Saturday, September 10, 2005

Frustrated and Thinking

Frustration is eating at me. Don't get me wrong- the move here has been fairly painless. I've made new friends rather quickly, the house is slowly shaping up, etc. I just feel like my attempts at creating anything that I can be satisfied with or proud of, have been stymied. I don't have a true space to work in yet, (something that I'm quickly trying to rectify) and I can't believe how much this impacts my performance! I'm spending time online looking at many artist's work, admiring their techniques, their color choices. I'm definitely not comparing myself, because I know how detrimental that can be. What I am doing is looking to find that little glow that I had before that would drive and inspire me.
It doesn't help that the whole "what is my style?" issue has decided to revisit me. I think I'm trying to do too much at once. I'm trying to decide if I should stick to animals, try working on people, creating interesting scenes, possibly create fun images to market...yeah, I think my plate's a little too full. I think if I focus on one thing at a time I should be okay. I'm going to stick with what I'm most comfortable with, and experiment with that. After I have that solidified, then I'll branch out and try those other things. It's just that, like with most things, I get so impatient to have things worked out and done now. I'm having to rein myself in...a-gain.

Okay, so a short list of things to work on now:
1. Work on facial expressions
2. Experiment with color combinations
3. Participate in two more contests (or one contest and one swap)
4. Illustrate for me, not for a specific market.

Small stuff to NOT sweat about:
1. The size of my illustrations
2. The marketability of illustrations (illustrate just to illustrate)
3. Making every single Illustration Friday deadline
4. Having "enough" of a certain thing in my portfolio (wait until someone tells you what you're missing, before you become so critical of something still in it's 'baby steps' stage!)

If I can stick to this, I think things will slowly get to where I can be happy about them.

2 comments:

  1. I found your blog through IF. I just want to tell you that we all have stages like that, but it's really ok. I pretty much like your style. I think you'll find your way soon. Bon courage!

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  2. Thanks for the encouragement, Mira!

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