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Um how is the year almost over?! It feels like I just returned from Ireland and now I'm already going into my Last Full Year of Studying?!?
This is also the TENTH TIME I'm doing this art summary. TEN years of progress. TEN times I've looked at the past 12 months, in awe of the passage of time and how I fit into that jigsaw puzzle that is life... I think one of those days I'll upload another summary of my favourite pieces of the past 10 years.. it's wild to know that I've been on this site for so long... I've always said that if it weren't for the HARPG, I wouldn't have ended up in this career I love so much.

In 2020 I finished up my last months of work on Wolfwalkers, then was in lockdown with my family, brought a 1987 Peugeot bicycle on a plane and then fixed it up, learned my most difficult piano piece yet, was my sister's Maid of Honour, made friends with locals in an Italian village, received a chocolate trophy for my bear film, made plans for my diploma, had a little break-through on instagram, and saw myself in the credits of an animated feature for the first time. Art-wise, I truly felt the aftermath of my Cleanup gig. My skills steadily increased, I was happy with my line quality, got new art materials, developed an animation style, panicked over 3D animation (war ongoing) and learned and experienced with a bunch of media and techniques.

January | I started the year in a pretty terrible mental state due to the HCL's aftermath. Certain people outright shunned me now, and that would change my experience on this site for good. But hardened as I now was, I prioritized my own happiness for once and that resulted in a surge of inspiration. I was still working in Ireland with two months to go, but drawing chill art for the Winter Blues Show was just what I needed. I also began with a new way of doing my story chapters: Animations!

February | My last month in Ireland! Now they were over, those 8 months of Cleanup work that had such a lasting impact on me and the quality of my art. Really, this whole experience was the best thing that ever happened to me, both professionally and personally! HARPG-wise, the new direction I was taking provided a lot of fun and satisfaction for my free time.

March | In March, we didn't yet know what was to come... I thought it would be a month to recover before I went back to Ludwigsburg to continue studying in April, but instead... as we all know, shit hit the fan. At a moment's notice, all the great plans we had with our third-year-project "Wild West Compressed" turned into dust... We won the Short Tiger prize, but couldn't go to the ceremony, we would've screened in Cannes, but that was cancelled, then we had to cancel our booked accommodation in Annecy... At least I was still on an absolute art high, and this piece of the Thibodudes would be a true milestone for the evolution of my art style.

April | As Covid became the pandemic we know and love today, my art drive waned. The semester was postponed with the prospect of online classes, so I cancelled my move back to Ludwigsburg and prepared for a home semester. I continued writing and animating my story, though, and since I was spending so much time with my family, my favourite fictional family, the Thibodeaus, was very big on my mind as well. (and I got the full set of Polychromos for my birthday )

May | So then the semester started with awkward Zoom conferences, and we soon found out that the general goal was to come up with ideas for potential diploma films. However, creative work is best done in company of other artists, and especially developing potential film ideas turned out to be incredibly difficult for me. At the same time I was contacted for animation work on various diploma films in production. I also started presenting my "personal" work (my chapter animations) in our school "weeklies", which prompted me to put great effort into this piece of Remy and Georgia. Finally, I started to develop an animation style I was truly happy with...!

June | June's biggest event was my sister's wedding! Germany had dealt well with the first Covid outbreak, so we had the privilege to celebrate with friends and family; but preparing the day took a lot of my time. Other than that, I started working on a 3D project for school. Finding out how bad and inexperienced I am at 3D led to feeling overwhelmed, which resulted in a lack of motivation, which meant I got little school work done, and in turn, neither personal work (except for this ink/watercolour experiment). But there was also the whole civil rights movement in the USA after the murder of George Floyd... of course that made me stop and think and listen, and question the relevance of my art.

July | The semester drew to an end, I somehow barfed out 4 ideas for films, among them one from 2017 that I'd tried to develop further, but ultimately failing due to... the physical distance between and my co-director. At least the Midsummer GP gave me a good reason to indulge in some coloured pencil art.

August | Still on a relative breathing pause from the pandemic, we were able to spend a week in Italy, and I took the trip as a chance to do some plein air watercolour pieces. After that I visited my dear Fibonacho , and turns out that was the kick in the rear we both needed. In one week we produced a ton of art, started hosting shows, made RP plans, name it. It was such a glorious week and a true breath of fresh air. After that I moved back to Ludwigsburg, hoping that the change of scenery would make me productive... Pretty isolated, I worked on a friend's 2D diploma project for the rest of the month, and we made some good progress on it.

September | After a break from 3D, September meant I had to fight with Maya again, and to calm myself down from the associated pressure, I fled into 2D land and did this very elaborate animation of Jim and Caddy. At the end of September, at last, relief. I could move into my room at school again - and the various precautions that were met to prevent the spread of Covid at school was a welcome exchange for a proper working space...

