John C Maxwell 3 Nuggets Reflection

John C Maxwell, 3 Nuggets Reflection

Nugget 1:

  • Leaders are big-picture thinkers.

This nugget illustrates that as a Leader you think bigger and see more things than the people you work with, and it is your job to be able to communicate those ideas and teach the people you’re working with how to paint and admire the bigger picture as well. And as a Leader you also see incoming problems and successes before others, and it is also your job to warn your group before this happens.  Additionally, you can comprehend abstract concepts better than anyone else. And you see all challenges and projects through multiple different views and lenses, a bigger picture. Hence the name “big-picture thinkers.” Not only this, bigger-picture thinkers know what they want their end result to look like, which means they can set appropriate goals for the group. Being a big-picture thinker is relevant because it defines effective and in-depth leadership, it’s a significant skill that is key to good leadership. It’s important to me as I like to exercise this skill as much as I can. I use this skill during leadership planning to first, set a goal for the group, and second, give the group as many ideas as I can think of and try to remind the group to approach planning in different ways. On the upcoming trips I will use big-picture thinking to plan our trips more creatively and effectively, and to make sure to help grade 9’s see the different sides of the coin and the rest of the picture. Such as lessons on why these trips are important to the TALONS community, and why planning needs to be so thorough (to make the trips fun and safe of course.)

Strategic Thinking Behaviors to Better See the Big Picture | LSA Global

Image Source: https://lsaglobal.com/blog/3-strategic-thinking-behaviors-better-see-big-picture/

Nugget 2:

  • A Pint of example is equal to a Gallon of Advice

This nugget explains how showing others what something is and what it means is way more productive and helpful than telling them without an example. For instance, I can tell one of the Grade 9’s how to write forms for a leadership event or trip, and hope they understand what I’m saying and implement it correctly. However, advice has a few fatal flaws. First, everyone approaches advice differently, I might give advice that means one thing, but someone might take it as a totally different thing. Second, advice isn’t always complete. It’s very hard to give in detail, step by step instructions on how to do anything. Without those instructions, how can you be sure that anyone is doing what you asked them to do correctly. Example is much better than advice as you can physically show someone what you want them to do instead of giving them instructions. Hence the idea of “A pint of example is equal to a gallon of advice.” This metaphor is very similar to the saying of “a picture is worth a thousand words.” People do what people see more than people do what people hear. This is important in leadership as it’s advice for leaders to show people they’re working with on what to do and how to do it instead of giving them instructions and nothing else. I can use this on upcoming leadership planning by stepping up and showing the 9’s the how to’s. I made sure to use plenty of examples while planning the fall trips by actually partially writing on the draft form to show the 9’s how to write one and showing the 9’s past Go-Gear checklists as well instead of just telling them how to make one. This isn’t only an important part of leadership, but in everyday life as well. Show, don’t tell. I use this all the time teaching my little sister how to do math, or even playing volleyball.

KEEP CALM AND GIVE EXAMPLES Poster | HHJ | Keep Calm-o-Matic

Image Source: https://keepcalms.com/p/keep-calm-and-give-examples/

Nugget 3:

  • Work on yourself more than you work on others.

This nugget describes the significance of why you must work on yourself more than you work on others, because your leadership challenges start with yourself and change with yourself. To help others, you must first learn to help yourself. And to lead others, you must first learn to lead yourself. This is because how can you expect to lead other people when you yourself don’t have good leadership qualities, or how do you expect to teach others when you yourself do not know what you’re teaching. As a leader it is your job to first, learn the material you’re teaching, and to show improvement in yourself before you want to improve others. You can’t show effective leadership if you aren’t an effective leader. This nugget is very relevant to me because I used to find myself leading a group that I’m either not capable of leading, either through experience or lack of knowledge (or both), or I’m just not a reliable leader. There have been many group projects in middle school where I tried to delegate tasks and make sure everyone was doing their jobs. Sometimes these projects went super smoothly, but ironically enough, after doing my best to lead the group, I myself contributed the least and didn’t do what I told others to do. After experiencing multiple instances of this happening, I can now recognize the importance of improving oneself before getting others to do the same. On future TALONS trips, I’ll make sure I know what I’m doing and to test if I’m ready to lead the 9’s. But most importantly, I will continue to hone and improve my leadership skills. Have it be through volunteering to lead outside of the timetable or just focusing on being a better person in general.

Why Great Leaders Do These 5 Things in Every Meeting | Inc.com

Image Source: https://www.inc.com/the-muse/how-to-stand-out-crowded-meeting-great-leaders-run-meetings-like-this.html

Sources:

Maxwell, J. C. (2014). Developing the leaders around you, Participant Guide. The John Maxwell Company.

Comment below on why you think these nuggets are important to you!

 

Virtual In-Depth Night

IN-DEPTH 2021


Hey everyone, thanks for stopping by my blog!
My name is Justin, a grade 9 TALONS learner, and this is my In-Depth presentation!


