My goals for 2016 were pretty vague–more drawing, more photography. I think I succeeded for the most part! Health issues slowed me down a little but I am pretty proud of not completely giving up on things I wanted to accomplish just because I physically couldn’t do them for a while. I fell in and out of daily sketching but I completed a bunch of watercolor paintings and all together that’s probably more art than I’ve done since finishing school. Even though I didn’t shoot as much film as I would’ve liked, I did get out… at least during nice weather!

So! For 2017 I’d like to set some more concrete goals!

1. More sequential art: I’d like to do some small projects and also keep more on top of my silly little dailies, Bits & Pieces.
2. Speaking of daily art, get back to doing something everyday. It’s pretty easy for me to notice how rusty I get when I take too long of a break, so even if it’s just five minutes drawing an angry cat face, I think that’s five minutes well spent.
3. Participate in more shows. I’d like to get my paintings to a point where I feel confident in my messaging and my execution to submit to some of the local calls for art. I’m pretty critical of myself so this goal might be the hardest to accomplish.
4. Shoot more photography! Especially film. I’m really bad about letting little things stop me such as not buying the batteries I need ahead of time or stocking up on film, so then I just fall back on my digital camera unless the batteries aren’t charged. Then I’m down to taking pictures with my phone which is not terrible, but also not the greatest for some situations. I was lucky enough to be gifted with a vintage photo enlarger last month, so I’m also getting excited about the possibility of developing my own prints. I also found an interesting solution to trying out new lenses/camera equipment, so maybe I’ll be able to make a post about that at some point in the future.
5. Maybe take some classes or workshops. I thought about it this year, but wasn’t sure I could match my schedule up and still be able to do things like a normal person.
6. Read more art related books–about art and technique or by artists themselves. I got a couple for Christmas so I hope I can actually read them and avoid building another pile of things I meant to read as I did last year.
7. Get back to weekly blog updates! That’s a lofty goal, that one! I can already feel the dread of failing this one, but I’m still going to try! I’ve lagged a lot on project updates. Looking back I feel like the blog doesn’t capture all the things I’m working on. Too much silence even though I’m excited about a lot of various things!
8. Spend a little bit of time writing. I always liked creative writing, but it’s something I don’t do much of anymore. I get little story ideas floating around in my head, which sometimes inform some of the randomness in my sketchbook, so I think it’d be fun and probably helpful for Goal #1 if I could put those ideas together a little more.

This is a lot. I’m gonna do it. Maybe not all of it. But probably most of it. Definitely some of it. Wish me luck!