inspiration

getting the old juices flowing- that's been the goal of the last few weeks. I've tackled it with a 4-prong approach:

1. draw every day (well...5 days a week)
-I've taken the pressure off of drawing every day- I don't stress about what I draw as long as i put a pen to the paper (new fave is the sharpie retractable fine point pen- it doesn't bleed, and I like drawing in my sketchbooks with a permanent pen so i'm not second guessing myself).

2. look at lots of work (my old sketchbooks, lots of blogs, pinterest, etc.)
-Main inspirations have been The Jealous Curator (love the tagline "A collection of artwork that inspires and depresses me. I know it's good when I'm left thinking DAMN I WISH I THOUGHT OF THAT." I can easily get depressed when I see so many amazing illustrators and feel like there's not room for me. But then I head over to Pinterest, and there's typically enough stuff that leaves me saying "yeah- the world needs me too." Don't get me wrong- i love pinterest, but you really have to search and sift to find the gems.

3. make lists
-Who doesn't love making lists?! I have a "Things that would be cool to do" list, and a "Things I like: 2012 edition" list. The things I like list that I make probably every year without really meaning to do so, inspires my work- it's about things i like enough to want to paint and draw them over and over. This year's list is smaller than years past, but I think that's good- a few things on the list: tiny houses, wreaths, wool, and (of course) bronte and bigfoot. I also felt the need to make a "Stay away" list. These are things that are too overdone right now- triangles, feathers, and mustaches are just a few.

4. make a plan
-Perhaps the hardest, but most important to do. I start with big picture goals for 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year. It's really the 1-year I focus on. One major goal of this year? get illustration rep. To do this i really need to re-build my portfolio, so I made a plan of attack for that. It involves drawing people again (which i haven't done in years). So This week I have been focused on drawing people, re-finding my style, being inspired by others' work (see steps 1 and 2).

Thankfully I feel like it's paying off, and i feel ready to dive into 2012!