Here’s to a great year! This is a look at things I’ve done this year, things I plan to do, and a challenge for artists, including myself!.
This year definitely felt like a lot of things. It was a year of changes, accomplishments, exciting transitions, and a few family hardships, new sights, smells, and wonder. A year of learning about myself and how to code, how to write, and realizing that yeah, I have a voice. And yes, I can help people with my art and my words.
A year in review
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Launch of this site, Art Res – Art Resources and Tutorials. I still use the lovely tumblr, but all my longer write ups are going here.
- Since I wanted to minimize hosting costs while maximizing speed for readers, I decided to teach myself GoLang templating and learn how to use the static site generator, Go Hugo. It’s great, but definitely has been a journey. Takes a yikes amount of time to configure and learn how to template, especially since I am a beginner with this kind of stuff. There’s a lot of new web technologies out there, and it’s been cool to learn.
- Created a newsletter, that you can sign up for via my landing page if you are interested.
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I moved on to the next step of my academic career. Definitely a transition, but a great one. Will make it a bit harder to write regularly in the spring, but I will try my best.
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Learned a lot about the importance of the bigger things in life.
How about you? How did your year go?
> A look ahead
- I want to continue optimizing this site, which means I will do my best to create awesome, high quality content for you guys. Additionally, my plans include conducting interviews of awesome artists and creative types. If you are interested in an interview, let me know!
- I plan to write a small ebook for artists with good tips on anatomy and other highly requested fundamental topics.
- I will work on my photography, writing, front end design, and drawing skills. Pushing myself out of my comfort zone is my primary plan!
What are your plans for this year?
Creative Improvement Challenges
A custom challenge
This one is based off my personal goals, but I hope my plan can help motivate you. I found that if I try to force myself to stay accountable each and every day, I am more likely to give up, which ruins it for me. If you are looking to be more productive, try reading through todoist’s great list of methods. I also created a free habit tracker to help people out.
- Each week:
- At least 1 blog post or idea - keeping this flexible due to me being in school and needing to my studies top priority.
- At least 1 photo edited & uploaded (got a lot to work through Lightroom)
- At least 2 pages in anatomy coloring book & 3 pages in Grey’s Anatomy read
- 2 poems created / 1 poem created, 1 edited - working on a book that I will publish one day
- At least 4-5 sketches or 1 nice colored piece of art
- Exercise 4-5 days a week
- Each day:
- journal & reflect & meditate
- drink more water
- make progress towards the weekly goals.
Art-Res 2018 challenge
I challenge you to:
- Create 18 color pallettes
- Create 18 pieces of literature
- Draw 18 environments
- Draw 18 gesture drawings
- Draw 18 shaded boxes in different perspectives
- Draw 18 of each body part / facial feature you find difficult
- Some inspiration: hands, feet, lips, noses, eyes
- Draw 18 compositions
- Draw 18 puppies
- Draw 18 kittens
- Challenge 18 of your friends to complete one of more these challenges!
- Link them to this article and have more people join in on the fun!
Thanks for reading! I appreciate all the support you guys have given me!