A Summary of Learning

Cross-post from my (usually) less serious art blog doodle-fart on tumblr:

Since posting that last image to show progress, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how I didn’t magically get better at art.  There was blood, sweat, and tears in a very literal sense.  So bear with me while I am serious for this one post then return to the doodles.  Here’s a breakdown of how those eight years were spent.

2004 and before: Dicking around with drawing and doodles.  A hobbyist who watched a lot of anime.

2005 - 2008: Went to college for art history and got more and more involved with actual art studio as I became inspired by what I had seen in textbooks.  Drawing 1, Drawing 2, Life Drawing, 2D design, 3D design, Oil-based painting, and Water-based painting.  If I wasn’t studying it, I was doing it, basically surrounding myself with art at all times.

2009 - late 2011: After graduation, had a hard time finding motivation for my art even though I loved it.  Putting a good day’s (week’s/month’s) work into something you weren’t getting graded, paid, or even really noticed for is a hard sell when you should be getting a stable job and watching money.  So my artistic integrity was completely on me and how willing I was to put in the time and effort. I kept at it by drawing during lunch on the backs of receipts.

late 2011 - current: Picked up photoshop and dusted off my barely used Wacom to try my hand at digital.  And thanks to those foundation years, grasping the use of tablet as a magic brush pen was a little less painful.

So I’m still farting around with photoshop and learning something new everyday.  Never stop learning.  Never stop drawing.