Category: Personal Ramblings

Failure – Sometimes it’s better than success.

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I wanted to talk a little bit about failure and why it is an important part of the learning process for an artist. Quite often my students worry about not always being able to try a new technique and get it right the first time. While I understand where they are coming from, it’s more true that we learn a lot more from our failures than our success. If you get it right the first time, you really haven’t learned much. I loved this quote from the end of “Meet the Robinsons”

Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths – Walt Disney.

It’s really a true statement. And the movie itself reinforces the notion that failure is ok. I know I haven’t talked about working on my masters much, but there were a lot of projects that I didn’t quite get and I ended up really frustrated. This was especially true anytime we had to work on an editorial illustration. My super cutesy style doesn’t lend itself well to magazine illustration, but I tried my hardest to make it work.

During my final semester, we were assigned a three part editorial illustration with a full-page, half-page and spot illustration for an article about corporate greed. I had a serious mind blank about what to do and my thumbnails showed that. My first set were terrible.

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Battle Stag Go!

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I’m almost through with week two of class. I’m not sure, but I’m feeling a bit, I’m not sure how to word it. Like I’m not doing as good as I want. Our first project is a music poster and I’ve tried to step away from my style for a bit. My thumbnails had a lot of energy that I just don’t feel I’ve been able to translate into the bigger line drawing. I’ve already turned it in, but I’ve drawn at least two more since. I even drew ond in my usual style. It looked like I forgot how to draw. >.<

I know I’m going back to school to improve, I just hope I’ll be able to get past this feeling of being terrible. (I’d post the scans, but they’re icky.)

I’ve also gotta buckle down and try to work ahead a bit. Mists comes out in three days and I want to play!! My husband and I ran Theramore with our druid buddy. Three druid scenario go! The hillarity of a moonkin riding battle stag was probably better than the scenario, but we had fun. If only he could moonfire while riding, it would be perfect. I forgot to take a screen shot 🙁

Of Masters and Account-wide mounts

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I know, I’m the worst at updating. It’s hard for me to post when I don’t really feel like what I have to say is important, not like this is really either. I guess that’s the same reason I don’t update Twitter often either. I could post quite often about changing my socks or whatever, but who’d wanna read that. I also haven’t done a lot of new art lately, with the exception of the most recent commission I’ve completed, a whole lot of nothing.

That’s about to change, though. I start working on my Masters on Monday (officially), but I’ve started doing classwork already. I don’t know if I’m going to share the things I’ll be doing in class, but I’m super excited about the whole thing. In one of my classes, it looks like we’ll be doing most of our work with acrylics and watercolors, so I’m hoping to learn a few new techniques with both.

In more geeky news, I’ve been having a bit of fun with the new WoW patch. Nothing quite so awesome as account wide mounts. I decided that I would finally get Anzu before the expansion, with more than one chance a day. If I had won him on an alt before the change, I would have been upset, so I only tried on my druid. I’d been soloing him since I had enough t7 to not die. And so last Thursday, after days of re-talenting, I prepared for the first night of many.

First I tried on my Druid, getting the dagger once again. Then on my Rogue, stealth makes things so much easier. And finally on my Pally, pulling half the instance, killing, aoe looting (also awesome) and the second half. It took forever to kill him as prot, I’m not even sure I’d taken the time to figure out the proper rotation. And when I looted I think I just about died of shock. After four years, there on the loot screen, was the mount. I learned it, hearthed and switched to my druid.

meebles and anzu

I then spent the next couple of minutes riding around in my t11 blue-wing transmog with my new buddy Anzu. I’m really happy that you can’t fly in the expansion until level 90, now I have more excuses to explore Pandaria with The Raven Lord, who is strangely a flightless bird.

WoW Wednesday

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I’ve been crazy busy the last few months and I figured I kinda need to actually update my blog more, so I’m going to try something new. Words!

First, a bit about what’s been going on. I’ve been working on getting my portfolio together for my masters application and got the good news that I’ve been accepted. I start working towards a Masters in Illustration at SCAD September 10th. I’m very nervous and excited. But I figure this is the next logical step for me. I’ve been working at a college for the last 5 years and having a masters would help me both there and in the freelance world, or at least help my confidence.

This date happens to be exactly 15 days before the 4th WoW expansion is released. A few of you may have guessed I play a bit, not like the fanarts or article gave that away XD My husband and I are very much looking forward to it. My main of course will still be a bear tank, but now I can also have a (panda) bear tank. And I can finally fish in bear form, still not as a druid, but it’s a step closer. I mean if moonkins can ride mechanostryders, I, as a bear, should be able to fish, with a fishing pole, in bear form.

Anyway, what I’m trying to get at in this rambly post is that I’m going to start posting what I feel like. I never really want to put anything up here unless it’s polished art, or sketches that are really cleaned up and that’s why I haven’t updated anything in about 3 or 4 months. So I’m going to try and write about WoW and maybe post some sketch cards and possibly some college work, if it’s cool and then at least my blog won’t be so lonely. That and of course the random other usual stuff I post occasionally.

Dragon*Con 2011 Art Show

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I passed the Dragon*Con art show jury for this year and received space in the show, so baring any unforeseen circumstances, I’ll be showing there this year. It was quite a pleasant surprise, because I’ve admired two of the jurors since I first started drawing.
Now I just have to figure out what to take and what I want to make.