The professional that I am choosing is William Allinson, a stop-motion artist and director located in Toronto, he also teaches workshops at TAIS (Toronto Animated Image Society). A potential placement for me. I find William relatable because he started his career in film, which was originally what I had planned to go to school for. He ended up pursuing animation instead because of his love for cartoons but also film didn’t feel right to him. I wouldn’t say film didn’t feel right to me but I had lost interest in it. This is why I ended up pursuing animation, which hasn’t been easy but it’s worth it because I am doing something that I enjoy. - Aaliyah Lee

One of the artists that I find very inspirational and relatable is Bobby Chiu, a professional character designer and concept artist known for his unique and imaginative style. He has worked with major studios such as Disney, Dreamworks, and Sony. Even with the best of people, Bobby publicly shared his struggles with his career where he felt creatively unfulfilled and burnt out from working on projects that didn't align with his personal vision and values. In order to overcome this, he decided to take a break from art and focus on other things in order to re-ignite his passion for it. He said that he found inspiration in other forms of art, such as music and literature, and that he spent time experimenting with new techniques and styles.

A practitioner I find relatable is Ekaterina Bezrukova. She is an illustrator and graphic novelist, mostly working as freelancer, but also exhibiting in galleries and festivals. We create works with similar themes and we use similar methods. She also was my main inspiration to continue drawing. She has a big experience dealing with galleries and festivals, as well as managing staying loyal to what she does and balancing freelance work with her personal projects.

I first want to take this first step as a way of launching myself into the professional space. I hope to be able to build connections and explore and partake in many new and different opportunities outside of school. I hope that by the end of 2023, I will have grown and taken this experience and opportunity as a way to learn and understand how to use my creativity in the professional field, and meet all sorts of different professionals.

Some things I am inspired by are an artist named KAWS, and a series called “Smiling Friends”. KAWS is a very colourful and cartoonish artist who creates very animated scenes using painting or sculpture. The flow of his works is something I apply to my animations and characters. “Smiling Friends” is an animated series, and the way their characters move and are designed is very abstract, and brings life that I enjoy bringing to my 2D animations.

An artist I look up to is Jonni Phillips, who was a guest speaker in my animation capstone class very recently. Their works are very inspirational in the very unique style and techniques applied, with a blend of materials like paper cut outs mixed with smooth and fluid animation which is very visually striking to me. And during their career there has been a lot of experience in terms of working with both studios and independent projects, and especially being able to kickstart a career early on by taking a chance to pitch projects to studios. The anecdotes on what it's like to work in the industry versus working independently has been very insightful. The inspiration I want to take is to take chances with sending out my work despite needing some random luck to make things truly work out, it is still important to take the chances whenever they come up in case something does become an opportunity.

An artist who I find both inspirational and relatable is Victoria Vincent. Vincent is a young independent animator whose films consist of vibrant colours, distorted perspectives, dark humour, and nihilistic characters. She has been posting her animations online since 2016, and has garnered over 60 million views across her entire Youtube channel. I like to tackle similar themes within my own work, and also began posting my own animations online back in early 2017. As an independent animator, it has been incredibly inspirational to see a creator succeed without much professional experience. 

An artist I am inspired by is Katelyn Clark, a game developer and founder of GB Patch games. She has been extremely informative about her process and experiences in becoming a professional artist. I found a lot of commonalities between us considering her passion for video games leading her to self-teach many technical skills in order to bring her own project ideas to life. Seeing her success and skills blossom from her own passion for games brings me a magnitude of courage and drive.

 

‘It is my hope that the work I create challenges the viewer to examine the deeper nature of a subject by obscuring the boundary between beauty and ugliness, the safe and the dangerous, the inviting and the repelling, the familiar and the foreign, the graceful and the grotesque, we are forced to consider that one might also be the other.' - Paolo Puck 

Paolo Puck is an artist I greatly admire, and if you see one work of his and read just this quote alone, I feel that's all you need to understand his work.  

When I see Paolo's work, his themes of the safe and the dangerous, the familiar and the foreign, and the graceful and the grotesque are very realized and physical; these invisible stories are brought front and center as quite literal. It is with great skill that Paolo can create a world viewed through the lens of our inner child.  Seeing things for how they are. 

My hope with my work as a sculptor and mixed media artist is to be able to speak about my work with the same poetic magic, I feel within the work I make. I want my communication as a person to reflect my expression and visual language as an artist. 

- Kieran Medland

Some objectives that I have for myself are networking, developing a more effective schedule, and gaining at least one new skill. I haven’t been very successful at getting to know other people during my time at OCAD and that’s something I really hope to work on, especially when I secure a placement. Whether that be someone from the placement or another student taking this course, I’m really hoping to connect and make friends with other artists that are interested in the same career as me. 

I believe that developing an effective and efficient work schedule/routine is extremely important for both students and people already in the work field. I feel that I haven’t found something that I’m completely satisfied with so I thought I’d take this chance to learn from others on how to effectively balance the workload. 

As I’m on the inexperienced side when it comes to my professional practice, there are many things for me to learn so I thought I’d set the goal of at least learning one new skill relevant to my practice that I can bring out of this placement. 

A professional that I find influential is Lola Leo, the production manager at Pipeline studios. She was someone I interviewed last semester so I had a chance to learn about her professional practice in detail. What I specifically find influential is her experience and work trajectory in this field. She had the chance to work in many different styles and areas of animation, even if they weren’t necessarily directly related to her career path, Lola was still able to absorb and make the most out of her experience which ended up becoming a solid foundation to build her professional practice upon and led her to becoming someone capable of being the production manager. I find her ability to adapt and make the most out of all of her experience really inspiring and I’m hoping to do the same in the future. 

Artists I aspire to have a career similar to Petra Lee Collins, a photographer from Toronto. She began her photography career at an art high school similar to me and has since gone on to shoot for some of the biggest brands like Gucci because she was able to utilize the power of social media and her “signature” photo look. Her work deals with themes of womanhood and queerness and with her work now being used for mainstream brands, she allows those narratives to be more widely understood. 

 

I am very interested in community arts engagement as a career path following graduation, and I am eager to learn more about the process of designing inclusive public arts-education programs. I do not have experience instructing or collaborating with every type of community, but I intend to further expand my knowledge by working/teaching in a variety of settings in order to develop this understanding and be better equipped to create more equitable lesson plans. I see this placement as an opportunity for mutual learning—On one hand, I will build my professional interpersonal skills and confidence as an instructor as I share my abilities.  At the same time, I will maintain a learner-centered environment as participants adapt the curriculum to reach their individual goals, and I will learn from them. 

 

Dr. Pam Patterson, my professor for an Art + Design Education: Community course I am taking this semester, is someone I believe will help guide me towards my objectives. Our lectures always integrate resources on inclusive models and methods of teaching, which provides a strong theoretical foundation as I learn more about implementing my ideas for art workshops within my placement. 

 

One of my coworkers is an artist herself and we often talk about our own practices. She once told me how as an artist, she and many other she knows, work in galleries as a way to stay connected to the art world while still producing works. After listening to her talk, I too became interested in that career path, especially considering how I am an upcoming artist and will need to depend on something as my artistic practice develops. 

An artist and company that has inspired my work and the way that I approach things are Nam June Paik and THEMUSEUMVISITOR. Nam June Paik was one of the first artists that used technology in their practice. As a person who also uses different elements of technology in my work I was always inspired by Nam June Paik’s work. A long term goal that I strive for is to combine art in different ways so that a wide range of people are able to approach art. THE MUSEUM VISITOR is a fashion brand that combines a wide variety of different works of art not just in their clothing but also uses it to open exhibitions, events and temporary pop-up store. Working here allowed me to learn different ways in which I could combine art with other elements to create a more approachable range of artwork. 

