The Life Pursuit: San Smith

Goals for 2010 and a big announcement...

First off, I want to apologize that I only posted once last week even though I was hopeful to post more! I had a good bit of posts I wanted to share, but I ended up feeling stressed and decided to put it on hold. The reason for the stress:

Last Friday I put in my two weeks notice at my job... because I'm quitting to work for myself full-time starting February 12th! This was my last goal to complete for 2009, and probably one of the biggest goals I've ever set for myself.

It's such a weird mixture of emotions to finally be sharing this: I'm excited, relieved, nervous... I've been working towards this for a long time and it's amazing that its finally happening!  I can't stop smiling - I'm really looking forward to starting my career as a freelance illustrator and making more time for my Etsy. Also - I'll be accepting commissions again, so if you were ever interested in having me draw you something - now is the time to email me! ;) I'll touch more on that later...

So what does this mean for my blog? I plan on posting a lot more :) I'm basically coming to work for you guys! Ha! No really, I will be making blogging one of my top priorities so I can share art and give back. I'm currently planning what kind of things I want to cover this year... I'm hoping to finally get a P.O. box for a contest idea I have - holding a few give-aways - and trying to make more videos and tutorials! If you have any suggestions as for things you'd like me to blog about this year, please let me know. :)

Anyhow, enough text! I think its time I shared my goals for 2010:

My goals this year are pretty lengthy - matter of fact they are currently 2 and half pages! I didn't really want to paste all of that into my journal, so I tried to summarize them to a few key points. For 2010, my goals are to take better care of myself through exercise, work hard on my new career, be smart and creative about money, and travel more to visit my friends out of state. I'm excited about the plans I've made so far and looking forward to creating a memorable year! :) As far as exploring the person I want to be, I found that I was kinda already going in the direction I had hoped. I decided write it down anyways for documentation's sake and so I can look back at it when I want to feel inspired.

On top of sharing my goals, I thought it might be nice to share some of the awesome visual goals a few readers came up with:

1. Julie from Rotten Cupcakes, 2. Krissi from Krissi's Art Studio,
3. The Bunny Geek, 4. Sam from Wrongdecade

Aren't those too cute?! I'm really excited people tried this out for themselves - I hope everyone accomplishes great things this year and that the visual list method helps!

So yeah - longest post ever... but! Much <3 and big thanks to everyone who has visited my blog in the past two years. All the comments, support and kind words over the years have really helped encourage me on taking this big step in my career. SO THANK YOU thank you thank youuu :) You guys mean so much to me!

Stay tuned for awesomeness starting February 12th!

Photos and doodles update!

Oh my gosh - I can't believe how fast last week zipped by! Sorry for only sharing one post. I feel like I've been so busy that life is zipping past me, eek! I have been drawing a lot though, working on a ton of freelance, visiting with friends, and writing blog posts that I plan to share with you guys... but sometimes there just isn't enough time in the day to finalize it all :)

  

see the bigger version at my flickr!

I thought I'd do a little photo and sketch post of stuff I'm working on and what I've been up to. I visited with my pals last weekend and we watched the last Conan episode over some drinks... so sad! I hope he gets back on the air soon. The above photos are from that night... How do you like the pizza I made to bring? I'm such a good guest. :P

I also met up with my internet pal, Sarina (sparkly sushi), this weekend but we forgot to get photos! Blargh! I guess I'll have to try again the next time she is in town. We ate burgers with her friend at the Vortex in Little 5 points - I had a lot of fun and I'm so glad I finally met her! Also, she gave me a lovely blue flower hair pin that she made, I'll take pictures of it later... it is very pretty. The rest of the weekend was spent working on small projects, visiting with family and then relaxing.

A lot of the illustrations I'm working right now are either for projects that aren't complete yet, or personal doodles that I've sketched on paper but haven't had time to digitize. Not the most exciting stuff for blogging :\ I just finished up a portrait from work, I'm working on sketches for a character design project and little witch doodles (both below) that I can't wait to finish... and I think I'm pretty close to wrapping up a house illustration for a wedding invitation.

