Yay! We finally made it to production week!
This week was really fun, I like making cute little artworks, and I enjoyed the rapid fire experimentation.
These artworks are painted on wood panels and finished with resin, so they have a real sculptural presence to them. There are three that I don’t feel are quite as successful (I won’t tell you which ones 😜), but I am really noticing how the source is sooo important.
I’ve been using certain images because I really like the attitude and presence of the model, but definitely noticing that if the brightness is blown out or it’s overexposed, then I don’t really have much to go on when sculpting the shape of the face, I think these images would work well for stencils because they really reduce the image it it’s most important lights and darks, but they lack the subtlety required for painting. Which means I find myself trying to make up the information, which would be fine if I could just decide on which way the light is coming from and stick with it- but I can’t so I just end up trying to work the painting back and forth forever.
This week we learned about emotional intelligence- what it is, why it’s important and how to improve it.
And, as it relates to art, it’s about how we manage our own emotions through the ups and downs of this artist life, as well as how we can relate better to, and connect with our collectors. It had some good suggestions for improving emotional intelligence, but it’s a lifelong struggle, so this week I was made aware of it, but I can’t say that I’ve improved much, or even thought about it much with everything else going on.
The other thing Elli discussed was eliminating excuses. Which makes me wonder if I’m making excuses for not meeting my expectations, or just being kind to myself for being only human.
Again she touted this goal of painting 40 hours a week and by default I just automatically feel guilty that I’m not painting enough-even though I am sticking to MY expected (read- realistic) schedule of painting two days a week, I just haven’t quantified my goal as a certain number of hours.
So…. I guess what I need to do is monitor myself a bit more and be more aware of my goals and intentions and where I am failing to meet them.
It’s not that I need to be meeting my goals and there should be no excuse for not meeting them; it’s more like, if I didn’t meet my goals, then was I really that motivated to achieve them in the first place? Were they even that high of a priority? And maybe I need to rethink my goals. I am definitely one of those people that just likes to have one goal at a time, if I’m trying to achieve five different goals in different areas of my life all at once, I feel too spread thin, I get overwhelmed and can’t maintain focus and motivation on that many different things all at once.
My main goal is to finish this program by mid 2024, to spend 2 days a week working my way through it, and documenting each week along the way. Am I doing that? YES.
