Cramming in the projects - the part time artist's dilemma

Another mad busy week. Some artwork to be completed for a friend’s birthday, a mixed media sculpture almost finished – just needs costuming, hands finished and…extras added…if that idea works out…and the base to sort.

Also need to get business cards printed for New Artist Fair in September. I have a rough design; just need to get it sized correctly and sent off.

Pretty much worked out the format for the matted art I’ll show at the fair. Need to upsize a few pieces and get those completed. And need to order frames and backing mats. This art show business is great but the costs start to add up very quickly. But then again, feedback is priceless!

I oughta set up Instagram before I get those cards done. Tried to do this today. Immediately fell into tech hell. Quick google and I find it’s not just me. You get an error message at final registering point, then when you try again, find you’ve been disabled for violating its terms! (Do they sneekily know how much I loathe and mistrust anything owned by Facebook??) Tried a different email address – same issue. Tried on desktop (sometimes works) – it won’t allow either email address. Not even joined and I hate them already, having wasted well over an hour of my evening trying to find out how to fix or report the issue – hint, there is no way to report it. Not without a user name, which I wasn’t asked to create in the first place. Unless it creates one itself - on my second attempt it actually addressed me by the email prefix, which is not my name. Seriously??!! Deleted app.

Maybe try again tomorrow. Deep breath. Be caalm.

…Nope, still hate ‘em.

Much more fun - just received more goodies from Ken Bromley art supplies – couple more acrylic inks, some wax resist sticks and Derwent Inktense pencils. My boss had the stellar suggestion of using watercolour pencils for muted backgrounds on my ink pieces. Tested this out with WH Smith’s pencils - bingo! As this brand isn't permanent, I can erase the dry pencil marks after testing out the placement that works best and replace with a permanent wash.

I mentioned last week about the Australian work I came across on YouTube. I’ve found another one - parkablogs.com - a massive trove of illustration/watercolour information/reviews. As a result of binge watching him (at double speed!), I ended up buying three new art books. They are both beautiful and instructive, so it's allowed (my rules).

Then came across Portrait Artist of the Year series. This is just fabulous. Captivating. Watched a few episodes at double speed. It’s all about doing as much as possible in the hours available. I can do drafting work alongside viewing so all this isn’t as bad as it sounds.

This recent stream of activity/inspiration has led me to conclude that my working hours are…not working for me. Weekends go partly towards doing things I don’t have time to fit in on week day mornings, except that printer shops don’t open on weekends, and events in the evenings during the week are no good as I get home too late from work to actually get out to anything.

What to do? I can be a bit impulsive at times. So I took a punt at asking if I could drop a day from my job. I do four to five hours a day Monday to Friday from 1pm, hence the stop-start nature of things. I can manage on the reduced pay if I don’t go mad. Result is they agreed to trial Mondays off for a couple of months, so long as I can be flexible about switching the off day if needed. Yay! Really, really pleased about this. Now to work out a schedule to ensure the extra time is used as efficiently as possible. One step closer to achieving my childhood dream of being an artist.