2 Weeks Later...

Time moves fast; I have been hard at work trying to meet goals (both the ones I set in my last post, and personal life goals), and I have been making improvements! It is frustratingly slow progress, but it is still progress nonetheless. I have been using my Skill Share account, and feel like my drawings are already getting better. They’re nowhere near where I want them to be (that’s the frustrating part), and I haven’t gotten through the class lessons as quickly as I wanted, but I’m trying to be patent with myself.

I’ve been working towards adding my ttrpg miniatures to this site, starting with a better camera and learning some photo taking basics. The test photos are promising if a little blurry, I need more practice with the camera before I put them under the “My Art” tab. As for a 404 page, I hit a snag when I realized I don’t currently have an illustrator program, so that’s been shelved for now. I’m also working on a lot of personal development goals, which I might talk more about in the future. I don’t want to make more goals than I can keep, so for now, my only blog goal is to make another post in 2 weeks time. See you then!

An Update Follow Up

Things are starting to look a little different around here. This post is meant to be just a quick check in - to give a little update about the update, what I’ve been up to in the interim, and finish with some goals for the next blog.

Regarding the website update, I’ve reflected on what I want from this site, brainstormed changes to be made, and created a rough schedule of implementing those changes. The biggest structural change to the website has been changing “My Work” into “My Art”. I believe this was a necessary first step as this both better reflects how I want to frame my creative projects and allows me to organize projects into categories. I have plans to add more categories (starting with “Miniatures”) in the works.

Since my last post, my creative energies have been focused more on the culinary art, to the delight of my fiance. I have found a lot of joy in cooking, but am currently lacking any brag-worthy photos until my new phone arrives. Perhaps in the future I’ll do a “Foodie Friday” blog post, but I digress. I have also recently joined the website Skill Share out of a desire to improve my drawing skills. I want to spend the next two weeks focusing more on drawing people, which is a convenient segue into documenting my goals.

Goals:

  • Create blog post on July 20th (two weeks)

  • Complete Skill Share figure drawing class

  • Create and apply a cute 404 page

I feel like these are very reasonable, achievable goals. See you in two weeks time.

An Update, and A Poem

Happy domain name renewal day!

This year, I think I want to do something different with this website and blog. For years, I have used this online space as an extension of my resume; only really touched up or thought about when I’m looking for a new job. Instead, I want to start using my website as more of my own personal hub. I want to shift the focus of this site from graphic design (strategically picked to catch a hiring manager’s eye) to a personal place that I use regularly, a place where I put my art, my thoughts, and my writing. This will take time, and I will be hammering out the details as I go, and blogging all the while. I wrote this poem last night after I showered. After I wrote it, I had a glass of milk, and went to bed.

Anxiety

By Natane Hartley

I don’t drink the milk in my fridge.

What if it’s spoiled?

If it’s spoiled;

I’ll be sick.

So.

I don’t drink the milk in my fridge.

Today.

Or tomorrow.

Or the next day.

And inevitably,

(eventually),

When I do check the milk in my fridge,

I’ll be right.

Illustration - Space Cow Poster

This week, I knew I wanted to do something fun and cute, with a light, pastel color. Flipping through my sketchbook, I found the perfect doodle candidate to transform into a digital illustration. This adorable cow exploring space was an excellent learning opportunity.

Space-Cow-Sketch.jpg

I wanted to try a new technique I learned this week in a tutorial. The Variable Width tool allows me to control the width of a stroke, allowing for a natural, hand drawn look. I really like the effect, and the tool is pretty easy to get used to. This is definitely a tool that I will make more use of in the future. Overall, I’m quite pleased with this project.

1 DAY Challenge - Typography Poster

Canvas-Meaning-Life-Poster-Mockup2.jpg

We all hit a creative block, and there’s no finer cure than setting a deadline for yourself. I went digging through my list of quotes for typography projects, and one in particular jumped out at me.

“The meaning of life is to give life meaning”
— Natane

This quote is one that I have been saying a lot lately, and I am glad I finally gave it the design it deserves. I have wanted this quote as a canvas print, and I challenged myself to create the design, start to finish, in one day. Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with the design, as you can see in this mock up. I have sent the design out for printing, and will post an update when I get the final print.

To start with, I typed out the entire phrase, and started looking for a font family. I knew I wanted to keep the typography simple, and by choosing fonts from the same family they were sure to go together well. I settled on Acumin Variable Concept for the variety of fonts available in that family.

Because ‘life’ and ‘meaning’ are the main focus of the phrase, they are given the most visual weight. I wanted to emphasis the parallels of the phrase, and used the physical alignment of the words in order to do so.

This was a fun project, all in all. I enjoyed the time challenge, it demanded snappy choices and strong direction from the start. These are important skills for a designer, and practicing this with a one day project is great experience to bring to other projects.