Improbably Possible

Well it's been another long gap between posts and in looking at the dates there seems to be something about summer that makes me want to start writing haha. I think it might be that I start a lot of "Summer" projects. The days are longer, it's warm in the Pacific Northwest, it's beautiful outside and I get motivated to do something. This got me thinking about the importance of personal work and personal projects. I believe they are important because as artists these are opportunities to more easily process and develop. There are many types of projects that could fall into this realm. I like to break up projects into these three categories: DEVELOPMENT - A project designed around an area I'm wanting to improve in artistically (i.e. sketching faster, cartoony animation, drawing hands, etc.) THERAPEUTIC - A project that allows me to process my thoughts and emotions through my artwork EXPLORATION - An open project often focused  on having fun or trying out a ne...

Now that so much work can be created digitally there seems to be a little resistance to the idea of developing an ability to sketch on paper. What I hear most often is that people aren't good at it, it's a waste of time, and/or I like to figure it out on the computer. As someone that grew up thinking I was terrible at drawing but liked to do it, and now finalize most of my work on the computer I thought I would share my thoughts about these statements to help explain why I continue to sketch. "I'm Not Good At It" I completely understand this one because I said this to myself when I thought of being an artist in grade school. First I would ask what are you not good at. Are you not good at quickly roughing out some of your ideas, or are you unhappy with the quality of the sketch when it is finished? If it is the latter I would encourage you to learn to let it go. It is very difficult to do so, especially with Twitter, Instagram, etc. and everyone posting there ...

Here are some visuals to show where I am. These are some notes and thumbnail sketches for the 3 shots I have been working on this term. I plan to post the final animations here, but until then I hope that you enjoy this little sneak peek.

After talking about life as a journey and the process of becoming an artist in my last post I thought I'd share a little bit more about where I am in my journey right now. Currently, I am wrapping up my 3rd term at Animation Mentor. I am enrolled in the character animation program there and have been blown away by the teaching and community that they have developed there. Animation has always been a dream of mine, but because I was not an excellent draftsman in grade school I convinced myself that I would never be able to do that. However, I found animation so interesting that I learned as much as I could about the techniques and production pipeline hoping that I might find an opportunity to work somewhere in the industry. This round about approach helped me gain a lot of understanding that I'm finding very helpful at the moment, as well as cultivate an appreciation for many forms of art. I hope to write a more detailed post about my how I got here soon. Also, as a...

Hello and welcome! I've been meaning to start blogging for some time now and finally have the motivation to start. So without really knowing  how  to do that I'll start in the middle. About halfway through my first year of community college, I decided to pursue a degree in Fine Art. Art had always been an interest of mine but because I could not draw/paint like Michelangelo when I was twelve I thought I couldn't be an artist. I still cannot draw/paint like Michelangelo but I have come to discover two things that have helped me embrace the title of "artist". The first is that a lot of artists, if not most, cannot draw like the masters of the renaissance (which is why they are called masters and still studied today). The second is a more personal thought about what it means to be an artist and that is to place the importance on what is learned about yourself, the medium, and the craft while creating a piece of art rather than what it looks like at the end. Whet...