Time Management

For a weekly task in one of our recent critical studies lectures we were told to note down all our daily tasks for a week. This would allow me to see how I spend my time and if I spend it wisely.

Throughout the week I noted down most, if not all the things I did and wrote down the time I started everything. This was how my diary looked:

THURSDAY
8.00am – Woke up
9.00am – Did some digipainting
11.00am – Went to get train12.00pm – Lecture start
1.00pm – Finished Lecture. Went to labs to work
2.15pm – Got on train to go home
3.00pm – Worked on War of The Worlds project
4.45pm – Stopped for food
5.15pm – Played Assassins Creed 2
6.00pm – Practised perspective drawing
7.30pm – Doodled in Photoshop
9.00pm – Watched anime
11.00pm – Bed

FRIDAY
9.00am – Woke up
10.00am – Cleaned out hamster
10.40am – Finished painting for a friend
11.00am – Continued War of The Worlds model
2.30pm – Get ready for work
3.45pm – Left for work
10.15pm – Got home and watched TV
12.00am – Bed

SATURDAY
9.00am – Woke up, played Assassins Creed 2
11.00am – Went into town
2.00pm – Came home and worked on War of The Worlds project
4.00pm – Practised Perspective work
6.00pm – Went on the computer and worked on 3D work
8.00pm – Worked on Digipainting
9.30pm – Started watching TV
12.00am – Bed

SUNDAY
9.00am – Woke up
10.00am – Got ready for work
11.30am – Went to work
3.30pm – Sent home from work due to sickness
4.30pm – Bed

MONDAY
7.00am – Got up
8.00am – Went to get train
9.00am – Got to university, did some 3D work
10.00am – Lesson start
4.30pm – Lesson finished
5.15pm – Got on train to go home
5.00 – Got home, started drawing
6.30pm – worked on 3D work
10.00pm – Came off the computer, read book
11.00pm – Bed

TUESDAY
7.00am – Woke up
8.00am – Went to get train
9.00am – Got into university, started 3D work
10.00am – Lesson start
4.00pm – Lesson finished, went to get train
5.00pm – Got home
5.00pm - Worked on digipainting
8.00pm – Watched anime
10.00pm – Went to played Assassins Creed 2
11.00pm – Bed

WEDNESDAY
9.00am – Woke up
11.00am – Went to get train
12.00pm – Got into Leicester, went to get food
1.30pm – Went to go watch film
2.00pm – Lesson Start
4.00pm – Lesson Finished
4.15pm – Got on train
5.00pm – Got home, played Assassins Creed 2
6.00pm – worked on 3D model
9.00pm – Came off computer and watched Pokémon
11.00pm – Bed

In the lecture the following week I was asked to read out my diary of the week and work out how much time was spent doing certain things. After poorly working it all out in my head it was found out that I was missing 30 hours out of 168 hours. I later checked this all and worked it out with a calculator to find that I wasn’t missing so many hours.

There is 168 hours in the week. In the week I spent:
· 69.5 hours sleeping
· 8 hours travelling to university and back via the train
· 15.5 hours in my lectures and lessons
· 29.25 hours out of university working on set work
· 10.5 hours at work
· 23.5 hours doing personal things like gaming, watching television and drawing my own artwork.

After adding all the times together it came to 156.25 hours (156 hours and 15 minutes), this meant I was losing 11 hours and 45 minutes. Some of that time must go towards eating and bathing but it is alot of time to spend just on those things.

To help me see how I spend my time I have created a bar chart to help me see clear and create a plan on how to manage my time

Sleep - Quite a lot of my time is spent sleeping. Sleeping is a necessity but I could wake up a few hours earlier on some days to free up a few more hours to spend on university work. I wouldn’t normally spend this much time sleeping but I became ill on the Sunday and after being sent home from work went straight to bed to get some much needed sleep.

Travel – A good portion of my time is spent travelling to and from university. I am a rather fast walker and try to stay either at university or home as long as a can, leaving minimum time waiting for the train. This means I can’t lessen the amount of time it takes to travel. I could however spend my time on the train and waiting for the train more wisely by drawing the people around me and sketching the scenery

University – Takes up a good portion of time and I should probably spend even more time there.

2D drawing and 3D modelling – This is the university work I do out of university. In the week I did the diary I was working on making a War of The Worlds model for the visual design. I worked on this quit a lot to try and get it finished in the week. I also spent my time digipainting and trying further my knowledge in Photoshop. I also spent my time working on creating my vehicle for my game production project. Though I spent the necessary time for work outside of university I noticed that I spent 18 hours and 45 minutes on drawing and only 10 hours and 30 minutes on game production.

When it comes to working outside of university I have a problem with dividing my time properly between the subjects. This pie chart shows that. I should be splitting my time more evenly so both subjects get the necessary attention.

