Four Investments to Jumpstart 2024
The word that is guiding my art journey this year is all about growth. I spent a lot of 2023 saying, “I will do X when...” I want to develop new skills, learn new technologies, spend more time practicing, and meet people who are further along in their art journeys than me. Four investments that were top of mind as the Black Friday sales began back in November were:
Laptop
Adobe Creative Suite
Scanner
Sketchbooks
Now before I dive into the particulars, I know that I have a lot of privilege to invest in these items. I’m lucky that I have a full time job and that I have disposable income to spend. I also know that I need a little push sometimes. Could I have bought a used laptop, sure. Could I have used the scanner at the library, probably. But I also know that investing in these items will (I hope) give me the little push I need to do the work and stop just talking about it.
Laptop
This one was huge for me. I haven’t had my own laptop since literally undergrad. We are lucky to have a desktop at home, but honestly in the last year as I was writing more blogs, taking more photographs, creating more content, our desktop just wasn’t cutting it anymore. I also knew that I wanted to invest in Adobe Creative Suite and our desktop wasn’t going to have the processing power to handle working on the big files I was anticipating. I knew I didn’t just want any computer. I wanted a Mac (my first). I wanted a laptop. I wanted a computer that was going to have the processing power and storage to do all the things I wanted and the ability to work from anywhere. That meant a MacBook Pro and not the base model. I stressed about making this investment. I went back and forth about whether I really needed it or I just wanted it. I literally spent hours on the computer weighing the options and I went to the Apple store twice to talk to somebody and have them answer all of my questions. It felt like a really big deal. I decided to finally suck it up and hit buy because:
I chose a MacBook Pro with one terabyte of storage.
I had the money in the bank. That money was originally going to be for a new bike, but at this moment in time, this project feels more important.
I need a little bit of pressure. You can only day dream so long for what is possible, eventually you need to take action.
I knew that my own laptop would make my life a lot easier from a work perspective. No more negotiating who is using the computer, no more moving files back and forth between different machines (mainly my phone and the desktop). I also knew that it would force me to do some of the things I've just been talking about, like getting Adobe or learning how to make art prints. And once I got over the sticker shock, I’m so excited about my laptop. It’s beautiful and it's an amazingly powerful machine. I already love working away on it.
Adobe Creative Suite
I have dabbled in Adobe products since college. I know the basics with Photoshop. I’ve played with Illustrator and InDesign. For the kind of work I want to do, expertise in Adobe products is not a requirement, but it is a huge plus. These programs are the industry standard and even beyond working on my art business, these are hard skills that can only help my resume. My old CD version of Photoshop was only going to get me so far. I knew that I wanted to invest in Adobe Creative Suite back in Fall 2022, but I wasn’t ready to make the investment at that time and I wasn’t sure how I would hold myself accountable to actually learn the softwares. So I gave myself a year to think about it and to see how much I really wanted it. I also knew that if I decided I did want to make an investment, Black Friday 2023 would be the best time to do it, when I knew I could get the full suite for 50% off for my first year (I love a discount). Once I had my laptop in hand, I knew that I had the machine that could handle those programs and work with large files. I also have two specific courses I’m planning to take that will teach me how to use some programs in detail. Art to Print will teach me how to use Photoshop and Lightroom to scan and edit my watercolor paintings for a variety of uses including art prints. Immersion, which I plan to take in March, is a deep dive into how to use Illustrator. I’m even debating another course in the fall which is even more focused on Photoshop. This is a year of growth, and an important part of that for me is learning these softwares so that I know the possibilities of what I can do with my art and to have the expertise to execute my vision. The clock is also now ticking. Now that I have signed up for an annual subscription, it’s time to do the work.
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Scanner
I chose an Epson Perfection V600 scanner, which was recommend for Art to Print.
This investment was specifically to complete the Art to Print course. There is only so far you can go with selling your original art for most artists, unless you are one of those crazy successful people that makes thousands of dollars on a painting. Alas, that is not me. But learning how to digitize my art and make art prints is something that I have thought about for a while. I thought about having somebody else scan my work, or using the equipment available at the library, but after (over)thinking about it, I decided that if I was serious, this is something I should consider buying. So again when Black Friday rolled around, I found my coupon and went to OfficeMax and walked out with a scanner. She is a beauty and we are just starting to get to know each other.
Sketchbooks
I chose a Strathmore and an Etchr watercolor sketchbooks, both are about letter sized and have cold press watercolor paper.
Now this is the least expensive of my investments to start the year, but they might be the most important. One thing I noticed as I was reflecting on 2023 was the gap between what I was hoping to accomplish with my painting and how the painting actually turned out. For example, I think I suck at painting skies. If they turn out ok, I’m not sure how I did it. I also feel like all of my rocks look the same in terms of their texture. This year I want to spend more time learning and practicing techniques rather than just completing finished paintings. Enter in the sketchbooks. I want to spend more time experimenting with ideas, following tutorials, practicing drawing, and playing with different materials. I want to spend more time learning and my sketchbooks are how I’m hoping to lean into that in 2024, if only I can get past the blank page scaries and start.