What are your art goals for 2024?

[cranberryartworks]

I plan on moving away from water mixable oil to true oils. And practice my drawing every day.

 

[ntl]

I don't do "New Year Promises" so haven't set any goals. I hope to keep at it, whatever "IT" is. Though I have used mainly oil paint without solvents for years, I have also played with charcoal, graphite, watercolor, and gouache. I hope to continue with them. The last few days I used charcoal in "free" time, and will do that again today. I'm in an "art club". We meet Mondays for a few hours, taking our projects with us or starting new ones there. Recent talk was of thinking about taking it outside a time or two in late spring. I may go back to basics for a while, to relearn, to refresh, to learn.
Wishing YOU ALL a safe, productive, successful, and pleasant 2024 and beyond.

 

[Artyczar]

I also have not been doing New Years resolutions, but I sometimes write down my goals. They are not related to the new year.

It did cross my mind to get more serious about losing weight, but I have tried so many times now. Every time I lose a lot, I seem to gain it back, and then it's even harder to lose it again. I've read that your metabolism will slow down after that happens, which is why it's so much harder. Then, I'm fighting against a ton of meds that have side effects of weight gain. It's a vicious cycle. So, I've thought about starving myself a bit again (tiny portions), which was how I've done it each time before.

Other than that, just keep working on my art, do what inspires me, and try not to care about the rest. Also, do more self-care. I don't do enough of that. That's for my mental health.

 

[Terri]

I've been having really lighthearted fun playing with mixed media and collage, so I will continue on with that.

I also really need to go through my film negatives, and get organized. We've been in this house for over a year now and all my photo gear is unpacked, but I feel a need to eyeball everything, just to say Hi.

 

[Hermes2020]

I intend resuming work seriously on my bird feeder, which has been on the back burner for a few weeks now. It was a combination of my inborn laziness and some other domestic issues I've been sorting out.

 

[JennieJo]

I also have not been doing New Years resolutions, but I sometimes write down my goals. They are not related to the new year.

It did cross my mind to get more serious about losing weight, but I have tried so many times now. Every time I lose a lot, I seem to gain it back, and then it's even harder to lose it again. I've read that your metabolism will slow down after that happens, which is why it's so much harder. Then, I'm fighting against a ton of meds that have side effects of weight gain. It's a vicious cycle. So, I've thought about starving myself a bit again (tiny portions), which was how I've done it each time before.

Other than that, just keep working on my art, do what inspires me, and try not to care about the rest. Also, do more self-care. I don't do enough of that. That's for my mental health.

I know your pain about meds and weight gain. I ended up losing a fair bit with 2 almost rules: if it grows underground, I don't eat it. Nutritionist recommended it as a kickstart to resetting metabolism, and with awareness of health implications it wasn't unhealthy. And, the doozy, only eat half of what you plan. Apologies for the epistle. It took 18 months but I did get to more normal food/weight cause/effect responses. Took me decades to get a routine that worked. I have slightly modified it to include 3 weekend treats.

 

[16ga]

The only art goals I have are to make more of it.

 

[Triduana]

I'm keeping my goal small this year: I want to fill my 'messy sketchbook' (the one I use for any old thing) and finish ten paintings. I would also like to do more sketching outdoors: I really want to improve on my trees!

 

[ZenDruid]

To at least draw daily, something anything, in my sketchbooks. Do some acrylic on canvas, or maybe paper, when I get an idea. Also practice my few easy pieces on guitar. 2023 escaped me due to attention to a family illness. We all survived, things are more settled now.

 

[Terri]

To at least draw daily, something anything, in my sketchbooks. Do some acrylic on canvas, or maybe paper, when I get an idea. Also practice my few easy pieces on guitar. 2023 escaped me due to attention to a family illness. We all survived, things are more settled now.

I'm so glad everything (and everyone) is better now, Zen. I'm looking forward to seeing more from you over this year!

 

[Grizabella]

I'm going to do lots of watercolor items and beadwork, my two passions. I'm moving to a bigger "abode" in a few days and it's going to be on a creek bank under trees, which will give me lots of new focus for my work. I live in a very small RV park in the midst of the Willameette National Forest and the side of the park I'm moving to is where we have our resident cougar so I'll be watching out for him. My son is manager and he's going to put cameras in for me. He captured this attached picture in his yard, two doors down from where I'll be living, so maybe I'll capture a cougar picture on my cameras if he comes back around. He's been seen many times during daylight hours prowling around the edges of the park but in the past two years we've had forest fire alerts nearby and he hasn't been seen. I think he left because of the fires. It's extremely unusual for cougars to be seen around where humans are which makes me a little bit wary, but the only "casualties" in recent years have been people's small pets across the road over on the river. He doesn't seem to be a threat to us here so far. He's still around and has been seen a mile or two up the road.

In getting ready to move, I discovered some pages of Arches someone sent to me to try----- way back in 2017! I was saving them, of course, because 2017 was the year I started with watercolor. LOL So in 2024 I'll give Arches a try.

I've discovered some really good and economical art supplies that I'll definitely be using this year. So far my staple items are Rosa Gallery watercolor paints and Fuumuui sable brushes. (They call them sable, anyway, and they're very good.) Baohong was my paper choice but now Fuumuui has 9x12 blocks of 100% cotton paper I'm going to try and I have hopes it will be as good as their brushes. There are twenty sheets to the block and 9x12 is a pretty generous size for $16.99 I think. Coming back to add that the listing on Amazon says it's a pad but reading on further you'll see that it's a block.

 

[Terri]

Holy crap! That's a cougar, all right. He's gorgeous! Most likely wandering through looking for grub.

I also really need to go through my film negatives, and get organized.

I noticed this post of mine from January. I'm glad to report that I'm actually doing this!

I've been bringing up a few sleeves (plastic pages) at a time of my negatives, and scanning many of them for possible use. The sleeves hold the negative strips in acid free binders and are kept downstairs.

There's a lot of crap, and duplicate shots, etc. But also the occasional "Why didn't I like this one? It's kinda cool" reactions, so that's encouraging. Yay. Because sitting and scanning is seriously boring work. I know I won't do it once the weather turns nice.