Isabel's Blog

Tag: goals

Being better

August 8, 2014 / / 0 Comments

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I like that this blog reminds me of things I want to improve about my self and my life.

  1. Last weekend Janice invited us to her friend’s cottage and I ate literally two full bags of Kettle chips over two days (plus regular meals). Yesterday I didn’t eat a single fruit or vegetable. So I started a food journal.
  2. A friend sent me this link yesterday about going seven days without complaining. So I’m trying to complain and shit-talk less (and maybe not at all!). Today is the first day, and so far, NO COMPLAINTS! Will report back on whether or not I last the full week.
  3. I need to get back to exercising. I stopped going to yoga and basically haven’t exercised since. Dave and I went running once, more than two weeks ago, and it was so painful to even do 2k. Then I had a dessert to reward myself. Soooo… back to planks and pushups and cardio. At least five times a week.

(The illustration above is a spot I did for work, for one of our magazine clients. It’s kind of ironic because the dude is so happy and he looks like Dave, but IRL Dave fell off his bike and broke his arm in two places and is currently in a sling and wrist cast)

Back to the drawing board

August 2, 2014 / / 1 Comment

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Last week I bought How to be an illustrator by Darrel Rees. I also spoke to my boss about my plan to move to Hong Kong in the fall. It’s a loose plan, but it’s something that Dave and I have been wanting to do for over a year now. It’s scary but I’m not that young anymore, so there’s no time to waste. If I want to do something like move to the other side of the planet and try to make be a freelance illustrator, it is now or never!

I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but just from the first few chapters a few things have already dawn on me:

My own style
I kinda  already knew this but I think I need a more distinct style. My illustrations could also do with a little more depth, more layers, more textures. I want to experiment a bit. Another thing is that if I want to do editorial style illustration eventually, I’m gonna have to be more clever. Humph.

Other things I want to work on
Since we’re on the topic, I think I need to work more on ideation and lateral thinking. I don’t think I’m good enough at taking different sources of inspiration and combining them. I’m actually best at the opposite: taking a big ol’ mess and straightening it out into orderly little piles.

The biggest dealbreaker might be my lack of self motivation, will-power and self discipline. I’m not sure how I’ll be able to wake up each morning at a decent time and just WORK. The ritual of commuting, even if it is a short walk or bike ride makes me feel purposeful. If I’m working from home, I might just spend the whole day watching TV and eating chips.

OR! The other thing I’m worried about is the loneliness of working by myself. I get so lonely! I like talking to people! I need other people! I don’t know what to do about this one.

Disadvantages
Besides being lonely, I am also disadvantaged because I don’t know any illustrators, I didn’t go to an illustration program, and I don’t have any friends in the illustration industry. I have no illustration network.

Advantages(?)
But I do have some design friends, so hopefully that will be something. Also I am an art director, so I know what it’s like to hire and commission illustration. I know what it’s like to work with illustrators and I know what I enjoy when I work with them. I also know how annoying it is dealing with difficult illustrators and how I like working again with the pleasant ones.I know what good sketches look like.  I can tell the difference between the pros and sloppier artists.

Anyhoo, I guess I still have time to figure these things out. I just have to keep on drawing and make the time to work on my portfolio. Tomorrow we’re going to a cottage to spend the rest of the long weekend with our friend Janice, because it’s her birthday! Huzzah!

Nothing worth having comes easy

July 23, 2014 / / 1 Comment

I haven’t been blogging much lately because I’ve fallen back into my old patterns of definitely not getting things done. Which is bad and needs to change. There are so many things in my life that I want to do before I die, but the change required to accomplish these things terrifies me.

I’m scared I’ll be making a mistake and/or scared that I’ll fail. But even when I think about potential worst-case scenarios, I know rationally that things really aren’t that bad, because so far in my life I’ve been extremely lucky and have had very fortunate circumstances.

One of my biggest work-life hurdles is that I get discouraged easily. When things get hard or don’t turn out the way I want or expect them to, I shut down and give up. Maybe because I am lazy, or maybe because I’m insecure, but either way I need to learn to work harder, because nothing worth having comes easy. Whether it’s a job, career, a project, or an opportunity, if I give up, I definitely will not be successful.

So, this is just a little reminder to myself: work harder, don’t give up!

Junk food

May 20, 2014 / / 0 Comments

isabelfoo-junkfood

Why everything that’s supposed to be bad make me feel so good? Everything they told me not to is exactly what I would.

Once, I read an Uberfact that listed the top foods that give people cancer. It was basically a list of (junk) food that I love most in life. Sigh.

I’ve been too distracted and/or unmotivated to do the junk I set out to do at the beginning of the year. I find I’m most productive when I’m happy, which is rarely, which in turn sucks (I did do the food icons above in a short-lived moment of quasi-contentment).

Though in this past week, despite living in a shitstorm of personal drama (much of which I brought on myself), I’ve come to terms that things in my life need to change, including Getting Things Done (GTD), because damn it, it’s almost June and I can’t live like this anymore (GTFO).

