Monday, January 7, 2013

Happy New Year!!


Well another year has come and gone; 2012 was a great! The highlight of the year was the birth of my son in April and it seems like since then time started going in fast forward. My son will be 1 in a few months and my daughter is turning 6 in August.

My second highlight: Last September I started working towards becoming a Children's Illustrator. Illustration is something I've always been interested in, but felt that I just didn't have the time to devote to it. I thought it was something I could get into after I retired. But I just couldn't wait! I had an ever growing passion to do something more with my life.

Then I googled "How to become an illustrator"… Boom! First hit was Holli Conger's blog "Becoming an Illustrator". Talk about inspirational! Here was this woman with a full time job and a new baby trying to do the same thing! She found the time to work on her portfolio, market her work and deal with everything else that comes along with being a mother. I had to find a way too…

So I did.  When the kids go to bed I stay up for 3-4 hours working on my portfolio. I wake up early to create and update my website. I use my lunchtime at work to write blog posts (I'm doing that right now in fact.)

It has been 4 months now since I made that decision. I now have a Facebook pageTwitter Feed (with over a hundred followers, yay!), website, and blog. Not too bad for someone who only has about 20 hrs a week to work on them.

2013 here I come!

I completely understand that my road is a very long one. I don't have as much time as I'd like to work on my portfolio or update my website. I need to make postcards and marketing materials to get my name out there. It may take longer than a year to get work, but I'm in this for the long haul.

My goals for 2013:
Strenghthen my brand - Design a logo, redesign my website, redesign my blog
Join SCBWI (Doing this today!)
Go to Regional SCBWI in Syracuse (planning for March)
Save money to go to the Winter or Summer International SCBWI in 2014 (NYC or LA)
Complete a consultation with Holli Conger (planning for April/May)
Strenghen my portfolio (currently working on this…OK, always working on this)
With a stronger portfolio I'll join the Children's Illustrator.com portfolio site
And if I'm really ambitious, I'll create an Etsy site. (This is really an extra goal so if I don't get to it, it'll be OK)

Well, I've got an exciting year ahead of me! I guess I'd better get to work…

What do you have planned for the new year?? New projects? New resolutions?
I'm always happy to hear from you!!