A Little Practice Goes a Long Way

As an artist, your art is never perfect. I found this little gem on Pinterest, and I think it captures the struggle of artists of any kind anywhere.

http://themetapicture.com/how-artists-see-their-work/

And sometimes, even when you finish your artwork, it's still not finished. I still look at some of the pieces I've done in the past and mentally make a list of all the things that could make it better. I'm afraid of overworking a piece, but I'm also afraid of underworking it; I can never really find that happy medium, so it sometimes feels like I end up stopping in the middle. 

So I figured that I should focus on (for now) practicing. I haven't really done a formal large piece in a while, so my fine arts skills have gotten rather rusty. I've been doing a lot of graphic design, and I love it. But there's still something special about holding a brush or pen in your hand and creating something beautiful. Therefore, I'll practice as much as I can (plus, I need to use all of my mini-canvases). I won't sell these since these are on par with sketches and they're also pretty small, about the size of a business card. But they'll be nice for me to see my progress this summer.

I'll also add to this post as I continue with practicing.

Painting a background to get rid of the horrible plain white canvas

"Finished" paintings of snowberries and poppies

A Dream No Longer Deferred

What better way to showcase my art than by selling it? This is a dream I've had for a while and that has manifested itself in many different ways. When I was little, I "created" a business called Kira's Krafts. I wanted to make little crafts like beaded keychains or felted crafts and then sell it. I even drew myself behind a table with a banner that said "Kira's Krafts" with the K's drawn as paintbrushes and pencils. Since I was in elementary school, I didn't have a bunch of resources besides my imagination, so that never really went through.

Fast forward to late middle school, early high school, I started StreetArt. I only did commissions and half-heartedly sold art that I had already done. I was much too attached to my artwork, and I couldn't handle the thought that I would have to part with it. So I practiced some and mostly did free portraits of people. I only had one large commission where I drew two portraits and was paid a relatively large sum of money. But I never seriously gave selling my art a thought. 

Fast forward to college. I guess you could say I'm a bit more mature (-ish) and that I know more about business related things (-ish). So I created Draw. Paint. Design. It started off as a professional portfolio for furthering my career. I figured having a link to all my artwork and designs would be attractive to potential employers. It was meant to be a more formal portfolio than this blog. Then I asked myself, why not make it a business? I could design a logo for it, some business cards, a Facebook page and I'd be in business. I could showcase and sell the artwork on my portfolio and then sell it on my Etsy shop.

And that's just what I did.

To God be the glory, I've been more proactive in trying to sell my artwork and in getting people to know about me. I've handed out my business cards, shared posts on Facebook, and updated my portfolio as much as I could. I have a fiverr account where I do small design or crochet tasks that don't take too long. And I think I'm gaining ground. I just need to work on the marketing bit; I'm quite averse to being the annoying-person-on-Facebook-who-doesn't-know-when-to-stop-sharing-links. I don't like to clog up others' newsfeeds because I hate it when my newsfeed is clogged. But oh well. I'll do my best to advertise (I've already bought some ad space on Etsy) and keep sharing photos and new artwork that I'm selling. And hopefully this summer, I'll have some new projects to sell.

So here's to a dream that's no longer deferred, one that I've been trying to accomplish for a long time.