So now that the first week of classes is over I’ve learned a few things.  First of all, there’s no way I’m going to have time to update the blog three days a week and it still be fun for me.  Right now I’m considering just updating once a week on Friday’s, because I have no classes.  I originally thought I could work on the blog during my downtime between classes, but besides the fact that I have about five or so hours of reading to do during the week, I haven’t found a decent a computer to work on around campus.  They might exist, but I haven’t found one yet.  The first computer I sat down with made awful grinding noises the entire time, as if the data was being processed by a series of cogs and sprockets inside the cpu. 

I’m taking four classes this semester.  Art History 1, Concepts of Art and Design, Photography with and emphasis on Studio Lighting, and Figure Drawing.  My art history professor is a barely audible septuagenarian with what I can only assume is a metal hip.  I sit in the second row, and struggle to hear him, people in the back, why are you even showing up?  At least the lecture is only an hour and fifteen minutes long.  My Concepts of Art and design professor, another lecture class, seems cool enough, but it’s tough material to make exciting.  We’re mostly learning how to view and talk about art, which is a valuable skill, and one I need to develop.  So that’s Monday and Wednesday.  Tuesday and Thursday I’ve got my two studio classes.  I’m a little hesitant about my Studio Lighting class.  There’s only two sets of studio lights for about 15 students, so I’m not for sure how that’s all going to work out.  My professor, Mary Tortorici, seems to have a handle on the class, and she’s full of energy, so I’m still optimistic.  I’m really digging my drawing professor though.  He’s about 30, real laid back and progressive.  His name is Lennon Michalski, and he’s supposed to have some work up at Ann Tower gallery, and he’s participating in this season’s first Gallery Hop on September 17th.  I plan to go check it out at some point.

That pretty much wraps up my entire week.  It’s good to be back on some kind of path.  I really enjoyed having the freedom to plan out what I wanted to do every day for the last ten months, but with freedom comes responsibility, and now that I don’t have to worry about that four days a week, it’s freed up some space in my brain for other things.

Ryan

Just some more practice.  I decided since I was taking a drawing class this semester, I might as well get a still life under my belt.

Then I threw it into Illustrator and Photoshop to practice some coloring.

And also, here is a sweet pic I took this morning of my awesome dog, Noah.

Ryan

This one’s totally from scratch.  No tracing to be found here.  I worked from concept sketches on Blizzard’s website, first drawing the hydralisk by hand, and then inking and coloring in Illustrator and Photoshop.  What can I say, I’ve got StarCraft on the brain.

Ryan

Now that we’re settled in, day to day in the new house is starting to feel normal.  The new house is starting to feel more and more like home.  School starts next Monday, and after that routine develops, we’ll see how much free time I actually have.  That said, I’ve been giving some thought to the next evolution of this here blog.  I’m not entirely for sure what direction that I want to take ryanbowles.com in, but I’m beginning to feel that it has reached the pinnacle of it’s current iteration. 

I’m not making any money off the blog, which was at least part of the reason for the blog in the first place.  I’m not really marketing myself, or my services.  Partly because I don’t know what services I can or want to offer, and partly due to my lack of confidence.  Not having any marketing experience or contacts doesn’t really help either.   Honestly though, the real reason for the blog was to help me flesh out some ideas I was working on, and verbalizing my thoughts has really helped me work through some personal problems.  For the most part, those problems have been eliminated or mitigated.  I don’t know if that’s been evident in the last couple months of the blog or not, but I’ve strayed from stream of consciousness style posts, and moved more to just posting photographs and Illustrator projects.  I’ve had nothing to say, no weight to get off my chest.

I’ve really enjoyed my time with Illustrator and my sketch pad.  I love creating; drawing and coloring helps fulfill those needs better than photography, though photography remains an integral part of my creative process and I still enjoy it very much.  I have high hopes for my photography class, so you might see more angst from me if things don’t go well, but my fingers are crossed.  Next week will be telling, and the week following even more so.

So where does that leave ryanbowles.com?  I’m still committed to updating the blog until some other great idea strikes me, but I feel like it really needs to head in a new direction.  If it’s going to be about my work and my services, then the focus needs to be on my photographs, and if it’s going to be about me and my life, then I’d like to make it a little less structured, because when I start to feel obligated about posting, things start being a whole lot less fun.  And who knows, maybe it will take some yet unforeseen form.  Little thoughts are always growing and maturing somewhere in the back of my brain.

Below are some images from last Monday.  The wonderful people at Maynard Studios once again employed my services for a book that their work is being featured in.  Thanks again Matt and Karine for thinking of me when you needed a photographer.

Ryan