The New Year Wears Yellow

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

I must say, I am pretty excited to welcome 2011.  But at the same time I think I can confidently say that, by and by 2010 was a good year for me.  I managed to successfully complete my first year of college and sophomore year is most definitely off to a good start!  My grades were great, I made some fun new friends, and most important of all I was accepted into the Individualized Major Program as an Animation and Storyboarding major!!!  I know that most of the traffic that comes here is from Facebook and so this probably isn't anything new to most people, but gosh darn it it's a big deal!  I can now pursue my passion and not have to worry about whether or not I'll actually receive a relevant diploma at the end of my 4 years.  It felt amazing to finally hear those much sought-after words of approval and welcome after working so hard on my overall application process.  I hope to continue to ride this wave all the way into the new year and the new semester :)

So I mentioned at the end of my last post that I had gotten a fun new "toy" for my computer for Christmas. Well it just so happens that I got a brand new Wacom Intuos 4 tablet!!!  For those of you who have no idea what that means, allow me to link you here so that you may educate yourselves.
It was a hefty gift to be sure but goodness it's worth it!  I am predominantly a traditional artist (and most likely always will be), and while having a reliable and solid grasp of traditional skills is always important it is clear that my intended profession continues to move in a more and more digital direction.  This tablet will allow me to improve on my digital painting and drawing skills, and also make drawing directly into programs like Flash a WHOLE lot easier.  While I know that it is not the tools that make the artist, it certainly doesn't hurt to have a few nice things here and there to make your life a little easier, right?
Now since it's the new year and all and I have been playing around and trying to get a feel for using my tablet for the last few days, I figured now would be a perfect time to post an awesome, new years themed picture!  Well I spent basically the entire evening wracking my little brain for something to draw and ended up scrapping at least half a dozen different sketches in the process.  In the end this was all I could come up with:

It's simple and easy and apparently all I could manage today.  I can't say if it's really what I consider to be my "style", but it is a style that I enjoy and is fun to draw.  Figuring out what my own unique "style" is, a plight/goal for all artists, will certainly be one of my main focuses in the new year.  That among a million other things!  

I really do hope that all of you out there have had a wonderful year and were able to bring in 2011 amongst friends and/or family :)  Let's all do our best to make it a good one!!

ps.  fun fact:  purple is my fave color.  I bet you thought it was yellow didn't you?  I'm so tricky.

pps.  apparently here in blogspot world time is like, 3 hours behind the midwest.  I assure you though, it was... is?... was 2011 when I posted this.  Just sayin'!

Plasterrr

Well hey there!

I said before that I wasn't planning on posting until after finals and everything and by golly, I MEANT it.  I managed to survive and turn in all my final projects on time and show up to my exams and apparently pass them, so I have to say I'm pretty pleased with myself.  This past semester was a doozy to be sure, but all things considered I got a lot of work done that I was happy with and I think that's something to be proud of :)
Now that the holiday is done (I hope everyone out there had a wonderful time!) and things are calming down a bit I finally have time to sit and make a new post!  Ohmygosh yaaaayyyy!!

So here it is, project 5, the final assignment I had for my 3D media class.  For this one all we had to do was create 3 separate, abstract plaster sculptures.  There could be an overarching theme to them if we wanted so that they functioned as a set, or they could be totally independent pieces, it didn't matter.  For me, I started out with a sort of theme as my initial inspiration/starting point, but in the end the pieces sort of took on a life of their own.

We had to cast the blocks of plaster ourselves and then using a hammer and chisel (and other filing and sculpting tools) we pretty much could do whatever we wanted here.  Let me tell you, it really gave me a whole new appreciation for the old-school masters who sculpted this way.  I mean seriously, I can't even begin to IMAGINE working on the scale or at the same level of precision that they did.  Truly amazing.

Sculpture 1

 Sculpture 2

Sculpture 3

The complete "set"

Just in case anyone was wondering, the way we got the plaster to appear so smooth and shiny was due to hours and hours of sanding followed by several coats of a mixture of water and ivory soap that we used to buff them at the very end.  This shiny look wasn't mandatory at all, nor was the sanding.  Some people chose to leave their chisel marks or to only buff up certain parts of their sculptures.  It was all up to the artist and what look they were aiming for.  Obviously I chose to sand and shine all 3 of my pieces.

