Introduction
My creative journey was the story of me overcoming the obstacles in my life to finally get on the road to become an artist. This journey covers my childhood showing when I first started creating comics and other artist projects, to the downfall that was my teen years where I shunned art thanks to pressures of where I grew up, and finally to my young adult life where I finally got the courage to chase after my dreams.
Materials
Hardware: iPhone, PC, sketch pad, pens, pencils
Software: Adobe Illustrator
Platforms: Creative Cloud, Behance, Adobe Sparks
Process
I started this project with a planning my work out, starting with answering the questions provided to us to help narrow down the points of discussion for the video and get my story to start to flow in my head.
From here I moved on to creating the imagery I was looking to use, as I am more visual in general and having images down would help me plan what I wanted to say and when.
I created the imagery mostly by hand as I was not having the best luck with Adobe Draw and I personally enjoy drawing on paper more than drawing digitally. With all the art assists completed I went into creating my storyboard. I made sure to keep it simple, just add major points I wanted to cover to each image. I did this instead of creating a traditional script as I felt it would sound much more natural if I was restricted to pre-written words, instead just using the storyboard as cue cards to keep me on topic.
With the completion of the story board I then started to do my voice recording, I saved this until last as I wanted to most time to work on it as I am not well versed with using auto soft wear and I am not the biggest fan of how my voice sounds once recorded.
With all the components completed I edited them into my final video and published the video, and my final step was creating a project in behance with all of my creative process and my completed video.
After publishing the video, i added it on my behance project.
Audience
People who want to think they can’t get into art because they are too big, too old or just expected to do something else. Ages 18 and up
Purpose
Inspire people to break free of what they feel they must do and go after what they want to do.
Importance
I want to tell my story to show people that just because you haven’t always gone after your dream it does not mean you can’t start over, not matter your age.
Tone
Friendly, upbeat and conversational, with small hints of sadness.
Past
Who/What were your earliest creative influences and why were they so important to you?
My greatest influences growing up where cartoons, in my young eyes the images on screen where colourful and fun. This made me want to create them myself, and what stated me towards creating my own comic.
What was your earliest memory of a creative accomplishment that you were proud of?
My most vivid memory of creative accomplishment was not some award or prize winning with my art, no it was the completion of my first comic book, way back in grade 5, sure I didn’t win any money or awards but having all my friends see my superheroes brought to life on the pages and loving it was good enough for me.
Who/What stood in the way of your creativity and how did you prevail against them/it?
What stood in my way the most was not really a something or even one someone on but the pressure of the town I grew up in. As a big guy I was expected to play sport, date popular girls and end up in a dead end manual labor job in my home town. This pressure almost beat me and is one of the major reasons I am starting my creative journey so late in life. What help me through was the support of my family, they may not understand why I want to get into art, or much about why I do anything I do in general, but they told me to stop caring about the rest of the world and start doing things for me. This inspiration took a little while to sink in, but it got me back on track.
What was your area of interest and why?
My biggest area of interest is character design, for video games, comics or even for toys. The act of using my skills to bring someone to life and joy to kids and adults like me is something I love and can’t imagine not doing.
Which experiences, interests or knowledge from your earlier life prepared you for pursuit of your current area of interest?
When it comes to what Has prepared me for my pursuit I don’t have a lot of artist course backing me up, honestly, I even dropped out of my high school art course. So, most of the artistic skills I have are from my own personal learning. For me its not my skills in art that I am using to prepare me for my area of interest its my experience of what life is like when you’re not doing what you love. I have spent most of my life trying to be someone else, trying to please everyone else, and trying to be happy with what the world let me have. But that just made me measurable, and taught me that being someone you’re not, and letting the world give you things is not how you will be happy. You must go after what you want, you must do what makes you happy. It’s the lesson that had created my drive and will be the most helpful in my area of interest. In addition, I also have a large amount of knowledge about character creation, comics, toy and video games from both my youth and adult lives that will help me be great at my area of interest.
Which singular event in your past most affected your decision to pursue your area of interest?
The event of my past the most effect my decision was when I was living on my own, doing a job I hated, in a crappy apartment, and was all together at my lowest point. This event made me want more out of life and since I was at my lowest I knew all I could to was go up from there.
Present
How have your interests affected your life as a whole (family, friends, where you live)?
My interest has affected my life in several ways, firstly it is the reason I am in the GTA, it was school that drove me here and the love of art and the big city that keeps me here. It has also shaped my friendships for as long as I remember as I have always been drawn to creative people or people into the platforms I want to create for. The one thing it has not affected much is my family, other then the odd bad joke about the starving artist.
Where do you see yourself five years from now?
In 5 years I hope to have completed, both a game design program and the concept art program and be stating my search for a job as a concept artist for a major game studio.
What are your next steps after finishing the foundation program?
My next steps are, getting into game art, and keeping myself at the top of the class and get admission into concept art after the game art program.
Fg1. This image is of the creation of one of my slides that I created by hand.
Fg2. This image is a picture of the completed 4 slides I made by hand for my journey.
Fg3. This image is of me assembling the final slide-show for the final video.
Conclusion
This type of story telling is a very interesting way to both show an artist skill and heart. It was a project that really allowed me to put all my thoughts on my life and journey thus far into a piece that I can show the world. A piece that shows both the good and the bad about my life but with an overall positive feeling. I hope that my story will help others see that bumps in the roads are only slow you down and won’t stop you unless you let them. This project was challenging for me when it comes to working with audio but was over all a nice challenge with a nice result.
