Week of October 17, 2016: Galaxies and A New Job

Hello my friend, lovely to see you again! I trust that you are reasonably well and that life is at the very least tolerable for you. This past week has been a little harder for me than usual and I expect the next several months to be drastically different than the last year or so. Why? Well, with the Christmas season looming and my sales not being what I need them to be, I decided to take on the extra challenge of a part-time job. There are advantages and disadvantages to this decision and I will talk about that more a little later in the post. As far as my artistic endeavours are concerned, this week I tried something new - I've started painting a series of fall/Hallowe'en silhouette galaxies!

A New Series:

If you've been following me on Instagram or Facebook you will have seen these already, but bear with me and I'll add some more information here. Last week I was challenged to try some Hallowe'en style illustrations, you know, what with it being October and all. I've been hesitant to do anything in this genre because honestly I was having trouble coming up with something unique that fit the theme. I don't do scary or creepy and everything I could think up that was cute just seemed to fall flat. Then I had this idea: I've been wanting to paint nebulas or galaxies in watercolour. I'd seen quite a few of these done in a circle format and thought they were cool. Then I thought, why not make the format a silhouette of a Hallowe'en figure instead, and boom, instant idea!!

So, here's what I've done so far with this idea:

Galaxy Cat. I used a drawing of a black cat and I really wanted the eyes to stand out so
it seemed like the cat was a window into space. As if, when the cat moved, you would see different parts of space.

Witch's Hat. This I felt was a bit more obvious and more of a play on a wizard's hat
which usually has stars and moons on it - this has a whole galaxy!

Galaxy Jack-o-lantern. Usually the eyes and mouth are cut out of a pumpkin to make the
Jack-o-lantern, but here, the whole pumpkin has been cut out to
reveal... space!

These little paintings were a lot of fun to make and I got to use some supplies that I haven't used in a while, like my masking fluid and paints! I have a few more ideas to do this week before I completely quit this theme, but I've really enjoyed making these!

A New Challenge:

Okay, so down to this new job I have. It's actually really cool because I am working at a craft store (craft and art supplies!!!) so there's all the positives of that, plus the extra income which we are in need of this time of year. As well, it will get me out of the house and interacting with people a little more which I admit is one of the downfalls of working from home. The obvious negative is that I will mostly be working when my girls are in school, which is normally when I would be doing my artwork, so naturally there will be less time for that. However, I have wondered if maybe I don't schedule my time as well as I should, and that I might benefit from having a little less freedom to force myself to plan better. Sounds counter-productive doesn't it? I know, but I have read that when you are feeling blocked creatively sometimes it's best to reduce your options, give yourself less to work with, and I've noticed that this really works for me. 

I figured I'd give it a try at the very least. I'm committed to working into January and I will do my best to keep up with my regular sketches and whatnot, but I think it's safe to say that you can expect fewer illustrations in the week for the next several months.

A Production Snag:

This past week one of my goals was to set up a clip art product for sale in my Etsy store. I wanted my first product to be the icons I had made for my MATS B children's apparel assignment which should've just needed some tweaking. Turns out that I had underestimated the amount of work needed to get those icons up to a quality standard of product, plus I hit a snag when I was trying to get them into transparent background png format. So that's what I'll be working on this week as well.

And that's the end of another week for me. I only have a few shifts/week at my new job so far but I admit that training has proven to be harder than I expected. Still, I am determined to meet this challenge with positivity and enthusiasm since I see more benefits than disadvantages in doing it. 

This week I have another challenge in getting my family and house ready for Hallowe'en next week (is it really only next week? wow!) plus my youngest is turning 6 next week and I have another doll I want to make for her! Whew, are you exhausted yet? I think I might be very tired by the end of the week :)

I hope you have a great week, be happy, and stay safe my friend!

Until next time,

Mandy

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