James' Art

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Introduction

Hi, I'm James. I basically draw stuff and that's about it. I also write a bit too much.

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Inputs and Outputs

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Rich Picture

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Action Plan - March 2025

As of the end of Semester One, I have been trying hard to work at my project and have been recently informed that we have approximately ten weeks left to work on our projects, a pressure to be sure, but one that can be overcame easily. Thus, I have decided to write myself an action plan to progress through for the next ten weeks. Firstly, it is imperative that I work on my reflective practice. I don't believe it is unfair to say that it has been neglected somewhat, however, with the growing burdens of various tasks piling up, I don't think it is unreasonable for me to say that this is somewhat understandable. This is why going forward I need to start applying more effort to it. I, at the minute, have a few tasks that require completion. Namely, my Thematic Essay, which has now been designated with a topic: "The Evolution of Fantasy Art", which I am excited to work on. And my other task is to maintain this blog and write here weekly at least. Secondly, I need to continue working on my project. Thus far it has been limited to sketches and connecting different ideas, but I now have a general idea of how to progress forward, firstly, I want to create more fleshed out character designs for which I can then use further for my final pieces. My final pieces will be in a large format and this will then be used in my final show. I plan to make at least one large format final work that can then be placed in my show. Additionally, I will have other sketches, character designs and works to support this.

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Magazine Review - ImagineFX

ImagineFX is an artistic magazine that has been in production since January of 2006. It is currently on its 251st Issue, with more still being produced. As of the modern time, each issue produced contains a numerable amount of articles and sections. Typically the sections are as follows:

FXPosé (Exposé of different artists who submit to the magazine.)

News and Events

Features

Workshops

Traditional Artists/Workshops

The FXPosé is a section which readers, whom have submitted their art, are featured in the magazine and showcased through a section dedicated to each artist and their work they have shown, where the artist is then given a small interview in which they talk about their work. There are usually some three-to-four artists featured in each issue and each of them are what I would describe as "up-and-comers".

The News and Events usually focuses on various news within the art world and also includes sections that may be relevant to readers, such as acquiring a career within the industry or so on.

The Features are of artists that are picked specifically for the magazine, rather than submitting their work, and they are then covered and interviewed by the writers of the issue. These are interesting sections as it allows an insight into some professional artists.

Workshops are sections within the issues that are to give workshop-like tutorials to readers who want to progress their ability. They usually offer images and step-by-step tutorial.

The Traditional Artists/Workshops section centres around the traditional artists that exist--the magazine itself tends to be more aimed towards the digital artist, as it is currently the major realm of the professional artists, but, there are some artists who still incorporate this into their methodology, and hence, this section still rings necessary.

Thus far, I have purchased two different issues of this magazine and have found both interesting. They even provide resources occasionally for artists who want to try the workshops, such as brushes for photoshop and so on. I find that the magazine often provides great insight and glances at the art world, it is one that repeatedly takes up my interest, as I look in them there are always interesting articles and sections relating to concept art, which is the form of work I want to do at some point in the future, as well as other sections that are just generally interesting. I only picked up this magazine out of a whim, and, I found it engaging to look through and read. The sections are highly informative and worthwhile a read!

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SWOT Analysis

Strengths The strengths that I have at the current moment are still much of the same - I think that I have an adaptable style, able to work with cute and semi-realistic. I feel that I also can do fairly well adapting to briefs and topics that I am working on. I also feel that I work quite well when I am given free reign, with only a minor negative to coincide with it.

Weaknesses I struggle a lot with time management; I don't think that this is any sort of secret, as I have struggled with the first project of the year and also with projects through the last two years, however, I feel that this is remedied somewhat when I am met with some sort of plan, even then however, I may not properly stick to it, and end up just creating things at whim or struggle to meet the deadline, though I try, and I do inevitably get it in at the end.

Furthermore, I also feel that I struggle in terms of my competence as an artist, I mean this in the way that I struggle to actually create pieces that are competent all around, I feel that my abilities are not amazing or stellar, and it is nothing but an uphill battle with each piece. It's sad, really. I do try, but I feel that even through the duration of this course, there has been much an effort by me to improve, and I feel like whenever I do take a step forward I just feel bogged down and that there is little avenue of progress. I have to admit, I feel somewhat let down by the course. I expected at least some sort of deeper understanding of artistry, fundamentals, rendering, all of that, but there has been little to progress me as an artist taught here, and I feel most of what I learned was during my Access to HE course I studied.

Opportunities I have had quite a few opportunities present at the current time to work on potential commercial avenues, namely with the project dedicated to creating a piece for the building that the college owns. Additionally, I have also had opportunities to work on a greetings card project for the Jungle Agency, one that I was eager to take part in. However, for reasons that I can not comprehend, and that are almost entirely elusive to me, I was unable to take part in it. My name was not included on the list of people, and thus, my work that I put in, was discounted. When it reached the end of the day I was confused, and I felt too anxious to even approach or challenge my tutor to allow me to showcase my work, and, thus, I was outcasted from this opportunity. I will still use this work as a piece that will act as my commercial project for the year, but, I am heartbroken, honestly, that I didn't get to be included.