The creative person I’m including here is Alex Hirsch, best known as the creator of Gravity Falls. I really admire his ability to capture nostalgia and childhood in his work by basing it off his own experiences, and the idea of working on shows aimed at kids but which can be easily enjoyed at any age is really appealing to me. He has also been very outspoken against Disney obstructing the inclusion of LGBT+ content, which, as a queer person myself, I really appreciate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Hirsch

Lastly, an artist that I find inspiring is Lydia Elaine, she is a freelance digital artist/character designer I found through social media who provides online classes/tutorials and is in the process of creating a webcomic. I find her illustrations inspiring and I love the cohesive style she has throughout them. I strive to develop my own consistent art style like her and would love to someday be a full-time freelance artist as well as create a webcomic of my own. I also like how she focuses on character based/story based illustrations as this is what I gravitate towards for my own work too. 

I have not been placed yet as it is almost impossible to find an opportunity to work as an assistant to a therapist.  It is such a personal and private practice.  I would not imagine any patient to see me there listening to their therapy session.  ;). 

Nikki is an art therapist and psychotherapist who work in different hospitals and clinics.  Her patients include children, adolescent, adults and elderly.  Now she manages the team of therapist in a private clinic.  I would like to be working in different areas of therapy and balance my work and family life.

 

OBJECTIVES FOR THIS PLACEMENT: 

EXAMPLE OF PROFESSIONAL CREATIVE PRACTITIONERS:

Two examples of professional creatives I relate to are Ghazal Tahernia, an OCAD alumni who first connected with Stop Motion Department for a placement, and Catherine Fereday-Miller, another OCAD alumni turned professor. 

Like me, Ghazal did her thesis film in stop-motion, gained employment at SMD after her placement, and is now working at LAIKA in Portland. Prof. Fereday-Miller worked at Dreamworks and Lucas Arts after graduating from OCAD, and has come back to teach here having gathered myriad industry experience. I would like to think about teaching after dipping my toe into industry work. 

As someone still learning how to balance school and life, I aim to develop a better schedule and discipline myself in order to keep consistency in my workflow and daily life. In order to organize myself, I've started visually planning out my priorities for every week and month. But most importantly, I prioritize enjoying the process of creating and learning. Finding enjoyment and purpose in doing my work will let me reach my goals.

Ross Tran is an illustrator that inspires me. My take from him is that it is possible to achieve success as a young adult and keep pursuing my childhood dreams of creating art. His influence in social media and sharing of art experience helps me understand and relate my own vibrant art style and process that can be broken down simply. Having to learn something new doesn't mean that I don't have to give up what I know and enjoy; instead, I can incorporate myself with the process and make it my own.

An artist that inspires me on a regular basis is Anoosha Syed. She is a Pakistani-Canadian animator turned illustrator and character designer. I relate to her because of her cultural background as well as the fact that she was an animation practitioner who eventually switched to a different artistic industry. She makes incredibly adorable children’s book illustrations that are related to her identity which I find fascinating and something I hope I can emulate in my own work as well.

My main objective is to improve my skills in 3D animation in a professional setting and to create work I can use in my portfolio.

 

It is hard for me to answer this as I am still not certain what is expected of me in this project. I do expect to have to use my animation skills.

 

This is a render by AM2POINTOH . on Behance. They’re doing exactly what I want to be able to do, making visually stunning work with 3D software. I am really drawn to this type of art and take inspiration from it in my own 3D modeling and rendering. 

One may think that curating is limited to putting up exhibitions for the public, but it goes beyond that. I learned this from curator of 2022’s Toronto Biennial, Tairone Bastien. It was refreshing to see his perspective on the field, and he highlighted an importance on relationships when it came to curating. He said that being able to strike conversations with the artists you are working with allows for both sides to get to understand each other better, creating a better exhibition. The takeaway for me was seeing how crucial it is to engage with others in the curation world. We can learn communication throughout our own classroom, but we should realize that there is a community to be built with the other artists who surround us all over.

They explained what I would do when I got into the placement, and I was assigned the role of composting the animation video using After Effects to get rid of the element used for moving their puppets. Also, they will attach the actor’s faces to their puppet’s faces, so I will need to do 3D tracking that I’ve learned in school. I want to deal with After Effects since I have the confidence to deal with After Effects, and I want to know more about digital tools. 

The stop-motion seems not close to the field of 3D modelling, however, one of my interviewer in last semester  
Heeeune Kim who is a Senior Environment Generalist at Wētā FX(https://www.linkedin.com/in/heeeun-kim-bbba82128/), she worked at animation studio for a while, and she did various things not only 3D modelling but also sculpting and compositing first. And she said these things was also important moment to extend the field she is getting into. Like her, I'd like to experience stop-motion animation and apply that technique to the future career.

And I realized that the Stop Motion Department made the Air Canada commercial advertisement I saw in a theatre! I appreciate working with them:)

Creative Practitioner

Tatsuki Fujimoto the elusive author of Fire Punch and Chainsaw Man, known for his inspiration for his characters coming from his own personality traits. The reason why I chose him as my professional creative practitioner is because of his work ethic and how he struggled to obtain a job in this industry while maintaining his individuality. His work is different from other mangaka artists in that he is able to mix and match his love for film with his own ideas and style, and that is what I aspire to achieve in my work. By acknowledging artists and filmmakers that inspire me to create my own individualistic art practice. I find that Fujimoto’s streamline in working is more than a stroke of luck, he struggled sometimes going without food and working at animation studios such as Mappa to make a living. Now Mappa works on creating his manga’s come to life in the form of anime and I find that relationship very interesting and inspiring. I also find Fujimoto to be very true to himself and how his fans admire him for his ideas/thoughts even though they stray from the norm. For example in an interview Tatsuki Fujimoto said: “I also like domineering and irrational women. In college, there was a girl who was mean to me, and then one day at school my bicycle had fallen over. I was wondering what happened, when she said “I knocked your bike over, ha ha ha!” I was so happy.” and “There were good artists there, so I decided that if I didn’t get better than them in four years I would kill them, and since I didn’t want to go on the run if I was a good artist, I just kept drawing.” (Hiroaki, 2017). This influences me to produce work with pride without worrying too much about the audience and gives me the confidence to carry on working on what I find relative to my individuality. 

In my coming of age, I notice that my down-to-earth personality has been somewhat a liability when advertising myself as employable; I become hesitant. With that being said, as I get accustomed to understanding my place and role in an environment, I evidently flourish and my strengths levied. As apparent from my resume, I am experienced and interested in a wide range of curriculum, meaning I have been able to adapt to a range of responsibilities delegated to me over my entire career, therefore, I trust my ability to act, does, can, and will contribute to accomplishing my objectives.

https://www.naomi-dodds.com/about

After speaking with Naomi Dodds over the last few weeks, I have gotten to know more about her, her work, and her journey navigating the field of art in ways that offer the stability and practicality I am striving for after graduating. Her career allows her to go in and out of working as an employee as she pleases and getting to work on her artistic side apart from total commodification as both a personal and occupational pursuit. I find her relevant and influential to the ends of my objectives as her personal trajectory outlines possible paths I can take based on what I want all within the realm of metalwork and fabrication. She had also worked in the metal shops at OCAD and to see the options she is currently able to have and explore as she pleases with such beginnings makes me optimistic, because as long as I secure the skills needed, I can also take baby steps discovering my career.

