28 Aug 2012

The 'Pencils' bit....

I have always loved drawing and sketching.  It is something which has been a real hobby for me since a very young age and I suspect a godsend for my parents, as a guaranteed method of keeping me quiet and amused.  Although I have had a rather varied working life since finishing university, drawing has always been a constant and it was whilst I was living in London with my cousin that I accepted my first commission.  It was to do a drawing of three Springer Spaniels..... (excuse the bad photography!)




I absolutely loved doing it and would come home from work and happily spend a couple of hours each evening on it.  It made me think about taking my art a bit more seriously......however monthly London rent and the struggle to make ends meet, even on a fairly healthy and regular paycheck, made me realise that it was going to have to stay as just a part-time hobby for now.

Since getting engaged I had to think rather seriously about my career prospects and my priorities in life. As anyone who marries into the military will know you have to understand and accept the lifestyle you're entering into.  Most military families will move house every 18 months to 3 years at best, to follow the various jobs or 'postings' their army/navy/RAF devotee is given.  This means that, unless you're in the fortunate position where these postings happen to be in the same area and you can therefore just alter your commute each time, you're very unlikely to be able to stay in the same job for more than a year or two.  

Now I don't pretend to be a highly committed, career-focussed, work-a-holic person.....not in the slightest in fact!  But I do like having my own bank account and that feeling of independence it brings.  I knew I wanted to keep something of my own to pursue even if it only brought in minimal funds (a girl's got to have a way of buying the odd handbag without the husband knowing!).  I have always known that my family (and eventually, becoming a mother) were the most important things to me.  Having a job has pretty much just been a means to an end thus far, and likewise, I knew that whatever I ended up doing in the future would always come second to my family.  So I've never had to make the difficult decision of choosing between a career and being able to follow my husband.  
(In fact, in hindsight, maybe it has been a blessing in disguise that I never did find that job I really, truly loved enough to be overly concerned at the prospect of giving up!!)

So, I realised that drawing on commission could give me a flexible source of income which could move around with me from post to post and would to ensure my job fitted in around my future family life rather than the other way round.  

Who knows how productive I will be, work-wise, once the baby has arrived, but it is something I love doing and hopefully, if customers are patient enough, something I can pick up and put down as I'm able.  

Here's a link to my website for my art (luluanthistle.com).  I still have 2 weeks left until D-Day so could potentially fit in another commission in time, so get in touch!!

Here are some of my more recent commissions....




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