So for a quick rundown, the topic I dived In-Depth for this year is character drawing and character design! Which basically just means drawing people . And I’ve been having tons of fun 😁.

During the past few months of In-Depth, I’ve learned to put my pencil and paper to good use. I’ve learned proportions and basic anatomy with my mentor (Thanks Ms.Croft for making this possible!) I also had the opportunity to watch some great YouTube tutorials online and look at some art from other Artists on my Instagram feed, I actually got into drawing after stumbling upon some art by Klegsart on Instagram (check him out if you can!)I think I definitely improved compared to some of the stick men I used to draw a year ago. I also tried to pick up digital art but it’s been super challenging and it’s still a work in progress.

I’m super grateful to be able to share my work and I hope that you enjoy this Final In-Depth Final Project! (sorry for the really bad camera quality I really need a better camera.)


So, for my final project I decided to design a character, because, ya know, character design.

 

And also since it’s Mermay (the last day is today actually) I decided to uh, draw some mermaids.

Pop any questions or comments below and I’ll do my best to answer all of them. And also my character doesn’t have a name yet, so go ahead and suggest one below too.
Thanks and have a great day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In-Depth Blog Post 6

In-Depth Blog Post #6 

Hello everyone! Welcome back to the final blog post for In-Depth, it’s been a wild ride everyone and I wish you guys the best. Stay strong y’all.  

Progress and what I’ve doing these past days: 

So, my learning during the past few days (or weeks) has been pretty stagnant unfortunately. I haven’t found too much time and motivation to draw recently. Even though I have been doodling often, and honestly, I haven’t been focusing on studying or improving. It feels more like art burnout than art block right now. I just need time to adjust myself. Though it’s obviously hard with things having deadlines. 100% I’ll start working diligently starting this week and beyond. This time I’ll be trying my best to draw a full body. I’m going to draw my heart out until In-Depth Night since I do believe I have been slacking a bit. 

And speaking of doodling, here’s one from this week: (and yes my camera is super bad I swear it looks better in person.): 

And an idea to tackle this art burnout is to just take an inevitable break from drawing people. Since that’s what I’ve doing for so long now. I’m thinking of digitally painting landscapes as well, even though it doesn’t relate much to character design, I think it’ll be a good refresher not only as a break, but to work on color theory, mapping, and brush strokes. Just switching things up from character design/ portraiture. Focusing solely on thing for so long ends in burnout.  

And as always, besides these doodles, my mentor gives me some small homework to loosen up my lines and to help me improve at proportions, gesture, etc. However, we ended up having our meeting together the day before this blog post was due. And I didn’t have time to finish working on the assignments, so unfortunately, I can’t show you the finished product, however, to give you an idea of what I was supposed to do, here are the criteria for the assignments that my mentor gave me: 

Spiral drawing: 

Gesture drawing: 

Light contour + spiral: 

And lastly, I’ve been brainstorming ideas for characters to create. I’m thinking of making my favorite songs into people, then drawing them a persona. I don’t know if that’s going to work out well, but I don’t know until I try it out! So, wish me luck.  

I wasn’t able to uphold my promises last blog post. But I’ll do my best to uphold them for this one. 

My Mentor! and How to Have a Beautiful Mind: 

Again, my mentor and I had a quick meeting in person socially distanced in the classroom. Here’s a quick summary of what happened at the meeting. My mentor wanted me to keep working on my contour line drawings, and to help me use more rounded lines. So, my mentor gave me a few examples of spiral drawings (as shown above in the criteria picture.) and some quick gesture drawing (one example is also above.) And, a quick example of another contour, but this time on top of an existing spiral drawing. She gave me the examples and asked me to draw my own drawings incorporating those 3 techniques on my own time, and that was about it! And even though these blog posts will soon be over, we are still planning to meet next week. 

So, what are some concepts my mentor brought up in our last meeting? And alternatives did my mentor give me during the past few weeks I’ve been working with her? 

A concept that my mentor brings up very often, almost in every sentence, is art, because of course my in-depth is drawing. Another concept that that my mentor brings up quite a lot, including our previous meeting, is lines. Lines are the concept behind drawing, and most of art as a whole. Lines create shape, which paint a picture, the practical idea. Another concept that my mentor brought to the table at the previous meeting is real-life. She wanted me to draw from real-life, not realism, but to have something in front of me to reference, instead of a photo or an image. Her reasoning behind this is that when you’re referencing a photo, you’re creating a 2d drawing from a 2d reference, but if you’re referencing a 3d object, you have more to work with, which is obviously better. 

Alternatives, my mentor was able to incorporate a lot of different alternatives throughout this project, a perfect one to showcase this is the homework she gave me this last meeting. Not only did she give me an assignment, but she made sure to add alternatives to the spiral drawing, such as choosing to add a contour drawing on top, and an alternative option of drawing a few gestures, or even combining the three. 

