Photographic Reference of 2013 Week 2

I've been suffering from flu so didn't really have anything to post last weekend as I stayed in and felt sorry for myself.

This week the snow was the major event and as my car doesn't manage snow very well it remained on the drive all week and I

 

walked to the office a couple of times.

I can walk virtually all the way through country lanes which were very pretty but really icy.

 

A pied wagtail visits the garden every now and then and it became a daily visitor last week arriving mid morning and staying around for an hour or two.

This afternoon we went for a drive to see if there were any red kites about. I was lucky enough to spot one sat in a tree so I took lots of photographs and then caught it just as it flew away.

At one point we had seven of them flying above the car.

Photographic Record of 2013

 

I want to keep a photograph record of 2013, updating every weekend.

The first photograph is Clinton in Scotland. He forgot his arthritis when he saw the snow. He doesn't look bad for his age, he's 11 in March.

We had a day of sunshine and showers at the beginning of the year, the second photograph is one of many rainbows that appeared that day.

The third photograph is the lane I walk down most days. I took the photograph this morning and intend to take the same view several times over the year so that I can record the changes.

New Year New Aims for 2013

Moon over Carrbridge, Scotland 31/12/12

I hope you all have a happy, peaceful and successful 2013.

I've had some time to reflect on the old year and look forward to 2013 over the last few days, especially when taking the dogs for their last outing of the day. When in Scotland we take them into a long valley well away from any habitation or lights so that on clear nights the moon and stars make a spectacular display. While they wandered about on New Years Eve I thought about my aims for 2013.

Having had a quick look back to my aims for 2012 I didn't achieve most of them. There were various real life reasons for missing some but I have to admit that a good deal of apathy also crept in and I spent a lot of time thinking rather than doing. So I'm going to move some of them to become this years aims and some I'll drop for now.

Entering Competitions/Exhibitions

 I'm taking the pressure off this one, if I have something suitable I'll enter, if not then I'm not going to rush to produce work that might be less than my best.

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.

I almost have the snow leopard ready to print so I'm going to make producing guides my main tuition aim.
In the second half of the year I will look at giving individual tuition either online or in a classroom situation.

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

Those were my aims for 2012 and will become my aims for 2013 as I feel I didn't move forward with any of them except not posting if I've nothing useful to say which meant I posted much less in 2012.

Apart from the above I want to produce a body of new work and spend more time on marketing.