Sunday, March 22, 2015

Sketch a Day Challenge Video Series

Just uploaded up my complete series of the Sketch a Day Challenge now on Youtube.  Oddly, I found some of my earlier videos to be missing, including my channel art.  Then I remembered that I have 2 channels on Youtube, one being for my artwork alone. I've simply uploaded them to both and just in case, changed my password. My video editing isn't the best but I've included soundtracks to listen to with watching the slideshows of my year's worth of sketches.

So, here's the links: www.youtube.com/user/CrystaliumJMC / www.youtube.com/channel/UCYtg6Gsg6plCMiqahOzS7mA

Haven't done much sketching lately since taking a full-time temp job currently, 2-hour commutes via local transit and all.  There's only 2 more weeks of it left and then I'll be job-hunting again (unless my  temp agency has another job for me soon after).  I got a few things to keep busy with if I don't get anything right away, especially with the Spring rolling in now.  Looking forward to riding on my bike again.

Friday, March 6, 2015

SDC: Day 365 (FINAL DAY!!!)

Pip the Pirate Genie, Un-Bandanaed (From Jake and the Neverland Pirates)

Well, this is the final day of the yearly challenge I've gave myself one year ago today.  Since the beginning of the challenge, I had considerably made a regular practice to draw more things than normal.  That's part of the reason why I've started this challenge, the other was to show that I could do this for a living.  Some of my family had thought that I wasn't getting anywhere with this.  That's was for the most part because I had been trying to get a steady permanent job as a fallback in case that I couldn't get much income from my artistic experience.  Since discovering Ontario Works and taking on more temp jobs instead of permanent ones, I found myself thinking that I should just go into finding jobs with my art skills now.  I've actually did a book illustration job recently in January; the deadline was crazy for the work that was asked of me but I enjoyed it more or less.

The challenge had gave me some insight about what you can go drawing or doodling about.  Some days I had found myself stumped, not from having nothing to draw but from picking what was worth drawing about.  Sometimes it took a few light scribbles on the paper to make them resemble something to spark some inspiration to draw.  Sometimes it took some reading from a newspaper, a book or an online site to make your creative juices flow.  It isn't so much about capturing the objects' likeness but the story about it.  You can draw stick figures to narrate a story and it can still be a good work because it can tell the idea/concept behind it or at least get people to think about what new revelations it introduces to others.  Art in the most part is about conveying an idea or a notion of a concept to others through various media, actions  and materials around us.  Again, check out the book, "Steal Like An Artist" by Austin Kleon; it's a good book to help you work through "creative blocks" and get some perspectives.

While I loved having my creative juices flowing, I did eventually wanted to do more finalized works than just filling in a quota of drawings.  I got some of my earlier sketches turned into finals, but it would be better to make things more in-depth than simple pieces that look more novelty.   So why this is the end of the Sketch a Day Challenge, it won't be the last of sketches that I'll post up here.  I guess every week or three, if I make a drawing that really something, I'll share it with you.  For now, I'm focusing more on artist jobs and employment in general, especially since I need to start supporting myself more than with social services.  Come Spring this year, I work on my overall health too.  Many positive changes to come this year I hoping for.

Lastly for those who haven't check it out yet, I've assembled a montage of slideshow videos on my Sketch a Day Challenge.  You can view them in quarterly sections on my Youtube Channel: CrystaliumJMC.  I'll be trying to include more of my artwork to the channel in the future somehow.

This was a good challenge for me to do.  In fact, if any artists out there who would like to take on this challenge or might had done so already,  please leave a comment or message.  A link to the work or tell me your experience during/after the challenge.  I would love to hear what kind of impact it had on you.

Thanks to everyone who visited year-round.  Please continue to drop-by once in a while.