Guest lectures

Thought i'd cover Blitz and Del's lecture in one. The Blitz lecture was great. It was extremely helpful and encouraging to hear that they are interested in the people on our course and also to hear what they are looking for in a potential employee. Jolyon's talk was much the same as last years albiet with a slighty greater amount of content. The premise was however the same. I asked a question regarding our chances of being hired compared to people that have been in the industry much longer. I kind of figured that they would have the edge, being better artists and more experienced however both Aaron and Jol said that they tend to prefer competent graduates over more experienced industry veterans. The reason being for this is that veterans tend to be a little jaded and less passionate and enthusiastic. This was good news to me as i have always had the mindset that there is always a better artist than me out there. Perhaps not the most productive mindset but there you go. Solid core skills and a real passion to do well should be a good start in getting noticed.

Del's lecture was a real surprise. Not that i thought it would be bad, just that i had no idea what he was going to talk about. He made some great points and though he was slightly nervous at first he delivered in my opinion a fantastic lecture. I particularly liked the few stories he told. The one about badly wanting air hit home the most. I feel that last year i wanted air more than anything else but this year i'm quite content under water. The problem is that i can't figure out what changed. I guess the ridiculously long summer didn't help but although i didn't do much work i was still regularly learning, studying anatomy and colour plus learning to use Painter. I think the real reason i feel a bit stagnant right now is that im not learning.

Having said that, i wrote this entry last week in my sketchbook on the train. In the time it has taken me to type it up i feel like i'm back on form. I'm slightly behind with one final but other than that i feel i'm on top of things and my current final i'm working on for this week feels like a real step up from last year so i'm pretty chuffed with it. I have always tried to make each piece of art the best thing i have done up until that point. Last year i can safely say that that was the case for most of the finals as i did them. The first 4 weeks this year however were pretty terrible. This in turn had me feeling rather dejected. I'm glad i've put that behind me now and i guess it was an important process to go through.

Additionally, in regards to the guest lectures, it would be awesome to get some experts in their field in to give us specific lectures. For example a 2 hour session from a perspective expert or colour theory master would do wonders for everyone. A friend of mine on a design for film and television course had a perspective expert in and she said it was extremely helpful.