Happy 2020, everyone!
It’s that time of the year again…
So, now it might be a good time to reflect on the good things we accomplished – and not – while we plan for a better 2020.
- Such a joke considering how 2020 went… Oh well, who would have know?
You might like it more or less, but if you’re a blogger, artist or any other business person, you need to keep a clear vision of what you want & what you plan to achieve, even if you only do it once a year.
Believe me, I’m not a big fan of “new year goals” or “resolutions”, as most times it implies they’re set but never achieved.
It doesn’t require a big amount of time or effort, but I’ve been trying to do it this past few years and I feel it helps me get organized and prioritize.
But, I’m not here to give you a pep talk and convince you to set your own set of goals and plans, but to talk about mine!
And if you feel like jumping on the bandwagon to organize yourself better, then you’re welcome to join!
Personally, I really like to see what people have in mind for their year and usually that even sparks some ideas too!
REFLECTING OVER 2019
I wrote a post last year – the blog is almost a year old!! – about my goals for 2019, so I want to talk a bit about how these goals were accomplished.
If you want to give it a quick look, I’ll leave it here.
So, I’ve formed a habit of keeping track of my earnings and expenses – art-related – and it’s been quite useful, now I don’t really have to do it intentionally.
Some of the art practices I wanted to implement were: forming a habit of sketching regularly both in a sketchbook and digitally, get more comfortable with drawing men, practice drawing and painting environments & landscapes and lastly see if I can improve some of my fundamentals.
Even I haven’t fully accomplished all of these, I have taken steps towards improving them:
I got a Schoolism subscription – you can read the full explanation & review here – but it’s been quite helpful and I intend on keep studying.
With this, I have practised drawing man & improved my knowledge of fundamentals a bit more. Now, I have done more than 50 landscape paintings for my latest course and found out it’s something I quite enjoy!
Sketching has been something I do regularly but there’s always times of the year when I do it more than others.
I’ve learned that this is something that happens to most of us, so I’m not bothering much with it.
Though I find that It’s quite interesting to form a habit of sketching in the morning before starting working and I want to give it a try, but that’s not something I’m gonna focus on.
PERSONAL PROJECTS
I love starting projects and challenging myself, but, when it comes to finishing them it takes me some time.
A few I have going on are the 100 something project – read here to know more – and a Circus Colouring book.
I always set as goals to myself to finish them but I know I don’t have the time to do it all.
And though I have made progress in both fronts I plan on trying to do better this year.
Now, you also have to celebrate what you’ve accomplished, so here are some projects I’ve done this year:
I participated on the 100 heads challenge – that I did not finish but still learned a lot – and I intend on starting the year by taking the 50 heads challenge too. (<– update from the future with a peek at my challenge.)
On the other hand, this year I also created a full Visual Development portfolio – linked here if you’re curious – to apply to an animation studio. I didn’t get in, but I learned a lot by doing it in such a short amount of time!
BLOG AND SOCIAL MEDIA
When it comes to the blog I’m quite happy with how much I’ve accomplished in this time.
I’ve kept consistent with publishing every fortnight, learned a lot about SEO and all the stuff you need to know and the blog is slowly growing.
The blog is almost a year old and growing strong! (started feb, 2019)
Now, for this year I would like to keep it up, but it would be awesome if I could start to make some money out of it to help me pay my bills and start my career as an artist.
I’ll be graduating around May, so it would be nice to have it as a side hustle while I stabilize myself after that.
Big changes coming my way! – you have no idea…
As for social media, I feel I have improved my usage of it and I’m slowly starting to see results.
Maybe the blog is helping with that too!
But I also switched my perspective a bit and I’m trying to put less “social media” pressure on myself.
I’ve reached my first 100 subs on YouTube, so that’s a good start of the work I’ve been putting this past couple of years.
Although I have a bit more trouble keeping consistent with YouTube than with the blog, it has been working well so far.
ORGANIZATION
This year I tried a different approach as I knew I would have to organize myself extremely well if I wanted to balance blogging, art, YouTube, social media and all the college work.
So, I started bullet journaling!
Honestly, it has been the best thing I’ve done so far and incredibly helpful. At first, I thought it wasn’t for me but as soon as I started I loved it.
And I think it has been the only thing keeping me sane and organized over the past few months…
Anyway, I have a dedicated post about Bullet Journaling if you want to know more about my journey with it and see how it can help you too.
I’m still learning and improving though!
CONCLUSIONS – REFLEXIONS TO START THE YEAR
It has been a productive year overall: I overcame a big art block phase, done several projects, started this blog…
And I think all the work is slowly starting to pay off.
One thing I’ve learned this past year overall is to invest some time in learning, both about blogging – and all that comes with it – and in Art.
Till now I’ve always tried to be “self-taught” and going for free resources, investigating and experimenting on my own, and that’s all good!
But, sometimes investing a bit in learning can be extremely beneficial and makes the learning process easier.
And for me, it pushes me to use those resources I bought wisely – as I don’t like to waste the little money I have – so I dedicate more time and effort to study.
From now on, I’m gonna focus on try to keep studying and learning new things while I go, there’s still a lot to learn!
And as for the blog, I hope to start some fun things soon that I hope would be quite helpful to you.
TO SUM UP
As I’ve been mixing past goals with future goals, I want to sum it up here – and maybe add a few related extras…
This serves both as a clarification for you and a way to hold myself accountable.
MAIN GOALS
- Focus on learning and studying; schoolism.
- Keep the social media/youtube/blog routines (and maybe improve them)
- Circus colouring book.
- Focus more on my online shops – marketing etc – like Etsy, Society6, Redbubble, maybe set up my own on this blog?
- Start earning money with the blog.
OTHERS
- 100 Somethings – continue but not necessarily finish.
- 50 heads challenge.
- Get better at having work done ahead of time.
- Get my life together after graduating from college.
- Set up a better portfolio.
And that’s all! Sounds easy enough right? 😅
Well, I’ll keep you posted on it!
What about you, are you inspired to set your own set of goals? Share them with me in the comments and let’s talk!