I hope everyone continues to enjoy or has enjoyed their holiday break!  It's always so nice to have the time off to rest up and be lazy for a little bit :)  Stay safe and warm!

ps.  I got an awesome new 'toy' for my computer for Christmas, so you can expect to see some new work showing up in the near future.  Ohboyohboyohboy!

Find That Silver Lining (and also a fish)

Hey hey!

So it's been a super long time (like, over a week or something.  That's a long time though right?) since my last post and I feel bad about that.  I don't really draw or doodle much outside of class these days because any free time I have is usually spent in the studio working on school stuff or trying to maintain a social life with my wonderful friends.  I also haven't had a whole lot on my mind to post about either, but obviously this overly-wordy paragraph is evidence that that has changed.

So a little over a week ago the 4th project was due in my 3D media class and I have to say, it was not my best work.  Literally, it was the weakest project I have submitted in that class so far as the grades would clearly show.  Now I can only speak for myself here but I tend to be pretty dedicated and committed to my work and can get pretty anal when it comes to quality and all that.  Needless to say, this last project left me feeling kind of discouraged and more than a little disappointed in myself.  This is all normal though, no one can be great at everything or be at their very best ALL of the time.  But despite knowing this I still manage to beat myself up pretty badly about this kind of thing, viewing it as a sort of personal failure.  This is where I start to get to the point.

While it is perfectly fine to feel bad and wallow in your own self-pity for a little while, there will come that moment where enough is enough and you just have to pick yourself up and move on.  Being a fairly serious athlete in the past, this is a lesson I have had to learn time and time again.  There are going to be times where you lose, and when that happens the best thing you can do is think about what you can improve on, shake off those bad feelings and move on to the next challenge.  And isn't that really the silver lining here?  I mean, for anyone who is even kind of serious about improving at, well, anything really, sometimes the most valuable lessons that we learn that contribute to our overall experience and skill come from letdown.

So I guess my main message here is:  don't beat yourself up too badly over failure.  Don't let a bad grade or a sub-par project get you down for too long.  It happens to everyone.  The absolute worst thing you can do is dwell on it forever and let it scare you away from trying harder next time.  The best thing you can do is take from it what lessons you can and just chalk it up as some more good 'ol life experience.

Man.  How corny am I.
But just like my 'Talk to Your Profs!' post, even though this is something you hear a million times I still feel pretty strongly that it cannot be said enough.  It's harder than a lot of people think to actually take this kind of thing to heart.  I know I still have to work on it at times.
(It might just be me, but this particular subject really makes me think of the Disney movie Meet The Robinsons.  If you've ever seen it you totally know where I'm coming from).

So since I took the time to mention it I might as well show some pics of the piece of project 4 I wasn't totally disappointed with.  Keep in mind that this is only one of 4 separate pieces that made up this project.  The other three were just... eh.

One Fish

Two Fish

Uh, Three Fish

 ...Another Fish

Yeah, they're all the same Fish.

Finals are comin' right up and It. Is. CRUNCH TIME.  So don't expect another post for a while!  (There's a chance I'll spam a ton over Christmas break though, so try not to be too devastated).

ps.  project 5 is beating the crap out of my hands D:

pps.

Monkeys and Turtles and... Wood, Oh My!

So I guess it's about time I actually post some examples of the work I've been doing lately.  I'm in three studio classes this semester, but for now I'm just going to focus on my 3D media class.

Project 1

It is a sock monkey fashioned out of wire.  Pretty straightforward.  It's arms are posable.  Well, kind of.  They sort of just flop around, but that's what sock monkeys do!

Project 2

This project was a doozy.  We could make pretty much anything we wanted out of cardboard but the thing is some part of it had to be able to support a person's weight and therefore create an opportunity to interact with it.  Like so:

Let me tell you, building the grid to go inside that turtle shell alone took me like 3 hours. I should have taken a picture...

Project 3

Abstract wood sculpture!  That I also painted!  Yeah, this one is also pretty straightforward.  You may find it interesting that all we were given to begin with was a 2x4 plank of wood.  And that was IT.  No additional wood was allowed (well I used a couple pieces from the scrap bin.  But I had permission!)

