Looking Back, Does it Get Better?

When you look uphill, you only see those who have gotten further than you. In order to get to where they are, you have to keep going. Whether you start to run, jog, or crawl, you have to keep moving to get to where they were. One of my problems is that I stop moving and just stare uphill. I look at how far the people before me have gotten, I look to see the next plateau and I looked to see where the top is located. I could say I stopped to strategize, but that is not always the case.

It is very rare that I look behind me to see how far I've traveled and compliment myself on my progress. For some reason I feel like that is settling and I don't want to be content until I've reached the top or a specific plateau. What or where is the plateau is something I don't know.

So what is my point? I've always wanted to get better at drawing, but I don't feel like I am getting better. In junior high school, I took art for 3 years. I had two different teachers that told me I had potential. In high school, I had my art teacher tell me I had potential. Again in college, it was mandatory to take an art class and my art teacher told me I had potential and asked if I would want to take her advanced class. I had considered majoring in art before starting college, but I knew most of the people who were majoring in art were extremely talented and had been drawing for years. I went to art centered open houses and felt I could not compete with the other students or get into a program, so i pushed the thought out of my mind.

After changing majors and colleges, I settled on Computer Information systems. While in under grad, I dated an Architect. I told him about my love of art and design and how I found his profession inspiring. He told me that I was too technical and would never make it as an artist. There was no sugar coating, he said it as blunt as that. I'm not sure if he said it to make me try to work harder to prove him wrong (he lives his life very much like a drama TV series) or because he really meant it.

Years later I shocked myself when I got into a graduate program in an art university. I had to submit a portfolio of, I believe 12-20 items and my shitty art made it through! But because life happens, I only completed one year of school and never had the time or strength to finish grad school. I do plan on finishing one day, but I believe I will switch my major, it's what I do. My grad school major was ... actually the name changed while I was in the program. It was called something like Computer Arts/New Media and now it is called Web Design and New Media. I don't feel like that degree is necessary anymore and I would like to change to something else like Game Design, Filmmaking or Animation. If I re-enroll under any of those degrees I am going to have to step my skills up because they are not related to my current career and I will need to study just to be on the level of my classmates.

So I was sorting through my photos and I saw some screenshots I took in March 2012 from the game "Draw Something". I use to like playing that game but my friends tend to get tired of games quick (or they just get tired of playing with me). Looking at the screen shots, I'm kind of a tiny bit impressed at how I was able to draw the word. They aren't the greatest drawing, but for drawing on an iPod without a stylist in a short time span, they look decent.

Sometimes I drew the word well but the person guessing ... I'm not sure what they were thinking.

I found a new app called "DrawQuest". It sends a word or phrase each day and you have to draw a picture to represent the word. It is set up more like a feed. You have your own feed and you can follow others and their drawings show up on your home page. I just started getting use to it and I received an email stating they are shutting down.

I was going to use that app as a way of drawing more often or at least getting inspiration in my pocket. Sometimes I get a burst of inspiration to draw, but that doesn't come often enough. So now I need another plan. I wont get any better if I am not active. I need to make a goal or a project for myself. I know my limits and those 365 projects are too time consuming. The 52 weeks projects are easier, but I have a job that has me working more than 40 hours a week, so I tend to be too tired to remember anything beside eating and sleeping. Maybe I'll try a 26 week project; meaning I will have to post at least once every other week. It's a baby step and the thing that matters is that I just keep moving and not standing still and staring up at the mountain.

It's That Time of Year Again

When winter comes around, I tend to feel the need to crochet. This is similar to when summer comes around I feel the need to read more books. I don't know if this is a personal habit or social conditioning. I should try to condition myself to draw more during the spring and Autumn. Then I will have the majority of my hobbies that I feel I don't do enough because they compete with others covered.

I started making the hat above in the beginning of December. I started it a while ago but unraveled a bunch of it and started over to make it a puff stich hat.

I finished it a few weeks ago and started to make an Infinity scarf. 

I made the mistake of using thin yarn for a design the requires me to dip into the row below to make two rows into a set. The first 10 rows or so took up 2.5 skeins of yarn. I also made the mistake of making the scarf super long forgetting that since I am using organic yarn, it will stretch when I wash it. Just somethings I had to learn and remember for next time.

I will be too happy when this is done because it is starting to get boring. I keep thinking about starting another project but I know this will go unfinished for a while if I don't stick with it.

The day after my birthday I had a dentist appt and decided to head to the yarn store afterwards. The yarn store is about 50+ blocks away and I wanted to walk most of way there but it was too wet and rainy. I ended up only walking 22 blocks before I gave up and took the train the rest if the way.

