End of January: Progress isn't always pretty

Hello! Is it as gloomy where you are as it is here? So far, I have to say that the weather we've had this January has been less than optimal, we've had a lot of overcast sky, rain, and ice - not even good weather for winter activities! I'm feeling very starved for sunlight!

Temptations

So, we've made it to the last week of January for the year - how are you coming along with your resolutions? I'm still plugging away at mine and things still seem on track, even with the last minute changes from a few weeks ago. One of the things I learned last year was that being a full-time mom means that, at most, you can do part-time school/work and pretty much nothing else. You have to be extremely focused so you can get what you want/need done and not go insane!

The reason I bring this up is that my focus has been tested frequently the last few weeks with all the deals on online art classes and such (I had another one today!). They are so tempting!! But I'm winning so far by reminding myself of my goals for the year and determining whether the temptations will help me get there or will they distract me from them. It's a struggle though, I just don't have the time to do everything I want!

My first Certificate with Lynda

What have I managed to get accomplished the past few weeks? Well, I completed my first course (and received the certificate for it) on Lynda.com, which was a generalized introduction to Graphic Design. It was pretty awesome actually. It covered all the basics that I learned from my Certificate with Conestoga College, but in a more practical and focused way. I really felt confident in my skills and talent as a designer when the course was over. I still have to finish the final assignment and I plan to get that done today, then I hope to finish the remaining courses for the Graphic Design Learning Path before the month is over.

Negative Painting

On the creative side, I've been working through various practice pieces in negative painting in watercolour, with varying degrees of success. Negative painting is quite challenging and I admit to some struggle with it. The biggest challenge for me isn't in looking at the objects you wish to paint from a negative perspective (not that I'm perfect at that yet either), but in the glazing needed to create the layers that make negative painting so appealing! I either have too much water, too much paint, or the wrong colour. Still, this is all learning and I'm progressing through all the "ugly" creations, so I guess it's going well!

If you haven't seen my Facebook/Pinterest feed lately here's what I've managed to do so far:

I feel this is my best and was done following an example by Linda Kemp from her book "Watercolor: Painting Outside the Lines"

I thought I would try my own design based on violets. 

Um, yeah, there's so much wrong here, however I feel the layering idea is improving!

Obviously I need to do more research as to what makes a good negative painting and how to achieve that so that's my goal for the next few weeks. Hopefully you'll see more examples of practice pieces in my next post!

In the meantime I hope you have a great week in whatever way is most important to you. Don't forget to take time out for yourself because you are awesome!

Until next time,

Mandy

If you'd like to see more of my work or keep up with me day-to-day you can follow me on Instagram or Facebook.

If you're interested in commissioning me, click here to be taken to my Contact page to send me an email or message me from my social media links above, I'd be happy to answer any questions :)

Mid-January 2017: How I'm Setting Myself up for Success in 2017

Hallo my friend and Happy 2017! It's so good to see you again, I know it's been awhile. How was your December? As usual a lot happened to the Wiklund family this past month. On the plus side we had a very full month of family and friends with plenty of food and gifts. On the negative side, we lost a very close family member mid-December. My father-in-law passed away in hospital due to an infection and subsequent complications. We were all very saddened by his loss, as you can imagine. He is, and will continue to be, missed by many.

But on to happier things. This is 2017, a new year, a new direction, a new hope!! Maybe that's putting a bit much onto this but it's how I've been feeling the past week or so. 2016 was a year of exploration for me. It was a year of trying things out, of discovering what I liked to do, of expanding my skills and really stretching to see what I can do. Mostly it was about developing my illustration and art skills. It was a lot of fun and I've learned a lot, but I will be taking 2017 in a different direction.

No, I'm not going to stop doing art and illustrations (don't think I could if I tried anyway), but I am going to focus my creative energies in a different direction. I don't think you'll be surprised to hear that I will be concentrating on selling my services as a Freelance Graphic Designer this year. Painting and drawing will still happen, in fact I have quite a few plans in the coming months for these skills, but they will be taking more of a backseat than you've seen up to now.

So in this post, I'd like to show you what I've done to help set myself up for success, with Graphic Design being my new focus, in 2017.

