I had a great time at last night’s New Hampshire Creative Club meeting.
We viewed a live demonstration of Adobe’s Creative Suite 4. That is some sexy software I must say. I was really impressed by some of the new features in PhotoShop and Illustrator in particular. I especially liked a new brush in Illustrator that allows you to paint flats fields of color that the program will then convert in to vector shapes. It seems like a powerful and convenient tool that would allow folks uncomfortable with the bezier tool to put it aside and work more intuitively. Very cool.
Shame I can’t afford to invest in the programs, but then I am pretty fulfilled by Corel Painter for the type of work I do.
Maybe some day….
I made the acquaintance of an illustrator named Katie Vernon who has recently moved into the Dover area. She maintains two blogs,” Ten Days Of… ” and ” Katie Vernon’s Adjunct Website” in addition to a terrific portfolio site that is ever-growing. A lovely person who does some fantastic work with mixed media.
I also met Guy Lessard, a Manchester-based Fine Art Photographer, who also happens to be the president of the Manchester Artist’s Association– a group I am actually quite interested in. A very friendly fellow.
One of the topics of casual discussion before and after the presentation was the prospect of a “sketch group” that would meet locally and just draw for the pleasure of it. The idea had been playing at my mind for some time and I finally decided to put the wheels in motion. I put together an email list and have posited the idea to my circle of artist-type friends. I hope it is able to gain steam because I think that such a group would be a valuable resource for anyone who takes part. I love drawing amongst friends and it would be a terrific time.
Here’s hoping.
I’ve also gone to the trouble of creating a daily/weekly schedule that I hope will be a good outline for success. I need to find ways of budgeting my time so that my studio can grow along with my work while maintaining a balanced lifestyle.
The primary problems I saw in my current habits:
I spend too many late nights here in the studio and I am primarily a day-person. There must be a way to be more productive during my more energized hours.
I don’t do enough to promote my studio and expand my list of potential clients.
I don’t do enough for my mental and physical health.
Here is what I decided upon as a tentative breakdown of my day divided by activity type:
*Personal health (alternate activity daily) 8:30am to 9:30am:
Go to gym.
Go for jog or walk.
*Business Building Things you must do each day (10am to 11 am) :
Lead Generation—
Make a new business connection ( email, on-line networking sites, phone calls).
Clerical Tasks—
Business Email correspondence.
Business paperwork ( contracts, etc.)
Creative Writing/Marketing—
Post in your blog.
–and/or–
Post in Ninja Mountain Scrolls. ( I also oversee Ninja Mountain’s Blog)
*Art Things you must do each day (11am until 6pm) :
(This schedule is a malleable thing, but typically the following will take place.)
Sketch in your sketchbook in quiet moments.
Work on a personal piece for one hour ( fantasy pieces. Humor pieces.)
Work on contract assignment.
*Weekly Things you must do (6pm onwards as time allows) :
Head out to sketch away from office alone or with friends.
Work on NHCC Art Show. I am the chairperson for this year’s upcoming Art Show. A lot of work ahead.
HAVE NOTHIN’ BUT FUN…
It was fun to put this together and I have already started to put it into effect, though I am sure the time I spend on each task will shift about on a daily basis. This does seem to provide a good rule of thumb for now. We’ll see how it goes.
Well, back to the grind.
—Jeremy