Hello! Welcome to my rendition of an artist’s day!

My name is Eva, and I’ll be showing you the inner workings of what it’s like being an artist, but from a Video Game Art student’s perspective!

So… my day starts pretty early. I attempt to rouse myself from a deep slumber at around 5:15. But, because I’m 100% not a morning person, this is a bit closer to what I seen this morning..

More often than not, I’m already in the bathroom trying to sort out the rats nest that is my hair at this point. Then its a quick check to make sure my files have synced up into my dropbox overnight, grab my sketchbooks, and head downstairs. I grab a coffee, and get bundled, and im out the door.

My view leaving the house and how I feel about the hour/cold.

On the road by 630.

In class by 7.

This is my classroom. The lights are off because I think its suppose to be better for our eyes. I don’t know how they rationalize it. Mostly it makes me feel tired. Haha. In any case! This week is kinda special. Its ‘portfolio week’. Where we (theoretically) get a week’s worth of studio time to work on our portfolios. 😀 However, due to all our snow days (11), we’ve had to kick it up a notch. And this week has been mostly catch up.

Here’s my work station! Generally, at this point, I sit and sketch by lamplight, drink more coffee, and get myself ready for class. Since there is NO class today, I try to stay disciplined and draw, gather reference and prep to start a modelling project! 7 to 9 are usually pretty nice and quiet. My class doesn’t start coming in until 8 ish.

Today I’m working on a moth. This morning I mostly just modeled it and played with vertex paint. 10:30 rolls around and that usually means break-time! At this point I’ll make myself another coffee, and I’ll go up and look longingly at the sun. Sometimes we play Smash Bros. Then its back to work for another couple hours until lunch at 12.

Lunchtime! Leftovers are seriously my favorite. I don’t normally stop to eat lunch, but if i do, I browse pinterest and news sites. Afternoons are usually studio time, where we work on various projects. I like the afternoons best… Quiet and project driven, with plenty of time to listen to your favorite podcasts *coughcoughNSTAGUcough*

After lunch, we had an impromptu meeting about a project that was due, and so the next couple hours I spent revising what i had done based on the feedback we were given.

Around 2:30 we get another break. So that means more coffee, and taking a look at what I’ve done and what i need to do tonight.

This is Mallory. Mallory sits across from me. Hi Mallory~ ❤

Uh yeah. Planning and ‘good housekeeping’ is pretty much everything to me now. Although its still easy to double book my time… haha I tend to like to take my time working on things, playing around with ideas (like vertex paint!) So its easy for a quick project to turn into a huge one.

At around 5:15 I start packing up. My lift shows up at 5:30 so I’ve gotta be pretty prompt. Haha. I sign out, and head home!

I’ve actually still got a tonne of stuff to do at home, at this point. I usually like to wind down and go to bed when I feel tired, but playing catch up on school stuff is tough. I get home around 6. Today, i nuked a bowl of leftover lasagna (leftovers <3) and made myself yet another coffee. (I swear i don’t usually drink this much caffeine.)

I eat, shower, and usually either play a video game, or make some art for myself in the evenings.

I don’t really have a set time I flop into bed. But it can be as early as 8pm, or as late as 2am depending on how tired i am. Tonight I re-watched Secret of Kells, and finished texturing my moth.

And then I met a tiny friend. ❤

I’ve been keeping these since my first year of animation! Tiny pencil stubs! I actually started keeping them a while after Tara had told our class ‘I can’t tell you how many pictures you’ll need to do in order to draw well.’ But I thought this might be an apt representation that I can look back on. This weekend, I hit 99. Its not like I think there’s a special number that I’ll eventually hit and never draw a crappy drawing again. But 99 is the current number I’ve made it to thus far (not counting lost pencils or broken ones. there’s a whole shade of blue pencils missing that i usually animated with) :b It doesn’t account for all art made, but definitely shows how many drawings I’ve done in the name of problem solving. Haha

To sum up a Video Game Artist’s day would probably be somewhere along the lines of sitting in a dark room, looking at maya/3ds max and photoshop all day.

Thanks for tuning into my day! You can find me, more art, and distractions on my tumblr!

Eva is an artist and VGA student at Holland College based out of PEI, Canada. She eats/breathes/sleeps art, and is definitely not a grown up!