Monday, 27 May 2013

Personal review of the second year



So now that my second year is over I have to say I can see everything in a far more, clear light. When you are in the thick of deadlines and trying to finish 3 briefs in one night because when they were set you were too busy on a YouTube binge or partaking in mindless entertainment it is hard to think about the future and where this is all leading.

Personally I think my experience was a strange one this year, when the first year began I had a very ‘this will be easy; I’ve got this’ mind state. When it ended it changed to ‘this is some serious stuff, better prepare for next year’. However that kick in the back side was clearly not strong enough for me to do that much greater this year. I admit my skills have improved, time management is increasingly showing signs, of existing… and things are moving forward, but not how I imagined. It seems I dug myself a pretty deep hole this year because I didn’t really use the Christmas or Easter holidays to ‘catch up’. I think these are key parts of the year and should be utilized but ofcourse however obvious it was then or now, it clearly wasn’t obvious enough.

Another challenge was commuting. I live 40 miles away in Peterborough and the train ride is a 1 hour to Uni and 1 hour back (not mentioning the 20 minutes to get to the station and back). After a while this becomes a burden and increasingly tiring as you find yourself waking up super early and getting back super late. Although I am not complaining as it was my choice. This is something I will be eliminating from my list of ‘burdens’ and I will be moving to Leicester for my final year. Living at home with parents and siblings (one brother) is not the most motivating either, as soon as I get home the mind state habitually resets itself from I MUST WORK to I MUST RELAX, and RELAX MORE. Overall I think I had an ok year, let a few opportunities slip (placements!), produced SOME decent work, and now I am content.  

I plan to spend a lot of time in the Labs next year and regardless of big or small our timetables are, I want to spend time around my peers and bounce feedback as I think this year was very introverted in terms of showing people what I have done and why. But, what do I do now? I have at least 4 months ahead of me which is enough time to go from ‘I can barely draw’ to Leonardo DaVinci as far as I am concerned. Right, so what I will do in these next month’s will be guided by what I want to be. I usually don’t like to label myself a ‘character’ or ‘vehicle’ or concept’ guy BUT now I can safely say I love drawing vehicles and really enjoy hard surface modelling. I have a few projects that have been started so I think it’s time to give those bad boys the green light and build a portfolio!! But first I think I’ll take a few days off, play some games, watch some films and get away from it all for at least 72 hours. At this point, however successful or unsuccessful my second year was to me is now irrelevant as it is over, I can do nothing to change it so there is no point in paying it any attention. What is important now is how a portfolio is need of building and it must be SUPER FREAKING AWSOME, no other options.

Next challenge? Go from Art student to ready for industry level Artist.      
Duration: At least 4 months       

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