Work – Though this takes up more time then I would like it to the money gained from working allows me to travel to university and back.

Personal – This is things gaming, watching television (and heaven forbid anime) and drawing my own artwork and artwork for other people. This took up a large chunk of my week and though I was able to get the amount of university work needed within the week done if I dedicated of my time to gaming and more of my time to my studies I could get more practise in which could make me a better worker and also get me a better grade.

Unknown – This is the time that has managed to escape me. The time is probably covers bathing, eating and getting my pet hamster out. This couldn’t possibly add up to 11 hours and 45 minutes so I have to be losing hours somewhere, possibly daydreaming and making decisions. I could use this time doing more important things.

After working out what all my time is being used for I need to create a plan of action so I can use my time more efficiently. When I was younger and revising for exams I found the best way to make me use my time more efficiently and to split my time evenly was to make a timetable and stick to it.

With this time table I now have:
· 23 hours of visual Design work outside university
· 21 hours of 3d modelling work outside of university
· 20 hours of personal (this includes eating, bathing, drawing my own things and watching TV etc)

Making this time table has allowed me to see where I’m losing valuable time. It has also helped me to organise myself and allow myself to concentrate more on my university work by sticking to it.

To help me visualise where my hours have changed and what’s improved I created another pie chart. As it can be seen my amount of sleep and personal has decreased. My work outside university has increased. I have also added “waking up” to my pie chart which is the hour I spend in the morning getting ready for university.

Other things have increased like work and university, this is to be more realistic with the time it takes up and so I don’t lose any hours.

RESULTS

I have been following the timetable the best I can even throughout the Christmas holidays replacing university with more homework (and occasionally work). I have found that I have started creating more work then I originally was. Since I also know I have to follow the time table I have became more disciplined when it comes to distractions. This means I spend my working time more wisely and not looking out a window every few minutes.
I think this timetable will prove useful in the next few months, keeping me on track and allowing me to create more work and allowing time to practise new skills which will hopefully help me throughout my time at university.

I have made another timetable which will act as a week two where the 3 hours of personal time I have on a Saturday together is replaced by university work. This will allow me to have more time to do university work.

Even though I am following this timetable I still feel that I am not creating enough artwork to show, which I hope would be fixed by the amount of hours now spent on it. I hope to improve this over time by creating smaller timetables to split my hours up of useful exercises to speed me up and to better my drawing skills.

To conclude I believe this timetable has created a positive result meaning I am using my time more effectively.

German Expressionism

German Expressionism was a creative movement that began in Germany before the First World War. It spread over many media including not just art but music and theatre too.
When it comes to German expressions many ideologies and theories existed between the artists causing such a wide range of styles.

The “Die Brücke” or The Bridge. They believed their movement was a bridge towards a better future. Fritz Bleylm Ernst Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rotluff founded this movement. They tended to use alot of colour in the works and would thin paints down to achieve smooth application.

Another group was one based on individual artists which were connected to the school of the Northern Expressionists. They believed their art should be simplistic and down-to-earth. Emil Nolde, Paula Modersohn-Becker and Christian Rohlfs were part of this movement.
The “Blaue Reiter” and they opposed every principle of the Die Brücke. This movement was started by Wassilly Kandinsky. Their work portrayed the world as it truly existed.

Another group was one formed by August Macke. They were called the Rhenish Expressionists and they believed their thoughts and ideas should be portrayed by form only.

When I looked around the exhibit in the Leicester museum the first thing I realised is how different all the artwork was on the walls. Some were plan black and white prints, some were brightly coloured and others where quick pencil sketches. I originally wasn’t a fan of expressionism but after seeing the range I found that some of the styles I started liking.

One of my favourite pieces was the Messiah by Ernst Neuschul. The detail of the bones on the man and the colours drew me in. Not just that but the rather shocking expression on the guys face is just...well weird but very compelling to look at.

Another picture that caught my eye was Death and Woman by Kathe Kollwitz which focused mainly on the form of a woman being pulled down by a skeleton and a child. It seems like such a simple pencil sketch but the dramatic pose really brings feeling to the picture. It’s completely different to the Messiah in media and style yet they both symbolise the views of expressionist artists.

Whoa! Disney?!

Oh Disney, while you may be failing at most things I think you’re finally getting something right. I may not be an epic Disney gamer but after seeing artwork most recent game I have to say I am interested.

Maybe it could be the fact it's something dark and crooked that Tim Burton hasn't made?
But I really am just loving the whole weird dark designs and the jagged toony look everythings getting. Such simple lines yet it makes everything look so complicated and irregular beyond belief. Plus the plot seems deep and actually thought through, which seems a rare when it comes to Disney.

Plus where else are you going to see a messed up cyborg Donald Duck?

Too bad they're only releasing it for the Wii though...

