Challenges...Lots of Them

I'm three weeks into the semester and it's been a lot crazier than I expected. I feel like I've been running on a never-ending treadmill since last week; I'm extremely exhausted but I know I can't stop running because when I do, I'll fall flat on my face and everything I've worked for will fall apart in an instant. I'm pretty proud of myself for taking on a big challenge (taking six art classes, tutoring math, helping seniors with their thesis films, working out every day) and managing to be on top of it all. But tonight, after I got out of a very dense three-hour design theory class, I realized I haven't had time to work on my personal art. For instance, I just learned a lot about "balance" in composition and realized there's so much more I could do to improve my art. But I don't have the time to do so. It's frustrating, but I know I brought it on myself, so I can't really blame anyone or anything. I guess I'm just gonna have to push even harder and start prioritizing my art over other things.

Anyway, to cheer myself up, I've decided to dump a bunch of assignments and projects I've done the past two and a half weeks here, as proof that I've been working pretty damn hard.

This is probably my favorite work from last week. It's a self portrait for my design theory class. We were only allowed to use basic shapes and black and white.

These are quick studies of a peach tree that I did after reading "The Selfish Giant", a short fairy tale by Oscar Wilde. I'm hoping to paint some backgrounds and concept art based on the story and hopefully use them as portfolio pieces.

The next ones are little animation bits I did for my mechanics of motion class and also at the El Grupo workshop. I think I always have the most fun when I'm animating, because I love turning something still into something that could move and live!

Cannonball!

I had so much fun animating this little fly at the El Grupo workshop last Sunday. Turns out this background was taken from Calvin and Hobbes! I'm so excited to add more--a flag and a leaping frog--to this scene!

And now for my worst work of the week! This is another assignment for my design theory class. We were given two statements starting with "I love" and "I hate"--all of them were written by a different person in class--and we had to take or compose a picture conveying either of the statements. I got: "I love each step closer I take towards the person waiting for me at the airport". If you can't tell, it's very specific and it gave me such a hard time.

I got the idea of a finish line at some point when I was looking for airport pictures, so I just ran with it. And I thought I did a pretty good job. Until literally five hours ago when my professor and classmates pointed out everything that was wrong with it. And now I see it all; I see how there's too much going on that you can't even tell it's an airport or that there's a luggage on the far left corner, or that the feet are almost horizontally in the middle, or that there's no real focus, or that it's unbalanced. Whew. That was a mouthful. I got a little upset that it wasn't nearly as good as I thought it was, but then I realized I should feel proud that now I know what's wrong with it. Now I can make better art.