Catching Up, Getting Ready!
Daily art for the past three days has been reduced to cat gestures and probably will be tomorrow too. Thursday morning is when I go in for my Street Artist Program screening. I need back boards cut from foam core for all of the large pieces and then I need to shrink wrap the matted art to protect it and give a good professional presentation. So it's Physical-Busy, though I did get some blogging done and might not have a problem blogging an art supply review tonight or tomorrow - since I already tested the last of my Stillman & Birn review sketchbooks and just need to write the article. That's sit still work, a good excuse to rest up long enough not to wreck my back cutting the back boards.
Day 23:
Day 24:
Day 25:
So there's the cat gestures! Had a breakthrough on last night's when I successfully overlapped two sketches in a pleasing way. He moved and I had only seconds to start getting his gesture so I didn't turn the page. It just happened - and I like the two-cat composition more than if I'd done them with white space between them. It not only makes an interesting shape but I could develop that gesture into a painting of two cats, the nearer one flipping his tail onto the farther one's back. Nothing says a sketch of Ari couldn't be turned into any other color or pattern of medium long hair with his build!
I'm past all my fears about the screening. Fear and excitement are the same thing chemically. I've gotten far enough, done enough of what needs to be done, have the funds for the license without having to put in for a grant I might not get and most of all know I can do this. If I can only do it part time, it's still good cash flow for getting enough other income streams to build it into self supporting whole. If I can build up to enough days out in this stable climate that I earn enough to live on - then I have a job. Then I'm not living on SSI any more, just receiving benefits per someone living under the poverty line.
If by some miracle I go over poverty line, I don't have to, anything over that can go into the business. I'll budget myself under the poverty line till I'm ready to deal with paid insurance and so on. I'll be ready to live on the business once it has savings up to the SSI allowable level and I've got my stuff in from Arkansas with all the rest of my supplies. Unless prices are insanely high out on the Wharf, I don't think it'll go that high that fast, but in the long run they might. Especially once I get into galleries.
I've got new awesome cool things to review too. Next up after Stillman & Birn Epsilon is the new Canson Mi-Tientes Touch sanded pastel papers and boards. I've got copious samples so I'm going to put those papers and boards through the wringer with different mediums and wet underpaintings with more than one solvent.
And of course Nanowrimo is in about a week. I'll be doing all this AND writing a novel AND editing the novel. I am going to be one happy, busy cat!
The awesome cool thing is that I asked the manager to take the giant television out of my room. Roaches nest in it, it takes up a big chunk of my living space, worst of all it becomes a massive time sink in a way that Netflix never did. I don't have as many zombie hours as I did in other states. I feel good enough to do things and when I relax, I socialize with my friends! So what do I need television for?
I've been staying up till three or four in the morning because my favorite shows air in that time slot. I love them, they're good stories, but if I look them up on Netflix I can watch one and schedule it to my convenience at the end of my day, not get hooked by the next episode and not want to miss it. TV is what's eating half of my sleep time because the good stories are on past my bedtime.
Now when I'm writing I don't watch TV at all! Writing is Music Time. So I've got a month of transition with music playing, to get used to drawing without video going. I just have no tolerance for commercials and network scheduling, randomly having my time scheduled by their decisions. Television just isn't convenient, not in relation to its entertainment value. I can wind down chatting with friends or posting on forums. I don't need television to eat up my creative time.
Day 23:
Day 24:
Day 25:
So there's the cat gestures! Had a breakthrough on last night's when I successfully overlapped two sketches in a pleasing way. He moved and I had only seconds to start getting his gesture so I didn't turn the page. It just happened - and I like the two-cat composition more than if I'd done them with white space between them. It not only makes an interesting shape but I could develop that gesture into a painting of two cats, the nearer one flipping his tail onto the farther one's back. Nothing says a sketch of Ari couldn't be turned into any other color or pattern of medium long hair with his build!
I'm past all my fears about the screening. Fear and excitement are the same thing chemically. I've gotten far enough, done enough of what needs to be done, have the funds for the license without having to put in for a grant I might not get and most of all know I can do this. If I can only do it part time, it's still good cash flow for getting enough other income streams to build it into self supporting whole. If I can build up to enough days out in this stable climate that I earn enough to live on - then I have a job. Then I'm not living on SSI any more, just receiving benefits per someone living under the poverty line.
If by some miracle I go over poverty line, I don't have to, anything over that can go into the business. I'll budget myself under the poverty line till I'm ready to deal with paid insurance and so on. I'll be ready to live on the business once it has savings up to the SSI allowable level and I've got my stuff in from Arkansas with all the rest of my supplies. Unless prices are insanely high out on the Wharf, I don't think it'll go that high that fast, but in the long run they might. Especially once I get into galleries.
I've got new awesome cool things to review too. Next up after Stillman & Birn Epsilon is the new Canson Mi-Tientes Touch sanded pastel papers and boards. I've got copious samples so I'm going to put those papers and boards through the wringer with different mediums and wet underpaintings with more than one solvent.
And of course Nanowrimo is in about a week. I'll be doing all this AND writing a novel AND editing the novel. I am going to be one happy, busy cat!
The awesome cool thing is that I asked the manager to take the giant television out of my room. Roaches nest in it, it takes up a big chunk of my living space, worst of all it becomes a massive time sink in a way that Netflix never did. I don't have as many zombie hours as I did in other states. I feel good enough to do things and when I relax, I socialize with my friends! So what do I need television for?
I've been staying up till three or four in the morning because my favorite shows air in that time slot. I love them, they're good stories, but if I look them up on Netflix I can watch one and schedule it to my convenience at the end of my day, not get hooked by the next episode and not want to miss it. TV is what's eating half of my sleep time because the good stories are on past my bedtime.
Now when I'm writing I don't watch TV at all! Writing is Music Time. So I've got a month of transition with music playing, to get used to drawing without video going. I just have no tolerance for commercials and network scheduling, randomly having my time scheduled by their decisions. Television just isn't convenient, not in relation to its entertainment value. I can wind down chatting with friends or posting on forums. I don't need television to eat up my creative time.