If you look up the videos I attached above and the videos supplied by the Future Now channel, you can enjoy the What If series of what will happen in 2084, telling the story about it, and maximize what the public is watching with visual and musical effects. My role here is to produce illustrations and characters for videos.

Recently, I have been receiving tasks online within a communication space provided by the company. Through there, I communicate with my colleagues, ask questions, and share my current status and work processes. The immediate feedback still makes me nervous and frightened, but it's a great time for me to think that I'm experiencing work with colleagues in the not-too-distant advance. Giving enough time to work is also helpful when creating something new because it seems to give me time to think for myself.

My current goals are to learn how to keep up with the timeline of an industry project and how to work within the design requirements of such a project. I have little experience working collaboratively for an art project, so learning to work under someone else's direction will be key to my future career plans. I plan to find employment as a 3D animator as a part of a larger project after university.

An artist I find to be inspirational is Babs Tarr. After having received her BFA, she became popular on Instagram for the art she’s done for DC, Disney, and more. Babs’ page also exhibits her thriving personal art catalogue as well. I find this aspirational as someone who wants to make time for personal art while producing art for others in the future.

Babs' page: BABS TARR ILLUSTRATION (babsbabsbabs.com)

 

One artist that I can relate to myself is Tomas Barcelo Castela. I had him for my informational Interview section too. The way he focused on small-scale sculptures to enhance sellable options was an eye-opener for me. His works influenced me in experimenting with human figures, post-modern thoughts, and cultural fusions. Tomas also utilizes his artistic skills in the film industry, which opens a new wide world of opportunities. Another artist I can relate to is Lorenzo Quinn. His figurative and large scaled sculptures allure me majestically. His focus on commissioned artworks internationally is something I am eager to learn. He markets his works to all kinds of audiences not limiting himself to one specific location. He also creates smaller intimate pieces which carry an authentic emotion. 

⋆ ★Creative Practitioner★⋆ 

Eventually, I aspire to create large-scale pieces, of my own definitive style and achieve perfection every time I pull a line. I’d love to continuously compose flashes of repetitive detail that organically complement the body of each client. One tattooer I particularly idolize is @alexandergrim’s work on instagram.  

 Leanne Bishop is an artist who inspires and drives me to start a freelance studio and pursue my artistic goals. Leanne is a Canadian pencil artist specializing in lifelike charcoal and graphite drawings. She has improved her abilities and uses social media to promote her freelancing work. She creates instructional films, lessons, reels/videos on producing beautiful items, and the steps to successful freelancing. Her careful attention to detail and the precision and dedication she puts into her art make her drawings so visually beautiful. She also focuses on perspective and creates portrait-themed artwork, which I admire. As such, I want to follow a similar route and establish my own freelance art business. 

The clearest choice of professional creative for me would be Shanna Van Maurik who I’m doing my placement with. She also attended OCAD in DRPT, and has built a self-sustaining career off of her art since. I’m really excited to learn more about her path and experiences since we have this school and program in common already. 

My main goal through taking this course is to gain the tools and knowledge I need while I am still in university. I took the course to get a more hands on experience instead of just being in a classroom all day. One professional I think who I find inspiring, and whose career I want to have in the future. Is one of the artists I interviewed this past semester, Michelle Montague an OCAD U alumni who is working as independent artist, but she is also a member of gallery 1313.
The Artist | Michelle Montague visual artist

She inspires me to continue to reach out and talk to places or galleries I want to work with or even in the future to have a residence in. I want to also be able to make my own work and not have to necessarily always be under a gallery. I also hope in the future to maybe become a member of gallery 1313 and make connections there.

Skills I hope to gain as a gallery assistant, once I begin my placement:

-Using excel, and social media accounts more efficiently.

-Learning how to curate a show, and making lasting connections with other fellow artists

-Learn about how the gallery functions, and other things such as how they decide whose works to exhibit etc.

I was placed in the Younge and Dundas Square animation team, and I am beyond excited. I am looking forward to learning how the creation process goes firsthand, but for now, we are all learning what exactly goes into doing these kinds of works. What we discussed in our first meeting was our timeline, expectations, and applications, and our ‘manager’ stated that he will be performing this placement as if we had applied through a portal professionally, and will be acting professionally there-on-out, which is very exciting.

This is a new experience for me, and so I am quite nervous. Being able to work with a team of animators who are in this new experience with me is exciting however, and it helps to reassure me that this experience will benefit us all. I can already see how my confidence in  myself has improved, as I have taken the knowledge of what I learned in our first meeting, and applied it to an application for Scotia-Bank Arena! SC Arena is looking for artists to create displays in the arena, and I had the confidence I may not have had previously to advertise my work and really try and sell why I should be a part of that opportunity. Referencing YDS, I feel like I had a greater skillset just applying to that similar opportunity.

These past few weeks, I have been mostly brainstorming and developing ideas. Although the process has gotten off to a slow start (from what I initially expected), I am excited and eager to spend more time on this amazing project.

I have been able to archive their showcase posters and other general posters they have hung up in the workplace by either scanning or taking pictures and cropping them. I’m still in the middle of uploading posters to the AMS system. I have also been finding information about the artists that participate in their annual animation showcases. Learning AMS is a skill I need because it is an up-and-coming management system for artists that is being used by many organizations. It will look good on my resume that I know how to use the system. Another skill would be learning to have more patience, the work that I’m doing and will be doing is going to be tedious. 

I dedicate Mondays and Fridays to my placement at TAIS. I spend 8 hours on Mondays in the workplace and work remotely on Fridays for 2 or more hours to finish up any work that I couldn’t do in the workplace. Most of the work I do can be done remotely but I do like spending time in the actual workplace, in case I need guidance or feedback on what I’m doing. I did expect my workload to be tedious because TAIS has been around for years and their archives haven’t been done before. My thoughts about the animation industry haven’t changed but made me realize that it is still a small community, especially for animators in Toronto.

- Aaliyah Lee

⋆ ★ REFLECTION★⋆ 

This isn’t exactly what I was expecting before I got into this placement as our works will majorly be self directed and we will most likely be working alone. I was hoping to work in a team environment as I believe that learning to work and collaborate with other artists that are in the same or different expertise will be important and a valuable experience. 

There isn’t a strict requirement for technical skills as we will mainly be learning the pipeline of what is required and how we should prepare ourselves for submissions to an exhibition, which I also think it’s a great opportunity. As we are still in the brainstorming phase for this placement, the major challenge I’m experiencing at the moment is the anxiety of creating a work that might potentially be displayed at one of the most crowded areas in Toronto. I don’t have experience with creating works for exhibitions so I’ve been rather nervous. But I feel that they are collaborating with students not only to provide us with more opportunities, they also want to utilize the creative minds of artists that haven’t yet set foot into the professional field. 

Like we’ve planned, I’ve been mainly spending my time brainstorming about the message that I wanted to focus on and how I could make that unique and relevant to the location. It is common that a lot of us spend a great amount of time during the post production stage to set guidelines and to just grasp a clearer image of our imaginations. I’m both nervous and excited about this entire process as I believe that I need to be pushed out of my comfort zone to really produce something that will exceed my previous works.

My current skills and contributions to the placement include time management, critical thinking, effective communication, digital drawing, and software knowledge. In order to succeed in this field, I believe I need to further develop my creativity and learn how to gather inspiration and resources to enhance my conceptual ideas.

I am currently working 12 hours per week, with flexible days scheduled for work sessions ranging from 2-4 hours. Despite my initial expectations of working with other artists or receiving more feedback from supervisors, I have been working independently due to the remote nature of the placement. This has slightly shifted my thoughts on the industry as I feel a disconnection from my colleagues, but I am aware that not all studios have shifted to remote work.

