Nothing like a little Jamie Cullum lyric to brighten up the New Year with some realistic expectations. 🙂 It’s true. Just like anyone, I am guilty of resolving to better myself by doing this or that and subsequently failing miserably within the first couple weeks of January.

But this year, I’m really trying to dig into the idea of good goal-forming rather than flippant resolution-making. I have so many art projects that I want to see finished this year, but especially with a baby on the way and life in general being heavy on my mind, I know I have to make small, reachable goals if anything artistic is going to get finished this year.

One of the things I think will help is setting a goal to post my freshest artwork here at least once a week. That seems pretty doable. So here I go.

For Christmas, I had a lot of fun making presents for my family, as usual. I did both wood burning (or, more awesomely, “pyrography”) and some painting. I’ll post the wood burning in a separate post, but I’m excited to share the painting I did for my 1 1/2 year old “nephew”.

“Adventure” Preliminary Sketch

“Adventure” Close-Up

“Adventure” Full Work

Just before heading north for the holidays, I was wracking my brain for what to get him. I figured we’d just buy him a normal present, but that’s not really my style. Instead, I text his mother to see who his favorite characters were at the moment, and Pooh was the natural choice for finding a sweet quote to go along with a cute picture.

My goal was to get this piece done in one day, and I’m thrilled to say that’s just what happened. I painted the background in the morning, then the border, laid out the outline for the text and characters, and finished painting that evening. I sealed it the next day and it was done.

I’m hoping to set a lot more of these one-day goals this year. It makes me feel so accomplished. 🙂

Good luck with your 2014 goals!

– Natalie Grace