EMG Zine posts

I'm expanding my blog to EMG Zine which is run by the multi-tasking artist/ writer/ entrepreneur Ellen Million. This has been in the works for a while so it's exciting to finally be apart of Ellen's team. I'll still be writing here, but my extended articles will be posted at EMG Zine first, then posted here at the end of the month.

http://emg-zine.com/item.php?id=486 - is a post on Being lazy and getting stuff done (if you can't wait for me to post it here). I'm under the monthly column 'Part Time Painter'.

As a side note, while I work through my website redesign, I thought I'd post a link to a website which is something many people wouldn't consider. http://www.vischeck.com/ checks your website or images for usability for people who are Colourblind. I use it mainly for checking that text can still be read more than what the images will look like.

Why I hate the term 'New Year resolution'

It's that time of year again. New Year's Resolution time. I absolutely hate the term 'resolution'. It sounds like a death sentence. I like terms like 'possibility' or 'potential happening' - much less frightening. But, they wouldn't be so important if resolutions were so wishy-washy.

The point of a resolution is to kick your butt into gear, get you to stick to a plan and make a change to your life. So how do you make a resolution and actually keep it?

Set a deadline - otherwise you're making a list of procrastination
If you really want to achieve something, set a deadline. Mark a date in your calendar, set milestones to check progress against and stick to them. The minute you slip, you have to pull yourself up again or you've already failed. I'm terrible at this. I'll admit that I hate deadlines, because they are tangible things. They don't need to be so scary. They may be something simple like 'by the end of the year I will have attempted to do something'. It's actually about incentive.

Make the tasks reasonable - or the don't shoot for planet 47xb489 in the Orion Nebula
Don't be silly and say you will become an Olympic champion if you are a couch potato. Last year I made a list of things I'd 'like' to achieve, and ones that I 'wanted' to achieve. Some of the tasks were almost pipe dreams, while the majority were achievable with dedication and time. Make the tasks small so you can tick them off and feel like you've achieved something. Tasks may be buying a personal domain, painting at least one painting using oils, joining a forum you've been too intimidated to join. The grand plan may be to improve your painting to a level where you can enter a competition, but to get there, it will help if you have small tasks to achieve your large, long term goal.

Be willing to adjust your resolutions - they should be bendy, breakable and useful
Unfortunately (or fortunately) for me my life changed after I made my resolutions for the last year, and this in turn had a large impact on my ability to meet those artistic resolutions I'd set for myself. Life is very fluid, and you have to be prepared to change your resolutions if your circumstances change. I could not have prepared for the change in work conditions, nor could I have truly prepared for buying a house (when that was in the 'pipe dream' list). Basically you have to be flexible about some of your resolutions. If you break your leg, that resolution about being able to run a 20km marathon may have to change.


So what happens if you get to the end of the year and you fail?
Don't worry! Seriously. Failure is all part of the life experience. If you fail, you need to look at why you failed. Was it too complex? Did you try to achieve too much? Did you *really* want to achieve the task (i.e. not eating as much chocolate, hmmm???).

And anyway, if you fail, there's always the next year!

Or the next...

or the....

Website design - what you should consider

When you're building a website, there are a number of design elements that you should consider and plan for. It's all well and good to have a beautiful website, but if visitors can't find their way around or the pages take forever to load your website may not be successful.

Check out this post which covers a broad range of design issues and what you should be looking at when developing a website. : 15 top website elements

Muse, oh muse, where for art thou?

You've got an hour/ day/ week off where you can dedicate time to painting. You sit down in front of your empty sheet of paper/ canvas and ....

Nothing.

After weeks of not being able to paint you FINALLY get the chance, and your muse has gone walkabout. So what can you do when this happens?

1. Relax, it will come back eventually. It's like spilled milk. You can't change the fact so you might as well take a deep breath, recognise that maybe today is not going to be the day for painting, and get over it.