Since art is a very loose ended subject, which anyone can take on by doing anything, the topic of art offers thousands of alternatives, you draw what you want and draw it however you want. Alternatives In art can help build skill and a wider knowledge of art as a whole, this is because the more you do things differently, the more you learn, and the more you can incorporate what you learned into you art. Also alternate views can change how each person looks at art. My mentor gave me a lot of alternatives when it came to work and teaching, and even when critiquing my drawings. An example of this is whenever I hand back some homework, she tells me how I could do this thing differently. She tells me I could’ve drawn this nose differently to add character, or how I could exaggerate this person’s jawline, etc.  

My mentor also looked for alternatives to suite my ability and to suite my schedule too! Props to her. 

Another mentor could have offered me completely different alternatives. A mentor candidate that I had focused solely on digital art, so all my meetings may have been different as a whole, which would in turn lead to different offered alternatives. Others may have taken a completely different approach to art, which would also lead to completely different alternatives. Some might offer less and be more strict on art and its boundaries, some teachers will tell you that there’s only one way to do this, or that using references is bad, and they point you to alternatives such as memorization and such! (It isn’t don’t listen to them; references are key.) Others can be even more relaxed to the point that they don’t even care, which opens even more alternatives. 

Conclusion, each person will offer you different alternatives, so a different mentor means different alternatives. 

 

My Learning Center: 

Ideas since my knowledge of the in-depth learning center is sort of vague so far: 

  • Explain why I chose this in-depth topic and what my inspirations were to start. 
  • Live drawing session (this will be A LOT OF FUN I’m excited.) I can draw people that are visiting my learning center. 
  • A virtual gallery showing off my art, and I can explain my reasoning behind each piece and my process. For this I could either just post a bunch of images on a document or website. But I could maybe also use something like Kunstmatrix. (https://www.kunstmatrix.com/en) 
  • A tutorial on how to draw faces, gestures, proportions, etc. Talk about techniques and how anyone watching can become an artist. 
  • We can have a scribble.io game (online guess the drawing.) Another *alternative*, or any type of interactive game/activity. 
  • A Process video/time lapse. 

*These aren’t final, but I will be incorporating these potential ideas into my in-depth learning center! And I’ll probably think of a few more I can add as time goes on too.  

Thanks for reading! 

 

In-Depth Blog Post #5

In-Depth Blog Post 5 

Welcome back to this ol’ blog, and  here’s the long awaited blog post #5! I Hope everyone is doing great. 

Progress and what I’ve doing these past days: 

I’ve done quite a bit of doodling these past two weeks, not really doing any large projects but instead focusing on quick studies and getting sketches down and everything. I said this last blog post, but I believe that quick doodles really help your art, you just need to put a bit of effort and thought into what you’re drawing and focus your effort on learning and improving. Which I’m trying my best to do. I’m kind of still having a bit of art block though. A lot of times I just don’t find the motivation to start. But once I do start drawing it gets easier from there. And similar to last week, I’ve been focusing solely on faces. Trying to learn proportions and anatomy to be more exact. Art’s been going decently but I do think if I put just a little bit more effort into drawing more, it’ll go even better. 

Here’s one of my quick doodles: (trying to focus on front view faces this week as you can see, also my camera is superbly bad, I swear it looks better in person): 

 

Besides my daily doodles and everything, my mentor gave me a bit of home-art-work to do. This time she asked me to spend an hour drawing a portrait, of myself, a self-portrait. This was a bit challenging in the sense that I had to go more for a realism style instead of my usual semi-realism (sort of half-cartoony, half-realistic). I also struggled with getting a bit of the shading in the hair. I also struggled a bit with drawing realistic lips, which has got to be my biggest weakness right now. Besides that, I think I did a really good job otherwise in my first realistic self-portrait. I’ve learned from this that drawing self-portraits is challenging in the sense that you’re putting yourself on paper. To me it’s just weird in a way. Also, another thing I have to add is that I believe drawing realism is the easiest thing to draw. I believe this because realism, unlike personal styles, has it’s own uniform style, which makes it easier to replicate and work with. So, I think I did well translating my face onto paper in a realistic way. 

I can’t really show my self-portrait for privacy reasons though, sorry about that. 

Next week I’ll try to get some color down in my sketches, or actually, I’m thinking of starting a small art project that isn’t doodling next week, I’ll keep you informed on how it’s going next blog post, I’ll probably even finish it, fingers crossed. 

My Mentor! (and How to Have a Beautiful Mind): 

This week, my mentor and I had a quick in person meeting (socially distanced). To summarize the meeting: We did a bit more contour line drawing, this time our shoes Trying to focus on getting less angles and edges, instead focusing on rounded and “comfy” lines. She also gave me a short lesson on proportion and “halves” which is basically where each key part of the face is located. To elaborate. The middle of the eye is usually located in the middle of the head (half) and the nose is located halfway between the eyes and the chin, the lips are found halfway between the nose and the chin, etc. 

