Twenty Days

There are a meager twenty days left until I venture up to the Kubert School to pick my dorm room and only a few days after that I'll be all settled in and starting my classes. The transition honestly feels strange and exhilarating; I have gone from fantasizing about 'going to art school one day' to actually hammering down and creating those opportunities, opening doors instead of waiting for them to open themselves.

When I open a D&D manual, a well rendered graphic novel, game art books or a fresh booster of the latest Magic: The Gathering set I look upon the works with awe. I see people that are heroic giants to me: Dan Dos Santos, Donato Giancola, Justin Coro Kaufman, Android Jones, Thomas Baxa and Marko Djurdjevic to name just a few. However I know they got to where they needed to be through hard work and dedication, not because they are magical or beyond the reach of normal mortals.

In the meantime I've been doing everything I possibly can to get ready - Throwing out the old, giving clothes I've outgrown to charitable organizations, buying equipment and finding storage spaces for excess art supplies. I'm also trying to tie up loose ends and finish some last few projects (mostly miniature painting) before school since my time will be limited there. I definitely want to be able to focus on my art studies with a clean slate.

Amidst the chaos, there is still something I've been making time for more than ever: painting. I am striving to work on my digital and traditional rendering skills, learning to turn the form without the use of line studying how to break everything down into planes. It fascinates me and I want more than ever to be able to be a great painter, both digital and traditional (both skills tend to feed off one another). I've also been sketching nearly nonstop, whether it's in a fancy Moleskine book or on a piece of newsprint with a grease pencil - gotta' keep the hands moving and the brain warmed up ;)

* To any fellow up and coming artists or art students out there, I urge you to check out the ArtOrder Blog. It's full of fantastic advice from working industry professionals regarding the realities of working in entertainment art/illustration/concept art. There are especially great tidbits of advice regarding putting together a winning portfolio. I mean, what could get better than a blog written by an art director for Wizards of the Coast?

That's all for now... going to finish getting some clothes together for donation and start packing excess supplies into boxes. I'm going to a Games Workshop expo tomorrow and I simply can't wait to see some of the new beautiful greens for upcoming miniatures. Let's just say sculpture is my dirty pleasure on the side... ;)

Down and Out,
P e z Z