Re: Getting out of your comfort zone

Jasmine,

I absolutely feel your pain on this one. I have been dreading project 2 for some time now because I sort of locked myself into an illustrated design. I've spent a couple of days sketching, and I just feel like I won't be able to create what I want to.

In terms of getting past it, well, we'll see. But since reading your post, I have asked myself what the underlying problem may be. I have always loved to draw and sketch, but I pretty much stopped doing it when I started college. I tell myself that I got too busy, or that I was working on other creative projects, but I think it was a lot more about comparing myself to others who are more advanced than I am.

In trying to get past this, I have been thinking a lot about the idea that when you are a kid, you don't question whether you can do things well, you just do them because you want to. You never believe you can't do anything. Take dancing for example. I will argue to death that I cannot dance, but I actually mean that I can't dance well. Kids are all for the crazy bad dancing, and will (usually) never say they can't (especially if someone tells them they can't). So, embracing it seems to just be the best way to go.

In terms of technical practices, I am just trying to sketch as much as I can, knowing that 9 out of 10 of my ideas most likely will not translate the way that I want them to. The good thing is that we have groups to bounce our sketches and ideas off of, and they can definitely tell you if something is working (or if it isn't).

Online tutorials of specific actions in Adobe will also be really helpful for this project (say, how to create explosions).

I think that you should absolutely continue down this route, and just know that there are others in the same boat!


As far as other disciplines I may want to try - I am so scared to take anything relating to video or animation, but I know that it is really important for my growth. So, I don't know, maybe this post will convince me to face my fears. :)