I had a mountain of work to do for my final semester. I didn't get to sit with the feeling of being done until now. I loved my time at SVA. I was really worried when arriving in Manhattan four years ago but I made it through! I feel like NYC slapped me into shape and I hit the ground sprinting for my life. It was perfectly what I needed. My biggest highlight was all my roommates and getting to know my professors. I made art that young me would be really impressed by. I'm going to miss the energy from being surrounded by such talented peers everyday. I wonder if this is how Gerad Way felt lol. I'm moving away from the big apple for a more locally grown apple upstate. I'm excited to see where art will take me next no guardrails. Thank you Steven universe school!
03/29/26: UV mapping with procreate :D
I've vaguely learned Blender over the last two years. I've found UV mapping and texture mapping to be incredibly difficult and intimidating. I just found out that using Procreate, you can paint directly onto models and get them to look exactly how I've always hoped. It's so underrated and not talked about enough. I used this tutorial: the tutorial
02/08/26: 3D printing!
Ive dived into resin printing! Seeing all my characters physically come to life has made every blender tutorial worth it. Besides immediately spilling resin all over my desk its been awesome. Next I want to learn how to cut my figurines up for easier painting with my airbrush. I also eventually want to get into electroplating the prints and making some jewelry but thats probably not anytime soon. While still expensive im glad 3d printing has become cheaper and easier to use. I made the mistake of printing all my prints with full fill making them fail and break easily. its been an effective pipeline of modeling a character using it as reference for illustration then getting to make a figurine.
01/20/26: Silk Screen printing :p
Im taking silk screen for my last semester at SVA. Its a fun process. ive been working so digitally recently its been nice to get in the print lab spray some water everywhere. The physical quality of the prints vs a inkjet or laser is so nice, feeling the slightly raised ink on the paper is epic. I cant wait to print on some t-shirts.
03/08/25: Visual thinking and mental health
I've found that conventional advice on mental health is good, but it misses the mark in a lot of ways. While talking with professors and peers, I shared my way of dealing with anxiety and intrusive thoughts visually. Some people found it really helpful, so I want to share it here. I imagine a baseball field where I'm both the pitcher and the batter. I identify negative, unhelpful thoughts, smush them into a baseball, and chuck em down the field. Then, as the batter, I take a deep breath and hit the ball straight into the sky. It's so satisfying. The stadium is completely empty, but I find that calming rather than lonely. Sometimes, I miss the ball—a lot—which tells me how heavy these thoughts are weighing on me. When that happens, I take time to challenge the negative thoughts until I can finally hit the ball. I constantly expand this baseball field world in my head to suit all kinds of struggles. If you're an artist or a visual thinker, I highly recommend finding a visual method to work through things; it can make a huge difference.
01/12/25: Junior Spring Semester
My spring junior semester has started at SVA, and I'm super excited! I have two different classes: one called Storytelling and another one also called Storytelling. Then a Pictorial class where we're making a book, as well as a picture book-making class. So one could call me an author. I also have a Metalworking class, and after the first day with all the sparks, I'm already hooked. I'm using MIRO to stay organized this semester. It's free and works so well for me because I'm a visual thinker; no words cross my mind during my thought process. Inner monologue who? don't have that. I highly recommend it.
01/07/25: Sewing ventures
Got an old Kenmore sewing machine from my aunt. She says she barely used it. Having fun + excited to learn. Flared some pants today, I made some mistakes and broke the needle right at the end lol but results were pretty good regardless. Flared 70s pants are coming back! I think a stuffed animal or throw pillow next.
12/25/24: Merry Christmas
My Mema got me a sketchbook larger than what im used to but stoked! Could totally do airbrush straight into this one.
Awesome XMAS musicThe sketchbook
12/20/24: New Website!
I've been diving into HTML CSS coding to build this website! With a little help from my sister, who's a computer science major, I've been having so much fun adding all the little details I want. I'm hosting this site through Neocities which rocks! It's like the Geocities days; there are so many personal websites with tons of charm. Each one has its own unique flair. It gives back the experience of surfing the web and not endless scrolling. Check it out, discover a cool website, and even get inspired to make your own! :)
