Everything's changing

Kornelija Veiknyte
Illustration and Visual Media 
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I can remember clearly my thoughts about the DPS year when I was starting year 2 a year ago. It seemed like this big opportunity that I was hoping will change my professional path dramatically. This experience is WAY more challenging than I'd imagine it to be. I am quite shy when it comes to publishing and sharing my work, so even preparing my portfolio pushed my boundaries. I also always thought that I'm not ready to do freelance work, but now it is all I want to do. I realised that I'm interested in doing various shorter projects.

My design journey started quite late comparing to the students who were interested in art from childhood. I believe it only is a few years of my life. That is why I believe I don't really know what is my style or favourite technique yet and I think that doing a lot of different projects will allow me to discover myself more. While doing the preparatory course for the DPS I was hoping to land a placement and have a stable routine which is not the case now. It is a bit worrying, but weirdly enough I am more excited than scared. I''m trying to find projects, that would be as different as it can - from installations to advertising campaigns and etc. I think that the course that I'm doing formed a different understanding of what an illustrator is than what people imagine us to be. I feel that I can adapt my skills in a various spectrum of disciplines.

Another thing that I noticed while looking for placements is that most of the jobs are for graphic designers. It is a bit discouraging, because sometimes it seems that I have all that the company or a studio needs, except for some certain graphic design skills that I don't have. Even though illustrators are usually able or at least have some understanding in the graphic design field I just don't trust those skills. I think it comes from how short my design journey is as I mentioned before. As a person like me, that doesn't have a certain idea of who they are as an artist it is overwhelming sometimes to figure out where could I fit in internship wise. 

For now I am trying to better my digital drawing skills and I think because I am trying to draw something everyday my style is beginningh to come out. I'm just trying to draw whatever comes to my head and I've noticed that the themes, colour palettes are usually similar. Also one of my goals for this year was to learn 3D rendering and since I can't afford cinema 4D I began learning how to use Blender. I don't remember when it was the last time that I used a software that is not Adobe, so it is a bit confusing, but I didn't expect it to be otherwise. 

My hopes at the moment are that I will be able to learn new skills and find my own niche. I'd like to experiment with AI and do some generative art and I already know what people to contact, just need to be brave and do it. It's not like there's anything to lose. Another thing that I'd like to do is to use my skills to raise awarness. I want to get involved in projects that are not just pretty and interesting, I want them to have social value. I believe that as designers and artists we are obligated to use ours skills, ideas and insight to make a change.