The image I included is some of my work-in-progress for my character design process. 

My placement is still working on scheduling how our hours would be spent, although I understand that there is a greatly flexible schedule in which we are able to contribute our time within timeframes that work around our current responsibilities with schools and other external factors that take place outside of this placement. Nonetheless, through this placement, I am required to grasp the process of how major art festivals come to fruition and how to document and engage with peers through studio visits and research about the community. We are required to work collaboratively and critically toward selecting students that may have their work presented at the upcoming exhibition, which calls for us to exercise our communication, creativity, and critical thinking skills.

My main goal in this course is to gain experience on how exactly a career in the art field will look like and figuring out whether a place in animation will be for me or if I should go down the route of visual development. Although I have not been confirmed a placement as of yet, I did have a meeting with Golboo and will most likely be place in the Yonge-Dundas project. I think by doing a piece for an actual client and experiencing what it is like to do animation for other people, I will have a better idea of whether animation is for me or not. 

A few skills that I hope to pick up through this placement is working with others in this field as often times we create animations and projects on our own as well being more effective with my time management.

A professional that I found inspiring is Domee Shi as she is also an Asian female that grew up in Toronto. She became the first female to solely direct a feature film at Pixar which was quite surprising to me. I admire how she takes aspects of her cultural upbringing and infuses that into her animation while also making it accessible to a wider general audience. Her emphasis on bright warm colors really stands out in her work and the way she uses food to further drive the narratives is something I wish to learn from. 

Most of the work will be done virtually and meetups mostly done through teams although there will be a few in person meetings to check in on how everyone is doing. We were given the option to create out animation with other peers or individually and as of right now it seems most of us will be working individually. With all this freedom I think that my time management will be even more important since there is no hard deadline for updates, such as having x finished by next week, so learning to set these deadlines for myself will be beneficial. As of right now we just received theme for the animation and so I am currently spending my time brainstorming ideas of what to create. 

Although this was not my ideal placement as I originally wanted to work in a studio setting, I believe that due to my circumstances this semester with capstone and other courses this will work better for my schedule. With the freedom to create mostly what we want; I think this is also a good opportunity to explore different tools that could enhance my animation and work and having a mentor that will work closely with us will be helpful for that.

I do feel excited that I have a lot of freedom of what I can create but at the same time there is a feeling of anxiety as well because there are so many options. Knowing that the public will be able to view our work is also both nerve wracking and exciting as my work will actually be shown to people outside of the peers at school. 

 

I have spoken to Jackie about how I do not the most screen printing experience expect for my classes at university and they said they would be more than happy to work with me to refine my skills and further develop them. I am very excited about having this opportunity to learn from someone in the field of print first hand, but I am also extremely nervous if I don’t meet up to their printing standards.

 

Starting next week we have outlined my hours as Tuesdays from 1:30-6:00pm approximately and that will be in studio, while I might still complete other tasks remotely on my computer like the newsletters and file prep...

I am moving onto my second task which is getting into Future Now project illustration. I spent a few hours researching photos to visualize themes better to create settings and characters. One thing that might help me to build up the world is to learn how to use 3D programs. By getting used to it, it could speed up my work and pull-out accurate perspective drawings. There must be advantages of having two skills, not only knowing how to draw, but having 3D skills could bring me to diverse placement in the future. 

Industry work is way different than I thought. There's no individual work, everything must be confirmed before publishing it. I am trying my best to fit in within the drawing style and so on but still not sure if I am on the right track. Also, time management seems important to finish work on time. As a slow worker, I try to finish research as soon as possible to be secure on work time.  

As we are essentially curating an exhibition, a major aspect in this field would be communication as we have to be in conversation with artists. Whether it be studio visits or simply working with others, this skill is important in the creation of the project. Not only is this important for me to carry out through my time here, but other skills such as responsibility, organization, creativity, and teamwork must be applied to make a fruitful contribution. I have made note to develop professionalism and strategic thinking during my placement as they are qualities I would like to build on.

Our hours will be spent researching within the community, doing studio visits, documenting progress, and much more. We are only upcoming our second meeting, but by getting this opportunity, it has helped expose me to the professional setting of the curating industry and what to expect. There have been no surprises in terms of what is expected from me, but I will do all I can to contribute to the project with an open mind and a continuing desire to learn.

I don’t have much experience on working with others on an art project. I think it will need a lot of communication and compromise, also well-arranged division of work. 
2.Find the job path that suit for me:

Currently, I am still struggles on what exactly jobs I want to do in the future. I think the actual working experience will give me some clue to decide what is suitable for me. 

3. Practice my skills on animation or other relative field in arts:

For now, I have applied two positions related to animation on talent network. I don’t know if I can get these positions. If I get them, I hope to practice my skills with professional artists in work field.

 

An illustrator: Shigureui

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ui_shig?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

She started accepting illustration commission since she was in university. In 2019, she started YouTube Channel to promotion for her illustrate. She said that the most important thing for an illustrator is how you communicate with your patron. If you are not that kind of genius artist that nobody can replace you, the most reason people will offer you job is you are easy to communicate and work with. I think it teach me a lesson.

 

One thing that I've picked up is how to use a tattoo machine to apply ink on practice skin. It's definitely a skill that takes some practice, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. Of course, there have been some challenges along the way. One of the biggest ones for me has been managing my time effectively.

 

Despite the challenges, I feel like I've been able to make some meaningful contributions to the studio. I've assisted with designing, drawing, and applying tattoos, and I've even helped out with some of the administrative tasks like scheduling appointments and managing supplies. Moving forward, I know that there are still some areas where I need to develop my skills, like communication and customer service.

 

All in all, I think that experiential learning is an awesome way to supplement classroom education. Being able to learn from experienced professionals has been an incredible opportunity, and it's given me a much deeper understanding of the tattooing industry. I'm excited to see where this experience takes me and to continue to develop my skills as an artist.

As Propeller works with emerging artists, despite not having an in-person opportunity yet, this placement has allowed me to learn firsthand about networking and curating an art community. Additionally, the artists that I feature on a weekly basis through the gallery’s social media all balance work alongside their practice, and have backgrounds in a wide variety of fields such as anthropology. This expanded my insight of what art could be outside of a colonial, “white cube” gallery space, and is beneficial for the community-based, decolonial work that I do in my own practice.

Despite my confusion and anxiety about the beginning of this semester, I think that I will really enjoy working at Artscape. The folks who I met with for an interview were very friendly. The interview however was quite formal and the questions were long. I felt slightly unprepared for that. It looks like there is a possibility for a hybrid position, so that may help with me coming closer to completing the hours. It seems I will also be able to work a few extra days over reading week. 

I am looking forward to commuting to the island, and I am grateful that the ferry fare is covered by Artscape. I think it will be a unique experience. I am looking forward to meeting the artists in residence, and making some valuable connections. I am excited that I will have the opportunity to work on administrative and physical tasks. I am looking forward to learning about a new space and hopefully gaining some new skills.

I don’t have anything I can write about my placement. For now, I am so nervous and afraid about the future. I am not sure that do I really want to do animation in the future, maybe illustration is better for me. I am not a person who is good at communicate with people. Actually, I feel terrible when I talk to people recent years. Maybe I am not fit to this society. Also, I am an international student, so if I can’t find a stable job, I can’t stay in Canada. 

Return to the question, what skills I need to learn for placement. Certainly, I need to learn professional skills for animation or illustration, which I really don’t have confidence for now. Also, I hope I will be better on people skills. Hope I can figure out what I really want to do during this experience.

