Back to School

creatingchloe
Sep 4, 2018 · 3 min read

I’ve been working in real estate full-time every since I graduated from college 2.5 years ago. I just finished my first week back in college as a Graphic Design major.

I’m taking Freehand Drawing, History of Graphic Design and Intro to Computer Graphics. Although I’m beyond excited to be taking these classes, my ego is struggling because I feel like I’ve “done my time” in college. I have to remind myself on a daily basis that I am going back to school for a happier and more adventurous future. I want to be able to have the freedom to travel and work from anywhere in the world. I want to have the talent to evoke happiness in others through my art. I want to be a professional in the field of graphic design and be respected for my opinions. Humbling myself by going back to school for a few years and posting about my journey along the way is ultimately the sweetest gift I could ever give myself.

Currently, I am learning about illuminated manuscripts in my history class. I’m amazed how art and technology evolve together throughout history. This week in my freehand drawing class I learned about contour lines and we sketched a shoe from many different angles. My teacher wants us to draw from looking directly at the shoe on the table right in front of us but I honestly had SUCH a hard time with this. I had to take photos of my shoe and trace it to understand how my shoe is taking up space. I found that after I traced the shoe on top of the printed photograph, I was much more likely to be able to draw the object more accurately. Believe it or not, each one of these sketches took between 30–45 minutes and my brain felt exhausted afterwards.

I love my Computer Graphics class. We are learning the basics in typography, color, layout & composition and the fundamentals of design. My first cohesive project is to create a logo, color scheme, two fonts and four images (from unsplash, pexels, freerange or lifeofpix) that accurately represents the brand. After I read the mock brief and brainstormed and doodled for two days I decided on this logo:

I just finished my first Python class at the Art of Problem Solving (aops.com), which was very tough. I also took courses on Adobe Illustrator and COMPTIA A+ on udemy.com. I keep putting off the two exams for COMPTIA A+ because I don’t feel like I have a good grip on the subject matter quite yet. I have so much respect for computer scientists and programmers and want a better understanding of the medium I am using to create my art. Now, I am working through the codeacademy.com to learn HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I also bought a book for HTML and CSS because my research tells me that it is easier to learn JavaScript once you have HTML and CSS under your belt. I am learning Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe AfterEffects from udemy.com on the side as well because I really want to start making some youtube videos.

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