2014 was an amazing year. I got into my first relationship at the end of 2013, and it's still going strong. I lived in Germany as an exchange student. I prepared for college.
But you don't care about that! Here, have some art stuff!
Dang straight! 2014 was, as the kids say, a "hella" year for art.
(I consulted a swear professional, it's not a swear despite its etymology, it's a quote, don't kick me)I started 2014 doing almost nothing in terms of actual art. I was working on a 3D model of the man made of gold that I ended up putting on pause. I had personal obligations for the first few months, then it was all studying for finals. The art department accepted me into AP Studio Art for the 2014-2015 school year as their first digital art student, despite not meeting the course prerequisites of three semesters of
drawing and painting (I had only done one in freshman year). I ordered a replacement laptop screen (since I had broken mine while trying to fix a tablet pen detection issue), but it didn't arrive in time for me to take my laptop to Germany.
When I came back and repaired my laptop, I only had two weeks left until four AP-quality pieces were due for presentation on the first day of my senior year. To top it off, I would spend a week and a half of those two weeks on the road, on one last trip for summer vacation.
I began to pursue the digital illustration style I had always sought after, taking inspiration from
glitchedpuppet and other artists I had long admired and aspired to surpass in skill. Apparently I had picked up many skills in the seven months without my tablet, because I churned out better quality than I've ever managed on anything else. In those four weeks, I cranked out
Strike!,
Island Discovery,
Surprise!, and
Dawn on a Hill, although they were only around 80% done by my deviantart standards. I entered AP Studio art and began to impress my teacher and classmates, and I started work on several new pieces while I simultaneously worked on improving my summer pieces for online consumption.
I've improved in innumerable areas.
What's Next?
I have sketches for five new pieces and almost-finished WIPs for three. Plus, my senior project is a full-fledged animation! How cool is that? I've got some test animations to upload here, and some reference sheets of some characters I'm resurrecting from my middle school days. Exciting!
I'll be picking up my art schedule to stay in sync with AP Studio Art, so expect more, and expect something different.
After all that's done, I have summer. Who knows what I'm going to do! Vacation with family? Personal road trip to visit all my online friends? Go to Japan with my girlfriend? Sit at home and prepare for college? Choices! Decisions! I'm an adult!
Then there's college. That'll be an adventure. It'll be a less fun adventure if I'm not accepted into any of the 7 CSU's I've submitted applications to, but that honestly seems unlikely. The interesting part will be figuring out how I'll be settling in and paying to get by. My dad continues to laugh at the idea of me working, but then again, if he does so enough, I'll be able to blame him for my failure.
ManMadeOfGold?!?!
Alas, consistency between my accounts is important! As formal and professional as AaronProductions sounded, I'm neither a company nor someone to sink permanently to levels of username creativity that low. ManMadeOfGold is original, has a ring to it, is the name of a character of mine, and reflects positively on my self-esteem, as if people needed any more reminders of how high that is. To change my username, I needed a premium membership, so yeah! I have one of those again! I used to get 12-month ones every winter, but a while back I predicted (correctly) that I wouldn't be hanging out on deviantart as much. I'm back for a more rooted stay, though, and now I'll get to make use of my widget-consistent journal skins again. All is well.