I will be stationed at home working remotely so I was told that I have the freedom to choose however I want to spread the 80 hours between each task. The general Idea here is that I would learn the basic pre production process and the overall procedure of applying for grants etc. I would also gain experience working on a private project and since this project is dedicated to the medical field, I acknowledge that this experience will broaden my view as an artist. 

Hello! 

Unfortunately, due to a case of covid in my household, I had to isolate from my placement and will return next week. However, my first shift went well and I am eager to keep exploring the potential of my role at addus. So far, communication is the skill I’ve developed most. One of my first tasks was to introduce myself and my practice to the group of participants I assist in instructing. I don’t have a lot of experience sharing my elevator pitch outside of an interview setting, so articulating my goals and interests to other emerging artists, who belong to a different community, was a revealing experience. Being concise, and motivational are key components for communicating successfully in this (and most) community art educational settings. As I was supporting a participant render a portrait from a reference photo and articulating strategies for achieving a realistic technique, I realized my first challenge: describing visual mark-making. At first, I verbally explained my strategies, but then I found it was more effective to provide a visual demonstration as an example on a separate sheet of paper. I need to continue exploring strategies for describing my process of creating to benefit a variety of learning styles and abilities. 

I need to actively seek out and create my own opportunities for engaging the group members because the program offers a high degree of independence during studio time. With only 4 participants and 2 existing art facilitators, my role as an instructing support doesn’t feel entirely necessary. But, I recognize I have a wide range of skills as an interdisciplinary artist, and I am close in age to most of the participants, so I think I will develop a good sense of their individual artistic goals. I expect my contribution will be mostly to inspire, connect and critique. I will suggest activities that apply materials and styles in alternative ways, that still align with the group’s individual inspirations and hopefully boost engagement. Learning to factor in ability, time, and budget constraints will be my greatest considerations as I research and form lesson/workshop ideas. 
Julia

One skill I’m continuously developing and learning during my placement is my communication abilities. However, that ties into my challenge regarding my lack of courage and confidence. I’m trying to overcome this hurdle by participating as much as possible and hoping it lessens the anxiety as I get used to speaking more.

My placement is in its early baby stages right now. So far, I’ve contributed by suggesting tasks that need to be completed for TOAF and the schedule. The skills I bring to the table include my ability to work in a team, animation, and photography skills. I’d like to improve my people and curatorial skills with this project.

Spending more hours on my placement is a priority, I need to figure out how to conduct my work and track my hours outside our weekly meetings. I feel overly reliant on Zev who has been leading our meetings for the past two weeks. I wish to contribute more, I know I’ll get that opportunity eventually but I feel wholly unknowledgeable to speak during the entire process. My thoughts haven't shifted about the industry, I have a sense of imposter syndrome within it. My anxiety, which I’ve experienced all throughout my student career, is now bleeding into my professional working career.

Hopefully, I’m able to work through these issues during this project and become more self-assured about myself.

After I was given the templates, my supervisor and I looked for potential work to use as examples on the call for submissions. She taught me how to also give credit properly to the artist whose work we are using. By making sure you have all the full information, such as the title, artist name, date, dimensions, and gallery ect.

My supervisor told me that you do this so that if the artist were to see that you have featured their work, they won’t get mad at you, because you have everything about the piece and artist correctly written.

Some skills I will require for this placement:

-Using InDesign better to create a publication

-        Following a specific design and template which the gallery uses.

-        Being more open with any issues or problem I have with my supervisor so that everything runs smoothly.

Skills I will bring to the placement:

-        Punctuality

-        Professionalism

-        My openness (willing to listen to any advise and take it with a grain of salt)

-        I love to work with others (teamwork, collaboration skills)

-        Some knowledge of using photoshop.

 

I am spending my placement hours a little different than I expected. I am doing more remote work, and less in-person gallery work. This is due to the gallery not having any exhibitions up for me to help with or anything. This has changed my perspective on like artist run galleries and the John B Aird gallery. Just learning about the history of the gallery from my supervisor was very eye opening. 

My previous knowledge of 3d modeling is relatively small and I am not very familiar with this software aspect, my previous familiar areas are illustration and 2d animation and character design.

Although this is not my most interested, but also let me know more about 3D knowledge, based on unity this real-time 3D interactive content creation and operation platform, I am the first time to contact, this is also a major challenge I encountered, I am responsible for the quality control company is the last step, if I can not find the bugs in the program in time, it will lead to the delay of the whole progress, I can only make I had to get myself up to speed on the interface and use of Unity as soon as possible. The other biggest challenge I encountered in the internship was communication. I had to have weekly meetings with colleagues and customers in Toronto, and record and give feedback to my colleagues in China, which was also a challenge to my English communication skills. The first week was trepidatious, but luckily my leader Caesar helped me a lot to adapt quickly and feel more confident when reporting to clients. My presence also gave a positive effect for timely communication between colleagues on both sides of the different time difference.

About improving my skills, I currently think it is still communication and coordination ability. As a designer, it is very important to communicate and coordinate with the customer and catch the key points of the other party in time. If you can't catch the other party's needs in time, then the design is not satisfactory in the eyes of the client.

  The current Unity3D-based game visualization, AR/VR is the future development trend of the game industry. The prospect of the industry is very good. Internship in this company also changed me and ignited some interest in 3D. My own future does not have to focus on doing 2d animation, or will try more new areas, and continue to improve themselves.

So far, I am finding the experiential learning model to be useful, as I am learning more about the average industry pipeline. My pre-existing skills that have proven to be useful, which include my professional communication skills and my ability to endure heavy workloads. I am comfortable with emailing coworkers and superiors and I am not afraid to ask questions that will help me do my job better. Also, while my placement workload by itself isn’t too heavy, knowing how to manage a busier schedule has been key to being able to keep up with my school work as well.

So far, my hours have been pretty evenly split between researching topics and actual drawing. As mentioned above, my first assignment required me to design a character that would fit into my placement partner’s futuristic world. Because of this, spending a lot of time on the research stage is necessary in order to maintain consistency between team members. While I suspect this may not be standard across the art industry, it is preparing me to adjust my expectations towards my workload. 

I was nervous about the experiential learning process, but after securing my placement at Tattoo People I feel very fulfilled and grateful for this opportunity. Although I’ve only had two shifts, which consisted mostly of cleaning, drawing my own flashes and observing, I feel really inspired by watching the artist’s independant workflow and dedication to their practice. I feel I have a place in the tattooing field and as my own artist. Other skills I still need to learn are physically tattooing (which I must practice consistently!).

In terms of a major challenges, my compositing work has been coming along very slowly as I'm so new to the skill. It's been challenging coming back to a vulnerable headspace, admitting what I don't know, while working with someone I'd like to gain employment from. 

I think my animation skills aren't up to par with some of the junior animators currently employed at the studio, nor are my compositing skills. Luckily, I've been offered an opportunity to train at the studio over the summer to brush up on my fundamentals, as well as space to work on my thesis film in order to get it ready for festivals. I believe this will give me a solid base to practice off of in an effort to gain employment in the field. I feel as though this is the kind of learning I couldn't have in a university classroom setting. 

In terms of skills, I think my study skills and interpersonal skills have been the most valuable so far. I meet and work with a lot of new people every day and am learning a completely new skill. No one is depending on me for work, so right now it's critical to be completely engaged in the role of a student. In other words – being fully engaged with observation, actively listening, asking questions, and not making anyone's job harder. 

My hours are mostly being spent on compositing work. I am not contributing in the way I expected, in that none of my work is essential to the output of either project the studio has currently taken on. I feel incredibly lucky to have my learning and potential prioritized, without any pressure to output work. 

