It’s been an interesting few days. I’ve decided I have to pare down my commitments because frankly one cannot burn the candle at both ends and not expect to burn out. I’m up to my ears in stuff to do and only enough time to complete perhaps up to waist height. It’s frustrating to realize that I CAN’T do everything I want to do and that I #1 must find a pace for it and #2 prioritize so that I can #3 get it all done.  Essentially what I’m doing is spreading out all the things I WANT to do across time. It’s not so much  paring down as a spreading out.

So that being said (written) last night I wrote down all my current commitments and prioritized them, in order of NEED and WANT to get done. As I thought about each item, some moved closer to the top of my list, hello I want/need to do a few journal flip throughs and get them up on YouTube.  But my top 3 commitments that never wavered were as follows: #1 Art Show stuff (get those essays in!) #2 Classes #3 Zine/Aj Ning. Everything else comes slightly behind.

In terms of classes, I have a few announcements. First I’m developing a Old Skool Art: Acrylics 101 class. This is designed to be for art journalers who have never painted before, we’ll talk about paint, mediums, brushes and using acrylic in your art journal and with mixed media. It will be a 6 week class (instead of 8) because I found that after the 4 week mark people were less engaged. So I’ll pack 8 to 10 weeks of solid art instruction into 6 weeks of class. This means longer PDF and going from 1 hour long live classes to 1.5 hour long classes. In all you’ll be getting more bang for your buck and in a more streamlined format. It’s a win all around. This class will rock. I’ve already got the course outline done, materials list and 90% of the class written (longhand) and simply need to type up the many pages of writing. I’m looking at starting registration in February and then starting class in March.

Second on the classes front is a self study program. I’ve decided to open up OSA: Drawing to self study. This means that I’ll open up enrollment for the class and allow people in again. This will start sometimes this month, it would make a fantastic Christmas Gift for yourself; or a great way to ring in the New Year.

Third and finally for this post, I feel that the Old Skool Art series doesn’t encompasss everything I want to do with my classes. It doesn’t leave room for much to do with art journaling, given that it’s all about the basics and learning how to use particular materials. You know what I mean? So I’m developing a series of classes that are all about art journaling and keeping and making an art habit. And I’m calling it that, Art Habit. I’ve got a whole series of writing to go along with this, I may do a book or PDF download of the writing. Anyway Art Habit will be a publication of some nature as well as a related series of art classes centered around art journaling and keeping an art habit alive.

So my next post will deal with my OTHER 9 billion commitments.