Showing posts with label workethics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workethics. Show all posts
Tuesday, 23 October 2018
random tuesdaynews
work
Finishing the roughs for book Africa was harder than I thought. It took me really long to finish the scenes as they have a lot of details. I am drawing different places of a big culture market. Lots of things, items, people, food, buzz and action. It is the most challenging project I had so far.
business
I have learned of the illustrator Kendyll Hillegas and her vlogs. In her videos she shows her studio, her work and daily tasks as illustrator (and mum). The basic element that I learned from her is: keep organized and effective.
private projects
I was inspired by Kendylls videos and last week I tried to do a vlog myself. But I failed quite obviously. I wasn't surprised, as it was my first one, but realize I will need a lot of training and a topic list, if I want to do it. Initially, I wanted to save some time and talk instead of write, but it turned out that taking a video without being a very chatty takes so much much more time for me. I guess, for now I will reserve to photos to show my face :-)
Friday, 27 July 2018
Why I am painting with my tiny toddler
I love my work and I am spending all my free time and work time on drawing and painting. It is a big part of my life and naturally I want my child to take part in it.
My daughter is 1,5 years old and I am painting with her since she is 1. She will not only learn more about mixing colours and the feel of real paint, but she will learn something about me, her mummy, about my passion and my trade. I came to believe that if you wish your children to understand what you are doing (maybe even who you are), you don't have to do much more than just make them part of your life, the private one and the professional one.
It wasn't quite easy to start with, when she took the brush and just jabbed it onto the paper and then was looking around which of our furniture will be next. I have to admit, I was sweating cold sweat trying to get her to focus on the paper only. Experience taught me to use large scale paper, that I could wrap the whole table in (our coffee table in the living room). We both learned how to paint together. I learned how to make it interesting for her, and she learned that she can get more fun out of it, if she sticks within the (loose) boundaries I gave her.
I use acrylic paint with her, which is madness to use with little kids, but brilliant at the same time. Acrylic paint is not washable from any textiles and dries quickly. The good part, however, overweighs for me the negatives by tones. You can mix the colours directly on the canvas, and you can literally observe the mixing procedure (how blue and yellow slowly turn into green, for example, the more often you smear over them). You can feel the goopy paint and squeeze it and smear it, make paths and patterns on paper, or maybe on your tummy. For that reason we paint stripped down to the nappy and the colour just goes everywhere. Acrylic is water based and washes super easy from the skin. It dries quickly on the skin as well, so there is (nearly) no danger of the little fingers leaving prints on the furniture.
These are our recent results, and we use the fun to make lovely greeting cards for the grandparents too :-)
My daughter is 1,5 years old and I am painting with her since she is 1. She will not only learn more about mixing colours and the feel of real paint, but she will learn something about me, her mummy, about my passion and my trade. I came to believe that if you wish your children to understand what you are doing (maybe even who you are), you don't have to do much more than just make them part of your life, the private one and the professional one.
It wasn't quite easy to start with, when she took the brush and just jabbed it onto the paper and then was looking around which of our furniture will be next. I have to admit, I was sweating cold sweat trying to get her to focus on the paper only. Experience taught me to use large scale paper, that I could wrap the whole table in (our coffee table in the living room). We both learned how to paint together. I learned how to make it interesting for her, and she learned that she can get more fun out of it, if she sticks within the (loose) boundaries I gave her.
I use acrylic paint with her, which is madness to use with little kids, but brilliant at the same time. Acrylic paint is not washable from any textiles and dries quickly. The good part, however, overweighs for me the negatives by tones. You can mix the colours directly on the canvas, and you can literally observe the mixing procedure (how blue and yellow slowly turn into green, for example, the more often you smear over them). You can feel the goopy paint and squeeze it and smear it, make paths and patterns on paper, or maybe on your tummy. For that reason we paint stripped down to the nappy and the colour just goes everywhere. Acrylic is water based and washes super easy from the skin. It dries quickly on the skin as well, so there is (nearly) no danger of the little fingers leaving prints on the furniture.
These are our recent results, and we use the fun to make lovely greeting cards for the grandparents too :-)
Tuesday, 24 July 2018
How to: Scatter brain but need to work, now
Need to finish this sketch and start painting - oh the bin is full, I will just empty it. Back to my sketch, it really needs finishing - ah, how about I try my new pen, where did I leave it, actually this office needs a tidy, ah look at this old folder with my old postcards, actually I should also hoover, ah why not just do it now... what was I working on again?
Familiar? Then you probably have the scatter brain phase like me. I am not a psychologist, but I am pretty sure it is a self-sabotage pattern. If I'd finish that sketch I would be, well... finished... but my brain is programmed in a way to convince me it is really hard work, I better do something else much easier.
