Community Service - What I Learned

Last May I had the ingenious horrible naive fantastic idea of volunteering for our local government (we're a small town) and I wanted to share what I learned from my experience with anyone who is looking to volunteer and share their talents.

* It's not just about you.  Okay, this is pretty much obvious and I knew this from the get-go, but you'd be amazed how many people who either serve on council or on committees who think that whatever project their working on is all about them.  Keep your eyes open and pay attention to the facts and issues at hand, and don't let anyone else's opinions (however intoxicating they may be) influence you.

* It's not your "baby".  I admit, after pouring my heart and soul out into completely updating and revamping their website, it felt like my baby ... my personal little project.  I'd find myself double and triple checking every link, code, etc to make sure everything was working in tip top shape.  But at the end of the day, that "baby" doesn't belong to you so you may have to let it go ...

* You'll meet and make new friends!  You have to reach out and contact practically everyone in your town, so get ready to make new friends and at the least, a ton of new acquaintances!

* It will feel like a part time / full time job.  And quite honestly, it is.  You will be working on projects (depending on what you volunteer for) anywhere between 10-40 hours a week ... and all for FREE!  That's right, no pay, baby.  If you can't hack it, walk - no, run away now!  You are not going to get paid, and you have to be okay with that.  And trust me, people will try to work you like a dog whether you're getting a paycheck or not.

* It feels great reaching out to your neighbors and community.  When you hear from so many people in your community that have visited your website, tuned in to your channel or seen a flyer you made and have been able to take advantage of a great program it makes you feel proud of your work an your committee.  It's one of the best feelings to know you've helped people and that they truly appreciate it!

* Know when it's time to say goodbye ... I had to make a hard choice earlier this year and decide whether I was going to continue offering my time and services for 40 hours a week for free, or pursue a different path which would allow me to follow my heart and dream as an illustrator, plus focus on my home-based business full time.  I ultimately chose to leave my volunteer job into the capable hands of my fellow committee members, knowing I just didn't have the time or effort involved anymore to dedicate to it.

In the end, it was a great experience and I learned a ton not only about my community as well as made new friends.  There are something things I would have done differently and not committed to (had I known some of these tidbits) but in the end, I was happy with how things turned out and glad I was able to volunteer.

Be aware, I'm not discouraging anyone from volunteer work!  It's great and essential to have people who are there helping in our communities!  It's good, though, to know some important facts before committing to any projects.  I know that for me at this point in my life, spending 40 hours a week to work on various projects and not getting paid ain't gonna pay the bills, which means it's a no no for me right now.  Have you ever done volunteer work on a semi permanent basis for your community?  Share your experience in the comments section!

The Beginnings Of A Portfolio

One of my goals for 2014 is to continue creating pieces for my online illustration portfolio.  Late last year, I started working on this piece which was an assignment from an online class and I've been working on it off and on since then.  The assignment was to illustrate the story of a character named Mrs Pepper who having a party in the woods with her friends, as well as another character named Simon who, unfortunately, was not invited (I know, poor guy!).

My original version of this story is the bottom illustration, where Simon is a skunk.  When I decided to paint the piece in watercolor (the first colorings were digital), I decided to change things up and make Simon a gnome 'cause why not?  Here are both finished illustrations ...

So what do you think?  Do you prefer the Gnome or Skunk?  I feel like the gnome version of Simon makes the scene more colorful, plus a little more interesting considering he's the only non-animal in the scene.  I do have to share that the original skunk version was the more preferred with my peeps over here but I'd love to hear your opinions.

So what do you think ... skunk or gnome?

Doctor Who Love

"I will not forget one line of this. Not one day, I swear.
I will always remember when the Doctor was me."

Oh the feels!  I posted on my other blog about my Doctor Who inspired Tardis hoop in my Etsy shop and thought I'd share the Who love here as well.  You can't get enough Doctor Who after all!  But first, here are my favorite quotes from the last episode of the man with the delicate eyebrows, our #11, Mr Matt Smith ...

Clara's Gran: “I wanted everything to stop. I wanted nothing to change ever again. If he could just keep standing there, so beautiful ... That’s when I knew of course.”