My quick shoe counter drawing (I avoided edgy lines yay!)

I couldn’t record a conversation since I was too busy drawing and it was in person, but I wrote down a small conversation me and my mentor had during this meeting and identified all the Hats I could find: 

I – Me 

M – So today we’re going to start off with a small contour line drawing. 

I – Why? We already did a lot of contour line drawing already, is this a warm up? 

M – It’s sort of a warm up. 

I – sort of? 

M – I looked at the drawings you sent to me over the past 2 weeks, and they feature a lot of angles and sharp edges, well actually most of it is sharp and angles. (refer back to the hand I posted in last week’s blog post) 

I – Oh right, I guess I really do like sharp corners and lines. I just find drawing curvy lines a bit challenging sometimes. 

M – So, the main reason for this small shoe contour line drawing we’re going to do is to try and draw more curvy and smooth lines. 

I – But what’s wrong with sharp and edgy lines? I think they look nice. 

M – They do look nice, but when drawing contours, and especially gestures, we want curved and smooth lines, they’re especially needed to express motion, ideas, and shape on paper, which edgy lines sometimes fail to do, since they are ragged. 

I – Oh okay, that makes much more sense thank you. 

M – Let’s get started! 

The Hats: 

White Hat: 

When my mentor was explaining to me why curved lines are so important in contour line drawing and drawing in general. 

Red Hat: 

When I was expressing how much I loved edgy and straight lines and how I avoided drawing curvy lines. And my tired attitude toward doing another contour line drawing 

Black Hat: 

When my mentor explained to me why edgy lines were bad in drawing contours in gestures after looking at the work I sent her.  

Yellow hat 

Me realizing my faults in only drawing edgy lines and how it affected my art. 

Green Hat: 

I believe this entire conversation fits under the green hat, since it was about creative learning, specifically about clearing misunderstandings about different lines. 

Blue hat: 

This entire blog post is the blue hat! 

In-Depth Blog Post #4

In-Depth Blog Post #4 

Welcome back to my blog, so here’s blog post #4! Hope everyone is doing well. 

Progress and what I’ve doing these past days: 

I didn’t draw as much these past days since I had a bit more math homework and extra curriculars to also worry about. But I did do a bit of sketching. Besides some drawing assignments my mentor gave me, I’ve been mostly doodling, such as faces and basic gestures. Not really focusing on any studies this week, just doing it to have some fun and to take a break from work But I can totally see that these small doodles have improved from my doodles before, due to my earlier gesture studies. Next week I’ll try to focus more on the anatomy of the face so I can consistently draw heads well, especially at the tougher angles. 

Here is one of my quick doodles: 

And here’s one of my contour line drawing assignments (drawing the outline of my hand) had a lot of fun with this one (10 min) 

I’m also still on that digital hiatus, I haven’t found any motivation to start since right now I’m pretty well invested into traditional art, in which I have to purchase another sketchbook because I’m running low on paper. 

Still trying to find a consistent art style still as well. 

One thing that’s been bothering me however is that I’m almost at an art burnout. I haven’t been taking any breaks from drawing whatsoever, and I feel like some of the work I’m doing is getting repetitive, and that I’m also running out of solid ideas on what to draw, etc. Art “burnout.” So somewhere soon in the future I might take an art hiatus period (not just digital.) 

In conclusion, my art and character designing journey is going smoothly and on the right road, though my car is running a bit low on fuel, so I’ll have to recharge soon.  

My Mentor! (and How to Have a Beautiful Mind): 

So, this time, I had, you guessed it, the third meeting with my mentor. This meeting in summary was discussing more about contour line drawing and gesture drawing, building off upon our last meeting, and also discussing future meetings, homework, and ideas. 

Proof of the meeting: 

So how did I incorporate listening into the meeting with my mentor? Even though Bono didn’t really mention it, I tried my best to keep away distractions during the meeting, so I could do my best as a listener. I made a habit of reiterating what my mentor said in my own words as to tell her my understanding of what I was listening to. I made sure not to rush myself and let my mentor talk first, and I let my mentor do the majority of the talking, because I knew that as the mentee, I should spend more time listening to my mentor. As I wasn’t the one teaching my mentor.  

I basically made my best effort to pay full attention to what was being said during the meeting, so I could also commit what my mentor said to memory and to practice, which is something I struggle with, even now. I’m someone who’s easily distracted, and words easily go in one ear and out the other. Which is something I’ll have to try hard to fix. 

I also think good listening helps avoid arguments and disagreements, in the sense that there won’t be any misunderstandings that would have to be resolved, because you listened. Listening is a very important skill that I’ll be sure to better myself at in future meetings and future period. 

Now during these past few meetings, I’ve failed to ask questions. Don’t get me wrong, I have asked some questions, but they’ve only been to either reiterate what was said previous, or small shooting questions, such as, “Can you sketch in a contour line drawing?” (which the answer is yes, since you’re just drawing the outline of the object).  