This has supported my thoughts on the industry with regards to the strong community element; these people are teaching me and training me so I can do my best work and have an opportunity to become a contributing team member. I think this has confirmed my interest in work with small studios, as places where a space for you to learn and be your best is prioritized. 

I didn’t have much time to ask all the questions about the gallery, because it turned out surprisingly busy.  I still need to learn more about the mechanics, and communication between artists and gallery.

My shift at the gallery is on Saturdays, 11-5, and most of the time I spend installing or uninstalling artwork. I expected a bit more communication work, but surprisingly visitors are not so interested in artist or prefer to google them on their own.

I also got a good sense of the lesson plan and structure of the program. I'm working under two supervisors who each direct a portion of the day, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. On my first day, we had a lesson on the International Day of Human Fraternity, we explored different cultures and religious practices and created masks inspired by the lesson. In the afternoon, we celebrated one of the program attendants' birthdays, so it wasn't the best example of a usual day at Addus, but it was a lot of fun. I have some severe social anxiety and worried that my presence and being a new face might dampen the experience so I made sure to join in and tried to bring a level of engagement that I felt was quickly felt by the other participants from asking questions around phrases I didn't know during the lesson, to joining in with trivia answers and singing some karaoke. 

And though we had a busy schedule, I was able to spend one on one time getting to know the program attendees, which was really important for me to do as a new person there and in an environment, that fosters creativity and expression, making sure everyone is comfortable around each other is the best way to ensure that no disruption occurs. 

I'm excited to get to know each person one on one, so I can lend valuable feedback during lessons that will help each person in a way they will benefit. When creating art or working within communities of art making, it's important for me to understand individual skill levels and relationships within art so that I can think critically about the trajectory of the artist and find ways that will help them and encourage them to adapt these skills and methods which can be diluted or lost with a more generalized approach to art making. And already on my first day, I was able to identify a few people who worked from reference and had imagery they wanted to replicate and wanted a more direct structure to making, while other people wanted to create what was in their heads in a much more feeling focused way letting the experience change the visuals and final product. 

The strongest skill I’m working on and being mindful of is communication and finding ways to explain things that make sense to me in a way that can make sense to other people. I find myself naturally giving feedback and critiques to my peers but worrying or noticing the phrasing or language can sometimes be confusing or hard to grasp than directly sculpting or drawing, I want to work on this, and I hope Addus continues to help me find ways to teach that are engaging for others and help them concrete some of the learning that I know will benefit them but in a way that makes sense to the trajectory of the individual and their goals.

Next week we are going on a field trip to the UofT Art Museum. I will be sharing my work for everyone to get a sense of my work, and in the upcoming weeks I will be designing some lesson plans around sculpting, which I'm very excited about. 

The soft skills for the Trillium Project are not just in working with a team, though I think that will be valuable, but also in interpreting the journal entries from medical professionals that we will be going over. As they are written about their experiences with patients who did not make it, they require both a careful reading and the willingness to think both critically and compassionately. It’s not something I’m used to doing outside of fiction. This placement mostly requires technical skills I already possess but am fairly inexperienced at, such as visual research and storyboarding.

The task we have been given currently is to choose 50 stock images that reflect a journal entry, narrow it down to the best 10, then choose 1 from that 10 that best encapsulates the story. With that image, we are to create an illustration through either using it as a reference or tracing. Later we’ll be experimenting with that stylistically. I didn’t exactly expect just how many images I’d be required to find. I’m not exactly surprised but I do think this solidified for me a bit better how tedious a decent portion of what I will be doing is- I am going into animation after all.

I am only one week into actually doing anything in my placement. Apparently, we started later than we were expected to? It’s simply too early to for me to talk about learning any new skills or facing any challenges as I am currently in the ideas stage. I can only anticipate that I may face challenges in the coming two months. 

As an animator I have the skills needed to produce a short animation in either 2D or 3D. I will be using these skills in my placement. 

I am also expected to pitch my idea for consideration as well as submit some writing about it. This is a skill set I will need to improve on as I do not have much experience in it. 

It is really hard to answer these questions as I’ve barely started on the placement at the time of writing this. 

Up until now I have only spent my hours being briefed on the project and discussing potential ideas. So far things are going how I expect them to. 

I don’t want to comment on my thoughts on the industry as it’s not my first time working on a professional animation project. 

I am working with a team of 11 students to provide TOAF with a short list of artists to choose from.  In the next 7 weeks, we will have a meeting with TOAF to learn about their jury requirements.  We will put out a "Call for Submission" and raise awareness among our peers. We will conduct studio visits, document work in progress, and collaborate on a presentation that will develop the profiles for the TOAF jury.

I was hoping to find a placement that would be closer to my interests - mental health and art therapy.  However, I understand that this type of opportunity can be difficult to find, as OCAD is not a school of therapy.  However, I am very excited about this internship.  I get to learn how to create a call for submissions and curate an exhibition.  How to advocate for an emerging artist and develop other skills that are associated with the professional practice of art.

I believe I am an asset to the team as I am open minded and not afraid to reach out to my peers.  I have a great deal of experience in exhibition set-up from my previous professional life.  

I have spent 2 hours on meetings, mapping out job specifications and timeline.  We will continue to have meetings every Friday, and we will also do some work on our own for outreach.     

I am looking forward to working with my peers on this project.

 

My plan of action is to reach out to as many schools in my general area as I can—I’ve already started, and have at least 30 on my list. I’m emailing across the Toronto school board, and even looking into fancier private schools, like Montessori and Waldorf Academy. Currently I’ve only received one automated response and one telling me they aren’t able to help, but I’m staying positive!

 

A professional (?) who got me thinking about this, or, my inspiration, is actually my first grade teacher, Ms. Richardson. She impacted me a lot and I hadn’t thought too seriously about where I see myself and/or what I want to do when I complete my degree, but this class got me thinking about it and when “primary school teacher” crossed my mind, something clicked! I really hope I enjoy my placement experience but if I don’t, at least I’ll know whether or not it’s the field for me and won’t waste my time pursuing something I may no longer be interested in. 

 

There are so many things I would love to do in the position of being a children’s art teacher, like helping them express themselves and destress and work through problems and emotions visually. Another thing loosely on my mind, is that I love to crochet and think it’s practical but also therapeutic and gives an often much-needed sense of accomplishment. I would love to try to teach crochet to my students and hopefully help them learn to be calm and centre their emotions, and then they might have a nice hat to wear when they’re done! Creating your own clothes is really such a great feeling, and I am confident that a 5-10 year old could do it with some practice and patience! That being said, the crochet part is just wishful thinking, but the main art teacher stuff is really exciting to me!

 

 

Some of the older grades are doing some assignments related to what they’re learning in other classes, like dry-brushing yellow on paper to look like papyrus and then drawing hieroglyphs, and some students are doing some drawings inspired by a book they’re reading for Black History Month. Especially because it’s a private school and not part of the school board curriculum, Jessica gets to make up the assignments herself, and tends to change them up year to year to keep them interesting for her as well. It’s a lot of fun!

 

Currently a challenge I encountered was on Thursday, there’s a 9 year old boy who didn’t want to engage in the activity and was being negative. I tried to talk to him and help him get started, but he was stubborn. As that class left for their next subject, Jessica informed me his parents are separating and he has good days and bad days. There isn’t really a solution for this challenge, as I discussed with Jessica at the time as well. I’m not sure if he needs space and time to himself, or extra attention because maybe he feels more ignored at home too. But it’s important to know what’s going on in their life, and do our best to help and make things easier where we can.

