New Year’s Resolutions

Artistic Resolutions?

Tis the season for family gatherings, scrumptious feasts, trees, lights, gifts, and resolutions. And in fact, talk of resolutions have already started buzzing like bees at a honey bear’s picnic. The top two resolutions over the years have consistently been weight loss and improving health. Getting finances in order has also consistently been among the top five. One popular resolution, ironically enough, has been to not make any resolutions. But what about all of you creative types out there?

2015 Nielsen Rating Top Ten New Year’s Resolutions

One of 2015 Nielsen top ten New Year’s resolutions is to learn something new or to pick up a new hobby, which I suppose could count for us artists. But I’m talking about specifics. Have any of you made any specific artistic resolutions? Are you making it a point to do something new in 2017? Or maybe not necessarily starting something new, but perhaps focusing on improving a specific aspect of your art?

Personally, my list is long. So to keep things manageable, I’m tackling only two. Well, maybe it’s one and a half. The main one is to get through an online course on human figure drawing. The other is more of an expansion of my animal portrait drawing by adding color into the mix and having them still appear photorealistic.

Perhaps your resolution for 2017 is to double the traffic to your social media.

Perhaps your resolution is similar. Or maybe it’s not related to your skills, but is focused more on the business aspect of your art. Perhaps your goal is to double your income from art sales. Maybe it’s to double traffic to your art blog or website. Or maybe your goal is to donate the proceeds of some of your work to a charitable cause. Some of you might even have the goal of teaching whatever your specialty is to seniors, at risk youth, or the disabled.

Or perhaps your resolution involves giving the gift of your time and expertise.

Whatever the case may be, I don’t think resolutions are completely pointless. I think if taken realistically, thoughtfully, allowing for mistakes, and with a grain of salt, resolutions can be helpful and beneficial. They give you focus for the new year in a positive direction. You might not achieve one hundred percent of what you set out to do, but isn’t some progress in that direction better than none at all?

So what do you resolve for 2017? Comment and let us know.

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Further Reading:

Artistic Resolutions