2015 and so many changes!

Since I began this blog, which has been about my journey as an artist, I realize that in spite of all the challenges that I've had to face in my life, my art has continued to grow and improve and become closer to those images I see in my mind. I know I had gone silent a long time - I do want to change that - but this is what has been happening in the silence.  

As I get ready for Illuxcon two years after the last time I participated I am amazed both where my life has gone as well as where my art has gone. I could not have achieved all of this without all the kindnesses that have been shown me all this time.

Thank you!

I know it's been a while...

I know it's been a long time since I have posted. Life has been interesting for the last ten months to say the least. I finally finished one of the paintings I had started a year ago after IMC which I will post later. That one was an emotional experience as it been started in a painful time of my life and touching it again brought it back. Powering through it I regained my serenity of emotion and broke through to the place I had been when I had painted the Tarzan painting two years ago... And I cried with joy to remember it and watched this painting just flow off my brush...

On Tuesday when I worked on a private piece... It was a small watercolor that I was doing for someone special - and the love I felt while doing it made the piece so effortless... I realized that while I have been studying so hard to learn how to paint I forgot the most important skill of all - throwing my heart into the work... And that was what I had been doing on the Tarzan piece - I was in love with it and in love with the people I was with and that was the magic that made it happen. 

So many people think you have to suffer for your art - and I have been doing that for a long time. Fighting to learn fighting to find the time and mental space to do it ...

But the secret that all the masters have known is you must be passionately, openly in love with what you are doing and WHY you are doing it ... And I have finally discovered what that means. Now I know what throwing your heart in really feels like...

Post-Illuxcon Recovery

Wow.

Illuxcon was... Wow.

Being surrounded by living masters of painting...

The kindness and generosity of everyone...

What an amazing show!

It was my first public showing of my work and I am blown away by the reaction I had from everyone who saw it.

Thank you!

What I learned was invaluable - and again thank you!

I am so excited and inspired to do more good work!

Let's see what happens next year!!!

Almost ready for Illuxcon!!

No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth - I am learning why doing shows is such an ordeal... All of the preparation, the ordering of business cards, making prints to sell, setting up a portfolio and sample pack to give out to art directors, dusting off equipment, forgetting to eat..

Wishing I had time to paint! Well I have updated my website with some new stuff that I will be showing at Illuxcon in Allentown (www.Illuxcon.com) during the two nights of the Showcase. Stop by if you get a chance! It is such a thrill to be involved in the show this year, and I know when I get home I will be creating my "Do Not Panic" package of "Stuff for Shows"

(Above is my painting for the Amanda Palmer Tarot card Kickstarter project that was wildly successful! 78 different artist took part and I was so lucky to be one of them! (Reference photo by Elliott Franks) I will have this painting at Illuxcon and yes, it is for sale!!

The power of the crit group

I have been lucky enough to have been invited to two crit groups - and I have to say they have proven invaluable to my growth as an artist. Having other artists look at your work with the full intention of making everything they see better is the greatest gift artists can receive from their colleagues! Here is what a crit group has done for the picture I last posted:

This is a MASSIVE improvement over the original drawing. If I had not been a part of these crit groups I would have happily stopped where it was previously and tottered on my way thinking I was hot stuff.

Crit groups make you realize you are not hot stuff, you are actually a lazy bum that is a little too in love with whatever happy little marks you make... They push you because they don't want to see something that COULD be good not quite get there...
vAnd that is such a great great gift! Now back to being chastised again for not pushing harder!!!

Oh and here is another one that has been hugely improved by critique:

Now back to work!

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.