My favorite sculpture so far :)

I am currently in the middle of working on project number 4, so be excited.  

That's all for now!

PS.  We are starting our Flash animation projects in my other class.  I am so ready for thisss.

Talk to Your Profs!

Quick Disclaimer! :  This is just advice that is the result of my own personal experience.  Take from it what you will (or won't).

So this particular bit of advice has really been on my mind recently (especially after this week) and so I have decided to share it with whoever is following this blog.

Being a student trying to major in something that my school does not particularly specialize in does not come without its significant stressors.  Two of the big ones are definitely scheduling for classes and also some major feelings of doubt.

Why doubt you ask?  Well as much as I truly adore IU I can't help but have lingering feelings of regret about not having chosen to attenend a private or traditional art university.  I have gone over the pros and cons and compared the two options a million times, but no matter how many reasons I come up with to justify that my being here is just fine I always loop back around to feeling unsure again.  Stressing over something like this consumes way more time and energy than I have to spare, but what I have found that helps the most is to speak directly with my art professors.

Every time I have a good one-on-one conversation with any of my art professors I leave them feeling more confident than ever that what I am doing here is the right choice.  They have all been so supportive and insightful that I just don't know what I would do without them being there to offer me guidance and advice.  So my advice to any of you out there facing the same feelings about the university or professional track you've chosen, is that you take the time after class or during your professor's office hours to really sit down and have a chat with them.  Chances are they are going to have a lot more experience in whatever field it is you are studying (more so than say, your advisors) and therefore a lot more vauable things to share that may help you to validate any decisions you have made or feel you need to make.  Now if you're worried about talking to a professor because you think they won't be interested or are too busy, don't be.  Most likely your profs will be more than happy to help you and is probably giddy over the fact that you came to them for help in the first place.

This same bit of advice applies to the other thing I mentioned about scheduling for classes.  Since I'm building my own curriculum I am responsible for choosing what classes I take, and so of course I am concerned with choosing the best, most applicable courses.  Again, the very best thing you can do is to talk directly to your professors.  Most likely they know a lot of the other professors in their department that you would be taking classes from anyway, and so they can give you the most direct info on how to contact them or on just what exactly they will be teaching.

I realize that some of you may find this to be completely obvious, but personally I still think it's something worth mentioning.  A lot of colleges really urge students to get to know their professors and not be afraid to speak to them one-on-one, but I can't help but wonder how many of them actually do.  Speaking from personal experience, it really is worth it. 
(And for those of you who are a little more goal-oriented, it's also a great way to begin networking.)

PS.  Sorry for another incredibly wordy entry.  I promise to have some examples of my work up soon!  Until then enjoy the new banner I made from some illustrations I did a few weeks ago for a school project :)

The Introduction

Well alrighty.

I'm not sure exactly how to begin my explanation of why I created this blog, so I guess I'll just cut to the chase.  I am a sophomore year student at Indiana University in Bloomington aspiring to become an animator.  Now I'm sure for anyone out there who knows something about animation you must be wondering "But wait, why would anyone go to regular university in order to become an animator?  Shouldn't he/she go to a legit art school?"
My answer to that is yes.  But because life is funny and is rarely ever as easy to figure out as we all would like it to be, it has happened that I am not on what someone could consider to be a traditional art track towards my intended profession.

That is precisely why I created this blog.

I felt that, like many artists it is a good idea to have a place on the internet for me to post some of my work (until I am computer savvy enough to build an actual website), but I also wanted a place to occasionally voice my questions or opinions on what it is like for me as I take my own approach towards this usually rigid learning process (since I am literally building my own curriculum).

This will be a place for me to think about the advantages and disadvantages I am faced with, and also perhaps just a dumping ground for thoughts and ideas I have related to art and animation in general.  Because they are my greatest passions there are sure to be a lot of them.
I doubt that a lot of my future posts will be quite this wordy, and hopefully a lot more will include some examples or pictures of personal work.  So hey, at least there's that to look forward to.

There's still so much work to be done, both on this blog (it looks so boring!) and on my own learning and improvement, but that is the kind of work I am more than willing to take on.

I guess all that's left to do now is see what happens :)