Anyhow - this post is kinda all over the place! But know that I'm thinking of you guys. Love love you all and I enjoy your comments so much... I've had such nice emails and comments from you guys lately and it really makes my day. I want to give back - so I'll try to fit in more posts this week! Hope you are all doing well <3

Drawing update

whoah!! This week is zipping by! I was hoping to share drawings, but I've been busy getting ready for my 2010 scheduling and wrapping up a poster illustration. For now, some weird post-it note sharpie doodles and a kokeshi doll scribble:

I'll have some doodles to share either late tonight or tomorrow of New Moon. (What! Yes...!) I drew them a while back after seeing the film, but I thought I should go ahead and share them since I'm pumped about seeing Daybreakers! :)

Hope you are all doing well! Some fun news - it snowed last night!! It never snows here, so just a teeny bit is pretty exciting. I haven't taken many pictures of it because it doesn't really look like a whole lot of anything. Maybe I'll get some later tonight if it hasn't all melted!

Enough rambling - happy Friday! Time for me to get back to work in my warm little studio. Its actually cozy in here for once! Hooray!

Life update

I did SO much walking this weekend - it was awesome! I didn't have a car for a bit, so I had to run all my errands by foot. Its been very cold this weekend, but for some reason that makes walking outside a little more exciting to me.

I am still working on my goals a bit, but as soon as they are done I'll be sure to share them. I can say one of my goals was to try something different with my hair... so I opted to go with red hair for a bit! What do you think? :)

Goal #1 complete! Chris took some nice photos of my new red hair when I took Pika to get her nails cut today. They definitely show off the brightness! If you want to see this rest, go check out my flickr. It was so so windy and cold, but we had a good time regardless. Walking keeps you warm! I'm pretty excited because it sounds like it might snow either this Thursday or Friday... Keeping my fingers crossed! I love our little baby snow flurries we get.

Hope you are all having a good 2010 so far! I'm currently on the look out for new music to get the year started. Anyone have any favorites you'd like to suggest? 

Well - I'm off to go curl up in front of our space heater while working on drawings. I'll try to share more art this week since I've been doing a lot of photo posts! :D

2009: year in review!

I did a post like this last year for 2008, so I thought it would be nice to do one for 2009 while getting ready for New Year's Eve celebrations!

• describe 2009 with 3 words:
  Oh man... intense, hard & inspiring.

• which concerts did you visit in 2009?
  Obi Best, The Bird & the Bee, No Doubt, and Paramore

• what was your favorite moment in 2009?
  All of it. 2009 was totally amazing - completely life changing in every way. I worked so hard, shared so much love, and grew a lot. Lots of life lessons learned this year.

• which one was your favorite month?
  Oh wow - February when I went to California! I went to an amazing concert, drove all over California with 2 awesome friends and my boyfriend, explored San Francisco, saw great art exhibits (Totoro and Coraline!), and so much more. Lots of snow too at Lake Tahoe - it was exciting!

• most influential people in 2009?
  Hmm - I think I took a lot of inspiration from various illustrators and their progress. I was also inspired by a few ladies due to their fashion and attitude on life: Dita Von Teese, Betsey Johnson, Hayley Williams, and Lauren Luke.

• have you already made plans for traveling in 2010 - and if yes, where to?
  So far the only plans I have are to visit friends in San Francisco and to go to Japan. Nothing is set in stone though! I know I'd like to visit somewhere with snow before Spring...! :)

• best book you read in 2009?
  I wouldn't say it was the best book, but I did enjoy reading the Twilight series paired with the movies. hahah! Oh boy, what a mess.
  
  

• best film you saw in 2009?
  Hmm - maybe Watchmen and Ponyo! I didn't see too many movies this year.

• 5 Musicians you listened to in 2009 too much!
  According to my last.fm: Paramore, Hall & Oates, Taking Back Sunday, Halicali and The Black Ghosts.

• what are you looking forward to in 2010?
  Moving forward with my illustration career, traveling, relaxing, maybe trying new hair colors - who knows! keeping up with my blog, and so much more :)

And one Picture From every Month :
You can view all the photos I shared in 2009 here, but these are my favs:

Hope you all have an amazing New Year's eve!