Besides these smaller questions, I’ve found little opportunity to ask any larger, or rather, fishing questions, since meetings have either been tight on schedule, or I have just subsequently forgot to ask any. I also haven’t asked any multiple-choice questions. 

I understand that asking questions is the key to interacting as a listener and mentee, and it’s also a key component in growing your understanding, which is key in art. I’ll make sure to ask way more questions, specifically fishing and multiple choice, in later meetings, and I’ll make sure to quote those too. 

Thank you for stopping by,
Justin. 

 

 

In-Depth Blog Post #3

In-Depth Blog Post #3

Hey everyone! Welcome back to my third In-Depth blog post! Hope you’re doing well. 

Progress and what I’ve been doing this week: 

As always, I’ve been drawing regularly. This week I’ve been focusing solely on gestures and getting down the entire body instead of just the face. And I have gotta say I improved a lot. My gesture/pose drawing was super stiff and even the “quick” sketches took quite a bit of time. But since then, I’ve been able to get a good line of action with each character, and I’ve also been able to incorporate key shapes and lines into these drawings to make them much smoother and lay them out much quicker. Later in this week I’ll try to focus on the anatomy of the body to further reinforce my drawings and make it even easier. 

Something like this: (not as sharp but I’m getting there) 

Image result for gesture drawing

Credit: https://lithub.com/how-learning-to-draw-can-help-a-writer-to-see/ 

I still think there’s a lot of room to improve and get better in, so I’ll continue to up my game when it comes to studying and learning. I still need to work on my digital art, since right now I’ve been going on a digital art hiatus and I’ve been focusing mostly on traditional. I’m even thinking of getting paints soon so I can experiment with those.  

Still trying to find a comfortable and consistent art style as well. But I do think that’ll come soon. So, in conclusion, I think my art journey is going super smoothly and I’m looking forward to what it has to offer in the future. 

My Mentor! (And how to have a beautiful mind): 

I had my second meeting with my mentor recently. This meeting was, in summary, talking about the human body and basic proportions. How the body is 8 head tall, etc. My mentor also talked about contour line drawing and how it can help with gesture, poses, and proportions. And if you don’t know what a contour drawing is, it’s basically drawing the outline of something, no shading, no sketching, just the outline. And in this case, it’s with only one line. This means you’re not allowed to take the pen off the paper. Which I personally thought was super cool. We also talked more about art, poses, and all that. But those were the main focuses of the meeting. We also discussed homework for our next meeting, and it was a wrap. Ended being a very productive meeting. 

Soooooo….. generating interest and being interesting during these meetings is probably the easiest thing to do, let me tell you why. First of all, I’m passionate about art, like super passionate, and my mentor is also super passionate about art. So, building common ground, connections, and interest is super easy. I’m always trying to bring up new ideas and approaches with my mentor, an example is the “what if” statement, “what if” we did it this way? Or what if we drew this with this technique, etc. Since with drawing, anything is a possibility. And whenever my mentor is bringing up something interesting, I always build off from it. To be fair, just bringing up the topic of art in this context will make the conversation interesting. Though instead of saying “Now that is interesting.” I say, “That’s awesome” or “Woah.” Which in my opinion give off the same energy. I’ve also come to learn that being interesting and having an interesting conversation generates a lot of fun. So I try my best to incorporate being interesting into every conversation. 

Responding is definitely important. Because if you don’t respond, then there’s no conversation! During the meeting with my mentor, I of course responded a few times. During some of those few times, I had to ask for some clarification, specifically with contour drawings since I’ve never heard of them before. I think asking for clarification is important because it makes sure that both people are on the same page and nobody is lagging behind. Another thing, like I mentioned in being interesting, is that I try my best to build off my mentor’s ideas with my own ideas and evidence. Though this meeting I lacked giving any stories, so I’ll definitely share those next time! I find responding to be based around exploring the subject, and I think we did in our second meeting! 

Thanks for tuning in,
Justin. 

 

 

 

 

 

In-Depth Blog Post #2

In-Depth Blog Post #2

Hey everyone! Welcome back to my second In-Depth blog post so far! Some things have changed since my first blog post, well, a lot of things.  

Progress:

First, I have found a mentor! Yay! After I had a really hard time trying to email a bunch of artists online who either didn’t respond or said no, I found one. Turns out Ms. Croft, the grade 9 visual arts teacher, was nice enough to offer to mentor me. Props to her.
Second, I’ve created the Instagram account, I’ve met my posting schedule so far, which has been good. I’m sitting on 15 followers so far. Which I’m pretty proud of to be honest. I would say that part of my In-Depth project is going well so far. 

So, to go more In-Depth (get it?) my progress has been steady and good. I’ve been drawing close to everyday. Though lately I’ve been needing more time to do homework, etc. But mostly I’ve sketching faces, gestures and poses. Focusing on getting a pencil in hand for 30 minutes – 1 hour each of those days. I think I am improving, but I’ve been mainly doodling instead of doing any real studies. If I start doing more art studies, it will help my art. 

