smART goals

[neopatogen]

Time to update! Sorry for keeping you waiting, my life has been kind of on tenterhooks last week.
The art gods must have been having fun watching my efforts! I am staying in Hungary for one more year. It means I am not returning to full-time lawyer job and can continue devote extra time to art. But I can’t hope for a third chance. I’ll do my best to level up and change career, smart goals here to help me. 

First, evaluation of my previous goals.

Spoiler

+Both illustrations for CC1 and CC2 are ready. I don’t really like them, but the experience of taking part in Crucibles has been invaluable.
+/- Environment final is not ready, but I’ve had such fun working in 3d and producing a 3d value sketch that I can’t be too angry with myself. Got to finish it, anyway.
After making those illustrations I will have a better idea if I really want to focus on creature+environment design in my future art career.  – I still want it! I like characters a bit more than environments, I’m going to create some creature/character concepts, too.
+ Working on fundamentals every other day – almost every day, I started working on them more after letting myself to have breaks. I guess I just enjoy optional tasks more than obligatory ones.
+      Perspective, basic drawing skills (S.Robertson)
+      Figure drawing (Loomis, Proko) – also some Hampton
+      Color (J.Gurney, master studies, creature painting studies)
++      3d software – Sketchup, Sculptris
+     composition (Creative Illustration by Loomis, compositional master studies)
+      Edge control (I have to find some articles or search for this stuff in my books and try to implement it in my studies and artworks)
+ plan every day
I could have performed better if:

• I concentrated better while learning/applying studies (last week I’ve been focusing really well) and while doing everything else - it could spare me more time for art.
  
• I evaluated the time that I spent drawing/painting every day and the time that was spent inefficiently.
  
• I was more confident.

New goals:

Spoiler

-         Continue taking part in Crucibles.  I tend to do too much studies without application and Crucibles make me apply everything I know. Working within deadlines helps to concentrate and study faster. I will produce one CC illustration every month. If there’s no Crucible, I’ll work on my own stuff, see below. I may skip some of the challenges if I need extra time to improve my pieces, but think twice if it's a smart decision.
-         Work on my personal projects – not only between the Crucibles as before. It's going to be creature design: sketches at least every other day, 3d at least every week, 1 finished concept or illustration a month.
-         Finally, finish my environment piece (within one week after CC3).
-         Spend an hour weekly researching art, both old and contemporary, other artists’ portfolios, especially creature designers, learning about the industry, after that spend several minutes to think how to apply this new information for my goals.
-         Do art at least 5 hours a day (a rather random amount of time for now, Iáve never really tried to control it). Write down the number of hours spent every evening before sleep, analyze, if I have done my best today? What could I improve? I may take some days off occasionally, but control it and write down.
-         Keep up planning every day
-  Write a 5-year plan today (idea from @smrr's Deathline thread)

Studies (at least every other day):
-         Perspective – finish studying “How to draw” by the end of June, do excercises from drawabox.com
-         Rendering (values, color) – “How to render” by  S. Robertson, still lives, master studies, materials and effects group studies
-         Creature design – gesture, anatomy, tutorials
-         Figure/face drawing (Loomis, Hampton, tutorials, portraits, photo studies, drawing statues)
-         3d – Sculptris, Blender, Zbrush if Sculptris won’t be enough
 
-         Be mindful while doing studies, analyze stuff that I focus on.
-         Apply all my studies by doing at least quick sketches from memory and/or imagination.
-         Observe real world whenever possible (lighting, value, color, perspective, form, etc.)
-         Train visualizing simple forms and moving/rotating them in mind (idea from Bobby Chiu’s book)
-         Take breaks (do some quick excercises for eyes and body, household chores) I find Workrave great software for breaks.
-         Have fun!


I'm going to re-read this post weekly, update goals if necessary and check back in the end of June.
My health and sport goals shall be in my Gym's Daggers thread.

P.S. Waking up at 6.30 works superb, it isn't possible as a daily practice but I'll try 3-4 times a week.

@smrr thanks for cheering up! You can read about eating frogs here on  Brian Tracy's website. I've listened to his audio book "The Miracle of self-discipline" and am trying to apply some stuff srom it, but his recommenations on what actually  to do first in the morning are very contradictory (planning, working out or eating a frog?).