What I’ve been learning: 2020

Intro

Hello readers! This blog will be on the shorter side. Life is picking up and I am currently spread really thin with all of the planning and work I’m doing on the backend. That said, I did want to talk a bit about what I have been doing since this year started. 

I think it’s very important to learn new things and push yourself to your limit and bypass it. One of my mantras is to “always grow”. There are some things I learn out of curiosity, some I learn to connect with others, and so on. The point is to keep your mind moving. The more you learn, the easier learning new things becomes. So here’s what’s been on my learning agenda for 2020.

The List

3D

This one came about out of necessity. Growing my skills as an artist leads to more freelance work, and New York City is very much a 3D and motion graphics haven. This is one of the first things I started learning this year. The program I’m learning is Cinema 4D, and much to my surprise I’m loving it. I have never had an interest in learning 3d. I always saw myself as a traditional animation purist, but as stated before, increasing my knowledge gives me more options to grow my art and bank account. I’m in the really early stages so I can’t and haven’t shown anything yet, but as I get better, I’ll start incorporating into my artwork. Stay tuned for more!

Music

If there’s one thing I’ve always wanted to do but never thought possible it was becoming a musician. When I was a little younger I took singing classes I loved it, and will be taking some again within the next year or two, but I thought it’d be important before diving back in to that, to learn an instrument and the foundation of making music. This is a difficult one for me, because I’ve had to remove many years of self limiting beliefs about myself and my relation to music. I’m not where I want to be, by a mile, but I see the improvement from when I started, which has me very excited. 

Music is perhaps my favorite hobby now. I started around December of last year with the guitar, but thought learning the piano was easier, so I’ve been training on an old midi keyboard I purchased a few years ago. I practice music everyday. Actually, I practice more than I currently draw for myself, or for my social accounts. I’m so passionate about learning, that I’ve resolved to not make any more short films until I can produce music for them. These are big goals, but I think once achieved, they’ll make a very big difference in my life.

Calligraphy and Lettering

Lastly, I’ve been learning calligraphy and lettering. I had no intention to learn this at the beginning of the year, but when I started looking back at my own artwork, and the impact text has had on it, I thought it’d be pertinent to have a bit more control over that dimension. I also never liked my handwriting. So I thought 30 years was long enough to go with illegible handwriting.

I always thought a nice signature really elevates an artist’s work. It gives just a little more magic to what an artist produces. This is a hobby that, while I consistently work on it each week, it’s not as much as I would like. That said, I have noticed a very stark contrast to how I write now vs how I used to. It will only get better with time, and once I’m at a high enough level, I plan to be more aggressive in its implementation with my artwork. I’m excited about a whole new dimension this could bring to my stuff.

Outro

So that’s some of what I’ve been learning this year! This is just the start too. I plan to increase my knowledge base regularly and consistently to continue growing as a person and creator. Taking on these new hobbies has given extra vibrancy to my life that had been lacking for a long time, so I’m very happy that I started, even if it might have been later than I would have liked. That’s the thing about self improvement though, it’s a lifelong journey. For a long time I thought “I had reached my destination”, but once I questioned that mindset, I was greeted to a world of infinite possibilities. 

I have never been more grateful or excited about my life and the future. See you next time.