Art School 2

Even though we haven't done to much with the computer stuff yet. I decided to test the waters and teach myself some Illustrator and Photoshop. Let me know what you think!

Art School

Ok as you can see I've been busy and haven't been able to stick to the 1 post a week as I had wanted but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that you get a bunch of presents all at once vs spread out. I don't have a lot of words to say so I figure this will be a visual post. I hope you enjoy some of the work I've done lately, this is just a start but I'm pretty impressed.

This was my 1st Graphic Design Project. I had to create a color wheel, a value scale and a chroma scale. These are all painted.


This was our 2nd project, we had to draw a window and then a scene outside the window. (BTW my window looks out to a alien planet) then we had to pick a small section of the window and blow it up to black and White lines only.


This was a drawing project where I had to take 7 objects and arrange them in a dramatic way that represents a idea or theme. I'll let you figure out what mine was.


Another drawing project. We had to design a cup. Mine is in the middle with the big heart. When they come off display I'll take some better pics but I did mine in sailor jerry tattoo theme.


This is our current drawing project. We are learning how to shade objects. This is my 1st real art/drawing class and I'm actually pretty proud of what I've been able to create so far. The objective of this project is to learn shading techniques then we are supposed to do a self portrait and combine that with animal or plant creating a Mythical Beast. The first few pics are just practicing animals then i tried my hand at one mythic. Let me know what you think!










Well this is just a small fraction of the stuff I've been up to. Its a lot of work but its also a lot of fun. I guess that's it for now. Remember help control the pet population have your pet spayed or neutered.

Back To School

Just wanted to write a quick blog post. I'm going to try and set a personal goal to do at least one update a week. As most of you know I have started working towards another degree in Graphic Design. The classes are a lot of fun but there is a surprising amount of homework for art school. So just be warned you may be subjected to crappy art every now and then. With that said I might as well start now.



I will also be working on a website for one of my class and may end up porting everything to there but who knows. Alright guys that's the cliffs notes of what is going on here. Remember help control the pet population and have your pet spayed or neutered.

Wedding Mosaic.

Grandfather Mountain

So I think I found the location of my 1st vacation rental property. Shannon and I took a day trip up to Grandfather Mountain in Linville NC which is about 2 hours from Charlotte. This place is AMAZING! Growing up we had a vacation house in the foothills of the Ozarks, so I knew one day I would want something similar for myself. The problem has been picking the right location. Well I think we found it.



I am sure I will post more information down the road but I figure I will just let the pictures do the talking for now. Enjoy!

"Starting Point"- Forrest Hill Church

Feb. 14th marked our 6 month anniversary here in Charlotte. One of the first things we wanted to do when we got in town was find another church. Now this has not been a easy process. We have visited quite a few different churches in the Clt area and no two have been alike. I remember going to my grandparents Baptist church and occasionally my parents would drag me to the Methodist church. Both were fairly similar with their wooden pews, robes, hymnals and piano/organ, lots of old people and always dressed up. Growing up that is what I thought church was. I was so distracted by having to fight with my clip on tie, high water pants and uncomfortable "church" shoes, that I failed to really hear the message of Jesus. I wasn't alone though, I always noticed everyone except the OLD PEOPLE were as quick to get out of church and out of those uncomfortable clothes as I was. As a kid it always made me wonder why does church have to be so stuffy and well lets be honest boring? Well as an adult now I am glad to report Church is everything but stuffy and boring.

Now my only experiences with church as an adult before Charlotte came from the services at Southside Baptist in Florence. I thought I had hit the jackpot when I first started to attend there. No more wooden pews, no more stuffy suit (unless your on staff or an old person), good music, modern choir, an all star amazing staff, and a firm Scripture foundation. I knew when we moved there were going to be some big shoes to fill. After all the searching I think we found a church that we are going to start to call our new home. We attended "starting point" at Forrest Hill Church here in Clt last sat. This is the 1st step in becoming members at Forrest Hill, this was a opportunity to learn more about their mission, and values, as well as have our questions answered and to get connected in their life groups. We are both REALLY excited and feel like our spiritual batteries are charged and ready to go. Now we haven't been assigned a small group yet so we are a little nervous considering they might pair us up with other people in Ballantyne and we are not really "Ballanytne" people, but that is just a small concern considering how regardless we will have a common bond for love of Jesus. It just feels good to know we have made a move in the right direction. We really miss our Florence church family and are ready to build one here in Clt. That is about I all have to report on now. We look forward to whats in the future and will update you as things go I just wanted to write a quick little blurb so hope you enjoyed it. Maybe you are thinking of joining a church or getting involved with a small group, as someone who has seen God work through our small groups take my word it is well worth it.

