DIY Arts Business Seminar Series: Tax Basics for Artists & Musicians

Taxes.
I know absolutely nothing about it. For this reason it is probably the moment for me to start having a look of what they are. How they works. Why they exists. And who knows what else is hidden behind this word...
That's why I've decided to go to this free(!) seminar about tax for artists.

I'm not very enthusiastic about spending two hours listening about this stuff but as a freelance it's good to now something about where part of your money goes.

So, if you're from Melbourne come along on Thursday 21th July.

This is the LINK where you can order your free tickets

The flying turtle

It's a while now that I'm working on this one. Actually this is has been just an excuse to experiment with new techniques.
I'm not 100% satisfied because my initial idea was different. But it has been a good exercise. Also, I want to take the chance to use this illustration as my entry for this week IF theme "Launch"... I guess it suits!

ABC alphabet sneak peek

One of the things I'd like to do is children's illustrations. They are so involving and colorful that attract me like a bee to a flower.
So I decided that I'll start off drawing an animal alphabet for kids...
It's not finished yet, this is just a sneak peak of some of my favourite. I'm planning to add some lettering as well just to make everything more fun!
And the best part of this project is that I'm really enjoying myself doing it! Hurray!!:D

At the train station

A couple of months ago I did this drawing. Today I colored it. I'm trying to stick to first rule to success...




Have a nice Sunday!

A3 print show 2012

Last night I went to the A3 print show at Northcote Town Hall organized by Illustrators Australia which I joined recently. So far it seems such a nice community with great people and great illustrators. Also, thanks to events they organize, I finally have the possibility to share with others live, not just thought a screen... which it is awesome.

Anyway, the show. It was full of people (some of my teachers too!) and some of the illustrations were really amazing. I really had a good time talking with such nice people. Here is some photos I quickly took with the iphone...






(it looks empty because I took them at the end of the evening... it was actually quite crowded the whole time before)

WIWT - the competition

A couple of weeks ago the popular Gemma Correl's project What I Wore Today has launched a competition: some drawings will be chosen to be published in the WIWT book.
This is my entry



Go here to see the flyer and the specs.
You have time until 24th June. Good luck and hppy drawings!

Self portrait

I did a self portrait this morning. Although I don't have a proper website yet, I need a picture of me to put in the About section when I'll have one... hope soon!

Opposites attract

What's your favourite complement colours?

1st rule to success

Some time ago, while I was listening to some EFII podcasts, this idea popped into my mind.

They were talking about the importance of finish whatever project you've started. And it could sound such an obvious thing to say, but it's actually not. Have you ever found yourself starting 200 hundred projects at once but then finish only 2 of them? To me it happens all the time.
Therefore I've decided to make a resolution and finish every project I will do in the future.

So today after lunch I did this. And I finished it!!:)

The house on the edge of the world

I'm planning to build my website and last night I tried to come up with something to put on the home page. I started to draw stuff but in the end I haven't come up with anything yet...
but I did this instead.

Bondoora Homestead exhibition

Lately I've been very busy with school and I hadn't any time to update the blog. Anyway, last week I had my first Australian exhibition (yay me!) at Bondoora Homestead in Melbourne.


It was a very funny one because I didn't know nothing about it until two days earlier. What happened it was my drawing teacher proposed some of my class' botanical drawings we did some time ago and a couple of my classmates' and mine as well have been chosen.

Anyway, in the end I went there and my drawing was framed and hanged on the wall (cool!) amongst some gorgeous others (why my stuff look always inferior to me? I can't help myself having this complex) and I didn't have to lift a finger. Great.





And this is how it went my first Australian exhibition.

Weekend sketches

Basically I've spent the whole weekend (Friday night included) sketching animals, people and hands.
Fun!

New projects

I'm very busy with school, lately. Next week will be portfolio due week, so basically i have to finish off every project still uncompleted.
In the last two days I finish two different project, both about illustration combined with design... the first one is an even flyer, second one a movie poster from the '80. Well, I hope to get a good mark after all:)

Good books to have

Last week I got a parcel in the mail with these inside



I bought them from Amazon since there was a wonderful free shipping offer to Australia, otherwise I never buy from it... shipping is too expensive (when the hell are they going to make an australian version of it??). Anyway. I got these books that I fancied for a while and I'm so happy that I finally bought them because, of course, they're amazing! Especially the Guild handbook which is full of info about anything related to the illustration market. Before, I thought it was just a guide for pricing, instead it's an exhaustive source about reps, contracts, legal issues, trade customs, dos and don't in every kind of situation, and so much more.

"Artist's and Graphics designer's market" is instead a very long list of names and contact details of art buyer you can contact to expand your market.
I haven't given it a proper look yet but it looks a really good tool for enhance your list of possible clients and find exactly the ones appropriate for you, since the book also give tons of info about each single company and want they are looking for.
The only downside is that it just covers the United States market. There's also another version of it specialized in the children's book market only... maybe next year I'll buy that too.

So, there are my first impressions about these books. Feel free to share yours!