October | And then the winter semester began with more serious development of our diploma projects. Finally we made some breakthroughs with our own concept, "Weichenstellung (WT)". We had the privilege of working with a bunch of mentors who gave critique, which was extremely helpful, but project development is incredibly mentally draining. Two projects plus writing a short film... and besides all that I clung to my chapter animations. This one of Georgia was thrilling: my style was solidifying, and this was decent acting! Also, MINT happened and was so inspiring!

November | "Weichenstellung" took shape more and more. Jumping from project to project I was very busy, and rarely got home before midnight. Another reason for that was that my co-director and me carried his e-piano through town to put it into our room, and the ability to play piano in work breaks was the best thing ever!! Germany entered "lockdown light" this month, but I got a special permission to keep working at school, thank goodness. I also did my first full pastel piece, plus and another chapter animation!

December | My main task in December was this large pastel piece that I wanted to gift my sister and brother-in-law for Christmas. December is always incredibly stressful, and then there was a new lockdown on the horizon... and when that hit, we were instantly thrown out of school and last-minute decided to go home a few days early. I finished the piece, and then had a wonderful chill Christmas with my family.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, that was the Horrible Year of 2020. It feels weird to say that... but for me, it was actually okay?
I'm so grateful for everything I was able to experience this year, despite Corona. The Lord carried me through - and protected me and my loved ones, from the disease and everything else. He gave me a lot. I often take it for granted, or claim it's my own skill that made me what I am, but everything I am, I am through him. This year has been a year of realising how privileged I am, with my birthplace, colour of my skin, the fact that my career gives me joy and fulfills me... it's a crazy blessing.

My plans for next year are very straightforward: finish my part on the diploma films I'm helping with and then fully focus on my own by April/May with hopefully the start of the animating phase! And since I'm graduating in '22, this is gonna fill most of my time I presume. Other than that I want to continue writing and animating my story. I did great progress this year with 10 uploaded parts - and I hope to keep that speed up next year.
Let's see how next year will turn out for all of us...

Thank you to everybody who kept faith with me, read my stories, commented on my art, spoke to me over discord, kept me company while I animated, or listened to me when I was discouraged. You know who you are. Thank you so much, I love you guys

See you in 2021!
My Art 2011
My Art 2012
My Art 2013
My Art 2014
My Art 2015
My Art 2016
My Art 2017
My Art 2018
My Art 2019

Template based on the original by DustBunnyThumper

Description

Um how is the year almost over?! It feels like I just returned from Ireland and now I'm already going into my Last Full Year of Studying?!?
This is also the TENTH TIME I'm doing this art summary. TEN years of progress. TEN times I've looked at the past 12 months, in awe of the passage of time and how I fit into that jigsaw puzzle that is life... I think one of those days I'll upload another summary of my favourite pieces of the past 10 years.. it's wild to know that I've been on this site for so long... I've always said that if it weren't for the HARPG, I wouldn't have ended up in this career I love so much.

In 2020 I finished up my last months of work on Wolfwalkers, then was in lockdown with my family, brought a 1987 Peugeot bicycle on a plane and then fixed it up, learned my most difficult piano piece yet, was my sister's Maid of Honour, made friends with locals in an Italian village, received a chocolate trophy for my bear film, made plans for my diploma, had a little break-through on instagram, and saw myself in the credits of an animated feature for the first time. Art-wise, I truly felt the aftermath of my Cleanup gig. My skills steadily increased, I was happy with my line quality, got new art materials, developed an animation style, panicked over 3D animation (war ongoing) and learned and experienced with a bunch of media and techniques.

January | I started the year in a pretty terrible mental state due to the HCL's aftermath. Certain people outright shunned me now, and that would change my experience on this site for good. But hardened as I now was, I prioritized my own happiness for once and that resulted in a surge of inspiration. I was still working in Ireland with two months to go, but drawing chill art for the Winter Blues Show was just what I needed. I also began with a new way of doing my story chapters: Animations!

February | My last month in Ireland! Now they were over, those 8 months of Cleanup work that had such a lasting impact on me and the quality of my art. Really, this whole experience was the best thing that ever happened to me, both professionally and personally! HARPG-wise, the new direction I was taking provided a lot of fun and satisfaction for my free time.

March | In March, we didn't yet know what was to come... I thought it would be a month to recover before I went back to Ludwigsburg to continue studying in April, but instead... as we all know, shit hit the fan. At a moment's notice, all the great plans we had with our third-year-project "Wild West Compressed" turned into dust... We won the Short Tiger prize, but couldn't go to the ceremony, we would've screened in Cannes, but that was cancelled, then we had to cancel our booked accommodation in Annecy... At least I was still on an absolute art high, and this piece of the Thibodudes would be a true milestone for the evolution of my art style.