And as I said in my last blog post, I recently started digital art, and I spent a lot of time drawing digitally recently. I’m still trying to learn all the drawing software in Krita, specifically blending, which has been super confusing. Other than that, I think I’ve mastered all the basics. For our final social’s project, I decided to recreate a painting digitally, and I think it turned out well with someone of my caliber. 

– The recreation:


(recreation of Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps)

To sum all of that up, my digital and traditional character drawing journey is going swimmingly so far, and I’ve been mostly on track with the goal of drawing every day. But I need to do more studies. 

There’s one issue I’ve been running into lately however, and that’s that I can’t seem to find a consistent art style that I would be happy with. I know this is just one of many artist phases. And plus, experimenting with different art styles is always fun. I’m aiming for a semi-realistic art style. Something similar to the styles of my favourite artists. 

My mentor and How to Have a Beautiful Mind:

Time to talk about my first mentor meeting! Our first meeting was fairly quick. It was mainly focused on making a schedule and setting down a basis for the rest of our meetings instead of the regular lesson. During this meeting we decided on meeting twice each month, once in class and the other online. We also discussed anything I would need to do before each meeting, and we came up with a few quick gesture and facial studies as homework to do.  

I was able to incorporate the first three aspects of How to Have a Beautiful Mind into my first mentor talk by doing the following: 

I was able to agree with most of what my mentor was talking about, such as what our goals as mentor and mentee would be throughout In-Depth, and we were able to come to an agreement when it came to the homework I was being given. Ms. Croft wanted me to do gesture drawing before our first class, but I also wanted to drawing some faces, so we came to a compromise and decided to do a full body study. I tried to avoid the “agree with everything” during our meeting, so I created a discussion and decided to build of my mentor’s ideas instead of just agreeing right away. My mentor was also talking about how she couldn’t meet with me outside of school hours. I saw her logic bubble and her circumstances regarding this, and I was able to agree with her decision. 

Disagreeing with my mentor will be a bit challenging, since there was really nothing to disagree with throughout our first meeting, and probably very little during the rest (which is a good thing). Though I’m sure that a few small disagreements will come up during future meetings. The most common disagreement I could see is “This is right for you but not so much for me”. In which I would first try to see where my mentor was coming from, and see if there was an opportunity to compromise or agree on the argument. If not, I would state why I am disagreeing and suggest a solution/try to explain my point of view. I know that my mentor knows much more things than I do, so I’ll respect that. 

Differing with my mentor however might be a bit more common, art is a super wide topic, and we might have different views when it comes to style and our own ways of approaching art. So, I can confidently say there will be quite a bit of differing in later meetings. In our first meeting, we differed on our plans for this ongoing project, but I ended up agreeing with hers since I found her opinion to be more solid and practical. In future meetings I’ll be more open in voicing my opinions so we can discuss accordingly. Try our best to reconcile and find a way that is comfortable for both of us. 

Thanks for tuning in,
Justin. 

 

 

 

 

 

In-Depth Blog Post #1

In-Depth Blog Post #1

Hey everyone, Hope you’re having a fantastic day! In this In-Depth blog post we’ll be talking a bit about my In-Depth topic and why I chose it, and what I’ll be planning to do/my step-by-step plan to better myself in this field. 

So, what is my In-Depth Topic and what inspired me to choose it? 

  • I’ve chosen character design and drawing people in general (such as portraits and gestures.) 

I’ve chosen this topic because I picked up art during the beginning of the spring quarantine, since I was bored and had little to do. Since then, I’ve grown a very fond liking to drawing, specifically the ability to be able to turn your imagination into something materialized in an art form. Recently, I got my hands on a drawing tablet, which motivated me even more to draw since it opened me to an entire world of new possibilities, to be more specific, the world of digital art. 

Drawing also gives you the ability to express ideas and emotion without the use of words, as they say, one picture speaks a thousand words. I’m not saying I don’t like to talk or write of course, don’t get me wrong I love it, but I do find art to be a very nice alternative. Another reason is that since I’m a Highschooler with a phone, I have social media, which is definitely the biggest influence when it came to art, since it gave me the opportunity to see thousands of other artists’ works. 

Also, art is pretty cool like c’mon. 

~ Some of my Inspirations: 

Ilya Kuvshinov – (source @kuvshinov_ilya):

Wallpaper Girl, Minimalism, Figure, Eyes, Brush, Art, Fingers, by Ilya  Kuvshinov, Ilya Kuvshinov images for desktop, section арт - download

Samuel Youn – (source @samyounart):

Samuel Youn on Twitter: "Winter… "

Klegsart – (source @klegsart):

Klegs🌃 on Twitter: "12 AM… " | Art, Anime wallpaper, Wallpaper pc

David Revoy – (source https://www.youtube.com/c/DavidRevoy)

Interview with David Revoy | Krita

+ Many others! 

