Basically, I am working hard at my day job, so the pace of piece creation has definitely fallen to pre-2007 levels due to physical exhaustion @_@. I expect things to be a little bit quiet the next few weeks, but with so much of my schedule all over the place, I think it's going to be hard to do updates weekly. (We'll see!)

Anime Expo ([link]) is steadily approaching, and I have my plane ticket, so it seems official to me now . I should have word on AWA in the next week or so, and that will be cool if that ends up on the calendar.

For those who read this, I still want some input on original works to print out for AX. I'm considering at least bringing large photo prints of the fairy-tale related works to put in art show, but don't know if I should just hold off ordering extras at "regular sizes" .


On who I am as an artist and where I am going
In a way, I'm having fun these days because I finally am returning to traditional media. I turned to digital media because I wasn't getting the color saturation I wanted out of regular media and because I was such a messy sketcher and embraced the digital media because it allowed me to clean my work at various stages.

These days, though, I think I'm finding a process that works for me or the patience to be neater. I find it gratifying to finally be able to do work on regular paper that is of good quality, although there's still a long way to go.

Part of this desire to switch back though has to do with addressing the problems of digital art. I guess I feel that I need to show that I am actually capable of "real drawing" and have works that aren't solely the result of endless "undo" or clever incorporation of existing material. I encounter more and more cynicism these days with digital art and its integrity. This attitude, unfortunately, is due to the bad behaviors of popular online artists who haven't always been forthcoming with their techniques or "misrepresented" their work to be solely their own.

This too, is why I have been trying to keep my time committed to both fan and original concepts. I've been trying to make sure that I am able to show that I can develop something on my own, and learn how to be more than just a technician or someone who portrays only what's popular. I'm hoping that my work will start to really have its own ability to stand on its own and show creativity.

By this time next year, I want to have a lot of things to pick from to put together in a hybrid art/prose work . But as I move in that general direction, I'm still not sure what my overall objective will be yet. As an artist, I'm not sure that my goals are concrete when it comes to where I want to be in five years. Is it to master various artistic media so that I can render whatever is in my head in order to evoke emotions from other people? Or is my goal to be able to more powerfully create and have my voice compete effectively with others ? Or am I trying to make a portfolio that represents work from a purely business/client type of sense?

That's what I've been challenged to think about more.

Photo gallery and journal
[link]

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Conventions I'll be scaring in 2008
Megacon - Done!
Momocon - I survived
AX - Confirmed
AWA - Registration submitted. Statusending.

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