soon, by the end of the day all was well again. I am working on getting prints of my drawings made for the Heart of Hope Auction Benefit next Friday as well as the Holiday Market at my Studio on December 6th. As of 9 pm last night I had no idea what I was going to do to pay for getting the prints made. I have been trying my best to save the money I have been getting from my classes and commissions for my rent and necessary purchases for my studio. I just paid rent last week and it came pretty close to depleting the earnings I have made. I prayed about it to let God know how I was feeling and that I needed help figuring out what to do. When I got home after my class (which was fun and enjoyable, despite my worry earlier in the day), my dad reminded me of a stash I had been saving for a while (and honestly forgot about) and that I should use that money to help me make the prints!  So cool how God uses others to help us out!

Friday: It is now Friday and I have been able to have a productive morning, using my time to prepare for getting prints made and getting ready for an event I was invited to tonight to show my drawings at. The New West Symphony is performing tonight in Oxnard and I have been asked to show some of my drawings in the lobby before the performance along with my fellow artist in residence Marion Wood. This is shaping up to be a great day and evening.

All in all my week has definitely been a crazy roller coaster of ups and downs emotionally and physically. But even though I did not get the chance to draw every day like I had challenged myself last week, I was able to draw during my class last night. A partially finished still life of pumpkins and gourds.

SOLD!!

For the first time EVER, I have sold a drawing right off of the wall in my studio!! Yesterday during SCIART's Open Studio Event a couple from L.A. came in and fell in love with my drawing "Brothers in Christ".

I couldn't believe it! They asked how much it was and then said they would take it. I was in shock at first. This had never happened to me before. Nervously I exchanged information with them, still not sure this was really happening. It was all very bittersweet for me. That drawing is in my top 3 favorite drawings that I have done. It will be so hard seeing it go, but I know it is going to a very good home. The wife stated this in an email to me, "The drawing depicts a universal brotherhood of caring and support...Your drawing skills are outstanding, and the subject matter conveys true emotion." It is so nice to hear affirmation form someone I have never met before this moment. I am thrilled to know that this will be a gift for their daughter-in-law, who they assure me will absolutely love it.

The other cool thing about this exchange is that they couple is allowing me to keep it for our Holiday Market on December 6th! Such a nice and generous gesture. This will also give me some time to get used to the idea of it not being in my studio anymore.

New Challenge

My Challenge: do one drawing a day (Monday-Friday), equaling 5 drawings total during the week.

Reason: Because my value drawings take a long time, sometimes upward of 60+ hours, it can feel like it takes forever to finish a drawing. This kind of goes along the lines of "30 Paintings in 30 Days" from Leslie Saeta's Blog. I am modifying it a little however just doing it on the week days.

Week One:
   This being the first week I have done this challenge I have found some cool, positive things that have come out of this challenge as well as some struggles I will have to work through. A cool thing was my excitement to do these line drawings each day. I was able to choose subjects that interested me, and draw them, from start to finish. It reminded me of when I was in Middle School and High School, doing line drawings of my favorite Anime characters in one sitting.
   Something I learned is that it takes me about 1-2 hours to do a line drawing, like the ones below. This is both a good and something that might not be so good. The way my work schedule is for the Day Care I work for, I only have about 3 hours between my morning and afternoon shifts. With drawings that take 1-2 hours to do, I now only had 1 hour to work on projects and commissions that have deadlines.
   My other issue this week was that Halloween landed on Friday. I was so busy I only had a short time in my studio and that was to get ready for Open Studio on Saturday.

Below are the 4 line drawings I was able to finish this week.

 

 

2 Year Anniversary and a New Beginning!

   I can't believe I have passed my 2 year anniversary of being an Artist-In-Residence at Studio Channel Islands Art Center in Camarillo. Over the last 4 months I was involved in a "Studio Shuffle" which allowed me to move into a new and larger studio space in September!!! I took a leap of faith and requested a half-space when it became available (I had a quarter-space in D4). Now I am in A3! There was a lot of artists moving around among the newly opened spaces at SCIART. Originally I did not want the A3 space I currently have, but in the end I absolutely LOVE it and would not have my space in any other place. Yet the most important thing I want to explain is that this has all been a huge blessing from God. I have been trusting God to provide for me in my larger and more expensive studio. He has provided new commissions, drawing classes and students. He is the one I am trusting to teach me, guide me and provide for me.

"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose for them." Romans 8:28

Because I am now in my new space, I am trying to take a more proactive approach to everything I do in my studio to start building up a career. This includes daily time in my studio drawing, promotion and preparation for my drawing classes, updating my website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and now my blog regularly, at least once a week, and to prepare and send out my E-Newsletter, too. In a nutshell, I am learning to be disciplined and focused on my art and my career. Now, this is so much easier said than done. I have a bad habit of getting lazy when I am busy and tired, and I always seem to be busy and tired....  It is amazing how much I have learned about myself over the last 2 years of being an Artist in Residence. There is so much more to having an art career than I ever thought. However I am in a community of professional and successful artists at SCIART that have shown me it is possible and something I am capable of doing.

As I was thinking about what to write for this "new beginnings" blog, I remembered an interesting conversation I had with one of my high school drawing students recently. This quote came up in our conversation:

"Do or do not. There is no try."

Anyone know who that quote is from? If you guessed Yoda, from Star Wars, you are correct! This quote is pretty spot on for how I feel right now. I either need to do it or not do it, I can't just try. Trying indicates you are giving yourself room to fail. And I will not! I can DO this! Even though I know myself to have a history or "try until it gets hard and then stop" kind of attitude, I will persevere and keep moving forward no matter how many times I step off course.

One way I can inspire myself is to see how far I have come. Below are the three different studios I have had since 2010.

This is the studio that my parents let me have when I first moved back home from Humboldt State.

This was my studio in D4 at Studio Channel Islands Art Center. You can see the progression of this studio and how it changed over 2 years here.

Here is my new larger half room in A3!! I have sectioned my half of the room so that I can teach on one side and do my own drawings on the other. It is so nice having all of my drawing/art stuff in one location! 

Bookmarks

      A year has gone by since my first Holiday Market at SCIART and this year I decided my "small items" would be bookmarks! I drew out 9 different designs, copied them and pasted them onto colorful backgrounds. I sold them for $5 each and I was really happy with how well they sold! I plan on making at least one new bookmark design every month. Stay tuned for what's coming up!

Here are my original drawings and some of the final product bookmarks I have for sale.

SERIES 1: Old Master's Drawings
   This first series of drawings was each drawn from an old master's drawing. While in the UMass Boston Library I looked through about 20 masters drawing books and found images to draw from. The originals below are all of my drawings, but the references for them were taken from the old masters.

Here is what they look like with there backgrounds. One of the designs is not shown because they were very popular and I have to make more.

If you or someone you know are interested in purchasing some bookmarks, please email or message me and let me know. 

Gift Certificates