My goal is to learn as much as possible so I can find my own niche. It'd be nice to be part of the top 1% of concept artists/3D modelers, but there's a chance I could still be at the bottom of that group. It seems that there's a better chance of finding my own way. What I've noticed about my favorite artists is that they're not necessarily the best, but rather, their works have something unique that are hardly found anywhere else.

Let my own exploration begin so I can be an irreplaceable asset (and so I can just have some good ol' fun)!

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The “Once-a-Month” plan (as I like to call it) is just a simple plan for eating healthier. After all, the way we eat is a habit. Thus, treat it like one using smart strategies.

First of all, the biggest mistake people make with habit changes is quitting completely and expecting instant results. Changing habits isn’t a dramatic turnaround but rather a gradual process. Hence, allowing room for weaning is an important step. The second biggest mistake is not replacing habits. For example, people who’ve successfully quit smoking replaced the habit with another routine. The replacement can range from going out for a run to eating fruit snacks.

Aware of those obstacles, I’ve incorporated two simple strategies to combat common mistakes:
1. Eat your favorite unhealthy foods, but less frequently.
2. Replace these foods with your favorite healthier alternatives.

That’s it! This plan only has two steps!

It’s hard to resist our food temptations, but a nice way to avoid this is to be unaware of the change. When we grew up, we didn’t notice how much we’ve grown because growth is a gradual process. Habits are the same way: we never notice them forming because they’re so subtle.

Start the weaning process by spreading out the number days you eat junk food. For example, if you eat Cheetos every week, start by eating them every eight days for an extended period of time. When you’re ready, eat them every nine days. Keep delaying by a day until your habit becomes a monthly occurrence. If you’d like, you can challenge yourself and go beyond a month.

In my case, I loved eating soft-baked cookies every day, but I knew they weren’t good for me. After many failed attempts to quit cold turkey, I came up with this idea after researching this topic. I gave it a try, and currently, I’m up to a weekly cycle.

In between your food cycle, eat healthier options in place of the junk food. These options don’t have to be wimpy salads. They can consist of flavorful choices like cherries, strawberries, cucumbers, or carrots. Personally, I like to mix things up with boiled potatoes (unsalted), iceberg lettuce, cantaloupe, and big juicy grapes.

Here’s a sample of what an eating schedule might look like:

Sun. Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. Sat.
tomatoes pizza tomatoes pizza tomatoes pizza tomatoes
pizza tomatoes tomatoes pizza tomatoes tomatoes pizza
tomatoes tomatoes pizza tomatoes tomatoes pizza tomatoes
tomatoes pizza tomatoes tomatoes tomatoes pizza tomatoes

You don’t have to count calories or write in a journal for this. You just have to start small. The best part about this plan is that it allows you to have some wiggle room. For example, if there’s a family barbeque, a night out with friends, or a big birthday bash, you don’t have to restart the plan all over again. Instead, you can just restart your current food cycle. When I was on my 4-day cycle, my family wanted to eat at a buffet to celebrate my dad’s pay raise. It wasn’t time for me to eat sweets or greasy foods yet, but I went out anyway. Afterwards, I just simply restarted my cycle.

If you’d like to know more about how to change a habit, visit these blogs:
http://www.zenhabits.net/archives
http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/archives

Happy health!

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What do you usually think about? Does it usually involve what’s currently happening or what could happen later? If you picked the latter, then this post is for you.

I’ve been thinking about the conflict of now vs. later because it seems to be the driving motivation for people: to work for future results. This could range from getting that ‘A’ on your bio test to landing your dream job. One person who exemplifies this type of cause-effect motivation is my mom. Usually, she constantly searches for job opportunities in order to ensure that our family has a steady income. In the past 5 years (maybe even a decade), my parents have been jumping from job to job with each job ending with lay-offs. Thus, her fears are understandable. However, she also worries about the end of the world, and so, she stocks up on a lot of supplies just in case. That’s a bit of a stretch.

Maybe you’re not the type to worry about the apocalypse, but I’m willing to bet that you have some sort of anxiety in your life, whether it’s big or small. We all do. Although that kind of fear can help get you started, it can also hinder you if it’s powerful enough. Perhaps, that fear will stop you from taking risks like starting a business, learning a new language or losing weight. Whatever it is, the fear of what could happen in the future (which might include failure) leads to procrastination.

My point is, why worry about something that hasn’t even happened yet? Realize that your future is shaped by what you do right now. It’s good to know what to work for, but there’s no need to make your goal out of reach and in the distant future. Instead, just take baby steps and set a small timeline. This could take from a day to a week. Make sure this is short-term in order to see instant feedback, giving you an incentive to stay focused.

So what are you waiting for? Start your new habit NOW!

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Careers come in many different flavors, each with their own unique tastes. However, careers are often compared to each other to see which is better. Why? Comparing one career to another is like comparing apples and oranges: they’re just not the same.

From my experiences, people comparing jobs is a common thing to see. Sometimes, people will argue about which career is better and which is worse. From my experiences, I can clearly see that people who think lightly of certain careers are often misinformed. Yesterday, Elvenmonk and I were talking about the job market for programmers. Particularly, he said something along these lines that made me think things over: “Anyone can be a programmer. However, you don’t go to school to learn what to do as a programmer. There, you learn what NOT to do. You have to know all the tricks of resource efficiency like the back of your hand.” And it’s true. Anyone can start in any career, but it takes hard work to go from being mediocre to being excellent. That’s the catch.

Take for example a salesman. A salesman seems to just simply sell products from place to place. Therefore, he (or she) has an easy job, right? Not exactly. There are quite a few challenges to a sales job that doesn’t commonly come to mind. For instance, if we’re talking about a door-to-door salesman or an appointment salesman, they might have to use their own expenses to visit their appointment or customer base. A main expense would be gas money. Another challenge would be people skills. This doesn’t just involve being polite to customers. This also involves convincing customers to buy their products. Also, if a salesman has to sell low-quality products, expensive products, or both, this task can be especially difficult. In addition, a salesman is often paid commission. If not, then more than likely, he has a base pay per appointment, which means he would need to successful set up an x-amount of appointments within a timeline.

Then, I thought about what Elvenmonk said and applied it to what I’m doing. It’s true that anyone can draw. Thus, anyone can be an artist. However, it takes a lot of work and dedication to be a top-notch artist. I usually go to art forums like CA and hit up some sketchbook threads. So many people on there post their studies and sketches regular to show their progress. Algenpfleger and Janaschi are good examples. They can do amazing realistic pieces because they’ve done so many still lives in the past to learn about how light and color behaves. Because they deliberately practice on a regular basis, they have amazing portfolios that help land an illustration job for Magic cards.

Learning how to become an artist comes with a price. A common problem that I’ve seen with artists (mostly in illustration-related jobs) these days is relying too much on reference photos. Due to their reliance on references photos, they don’t have the need to learn the foundations of drawing such as color theory and anatomy. When it comes to drawing quick sketches accurately, however, they can’t do it because they lack the necessary knowledge to draw from memory. A couple of months ago, I was talking with a classmate who’s working as a freelance illustrator. Surprisingly, he informed me that the number of people with strong drawing foundations hasn’t really changes, and that they’re still high in demand. A friend of his is sought after by many companies because he can draw realistic people and buildings in a short amount of time for storyboards.

Be proud of what you do, but also be considerate of what others do.

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Yay! Another figure drawing to add to the finished artworks section. I finally managed to finish pushing the values and adding folds to the bedsheets.

Please be aware that this features artistic nudity, and if you're not comfortable with that, then this is not the place for you.

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