Had you asked me a year ago to do the things I have done in the past year or had you asked me where I would be in a year, I never would have imagined what I have done and how far I have come at Full Sail. I can not believe that I have completed a full year at Full Sail and when I think back to my very first day it is amazing how far I have come in such a short amount of time. I am 1/3rd of the way done with my Bachelor of Science in Game Art and at the pace it is going, I am sure the next two years will breeze by. I am so proud of myself for the grades I have gotten and the networking I have done. I am still rocking the straight A’s, which when I think of some of the classes I have had so far and the amount I had to do in 1 month per class, I am blown away at my own work ethic and determination to maximize my opportunity here. I am trying to have patience with myself as well. I have learned to not stress as much over grades. I have learned to just do my very best and work hard and the grades will reflect that. Also it is hard hearing about all the job postings at the places I want to work knowing I still have 2 years to go.

My favorite part of Full Sail so far, has been when they bring in people (Rock Stars) of the industry in to speak to us about what is going on in their position. Especially when they are Full Sail Alumni and even Hall of Famers. It feels good hearing and seeing someone who sat in the very chairs I am sitting in and taking the very courses I am in, telling me to keep at it and at the end, if you work your hardest, network, and get your name out there, “it is possible”. Of course they do not sugar coat it and they tell us it isn’t easy, but it is up to you to get it done. So that’s what I have been doing. Even with this very blog I have had industry professionals take notice. I am thankful for that.

I am looking forward to the classes I have coming up. The best part about my choice to go “extended” (one class a month), I get to make friends with people and they move forward into classes that I will soon be taking, so I get to hear all about what I have in store for me. It has helped prepare me for what to look forward to and especially the art classes, prepare for my projects. Also I am very happy that I can focus on one class at a time. I have fellow peers who I watch completely freak out because they are doing “accelerated” (two classes a month) and they have double the work load. I am thankful for that. I feel that extra time I have reflects in my work as well.

So, here is what I have been up to in the past few months.

I can not tell you how happy I was to get a 97.96 in College Mathematics! I was very nervous about Math as it has never been a strong class for me and I had not done algebra in soo long. But hard work, studying, and a lot of getting it wrong taught me to keep trying and you will get it.

Shading and Lighting I actually got a 95.05% because I was not credited for my extra credit I did in the class. This was a good class but not my forte so far. We learned how to light a scene to make it look realistic.

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Then I had Methods of Design which was an AWESOME class. I got to make all kinds of stuff for this class. I found that I really enjoy working with my hands and creating tangible things. Things that can be touched and picked up. Using my art eye was so much fun to create and see things come to life. The best part of this class is that I kicked some serious butt and got my very first Course Directors Award which basically means I was the top in my class.

This may not look like a lot but let me tell you when I walked into class on the last day to pick up all my graded work, this meant the world to me. I was in shock. It is actually the second great thing that has happened to me in Full Sail. First being when My artwork was featured on the walls.

This was another great part of this class, a 99.64!! WOW! I am so proud of myself as this was a difficult class especially when I had a week-long vacation to Vegas, Grand Canyon, Sedona AZ, and Ft. Lauderdale FL. But I did get some work done while in Ft. Lauderdale. It was actually a great break to have from art.

Here are a few of my projects I made

This is my re-make of Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist Composition (blue rectangle over the red beam) which was painted in 1916 and sold for 60 million dollars. The assignment was to choose a piece of art that we hated and reimagined it the way we would have done it.

The Original

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5 Sided Tetrahedra

noun, plural tet·ra·he·drons, tet·ra·he·dra [te-truh–hee-druh].
Geometry . a solid contained by four plane faces; a triangular pyramid.

My next project was we had to create something out of cardboard that showed a good use of Positive Space and also Negative space. I choose to make a 5 sides Tetrahedra. This is actually 5 pyramids that are all interlocked with each other. This was gonna be a serious endeavor that I did not realize would be so challenging yet so fun.

Pre-Production

Going Full Size

Painting and Construction

Final

This was such a fun project to do. I decided after I started construction to go with a 3 sided Tetrahedra that way it showed more negative space. With a 5 sided Tetrahedra it would have not given me any negative space at all to show and that probably would have effected my grade. I did also start to make one out of paper to get how the construction worked before going full size. But WOW! I think it turned out amazing and it was all made with just cardboard.

This was two projects in one, I had to do an abstract along with a sculpture out of green foam. First we had to pick a household item, I choose an XBOX 360 Live Camera. We then had to sketch out close ups to try to make it an abstract look. Then once we came up with those we picked one that we liked and did it in full size and color. I choose to do mine in colored pencils which I am finding I really enjoy working with. Once we completed that we then had to carve out the item in Green Foam. This is the green foam that fake flowers are shoved into to keep them upright. What a fun project and I was a little apprehensive to work in this medium because I did not know how it would react. I found out it was very east to work with if you just used your hands and fingers. No tools, tools simple break it apart, when using your hands you can slowly mold it to what ever shape you like. Here is some of the pictures of my work.

Sketchbook Pro all done on my computer and Wacom Tablet

Final

Green Foam

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Final Project

My final project we had to read Grimm’s Fairy Tales The Golden Goose and then create a scenery from the story. I didn’t get much pictures of production as this was made the final day and I was up pretty late working on getting everything finalized for turn in. But here is the final results. I feel it turned out real good. My finger is still sore from using a dull exact knife to cut out all the pieces.

So as you can see I have been very busy over the past few months. Currently I am in Geometry and Measurements… grrrr! Not feeling this math class either but I will put my rhino horn to the grind stone and get it done and hopefully get out of there with another A for the collection. Thanks so much for baring with me over the past few months and not posting here, but as you may or may not know, you can always follow me on my Facebook page as that is also where I post lots of my school fun.

www.facebook.com/MyFullSailJourney