Year 1

I am so proud of the progress I have made this year in traditional art and am so grateful for the new experiences (such as figure + life drawing) that helped keep the learning fresh & fun. 

Contrary to my grades, I actually began this year quite unconfident in my traditional rendering abilities. I was unsure on how to lay crosshatching and contour lines on objects and was constantly questioning whether the lines should be long or short? what angles should I draw them at? should they even be lines at all? should they be curves instead? and with all this going on there was much less space to think about how I would imply materials or take on artistic liberties to enhance visual interest. By the fourth week, whilst working slowly on my second submission piece, crosshatching made a little more sense. I was more confident with grouping values and implying reflectivity but core shadows were forgotten. Block 2 was so much more mentally challenging than the first but it was were I created my proudest work, completely going against my expectations. I learnt a lot more about rendering materials, going outside my comfort zone, and really going ham on understanding perspective and making my references work for me rather than the other way around. The rest of the year was applying everything I learnt in the first half about rendering to more complex, organic forms.

Reflecting on my work ethic towards traditional art this year, I have always completed my trad coursework ahead of time. This is because in comparison to the other two subjects, trad submissions are straight forward with few decisions needed to be taken. I am surprised to find that I am better at rendering hard surface objects than rendering people (skin and soft surfaces) because prior to my course here, I have always had a preference of drawing faces and very rarely drew much else beyond characters and people. I think this is mostly because objects have a wider value range. (humans are also harder to draw because they have a much smaller margin for error than manmade items)

If I were to summarise my traditional art experience this academic year into words, I would say it has felt Safe, Calm, Tedious, and Reliable. Going forward, I want to improve my line confidence and explore different  ways of rendering by using patterns or direction. I also want to work on stressing the terminator line because all of my work is missing that dramatic core shadow though I think this is partly due to the fact that our classroom is always filled with different lights which is void of a singular light side and dark side.

I always have high expectations once I am briefed on a new project. This first phase is what I consider the brainstorming and thinking phase. I start off strong with vibrant ideas and I often do a lot of research here which is good. Unfortunately, with time, these ideas fade and start to change around the 3rd or 4th week. The main problem with this is that I do very little drawing, and if I do, they are unsatisfactory and disappointing. I find that once I begin to draw, the fainter my initial vibrant idea becomes, and the more the unsuccessful piece of work in front of me starts tainting that initial idea. I really want to be able to retain the initial plan until the very end!!! I think what would be really useful is if I imagine I were producing the final piece on the very first day. I could do a thumbnail of what I envision. Use colour and everything I feel necessary but only spend the first day on it. This will help me remember the passion I held at the beginning and will keep me going through the project. The fact that I know I haven't finish allows me to be more forgiving with myself because it has potential to be good so it doesn't demotivate me into thinking I am not capable of executing my crazy ideas.

I should do a lot more sketching in this phase so that I can look back on them and remind myself of the initial plan I had. Even if they do change it can be fun to look back on.

-Act as if the idea is set in stone. Imagine an external employer has decided on the theme and you as the employee must conform and please them with your creations. ANY idea can be made well.  Of course it is easier to create something that excites you but try to stick to an idea to the end. It's great that I always want to explore every idea I have, but I need to commit at some point so I think this mindset will help me loads.

What a spectacular start to this new medium! I would have never believed I would have been able to create these works before I joined my uni course. 3D software is still intimidating to me but now that I have all this work to show for my hard work, I feel very proud and inspired to continue working hard >:) I'm glad to say that I have always managed to submit my works perfectly on time since the panic of submitting my 3D work is always premature (drastically different to my digital art). I don't think I have much to say on what I could have done better here because I really gave it my all. I am a lot less aware of what I could have done better because I am unaware of what I do not know through this medium but what I do hope for in the future is to rely on myself more and look for exterior resources to help push my game production projects further. I need to do a lot more research and I need to find industry examples of successful 3d work that can inspire me. I also want to try using a variety of different methods on each project so that they are more visually appealing and believable. 3ds Max and Zbrush are what I am most comfortable with at the moment but I still really struggle to use Unreal Engine and Substance Painter.

Game Production has felt Limitless, Overwhelming, and Inspiring this year and I hope to do a lot more outside of class next year.

SLEEP!! have early mornings, Draw for yourself too, practice drawing from imagination, keep your space clean, have proper designated rest & reset days. Also, I feel I am gaining an intrest in UI design, character design, and prop design.