Further examples of opportunities are those that have been competitions, external and third-party, and while I have shown interest, I would rather take up the work that I want to do for this year. It's just a shame that one of the major opportunities that I wanted to uptake was hampered through no fault of my own. What am I to do other than just move on?

Threats The threats that are ongoing for this year, are, primarily my own fault or bringing. I am always struggling to try and make my deadlines and work through these projects, but I try nonetheless. The only solutions are to keep pushing forward, even through the thick and thin. The other is that my mental health has been rocky ever since I was a teenager, and it still currently is, but I am currently a tad more stable than I was throughout my initial attempt at higher education, so, I believe that I can finish this year uninterrupted, though, my motivation and drive is incredibly low at current.

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Design Philosophies

RULE OF COOL The fact of the matter is, much like with anything in Dungeons and Dragons, it sticks to artwork and other things as well. If it's cool, do it, let it happen. Why hamper something that's absolutely killer in concept?

BIGGER IS BETTER Why stop at regular-sized? Go big. GO BEHEMOTH. A giant is cool, but a giant with pauldrons as big as his head and a maul with spikes and skulls dangling from it? That's cool.

IF IT WAS COOL WHEN YOU WERE A KID IT PROBABLY STILL IS Let's be real, if it was cool as a kid, it's still cool now. Something big and outrageous is more than enough to make someone go "hell yeah" just by a simple glimpse. Why even try and deny it? If you like realism and grounding absolute in reality, I have a hunch you don't like fun.

SPIKES AND SKULLS Spikes and skulls. Make it look like a heavy metal concert. Why? It's fun.

BIG BULKY AND BADASS Big hulking brutes, badass knights and warriors, wizened wizards and sorcerers, gun-slinging bandits and axe-swinging barbarians. Big beasts. Big bulky brutish figures and badass characters and stories. That's what drives something being amazing.

GO WITH THE FLOW Planning is never going to be stuck to, no matter how hard you try. Go with the flow, and you'll end up feeling better about it ninety percent of the time.

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Semester One Review

The First Semester - A Review in Long Form

In this post, I am here to document the first semester and the experience as a whole. It has been a trying time to work over this period, but I managed it fairly well. Most people based their projects on their summer project, I didn't. I tried to come up with stuff, but it was difficult. Over the summer I had concepted a few different ideas such as a science fiction world or a fantasy world, but the more thought I put into it, the more I struggled. I spent most of my summer doing various figure studies in order to maintain my skills, but I did not do much in the way of exploration of ideas. It was a shame, really. I actually began my ideas on the premise of a long-term project possible over the two units, but I was granted nought but disappointment: a peer was working on a collaborative with other people from other courses to create a card game, to my understanding, and I overheard one of my tutors suggest the long-term production over the year, but, I am somehow lost in how this was not allowed for me, when I tried to consult one of my tutors about this. I found this incredibly disappointing. Maybe I did not explain myself well enough? Nevertheless, this sort of murdered my drive, but I tried to continue nevertheless.

Initially, I started with having to create a learning plan, I did this with minimum difficulty, and found it to be a simple task. Additionally, I also had to create a statement of intent for my project. My intentions, were, admittedly pretty decent and hardly lacking in vision. I also had to create a project proposal, which I felt I did decently enough.

I tried to deliver on the project by working from a course, as I felt that my skills have been quite stagnant and lacking and, indeed, I worked on this by finding a course on an online website, namely, I used a course on character design on 21Draw that was made by a professional from within the industry. I found the course incredibly helpful, and I found that I was progressing quickly, but, later down the line, I was bogged down in the grind of it, I was trying so hard to colour and render the piece, and inevitably, it did nothing to aide me, and as a result, the work had to be scrapped, and I had to start over again.

I wanted to create a character design and draw a piece with them, but, as it went on it became evermore apparent that I was bogged down in details, the character design was solid, but I got worried about the face, then the figure, then the pose, over and over and it eventually just became a depressive mire of trying and failing over and over to do this. Inevitably, I came to the realisation that I need to go back to the start. I watched a user by the name of Draw Sessions on YouTube, his advice resonated with me; he told me to not worry about the details, and just to sketch it out, they might return to be a really good design in your view. And thus, I sketched.

I started by sketching characters, and then some more, and then I continued, I did not think about them too much, I just sketched. I created monsters and humans, orcs, various monsters. I continued and continued, and found joy in drawing again, an uptake, even. I wasn't scared or afraid of drawing anymore, and I wasn't anxious to worry. I just sketched and added colour, then continued to the next. I then showed it to my teacher, who was excited to see this work, even saying that this is the way forward, as it is definitely more the way I should be heading. I was emboldened!