April | As Covid became the pandemic we know and love today, my art drive waned. The semester was postponed with the prospect of online classes, so I cancelled my move back to Ludwigsburg and prepared for a home semester. I continued writing and animating my story, though, and since I was spending so much time with my family, my favourite fictional family, the Thibodeaus, was very big on my mind as well. (and I got the full set of Polychromos for my birthday )

May | So then the semester started with awkward Zoom conferences, and we soon found out that the general goal was to come up with ideas for potential diploma films. However, creative work is best done in company of other artists, and especially developing potential film ideas turned out to be incredibly difficult for me. At the same time I was contacted for animation work on various diploma films in production. I also started presenting my "personal" work (my chapter animations) in our school "weeklies", which prompted me to put great effort into this piece of Remy and Georgia. Finally, I started to develop an animation style I was truly happy with...!

June | June's biggest event was my sister's wedding! Germany had dealt well with the first Covid outbreak, so we had the privilege to celebrate with friends and family; but preparing the day took a lot of my time. Other than that, I started working on a 3D project for school. Finding out how bad and inexperienced I am at 3D led to feeling overwhelmed, which resulted in a lack of motivation, which meant I got little school work done, and in turn, neither personal work (except for this ink/watercolour experiment). But there was also the whole civil rights movement in the USA after the murder of George Floyd... of course that made me stop and think and listen, and question the relevance of my art.

July | The semester drew to an end, I somehow barfed out 4 ideas for films, among them one from 2017 that I'd tried to develop further, but ultimately failing due to... the physical distance between and my co-director. At least the Midsummer GP gave me a good reason to indulge in some coloured pencil art.

August | Still on a relative breathing pause from the pandemic, we were able to spend a week in Italy, and I took the trip as a chance to do some plein air watercolour pieces. After that I visited my dear Fibonacho , and turns out that was the kick in the rear we both needed. In one week we produced a ton of art, started hosting shows, made RP plans, name it. It was such a glorious week and a true breath of fresh air. After that I moved back to Ludwigsburg, hoping that the change of scenery would make me productive... Pretty isolated, I worked on a friend's 2D diploma project for the rest of the month, and we made some good progress on it.

September | After a break from 3D, September meant I had to fight with Maya again, and to calm myself down from the associated pressure, I fled into 2D land and did this very elaborate animation of Jim and Caddy. At the end of September, at last, relief. I could move into my room at school again - and the various precautions that were met to prevent the spread of Covid at school was a welcome exchange for a proper working space...

October | And then the winter semester began with more serious development of our diploma projects. Finally we made some breakthroughs with our own concept, "Weichenstellung (WT)". We had the privilege of working with a bunch of mentors who gave critique, which was extremely helpful, but project development is incredibly mentally draining. Two projects plus writing a short film... and besides all that I clung to my chapter animations. This one of Georgia was thrilling: my style was solidifying, and this was decent acting! Also, MINT happened and was so inspiring!

November | "Weichenstellung" took shape more and more. Jumping from project to project I was very busy, and rarely got home before midnight. Another reason for that was that my co-director and me carried his e-piano through town to put it into our room, and the ability to play piano in work breaks was the best thing ever!! Germany entered "lockdown light" this month, but I got a special permission to keep working at school, thank goodness. I also did my first full pastel piece, plus and another chapter animation!

December | My main task in December was this large pastel piece that I wanted to gift my sister and brother-in-law for Christmas. December is always incredibly stressful, and then there was a new lockdown on the horizon... and when that hit, we were instantly thrown out of school and last-minute decided to go home a few days early. I finished the piece, and then had a wonderful chill Christmas with my family.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, that was the Horrible Year of 2020. It feels weird to say that... but for me, it was actually okay?
I'm so grateful for everything I was able to experience this year, despite Corona. The Lord carried me through - and protected me and my loved ones, from the disease and everything else. He gave me a lot. I often take it for granted, or claim it's my own skill that made me what I am, but everything I am, I am through him. This year has been a year of realising how privileged I am, with my birthplace, colour of my skin, the fact that my career gives me joy and fulfills me... it's a crazy blessing.

My plans for next year are very straightforward: finish my part on the diploma films I'm helping with and then fully focus on my own by April/May with hopefully the start of the animating phase! And since I'm graduating in '22, this is gonna fill most of my time I presume. Other than that I want to continue writing and animating my story. I did great progress this year with 10 uploaded parts - and I hope to keep that speed up next year.
Let's see how next year will turn out for all of us...

Thank you to everybody who kept faith with me, read my stories, commented on my art, spoke to me over discord, kept me company while I animated, or listened to me when I was discouraged. You know who you are. Thank you so much, I love you guys

See you in 2021!
My Art 2011
My Art 2012
My Art 2013
My Art 2014
My Art 2015
My Art 2016
My Art 2017
My Art 2018
My Art 2019

Template based on the original by DustBunnyThumper