The Doctor: :Trouble with Daleks is they take so long to say anything. I'll probably die of boredom before they say anything."

The Doctor: “Times change and so must I. We all change. When you think about, it we’re all different people all through our lives and that’s OK. That’s good. Gotta keep it moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be. I will not forget one line of this. Not one day. I swear. I will always remember when the Doctor was me.”

Amy: “Raggedy man. Goodnight.”

And without further ado, here is the Tardis hoop in my Etsy shop (options include with or without the St. John's seal!).

The Tardis hoop (as well as other Whovian paraphenalia) is in my Etsy shop if you're interested in having a bit of 'Who' in your house.  In the meantime, let the countdown to Season 8 begin!

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2014 FREE Printable Calendars

Happy New Year!!  Most of are in the process of printing or downloading 2014 Calendars and I thought I'd share a few gems that I've found for free online.  Check them out, they're all fantastic!

LIVE FREE : LOVE LIFE 2014 CALENDAR! by http://misstiina.com

(my favorite - I love that it has an editable box version!)

2014 Monthly Calendar by http://www.botanicalpaperworks.com

2014 Printable Calendar by http://www.elli.com

Mini 2014 Calendar by http://hellocuteness.com/

Printable Modern French Prints Calendar by http://zugalerie.blogspot.fr

“Year of Colour” Printable Calendar 2014 by http://www.designisyay.com/

Days of Fun with Printable Blank Calendars by http://www.mrprintables.com/

I'm crossing my fingers that this will be a productive year, thanks in part to one of these babies helping keeping me organized, focused and all together sane.

There are tons of other calendars out there if you search on google or even pinterest (where I found most of these).  Happy 2014, everyone!

Note: I don't own any of these awesome calendars, I just think they're stinkin' fantastic and wanted to share them!!

The Boxtrolls

I actually forgot about this little gem of a movie, but thanks to my friend Youtube, I've been given a reminder about Laika's new film The Boxtrolls.  And guys, it looks awesome ...



Seriously, the Laika team is crazy talented and I wish I could squeeze myself through the screen and just sit and watch them work all day.  I'd probably get kicked out from asking too many questions and touching too many props though - c'est la vie.  It's amazing to think it's all handmade - I love it!  And while I love me my photoshop, it's heartwarming to know that art like this a'la stop motion is NOT going away anytime soon.

We always screen movies like this before letting my daughter watch (she's very sensitive, plus she will probably never set foot in a theater until she's a teen, ha) so I may have to steal borrow my nephew and watch this with him next year.  Okay, okay, I'll allow others in the family to join as well, but they'll have to sit a row behind us and sneak in their own candy.

Btw, my favs parts of the trailer are at 0:26, 0:33 (I swear this is the face I make whenever I see something I really like), 1:11 (love that it says "hands that made" and not "company that brought you") and 1:32.

Watercolor Digital Painting Mini Demo

During my journey down the rabbit hole known as the internet, I stumbled across a video from a fellow illustrator who demonstrates how she uses Photoshop to digitally paint using a watercolor effect (can I say fellow even if I'm not published?).  Granted, it's a quick video but it's pretty cool to see how quickly and efficiently she digitally created a something pretty great in mere minutes.   Take a peek:


TracyBishop-WatercolorDigitalPainting from Tracy Bishop on Vimeo.

Neat, right?  I'll keep my eyes peeled for any other photoshop tutorial videos and post them here if I find them.  If you have any cool videos to share, feel free to add them in the comments section!  And if you have a few minutes, check out the other videos Tracy has listed on her Vimeo channel: https://vimeo.com/user5492964 , they're pretty nifty too.

Art Inspiration ala Pinterest

I'm working hard at creating a portfolio and thought I'd look for some inspiration on Pinterest on both traditional watercoloring as well as digital watercolor.  There are literally hundreds if not more illustrations that are amazing, but I tried to pick out mostly those that remind me of children's books since that's the genre I'd like to eventually publish my own books as well as work with Art Directors, Publishers, Writers, etc on their stories.  I thought I'd share a few gems that I found that were particularly inspiring ...

Do you utilize Pinterest for your own daily inspiration?  To see more of my pins, visit my Pinterest board and if you fancy, follow my boards as well.