 

There’s definitely a wide variety of skills involved, even for teaching the little kids. They sometimes ask some hard questions, or we need to discuss more serious topics. They don’t understand how a lot of things work yet, or can be hyperactive and even destructive. The kids are really liking me, mainly the younger ones. I think I’m doing a good job at engaging and helping. I am liking what I’m doing! Currently since I just started and am still getting a feel for things, I’m figuring out where everything goes when it’s clean up time, and helping to prep everything for the students. Lots of measuring and cutting and even helping with some brainstorming. I think that in a bit more time I might be able to present the assignments myself, or maybe even help think of one! Admittedly, on my first day I was more intimidated than I expected, but I think in just 3 days I’ve gotten much more comfortable, and can see myself pursuing this line of work! I’m interested to see how I feel once it starts feeling more like “work” and not just an exciting new experience. But, it’s interactive and creative and days pass quickly, so maybe it’ll never really feel like work. 

I’ve also had to use these skills when organising receipts and filling out financial spreadsheets. It’s given me lots of insight into the financial side of being a self-sustaining artist with a studio, an apartment, and given me a glimpse of the costs of supplies, shipping, printing, etc. So again, organisation and attention to detail are both skills that I knew were important, but I had no idea that they’d be this crucial to every aspect. 

Another one is time management. With nobody to make schedules for you, I’ve learned that self-discipline and planning are also important when juggling many different tasks that run on separate timelines. 

In terms of the way my hours are being spent, it’s pretty much what I expected. I’m really enjoying it because no two shifts have been identical, and I’m a fast learner so I’ve been getting into the various grooves of a lot of different tasks (packing orders, making shipping labels, manufacturing stickers and prints, taking inventory, organising finances, and driving the artist to various locations including documenting facilities, supply shops, and galleries) and becoming more efficient and experienced with each day. It’s definitely given me a lot more first hand experience into the day-to-day tasks of a full time painter like Shanna, and I’m learning a lot.

I have participated in one of the events for book publishing where I was able to experience, the public reading by Vincent Lam and Andrea Thompson's reading word performance. 

So far my placement has been regarding the public engagement and supporting the host which helped me to strengthen my communication skill. However, moving forward my intention is to help curate successful events from installing to the opening reception. I am interested in event management as well so I am excited for the upcoming opportunities. 

Curation is one of the skill that I am most excited about. Curating a show from the beginning to the end is such an interesting aspect which will eventually help my written and verbal communication skills. I am intrigued about the project Carla has on her mind for us. 

Even though I am a bit late to start my internship and dealing with some personal struggles, I am hopeful to be able to catch up with my hours soon.

I do not get to interact with my colleagues frequently. The only time I see them is during our weekly check-in meetings via Google Meet, where we share the progress of our work while having our cameras on. Other interactions with my colleagues are through sending updates of our progress or signing off for our shift by sending any kind of gif on our message board as a farewell gesture.

Overall, considering that our goal is to work alongside graduating artists of OCAD who are participating at GradEX 2023 in order to find a suitable recipient of this opportunity with TOAF, we have a planned schedule that showcases important deadlines and tasks that are to be completed prior to the dates listed. The documents we are currently working on consist of the Calls for Submissions, Guidelines and posts that will be used for social media marketing and outreach. For now, we have compiled a rubric of what each document will contain, our plans to reach out to eligible artists that submit an application and the requirements/objectives we hold towards documentation of their work and studio visits.

 

In terms of documentation, we’ve only met online for the past few meetings so there isn’t too much I can show in terms of workspace. I do have a few screenshots I’ve taken from some screenshots of the meetings in order to help myself throughout this process so I‘ll include those as some form of documentation.




 

 

So the big change I mentioned here is, in earnest, we are going to discuss what kind of animation we are going to make in the future and whether it is against a policy, and the students who participated in this Placement are going to consider deeply about the size of the screen and how to take advantage of them. The keywords that Tommy has presented to us are mostly things that we need to think about in reality, such as the natural environment, climate change, fear, and hope. In the past, students' animation works were mostly loop animation, and one video Tommy showed was an animation in which a family eats dinner with a gas mask on during the pandemic when COVID-19 was prevalent. The painting style and animation technique looked very comic, but it was not just funny. In other words, this was the worst situation we could have faced.

Based on this inspiration, the animation I devised is 'Sea,' and I will express the environmental pollution and climate change we face through five screens and every five seas. Of course, it is still a draft idea, so this could change enough, but I am going to discuss it closely in a meeting with Tommy soon. The programs I plan to use will mainly be 'Procreate' and 'Priemiere Pro', and the 'Audition' program would also be used for sound design.

Our meeting is on the third floor of the main building and we are discussing it here, and as mentioned above, the animation itself is going on in its own space and time. Our meeting is only once a month, so I do not have a picture to post, but I will upload it again after taking a picture or video after the meeting on March 3rd.

For my placement, I work from home and attend weekly meetings. Whenever I attend the meetings or work individually for my placement, I find it most comfortable to work in my room. Having an individual workspace for myself and being able to be surrounded around the things that I enjoy makes it easier for me to concentrate and complete my tasks efficiently. I do enjoy the fact that during my placement we are able to meet as a group and then get separate time to work on our own during our own time. The flexibility is great, and it is nice to see what my colleagues have come up with when we do meet again.  My setup includes my laptop where I can easily access any documents or notes that I need for my placement, my iPad to attend the meetings, a notebook to write down notes at ease and also headphones if ever needed.

Our group has been tasked to put up a call for submissions for the TOAF OCADU GradEx Booth and recently we have been drafting what we would include in it. The group had put together our first draft a few back which can be seen on the document on the left and just today, we came together again with Zev, the project coordinator and polished up the draft to include information that was more specific to what our goals were, seen on the right. We discussed things like wording and how to simply get a message or goals across to our audience and edited a few dates. Though small changes, it goes to show how much of an impact they can make when it comes to what is desired to be achieved. It was nice to receive guidance and feedback from everyone within the group as all the ideas came together and eventually formed a more well-organized draft.

Additionally, I’ve learned to keep any videos or music I play in the background on my computer, which prevents me from getting distracted from my task and jumping over to Youtube. At the start of the internship, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to motivate myself to work on something at home for so long at a time, but with the online presence of a supervisor checking in on my progress and some good working habits, I am doing ok. This will be useful in my intended future career plan, where I will likely be animating at a desk for similar long hours.

The software that I am using for my placement is the app Procreate. There is no program that Embreate strictly requires I use, so long as I can use it to illustrate characters and scenes, and as long as it has a timelapse video function. As it can do both, Procreate is a decent choice for myself, who illustrates on an IPad, and has a limited knowledge of computer drawing programs.

As for what I am currently working on, our team has moved on to our second assignment, which involves illustrating scenes from one of Embreate’s Future Now stories. We started by creating some moodboards for characters and locations. I chose to develop the mercenaries that appear early on in the story, and included above is some visual experimentation I did for them. Then we moved on to storyboarding, which we finalized last week. The storyboards serve as the base for the final illustrations. The timelapse video linked below shows my progress on one of the final illustrations, going from creating my final sketch to 

lining it.

Timelapse Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WOFnDxy0aRv2nIBlKLNif29_rOsHmUvB/view?usp=share_link

First photo is my working space, and most paintings are created from this tablet.

So far all I have done is write and draw thumbnail sketches.
For the project we are exploring themes of Nature, Recovery, Well Being and Anxiety. I have drawn simple sketches to get ideas out (which I can't share on Padlet because I can only one picture)

Documentation (screen capture) or software that you use in your placement
I’ve attempted to experiment with styles and methods on animating/rendering content (see image). I have used both Blender and Maya. I had to look up a tutorial to make the clouds on the right. Unfortunately I am not happy with it so I will be avoiding using that technique.

