My Portfolio Spring 2014...

So this is my portfolio for the Motivari mentorship program. I wish I could have put together stronger pieces, but it's just to show potential mentors where I currently stand.

Motivation!!!

Sooo... a lot's happened over the past couple of days. For one thing, I had my meeting at Calarts with the Film/Video admissions counselor, and it was actually really helpful. He was very friendly and we talked for a bit and he gave me some feedback on some of my current artwork (which was mostly just sketchbook pieces). His feedback was pretty direct yet helpful. He basically said I lacked depth in my life drawings, and that I need to take figure drawing classes, add color to my work, and start drawing things in see from real life. But, he also said, from what he could see, I had a lot of natural ability, considering I had never taken any art classes and that my drawings showed promise as a potential future animator (that made me feel pretty good), however as I stand at the moment, I am not quite ready. Which I already know.

In addition, he gave me his card and a bunch of cool things I could do in order to improve, such as doing a summer session at Calarts, which is usually not open to outside students I heard, unless special permission is granted. Either way, I'm totally doing that.

Since that meeting, and after taking a thorough tour of the school, I'm more in love with the school than before, and I already made adjustments to how I'm going to handle this portfolio. I met up with my friend Murphy today, who's kinda like my art training partner, and we just sat in the mall and drew people who walked by or sketched people sitting near us. We were there for hours, and though we wound up not getting as much done as we wanted (since we wound up talking about life), we still saw slight improvement in our work, just by doing it for a day.

Anywho, I still have to apply to Motivarti, so I'll probably post my "portfolio" within the next couple of days. Though if Calarts thought it wasn't up to snuff, I doubt they will, but we'll see. Either way, I'm going to work my ass off this year, and try to get better every day.

So Life Happened...

Heyy...people of the internet. So I have quite a bit to update on, which is odd because I never thought so much could go on in just a few days.

A couple of days ago, I found out my grandpa passed away due to complications with his cancer, that we all thought went in remission. I wasn't as close to him as I wanted to be, mostly because he lived in New York whilst I'm here in California, but visiting and talking to him was always a pleasure, because we were very much alike, which was refreshing because I'm the black sheep haha. He was also incredible positive and always upbeat, so I know he wouldn't want me to be sad....it's still kinda hard though.

After I got the news I went to my friends birthday party, which was sooooo legit. It was in a warehouse that his parents owned and we played Super Smash Bros Brawl, Cards Against Humanity, Street Fighter, etc. Plus we had tons of food and music and shizzzzz. It was bomb.

And today I met up with Andres again and we hung out all day and just talked about certain things, things that I'll probably write about another time. But it was really insightful because I needed some core advice.

Speaking of advice, I have a meeting at Calarts on Tuesday with the department chair of Character Animation, or something. I dunno, he's high ranking. And I'm going to get some feedback. Honestly, a tad nervous for him to see my work, but whatever.

Welp. Better get to sleep. Gotta get up in two hours to attend an event at my mom's job. I don't really want to go...mostly because it's too early, but whatever. I said I would lol.

Application Time

Hmm, updates. Past few days weren't that special. Got to hang out with another good friend of mine yesterday evening, and we caught up over some homemade hamburgers and video games. But, other than that, same old same old.

Today kinda marks the "real" start of my year. It's Monday, January 13th, which means that applications for two new internships I've been wanting to apply to opened up today: Motivarti and Paramount Studios. The latter is simply an internship at the studios in Hollywood, which I just finished applying for right now, and I honestly don't expect to hear back from them, since my resume is kinda lame and unimpressive at the moment.

Motivarti, however, is a mentorship program where you apply to be a 'mentee' for a specific artist, and they have a whole list of them, ranging from Pixar Animators to Freelance Illustrators. I'm going to apply for someone who works in animation, since that's my field of choice.....only problem is that I don't exactly have a portfolio. I mean, I have a bunch of sketchbook pages that I scanned, and a few comics I did while I was working for my college newspaper, but that's about it. I don't even have any strong life drawings.

Anywho, I'll post my portfolio and stuff sometime soon when I organize my art pieces better, because I actually kinda really want a mentor. I've never taken an art class in my life, and I'm trying to go to Calarts, so having a mentor would reallyyyyyy help, especially one from Pixar.

We'll see what happens.

First Week Back

So, it's now officially been a week since I've been back home from my college program...and it was honestly probably one of the most relaxing weeks I've had in a while.Overall, I didn't really do anything. I spent most of my days either drawing or playing video games, and then derping around on my computer when I got bored of either. 

I did get a nice break the other day by hanging out with my friend Andres, a good friend of mine who used to attend the community college I'm at right now, until he transferred to art school. Since then we rarely see each other, so it was good to hang out with him for the day. We spent the day catching up and talking about life  and such, specifically my experiences with the Disney College Program. At the end of the night we wound up getting dinner at a bomb Japanese place at the mall with another friend of mine I used to work with, Denise. I met her at my first job...a really ghetto Fatburger...but that's a whole 'nother story.

Anyway, that was like two days ago or something, so really, that was the highlight of my week, nothing special. 

As far as my drawings go, I've still been drawing every day, but I'm not sure if I'm improving or not. I think I have a little, but figure drawing is proving to be a challenge.....oh well.

Le Beginning...

...So, I really have no idea where to start this blog. Hey there people of the internet, my name's Austin Faber (Kojo is my middle name), and I'm 20 years old living in Southern California. I'm basically starting this blog so I can keep record of things going on in my life, since, as of late, a lot of stuff has been going on. I'll mainly be using it as a personal journal or something, since I figure I'm not going to have too many followers. Last time I made a blog I sorta just wound up....not blogging. But I'm going to make more of an attempt to update this one.

I just came back from participating in the Disney College Program at the Disneyland Resort in Anahiem, where I worked as an intern for about 4 months and lived there whilst doing so. It was a pretty amazing experience and I made a bunch of unforgettable friends. I can honestly say the past 4 months have been rather life-changing, and even now as I sit in my dark, somewhat dusty room, I feel like a slightly different person than I was when I left. I feel more brave, ambitious, and mature, but I also feel like I have soooo much more room to grow.

Also, I feel like my art has improved...a bit. I'm an aspiring animator/cartoon enthusiast, and, while at Disney, a few things pushed me to want to re-apply to Calarts (my first attempt is a story for another time). So I made a resolution this year that I would draw every day and put together the best portfolio I could for Calarts.

Applications aren't due for another year...so I have some time. But in the meantime I'll be applying to other internships like the one I did with Disney. And after the craziness I experienced in 2013, I have no idea what to expect this year.

And so the journey begins..............or something...