how to be an illustrator and late new years resolutions

so the busy period of overtime getting in the way of my art should have come to an end. now I'm back to my lovely 7 and a half hours a week. ah well at least i can work on my art. I've got 7 days holiday to take which practically works out at 3 and a half weeks by march. this is what happens when you live in a timeless world XD. more time to work on my art (though i must get a holiday form as they where out of them last time) and been paid for some of it too, that's good.

so its an other year i looked at how much art i produced last year and finished piece wise it was disappointing, sketch wise it was okay, mainly because i still haven't got all my sketches scanned and posted. i need a more convenient to get to scanner.

I'm currently working on this picture

its the chains one from before only changed a lot, i messed up on the colouring and re sketching it the exact same wasn't feeling right for me, even light boxing it (in the form of taping it to a window) wasn't working out, so i went back to the original idea of designing a character for my illustrated book and took it from there. I'm hoping to have it done by the end of Tuesday, its going quite well, pity i have been so distracted today. i have decided to create at least 4 finished pieces a month (aiming for 2 in January due to not making decisions fast enough) starting with the 5 pieces i have yet to finish. hopefully everything will go to plan. people say I'm to hard on myself at times. i should get one of those schedule wipe boards.

recently i have been having problems getting on the PC that can run my art programs, been kicked off a few times which has been a bit of a downer, luckily where getting a second study put in (not for me but for my boyfriends mum) and hopefully me and my boyfriend are going to invest in a new PC soon with our Christmas money (the old one is going to be stored in the wardrobe as we will probably need it when we get our own place). i'm also debating of getting my current art table stored and using my fold away easel to draw with due to space issues in my room and getting a new bookcase/ stealing my old one back.

i have invested in a couple of books to try and push my art forwards.

the first is the artists' yearbook 2010/2011

"the artists' yearbook is the only comprehensive up to date reference guide to getting ahead in today's art world. offering advice and inspiration in one fact packed volume, it features carefully vetted information on and contact details for more than 3,000 visual art businesses and organizations"

its mainly based around the UK with a few sections listing things world wide. some of the articals where interesting, though overall its more a yellow pages for artists with a brief description about what everything is and does. the fairs where disappointing, not because of the book per say but by the fact you have to represented by a gallery from what i can see. gonna read that section properly soon. but the competitions are a possibility.

the other book was called how to be an illustrator by Darrel Rees http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-be-Illustrator-Darrel-Rees/dp/1856695301/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263842518&sr=8-1

And omg this book is fantastic. this isn't the book i mentioned with my picture of all my art books (which grows constantly i might add) that one was about children's illustration and i found it very vague with only one chapter of i believe 12 pages about getting published. it was good for things such as the notion of making dummy's etc. but was a bit to general in my opinion. this one however is fantastic. its geared more towards the business side of things. i actually came away thinking to myself wow i think i know enough to get started now which is a good feeling, I'm a bit more confident at what i need to do and how i need to go about it to get a job. the portfolio comes first. which I'm gonna work so hard to make this year. the artwork first obviously, and then the whole portfolio design. I'm not going for the over sized portfolio i think a small art book would be better as its easier to look at (and the art director who wrote the forward seemed to prefer this) it made me think about studio space, weather it ideally would be at home or a rented out studio, whether i need an agent or not etc. it talked about contracts, how to write an invoice and keep track of them. i found it a book worth buying

i also thought I'd chime in with some useful links i have found over the years.

the first is a useful blog i found ages ago called the art of business http://www.artofbusinessblog.com/ I'm not the best business woman but this blog which sadly is updated very infrequently has some really helpful hints and tips from separate bank accounts to keeping track of your finances every month etc.

the second is a artist alley guide for cons (obviously) by telophase (http://telophase.deviantart.com/) that can be found here http://www.projectbluerose.com/tutorials/anime-convention-artist-alley-survival-guide/, its very easy to understand and separated well. though it does assume that you know where some cons are (which at the time other then one of the ones in London i didn't know of any which was frustrating) but some research should solve that (http://www.cosplay.com/calendar/ has a list of conventions, not all of them as often the little cons are ignored but its a good place to start) while it is aimed at anime conventions I'm sure that the information can be applied to other conventions and arts and craft fairs.

hopefully these links and books will be interesting or useful for those interested in illustration and art.

happy drawing/ writing/ whatever you guys do.