I think I went a little over board. I only needed to get 4 more skeins to finish the scarf but decided to stock up on yarn and other crochet tools. I already had about 5 or 6 skeins of yarn (maybe more). I think I have enough yarn to last me the rest of the winter.

Summer Fridays: 8-17-13

Summer Fridays: 8-17-13 from Ulina on Vimeo.

(text from the description on Vimeo)

This is a video I made one afternoon on a Summer Friday*.

Do you see the guy in the first clip sitting on the bench to the left? He is old school. What I mean by old school is that he had a pile of sheet music with lyrics, a walkman and a stack of tapes. Yes i said a walkman and tapes. He was listening and singing the music out loud.

At first I thought about moving but then I thought it was actually refreshing. Plus I didn't want him to feel alienated as if he was doing something wrong or weird. He was listening to songs from the 50's or 60's. One of the songs he sang was a song from the Movie Dirty Dancing. He sang another song that sounded like the Food Emporium song.

*Summer Friday is when a company gives their employees a half day or the whole day off on Fridays during the summer. The employees usually have to make up the hours during the earlier part of the week.

I Started Sketching Again

I'm doing a book challenge again this year. I'm trying to read 20 books and I am way behind. I'm currently reading about 8 books but I only finished one and it's the beginning of July. I was trying to finish the book "The Art of Disney Brave" since I started It last year. I was actually inspired to draw. I say it like that because I have not been inspired to do anything in a very very long while. I kept stopping to draw things I saw in the book and these are two of the things I drew. 

One of my issues is that I can't seem to draw from my own imagination well. It's like the picture in my brain is too fuzzy or keeps changing to use it as a reference. If I look at a photo or another drawing, I can draw a some what decent-ish looking replica. It's very frustrating and I understand practice makes perfect but this had been going on for years.

I enjoyed the book not only because I like the movie but because they explain the process of making a concept turn into a feature cg animated movie. There is a lot of collecting real life examples and research that is done for animated movies. Don't be fooled into thinking that cg animated movies don't need traditional artist because there is a lot of drawing, character building and fleshing out concepts that are done on paper way before the first cg model is created. 

I just bought the book "The Art of Blue Sky Epic" and hopefully I like it as much and get inspired to sketch again.

Oops

So apparently I am missing 14 weeks of photos for my 52 weeks project. The problem is not that I didn't take photos. The issue is more that I've taken photos, but never put in the time to select and upload one or I took photos that week but not any photos meant to better my photography skills. The photos were random photos or I was taking photos to document something.

I get so reluctant about uploading photos because I want them to be the best photos I can take and not just anything, but of course that holds me back from doing anything. This doesn't even matter anyway because I end up hating most of the stuff I upload.

Ugh. I'm going to try to set time aside every day this week to at least select which photos I am going to upload and check to see if I am really missing photos for a week. I even created a spreadsheet! I dislike the fact that I had to make a spreadsheet because that takes the fun out of it but if I want to commit to this year long project, I think I have to be formal and structured about this @_@.

Week 2 - 4

So I've managed to take photos each week but failed to upload them during the week they belong too. Along as the photo was taken during the correct time period, it still counts. Below are photo from week 2, 3 and 4. Click on the photos to read the story behind each photo.


Craftsmanship (week 2)


Water Water Everywhere (week 3)


Masala Dosa (week 4)

52 Weeks Projects

I love photography and love taking photos, but that is hard to tell by looking at the amount of photos I took and uploaded last year. My current job is very stressful and I spend a lot of time working nights and weekends. On top of that, I have a lot of sick family members and a few that passed away last year. To sum it up, last year was a horrible, horrible year for me. I stopped taking photos, I can't remember the last time I sketched anything, I stopped reading, I failed to meet my reading goal for last year and I have not even touched my crochet needle in a very long time.

I want this year to be a much brighter year. I need to make time to do things that I like, love or bring joy to my life. I would have liked to participate in the 365 project, but I think that is too much for me right now. So I'm doing the 52 week project.

Anyone can do the 52 week project. The project can be started at any time of the year. You don't have to start it at the beginning of the year. You just have to keep at it for 52 weeks. It is meant as a way to get better at your particular craft, stir your creative juices and to join in with others who are doing the same thing. While doing a sketch a week would be an easier choice, I chose to take and upload a photo once a week.

Below is the photo I took for week one. I actually, I forgot about the project and had to upload the only photo I took that week.



My aunt's birthday was the second day of the year. She passed away last year. I usually makes cupcakes for her on her birthday, so this year I bought her favorite kind in her honor and said a little prayer.

So today starts week four. I took photos for week two and week three. I just haven't had the time to choose the best ones and upload them. Maybe I'll do it in the next couple of days.