Well, 2007 is about to end soon, and as the New Year is just around the corner, I’m reflecting on the year gone by. My achievements, failures, new experiences etc. Unfortunately I find myself leaving this year behind feeling a little bit irate over certain things, though I’ll not go into it as it’s nothing serious. Anyway, I’m thinking about the last year and how it’s been for me. Excuse me if anything seems disjointed or random in this journal, I’m just writing things as they come to mind.

What I’ve achieved
I graduated university this year in July – I now have a BA Honours degree in Animation. Throughout those three years I was the class rep, and so was partly responsible for student-teacher relations and relaying any complaints or praise.
I finished another animation in full – something I was seemingly incapable of doing for the first two years due to my being over ambitious.
I helped a large number of people with their display boards for the end of year degree show. So much so, in fact, that I was told to stop doing so I could continue with what I was doing, hehe.
I edited together all of the footage for the Animation Bites Film Festival we held in May, and I was the projectionist for the night.
Now of course with the end of this long journey comes the beginning of a new one – going out into the working world to make myself enough money to get by and pay off all the dept I’ve accumulated by now -_-

So, work wise I’ve done character design and animation work for Koko Digital, being the animator for Lamb Chop Drop – the charity game made for the Make A Wish Foundation.
I’m currently involved in an ongoing project for a TV series pitch, where I’ve learned a huge amount about character design as well as creating various technical objects and vehicles. I can’t say anything further on this but it’ll be awesome once it’s all ready.

Most importantly for me, I’ve improved my artwork and skills even further and I feel more capable of doing more things. It may or may not show in my gallery at present, but that’s partly due to most of it coming from the project I’m working on. Otherwise, I feel my sense of anatomy and lighting are improving, as is my animation timing and speed in all of these.

What I’ve failed at
Overall I guess I’d have to say relationships for this one. Not to say that I’ve had any go bad (that would require me to have one in the first place, which is partly what I mean). No, I mean more familiar relationships not being quite what they should be. I tend to have difficulty keeping in contact with people, or at least keeping them up to date with the goings on in my life and checking up on them. This is largely the reason for me being irate as it can lead to certain complications. Particularly with separated parents.

I also feel that I’ve become somewhat socially reclusive again; a step backwards in my opinion. It may or may not bother them so much, but I do feel sometimes like I’m almost neglecting my friends while I stay upstairs in front of my computer working on who-knows-what for who-knows-how-long rather than actually coming downstairs more often to hang out and watch stuff. It’s something that tends to leave me out of the loop occasionally, not helped by the fact that I sometimes simply don’t hear or don’t listen to conversations going on around me if we’re all in my room at the time. That’ll be down to me not being able to think about what I’m drawing and converse/listen at the same time, though. Something I need to work on.

I’ve also missed on deadline for project work. The upside is that now the whole thing looks so much better. I can attribute missing it to the fact that I still had a lot of uni work to do which of course took priority, though I still didn’t like missing that deadline.

On a similar note, I STILL have a load of commissions that have been waiting to be finished (or even started) for quite some time now. That and some gift arts I’ve promised that I’ve still not completed yet. This is something I will most definitely have to take care of before I can progress with other things, though no doubt there’ll be the odd pic done to retain my sanity as I try to steam through them all.

What I’ve learned
Well as I mentioned before, I’ve learned a great deal more art-wise. I’m learning to design things I maybe wouldn’t have been able to a few months ago, as well as using new techniques in my artwork. I’m slowly playing around with lighting and backgrounds a lot more. I understand more about “real life” and all the trails that come with it (though admittedly I still feel horribly ignorant to a lot of things). I’m also learning more about certain fandoms and communities, and the (very) weird and wonderful things that come with them.

I’ve also found that I must be a good person to talk to or something since I keep playing the role of counsellor or diplomat to my friends. I can think of at least three separate times I’ve had to do be the counsellor, and two major times where I’ve been the mediator of an argument. I needn’t go into any of these in any detail. I’m just glad that my friends can come to me if they have a problem with something.

I’ve also realised that I need to be listening to music. Like, all the time. I love it, and it’s usually always on while I do anything – particularly draw.

Oh, and apparently I’m pretty good at writing very long pieces of text, if this and previous journal entries are anything to go by

New experiences
Let’s see now. I’ve made new friends both online and off, some through this very website.
I’ve been to an anime and games convention twice (London Expo), both with said friends, sat at a devMeet, seen and heard the Hare Hare Yukai dance more times than I can remember, seen more cosplayed characters than I could name, and bought a bokken and bo staff.
I’ve had two of my friends stay over my house for a weekend, generally broadened my horizons, and started taking commissions.
I’ve suffered a major computer failure, been on housing benefit (still am), turned 23, and thoroughly analysed myself and my art, opening up the opportunity for anyone to give their absolute honest opinion on both.
I’ve been happy, sad, angry, confused, mentally drained, and overjoyed over a variety of things.

Overall, I’ve had a lot of new experiences and hope the same for 2008. I hope to learn from any mistakes I should make, be successful in what I do, and continue to improve my art and myself.

Right then, it’s 20 to midnight here as I’m posting this. I’m not doing anything special for the New Year, just sitting here doing whatever. Yeah I didn’t have anything planned
I hope your celebrations are far more eventful though, and I wish you all a Happy New Year!