.DeathlineD.

[Heliux]

Hmm.

Wanted to give this one some thought so I don't repeat the current goals I have from 6 months ago, but access where I'm currently at. This seems like the best place to get started on the forum.

I want a kick ass professional portfolio and a reasonable website for referral.
This looks like working diligently in areas where I need improvement and being consistent with posts and regular updates. Areas of identified improvement look like:
-anatomy of the figure
-lighting studies
-elements and principles
-knowledge of art history
-environmental studies
-motion and mechanics studies

I would like to have the financial/artistic opportunity to go to school.
This looks like saving money, improving credit, and kicking my ASS on a daily basis to become the best artist I can be for those scholarships. As well as defining what I want out of an education and how to maintain healthy congruence after school.

I want financial independence from hourly wage jobs.
I want to become educated so I can make the transition into a professional artistic career. I want it to be actively engaging and express creative intelligence and stimulate my imagination and challenge me into new heights and financial supports my lifestyle.

I want to maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle on a daily basis. This looks like:
-healthy sleep
-making art every day
-exercising daily
-healthy and balanced nutrition
-meditation/studying daily
-reading daily
-balanced work personal life

See you guys on the forums!
-H.

[Heliux]

Hmm.

Well the with the New Year rolling around, I thought it would be a great time to revamp my deathline goals. In looking through my journals, I want to see what worked and what didn't, what dispelled progress, explain time lapses and how I can avoid that in the future.

Portfolio/Website.
I made a blogspot, cghub, deviantart, facebook posts, updates actively when I was actively posting. Things stayed in congruence to how actively doing art was. I could still create a flkr and my own site. Each needs a bit more polish to look presentable.
Portfolio-wise, I realized a lit of what I've been doing is photo recreations and study pieces, so I don't have a lot to show unfortunately. The idea Dave Rapoza suggested during the summer was working on an ip, which I think would be great for referral and an avenue to channel some of my studies towards. Economy of motion. I'd like to commit to a level of polish as well in my posts making everything a bit more presentable, as seen in Feng Zhu's student works.

Going to School.
I was actively going to the TAD studio for figure drawing to build a network of contacts and residually experience the school's environment. Ultimately I think the costs for school far out-weighs the benefit. I would have to work full time in order to scrape by with the payments not allowing me to be at my best and get the most out of the experience. I've thought about exploring other options, but after SCAD, SVA, and looking at the price tags on Ringling and FZD, I think the climates are generally the same, e.g. working full time with out focusing on the reason I'm there. I think working bare minimum to support a studious self-determined makes a lot more sense, so for the time being I've decided to take full responsibility for my education instead hoping that some how my financial realities with improve and I can allow someone else to input what they think is the quickest, most intelligent path to advancing my skills.
Not if, but when I'm a professional artist is the idea. Time is only an asset, which is all the more reason to create a comprehensive way to remain disciplined and clearly, dynamically, and actively problem solving; things I should be doing regardless of going to school or not.

Financial Independence from Hourly-Wage Jobs.
This ones a tricky one. I always hear talk of this mythic barrier your skill level has to breach before you can make it as a professional artist where jobs find you instead of the other way around. My issue with this idea is its very passive and I've never known life to be full of handouts.
I'll keep working on my skills and setting up healthy study habits for the rest of my life and maybe that idea will prove otherwise, but in the mean time I think coming up with micro idea to alleviate my financial costs is a good idea. I've started doing a lot more of an intuitive budgeting system set up through google spreadsheet. (If anyone's interested in the template I use, pm and I'll send it to you.) I've also gotten an offer to get the graphic novel I've been working on published by a local art zine. Hopefully that will bring more opportunity. I've also had an idea that if I start doing alla prima paintings whenever I go to figure drawing sessions, I could save and compile the paintings in the network of coffee shops here. I don't think it will bring in much, but every $ I save is less time I can spend of the clock at work and more time studying. I think I could come up with a lot more ideas in this area, just need to spend time expressing creative business sense.

Maintaining a Healthy/Balanced Lifestyle.
I'd say I did a great job with this one the last year, or so. There's always room for improvement and I think each of the tabs were either not realistic, or a little bit vague.

Healthy sleep I had some healthy sleep through out the year by keeping my sleep times in as much as I was capable with my job. If I really want to make this better, I might have to look at working somewhere else (if I really want to establish circadian rhythm.)
Making art every day There were days where that's all I lived and breathed, but more often than not, some external force would affect me from being able to do this. Responsibilities, family, and friends, work, trips, ect. I think I could have developed better strategies to manage that instead of dispelling my progress, then not returning to it right away. A weekly intentions list is an idea I'm throwing around in my head for this one.
Healthy nutrition I've done a pretty good job keeping on top of this one, but something I would like to see changed is making more food at home. One of the largest excess margins in my budget is eating food while I'm away. I could further my education as well with this one as well.
Meditation/studying/reading daily I study a lot. Just not always on art. ...and again to the same classic things that take me away from art, take me away from my studies. I need to reestablish an hour of wind down time before bed where I just read.
Balanced work personal life Work frequently crosses boundaries, but then stabilizes and handling my personal life is easy when work is kept in check.

Anyhooz. I'll re post my study curriculum and strategies for the new year in a little bit.