2. If you can't paint, go and do something else. Why waste a couple of hours bashing your head against the proverbial brick wall. Be practical. Do that website update you've been putting off, go watch a movie, do a puzzle. Just stop sitting there hoping that inspiration will magically happen by staring at a blank page. It will frustrate you no end, and at the end of the day if nothing has happened, you may feel worse than when you began.

3. Flip through an old sketch book. If you're feeling uninspired, go back and see if there's a half finished sketch that needs some shading done, or a painting that needs details added. Looking at your old stuff can inspire new stuff.

4. Write out a list of things you'd 'one day' like to paint. It can be anything from illustrating a specific book, to something vague like 'a blue elephant'.

5. Pick a topic you're interested in doing some paintings on and research it. Just because your painting muse has gone walkabout, it doesn't mean that you can't be planning future work. Do a google image search, follow links, look at technique articles. It doesn't matter if you start out researching 'The sleeping beauty' and end up at 'Martian icecaps'.

6. Join in an art challenge. Some great ones are
- 100 Themes Art Challenge - this is about interpretation of a single word
- Illustration Friday - a weekly challenge site-
- Speed painting challenges on most good art forums - particularly useful for digital artists

7. Experiment. Work through a tutorial you've had bookmarked for years. Don't worry if you're copying a painting in order to learn a new technique - this is how many artists learnt their trade. Just focus on keeping your skills up to scratch. This is about doing art stuff, but not letting your brain get in the way.

Your muse may be nice and come back half way through the first 10 minutes of the movie you've switched on. Then again, it might be vindictive and take a holiday in Barbados for three months. The point is, when you force things in art, it doesn't always work. The more you try and make it happen, they more you may dislike what you're producing and get miserable. Artist block happens to the best artists. It doesn't mean you suck, it just means that you aren't necessarily meant to paint at 2pm on Tuesday afternoon! So don't give up, just relax and fill in your time while you're waiting for Muse to come back.

Or fire her, and hire a new one!

The healthier artist - 10000 step challenge

Working in IT, I'm pretty much tied to the computer. I get up, go to work, switch on the computer and sit there for 8-10 hours a day with the occasional interruption by a meeting or visit to someone else’s desk. On my down time when I work on my art, if I decide to paint/ work on website updates/ check emails/ visit forums, again I’m tied to a desk.

All this desk time is not really conducive to an active lifestyle and can cause health problems, and exacerbate stress. But there are a number of things that you can do to help keep from seizing up or becoming unhealthy. This is one idea that you might like to consider as it’s cheap, easy to get involved with, and takes little effort:

My work is currently taking part in something called the '10 000 Step challenge'. The idea is to aim for 10 000 steps (the equivalent of 8km walking) every day. This is the recommended goal for an ‘active adult’. You use a pedometer, a conversion chart and a group of people to heckle support you and you track how you measure up. I must admit I’m a bit up and down at the moment, but I’m definitely averaging 10000 steps every day.

Here’s another article people in sedentary work might like to read: 7 important steps for a web worker

Stock photography - making your own - what can you photograph?

Even though I'm not a photographer, I use photographs to reference from to help create realism. Sometimes you have to use stock photographs, but if you are lucky and have the right resources, you can create your own reference stock to work from.

Why is this great? Well, it means you have less to worry about on the copyright infringement front, as well as being able to get the EXACT photo you need for your painting. However there are a few things you need to be aware of when taking photographs of places, objects and people, particularly if you want to use the photos for commercial use.

Here are some great articles on stock photography:

• Tutorial 9 have included a basic article on your rights as a photographer
• Digital Web has an article for designers A Designer's Guide to Making Your Own Stock Photography (for non-photographers)
• USA Today has an article on What and where you can photograph
• An interesting article on what can happen when the authorities get involved with your photography

Please note, each country has different laws on what can be photographed.

Links Shout out - BG Patterns

http://www.bgpatterns.com/ is a background generator that allows you to use a range of images, colours, textures and rotation. It's simple to use and features a range of already created patterns for you to browse.