Eric will be on an interview in Oregon for the next few days, so I am planning to use my free time in the evenings to complete two paintings—a shooting star flower painting and a dog portrait of our friend’s adorable chihuahua, Lucky.

Truthfully, I spent the whole day watching football instead of painting. Oops.

I completed this hibiscus drawing ten years ago for an independent study course in intermediate drawing. It was also the first drawing I had ever given away as a gift. I was able to scan it this morning because I happened to marry the recipient. We’ve been together ten years today, in fact.

Technically I would change a few things, like the leaf position on the right, but I’m still fond of this drawing… one of my first attempts with graphite pencils.

I hand-delivered Ella to Christina in North Raleigh this morning.

For transport and storage, I sandwiched the painting between a sturdy piece of cardboard after I covered the pastel with a sheet of tracing paper to prevent smudging. I wanted her to be able to keep the painting safe until she was ready to frame it.

I let her know how to handle the painting, but from now on I am going to include a little “how to take care of me” sticker when I deliver my commissioned work. I never use fixative, but my pieces are blended fairly well so there isn’t a lot of chalk sitting on top. Pastel paintings can smudge unlike acrylic or oil paintings, so when you frame a pastel it has to go behind glass with a spacer or mat separating it from the glazing.

I’m so excited, my first official commissioned work!

This evening Eric and I attended a workshop on financial planning. The information that was most useful to me was the terminology as the concepts of balancing my checkbook and saving for retirement aren’t new to me.

Since I quit my job it’s been even more important for me to create a budget and financial plan outlining where I want my freelancing business to take me. (Barcelona, anyone?) Sporadic income is going to make my taxes next year interesting to say the least but I’ve been keeping excellent track of the money I’ve earned so far.

Eric gave me a crash course in Quicken for Small Businesses and I’ve been using that program consistently to track invoices, payments, and expenses. It really helps me to see everything in spreadsheet format. That way I know who owes me money and whether I’ve sent them a bill. Plus, I love pie charts.

One the surface this might not seem like a typical “art blog” post, but if I’m going to make a living from this, I better have a sound plan in place!

Last year I was inspired to buy a blank moleskine journal, hoping it would encourage me to paint during my lunch hours at work. I haven’t had much time for it recently (freelance work has been keeping me busy) but I am looking forward to adding a few new drawings this month. Here are a few of my favorites…

You can see all my moleskine sketches in my Flickr set.

Landscapes are not my thing, so I am finding that finishing this painting is taking a bit more effort than I am used to. However, since I am posting every day this month, now is the time to get things done!

This painting was shelved when I switched entries for the show in Blowing Rock this month, but I had finished laying color down in the sky, rock, and foreground areas.

My next step is to continue adding details until I think the painting is finished and this is where I am running into trouble. Most of my work is detailed, but not hyper-realistic. So, do I want a lot of detail or should I keep it loose?

Here’s what I have so far…

I had to put off working on this painting while we were traveling to Curacao and Florida, but I had a wonderful time finishing it up this afternoon.

I had already finished the general outline of the cat, so I started by adding more detail to the body and face. I worked with several different shades of gray to create a more three-dimensional image. Ella is entirely black, so I needed to exaggerate some of the highlights to emphasize her legs and head.

Once I had the level of detail I wanted, I added a red background to represent the red door she was photographed in front of in two of the pictures I was given.

After smoothing out the red and adding some texture to the door, I realized that the cat’s head was not quite right. I went back into the black with a kneaded eraser and filled in the background as needed.

Finishing up, I added a rough white floor, whiskers, and the final detail to the eyes. For the quality of photos I had to work with, I am very happy with the outcome.

I have two paintings in a group show with the Pastel Society of North Carolina at The Upstairs Art Gallery in western NC this month. I was going to submit one dog portrait and one landscape, but the organizer requested more figurative work because most of the entries were landscape and still life. So, Riesling the Wise and Dog Days of Summer were carted off to Blowing Rock late last week. The show runs through November 19.

In June of this year I left my reasonably paying job to concentrate full time on my artwork and freelance design. Not only does this make me more flexible in terms of travel (i.e. Halifax, Chicago, Montana, Curacao, Florida), but I am also free to work my own hours.

My wonderful hubby has been nothing but supportive in this venture and I can’t help but feel extremely blessed that I have his support. I’ve also had tremendous help from of a good friend of mine who started her own marketing group at the same time. Not only is she a very talented writer, she has also been a wonderful cheerleader when it came to my striking out on my own.

Thank you, Eric and Elizabeth, for helping me realize my dream.

I have several creative blogs on my RSS reader and I love browsing through the suggestions and articles. But sometimes I wonder if I am spending too much time reading and not enough time painting! Recently, I paired them down to just a few I can’t not read…

EmptyEasel.com - This site is packed with helpful tips about selling/promoting your art online, mixed with reviews of other artists and art history lessons.

FreelanceSwitch.com - This website is geared toward graphic and web design, but I find that many of the principles could easily apply to artists who do commission work.

Living the Creative Dream - I wish Holli would update everyday, but there are a ton of resources on her page for artists starting out on their own.