Posts or Lack Thereof

So this is what I've been doing in school lately.

Arranging color wheels.

I haven't been posting much because there's not much to see here.

It's a color wheel.

I arranged it.

Go me.

Secret Site Update Announcement!

A secret so secret, I'm announcing it in secret code! I am extremely proficient at secrets!

 

Woo!

The Cat's Meow

Excellent news, folks! One of my designs has won the Jinx Unsung Heroes Contest in no small part due to everyone who supported this design by voting, who I'd like to thank profusely. Honestly I was under the impression that this was one of my weakest designs. It was the last one I put together, and I actually had a full redesign planned for it. I don't have the file on me, but I'll have this post edited later on to show what I had in mind.

The fact that it was selected as one of the top ten grand prize winners is still difficult for me to believe, in part because of all the other incredible designs that won. But I'm not about to complain about the outcome, so hooray!

Summer Semester Starting Shortly

Tomorrow I begin a set of summer classes, which will probably mean a lot more frequent updates.

Gonna be taking Design 3D and Photography.

Gonna take pictures of things.

Three-dimensional things.

Yeah.

Zoom in! Behance!

I've gone and set me up a Behance profile!

Basically I was looking for a fast and cheap way to put together a portfolio in a way that could be easily shared and I had heard some of my classmates and teachers recommend Behance. After I spent an hour setting up my profile and projects and several hours browsing the crazy selection of amazing design. It's pretty incredible. It's sort of like a Linkedin for artistic inspiration and a Pinterest for professionals.

There's going to be a lot of overlap between the content of Pixeldin and the content of my Behance account because both focus on my attempts at design. The main difference between the two is where I'll be using Pixeldin as sort of a clutter drawer for works in progress, school assignments, and news updates. I'm going to try and keep Behance looking more like a portfolio of selected works, so odds are if you're seeing it on my Behance, I've already uploaded six sketches of it to Pixeldin.

I typed out all this additional information just so I could get the text to wrap nicely around that big ol' linehead icon up there. And I added this final paragraph to balance things out a little bit. And then I broke the fourth wall to talk about text shapes. Just nine more words should finish things off nicely.

Janice, the Paradium Gal

Posts are probably going to be a little scarce for the next few days. I want to make this animation for the film festival look good and I don't have very much time to do it. Also I don't know much about animating. I've got my work cut out for me, is what I'm saying.

So for a while at least I'll be putting up work-in-progress updates like this one as I go. Meet Janice, my attempt at a fifties-style cartoon character.

It's a good thing I have confidence in the script or this project would be pretty much hopeless.

Two Paths

If I were to have stayed in culinary school, I would have graduated this week. It wasn't an easy decision leaving the culinary field to pursue a career in graphic design. For years being a chef has been my only driving force, the thing I wanted to be when I grew up. But when I started to learn how harsh and demanding kitchens in the industry were, I had to do some serious evaluation of what my life would be like if I decided to devote my life to cooking. This is what I came up with:

What follows is a long, kinda depressing series of events. So here's a jump break to keep it from pushing all the pretty pictures off the page. Click to continue.

Imgur is Over Capacity

So it looks like after two years I've finally gone over the limit on the free account I have with Imgur. That's the image host I use to post things to this site and stuff like Reddit. So now I have to decide whether or not to pay the $25 annual fee for unlimited hosting or find a new host to fill up.

This is news, right?

Lush Wildlife

It's been a few days since I last posted. I've got a few projects that are done but time-sensitive so they won't be up for another few days. We are studying a new concept in prinicples of design and I've got a few samples, but I don't want to have another Gestalt Week thing. I'll probably make one post about it and call it that.

Sorry for the inactivity. Here's a duck in a cocktail dress. She's self-conscious, so don't mention her hands.

Major Update and a Moon Doodle

All the books are in, the supplies are gathered, and the time is upon us. Tomorrow I start my first day of studies in graphic design. I'm nervous because I've done this sort of thing before. I know how disillusioning it can be to take a passion and turn it into a trade. But at the same time, I'm really excited about this opportunity to improve my skills.

I'll be keeping major updates of my progress on this site and posting school and side projects pertaining to art and design here.

Wish me luck.

Here's a cautiously optimistic doodle of a moonrise.

Site Updates!

Okay, so I've made some changes to the site to make it easier to navigate, with no additional hidden features whatsoever. Wink.

• Added tags to all the existing posts.
• Added tag cloud to the sidebar.
• Added search bar.
• Added hidden feature at the bottom of the page.

And yeah. That's about the extent of it. Here's a happy muffin. He doesn't realize he's food yet.

Pixeldin is Go!

Hello there! This is Pixeldin, a collection of drawings and stuff! I'm Valark, and I'd like to be the first to welcome you. I'd like to be, but because of the chronological layout of this website, this probably isn't the first welcome you've had here. Might be one of the last, actually. Should have thought this through. Drat.

So! About the blog! I studied for about two years to become a chef, but lost interest and money before I completed my program. I'm going back to (a cheaper) school soon to get a degree in graphic design, and to keep me motivated and track my progress, I decided to start a drawblog of sorts. I plan to put mostly drawings and projects on here, but I might throw in the occational photo or short story. I enjoy light snowfall and unusual light fixtures. And that's just about everything you need to know.

Thanks for taking the time to visit, and enjoy!

- Valark