Sketchbooks . . .

What is it about sketchbooks that makes me hate them so?

Is it the blank pages staring up at me?  Is it paperwork or is it the endless possibilities?

Let me tell you all about my sketchbook problem . . . The problem is that I hate doing sketchbooks!  Most all of my classes require one per semester.  At least one hundred pages, most of the time more. I see you looking at me and judgin'.  "One hundred or more?  For a whole semester? That's nothing Alisha, you crazy!"

I've got a real problem, guys.  And I'm talking about it tonight because Finals start tomorrow and my 200 page sketchbook is due . . . you guessed it, tomorrow.

I had great plans at the beginning of the semester to be so on top of this sketchbook.  A certain amount every day and then some extra on the weekends resulting in an early finish.  So if I had it all planned out why am I stressing so much the night before?

I've got issues.

Issues with consistency; and that's a real problem when you're trying to become an artist (or pretty much anything else I'm almost sure).  There's something about doing the same thing over and over again every single day that brings this black cloud over my head and a weight on my shoulders.

Now with sketchbooks, I know consistency is especially important.  You gotta keep up those drawing and observational skills.  So many teachers and professional artists have pounded this into my head.  This is the one thing above anything else that will help you succeed in life as an artist.

I know it all in my heart, but my head fights me (or is it the other way around?).  One of my professors, Don Seegmiller, has said something time and again that gives me hope.  He explained that when he first started art as a career that it felt like drudgery as well.  It wasn't his passion, but after a lot of hard work and a lot of time it became his passion.  It went from a chore to a habit that he loved.

So rationally, I know that right now it feels like drudgery, but I know that given time it will become my one passion.  It's the time thing that's getting me (I'm so impatient).  So right now I hate sketchbooks, but I gotta keep plodding along and working through it and eventually you'll never see me without one.

So how about you guys?  What are your experiences with sketchbooks? Love 'em?  Hate 'em?  Any fantastic advice that has really helped you and might help me?

Till next week -

- Alisha

 

 

Why is This Dungeon Full of Potholes?

I want to start off my new blog with a subject that has really hit home this semester:  Determination.

"the quality of being resolute; firmness of purpose." (Thanks dictionary.com)

I think this is a quality that all artists need in abundance, especially beginning artists like myself.  I remember when I was younger (pfft, like ten years ago) when I loved to draw anything that would come to my head.  I had these stories that would just play out and I wanted them out on paper.

That love led me to going to college to pursue a degree in illustration.  School is like a dungeon in a Zelda game; all sorts of obstacles, puzzles, and opponents get in the way of your goal with the express purpose of making you quit before you reach the end.

School has been trying to kill off the love that spawned in my heart all those years ago.

Learning is fantastic, and I've certainly learned and improved all these long years at school, but school is also kind of like working in a warehouse putting labels on bottles all day (Where did you get that comparison? Trust me when I say you do not want that job), it will get monotonous and tedious and try and break you down.

That is why determination is critical.

Determination to plow through.  Determination to finish that goal.  To improve yourself.

Determination to dig your nails into that love of yours and never ever let it slip from your grasp.

Here's a quote that I love (Miranda Meeks shared it with me, ya'll should check her out: http://mirandameeks.com/) and sorry for the lengthy-ness:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”   - Ira Glass (emphasis was totes added by me)

I feel like my work improves the most when I feel like everything is trying to bring it down (including myself).  Why is that? Probably because my mule stubbornness grows exponentially with the crap that's thrown at me.

Is it all fun and rainbows? Nope.  But maybe that's apart of why I love it.

Fin

P.S. (Here is my portfolio that I used to apply into the Illustration program at Utah Valley University (more on that subject later); it's not the best, but hey, it's mine.)