Reflection on year 2 /start of year 3

Ok so once again its the night before I start back at Uni, had time of for summer but unlike last summer I continued to do some work to improve my skills. I mainly focused on my visual design doing a few portraits of different cultures and genders as well as a few landscapes.

The 2nd year was the toughest that I had so far but I also think its the year that I matured the most in my practices. I actually only started doing digital painting properly this year, which at the start was a bit ropey, I had had ever only done 1 digi-painting before which was in the first year. And before then I only worked with traditional media. Looking back on my first digipaint, it seems a bit feeble in comparison to what I could do now. (as the reaction of looking at any of my old works)

I continued to practice digi-painting as it was something I wanted to get more into, weeks and project passed and there was slight improvement with every final piece produced. At times I thought I could have produced better but that is how it is with everything produced by artists. Considering the time frame which we had I tried my hardest with what was alloted and I thought I did fairly well, even with the slump.

My 3d was reasonable from my past experiences but that also improved last year. Where the first 2 projects were a little ropey to say the least, I feel that In the third project being the Mortal engines self portrait I started to step up the game. It was a really hard project and I ended up restarting a few times but the result was quite good in my opinion - the rigging was a little awkward and the low poly, my character seemed to morph into a different race. The group project was good also working in a team for the first time which I put a lot of effort into and we achieved something great.

I continued to work with my critical studies but with both these larger demanding subjects I didn't seem to have the time I managed to give in the first year.

With everything going on, unfortunately I did get the dreaded 2nd year slump where I was getting a bit depressed with the work which I was doing - I also had motivational issues which were difficult to shift. Regrettably towards the end of the year there was a large pile of work I had to go through which meant rushing a little more to get things done for the final hand-in. I regret that happened but if I'm honest I was able to move between projects quite quickly and produce work faster than I ever had before.

To reiterate, even though I had problems with motivation and all It was quite a successful year. I also grown more of a person socially and left my incredibly shy persona behind, still needing to be worked on but these things come with time and practice, Same with Art, same with everything!

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So that was the 2nd year, now that im entering the 3rd year truthfully I am very anxious about the transition. I cant really comment on if this is how I envisioned myself after these years, I feel like I was a different person back when I started making game modifications and general work arounds with the Quake3 engine. Although what I made in that time I was happy with and enjoyed doing it was considered quite old tech compared to whats available now. This course was like a complete step up from all of that primarily focusing on the artistic qualities than the technical.
Ill be seeing less and less of the tutors leaving it more up to me to produce work which I need to do rather than being spoon fed.
"Run boy! you are free!" is the general feeling for this year but as anything, starting again its a bit frightening. Its also going to be difficult to get back into the mode of working, even though I did a few bits over the summer its still not really the same, but again with time Im sure it'll click once again.
I intend to make a real effort this year ,not saying I didn't make an effort in previous years, but its time to up the game and get this year completed to the best of my ability.

Bring it on 3rd year!