Task 1

My name is Paul Jordan and im from a relatively small town called Hemel Hempstead, in Hertfordshire, where i have lived my whole life. But now i am a student in Leicester where i study Games Art Design, which this blog was ultimately created for. After school i started my AS levels doing IT and Graphics Design, but i found a course which sounded much more interesting and relevant to my interests, which was Interactive media. So i left sixth form and started college. Interactive media basicly involved art, 2D/3D animation, life drawing, graphic design and concept art. Which helped me decide that games art was defiantly what i wanted to do.

I choose this course because I've always been into games and wanted to work with them. I've also always been very artistic. But never thought i could combine the two, i always thought games where based mainly on programming, which after doing alot of IT work i decided would not keep me interested. So when i found this course which was focused on the art side of things i knew it would be right for me.

I really want to improve myself on this course. I've had experience with 3D software and animation (Maya), but at a very basic level, although i always tried to accomplish more than the little we were taught.  When i was slightly younger i also experimented with programs such as Valves hammer editor and epics Unreal editor and created some, quite frankly, awful  "levels". But i still had fun doing it. I've also always liked landscape drawings, but have never improved much and need to learn some of the more basic things like perspective and colour theory, as my drawings never look quite right. This is the same for my life drawing, which i probably enjoy the most, but always need to improve on.

My other interests apart from games and art, are honestly...not much. Regular things really.  I guess socialising is my main "interest" if you can count it as one. I enjoy going out with my friends, keeping fit by going to the gym, playing a bit of sport etc. Also watching movies/ tv shows. Which nowadays, aside from the story, seem to also be based on art and creating worlds/environments much like games.

Right now, i can't say i really have a "dream job", because i am still unsure which part of games art interests me most and can keep me entertained. I am hoping this course will help me develop my skills in all areas until i know which i like the best. Although i would be happy creating anything for any game as long as i can get some experience and start working on the "cool" stuff that every games artist wants to be doing. If i had to choose a company and a job, it would be an Environment artist for Epic Games, i really love the style in their games such as Unreal and Gears of War.

Before, when i first started getting interested in building stuff on games engines. I looked at Jobs which i could possibly do when i was older. Most of which required about 2 years experience in the industry. So my original plan was to work as a QA tester whilst also learning 3D programs, and then work my way up. I soon realised this wasn't the best idea, and courses like this can help me. Most games art jobs, such as envonment artsits, concept art, character art etc. Require you to be able to make something from scratch, often based from a written description and with the games theme in mind. Whilst now, I like drawing things which are in front of me and real, maybe adding my own ideas to them. My main goal is to be able to draw/create things which look as if they could be real and work effectively.