I have been auditing Xanadu's mentoring with Jason Horejs.  He is mentoring Carolee Clark, Oregon artist.  He has some good advice as a gallery owner.  I think you can still join in, information on his blog.  http://www.reddotblog.com/wordpress/

His advice this week is to start your painting/studio time in the morning and put off all social media until late afternoon.  Such a good idea.  I have been good in the past about checking e-mail, facebook, etc., only 3 times a day in quick intervals, then leaving browsing and goofing off until late evening.  However, lately I have really fallen back into old habits.  I have been checking e-mail while I have coffee and then getting sidetracked and look up and it is noon!

I started the new program yesterday.  I finished my donation for the Crisis Center (previous post) and today I packed it up and got a new project started.  I hope I can keep this going for a while.  I can make so much progress.

No e-mail or any social media suffered by waiting until afternoon.  Ha.

I also sketched while having my morning coffee and started Scavenger Hunt 333 which  started on October 14.  Sketching is a good warm up for my studio time and gets my brain working toward painting.

I sketched in my Canson sketchbook with a Prismacolor Premier 03, a Micron 01 and added a bit of colored pencil on the last ones today.  I sketch freehand and quickly to practice looking and putting down a mark.  If you see well, you mark well.  When I get lazy, I get poor perspective, check my stool below.

Number 1, step stool - the red and chrome stool.  Gene took the back off and now it is much easier to use.
Number 2, sweets - M & M's
Number 3, clear container - the M & M jar

Number 4, whole tree - the tree out back that I still haven't been near enough to see if it is one tree (one stump) or two trees.  How long have we lived here??
Number 5, mushrooms - some wild ones growing in the yard.  They were very big and open.  Wonder if they are edible??  I'm not checking!

Number 6, ribbon

Number 7 map - maps from the car.  The Texas map gets so much use, even with GPS.  There are so many roads that I usually pick a route before I turn on the GPS and then see if it is going my way.  We have driven in the area here and try to vary our routes!  We pick up a new Texas map at the welcome centers.  Guess where the other maps are from?