Music and the Creative Soul

     So I wanted to talk about something that is very close to my heart and that I feel is also a key aspect in my artistic process. But before hand I think it is important to get the proper mind set. When creating a piece of art we are not creating a series of colorful blots that appear in whatever out chosen medium is. We are communicating an idea, a thought, an image, an emotion, a feeling and many more things all simultaneously through the piece. It maybe hard for some of us to get in touch with this side of ourselves. It may be even harder to capture all of that in a single still image. There is no movement to catch the eye and throw the viewer into a feeling of speed, no sound to caress the mind into a state of lulled relaxation and there are no words to lead the mind into understanding. All there is in the image before you.


This is were I find music comes into play. I say music because it is what connects me to that side of myself. It is what leads me to those places where I can formulate charcters and worlds and entire stories that capture the emotion and feeling I want. The song "Aqueous Transmission" by Incubus connects me to a side that is easy and calm I can visualize scenes of youthful innocence and adventure. Characters that are so small in the scheme but also incredibly close to the heart.

     When I need songs that pull out the side of my creative mind that live in the dark corners of a city. Moving fast, leaping over buildings fighting in the dead of night I listen to songs like "Crash Thru Walls" by O.U.O..

     These are just a few songs that make me feel a certain way and inspire some of my works. I understand that not everyone is a musical person but there are other things that I pull inspiration from. Films are one of these things. I watch movies like Disney's "Treasure Planet" and get a rush of adrenaline as well as freedom when Jim is Solar-surfing. I look at the shapes used and the angles/perspectives and try and grab that emotion for an instant and hold on to it and use those things in my art.

What helps inspire you? What makes you more creative and helps you tap into areas of yourself that fuel your art work and makes it alive?

The Courage of an Artist and Survival Tip 2

Okay so it is currently an hour past my usual bed time and the sandman is beating me to death. I am just finishing a project that has taken me an astounding amount of time and it has lead me to an interesting conclusion.



I HATE WIRE. The assignment was quite simple, make your hand out of 12 gauge rebar tie-wire. I started strong using a piece of pipe to mold the fingers and all was good lots of fun. Then it started to become a pain the more I worked. The wire would simply bend too far or not enough and just became an overall pain to work with. My hands are now looking like the hands of a coal miner from the annealment of this medium of Satan and my legs are thanking me for sitting down for the first extended period of time since I began working around 3:00 this afternoon.

So all in all I am proud of the product. From seeing how most everyone else was going about the project I think I have come up with a creative and original solution to the problem proposed. Instead of using the standard contour and gesture lines I decided to use a series of modified spirals and wire braids to form a three-dimensional hand that resembles a mix between a piece of science fiction and horror. Whatever goes down I am proud of my work and that is what art is really all about.

Survival Tip #2:
Be content with your best work.

Joe Namath said,"You learn you can do your best even when its hard, even when you're tired and maybe hurting a little bit. It feels good to show some courage." This is definitely true when it comes to making art. There are few professions that demand so much with so little promised in return. There are no guarantees that our work will be given great reviews, excellent merit from spectators or even, in the worst case, a glimpse at all. It is in these cases were it takes genuine courage to continue to create art. SO never look down on your best work. When we do we only handicap ourselves and slow our progress but when we take in what we have really accomplished then we can move on to bigger, brighter and better things...that hopefully don't involve wire.

Freelancing and School

So as summer quickly begins to fade and the new semester peeps over the horizon I feel like I am on a roller coaster being cranked up that first hill seeing the top growing closer and closer.
I am truly excited to see what happens these next few months.

I had a meeting last night with a client that went extremely well. I spent 2 days preparing for it and all that work defiantly paid off. In my Survival Tip #1 post I discussed folders as well as their applications in the realm of freelancing and I found that they definitely work. When we sat down and I pulled out my folder, opened it to the cover page with my logo and their name on it I could tell that I had definitely showed myself to be a professional and they could see I take my job seriously. It was quite gratifying I must say.

But now to talk about the interesting stuff . School is an interesting place for me. Some see it as a place of great and everlasting misery. I personally can not wait to return to it. As a designer I am always working whether for my own projects or those of a client this is a very hectic life and it might seem like a ridiculous amount to throw on myself but drawing and art in general is what makes me happy. When school becomes all about what makes me happy it is a great place to be.

How do you balance school work and your freelancing? I was thinking about this last night and I have come to a conclusion about this. It is all about setting three things in place.

