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Where to Begin? My 2024 June Goals
My 2024 June Goals for Digital Art and Business.
Why Monthly Goals are Helpful
I suffer from Shiny New Thing Syndrome. Any cool new thing that you can do, I want to do. It can be hard to finish a project when I am always starting new ones. I need to stay focused. To do just that, I create goals based on themes. Each month I pick a Theme so that any goal I create or work I do, will be based on the Theme.
Having goals keeps me focused and ensures that the work I am doing will actually benefit me later. My favorite blogger is Sophia Lee from the blog, BySophiaLee.com. In her course Perfecting Blogging, made for beginner bloggers, one of her biggest pieces of advice is to think about “ROI” or Return on Investment. You don’t want to spend too much time working on things that don’t matter. Goals and Themes help me focus on things that will make me successful in my business.
June Themes
My Art Journey: Getting Started
I believe the hardest part of any journey is starting. To aid in my journey, I have chosen 4 goals that are “easy wins” that I know I can accomplish. Right now I am not looking for a challenge, I want motivation.
My Art Business: Website Development
It takes a lot of different moving parts to build a profitable business. In June, I will focus my efforts on building a website for my online Art Business. There are several reasons why every artist should have a website, but my reason is simple. I can sell my art to my audience without my direct competitors being advertised on the same page.
My June Goals
Digital Art Journey
- Learn Procreate Basics
- Take a Digital Zentangle Art Class on Skillshare
- Film 4 Study with Me Vlogs
- Blog!
Online Art Business
- Create a Subdomain for my E-commerce shop
- Choose a Theme for my Blog and Shop
- Design and Organize my website Home page
- Film 4 Work with Me Vlogs
- Blog!
Why choose these June Goals?
“You don’t set out to build a wall… you don’t start there, you say I’m gonna lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid… You do that every single day & soon you have a wall.”
Will Smith
These goals are the foundation of my journey. If I am setting out to build a wall, these bricks are the first layers and they must be solid and strong.
Art Goals
Since I am using Procreate, I want to get more familiar with the app by watching a few YouTube tutorials on the basic functions and gestures I need as a beginner. Then I can start learning. I chose Skillshare as my main platform for learning digital art. I love the access to hundreds of different teachers on a wide variety of topics. In particular, I decided to learn Zentangle Art first and Skillshare has the perfect class to learn on Procreate. I could not find this resource on YouTube and that is the greatest advantage of Skillshare. I found a teacher who has 3 classes for digital zentangle art on Skillshare. My goal is to complete one class this month.
Business goals
I think every artist should have a website. It is important for my business because everything I want to sell will tie into my digital art journey. Therefore instead of buying a brand-new domain for my art business, I opted for a subdomain. Think of a subdomain as a separate room in the same house. This makes it super easy to link my shop to my blog, drawing traffic from one to the other. It’s like having two peas in a pod—close but distinct.
A cohesive and attractive look is crucial for any website, especially when it’s about art. That’s why I want to present a simple, clean aesthetic to my audience. So, I’m going with a theme. While there are many themes available for under $100, I’m all about keeping costs low at the start. That’s why I’ll choose one of the free themes on WordPress.
First impressions matter. The homepage is likely where my audience will first interact with my site. Sure, there are plenty of other details to handle for my business, but the homepage is something I can tackle now. Designing and organizing this first page has two big benefits: it helps me plan how to present my content, and as I work on making the page function how I want, I’ll discover what I need to learn. Figuring out what I don’t know is crucial.
Every time I watch a tutorial online, the creator just says, “It’s easy,” but they don’t show the steps to get there. I don’t want to get frustrated and give up early. By identifying what I need to learn early on, I can create a plan to tackle these challenges one step at a time.
Don’t Forget to Tell Your Story…
And there you have it! These are my 2024 June Goals for my Digital Art and Business. I want to start slow, but I am taking the first steps to build a life based on my art. This leads me to my final 2 goals to Film and Blog about my journey. By recording myself and sharing it with a community, I can supported and held accountable on my quest. I won’t always be motivated to work or study. But like at school, I must think of this blog as a group project and if I don’t complete my homework I will let down the group.
So thank you for your support as I grow as an artist and I encourage you to join me as I create some wonderful masterpieces.