Schoolism and Stephen Silver and the quest for character

The class is over this week. It was a great experience. I felt both at home doing the character design work and at moments completely out of my element. It was fun, challenging, inspiring and humbling. The talent pool is sooo deep out there. My classmates were great. The work they did pushed me to do better. This, I can honestly and whole heartedly say, was a rewarding experience and will change how I approach art for the rest of my drawing days.

I came to the conclusion that after 37 years, I was taking my talent for granted. I believed I could switch it on and off when I needed or wanted to. Now, after these nine weeks, I see that to continue doing good work and to hopefully do better and better work, one must draw everyday. It's that mysterious "zone" that athletes talk about but for artists. No pain, no gain- but with a pencil. It can be really hard to stay in that zone when you've got PB&J sandwiches to make and soccer and swimming to run to and homework and housework and husband and oh yeah, freelance....

BUT- I can say, being in that Zone feels like home, and I want to stay.

I will miss hearing Stephen Silver's almost british accent every week. The way he so enthusiastically begins his sentences and pronounces, " W-Ow" and "Fan-tastic!" or "good Job!". Even "failure" sounded good from him. Schoolism is a brilliant concept. I wish them and Stephen Silver much continued success.

I hope my final character design of Fat Joe gets me one more star this week. Or at least a "W-ow" or "fan-tastic" and maybe a "good job".