Aims for 2012

I've got to the difficult bit on my hare now, finishing the legs and adding a little foliage so I thought I'd have a break and talk about my aims for the coming year.

I want to improve on the things I felt to be less successful in 2011 by doing the following:-

Entering more competitions.

I've almost finished my entry for the David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year and have started my BBC Wildlife entry.

Entering more exhibitions/shows.

Having been accepted to exhibit with Made in Yorkshire I've got an application ready to post applying for several shows with them.
In addition I'm going to attend both Patchings Art Festival and the Supreme Cat Show and I have solo show at the end of the year, six weeks at Sunnyhurst Woods visitor centre.

Continue to develop the tuition side of my business by:-

• Adding to my 'Coloured Pencil Technique' guides, the next ones available will be wolf, snow leopard and tiger, although I'm not sure which will be first. If possible I intend to make these available as ebooks for people to view on their computers, iPads etc.
• Developing an online course on how to draw an animal in coloured pencil
• Working on expanding my technique guides in to a book on drawing animals and birds in coloured pencil. I do not expect to complete this in 2012 just make a start.
• Looking into the possibility of giving classroom tuition on coloured pencil techniques

Make my blog more interesting by widening the topics discussed.

I am aware that my blog has become a place for me to share new artwork. That's fine and was one of my aims but as I've mainly drawn cats for the last few years I feel it's got predictable and boring.
I want to add interest by:-

• Highlighting competitions and news which might be of interest to animal/wildlife artists.
• Creating mini tutorials on different subjects.
• Posting more about the dogs and my travels in search of reference material.
• Talking more about why I choose to photograph or paint a particular animal or bird.
• Having a guest artist spot every month (if possible).
• Discussing more marketing topics which might be useful to others.
• Not posting if I've nothing useful to say, I see this as important to maintain interest both for me and my readers

And lastly, Create more Artwork!