Alive and Kicking

Welcome back. After that Gruelling business last year I decided to build this assault course to hone my skills and learn some new ones...

Well finally I decided to update my blog, and so I thought I would start off with talking about the painter I decided to recreate, Édouard Manet.

To be honest Manet isn’t my most favorite artist in the whole entire world but I shall always remember a conversation with one of my art teachers many moons ago about the reflection in his picture A Bar at the Folies-Bergère being wrong. Sure it may be wrong perspective wise but how else would he have managed to get such a wonderful picture of the lady’s back and the gentleman if she was standing in the way of her reflection. After that conversation Manet has always sat in the back of my mind until recently when I decided to recreate his work.

Anyway on to why I chose to recreate this lovely picture:

The picture is of the painter Berthe Morisot, who was Manet’s sister-in-law. I decided to recreate this one in particular due to the brush strokes. They seem so quick and simple yet they blend so beautifully to create multiple tones. The background seems to be one colour yet look deeper and you see all so many other colours and tones blended into the yellow. The hair seems so wispy and simple yet it looks so detailed and though the dark clothes lack detail just bringing in the lighter tone brings out the shape and the warmth that seems to come from the rest of the picture.

While recreating this picture I decided to have a play with the dry brushes hidden in Photoshop and found the chalk brush, though it not a paint brush, it gives texture to the picture.

Now this is my recreation:

As you can seen not as amazing as the original masters work but I tried.

Feedback

Time for a feedback blog, YAY!

A first point on how Wednesday is set out. I know I’ve spoken to a few people about it and they agree. I feel it would be more beneficial if we had the lecture in the afternoon and the film in the morning. After we have the amazing, passionate, creative lectures I always want to go and do some work, or paint something amazing but then we get the film and while watching the film the creative drive goes down hill. So it would be nice to have the really awesome lecture then go home and want to do really creative work.

I’ve mostly enjoyed the traditional art this year at university. It’s been the first time that I’ve felt like I’ve actually been doing some form of art course since A level was particularly bad. I enjoy the lessons thoroughly and I feel it has given me a better understanding and appreciation for art and artists.

I feel that even though I’m slightly behind with the 3DS Max work, I am slowly getting to terms with the programs. Since I more enjoy the drawing side I’ve been neglecting the computer work so having more traditional artwork to do would probably put me off 3DS Max even more. Luckily I have had that magic ‘click’ moment and will do more of my own work in holidays with 3DS Max.

AWESOME!

And so after a spur of creative thought I decided to write some form of post, which is odd considering I am very bad at writing things down and such. Also the picture just had to go up there because to be quite frankly honest...it is AWESOME!

And so after going through one of my favourite sites which has a few inspirational if not geeky things on every so often (http://www.geekadelphia.com/ best site ever for gamer nerds) I found some things which really made me go...WOW!

(http://features.cgsociety.org/challenge/steampunk/player.php?entry_id=100658)
The first thing to really get my creative juices flowing was an animation which joined together the concepts of steampunk with old myths and legends. It was an entry for a competition, which it deservedly won. Just the style of artwork in it is beautiful. I love how it looks so dull and dusty yet the animation and the way it's been painted and made into an animation brings it to life. It seems so scratchy yet it picks up the tone and idea so well, plus it seems like such an epic concept for some form of game.

(http://www.metanamorph.com/)
The second thing that made me feel all creative inside was work by a street artist called Edgar Mueller. He makes things on such a bigger scale to Julian Beever and uses paint rather then chalks to get a crisper look. I just love how his work manages to engulf whole streets, turning a simple road into a rage river or a lava flow. The fact he can not just work on pavement, but manage to work out perspective and fight the weather just makes it seem so much more brilliant. It just proves that you don't need a pencil and paper to get creative.

When I'm older I want to be...

'What am I going to get out of three years at University?'
Well there’s a lot of things I want to get out of university. I want to develop skills in the areas that the course focuses in. I want to be able to use the programs, talk the lingo and hopefully get a job that corresponds to the course. I don’t particularly want to be stuck in Tesco until I’m about 50 either…

One of my major more dream-like goals that I have is to work for either Capcom or Square Enix, but alas that dream is probably a little bit out of my reach, but still something to aim for. I would love to just work in the industry most, since gaming is a hobbie and art is a passion.

I enjoy the course thoroughly at the moment, it’s one of the best things I think I’ve done in along time. The art lessons make so much better sense then the ones did in my old school where we just got told to copy other artists work. I want to be able to show the skills I gain from the course to the world and hopefully to people who want me as part of their team.

Whenever I think of reflecting on where I want to be in the future or what I want to do I always remember back to the first art lesson I had in Sixth Form. The teacher asked all the students why they chose to do art and out of everyone I was the only one who could answer her, and I will remember my answer to this day as it was one of the most cheesiest things I’ve said in my life “Because it’s my passion.”