SoulLily's avatar

SoulLily

Artist. Writer. Dancer. Weirdo.
21 Watchers163 Deviations
12.7K
Pageviews

Check-in

2 min read
Y'all, I am the absolute fucking worst at keeping promises, specifically those I make to myself. I should be forbidden from making resolutions. I never keep them, except for that one time in 2010 (dear lord was it really that long ago?), but experience has since taught me that that was more of an outlier than an omen of productivity to come.

So what am I doing here? Basically just griping about my lack of self-discipline, in an exercise truly demonstrative of the problem considering what I really ought to be doing right now is writing a paper. I feel like there's a literary term for this situation, but it escapes me and to look it up would clearly be procrastinating.

Right, well, as a sort of quarterly art goal check-in, I'll note the following:
  1. Monthly gallery updates obviously haven't been happening, so that one's shot.
  2. Sketchbook Sunday has been! I think I've missed five or six so far, but I've made them all up later in the week and the date stands, so we're on track.
  3. I honestly completely forgot about the portrait thing. I've done a lot of sketches of people, but no quality finished products - the closest I've gotten so far is an experimental pencil pop-art sketch of Hannah Arendt, which is technically finished but not realism; consequently I'm not yet sure if it counts. Apart from that I've been sketching... OCs, I guess? Fairly realistic faces but not anyone in particular, and I'm undecided on their standing for this tally as well.
Re: the last point, I am going (against all reason, as a creature of perennial naive optimism desperately hopeful she will accomplish something and meet a goal some day despite all lived experience suggesting the contrary) to set a short-term goal: before the end of the summer, I will finish both the Arendt portrait I've been working on since last summer and the Catherine Tate portrait I'd started even before that and now haven't touched in probably over a year. I AM GOING TO FINISH WHAT I STARTED GOD DAMNIT.

Hopefully that includes this paper. Right then - back to work!
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Happy 2014, dA! :party:

As usual, I'm here to take my annual oath to do better than the year before. This post is more a contract with myself than anything, but here's my list of art-related resolutions and other goals for 2014.

Resolutions:


1) Update my gallery at least once a month (again).
I did it once before and I can do it again. Ideally this will urge me to create and, perhaps more importantly, to actually complete things as opposed to starting stuff and then letting it sit around unfinished for eons (*cough* still not done that Catherine Tate portrait *cough*). 

2) Weekly sketchbook trade with Esespi
(Yes I'm enlisting you in one of my resolutions, you have no say in the matter :P) We've been doing this for a while already but I'd like to keep the habit going - accountability is helpful! We show each other a page in our sketchbooks every Sunday to prove we've been doing stuff and to encourage each other in our art. Realistically we'll probably slack a little here and there, but as long as it remains a thing/doesn't fade out of existence entirely, I'll be pleased. :meow:

3) Complete at least 10 traditional portraits.
Pretty much exactly what it says on the tin... I want to complete at least 10 traditional portraits in 2014, hopefully using a variety of materials and not just pencil. I feel like I'm getting more comfortable with this skill and I want to develop it more and do different things with it - take more risks with style and permanent lines. Ideally this will push me to explore a bit (and, again, to finish things).

Other goals:

  • Use colour more! Especially in portraits, I want to improve my understanding of colour.
  • Start learning digital painting. Like properly learning, not just messing around and hoping for success. Do a few tutorials.
  • Improve my watercolour abilities and learn/explore new techniques with watercolour pencils.
  • Go on a photography expedition around my city, actually bringing my Canon instead of just using my phone.
  • Diversify portraits - practice male faces, as well as different ages and skin tones.
So that's my list for now, though I'm sure other things will come to mind along the way. The first three are the main things to focus on, since they're more specifically measurable and things I want to be able to check off my list at the end of the year. Wish me luck :meow:
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In

Ahahahaaa...

2 min read
Remember when I said I was going to update once a month again? Yeeeeeah, that went well.

It's not that I haven't been doing anything; I've just not finished anything in a while. Still working (extremely slowly) on that one charcoal portrait, and I'm glad that I'm making progress on that (I was terrified to touch it for a while because I didn't know how to approach the hair). Also I've been playing around with new media and trying not to be as hard on myself when trying new things. So I've been doing stuff, but most of it is free sketching that isn't really worth posting here.

There's a Tim Hortons cup on the roof outside my window... how even...

ANYWAY. Not that anyone is really watching this gallery, but I am still making things, and hopefully they will find their way here sometime soon. I need to discipline myself to actually finish stuff... Yet here I am starting a new project as we speak... heh. ^^; Welp, maybe that'll get done more quickly than that portrait.

Anyway I'll quit rambling now. Bye!
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
I'm recycling my 2010 New Year's resolution and promising myself that in 2013 I will update my gallery at least once a month with a piece completed in that month. I've barely updated at all in the past year and that bothers me, not so much because of the art summaries like last time, but because I've also not been creating much, and I'm not okay with that. So yes, at least one piece a month this year!

In all honesty, I already have doubts about my ability to make good on this a second time, largely because I want to focus seriously on school as well, but I'm going to try anyway. Hopefully this year I'll be able to pursue both interests to a reasonable extent.

So yeah. That's my goal for 2013! Not making a list of secondary stuff because I feel like keeping to this one will be enough of a challenge given how I've been feeling lately. Wish me luck?
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
I resisted doing it for the longest time, but I kinda want to share the occasional good piece over there, so there you go. :3
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Featured

Check-in by SoulLily, journal

And so it begins. by SoulLily, journal

Ahahahaaa... by SoulLily, journal

Alright guys, I'm doing it again. by SoulLily, journal

Linked to Tumblr! by SoulLily, journal