No matter who you are or what you think of 2020, it definitely was a year to remember. And while there is an abundance of negative things that happened, I think what’s worth more is to focus on positivity and growth.
The end of 2019 was marked by the aspiration to become a librarian – a job that I found very suitable and quite fun but it would come otherwise. 2020 turned out to be a gap year at home; an orientational period without internship.
And I have to thank my orientation for shaping this year’s art journey. I was given the option to fill my portfolio with examples of different media, crafts and ideas and if it hadn’t been for my aspiration, there wouldn’t much change this year.
Right off the bat, it was clear that new grounds had to be explored, which fit to last year’s resolutions. I took a step away from anthro art and redesigned old characters, did some creature design, more landscapes and eventually dove into the fields of animation, I even started to do print designs, which was a very exciting experience!
It was a stressful time to constantly think about what would fit and not fit into my portfolio and it would affect a lot of sketches and projects in production. It was an incentive to rearrange my life in some ways; get rid of distracting elements and focus more on the process of doing what I was working on at the time.
2020 was not very eventful, thus it felt very much the same over the course of many months. It could be that it felt quick but any more than what 2019 felt like? Ah, that expression just gets old. Anyway, I was happy that still with the pandemic around, I managed to meet some friends and family, do small things here and there and go out to a restaurant when it was possible.
Other than that, there are a couple of things that happened apart from my art-related stuff: for example, I stopped buying meat products apart from some fish and only ate it for special occasions. This small change resulted in a very refreshing diet that caused me to lose 7kg over the year (which I won’t miss), even more if it wasn’t for the Christmas candy xD
Though the most important change would be that I got accepted at university, which means that I’ll be entering a new part of life in March next year.
This is just the good round-up that I needed personally to call it a year, which thankfully turned out to have mattered and that I can prepare and make new experiences for the world of work. Since February, have I been working for this and it means a lot to me that my endeavours have paid off. Now I can focus on this new stage in a new home around new people.
The most imminent change ahead, however, is that I’ll take another break from social media websites, including this one in order to focus on improving. My preparations for my portfolio as well as the admission exam in early December have shaken up my workflow quite a bit and it caused me to rethink my style and workflow once I finished the more classical of my artworks.
And this is where my plans for the following year 2021 begin:
Upon tomorrow, I will drop my lazy festive attitude and come back to the routine I once prepared in September, where I begin with some figure drawings for warm-up and go over to some exercise as well as experiments to get used to some new methods of working digitally.
Perhaps I will be having a side project to tailor a skillset to and improve mine accordingly. Maybe I’ll even post them here, who knows!
Until the beginning of March, I should have my things sorted out to move to a flat share near the campus, where I’ll settle in and start studying if everything goes according to plan…
IF everything goes according to plan. It is yet unknown whether or not the virus will alter the schedule and proportion of the classes I’ll have to take, but here’s hoping that the situation has relaxed until then.
My New Year’s resolutions are basically to improve and expand my skillset.
More specifically; I wish to get more painterly and make my use of body posture and expressions more effective. Rendering materials and getting a better understanding at light and shapes. I took a few steps into the right direction this year, especially with the pieces Cynemar and the Alien Sketch collection, so more in that direction please :3
As to what I wanna make; the core worldbuilding around Souvillaine and the other spirits and demons has been critically neglected, I wanna go there further, which is a nice opportunity to get back into writing, which I also neglected.
Let’s seee…
Tending to the skills i have acquired this year would also be very nice. Animation is a field I currently enjoy very much, in the print-sector, will have to wait for some inspiration. Designing an own poster and hanging up on my wall would be a great goal to achieve. I think I almost got there but I want to achieve a near perfect result until i can dedicate a place on my wall for it.
Lastly, I want to fulfil my traditions. Meaning I want to do my fruit-hat piece, want to attend to Art Fight and do as many birthday animations as possible. Hopefully I can get all this studying done and still have time for some personal projects.
Gosh I think that’s enough, right? Please tell me your plans and resolutions for 2021, I’ll see to reply in a break of my break :3
So I do wish you all a Happy New Year, hopefully better than this one.
Sincerely,
~Souvillaine