Coming into my own

I've never been one to focus on my personal development outside of Uni and the work environment and haven't ever made the time too. But with intentially restricting my freelance work take on, and getting my head down while at college, I've had alot more free time to just research into artists, refine and realise my personal tastes alot more and get to know whats going on right now.

I was spurred on to do this after finding out so much more then the obvious about some of my favourite artists writing my contextual studies essay. It was so nice to find out that they had all had pretty similar stages of career and achievement that I have at this age, it was comforting to know I was doing things write.

It also make me really look at the way the focussed, structured their work process and methods, and prioritized and organized then goals and aspirations from a young age. I am still not dead set on a particular avenue in design that I'd liketo take and put my stamp on, I'm a perfectionist and would like to be skilled in many different ways. My illlustrative skills are strong, aswell as my Photoshop knowledge and design eye, but there is still so much more I want to learn. I've only lightly touched on Illustrator, and as big of a fan of typographical design as I am, I'm am SO interested on what that design application could offer me and what stuff it could help me come up with. Vectorized design and design elements are very current and apparent in design right now, so I've downloaded myself a copy of the Adobe program ready to experiment and get on with!

I've also been drawing and illustrating alot more. I really enjoy completing celebrity portraits and working on achieving realism and likeness, but lately I've been trying to not overthink my hand strokes and think about likeness and technique too much. It's been more about the overall look, the colour, the materials and just having more fun with my work. And scanning it and playing with my work about more on the computer too. I feel this helping my mind know my strengths and personal drawing style more with each sketch.

I think person development in and outside of college really help eachother out, and is something I will continue to make sure to do. I feel myself really coming into my own in terms of knowing my style, where I want to go, how to approach more types of briefs and complete current, quality work.