Today, I have the scatter brain again and today I am doing it different. After each single disruption I go back to my work, and don't care that I disrupted the work flow, for even 5min. That is the deal, get interrupted, get to terms with it, go back to work, allow more interruptions, get to terms with it. The more I am at ease with it happening, the easier it is to get back to work and not feeling guilty. And that is the fix, because my brain (I am) trying to make me feel guilty. It doesn't make sense, but it is something familiar, and just know best how it is to feel guilty... however, it does not bring me closer to my goal of being a professional illustrator, so I consciously decided: It doesn't bother me,No brain! Thank you very much for trying to make me feel guilty again, but I actually don't feel guilty, because I am coming back to my work every single time, and I move on. My brain is a noisy monkey, I won't be able to shut it up, but I am able to not be bothered about it. IT will shut up, when it doesn't get the attention anymore :P
Ok, finished writing the blog, let's get back to the sketch :D haha!
Familiar? Then you probably have the scatter brain phase like me. I am not a psychologist, but I am pretty sure it is a self-sabotage pattern. If I'd finish that sketch I would be, well... finished... but my brain is programmed in a way to convince me it is really hard work, I better do something else much easier.
Today, I have the scatter brain again and today I am doing it different. After each single disruption I go back to my work, and don't care that I disrupted the work flow, for even 5min. That is the deal, get interrupted, get to terms with it, go back to work, allow more interruptions, get to terms with it. The more I am at ease with it happening, the easier it is to get back to work and not feeling guilty. And that is the fix, because my brain (I am) trying to make me feel guilty. It doesn't make sense, but it is something familiar, and just know best how it is to feel guilty... however, it does not bring me closer to my goal of being a professional illustrator, so I consciously decided: It doesn't bother me,No brain! Thank you very much for trying to make me feel guilty again, but I actually don't feel guilty, because I am coming back to my work every single time, and I move on. My brain is a noisy monkey, I won't be able to shut it up, but I am able to not be bothered about it. IT will shut up, when it doesn't get the attention anymore :P
Ok, finished writing the blog, let's get back to the sketch :D haha!
Tuesday, 15 May 2018
Time management
First of all, you have to understand: there is plenty of hours in a day for you to work. Even if you have parent duties or things to tidy, there is physically time for you to draw.
For me it is about the to-do list paired with time management, meaning how much time I want/need to spend on each task.
For example 80% of my time should go to the current main project (anything with deadline), 15% to making samples and finding new work, and 5% extras like webpage or drawing exercise. I count up the minimum weekly available hours. In my case, I have time available while my daughter has her daily nap (which can be short), when she goes to bed (if late I have to go to bed shortly after), and the two half days when she is at the nursery (constant).
In my case this comes to min. 20h available during the week. Thereof I have to spend 16h on the project, 3h on making samples, and 1h can be spend on anything else. Seeing this numbers motivates me to not check emails or social media at all during my available, because simply, I cannot ever get the time back and catch up.
I started a time logbook which helps me see if I overspend time on something.
That can happen, for example if a potential new projects is very inspiring, I tend to put more energy into that rather than into finishing an old job. Let's be honest everything new is more exciting than something you have been working on for months :P at least for creatives.
Work
I work a bit on the roughs for the book about family models, but spend most time on the samples.
Samples
I finished the samples for the book series and am very pleased with them. I hope I can convince the author of my skills and I get to illustrate them. It will be awesome!
Private
My husband found a great game for the garden that involves painting. He grounded up some chalk and added a bit of water. Then my baby daughter got a sponge ball to dip in and paint on the house wall. She absolutely loved dabbing the wall in pink. It was great and with the warm weather at the moment the water dries really quickly and leaves very pretty patterns.
For me it is about the to-do list paired with time management, meaning how much time I want/need to spend on each task.
For example 80% of my time should go to the current main project (anything with deadline), 15% to making samples and finding new work, and 5% extras like webpage or drawing exercise. I count up the minimum weekly available hours. In my case, I have time available while my daughter has her daily nap (which can be short), when she goes to bed (if late I have to go to bed shortly after), and the two half days when she is at the nursery (constant).
In my case this comes to min. 20h available during the week. Thereof I have to spend 16h on the project, 3h on making samples, and 1h can be spend on anything else. Seeing this numbers motivates me to not check emails or social media at all during my available, because simply, I cannot ever get the time back and catch up.
I started a time logbook which helps me see if I overspend time on something.
That can happen, for example if a potential new projects is very inspiring, I tend to put more energy into that rather than into finishing an old job. Let's be honest everything new is more exciting than something you have been working on for months :P at least for creatives.
Work
I work a bit on the roughs for the book about family models, but spend most time on the samples.
Samples
I finished the samples for the book series and am very pleased with them. I hope I can convince the author of my skills and I get to illustrate them. It will be awesome!
Private
My husband found a great game for the garden that involves painting. He grounded up some chalk and added a bit of water. Then my baby daughter got a sponge ball to dip in and paint on the house wall. She absolutely loved dabbing the wall in pink. It was great and with the warm weather at the moment the water dries really quickly and leaves very pretty patterns.
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