Just 2 weeks away from maternity leave, and I need a plan!
My mom used to tell me when I was still living at home that she admired how I was never bored. I always did something with my free-time: whether it was drawing, reading interior design books, designing houses and theme parks on the computer, or playing the piano, I would be content for hours on end. (During the summer in high school, I typically spent hours on end sun-tanning, but that's another story)
I still fill my free-time with activities that I like to think cultivate creativity, but as I've been so busy with work lately, and Southern California commuting is no joke, I'm finding that my free-time is very limited. Lately, I haven't had much at all, as most of the time I spend not working, commuting, or eating is spent sleeping!
Which brings me to this question: Will I have free-time during maternity leave?? And if I do, how do I use it most effectively?
Starting with a Goal
Build an art direction portfolio
I'm sure veteran moms (and me in a few years, or even weeks) may look at this, shake their head, and say, "Brittany, you naive child." I know I'm bound to be exhausted at the beginning of my new motherhood-ness, but at some point it has to level out, right? At some point I will have time to draw, right?? If I have to change my goal later to be "change my underwear every day" then so be it, but for now, in the glory of my naivety, I'm shooting for the stars.
A portfolio that showcases my ability to be an art director in the industry of themed entertainment means (I think) that it should contain items that prove that I can draw and have a good sense of design fundamentals (color, composition, etc.), that I can work through ideas and come up with a variety of options to get to a final design, and that I have a clear sense of spatial design with the overall guest experience being at the forefront of priorities. I'm sure it's also helpful to show a variety of hard skills, especially when it comes to using different softwares. So I'll want to make sure that I include imagery that shows my ability to use the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign) as well as Sketchup.
I tried coming up with a bulleted list of exactly what to include in my portfolio (i.e. "3 digital paintings") but I don't think that's the best way for me to go about it. Instead, I'm going to aim to have 5 developed projects and for my portfolio site, I'll just explain the process I used for each one, supplemented with images as needed.
5 Projects in 12 Weeks
Seems doable right? Roughly 1 project every 2.5 weeks? Again, I know I'm naive to what motherhood is going to do to me physically, emotionally, mentally (let alone what my body is going to require in order to recover from delivering), but I think it's still good to have a plan. If the plan needs to change I will allow it to change, but in the meantime, this is something I'm really looking forward to!
Here's to stepping up my art game!
xx
Kommentare