Tuesday, 17 June 2008

Up and down and forward.

Yesterday I spent some time with my good friend Sarah Stokes, an artist from Ellesmere in Shropshire, and we talked about life, work and Keeping On Keeping On.  I must admit I was feeling glum after receiving yet another rejection letter from an agency (admittedly it wasn't personal, they just weren't taking on any more artists) and wondering if I was missing something in my search for work.

Sarah has an incredibly upbeat approach to life and work and she gave me a quite long and involved pep-talk and ran through some practical options which I might follow up, including dragging me off to Ellesmere where a new shop selling local artwork has opened (well, actually it was shut but she made her point.)

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I am going to add another angle to my approach to finding commercial work.  Phase one of which is  exploring the cost of printing greetings cards in short runs.  I plan to focus on the climbing and kayaking & canoeing images I am developing and marketing them to some of the outdoor activity centres locally.  I will also develop a stock of nicely printed images which I will have framed and make available for local coffee shop galleries etc.

I am doubtful that these will be financially rewarding but it will be nice to have a definite goal to focus on whilst pursuing an orthodox illustration career (if such a thing exists!)

Further bulletins as events warrant.

P.

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