Step One...

First things first, I must set myself some goals. The point of my blogging is that it will hold me accountable so that I may achieve my goals, take the appropriate steps needed to do so, all while recording my progress so that one day I may look back proudly at all of my accomplishments.

In the business course I'm taking one of the assignments was to fill out a "Goal Sheet." It's primarily a questionnaire about where we want to be in our lives 20 years from now, and it goes backwards through time, asking "what will you have to do in 'x' amount of years to achieve that goal?" It's slogan?

"A Goal Without A Plan Is Just A Wish."

Hmm, sounds about right, doesn't it?

It's a rather lengthy thing, so I'm not going to write it all down here. Instead, I will skip to the last part, where the timeline has caught up with today's time, and it asks:

WHAT ARE THE FIVE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU CAN DO NOW TO ACHIEVE YOUR 1 YEAR GOAL?

Being the over-achiever that I am, and anxious to begin my journey, I have come up with a list of ten:

1. Create more illustrations to put into my portfolio. PERFECT MY CRAFT and don’t submit my work until it is at its BEST!
   
   
2. Update and re-do website and business cards to make them more professional
   
   
3. Research possible publishing companies, reading their websites and catalogs
   regularly.
   
   
4. Make tear sheets and postcards to send to potential publishers. Use art work that really represents who I am as an artist and what talents I can offer them.
   
   
5. Get a subscription to the Horn Book magazine (known to be a top magazine for those wishing to become author/illustrators in the children’s book world, it contains invaluable tips and other information)
   
   
6. Submit pieces for Cricket magazine and its affiliates.
   
   
7. Research and read new books in the market, books that have won awards, etc. Subscribe to Publisher’s Weekly to stay updated in market trends and upcoming events.
   
   
8. Do some social networking- become a member of SCBWI, illustrationmundo.com, childrensillustrators.com, theispot.com, and start a blog. Read other’s blogs to meet new people, go to conferences and lectures, and talk to those who are in my field.
   
   
9. Learn other illustrator’s styles - what I like and what I don’t like. Practice mimicking their work as a personal exercise to find which mediums and processes work best for me. Keep in mind these pieces should not be part of my portfolio if they are in any way replica-like.
   
   
10. Join a critique group. I won’t be in school forever, and getting other artists’ input is a very valuable tool. This will help me to PERFECT MY CRAFT, my number one goal

Of course, I have yet to receive the inevitable comments from my professor, and I'm sure she will have found some better things I could be doing with my time. But until then, this will be my starting point, and these will be my goals. I didn't write down "finish CE program at RISD" because I think it's pretty much assumed, at least from my own point of view. I bet you a nickel she'll probably pick up on that one!

My next goal will now consist of figuring out how to un-do this blockquote setting I had put on my little blue paragraph, which is now continuing throughout the rest of my current posting. I just LOVE technology, don't you??

Grrrr....