What do I want to accomplish during this In-Depth Project? 

To put it in the simplest terms possible: During the end of this project, I would want to be able to look back at myself and my art before I started this project and say “wow I sucked at art back then, good thing I’m not bad anymore” or something along those lines. 

  • Learning more about anatomy, shading, clean line-art and perspective. 
  • I would also like to accomplish would be to better my understanding of digital art. And drawing software. Because holy is it confusing, it’s like learning a new language altogether. Layers this, blending that, right now I wouldn’t be wrong if I said I had no idea what I was doing when it comes to digital art. 
  • Better my understanding of traditional painting since I have yet to do any. 
  • Fill my room with my own posters/prints 

However, my main goal would be to reach at least 100 followers on a newly made Instagram art account. Kind of niche but I believe it’s a great way to measure my reputation as an artist plus gaining followers on the worst social media platform is no easy feat. This will make a nice challenge and motivator for this In-Depth Project and in a way make a reputation in the artist community. 

How will I accomplish this? 

Being a good artist and putting out high quality work can be very challenging, though I’ve learned that to do so, it comes down to hard work and continuous practice and continuous drawing. And I’ll try my hardest to do just that. I’ll spend around an hour a day just drawing. If I want to expand my knowledge of digital art it will just be through experience, so I need to continuously practice to better any potential digital art pieces. 

I will do a lot of studies, which are basically visual notes and practices in very specific areas. Such as hand studies or lighting studies. I will also follow a lot of tutorials and get advice from my mentor + other artists that have way more experience than me. This will be incorporated into that hour. 

Last thing that I need to do to accomplish these goals would be to always strive to try something new. What I mean by this is that I need to open myself up to different mediums, art styles, art, maybe even drawing software, etc. Only then will I be able to boost myself even higher. 

Some other things: 

  • Create an Instagram art account where I will post at least once a week. 
  • In doing so I might do fellow artists’ DTIYS (Draw this in your style) or commissions. 
  • Have a grand unveiling/maybe presentation as well of a final art piece for In-Depth. 
Plan:  Timetable:  
Create the Instagram Account  First week of New Year’s 2021 (fresh start) 
Post Art  Once a week. 
Participate in a DTIYS (redraw someone else’s art in a competition)  Anytime during In-Depth period. 
Start Final Piece  2 weeks before unveiling 
Start editing and preparing presentation/Final piece  1 week before unveiling 
Post Final Piece and Present it.  Week before school ends this year. 2021 

As an artist there aren’t really any deadlines unless you’re a professional one, but I tried to make something work. 

My Mentor. 

Sadly, I’ve reached out to many different artists alike, but all of the people I’ve reached out to have yet to respond and I get they’re pretty busy. But I do have hope. It’s also been hard finding a local artist that I know of. Though I think as an artist getting advice and help especially is really important. Theres nothing wrong about being self-taught and independent, though having an experienced artist who has gone through the same struggles as you have giving you their advice and teaching you tips, and tricks can help you flourish and grow much faster.  Plus, nobody is ever self-taught in the first place (except the first caveman) everybody watches YouTube tutorials and other related tools. 

Others and Resources that will support me. 

  • YouTube Tutorials and related tools (like I said above.) 
  • Other artists that I might reach out to. And their art. 
  • My Friends and Family as always. 
  • Pinterest and other places that offer good references. 
  • My tablet + Krita (my current software) 
  • YouTube Lofi Playlists of course. 

Other than that, my art improvement mostly lies on my hands (literally and metaphorically).  

What have I been able to complete so far? 

So far, I have created this Instagram account though I have yet to post any art. Though I did have a bit of drawing experience prior to choosing my In-Depth topic, though very little as I started drawing around April of 2020. The level of my art currently isn’t too terrible though I have A LOT to learn. 

How will I share my progress? 

I think the art posted on this newly made Instagram account is enough to show and compare my ongoing progress. 

Thank you!

How to be a REAL success.

 

How to be a real success.

Relationships. 

  • “Love people more than opinions.”

Love is… | Jason Stadtlander

This concept talks about getting to like and know other people not because of what they believe in (their opinions), but in who they are inside. This concept also mentions that opinions do not always define a person and we should be careful in creating those judgements in the first place. Just because we do not necessarily agree with someone does not mean we should dislike the person in question. With this concept, we can open ourselves to new relationship opportunities that wouldn’t be there without this idea in mind. People > Opinions. 

I chose this concept because, in complete honesty, I sometimes do judge people based on their opinions and way of thinking, sometimes negatively, contradicting the “Love people” part of the overall concept. Sometimes this could jeopardize an otherwise healthy relationship. After some thought, I came to the conclusion that judging people based off their opinions alone was very stupid and immature. Not agreeing on something as a base to disliking/not loving someone is a very negative train of thought and doesn’t help anyone gain anything. I have taken this idea to heart and I will not diss anyone’s music taste/ book taste, overall opinions, or anything related to that matter, and instead will look toward who the person really is instead. And I guess make an attempt to better my relationship with them. (Also I’m not a toxic person I promise.) 

