Q&A: Resolutions and The Future

For this part of the series, I’m combining a couple different questions into one big post. I love that people are interested in where I think the business is going, and what my plans are for the upcoming year and even beyond that!

Did you make any resolutions for the business? What are your plans for the year? Any new products coming soon?

I didn’t really make any solid resolutions for the business, but I do have a lot in store for the upcoming year:

• I will be taking an online class this year on drawing pets (like cats and dogs). I’ve had a couple commissions to draw dogs before, and although I think they turned out well, I know I can do better. I’m hoping that class will help me refine my drawing skills enough to make my pieces better.

• I will be taking another online class, this one on illustrating children’s books. It’s always been a dream of mine to do something along those lines. The class also helps fine tune drawing skills, and helps with watercolor and pen and ink skills as well, all things that will help my pieces get better now.

• I am going to work on improving my photography skills so my products look better in my online store.

• I will be starting to search for upcoming arts and craft shows for the year! Right now I’m just planning on doing indoor shows as the investment of purchasing tables and a tent is something we can’t swing right now.

• I am looking into new products, but haven’t decided on anything yet. If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them!

• I want to improve the quality of the products I already have, from the quality of the images to the materials I use to create the products. The image that bothers me the most is the Chickadee; he looks great, but as I did a textured background on the original painting, the backgrounds on the prints looks grainy. I have already started changing quality for some products; I upgraded to a new paper for the note cards, and I’m so happy with the change!

• I also want to increase the number of pieces that I create. Last year I did four drawings, fourteen paintings (2 oil, 12 watercolor), three murals, and four signs. I don’t have a number for how many pieces total I make per group or as a whole, but I just would like to push myself a little bit more to make more time to create 🙂

• Projects that I have lined up for the year already include finishing two paintings, a mural, and a two part drawing. I’ll also be entering another gift certificate into our church’s mission’s auction for an 8″ x 10″ drawing, so will have that piece to work on as well. I’m also working on plans for other drawings (like my Lord of the Rings series) as well as some paintings.

What are your long term goals/plans?

Because the business is still so new, it’s hard to know exactly what the plans are. Here are the tentative plans:

• In the next year or two I hope to be a full time artist, meaning I will no longer be babysitting during the day.
• We’re still figuring out what is going to work best: an online store vs. just doing shows, using the current store host vs. switching to something like Etsy, things like that.
• One of my friends and I keep tossing around the idea of having an actual store, with me doing my art and her doing her sewing. We’d sell products, offer lessons, and I’d love to host art birthday parties. That’s still a long way in the future, though.

I’m not sure exactly what the future holds for Back to the Drawing Board, but I hope to keep growing and improving my work!

If I missed any of your questions or this prompted more questions, let me know in the comments below!