Both these weeks I have been the same for me. I have been wrapping up everything, making sure I have all my printed material, promotional material, matted all my work, and then some! Been so busy I have almost forgot to post here! but, having been able to have my thesis book in hand and everything submitted, I have calmed down a bit.
One big thing that has happened to me is the fact that I received and email stating that my director wants me to display my WHOLE portfolio at the school's SPRING SHOW!!!!! This is a huge honor and I can't even believe I would be considered one of the top illustrators of my class. When I saw that I put all work aside to just take in the feeling. It has been a very very long road to get to this point. The many ramen nights, self doubt moments, and the very hard/back breaking work put into this degree seemed to have paid off in that moment. I am still in awe that I am considered to have work at such a professional level.
Next week is my final review. I feel that, seeing how I received this email, I have already passed it. Let's hope no surprises come about and I pass with ease.
Module 11:
It was really awesome of my professor to bring in promotional materials to look at. I needed o gear myself as to how my styles would fit on these formats and how others have done theirs. But, I did get feedback on my designs and they are good to go to the printers! I feel so professional! My work looks beautiful on my bookmark designs. Super happy about that. I can't wait to see them and finalize them. I'm even going to put sting on my bookmarks! They are going to look so cute!
Module 8, 9 10:
These past few weeks I have been working on my promotional material. It has been pretty crazy. AS I feel behind with my own deadline to finish up my last piece, I feel that everything is behind. My final review date is May 10th, so I have time, but I rather have my work all finished. I feel that I have a lot to do from now until then. I made my business cards and sent them to be printed. not much though as I plan to get rid of them while I'm here since I am sure I will redesigning them again.
Front and Back
Right now I am in the process of finishing my final piece (as I stated before). But it is causing me a lot of stress because I feel that it has a lot of problems with it, which then requires more attention to fix, adjust, and figure out. Personally, I am at a point where I am ready to move on from all of this.
I was talking to my roommate about how I feel now as compared to the beginning of this schooling. At First I had a lot of issues: watercolor skills, basic understanding of elements of art and how to apply, no consistent style, problems with perspective, being afraid of backgrounds, value understanding, color understanding etc etc. And now I feel that none of those are problems anymore, or at least not so much. I still find that I am painting with a lot of saturation. I need to dull things down a bit more. And, my next biggest challenge, I need to draw children perfectly. I plan on going head on to face this problem after school ends. I am touching on it in my Fantasy Art class, but for the first time in a serious matter.
Hopefully I don't overwhelm myself these next couple of weeks, as I took the weekends off of work. I hope I am able to use the time wisely to get myself ready to go for my panel. I really need to move on to even better things!
Module 7:
I am feeling pretty confident about this upcoming Spring break. I have a plan of what I need to get done before I start up school again. Class today was quite calm. I received pointers on how to improve my work, but, the big thing is, I am planning on making launching my official website! It seems so unreal that I am becoming so professional. I look back at myself in my undergrad days I didn't ever think I would be bale to get myself to this point. My school has really shaped me to become a better artist. Hopefully I can get it all set and ready to go so I can start officially designing everything else like my business card and promotional materials.
Module 6:
Another class where I surprised them with another piece completely finished! Or at least 99%. I am super surprised at myself at how fast I am painting these. I literally spend a full day on a piece and I am able to bring it up to 95%. My only issue right now is thinking about my layout for my book cover design for Black Beauty. Everyone loved my portrait of Beauty and my idea but I have to play around with it. Text can be tricky and I want to be sure I get this right and be able to bring a different spin to a cover design for the book. It needs to be more serious than what has been previously done. . I am not worried about it though. With Spring Break coming up next week, I feel I will be able to have Meelo's last piece done before the week is over, giving me more than enough time to get everything together.
Module 4/ Module 5:
Had a few great classes this past couple of weeks. I have been able to bust through my work with no issues. I am on schedule and happy to be that. I am still hoping I will be able to get ahead of myself soon, just so I can feel better about what I have to do!
One big idea that popped up was the fact that I had to re-do one of my Black Beauty pieces. I brought the subject up to my peers and professor, asking if I can just scrap it entirely and move on to make a book cover for the novel. She was all for it, as she was for the idea I had too (I won't say anything about it yet, but I am going to give it a more serious layout than that of all previous Black Beauty pieces. I am super happy and excited for this! I started working on it right after class and it is coming along just fine. I wills ay I was concerned at first. Not that I wouldn't re-do that piece, I am to a point where I have too much on my plate to go and adjust so much to something that I look at as a failure. And who wants to linger in failure? Especially if you are staring at it! I do understand in the working world, that may just happen, but photoshop does wonders, so it is not a huge problem to deal with. It is just, for the final review, they would prefer to see the final works.
Module 3:
Nothing much to report for this class today. I am slowly and consistently working on my art, and it is taking a good chunk of time. But it is going. This week was a bit on the crazy side with other outside influences, but I'm not behind. At the moment, my Meelo #2 is scheduled to be done this Sunday. I only have basic thrown down colors. Seeing how I am not scheduled to work tomorrow, I will dedicate the whole day to the piece. I am hoping to bring it to 90%, so I have the weekend to adjust and add. We will see how that goes.
Module 2:
This past class we filled it up talking about everything we are trying to work on. My professor was very surprised about how much work I was able to get done in a week ( I was also surprised at myself). Nonetheless, I still feel quite behind. It is only the first/second week and I wish I was ahead by 2-3 full pieces. But that is me. I will ALWAYS feel behind until a piece of work is done. I might push myself too much, but I can't help it. More now than even I have been wanting to do more and more work. I want to get better. I need to get better, but I am sacrificing my well-being too much lately.
But, back on the subject. I asked a question that has been on my mind as I work through my thesis work: What is the illustrators job when creating a book? Yes, they hold power where text is placed or where a picture might be, but what about the design of the book, or the font etc. I felt that, as the illustrator, you don't have too much power outside of developing the pieces. But I was wrong. She told us that we as illustrators hold the most power. It is up to us that determines everything about the book, even text. Yes you will get art directors to ask for a change or two, but nothing really much. Even the authors, if you work with one, usually don't get involved with the layout (unless they are higher up in the publication world).
As I work through my pieces I find that I now understand that. My only issue is that I have trouble with text placement. I am no graphic designer and I don;t know how to effective manipulate text for it to work an be visually/professionally appealing. But I hope, when I am done with all the final pieces I can be able to put together a dumby of sorts so that I can understand the process.
We will see. Otherwise, progress of my thesis is going good. I unfortunately got some coconut oil on my current Meelo piece, right when I finished it, and therefore, I have a stain that is quite visible. I am hoping that, with next class I can bring it up and hopefully not be told to re do the whole thing. Reason being, professionally speaking, where it is placed it is very easy to just paint the sky section on a separate piece of paper, scan both that and the final piece and put them together, making a cohesive piece for the final execution of the work. I really don't have time to re do another work, I already have one on my mind, on top of tweeking each piece.
Module 1:
I am so excited to have a class fully dedicated to my thesis work. Not only that but I will be able to pick my professor's brain about the industry. She just published her 48th book I believe she said. It is a small class, but we all have different styles which will keep our classes so very interesting.
Our first class was to have an understanding of some sort of plan we would have for our thesis and when we need to finish. They all told me I am on the right track and are in a good place. Though, I don't think so, but that is only because I will always feel behind in my work. I will always feel behind until it is finished, such is the life of me.
So I will feverishly be working on my thesis. I got a critique from my director and form the class so I will begin one by one, painting Meelo and finishing up Black Beauty. Though I have to re-do one piece, I am hoping to figure out the issues soon so I can just move on!
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