2007 was the first year I ever had some kind of plan with my art. It worked out pretty well, I did almost everything I had set out to do. I´m not going to do any heavy analysis here about the year that passed, only make the conclusion that it was a great thing to have some art goals written down, it helped me focus a bit.
So, what´s up for 2008, then? Well, I have decided not to make my art plans for this year so extensive and detailed, so after a bit of thinking, I´m down to a list of three main things to focus on:
- Work in series – this is probably the most important point for 2008. I´m not very good at concentrating on things for a long time, so when I´ve drawn or painted something once, I´m already tired of it. But even I can see that when I do try to work on some subject a bit more, study it from different angles, try out different colour themes, I get better results. So for this year, whatever I draw or paint (except in my sketchbooks – a girl´s gotta have some plain fun too), whichever technique I use, I´m going to do several pieces on the same theme. Partly because I want to get better at carrying through my ideas (and my head is full of them!), and partly because I get a greater feeling of accomplishment by working my ideas through properly.
- People and faces – drawing people was on my list last year too, and I did a lot of it. I drew people in town, went to some life drawing sessions and started to get the hang of it, and I´m going to try to keep it up. I´m adding faces this year, though. I´m beginning to feel more comfortable with the human body and it´s proportions, but I totally forgot how to draw faces…
- Cars – also in my 2007 art plan, but since they are still so impossible to get down on paper, I´m keeping cars on this list for 2008. Just for the challenge and practice of it.
Today´s painting is one thing I´m going to work with during this year – a series of watercolours of the view from our kitchen window. I´ll never grow tired of those houses down there. They look different in every weather and the light changes every hour of the day, so it is a perfect subject for a longer series of paintings.
17 x 20 cm, pencil and watercolours on Arches 300 g watercolour paper, fine grain.