Art Recap and What's Next?
Hey everyone!
I hope you're all having a good weekend. I myself have been feeling very tired, both mentally and physically the past couple days. But it's all good, sometimes that happens and you just need to give yourself a bit of a break.
I haven't done AS much personal art this week, but there's still new pieces to showcase!
Roxie showing off her dominance against poor Zarland who just wants to be a dino-dork that's left alone.
A pretty relaxed Trixie giving off that "don't sweat it" vibe.
And lastly, everyone's favorite Raptor, Blue from the Jurassic World movies.
Oddly enough I didn't plan for this week to be all dino pictures, it just kind of happened on it's own. Haha!
Along with theses pictures, there's a new Speed Art video up on the ol' Youtube Channel showcasing the Blue fan art.
As for the coming week, I can't promise as many pieces. Or at the very least, fully finished pictures. Depending on how I'm feeling there might be some sketches, but the top priority this week will be commission work. Got a whole bunch from Twitter and since there's a big list to still go through I'll be powering through the bulk. I'm very grateful for that too.
The past couple months I've met my quota with a full commission list at the start of each month. It can get tiring and mentally exhausting at times, but I would take this a hundred times over the days when I'd be lucky if just one person would commission me after weeks at a time of trying. And don't get me wrong, I was grateful for that too at the time when someone would come along and give me a chance. It tells me now that something's been working right, and what ever it is, I hope it keeps going. Though I'm still not where I'd like to be ideally, I'm grateful to have made it this far, and each day it seems to get just a little bit clearer that I'm getting closer to those personal goals. One of those main goals is to do freelance work for studios and companies, which for a while seemed like a bit of a pipe-dream, but at this rate who knows what could happen in the near future? I may have a clearer vision of things now, but every day is a new day and a new opportunity. And you can laugh if you want, but it's the truth too.
I actually have a funny story to share. Funny to myself at least. A few years ago, I really wanted to give all this freelance stuff a try, but was also working 2 jobs to keep myself afloat in my expensive apartment at the time. I would stay up late studying things about the industry, both as an animator and even just an illustrator in general. I felt completely lost in all of it. I was really lacking in self-confidence in those days, and I'm talking REALLY lacking in it. There wasn't anyone I knew personally who could give guidance on making it in the industry, and I was too scared to ask artists online for advice, thinking they'd ignore me or just not be interested in helping. So one night I got really desperate and decided to look up the contact info for Pixar Studios. Seriously, I was desperate. So I called them up expecting to get the answering machine, but a receptionist answered, and through my stammering and stuttering I asked if there was any way to contact artists there about guidance in the industry. They said if I was a college student I could easily apply for their internship program, but by then I'd already been out of college for 3 years, so my opportunity was too late. I felt embarrassed and disappointed from that whole experience and went to bed that night feeling depressed and thinking that my chances were gone.
I say this story is funny to me now, because I was too focused on making it in the industry that was on the other side of the country from me, and thinking that it was an "all or nothing" situation. Would I like to continue pursuing that same goal? Technically I still am, just from a different angle. But I've learned a lot on my own since then, as well as through other artists who I've had the pleasure of talking to thanks to overcoming my own mental blocks. I remind myself of that time regularly, to have that self-reminder that things can get better and that it shouldn't be a matter of "all or nothing", because you can always find alternatives and other means of going for something you want to do. And to repeat myself, I may not be in the "ideal" situation now, but it's a leg up in the right direction.
Sorry for trailing off a little bit there, but it was something I felt worth sharing.
If you read through it, I appreciate it and hope you don't mind my rambling. Haha.
'til next time folks. Stay creative!
-Brandon
