A new angel and some goals for the year

I finished this little lady on my blogging break. I wanted to to try an angel in the style of my gardening angels but without the flowers. She is a warm, hospitable, competent person, expert in the home arts.  Her pocket is like Mary Poppins' carpet bag, bigger inside than out. So far she has removed apples, flour, a bowl and mixing spoon. She still needs to pull out a table, a cutting board, a peeler, a knife, spices and some butter. The butter will, of course, be a cool room temperature, just right for cutting into flour for a flaky, delicate pie crust. 

I tried to draw her quickly with my Prismacolors, but I wasn't quick at all. I want to develop a lighter, more open style with the pencils--like the classic light hand with pastry crust. I did refrain from "underpainting" with hard Verithin pencils, a ridiculously time-consuming technique which involves smoothly filling in areas with a sharp, hard, colored pencil. It's like laying down a smooth, light watercolor wash, but slow. I like the soft depth of the Verithin "wash," but one of my New Year goals is to develop professional speed. I just need to start underpainting with watercolor. 

Here are some other arty goals for this year:

-to reproduce at least two new pendant designs in silver or pewter

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-to make some one of a kind pendants in wood or other materials, for fun and to get more jewelry in my shop that doesn't cost me a bunch of money up front.

-to  develop my illustration skills by placing characters in more complex settings to tell a story. I want to practice on some of Hans Christian Andersen's less known tales.

-to incorporate hand lettering into some drawings

-to sell pictures on Society Six.

-to learn more and better ways to share my work through social networks. I now have an anthemsweet  Facebook page you can access on the side of this blog, as well as a Pinterest page. 

-to get my coloring pages up, and soon. Maybe that will involve getting a little more computer savvy so I'm not always waiting for smarter people to help me....  

In a day or two I'm going to give myself a make-a-thing-a-day twelve-day challenge. I'll tell you more about it then.

Happy new year, all!