The office at AGP (Artscape Gibraltar Point). The historic building was once the Toronto Island Public School. It has so much character, huge windows in every room, and art everywhere. It is a wonderful working environment. The office is attached to the community kitchen which is the main social hub of AGP. It is really nice to be surrounded by artist all working on unique projects. There is a sense of calmness here, which apparently is the quite opposite in the summer months. I find that really interesting. 

Due to the nature of my placement, we don’t have much to show as of yet. We have just finished our “pre-production” phase, and all we have done are written, so quite boring visually. 

We have reviewed the submission requirements, and talked a lot about juried exhibitions and free-lance searching and working with companies or organizations similar to Young and Dundas Square. It has been a lot of learning and understanding how the pre-production phase works when working for an org. 

We did have a meeting today (Friday, March 3rd), and went over CVs, artist statements, inspiration or documentation for a project proposal, and more. I will post the schedule we have as an image that we have created, but we really have just appropriately started creating, so if this discussion were due later, I would have some work to show. 

Overall, with all the learning and talking with the group we have, I’m excited to finally get to work doing something creative for this placement, and I am very thankful for all the learning we have done with the few meetings we have had.

I want to preface this by saying that since the game is still in production and has not been published yet I am unable to share any of the art examples or the exact screenshots of the tasks, full software, or anything of that kind. So the next best thing I can do is to show examples of HOW I would do certain tasks and screenshots of how the software looks (from their advertisements). 

This is a screenshot from Jira’s own website. Jira is a software that can be utilized to easily keep track of your tasks and assign specific tasks to different members of the team. I was in charge of overseeing the task blocks and keeping note of the in-progress work and the work that needs revision or needs reviews, and reminding the assignees in a timely manner to make sure that production would be on track and we would meet the correct deadlines. 

I was also lucky enough to be tasked with doing storyboards for some parts of the game.  I would take pre-existing assets and I would visualize some aspects that the 3D modeling team would need to understand the story. I learned a lot about the process of storyboarding for a video game would look like in comparison to animation.

One other downside of working remotely was that I was not in an environment where I would see the rest of the crew often. This meant other than very short interactions in general meetings on Zoom, I would not be able to, for example, shadow the writing team or the build team, or the 3D modeling team or discuss/ ask about their process. However, my supervisor was kind enough to meet with me regularly if I need it to ask questions and to work around my schedule. 

I want to preface this by saying that since the game is still in production and has not been published yet I am unable to share any of the art examples or the exact screenshots of the tasks, full software, or anything of that kind. So the next best thing I can do is to show examples of HOW I would do certain tasks and screenshots of how the software looks (from their advertisements). 

This is a screenshot from Jira’s own website. Jira is a software that can be utilized to easily keep track of your tasks and assign specific tasks to different members of the team. I was in charge of overseeing the task blocks and keeping note of the in-progress work and the work that needs revision or needs reviews, and reminding the assignees in a timely manner to make sure that production would be on track and we would meet the correct deadlines. 

My idea is to show how we seek peace and tranquility of the mind while we are constantly submerged in a heavily industrialized surrounding. Obtaining the peace of mind can be simple sometimes, even if we just start to notice the smaller things around us. I want each monitor to show the buildings that’s physically behind which are usually blocked from our POV. But within each monitor there would be elements of nature, since we usually feel at peace when we’re surrounded by greenery. I may also add other elements like a colour changing chameleon that changes from being visible or invisible to hint more at the process of noticing the smaller details. I’m hoping to use the monitors as a kind of magnifying glass through this process. I would like the theme and overall feel of my piece to be on the lighter and hopeful side. Where when people walk by and notice my work, they could feel refreshed from being in a fast paced city. 

Unfortunately I don’t have much to show as I haven’t started producing the actual animation portion. And since this is a self-led placement, we don't exactly have a dedicated workspace either. Program wise, I usually work within Photoshop, Adobe Animate, as well as procreate. But, I will keep in mind to document my Process as it could go towards the final video that we have to produce near the end of the semester.

 

This is an image of my workspace where I am helping with curating the OSA Emerging Artist Juried Exhibition. I am assisting with receiving the artworks from the artists. While engaging with various artists and their families we are also doing the condition reporting. 

 

Condition reporting is essential for the artist and the gallery as we are checking and taking notes for any of the concerning damages before accepting the work.

 

 

 

Part 3:

 

Here I am with Kari Serrano, OSA Emerging Artist Juried Exhibition facilitators.

 and the Vice President of OSA Kim Atkins.

Throughout this month, I will assist on curating, condition reporting and over all organize the show titled "2023 Emerging Artist Juried Exhibition" in collaboration with Ontario Society of Artists. 

 

Link: https://ontariosocietyofartists.org/ 

 

I work in various spaces of OCAD University’s metal shop. Pictured of various machinery I use, here in image 1 shown specifically is one of two metal lathes and two worktables in the background. Not photographed is the communal metal shop office I occasionally work in and discuss future plans and ideas of projects with Metal Shop’s Technician Josh, Class Assistant Melissa, and Class Monitor Jason.

Image 1                                                          Image 2                                                         Image 3

Documentation of projects you are working on (image 2)

I am in the initial stages of a project to be created. Image 2 is a screen capture of one of the projects I was asked to attempt to create to hone metalwork skills inclusive of drafting, coldsaw cutting, mig/tig, welding, angle grinding, sandblasting, and polishing to be able to complete. Another project I am joining is to help create tables for OCAD’S foundry fabrication studios.

Digital software is something that I will be trained to use later in my placement. I am anticipating using AutoCAD to create construction drawings and laser cut pieces for future projects. As part of administrative work in running a metal shop, we use and contact suppliers like McKinnon Metals and McMaster-Carr to order sheet metal, tubing, and other material stocked for OCAD students to buy and use, as well as for the projects I will be making. Image 3 shows receiving from McKinnon Metals to OCAD Metal shop of metal sheets, and the manual updating of material prices inclusive of a 30% markup.

The first image is of my workspace, usually I’m either on campus as I don’t like to work from home, I find myself more productive when I’m not in my apartment because I’m not distracted. I find that when I’m in an environment where people are working it motivates me to be productive as well. Also I find myself needing to be beside a window where I can get some sunlight.

The second image is of the teams group that we use to meet every Friday and Mondays 

The third image is of our group  chat on WhatsApp where we communicate throughout the week and make sure we all on the same page. To the right are all the media regarding ideas for social media marketing designs, call for submission drafts and poster ideas. Using a WhatsApp group proves to be very efficient  in terms of communication and accessibility and is less formal than Teams, which is also a pro. 

            As such the only documentation I can provide for the sake of submission is my research paper proposal with two of my literary notes. I shall provide a link below to access the notes I have covered so far. 

Let me know if the link can be accessed.

Communication is very important in placement given that I would need to be able to articulate my ideas across online or in-person. When there were issues concerning the creation of ideas that arose, I had not thought to consider seeking help which staggered my progression. In trying to manage my time, I had thought of merging research of another assignment as research material for this animation projection which led to me spending most of my time figuring out how to finish the essay rather than just simply settling for something simple. However, it did get me to think about the psychology behind visualising climate change imagery. I made use of my prior knowledge with animation software such as adobe Photoshop and After Effects to create 2D animation for this placement. Photoshop will be used to draft my visual concepts including colour composition and creating the asset layers used for the animation while After Effects will be used to animate the asset layers and edit special effects into the animation.