Work it bitch! (goals, due prior to September 2014)

  1. Illustration portfolio: update website to feature projects that I could submit to magazines, websites, for (small) freelance spot illustrations
  2. Stationery illustration: design and illustrate a few cards for my friend Sam’s business, Have & Hold Design
  3. Design portfolio: eventually update my design portfolio to include recent projects, in case I need to find a new job at some point

I’ll write a post about my actionable items later. I think just writing these things down and prioritizing them is a good step. I decided this after a coffee with my friend Ed on Sunday. He made me realize I need to figure out how to present my work better. At first I just wanted to curl into a ball and cry about how I’m a shit designer/illustrator, but I know I just gotta put in the work and be better. I just have to figure out how to take a step back and actually do this.

Free your mind

April 13, 2014 / / 0 Comments

IsabelFoo-blog-officedesk

An old coworker from my first real job used to take home dummy books we’d get as paper samples for his kids. I started doing this too, for my niece(s). Tonight the older one was colouring in one of the blank hardbound books. She looked up at me and said “I want to draw something, but I don’t know what to draw!” which was funny because that’s exactly how I feel most days. Being creative is hard! I never really know what to draw. I told her to draw her favourite things, which is sorta what I do myself. I kinda wonder what other people do to get over creative block.

I didn’t go to illustration school. I’ve just always loved drawing (thanks to my sister, mother of the munchkins AKA the nieces). But now with my “goal” of doing “real” illustration work, I’m wondering if I should do something to be more legit? Should I take classes? Or at least read a book? Do I need this, or can I just send out my website when I’m ready? Advice?

Above is a work in progress from this past weekend. It’s very meta, as you can see.

Love life

April 4, 2014 / / 0 Comments

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I saw this in a book at Working Title in Yorkville. Our boss had taken me and B to some artsy book stores in January this year to get inspiration for the art books we’d be working on in the upcoming months. I’m usually not crazy about inspirational quotes but I think these are some pretty good tenets for living a good life.

Being aimless, having goals

April 1, 2014 / / 0 Comments

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It’s April already. I feel like I’ve frittered the first quarter of the year away because I haven’t done the things I set out to do at the beginning of the year.

One of my goals was to produce an illustration portfolio with the wishful intent 😛 to do spot illustrations and possibly editorial illustrations for big magazines. I haven’t really done that, but I have done some fun little things for my aforementioned side project. Another side project I’ve been working on the last two weeks is with my friend Danbo, these dumpling illustrations. Well, eventually they will be a series of different kinds of dumplings. So far I’ve just got this one, of Shanghai soup dumplings. Dan’s going to code a micro-site because he wanted to practice his skillz.

I think the biggest hurdle is doing a BIG illustration. Something epic! The dumplings series will help, so instead of blogging about it I’mma go draw some pierogi and ravioli.

PEACE!

PS: I’m not crazy about the spoon being all floaty like that, but damn it, I don’t want to draw a hand!

 

Looking back

February 27, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Machu Picchu

At the end of 2013, my husband Dave and I were in Hong Kong visiting my family. I was having a lot of anxiety about the new year and my upcoming thirtieth birthday. Now it’s February and birthdays have come and gone, and I did not spend the last day of my twenties clinging to the guardrail of my condo balcony crying. Instead I spent it like a grown-up: wearing a leopard print Snuggie at work and later eating Japanese food with my closest friends.

So I guess the first part of this year hasn’t been as scary horrible as I feared. But I still think 2014 will be a year of big change.

I was going to review my 2013, but I’d stopped writing—the longest I’ve gone since I first started keeping a blog when I was thirteen and had discovered what the internet was—so maybe that says enough about how I felt about last year. But as part of my 2014 resolutions (see next post), I plan to be more positive and make healthy choices for myself.

Here were the highlights of my 2013:

  • I’m still at the graphic design studio I’ve been at since November 2011. The book I’d been working on since I started here finally went to print in December! It is exciting to hold a book you worked on in your hands
  • I started exercising in earnest for the first time in my life (sadly, not exaggerating). This was in preparation for a trip to Peru where my childhood friend GY, his friend LK, LK’s sister, Dave and I hiked the four-day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. And I did not die. In fact, we hiked the trail in three days, and got to see the Machu Picchu ruins at sunset and sunrise. Also not exaggerating when I say the sights were stunning(!) and the whole thing was a trip of a lifetime
  • Also spent a few days in May in Chicago (Hi Janice!), August in Montreal, and December in New York City. We spent Christmas in Hong Kong and Taiwan

Other notes:

  • As you might have noticed with our jet-set lifestyle, we spent a bit too much money last year. 2013 was the year of YOLO-ing too hard. Will need to be more responsible in 2014. Though our financial advisor tells us that we are doing pretty good in the liquid assets department
  • I started off the year with my hair down to my midriff. Now it’s above my chin. Snip snip, chop chop!
  • In April, I won a free ticket to FITC from RGD. I vowed to step outside my comfort zone and talk to at least one person. Now I have a new friend
  • My obsession with donuts
  • Went to dozens of Jays games
  • My ex-boyfriend and I are buds again (which makes me happy)
  • I can do one pull-up
  • My coworker and I started a side project, though we have yet to finish anything