Year End Review - 2012

This post will be a look at my year. But first, I want to say thank you.

Thank you to my buyers and collectors. I get such a thrill when I sell something, as well, it helps me to replenish stock and take on new ventures. It is a tremendous privilege to be an artist and your support makes it possible for me to continue doing it, so thank you from my heart.

Thank you to my loyal readers. You read my posts, comment and email me. It's an encouragement to get feedback and I learn from you as well. At times I have wondered if I am just speaking to no one and then one of you has piped up and it has kept me going!

I began the year with 3 aims - here's how I got on with them.

Continue developing my style

• Produced 30 pieces of art, not including sketches
• Tried out some new materials (inktense bars) 
• Did trials with several palettes and color theories
• Worked on portraits - sent out portraits of my sons for our Christmas card this year
• Read 12 art books

Share my art

• Shared my art via the iPad on my travels
• Sent out postcards of my art, somewhat regularly
• Handed out business cards
• Gave out notecards as gifts
• Revised my newsletter and sent out more than in previous years
• Joined the local artists guild
• Began engaging with fans on my Facebook page
• Did some research on sharing my art
• Did around 100 blog posts (about 2 a week)

Build my skillset

• Became more comfortable using my camera in public
• Took photos of a family for their Christmas card - which I didn't do a good job at, but I learned alot and will do better next time.
• Designed a Christmas card for someone else - this came out wonderfully!
• Formalized my processes for handling my art and selling it
• Entered a competition

All in all, I wanted to grow more comfortable with my art, sharing it, and using my camera. I can definitely say that I have grown in those areas, so it's been a good year.

What I Did and Didn't Do This Year

After Mary Cassatt

This was a big year for us. We decided in January to move to North Carolina - which of course meant working to sell our house in a slumping market and then the actual moving part. It was no small task and took most of our energies for the year, but we are now settled in a town and house we love.

The Grin
copyright Rose Welty

Now, for the art part. Here are my goals from January and how I did with them:

• Experiment with some new supplies and ideas - yes I did do this and it accomplished what I hoped it would (gave me a sense of where I want to take my art).
• Work through 2 photography books - yes, but stalled - photography is complicated when you fiddle with the settings on the camera. To accomplish more, I need to set aside time to get used to the exposure triangle.
• Work through 1 drawing book - yes, I did this and I do see improvement.
• Continue sketchercising - in total I have probably lost 30 pounds this year - but it's really just been the same 10 pounds 3 times over! With the move I just couldn't keep up with the sketchercise folks.
• Complete 6 pieces for the portfolio - this didn't happen, but I do think I have a better idea of what a body of work is, where I want to go with mine and how I am going to do it.

In terms of raw stats on the year:

• Blog posts: 87 so far, will be 92 at year's end. Not a typical year for me in life or on the blog.
• Finished pieces: 10
• Sketches: 60 (these are the ones that I bothered to make a digital copy of, the real number is higher)

One of my sketches from the year

Other less measureable accomplishments:

• Several studio shuffles/reorganizations
• Several art how to books, art history books, business books read
• Gained some valuable insight into where I want to go with my art, answering some very long standing questions of mine.
• Drew a lot of faces, perhaps more than I drew still life - a major accomplishment I wanted to make.

Inner Strength
copyright Rose Welty

All in all, it's been a big year. I am very excited about what lies ahead - after Christmas I'll lay out what I'd like the new art year to look like!

Everyday Beauties
copyright Rose Welty

Looking Back on 2007 #1

Sorry for the drought in blogging...that time of year. It is also the time of year to begin looking back and seeing all that I've accomplished (and not accomplished :-). I'm likely to have a couple of these kind of posts - one on "practice" and one on research. Today we'll tackle growth in practice.

Back in July I did a mid-year review. For this year-end review, I'll try and just demonstrate the growth I've seen.

Portraits
This is my favorite subject area and one that I desperately wanted to grow in. I think in some ways I have improved, and still others that I will tackle in 2008.

January	November

And to think I rather liked the one back in January! It's rather embarrassing now to look at that first one. Incidentally, when I saw this post of Laura Frankstone's last year, it convinced me to form a daily drawing habit.

Color
My goal in color was just to stop making excuses and jump in. I did do that - and I'm still swimming despite a few urges to just get out of the color pool! Tomorrow I'll show you my first scribbles with CPs and one of my latest.

Blog
I've now posted over 200 times! When I began, I wasn't sure if I would continue beyond January, but here we are and I've found a new pasttime. I have been making posting daily Monday through Friday my goal lately, that is likely to continue. That's roughly 70% of the time. I've posted roughly 60%. So, not bad compared with the original goal of making it through January.

Daily Habit
In 2007, I wanted to make sketching a daily habit. My measurable goal for that was to fill a moleskine. Happily, I did fill it along with a few others and have stacks of other work lying around.

Art Business
My goals in this area were along the lines of "look and learn". I've gotten to know several new artists through their blogs and done some reading. I'm most proud of being a part of "Fine Art Friends." This group of ladies have been a support to me through the latter part of this year and I'm looking forward to learning more from them.