 I'm back! Hey everybody, I'm Sandy Alnach. Welcome to 2024. I have returned from my rather non-sebatical sabbatical. I am terrible at sabbaticaling because I think what you're supposed to do is unplug from the world and go read a lot of books, sit on a beach, take some naps. I don't know something other than work hard but that doesn't seem to be my role. I had two goals during the sabbatical, one of which was to finish some commissions. I had eight of them to do and you'll see some footage of a couple of them in this video as we talk about New Year's resolutions. The other thing I wanted to do was finish off my sketch-a-day sketchbook from Lake Michigan Bookpress. I'm about 10 pages from finished and I plan on finishing by next weekend and I'll tell you why in a little bit later in this video. I can't believe it took me like three years I think to finish that sketchbook but anyway I digress because I wanted to talk today a little bit about New Year's resolutions. I don't normally make them but I think I found a few that I can tolerate and maybe there'll be ones that'll help you as well so let's get started. New Year's resolutions tend to focus me on all the things that are wrong with me. Shed this thing, stop doing that thing, start the other thing that I don't want to do and I know that I'm not going to follow through with no matter how determined I am on January 1st. All of that just leads me to feeling bad about myself and go to something I want to kick to the curb so I'm focusing on six things that are going to make me happy in the life that I already have. First one is very, very simple. The other night I accidentally dropped off my slippers next to the heat register in the bathroom while I was brushing my teeth and when I woke up the next morning and went to put my slippers on they were right next to the heat register, they were toasty warm and I have been doing this every night and those toasty toes in the morning get me out of bed. I just can't wait to get my slippers on so that's a simple one. Number two is creative celebrations. I want to celebrate more holidays. On Saturday here on YouTube I'm going to be celebrating Cuddle Up Day so bring yourself a cup of coffee and we'll talk about that. I also want to do things like Flamingo my friend's yard for her birthday because she loves flamingos and that also means I need to find a good source for plastic flamingos if you've got one. I'm looking for cheap flamingos. I have celebrated silly holidays a bit throughout my life but I want to be more intentional and at the start of each month I'm going to look up what's coming and plan something maybe real life maybe online maybe YouTube who knows but I just want to make my life more fun. Number three for every art rejection that I get for every negative comment from a troll when things go wrong with my website or I send out an email and the link is the wrong one and I get everybody yelling at me I'm going to start a little list I'm going to score points every time things come at me to try to make me feel bad and every time I level up like a little video game of my very own I get to shop for art supplies and that way I will cheer on the next door who tries to bring me down I'll be one step closer to shopping. Number four is more watercolor it's my favorite medium my happy place and on my Patreon I'm going to be doing something a little different this year I'm going to be adding something new for the $10 and up folks it's going to be something that maybe some of you thought I already did one real-time watercolor painting every month including the reference photo and sketch and it'll be a narrated video so it'll be like a little watercolor subscription class the reason I haven't done a lot of teaching on my Patreon is because my patrons have told me over the years they don't have time to watch more video from me and I've instead done little short videos two to four minutes just giving them updates on things or a little sneak peek at something instead of that I'm going to switch over and start doing these watercolor sessions and that might get more of them to watch some of it and maybe it'll bring some more of you into the community as well so if you'd like something like that then join in as a $10 and up patron now there's also something for the $1 and up folks this coming weekend I am going to post as a video for them a giant flip through of my 365 page sketch a day sketchbook and I'm not posting it here on YouTube for the whole world because like there's not that many people who want to sit through quite that much of just flipping pages I'm not going to be talking through I'm just going to put some music on but if you're interested in seeing that then this coming weekend that will be there so that brings me to number five which is I want to focus on figure drawing more I have been in a life drawing group every Thursday for a few years but honestly I've noticed lately I'm not making all that much progress I'm definitely making some but I realize why that is it's because I only do it once a week after me griping at everybody else about regularly practicing you would think I'd have realized this a long time ago but yes teachers speak to yourself just this weekend I already started I did a marathon life drawing session on zoom with artists around the world and I'm going to need a serious nap to recover it started on Sunday at 2 a.m. and went till 4 p.m. my time and it was exhausting and fun and exhilarating and I am just so excited about improving my skills even just that much drawing made a difference in one day so my goal is to dive in deeper on figure drawing and see if I can finally learn how to draw hands and feet without panicking every single time and now for the big one which is number six breaking up with social media I am so done with expecting these platforms to care about art and artists and it's time for me to get more creative in reaching out to my tribe and in ways that are also going to make me happier because my work life will be easier so I recommend you pick one of these anyone you want some of you are going to want more than one first you could join my broadcast channel on instagram it's on my instagram page when you're on your phone or tablet a big link to something that's called for now creating something every day it's a direct message channel that I can send a link to my tutorials on and it will never be blocked by the algorithm it will always be in your direct messages every Tuesday and Saturday secondly you could subscribe to my newsletter last year I turned my automated blog subscription thing into a very nice newsletter but I didn't really tell anybody about it except for the subscribers well now I'm telling you so starting next week not this week but next week it's going to become a once a week newsletter on Saturdays rather than two a week so you're going to get double the content in one spot but less emails plus there's all kinds of bonus stuff in a newsletter I'm going to be throwing in subscriber specials bonus tips behind the scene things and I'm working on an e-book that's going to come out later this year and subscribers will get to see it first and now is a great time to jump on that now if you don't want email do me a favor and just tap the bell while you're here on youtube beside the subscribe button and tell it to send you all the videos not personalize but all the videos and then make sure you have your notifications turned on because then you won't miss anything and when there's a new class like the one coming up this next weekend I'll always tell you in a video so as long as you keep up with this you're going to be up to date and if you're sick to death of algorithms as well then just join our adventure it's a community of artists on mighty networks and we are just having a blast there every time I have a tutorial here on youtube I post the video there along with a backstory bit of chatter like what inspired it something I learned from it whatever plus we're going to be having monthly zooms there like we just had a super fun zoom studio session last week and it was just a blast I'm going to be creating some bonus videos that are expanding on ideas in a bunch of my classes and posting them there on art venture so there's going to be a way to learn more on that platform in 2024 now while I'm still on number five the breaking up with social media I also want to let you know I'm completely divorcing sub-stack after only being with them for a few months now they decided they have no standards they're letting literal Nazis like in the year of our lord 2024 literal Nazis can post on their site and make money from it from all that vile content so I am moving my daily sketches to my fine art site so if you'd like to subscribe to daily content and all you get is a sketch and a caption like it's not an in-depth thing but you'll get it every day when you subscribe I'll send you a list of tips also for starting your own daily sketch habit and there's a little coupon code in there for new subscribers too so all of this is going to make my life happier by simplifying my social media leave me a comment in the doobly-doo and tell me what your ideas are for happiness makers for the new year's resolution season because I could use a few more for my list things that are going to make me smile in 2024 I will see you again in a couple of days with another video and maybe you want to have a cup of coffee for that one I'm just going to recommend that you bring a cup of coffee with you all right I will see you then take care bye