WHY I DO THIS.

   Happy Sunday, Everyone!

   I want to address this, because I've been asking myself this question lately. A LOT. WHY do I do this? Naturally, since I've been asking myself this question, I've been forced to think about the answer. 

I draw every day. I get up, I have coffee (usually too much - do you know how hard it is to draw when your hands are SUPER over-caffeinated?), I turn on the TV - sometimes Netflix and sometimes YouTube. Lately - a lot of YouTube. I need help. Everyone needs help. YouTube is where I go to find out how other artists survive. Then I try to rack up the motivation to draw ANOTHER coloring book page. Or ANOTHER free page to give a way. Or ANOTHER thing for you to look at knowing full well you may just hit the "like" button to be nice and never even click the image, or share it with your friends. 

   When I sit here, alone, drawing, thinking about drawing, wondering how I can get you to see it or to care about it, then wondering why I even bother, I invite stress and depression into my day. I invite defeat, loneliness, doubt. My confidence slips with every unnoticed post. For that reason, when you DO something - anything - in your life, you have to have a BIGGER reason to do it than just to be noticed. 

   I love being praised when I accomplish something. Especially if it's something that I'm proud of. I am constantly striving to do better in my art. To improve. To show you what I can do. But that isn't why I keep putting myself through this. 

   I started designing coloring books because of stress. Because of anxiety. Because of self-loathing, doubt, lack of confidence, low self-esteem, loneliness, anger, hate, disappointment, fear, sadness. But NOT my own. Well, partially my own. But mostly, everyone's. 

   I really, REALLY believe that when you are GOOD at something, if you have a PASSION for something, or if you just have a REALLY GREAT SMILE, that you are morally obligated to find a way to inject that into someone's life who may need it. We are all struggling. Just because one person's struggle seems minimal to you does not mean that it's less significant than your struggle.

   You don't have to buy my coloring book. But I want you to. The reason I want you to is NOT because I will make a ton of money. (I definitely won't.) 

   The reason I want you to buy it for yourself or for someone else is because coloring is an AMAZING way to get out of your head. It's an amazing way to allow yourself to think your thoughts, to sift through all of the information that you've been given (whether you wanted it or not) that day, to remember things you may have forgotten about.

   I WANT you to color (my book or any other artist's book) because I want you to have TIME with yourself. I want you to remember things from your childhood that you haven't thought about in years. I want you to think about who you are and how your day went. I want you to give yourself time to think about what you did today and what you could have (or should have) done differently.

   We all need that time for ourselves. We need to get to know ourselves before we judge others. We have to turn off the television and put down our phones and think about what our OWN opinions are before we jump into reading about everyone else's. We need to keep our minds and hearts open.

   THAT is why I do this. I could sit down and draw every day and post stuff in my gallery so that people will say, "ooh that's nice" or "wow I really like that." But what good does that do? I didn't help anyone with that. I didn't inject my talent into the lives of others in hopes to make any kind of a difference. If I post something in my gallery, it's to hear people say nice things about me.

   I will continue to design coloring books that may or may not sell. I won't make a bunch of money, and I won't become rich and famous. I do this for me by doing it for you. That's what I get out of it. So I will brush my discouragement, my fear, my anxiety aside. I will continue to call myself an artist and I will move forward with courage that I can reach some people sometimes. Somehow.

Have a BLESSED Sunday, and every day.

Love, Krista


If you like this, follow me.
If you have questions, comment here or email me. I WANT to hear from you.

E-mail:         ktessierart@gmail.com

Twitter:      @KTessierArtist

Facebook:  @KTessierArt

Blog:            ktessierart.blogspot.com

Gallery:       ktessierart.deviantart.com

If you want to color, buy my book. If you don't want to color, but you know someone who needs to, buy them my book. OR buy them another book. Any book. But please. COLOR.

These are BEAUTIFUL!

I absolutely LOVE seeing what people have done with my pages.
Thank you, to the following colorists who have sent me finished or in progress pages from their Soul Mints Adult Coloring Book.

Justin Tadlock

Katie Gerten

Cindy Glover

Melanie Schumacher

It is SO awesome to see everyone's different styles and the variety of colors that appeal to them. These are all looking great! If you have a finished page from this book that you'd like to share with me, please feel free to tag me in it on Facebook, or email it to me at KTessierArt@gmail.com. I would love to see them and post them on this blog for others to see.

I have to say, I have never had such satisfaction as an artist as I have now. It's one thing to put artwork out there and get comments and compliments, but the biggest compliment of ALL has been seeing other people interact with that artwork and make it their own. Bless you guys. 

Happy Tuesday! <3 

PS - These looked like so much fun, I started a couple, too! Couldn't resist. 

Grab a copy!

But Seriously...

Happy New Year!

Since this will be my first blog post of the year, I wanted to say something meaningful. Something that will stay with you throughout the year. Something that will inspire you and make you think. Something you would pass on to others so that they could also consider it and reflect upon it throughout 2017....

Well, I couldn't think of anything. So I will quote the all knowing, all powerful George Carlin in his infinite wisdom: "Toodaloo, go with God, and don't take any wooden nickels." Also: "Buy Krista's first coloring book!"

Okay, so he never said that last part. But I'm sure he'd recommend it. :)

Seriously, though. I appreciate all the support I've gotten for it so far. It means a lot to me. I worked on the hand drawn designs for around a year, and kept putting off actually publishing it. It was mostly because I was almost positive that I couldn't take the rejection or the feeling of failure if no one bought it.

It's not easy to make yourself known to people as an artist. I finally decided that if no one buys it, oh well! At least I tried. And I will keep trying. There are so many different coloring books out there right now, and it's hard to compete with. I wanted to do something that would stand out at least a little from the others.

I took Mandalas to (what I consider to be) the next level. I've made them extremely detailed and interesting to look at. I drew them and I still just sit and look at all the details sometimes. I am pretty proud of how they turned out.

They've gotten a great reaction so far and it's so interesting to see when people post pictures of how they've colored them! I can't express enough how much I absolutely love seeing people enjoy them.

As I said, I really appreciate the support I've been shown so far and thank you all for your continued support. I'm already working on at least 2 (possibly 3, we'll see how it goes) future coloring books. I hope to be published again within the next couple of months.

If you like the book, please (PRETTY PLEASE) share it with your friends, and ask them to share it with their friends. Word of mouth is incredibly powerful and completely priceless.

If you have a blog and would like to share it there, well I'm not going to argue with you. If you have something you'd like me to share, let me know! I'm happy to do it.

Please be safe and happy during this new year and most importantly BE GOOD TO EACH OTHER.

Thanks! See you in the next post!!!

Grab (or share) your copy of Soul Mints: An Adult Coloring Book (by ME!) HERE!

Example colored by Melanie Schumacher