I've never been one for New Years Resolutions, either making or completing them (on the few occasions when I attempted them). But there are a lot of things I'd like to accomplish in the coming months. I've got a good feeling about 2010, so I thought for once I'd try listing a bunch of "goals" or "plans" and see how many of them actually happen. So....

I want to have at least one comic launched, with it's own website and updated regularly. I've got a lot of ideas that have just been kicking around in my head - I keep saying I'm going to do something with them, and I just need to do it.

I'm planning on attending at least 2 conventions this year, as an artist: Emerald City ComiCon in Seattle and the local Spokane ComiCon. I'll be at both with my fellow Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild members.

I've been wanting to get back into miniature gaming for a while. I've played off and on since I was in high school (about 15 years ago), and Jenny has played for close to 10 years as well. But neither of us have really done anything with the hobby for the last 4-5 years. So I want to re-learn Warhammer and start playing again, as well as have a completely painted playable army by the end of the year.

Holidays always seem to sneak up on us - and as much as I love them and want to enjoy them, it always ends up being stressful because we wait till the last minute to do everything. So this year I want to get more stuff done ahead of time - buying presents, decorating and sending out Christmas cards.

And, assuming I get enough pre-holiday stuff out of the way, I want to attempt NaNoWriMo (the National Novel Writing Month) again in November. And hopefully I'll actually finish it, as well as...

Finish the 24 Hour Comic Book Challenge. I attempted it this year, made it to 17 pages (of the 24 page goal) and had an awesomely fun time. And this year I want to make it all the way to 24 pages.

And in the realm of art & writing, I've got a lot of other various things I'd like to get done. I've got some long overdue commissions to take care of, an idea for a miniatures game that might become reality and a super-secret collaborative comic book to work on. Besides those things, I just need to draw & write something every day and actually get better.

Honestly, there's probably a lot of goals, plans and pseudo-resolutions that I'm forgetting, but this is a good start. I hope 2010 works out for the best for everyone out there (including me, of course).

Oh, and along with drawing something every day, I also want to blog more and start posting more artwork & sketches on-line. So here's some recent scribbles from the ol' sketchbook:

I hope that everyone out there had a great holiday! Jenny and I had a fun and relaxing Christmas - we headed over to her parents' place Christmas morning to open presents and her mom made enchiladas for lunch/dinner. Afterwards we mostly just lounged around watching TV and talking, and watched the latest Harry Potter movie.

The enchiladas were delicious, as was the home-made pumpkin pie for desert. And we got a lot of awesome gifts, including a brand new digital camera, which we were super-happy about. All of the ones we've had previously have been hand-me-downs from other people which, while appreciated, haven't been very reliable.

Otherwise, we got several DVDs (including Star Trek!), books, clothes, art supplies, giftcards and a few other random things. Also, Jenny got me an MP3 player, which I wanted but really wasn't expecting. :)

We unfortunately didn't get any Christmas cards mailed out this year, but really appreciate getting the cards we did receive from friends and family. We'll hopefully be a little bit more ahead of schedule next year and get them sent out on time.

I haven't been keeping up with the ol' blog recently, so here's a few highlights to catch up for the week....

Monday - I spent the day hanging out with my buddies Levi and Jay, working on our super-secret comic book project. Much work was accomplished.

Tuesday - Jenny and I had a great time at the company Christmas party thrown by the law firm she works for. Delicious (catered) food, good company and we ended up at the Post Street Ale House for drinks afterward.

Wednesday - We were planning to go to the movies with some friends, but that fell through and we just went out to eat and did some shopping.

Thursday - I happened to catch a great holiday deal that Dreamhost was running, and set up a web hosting account with them (regularly $120/yr) for less than 10 bucks. I was already planning on setting up a website and a place to host some webcomics, so that will work out well... For now I've moved my personal blog/site over and registered a new domain name, which is here: www.peterfoglesong.com

Friday - Jenny's Library Crafty Club had their monthly meeting. This time it was a fun white elephant gift exchange, with some great Italian food.

Saturday - We rescheduled our movie night, and went to a local indie theatre (The Magic Lantern) to see Boondock Saints 2 (which was, of course, awesome) and then went out to dinner afterward with some friends.

Sunday - Today was our monthly Comicsmiths' Guild meeting, which this time was a chili feed at Jay's house. Good turnout, great food and a whole lot of fun!

All together, this has been a pretty great week! I didn't get anywhere near the amount of work done as I was hoping to, but we did have some fun times with friends and were still somewhat productive. We've still got some last minute Christmas shopping left to do, so that's on the immediate agenda for the start of this coming week. Hopefully everybody out there is having a great holiday season and is staying relatively stress free.

Blue Line Pro has recently announced it's 3rd annual Sketchcard Benefit Auction!

The concept is pretty simple: Blue Line Pro provides blank sketchcards to artists, who then fill them up with awesome art and send them back. On April 3rd, 2010, they will then auction the cards off, with all proceeds going to help the American Cancer Society.

They're always looking for more artists, of any and all levels of skill and experience, to participate. In addition, they of course need people who want to bid on the art, so please spread the word to anyone who might want to pick up some reasonably priced original artwork while also helping out a really great cause!

For more information, or if you're an artist interested in participating, please check out these two web pages for details and contact info:

Comics For Cures

Comics Mentor


Local Arts & Crafts

The next meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild is this upcoming Sunday, the 20th, at 3 pm. This meeting will be at one of the member's homes, NOT Merlyns, so please leave a comment here or by e-mail for more information and directions.

The next meeting of the Spokane County Library Crafty Club is this Friday, the 18th at 7 pm, at the Spokane Valley Branch.

I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving! Jenny and I will be spending the day at her parents' house with her family, and then probably head back to Coeur d'Alene on Friday for the big Festival of Lights downtown on the lake front. Should be fun.

We've got a bit of a jump on the holidays and have already put up our Christmas tree and decorations (what few we have), and have Christmas music on rotation. The snow's not really sticking yet, but I've got no worries about it being a White Christmas (hopefully not quite as bad as last winter, though).

Just a note for any Spokane locals who might be reading: The next meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild is this coming Sunday the 15th, at Merlyns, starting at 3 pm. Anyone is welcome, and we're always looking to meet other local artists, writers and creators.

Also, the Spokane County Library Crafty Club is tomorrow, Friday the 13th, at the Moran Prairie branch, starting at 7 pm.

Feel free to leave a comment if you would like additional information about either event.

Jenny's been knocked out with something the past couple of days - we think it's probably the flu, but doubt if it's of the swine variety. She called out sick to work Sunday and Monday, but she is starting to feel better and will probably be going back to work tomorrow. I've been doing my best to take care of her while she recovers, although I've caught myself coughing a little bit and my head's hurt off and on, so there's still a chance I'll get whatever she had as well. Great.

Sunday was our monthly meeting of the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild, our local artist/writer group. We had a good turnout, and made some headway on a lot of group organizational type stuff. The main thing is that we will definitely have a presence at the Emerald City ComiCon next year in Seattle. We're still ironing out the details, but I'll post up some specifics as soon as I've got any. Should be fun.