A bit on goals, and achieving them...

For those of you paying attention and following closely enough to note the date - it's now January 18th, and I have yet to finish a miniature piece. This is not at all how I wanted the first two weeks of my "one miniature completed every two weeks" goal to go! So I felt it required some discussion. Obviously, I had jury duty, and took some time out to do my taxes and such, but as someone who considers themselves a "professional" this should not affect me meeting my goals.

One way I intend to deal with this, rather than getting frustrated and simply give up on my goal, is to plan to make up for it in some way. In this instance, I can make up for it by creating more than my goal in the upcoming weeks. I am days away from finishing my "Moses" miniature, and that will count as my first miniature completed in 2009 (even though it was started in 2008). Once that is completed, I can immediately start another one, with intentions to finish it in a week. If I have two miniatures finished by the end of January, I have still met my goal - in a roundabout way.

I also want to mention some of the things I've been working on behind the scenes. Although I haven't been physically working on art, I have been making a lot of progress on the business side of things. I now have a complete and working spreadsheet to track my income, expenses, inventory, etc. which I created from scratch. I am proud of it, and each time I make a purchase or a sale, I look forward to entering it into my spreadsheet. Additionally, I am changing e-mail clients to streamline how I handle business contacts. The new system will allow me to have a full contact list and address book for all of my business clients, which I feel is important. No longer will I have to find an old message from someone so I can hit "reply" just to send them a new message! All of this takes time, of course, but as time consuming as it is, it's extremely important to me. On top of all that - I am sneaking closer to the day when I can unveil the new shopping cart on my website - something a long time in the making, and an exciting development for me from a business perspective. While these things are keeping me busy, it may look like I'm not accomplishing anything, but I want to stress that I am extremely happy with how productive I've been lately - even if I have nothing artistic I can show you!

Tax Time...

Just so everyone knows what I am up to... it's time to do my taxes for 2008. Yay. I am so very enthused about that. Basically, I have always been filing taxes as a dependent of my husband, in which we fill out how much I have made (incredibly minimal) and life goes on. No expenses, paperwork, etc. Very simple. However, as I've recently been taking steps towards becoming a registered business, with properly filed business taxes, 2008 was the year to start. Of course, I didn't really start and keep records like I should have. Don't get me wrong, I had piles of receipts and I have my bank records and PayPal history all printed out, but my goodness... just looking through the small-business tax guide was giving me heart palpitations.

The good news? I have spend endless hours at my computer working towards having an efficient and streamlined filing system. I love working with Excel and spreadsheet calculations, and have essentially created a filing system that I can use on a daily basis to track income, expenses, capital cost allowances, etc. It is based very closely on the actual tax forms, so my hope is that next year (January of 2010) I can just enter a few numbers and hit submit, and taxes will be done!

I really do like being an organized person, but at the same time, I am a horrible procrastinator. Usually the two of those do not go hand in hand. And so, one of my main goals for this year (please note: NOT a "New Year's Resolution" - I hate that phrase and the connotations that go along with it) is to be more organized with my business, and I feel like I'm well on my way!

So although I'm not putting colored pencils to paper, I am still very much busy on my art business. Currently (yes, at 12:00AM) I am watching American Pie (all three movies in a row, likely!) on my TV, and entering info into tax forms. With luck I might be done by 4AM.

A thought on pet portraits...

I was recently asked for a quote to do a portrait of a family member's beloved cat. It gave me the thought to write a bit of a note regarding the concept of pet portraits, and likewise the pricing of such projects. Basically, I have a set per-square-inch price that I try to follow as strictly as possible when quoting commissions or pricing my original works. This price, unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) means that most people will not commission pet portraits. I say "or fortunately" because it ultimately gives me a way to politely say "no" to these projects without actually saying no. I quote the price, and the client realizes it is out of their price range, and opts out of the project. In this one case, I really actually WANT to do the portrait. I quite like the cat, and think he would make a great portrait. However, I am not comfortable in any way with giving a "family discount" or giving a better deal just because I really want to do the project. And so, I quoted my normal price, and offered the option of a payment plan, and mentioned it would be a few months before I could fit it in anyways (encouraging them to maybe save some money up for the project). Really, I can't "poo-poo" on pet portraits, as that is how I got my start as an artist. However, this is no longer my area of interest, and I feel that as a wildlife artist, I have to stay away from these projects as much as possible. They consume a massive amount of time, and result in a piece of art that may be special to one person, but ultimately is not going to have any mass appeal to the public that I am trying to market my work to. I've decided to only take on projects that meet the following specifications: a) I actually WANT to do the portrait (an interesting breed of dog, or a particular cat that I know and like) and b) I know the client is completely comfortable with the pricing. In most cases, either a) or b) (or both) are not met, and therefore the project doesn't go forward. I have a lot of respect for artist that make a career and a name for themselves as pet portrait artists, but it is not a route that I want to take. And so - I hope my family member plans to go ahead with the portrait, despite the high price, and I will enjoy the project - but I understand completely if they decide against it.

A Goal Statement - In Writing!

And so, now that my massive list of updates are complete, with months worth of posts all occurring on one day, I'd like to end with a goal statement. The purpose of this post is to commit, in writing, to a personal goal that I would like to set for myself in my art career. Having it written, and seen by other people, will help me in achieving it - it will give me an accountability of sorts! Motivation is always an issue for someone who is self-employed, especially when working with something that really requires you to "feel" like doing it! And so, here are my commitments:

1) To work on my art five days per week*

2) To create at least one miniature (5" x 5") piece every two weeks, starting December 1st, 2008

3) To post on my blog at least once per week

*I'd like to specify that "work" can consist of actual artwork, or art-related activities, including working on my website, corresponding with clients, cleaning the studio, editing photos, etc. The goal here is to make a solid effort to do art-related activities five days per week

I'll be working on my large commission piece - the next cougar piece, as well as doing the occasional miniature piece, including some long-awaited dog eye ATC's that belong to a certain Aunt who has patience beyond anything I know! I'd also like to use some of my time to increase my advertising in the art world. Additionally, I'd like to take some time to dabble in carving - perhaps even entering a small piece in next year's "Reflections of Nature" carving competition! Lofty goals, I know, but I'm really working at beating this procrastination thing that plagues almost all of us artists! Thanks to all of you, my loyal fans, for supporting me through my journey!