2018 Art Goals

Hello everyone! Hope you are all having a great day so far!We’ve made it to post 2. Always a good sign. I bet there are lots of blogs that never make it past the intro. If you read my first post, you know that my dream is to be an independent artist. Work for myself in my pjs at home. Draw all the diverse slice of life webcomics I want. Sell tons of prints at Artist Alley. Hang fanart of my work up in my office. Cry when people tell me how much they love my stuff. You know. The good life. But how to accomplish this?I’m a simple girl, with simple joys. One of them is planning. And boy did I spend some days trying to figure out a plan for this. It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that I have a day job. Full time. 40 hours. However, I work on contract. And when my contract started to close out, I jumped on another contract position in a different department. So now I have a year of paid income--THIS year--to save up for my pending unemployment and set up a foundation (and hopefully revenue!) for me to fall on when the expiration date arrives. After that, there’s 6 months of unemployment benefits. And then nothing. Just bleeding money into rent and food and car payments and insurance. Holy shit the insurance. So basically, my timeframe is 18 months to make this happen. A year and a half to bring in AT LEAST $3K a month to sustain my current Los Angeles lifestyle. If that sounds like overkill, consider: over a third of that goes straight to rent and utilities, which I split with my BF. Seriously. LA sucks. My goal for 2018 is to bring in my first grand off my art. And then repeat that monthly. Even if it’s only the last 2 months, I’ll consider it a success, and we’ll celebrate by going to Lake Tahoe and I can kayak in those crystal clear waters and fly-fish for rainbow trout to my heart’s content. So how do I unlock this dream vacation wherein I get to stare and cry at giant trees? Short answer: Draw a lot, and share the fuck out of it. Treat it like your second full time job.Now for the long answer.Scheduling it out, I have to put in 40 hours a week into my art. 20 hours during the work week, and the remainder during the weekend. I can tell you right now, two weeks into 2018, that hasn’t happened. Yet. But I know that’s what I need to do. Everyone says be the person you want to be in the future now. So if I want this to be my full-time job, then I have to start treating it like that now. “That sounds crazy, Corinne!” I know. Trust me, I know. One of the reasons why I’ve been hesitating and procrastinating is because I’m so god-damn intimidated. It’s my dream, yes. And I know I won’t have to work essentially two jobs forever. But I think any normal person would cringe and sweat at the prospect of an 80-hour work week. “But you love drawing, right? It shouldn’t feel like work!” Yes and no. Believe me, as someone who has worked in the animation industry for a couple years, drawing can easily feel like work. It can quickly become something you dread and burn out on. Just ask any aspiring writer, gamer, youtuber...anyone trying to make their hobby a profession. I’ve seen so many people have to fight to reignite that spark they’d lost. I’ve been that person too. Kind of still am.And honestly, anytime you “have” to do something, it becomes a thing you immediately don’t want to do. I feel like that’s one of the laws of human nature. So far I’ve been taking baby steps. I’ve succeeded in drawing a quick 10-minute sketch every day for the past two weeks. I drew my webcomic on time. I did some editing for my upcoming webcomic, Portal House. And I’m writing blog posts right now. I’m slowly inching towards the crazy drawing and posting schedule I want. But I also keep in mind that it’s still early. My usual stamina only lasts 2 weeks, so the real game changer will come by the end of the month. And honestly, I’m worried. I’ve already felt the brain fog drift in, the motivation move away, the discipline disappear…But I made a promise to myself. And a promise to you, the reader. I’m linking digital, virtual pinkies with you right now. Giving up is not an option. For this blog specifically, my goal is to pump out two blog posts a week. My thought at the moment is to have one timelapse/process and one personal/freeform, but we’ll see what ends up working for the both of us. I know these first two posts aren't very convincing, but I promise there will be lots of art to come. I’m also planning to start livestreaming on Twitch, reinvigorate my Youtube channel, and eventually open an online store. I have a few art series ideas I’m excited to execute, and of course: Portal House. I also want to do more life drawing, and seeing as I have a literal zoo membership, I should take advantage of it more often. Last but not least, I have an online art class I started last May that I still haven’t finished, and I know I’ve been procrastinating because I am scared the assignments will kick my ass, but that is the whole point and it will be so worth it!So yeah, those are basically my art goals in a nutshell. If it sounds like a lot, it is a lot, and I’m probably crazy. A part of me doesn’t even know if it’s possible to accomplish all these things. But the other part is saying “Shut up, of course we will” so who knows? All I can do is keep going, and when I mess up (not even if. When. I know it will happen) to just forgive myself, pick myself up again, and move forward. Thank you so much for reading! What are your goals for 2018, and how do you plan on achieving them? I’d love to hear about them, especially if they are creative goals like my own, so leave a comment below and we’ll gush about how awesome you’ll do together!