Quick update

Hi All! I've been pretty busy these past couple months ever since I started school. It's been hectic but very enjoyable. It's nice to be interacting with other creative people as we work on the same assignments. I find myself challenged and inspired by such peers. I haven't had much time to do my own personal work but I'm going to try and upload some work that I've been doing in class if I think it's worth it.


This is a piece I did for one of my classes. We were supposed to create an illustrated capital letter. I did it in the art nouveau style. It took a long time but it was really fun and I am really happy with how it came out :) Done mostly in Illustrator CS3 and textures added in PS CS3.

School thus far...

I'm finding it a very interesting experience going back to school after having graduated over 3 years ago. It's refreshing actually. I'm going into a program to learn web design but we start at the very basics, graphic design. I've been a straight illustrator pretty much all my life. I tend to draw whatever I want, however I want with little thought towards the design of the piece. Now I'm forced to think about the design of everything! It's hard to get my mind thinking in that way. I have basic graphic design along with typography and an art history course. I am enjoying it all. It's fun interacting with people again and sharing thoughts and ideas. I don't feel too old, although I'm one of few who have previously earned college degrees. It's definetly a departure from working at home, holed up in our apartment like a hermit.

I get a lot of homework which makes school almost like a job! Of course I'M the one who's paying to be there :) I tend to be the type of student who has to do well. Nerd, I know that's me. I overachieve I guess, but that is only the case for art courses. I think I barely squeaked out a "C-" for Physics when I was going for my bachelor's.

But yeah, anyway, that's what I'm up to. I'm trying to find time to do my own art and still blog (sorry for the lack of posts) and also do crafts too now. It's nice to be so busy again. There was a couple months this year where I really felt like my life was crawling by. I guess I started out the year with a bang (getting married), then I went to Japan on my honeymoon but after that there wasn't much to do. I wasn't needed as much at my previous job so I started working part time and I wasn't getting much bites with my freelance career. I was pretty down about everything but then I contacted one of my teachers to see if she could recommend any places to apply for work and BANG I'm in school full time again working towards my second degree.

I have to thank my husband for supporting me through all this (financially and emotionally). I couldn't be doing this if it weren't for him. I try my best to be a good wifey but sometimes I feel I fall short because he takes such good care of me.

Slow down!

Well, I am officially a student again with a full schedule of classes. I'm studying webdesign in a further attempt to diversify my skills. Thus I found I must slow myself down. I had to pare down my work schedule to accomodate my classes. They are intense and competitive. I always find the need to overachieve in school (nerd) especially in my art classes. Of course that is rather hard when ALL your classes are art classes but that's my problem.

Anyway, so yeah, less work more studying. I'm learning a lot about design and graphic design. Before this, I was pretty much just a visual artist where I created illustrations. Now I'm forced to open up a new way to perceive things. Graphic design is totally new to me and very different. I'm used to having my work be literal but now I'm working more conceptually. I'm struggling with trying to make things look "right" when there might not be a definite answer. I get frustrated that my abstract designs might not "look like anything". I don't know what is successful and what is not. This is the whole learning process I guess so hopefully one day my mind will just *click* and I'll be able to understand what I'm doing.

So for now it's just a crapshoot where I pick one of my designs and print it out and present it like i knew what I was doing all along. Confidence is key I believe, and if you can sell your design you are halfway to that "A".