1) Set Time

2) Set Boundaries

3) Set Priorities

First setting aside time. Time is not usually our friend. It always is either creeping along slowly or blazing by so that deadlines are on top of us before we know it. Either way it is a common thread in many of our day to day problems. The solution to this is having excellent skills in time management. Block out your time, create a schedule then commit to sticking to it. My schedule right now is very rigid on Tuesdays and Thursdays with class from very early in the morning till late in the evening. My Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays open for work and I block in that time for my projects and clients. Having time blocked out and set to a schedule makes organizing your life much easier and leaves much more time for important tasks that might be lost in the lazy lifestyle many college students are known to possess. Being disciplined with how you spend your time will maximize your effectiveness as well as help keep stress at manageable levels while freelancing and attending school.

Setting boundaries is an important skill that will help you balance anything in life. In the precarious balance between school and work setting boundaries is an important step. As tempting as it maybe to stay up till four o' clock in the morning playing World of Warcraft, down an energy drink and work till you leave for your commute in the morning it is probably not going to reward you in any ways.

The final and probably the most important thing to set is your priorities. Setting priorities is all about finding what is most important in life and giving those things the attention they need. As a student I am forced to work on boring school projects that are mind numbingly frustrating. Even then though, I am a student before I am a Graphic Designer and so that is what needs my attention. This is one of the hardest things to figure out but at the same time one of the most critical.

So in conclusion setting yourself up for success is very important to actually reaping the benefits of your work. Without setting time, boundaries and priorities I find my time flying by but when these basic principles are committed to your sense of balance and order will be restored and you will certainly be surprised at what you can accomplish.

Vlog #2

I'm not sure how this didn't make it up.

Survival Tip #1

Ok so I figure Since this is called the Art Student's Survival Guide I might want to start posting some survival tips. Ok so Tip #1:


That's Right. The same thing that your mother told you back in grade school. This is just a small thing that goes into many facets of your art career. I recently moved into my new basement office and set up a desk and general work area for my freelancing business. This allowed me to do a couple of very important things. It allowed me to have an area strictly for art and nothing else. My old desk had been my loyal partner in art second only to the old thread-ball-covered coach in my apartment living room. While the desk was good enough for the occasional project it was small and I frankly can't concentrate when I have to worry about dropping the $175 graphics tablet to its doom every time I reach for a pencil. Organization is the key to comfort.

Another important task that having an organized desk space serves is that I can now remove myself from the hustle and bustle of the chaos around the house. I can now instead of retreating to my room and hoping the door drowns out the thousands of noises vying for my attention. I now walk down the stairs to my desk and crank up the stereo (which has currently been playing the same Flyleaf CD for 3 days). Yes seclusion is a plus to any workspace but quiet seclusion is even better. This lack of chaos is a rare and valable commodity in my house. I am constanly having to look for something or ask around about some news because my family is always moving things. Now my space is my space. If I put down a drawing then I can rest assured that it is going to be there when I return. Organization is key in chaos.

Another way to get organized is to make folders. Yes those manila colored folders that every man, woman and child has seen a million times. I found that it is really very convienant to have each client in a folder. This keeps things organized and allows me to keep track of the progress of each project as I work on it. It also helps me catalogue the work I do for people. If they are a consistant client I have all our history right on file and can pull it out at a moments notice in case any questios or discrepencies occur. Very useful.

So all in all getting organized is the key to a successful workflow and the absolute beginning to any freelancer or art students skill base.

Vlog #3

NUMBER THREE!!!!

Tshirts and Tikis

I hope you are all doing well.Ok so it has been a crazy 24 hours. In the last 24 hours I have accumulated a couple of projects. Some are just personal projects to just kick around and others are actual paying gigs.

Two of the paying ones are t-shirt designs that will hopefully help me to pay the bills this month and get a little cash in my pocket. The personal project is trying to look into wood carving as a medium. I was doing some carving yesterday that would make Norm Abram cry but heck I was enjoying it. Anyways, I had been working on this little hei-matau for around 3 hours when I find that there is a crack going through 50 percent of the stem of the hook. I wasn't too happy but I learned some stuff and that is what this line of work or any thing in art is all about.

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Vlogs

Ok so yeah here we are I know that I probably should keep posts together but whatever. I am running a Vlog as well as this blog. So subscribe write and ask plenty of questions

Hey Everyone! Nice to meet you

Well another day has come and another blogger has entered into the blogosphere. That blogger is me. Well I figure as a first post it wouldn't hurt to talk about myself and introduce who I am.

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