Goal Keeping: Time for a Six Month Checkup!

Well, vacation time is over, and now it's back to work for me!  The timing couldn't be better though, because it has been a good six months since I've last thought about my goals, and I'd like to stay on track.

Way back in January, I wrote up a little list of goals for myself, and the top ten were listed here.  I'm pretty proud to say that I'm able to check a few things off my goal list:

Create more illustrations to put into my portfolio. PERFECT MY CRAFT! (This is an ongoing operation for any artist, and Number One for all of us!)

Update and re-do website and business cards to make them more professional (oops... been too busy for that) 

Research possible publishing companies, reading their websites and catalogs (an ongoing task)

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.  (still looking for my style... have you seen it anywhere?)

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) Check!

Submit pieces for Cricket magazine and its affiliates. (I have one almost ready for submission... time to get cracking on that!)

Research and read new books in the market, books that have won awards, etc. (again, an ongoing thing...)

Do some social networking- become a member of SCBWI (check!), illustrationmundo.com, childrensillustrators.com, theispot.com, and start a blog. (check!) Read other’s blogs to meet new people, go to conferences and lectures, and talk to those who are in my field. (ongoing part of my job now)

Learn more about 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.) (funny you say that, because I've been doing a bit of research and experimentation to find where my style has run off to... a work in progress!)

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  (Check!)

The interesting thing about reviewing my list of goals is that the majority of them are things I should be doing on a regular basis... an everyday part of my new career.  I didn't know this when I started, of course. I thought these things could be done, checked off the list, and committed to memory for future use.  Not so!  I must be reading, writing, drawing, reviewing, critiquing, and learning every single day! 

*gAsP!*

That sounds pretty good to me! But I've been finding it hard to get anything done lately, with summer, Father's Day, vacations, birthdays, my day job, new babies in the family...with life itself! I find it extremely difficult to work on a drawing when right next to my "studio" (you know, that kitchen table I keep mentioning) is a pile of luggage that needs to be put away, and a sink full of dishes, and family stopping by to say hello.

Sounds like I need to finally put together that real studio of mine, doesn't it?

Oh, but there are so many things I should and could be doing right now! I have a book dummy to put together, and art I want to send to ripple to raise money for the oil spill, and two websites to work on, and Illustration Fridays and owls to draw...

"Aw, stop making excuses and do it already!!!"

And that's my number one goal for the summer.  Tied with that is my book dummy, which I can do while I'm at work. *wink wink* Time to stop blogging and time to start mooooooving!

Oh, and P.S...
I got my pelican art from Olivia Bouler the other day! Isn't it gorgeous??