Where the art at?

For being a graphic design major, I sure haven't been allowed to do a lot of interesting graphic design yet. Thankfully that's starting to change, but I'm sure it will still be at least a year before I'm being made to take on truly interesting projects.

Meanwhile in the present, school is indeed stripping me of free time. I have yet to perfect my time management to the point of having consistent time to relax and consistent time to work on personal projects. Usually it's one or the other, and for the sake of getting enough sleep I tend to opt for the former. Nonetheless, I have made some changes to my future art plans which may be of interest to those likely to actually read this journal.

From now on, I'm trying to stick to exactly one project at a time, to see it to completion, since for at least four years now I've been jumping between projects based on my fluctuating interest and free time, and as a result there is a lot still in limbo, and very little to show.

At the moment, I'm working on programming a web-based RPG game engine of my own design, which I will use to create a small demo. Afterwards, I'll release it for free.

When that's all done, I'm continuing down a path I've set for myself in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of and set of skills related to game programming, which will go as follows:

1.) Javascript RPG engine
2.) Javascript or C++/openGL platforming engine
3.) A full C++/openGL game

Working on it so far has been fun and a good learning experience. For anyone with a background in HTML who wants to get into the basics of game programming, or even those starting fresh, I highly recommend javascript and HTML5 canvas.

Right, but what about actually making art

I would like to take on a regular art schedule in the future. One good piece a week is the dream. Two weeks is the realistically attainable dream, and once a month is what will happen if I only kind of do what I say I'm going to do, and then keep kicking myself for not doing it more. Really though, just about anything's better than my current rate.

I've made some art over the past year which I haven't deemed fit to put on deviantart. I'm not really sure what standards I'm living up to anymore, maybe I need some kind of topical consistency or relevance so that I don't subject my watchers to the weird little ephemeral pieces I make. Then again, maybe I really shouldn't care so much and should just post art.

I'd like to get back into making little pieces with flat shading, since I got that down to a science years ago and then just moved on for some reason. My more painterly style requires many hours of work to be put into it by comparison, and I don't have any real art project to which to devote myself. The man made of gold is slowly nearing a finished visual refresh to put him more in line with his original design, at which point I might be comfortable actually doing something with him. I have a few new worlds and characters with which I have yet to do anything of substance, and a few older ones which need more attention. I'm also really interested in creating posters for films.

Conclusion

All in all though, and pretty obviously, what I choose to do will depend heavily on my free time. I do a pretty good job of squandering what 6-8 hours of non-school and non-work time I get a day, so I need to get that figured out. To be fair, some of that goes to things like eating food, cleaning, and general responsibilities. I still need to do better. If I'm lucky, a regular art schedule will slowly emerge by around April. Stay tuned for the inevitable journal in six months explaining why that did not happen. Or maybe, things will be different. We'll see.