Hey, guys! Here's my update for May.

So, after studying, practicing, drawing, painting, hoping, wishing, laughing, fighting, working, struggling, presenting,...(well, you get the picture) for about three years, I'm finally graduating from college!! It's been a really interesting ride and even though I don't exactly want to be a graphic designer, I've learned a lot about myself and my potential. I've gotten to know some great people, I've made awesome art projects, I got to learn all about the Adobe Creative Suite (even though I STILL haven't bought myself a personal copy of it yet. That crap's expensive you know! Even for just one of the programs!), I had some unforgettable experiences and most of all, I feel proud of my progress. If you told me back when I was in high school that I would eventually be making stuff on Adobe Photoshop and InDesign like a pro, I would've never believed you. Looking back, I really came a long way from my confusing days of feeling like an outsider and drawing crappy ballpoint pen portraits of people for a grade. LOL!! But enough about that. The graduation ceremony will be on Friday, May 11th and I'll be walking away with a Certificate of Completion. I could've stayed for one more year to get an Associate of Applied Science, but considering that I'm ready to move away from home and experience something new and exciting, it wouldn't be worth. Plus, I'll be studying a completely different major at UT Dallas once I move there, AND the three college classes I'm lacking to earn an AAS are all only available on different semesters. So why even waste my time with that?  

So, I'm completely ready for a new journey, and I'll be living on campus and everything. I don't know how long exactly I'll be needing to stay at UT Dallas, but I want to have THE BEST time ever while I'm stuck there. I'll be majoring in Arts and Technology with a focus on Game Design and I'll be minoring in Visual Arts. I'll be moving to Richardson in August, so, good times are ahead for me. I know it.

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I'm also announcing that, for the first time ever, I'll be attending a convention as part of their artist alley! My first stop will be this year's Yule-Con at Fort Worth, TX and I'm so excited! This is going to be a BIG step for me, considering that I've never done anything like this before. So, I'm starting small with a small con and I'll work my way up the ladder, as things progress. So, I'll be planning to buy a table there and just draw sketches and commissions for the anime fans and advertise myself! Still trying to figure out how much I should charge, but the money isn't really my main concern. I just want to put myself out there, as an artist, and expand my audience and drawing skills. So, I'll be practicing at home and at the university to prepare for my big debut in late November (I believe that's when the con starts) and I hope it'll be a big success.

I'll also be attending A-Kon this year, and I'll be a part of the cosplay contest (as a cosplayer AND as a skit performer). I've been working on two costumes for the past three months, and it's been a slow and steady process. I'm almost done with my main costume, the Dark Magician from Yu-Gi-Oh!, so I'm wanting to finish it sometime this week. The other one, Arceus from Pokemon Diamond/Pearl, will be worked on up until the day I leave for the con. Even though this will be my second time cosplaying, I feel proud about my progress and growth. I tried my hardest to make my Dark Magician costume be an important step-up from my Kurama cosplay from last year (which is one of the reasons why I chose the character). I'm using more materials and I'm experimenting with how certain things work with each other. Plus, I'm being really creative by customizing and changing the original design of the character to make it more unique and interesting and that's the really fun part. So, pictures of that coming soon!

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Other than that, I'll be trying to post up more sketches and stuff that I work on over the summer. Staying active on drawing and practicing on different subjects are my two goals I'm wanting to reach. Right now, I've been working on getting better at drawing men and animals (landscapes and cityscapes, too, if I ever get the nerve to try. LOL!!) So, new things to come for this account and on my sketch blog on Tumblr (taurian20.tumblr.com).

And that's all that I got for now! Thanks for reading my journals and supporting me for all these years!

~Artifexium~