Hey fellow wayfarers,
I’ve been pushed out of my post-Christmas slumber by the near avalanche of posts summarizing and celebrating the accomplishments of this year – Instagram “best 9,” thank you’s, and cool collages – so I figured it was high time that I get to some reflecting of my own. I’ve been a bit hesitant to do so, mainly because my new year happens less so during January and more so during August when I head back to Lipscomb. But since I’ll be living without a school-based schedule scarily soon, I might as well start doing some long-form reflection based on the old Gregorian.
This has been a great year in my art journey – it’s crazy to look back at posts from January and see what all I’ve learned and how God has been working with me since then, which definitely brings some hope to my currently weary heart. I feel a lot more confident in my use of color, I’ve discovered some favorite methods of digital painting, and I’ve realized my pressing need to study figure drawing. Here’s a summary of my favorites from each month (some of which I haven’t posted yet, but hopefully will at some point…)
This brings me to one of my biggest discoveries of the year: I actually like doing visual development work! Going into this fall semester, I was sure that character design and visual development just wasn’t for me. At Lipscomb I was (and still am) surrounded by super talented people who can just pull out amazing looking designs on the first or second try. It seems like they make iconic characters within mere minutes. Meanwhile, I’m over here on version 45, spending hour upon hour upon the project with drawings so painfully short of “just right;” my draughtsmanship sinking at titanic speeds. In short, I could do vis dev, but it wasn’t really enjoyable and I doubted if I had the natural ability to actually do it for a career. I was really, really hoping I would like CG animating. However, in God’s providential plan I ended up taking a Concept Development class during the fall. Pure and unescapable vis dev. I figured I could do just enough to squeak by with a good grade and then put most of my effort into my 2D Animation 2 Class. But how the turns had tabled! I loved it! In contrast to mostly figure/character based classes I had taken previously, I was finally encouraged to wield color, design backgrounds, and draw weapons a la Splatoon! We got to geek out about our favorite designers for classwork and draw fun and frequently laugh-inducing warm-up doodles. I sunk hours upon hours into projects, not simply because they were difficult but because I wanted to. My best work of 2018 came out of that class, and now I think it would be amazing to be a background painter or color stylin’ dude. I’m so glad I didn’t count those career avenues out.
This was also the year when I got to dive into animation, starting out on paper, old school style. Animating was nice cause I could tap a little bit into my naturally analytical brain which I usually have to suppress during other kinds of creative work. (“Back! Back! Leave that foreshortened arm alone, you tyrannical beast!”) Animation has a lot of nice rules/guidelines that keep my left brain busy while my right brain does the actual drawing. I’m still trying to reach a Glen Keane-state when I can really sense what the character “wants” in my head rather than a more mechanical process. I do find animation a bit tedious, but the finished product is really sweet. Animating on paper was pure magic – no digital trickery, yet it still moves! I felt like I actually peaked then and my work suffered when we switched to all digital in 2D Animation 2. I don’t know if it was because I leaned into a couple digital shortcuts or the assignments were a lot harder. I felt like my characters moved a lot more like robots than living beings. But I will say that the first moments when my drawings moved and especially when my drawings talked back to me were incredible rushes that I hope I don’t forget.
OH and I almost forgot perhaps the biggest discovery of the year (I know I just said the vis dev thing was the biggest, but put that on hold for a moment): I want to make animals and natural environments a big focus in my art! When I was a little kid, I loved animals. My favorite show was Zoboomafoo. I could look at aquariums for hours. But when I got older, that love kinda faded and got replaced with other things. I wasn’t too fond of science or picking up animal poop, so it seemed like a career involving animals was not in my future. But when Aaron Blaise visited campus this year and talked about his career, I realized that there were artists in the animation industry who specialized in drawing animals – and I wanted to be one of those artists. Although I was already drawing animals before, I’ve been paying special attention to making animal/nature based art a key part of my portfolio by going to the zoo and working on a substantial bird-centric project (art is coming soon!!!!)
Here’s some more miscellaneous things that happened this year which were important, but perhaps didn’t warrant their own paragraph:
- Decided to grow out my hair
- Went to a North Carolina beach for the first time, although I’ve lived in NC for over 10 years…
- Kicked off the Lipscomb Animation Caricature Show
- Started a life drawing club (to provide some much needed practice)
- Discovered the art and music of Louie Zong (both are equally charming, equally texture-y, equally commendable, and equally brief)
- Took over Lipscomb University’s Instagram for a day – now my face is PERMANENTLY scarring their social media reputation
- Lost a relationship and watched friendships crumble
- Made an animated short in 24 hours with some friends (more info on that here)
- Finished Inktober for the first time (missed one day but I made up for it, OK)
- Smoked a pipe for the first time (related first: blew first smoke ring – on accident)
- Built the Roost!
- Dove into the Old Testament
- Got both Aaron Blaise and John Musker to sign my *stolen???* 2D animation board
- Got to talk to Nicholas & Erica Kole for A COUPLE HOURS!!!! And didn’t fanboy too much!!!
- Won a little CTN Scholarship!
- Was told I was someone’s inspiration (which like, wowee that’s amazing and reassuring but I really need to step up my act to deserve that kind of responsibility)
And here’s some media I’ve enjoyed this year:
Shows of Da Year: Hilda, Craig of the Creek, Ducktales (2017), Gravity Falls
Game of Da Year: Cuphead
Movie of Da Year: Spider-Man: The Best One. Oh And It Also Has the Spiderverse.
Over all, it’s been an amazing year and God has been incredibly faithful. I’ve recently been a bit of a slump and chafing for some more dramatic improvement in my art… but it’s nice to get a bit of perspective and realize I am improving, even if I don’t see it on a dramatic, daily basis. There’s always a reason to be thankful. I’ve got big plans for 2019 and it has the potential to be an incredible year – what with CTN, taking my first steps into storyboarding, and an internship (VERY HOPEFULLY!!!) So be praying for me! And if there’s some way I can pray for your 2019, let me know at dannyhaycox@gmail.com!
See ya in 2019!
-dh
(Note: This was originally posted on New Years Eve, 2018)
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