When I was younger, I drew scenery all the time. Usually of mountain ranges with a small lake and trees in the foreground. However, as I got older and found other, more electronic ways to solve my boredom, the repetitive drawings were put on the back burner. No, actually they weren't even cooking. I just stopped drawing altogether.
When I got a good desktop computer with MS Paint and other image editing programs, I began learning how to use them, and in high school I took a few computer courses that taught me even more skills with digital image creation. I was pretty good at changing colors of pictures to suit the color scheme of calendars that we were assigned to create every month, and eventually I was known as the go-to guy if anyone needed help creating the effect they wanted on their projects.
My Junior and Senior year of high school I was on the school's Annual Staff, and again, I was generally the one people asked for help. I even personally designed the cover of the annual for my Junior year. I really enjoyed designing the pages of the annual which made me want to use computers in my future career.
When I began college, I was majoring in Computer Information Systems. Decidedly nothing like Annual Staff in the least. However, my first CIS course was the Honors version and the instructor figured we all knew how to use Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and all that, so instead of going through a thick book "learning" things we already knew, he simply made us do a single PowerPoint, redesign a yearbook for a local charity, and design posters for the upcoming W.C. Handy Festival.
I had a blast creating these and learning how to alter colors and exploring possibilities such as the headphone wire spelling out "W.C. Handy." I even learned how to render that "wood grain" in the background completely from scratch. Due to having so much fun in the first CIS course I continued on into the next course... only to find that it literally bored me to sleep. I had never fallen asleep in a class in my entire life and then the thing I plan to do for a living puts me out like a verbal Valium? No thanks!! I immediately dropped the course and another course for my major and, remembering my enjoyable experiences creating with a computer, switched to my current major, Digital Media.
As for me personally, I'm not exactly what one would call an artsy person. I don't have an urge to constantly create things, but do enjoy it when I do. I can easily see the beauty, creativity, and symbolism in the works of others, but I don't create things like that unless I'm assigned to. I'll admit, I surprised myself with one of my 2D design projects and created two images with personal meanings for me, but generally I simply want things to look realistic. That's why my career plan is to be a level designer for a video game company. Technology has improved to the point of being able to render beautiful worlds saved on discs that can be explored with only one's hands, and I want to create those worlds with waving trees, shimmering lakes, majestic mountains, and even vast, cloud-dotted skies.
This is what I want to create.
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