I continued, and then when it came time to show my other teacher what I had done, I was floored, frankly. It knocked me down a peg, hard. It was disheartening by a large margin. Where one had been the voice of approval, the other shattered my ideation and ruined my perspective. Even my final piece, which wasn't done, was demeaned and viewed as less-than-great, I literally just scrapped it and had to give up on it because of how harsh the critique was. I genuinely don't know what to say at times like these, but in this case, it pretty much wrecked me. I didn't really know how to continue, and, as I had a work shift on the deadline day, I didn't have the time to finish the piece, so, I came home, cobbled them all together, and posted, and, lo and behold, I got a sub-par mark. Amazing. I'm used to it at this point. I haven't gotten anything above a pass this entire course, and if ever there was something to read from these marks, it's that I should give up. But I won't, naturally, but I think there is a clear disconnect between whomever is marking my work and the feedback I am being given. I feel like I am told one thing by one teacher, and then told something drastically on the other side of the spectrum about the path I take for my work. What am I meant to do? Who the hell do I listen to? It's tiresome.

In hindsight, if there was anything that I would do over again, it would have been the starting position. I would have decided to do the sketch-works first. I wish I had considered this, honestly. I think this was the best decision I made, and it's something I should try and take forward. Other things would be to try and make more time for my work and to manage my time better. It is something I struggle with a lot, but in this case, I think it was the fact that I had to go back over the project again.

Other things I did during this semester were the creation of Christmas cards as a commercial project for the semester, and I found that they were widely successful. I wanted to just create cute animal-themed Christmas cards, and I found that they were pretty good for their intent. Overall, it was a quick project that took around one-to-two weeks, but it was one that I had fun doing.

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A Review of Summer

While there are other people who had a plethora of opportunity to work on things over summer, such as creating the personal project and the like, I, did not have this opportunity. And if I had took the chance to do this, I would have likely been driven to my lowest point in the past five years. I had to take up a part-time job at a convenience store to make ends meet, and, through this, ended up being shafted with over-time that I couldn't really mitigate or decline, as we were short-staffed, thus, I ended up working fourty-hour weeks each week for almost eight weeks and ended up being so extremely exhausted that I slept after nearly every shift.

While I had ideas and wanted to create some big projects, and start during summer, I couldn't. I honestly felt that my creativity was inhibited already by the fact that I had to pick from a list of topics, which, none really inspired me in the first place. So, I continued trying to scrape together something, but in the end, I didn't have any project created by the time the course started. I wanted to create a learning plan or document to which I could show up with and "WOW" my tutors with some sort of extensive documentation, even if only fleshed out with some sketches to supplement. I was, however, told not to do this, I can not remember by who, but I was told this was not needed and it made me feel like this was jarring. Why should I start in September? I wanted to start by making a design document or some sort of plan for which I could bring to college and cut my workload. But in the end, I had to just go with the flow, and ended up loathing it all the more.

When I came to college, I felt like an absolute buffoon for not having anything to show. What am I meant to show? My eye bags due to lack of sleep, or my calloused hands from having to rip open cardboard and lug around boxes in a store all day? Perhaps an essay recanting my experience of being locked in our store while two drug-addled alcoholics smash their boots against the windows and door because they are not allowed entry due to past history of theft? This is what I had to live with for eight weeks, both mornings and nights. There is no consistency, I am not on nine-to-five, I am on whenever I am needed. five-till-two, two-till-ten, nine-till-five. I am basically a slot in for whenever I am needed. Have I thought about quitting my job? Absolutely. Have I? No. I need that money to live somewhat decently, I have dropped my hours as well as I can after much worrying, but even then, I still have to work.

Now, I know what someone may ask; why did I choose to do this job? Why does anyone work a terrible job? For the money, of course. I took this job, and have been put on a 16-hour contract. This is not the issue, but, when I came to this job, we were flooded with a need for extra shifts as there were gaps in the workforce, naturally, I had to take extra hours even at the tail-end of the year. But, I think an experience I had with one of my tutors was what made me realize this following year would be dreadful: to recant, I had to work a five-to-nine shift on a college day. My manager doesn't usually do this, but I think she needed someone for that morning, and it was near the end of the school year. So, I did the shift, and quickly raced home to go to college immediately after, I didn't even take off my awful nylon uniform shirt. But as I came in and apologized for being late and explaining myself, I was, what felt like, derided for my choice of having to do a shift, even though, I did not make the choice to do this shift, nor did I choose to do this time. I chose this job, but I did not choose the hours I worked that week, and I was met with what I can only describe as a contempt or negative view on me, as if I was just making excuses, I think this experience, primarily, made me feel more upset than I even realized at the time, I just took it on the nose, but as time wore on, it has stuck with me until now. Why? I can't even say, really, things stick with me for a long time, and the fact I was, what felt like, derided for being slightly late on a day I had to unfortunately work a five in the morning start, only infuriated me more as I thought about it. The fact alone I am writing so much about it I think showcases this absolutely.

All of this has lead me on to say that I have had nothing but a negative view of my summer; I have been screwed by the obscene amounts of hours I had to work to try and make ends meet as well as the lack of sleep and lack of free time. On top of this, having to do a summer project to try and cobble together something to show? It was not feasible for me. If I had tried to do this, while already at such a low? I would have been objectively plateaued in any desire or passion, as, I have already started to feel in due course. I think if I had been given the opportunity to create this documentation and small amount of sketches, I would have been better off, but I think being faced with obstacles over and over did little but offset my drive, from being faced with work to being given uninspiring topics, it was only a matter of time before I came to realize this year would be one I would dread.