I will continue to apply this concept to TALONS leadership events and activities by getting to know everyone and better my relationship with them through this concept. Looking past their opinions and loving everyone because of who they are. Not who they say they are. This will help with the activities and such since this would help spread less negativity around to get things to run smoother. Also, I will be able to work better and more efficiently with everyone. I think TALONS will be an even more tightly knit community through this one principle. 

Equipping. 

  • The law of significance – “One is too small a number to achieve greatness.” 

3 Ways to Equip People Using Technology

This concept tells us that we cannot do things, great things to be exact, by ourselves. We are not a “significant” enough force to achieve success. We rely and depend on the help of others close to us. Who help boost and push us along this path. Which alone, cannot be conquered and gained. The law of significance tells us that we need a team; a number greater than one, to achieve or set goals. This law is important in the sense that it is the base of the entire “equipping” shenanigans. We equip other people to our team because of this law. 

I chose this principle over the other ones because I feel it really summarizes this session well in the sense that this law is the base of “equipping”. We must equip people to help us on our journey because one person, ourselves, is not enough to achieve success and be successful. This law is also a great segue into the rest of the equipping session. I think it’s relevant to because of the fact that I always try to shoot for my goals individually. instead of the more efficient and realistic approach of getting help and equipping others alike to shoot for my goals with me. Onward, I would try to take this law into heart and try to tackle challenges as a team as often as I can. Compared to by myself. 

I will apply this concept to future TALONS leadership events and activities by trying my best to create leadership opportunities and growth not by myself, but with the incorporated effort of a team/multiple people (probably won’t be able to do it alone anyway.)  And achieve our leadership goals together since one person alone, no matter what the circumstances, is never enough. I think this would benefit TALONS greatly since with this principle we could get to know each other even better by combining ideas and just tackling challenges as a close community. 

Attitude. 

  • “Our attitude is a choice.” 

Attitude Isn't Everything, But It Is a 'Difference Maker' – TLNT

This principle talks about how our attitude shouldn’t be defined by the things around us and our environment. Such as how your astrology sign or whatever shouldn’t define your negative attitude. It wasn’t astrology’s fault for your terrible attitude. It’s yours. We can’t change the past, so we should focus on making our present and future better with good attitude, which we can change. Attitude is what you make it out to be, there’s rarely an excuse for having bad attitude. In summary, this quote is telling us to always have a positive mindset and attitude, since if you have a choice, why can’t it be a good one? 

I specifically chose this principle because a while back I used to blame negative behavior and attitude on the things around me pretty regularly. Though this principle sort of brought things into light again. It got me thinking a bit about how attitude isn’t shaped by the things around you. It got me wondering why people are always negative and decide to shape their own attitude toward the dark side. I think this is especially relevant right now in these times with everything going on. We must continue to keep a good attitude towards everything. 

I will apply this principle to future leadership trips, events, and activities by keeping a close eye on what my overall attitude is and to try to stay positive and spread positive energy around, and also helping others do the same. With this positive energy we can work more productively. We can communicate better. We can plan trips better. And have more fun. If everyone chooses to have a good attitude, everything will be better in general. If we choose to keep a good attitude, we can be more resilient and stronger toward hardships (especially in these times right now.) 

Leadership: 

  • “The secret of our success is discovered in our daily agenda.” 

The Power of a Clear Leadership Narrative

This quote talks about how you can’t become a leader, or truly successful, in one day. You have to gradually build up your leadership skills and reach your goals overtime. Don’t rush things and take things slowly. If you rush things, they’ll be messy and incomplete. If we can build things slowly, we’ll be able to learn and improve ourselves. What we’ll be tomorrow depends on what we do today. This quote talks about doing what matters today and every day, and you’ll reach success. We overestimate the end result, and we underestimate the process it takes to get there. 

I chose this principle because I’ve always tried to rush things in the past, which ended in the outcome being not so well. So, from experience I believe that this quote is super valuable if you want to achieve greatness in any aspect or form. I also believe that this principle can be applied to anyone who wants to be a future leader and/or reach any goals of theirs. Take small steps instead of a huge, inaccurate one that misses 99.99999% of the time. This principle can be applied to everyone, everyday. It’s really important in the sense that it tells us to get in a routine, which we can turn into good habits, which we can then turn into profits. 

This principle can be applied to leadership mainly through building a solid leader. It tells us to slowly but surely build and reinforce leadership ideas and opportunities to become a better leader in general. We can apply this idea by getting everyone to build a solid leadership routine and schedule. Planning proper meetings and taking the proper steps. We can use this to plan our trips better and more efficiently with better teamwork and a more built-in schedule