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MaskedWallaby

Chris
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None! Excuses are like *please select body part*; they're dumb dumb dumb. I'm pretty sure that's how the saying goes.

Anyway, suffice it to say I've been working in the design field for the past 3 years for a local web design agency, and have grown a lot in that time in terms of becoming a team player and knowing my stuff in terms of writing markup. I've also been regularly attending figure drawing classes at Bucktown and having draw sessions with my buddy Dave, who is looking to get into CalArts. I'm not sure if I'm going to start adding new pieces here, or on Tumblr, or on a new Wordpress blog, or at all. My thinking is that figure drawing is just practice, and practice doesn't need to be posted online...it's just practice! That's the purpose of doing it. Reading that, it sounds like I'm afraid to put it online, but honestly I've been pretty happy with the quality of my drawings, especially my first few forays into painting figures in acrylics. The main issue for me is tenacity, not skill: forcing myself to sit down after work and draw stuff. To finish that graphic novel that's been in my head for 10 years. To draw those things that pop into my brain at midnight as I lay down for bed on a Saturday night, but don't want to stay up for another 2 hours to make. It would probably help for me to stop buying games on Steam. Or take fewer naps.

Anyway, this post contains way more information than I had planned, but now I feel safe listing it in my Behance profile as a source for my old stuff. Hope to provide a more confident update soon.
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I left my job a month ago. It just wasn't working out. I wish I could have stayed, because employment is kinda nice. Helps pay the bills and all. Sometimes I get to buy myself something useful. Helps pay for coffee too.

My free time has allowed me to finish and clean up two projects from college that I've been meaning to revisit for years. So that's good. The next part of my plan to re-employment is to finish a magazine and new website. With these two, I'll feel confident to begin my design tour: visiting friends and looking for design jobs within their cities. I heard somewhere that 80% of jobs begotten are not advertised. I want to see if I can tap into this market by calling up local firms and asking if they might take 10 minutes out of their busy schedules to look at my portfolio. No mention of needing a job, just getting my name out there. It's not likely that any place I visit will be hiring, but... maybe they will know someone who is. Maybe they'll have need in a few months. Maybe they could use a freelancer or an intern. Who knows?

My previous job search involved sending resumes out all over the country, but I rarely followed up on them. I can see why a company in Oregon might not jump to call back a neophyte designer in Iowa. Location is important, and that's why I'm planning this trip. Being able to meet with people up-front and personal makes a lot of difference. The last job I got was only 2.5 hours away from where I grew up, no big deal to drive there. But it wasn't what I wanted to do. I want to be hired for my creative abilities, not because I know some programs. We'll see if I can pull that off in the next few months.

If not, hello Starbucks! :P
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Tough it out.

1 min read
Well I'm working finally. The problem is that it has basically nothing to do with what I went to college for. Doing HVAC diagrams from symbol libraries isn't just boring, it's frustrating as hell when I think about how much better symbol illustrations I could do for them, if given the chance. It's better than unemployment I suppose. I'll spend a year here and wait out the recession, and work on my own projects in my meager free time (won't have much else to do as a lonely new guy in a big town). Somehow, one year doesn't seem that long to wait.
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Note to self:

1 min read
Get to work.
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Hmm.

1 min read
Don't really know why I bother to update my DA, it's not all that important to me anymore...an actual portfolio and website would be a better idea at this point. I do have a month for break, better start getting productive.
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My Excuse for a 3-year Hiatus by MaskedWallaby, journal

Back to Square One. by MaskedWallaby, journal

Tough it out. by MaskedWallaby, journal

Note to self: by MaskedWallaby, journal

Hmm. by MaskedWallaby, journal