Goal Setting:

I've spent the last few years reading about how to be successful in business and in life, and all the posts, books, and gurus recommend writing down your goals! Start with the big picture and funnel it down into smaller, doable, pieces. Lucky for me, one of the creative blogs I follow called The Postman's Knock has a couple of posts about a yearly goal sheet and a weekly goal sheet that she had lettered and illustrated, that can be downloaded and printed for free (click here to get your copy  of the year sheet, or here for the weekly sheet).  Exactly the kind of thing I was looking for! Here's what I did with it:

The three forms I'm using to help me succeed with my goals for 2017.

My goals for 2017.

How I used a storyboard sheet to layout my monthly goals for the first third of the year.

A breakdown of my monthly goals into weekly and daily actionable tasks.

You can also see a separate sheet that I used and doesn't come with the TPK download. I felt that before I could break things down into weeks, I needed to break them down into months, but I couldn't find a sheet that truly matched my needs. I searched online and found this storyboard frame from a teachers site called Educationworld (click here to get a copy) and it seems to fit well enough for now. I am using this sheet to map out my first quarter/third of the year.

Living Maps:

You might have noticed that I started filling out these forms in pen, but then moved to pencil. That's because I want the monthly and weekly goals to be slightly flexible. If your family is anything like mine then you'll know that plans can change on a dime in the span of a day, let alone a week or several months, so I wanted to allow for some wiggle room if necessary. Obviously I can't know what will be going on in three months, or even next month, I can only plan out what I'd like to happen and do my best to work around the circumstances.

What really impressed me right away when filling these out, was how quickly I could fill four months! I mean, man! I may have packed them a little too much because I honestly am not quite sure how the rest of the year will pan out yet. I imagine that some of these tasks will take longer than I expect them to (if history has shown me anything, it's that everything takes longer than you expect), so I will likely have to push them into the next quarter/third.

Hardware & Environment:

Another way that I've been setting myself up for success is by making my working environment more comfortable and easier to work in. A problem I noticed in 2016 was that I couldn't work in the evening hours after the kids were in bed because my office/art room is right next to their room, and even with closing the door, we were intrusive to each other. So, some new arrangements had to be made.

Instead of my office/art room being an all-in-one room, I've moved my office to the rec-room, where we already have a small work area set up, with a desktop computer. I've rearranged my art room to be more spacious and accommodating for multiple types of projects and I've moved my printer/scanner downstairs. I even got myself an adapter so I can connect my little 13" MacBook Pro to the much larger 21" monitor - boy is it ever sexy!! I'm very much looking forward to working in these new spaces!

Education:

You might remember that I finished a certificate in Graphic Design through Conestoga College so I have at least a grounding in the software and mind set required for Graphic Designers in todays high-tech society, but I'm not stopping there! While there are a few skills from my certificate that I feel people will want to take advantage of, I am aware that I've only scratched the surface on what graphic design is, how it works, and how to create it.

I'm currently enrolled in two MOOC classes, Introduction to Marketing and Project Management Life Cycle, both offered through edX.org. I will also be subscribing to online schools like Lynda.com and Skillshare.com, as well as following other online tutorials, to learn, grow, and develop. Learning never stops for those that are passionate!

Other Goals:

Of course, setting up my business isn't the only goal of 2017, I have quite a few family and art-related goals. For example, I've been trying to do a yard sale for about 10 years now and have never managed it. This year I plan to change that!! I also hope to submit 2 paintings (that have yet to be created) to shows this spring! And of course, I have the usual goals to eat more veggies and exercise regularly (blah blah blah, but necessary).

One running theme to my goals for the year is that 3/4 of them are completely outside of my comfort zone! Another thing I learned from those guru's mentioned above is that success never came to those that didn't take risks, that didn't dare to make mistakes, that didn't push themselves to be more. I think this post clearly shows that I have pretty high hopes for this year, and I think I've taken the right steps so far to make those dreams a reality!

Well, that's all that I wanted to share with you today. If you'd like to share your goals for the year and how you're setting yourself up for success too, please feel free to comment, I'd love to read what you're up to. Otherwise, have a great couple of weeks. Stay safe, be positive, and again, Happy New Year!

Until next time,

Mandy

If you'd like to see more of my work or keep up with me day-to-day you can follow me on Instagram or Facebook.

If you're interested in commissioning me, click here to be taken to my Contact page to send me an email or message me from my social media links above, I'd be happy to answer any questions :)