Choices!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”- Mark Twain

Choices, choices, choices. You know some people value their life on their availability of options. Lets face it life stinks when you only have 1 or 2 roads to go down. I've been talking with my brother lately about our options in life. He is about to finish his AME or APC or AML I don't know the official name for it but it's airplane mechanic school. He is having to take a look at his options and start to make some concrete plans. Does he quit there and go into the workforce or continue on a bachelors program? Each of those options have another 4 options ie. who,what,when,where. He showed me picture after he mapped out all of his options and it looked like a spider web. His only problem now.. Picking the path he wants to go down.

This has gotten me to really start thinking about my options. About a year and a half ago I decided that I was going to make a positive change. I was going to do what I wanted to do. I was going to give myself options. I have always dreamed of doing something fun and creative with my life. I remember sitting in Career Services class in 9th grade half assed paying attention, but mostly dreaming about "When I grow up I'm going to have fun. I'm going to have a awesome office, working with great people, cracking jokes, working when and how I want to work. Who says work had to serious" I had NO clue as to what line of work that was going to be I just knew I wasn't going to forget my "have fun" attitude. Well 9th grade/high school came and went. Next thing I knew I had been accepted to Ole Miss and I was on my way to college. I thought for sure I would end up with some random liberal arts degree, maybe majoring in Theater Arts, Graphic design, or even Underwater basket weaving. The reality was.. I was told by the Man (i.e. Dad) that if I go to Ole Miss with him paying outrageous out of state tuition I was going to the Business School. I had 2 options. Stay in Jonesboro and go to ASU, or go to one of the nations top rated party schools but have to study business. Obviously I picked Ole Miss and made the best of the situation, by majoring in Marketing. My thought was I would be able to quench my lust for all things fun and creative and my "benefactors" rule of being in the business school.

Fast forward to now (5 yrs since Ole Miss). I got out in the real world and realized marketing guys are not the ones who think of commercials, who picks out design layouts, who come up with crazy gimmicks. They are the ones who sell them. I HATE SALES! Unless I own every part of a product It is hard for me to try sell someone something. People look at a marketing degree and thinks ok this person majored in sales. Marketing is so much more than just sales. Don't get me wrong I understand good marketing equals good sales. What I didn't know is that it was Liberal Arts students who give the "marketing" people stuff to work with. So needless to say I haven't been able to find my type of marketing job yet. Since graduating from Ole Miss I have worked various jobs, just to get by. Which brings me back to my earlier statement about making a positive change. Shannon and I are now at a point in our lives where I am allowed to have options again. She has finished her Masters program and is on track to be licensed and have a great job doing what she loves. Now as for me. Obviously I have been still trying to use the skills from Ole Miss to find a job here in Charlotte. I see stuff that I am qualified for and jobs I could do with out any further education, but I am afraid they wouldn't satisfy my desire to have that "fun and creative" job and lets face it. The phone hasn't exactly been ringing off the hook.

So now I have to look at a few of my options. I can continue to try and find just an ehh "pay the bills" job. I can waste time until the fall and look at either picking another major (digital media design) ,or even getting a masters from UNCC. Or I could go to the Art Institute here in Charlotte as soon as April. With AI I have two major options. Graphic Design which I think I would thoroughly enjoy creating lay outs, logos, packaging, posters, cards, awesome visuals. Or Web Design and Interactive Media, where I would still be able to create some awesome visuals but instead of click, drag, drop I would have to spend weeks writing complex codes of information and have to make sure it looks good an a slew of various browsers and systems. I think I would enjoy either one, but graphic design is obviously going to have a larger pool of competition because it is easier to learn than Web design, but there is a Huge demand for good web designers which means more money and more job security. With everything/everyone going to digital, I think either option is a sound one. I just have to make the choice on what am I going to do and how I am going to do it. My gut says Graphic Design, My head pushes to go to AI in April vs waiting until the fall for UNCC or Central Piedmont Community College. If you have any thoughts or comments please feel free to leave them. Maybe Jay is right and I just need to listen to Mark Twain's advice and throw off the bowlines and sail away from the safe harbor.