Back onto the Battlefield

We're now 3 weeks into Year 2 of Game Art Design, and they're pulling the stops out now. It's hard, it really is.

For the first time I can actually say with complete sincerity that there aren't enough hours in the day, there's just not enough time to get everything done that needs to be done. However, as is normal by now, we'll all just find a way.

The problem for us lies in having a whole load of things to do at once. While I'm enjoying the course completely and wouldn't ask for the workload to be any lighter, I'm sometimes finding it hard to schedule my days to get the maximum amount of work done, which, at the moment, comprises of 3D modeling, painting, drawing, character design, study of creativity, and, the week after next I will be helping to staff GameCity in Nottingham.

Despite all this, the workload and the deadlines, I do love it. The one thing that's perhaps most reassuring about this course, and this career in general, is that it's all down to how good you are, and your skill is something that can be blatantly seen. Everybody can tell the difference between a 'good picture' and a 'bad picture', on the basis of skill; (not wanting to get into any philosophical debates here) meaning, essentially, if you're good then you're OK.

It's reassuring because this skill is obtained through practice. I'm sure I've written these words before, otherwise I may have pinched them from somebody else, regardless: If you draw a picture, it may be alright. But if you draw it 100 times, provided you're not fatigued and injected with ketamine, the hundredth will certainly be better than the first.

All it really boils down to is 'Just #%$Sing do it', and that's an approach I like a lot more than that of Secondary School, in subjects like English, where achieving a high grade in your exams was tantamount to throwing yourself repeatedly at a brick wall.

So I suppose it's okay. We may have a lot to do, and it may seem to be piled up rather high in all directions, but all it needs is practice. This work isn't essays and writeups, it's fun. I like fun, even when I have to spend half my waking hours having it.