As You Come Bursting In | Like a Coffeeshop on a Cold Night

As 2009 draws to a close, I have been thinking a lot about this past year and how different life is since last January, and how different life will become as we bound joyfully into 2010. In the artist community I belong to, hundreds of people were filling out the following Meme:

A Year's Worth of Art | 2009
(click for larger version)




















Obviously, I decided I must do my own, and above is the result. It got me thinking a lot about how I make my art, and where I want to go with it. When posting the calendar to my DA account, I wrote the following sentiments:

"It's definitely been a time of transition for me. From working in the Development Dept of my college in Pennsylvania, dreaming of free time to paint... to busy, sunny Los Angeles to work for a Fashion Designer and having that influence my work in so many ways; I am really grateful for all of the experiences I had this year - good and bad. I have learned a lot about myself.

While I don't necessarily see an explosive leap of skill, I think I have been working diligently to increase my understanding of art and how I paint. (I have noticed, however, that I paint a lot of dark haired girls. Can't help it...) I have been especially focusing on lighting, composition, and rendering this past year. My goal for 2010 will be to become even better at lighting and mood and overall "togetherness" of a piece. I want to do more "whole" paintings with BGs, multiple characters, etc etc. This is a year to really challenge myself.

Thank you guys so much for supporting me. I am excited about what 2010 will bring!"

I have a long way to go, but there have been so many people encouraging me. I have a lot of people who watch my work and give me critique, and for them I am so thankful. Especially for the encouragement from comments like these:

"Kaeth: I think what you said in your comments on DeviantArt was spot on - you need to start thinking about composition and, for lack of a better word, cohesion, in a big way.

I looked through your gallery and you clearly can draw a figure, but it's boring when almost every piece is a dead centered beautiful woman/man with flowing hair/clothing in an ambiguous situation. Let your environments and compositions catch up to your figures; start thinking about the figure as only one element of a piece. Draw something ugly. Draw a picture with a figure but no face. Crop all the arms and legs, or make the picture all arms and legs. Or do a picture with no recognizable figure at all and express a concept through abstraction.

The point is that your work shouldn't depend on the strength of your figure drawing skills. I think the December picture is only scratching the surface of where you could go in terms of concept and composition."

I think she is completely correct about the direction I need to go in. I need more variety! I need weird people and deformed people and colourful people and big and small and everything else. I need environments and lighting and little fuzzy animals! All this to say: I have come up with my New Year's Resolutions. I will embarassingly admit that every year my resolution is to quit biting my fingernails. Alas, in 23 years, I have never been able to do it. I've been able to stop for short periods of time, but I always shift back into bad habits in stressful situations, when I'm bored, or when I'm watching a scary/thrilling movie.

Anyways, on to the resolutions! I have decided to create a working list here on my blog and I shall check off all the things I want to accomplish in 2010 as I complete them.

Erin's 2010 Boom-Shakalaka Resolution List of Awesomeness______//
[ ] Stop biting fingernails (lol yea right)
[ ] Eat healthier
[ ] Render a 4+ figure, full BG painting with action-oriented scenario
[ ] Get accepted into Expose 8
[ ] Do a show at Gallery Godo on San Fernando Blvd
[ ] Get a paid job!!!!!
[ ] Complete the 100 Themes Challenge : [Variation 1]
[ ] Go to a Convention (planning on AX and Otakon - I'm so cool...)
[ ] Figure out where I want to go to Grad School for my Masters in Illustration
[ ] Be more on time to EVERYTHING
[ ] Stay in better touch with friends
[ ] Repay my debts
[ ] Complete another Fashion Design Concept Set

...and more when I think of it. It is going to be a busy, happy year. I can feel it. :)