It seems the time has come for me to write about the aspects
that make me who I am. This is an exercise of
introspection, I must analyze myself, how I came to be this way and start to
think on how I want to develop as a professional as well as a human being. To
do this, I feel that I must tell you about myself, share a little of my history
with you before I proceed to disassemble myself and then put myself back
together in the best way possible, deconstructing one, Juan Angel.
On my Background
I’m going far back but I don’t
intend to linger too long on this memories, I will only explore briefly this
pieces of the puzzle that is Juan the person, later I will discuss Juan the
professional.
Early years
So, back when I was in high school I was the quiet type, I
didn’t talk much with others, I used to believe I had
everyone figured out so I would rather spend my time drawing creatures on
multiple sketchbooks and dreaming of alternate worlds. I knew I wanted to
pursue a career where I would build worlds I just didn’t
know what that career was at this point.
First University
years
Still trying to figure out where I could work on my dreams,
I decided to start a career in philosophy and literature. I hoped to learn how
to start writing properly about the worlds, the places and the stories in my
head.
I believe this to be one of turning points of my life, I met many amazing people from a diversity of backgrounds, in a country that has such a strong class conflict this was an eye opening experience for me. I learned a lot about the realities of others and how they compared to mine. I learned about values and respect and learned that no matter our background we could all relate to each other. During this process I also learned very particular ways to write and gained significant reading comprehension skills, which have helped me greatly in all of my endeavors. A small but important note here is that I never stopped drawing, people would ask me for portraits and fantasy creatures, I got really tired of drawing fairies and vampires for petititions.
I believe this to be one of turning points of my life, I met many amazing people from a diversity of backgrounds, in a country that has such a strong class conflict this was an eye opening experience for me. I learned a lot about the realities of others and how they compared to mine. I learned about values and respect and learned that no matter our background we could all relate to each other. During this process I also learned very particular ways to write and gained significant reading comprehension skills, which have helped me greatly in all of my endeavors. A small but important note here is that I never stopped drawing, people would ask me for portraits and fantasy creatures, I got really tired of drawing fairies and vampires for petititions.
Later University
years
I continued my career in philosophy and I loved it! I was learning Latin and Greek, I was learning about theology and about
evolution, I learned about Oscar Wilde, and Hegel and Heidegger. It was all
quite an experience but I realized that my dreams were not materializing. I
came to the realization that I was just swimming in other people’s
dreams and while some of this dreams were set in beautifully realized worlds, I wanted to create my own, which
is why I made a decision to move to the city and start a career in graphic
design with a focus on illustration. From here on I would continue building on
my artistic skills.
Graphic design
This is another pivotal point in my life, moving to the city
gave me even more insight and made me realize the scope of things was even
larger than I ever thought. I met people from every part of the country and this
people were doing all sorts of stuff. Some were very talented no doubt, but they
lacked the passion and drive to build their legacy. I never stopped searching for people with drives,
and then I met this group of like-minded people that wanted to build
worlds through art and design. It was with this friends that I really
learned about teamwork and project building. At some point I realized that the seed idea for
a project we proposed was becoming a full fledged world, this place was the sum
of our ideas, the whole greater than the sum of its parts. This would have
never been accomplished without this team effort and back and forth discussion
and it really helped open my mind to other ideas that could propel mine beyond their
initial scope.
During my graphic design years I learned a lot about shapes, composition, color and a variety of techniques like acrylics, watercolors, color pencils and even stop motion puppet making. I was accumulating the tools to build and engineer my worlds; the design aspect helped me make smart decisions on how to present my ideas to others.
My artistic skills grew but my people skills largely remained the same, I was still a quiet individual, and while polite and willing to help friends in times of need I wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to meet someone new.
Moving on
Graphic design taught me so much about presentation, I came to the somewhat dubious realization that a mediocre product with an outstanding presentation could become the next big thing. I decided to focus some of my final years in graphic design in improving my presentation skills (in terms of graphics) to better show my work. Now, this last statement would make it seem that I think my work is mediocre, but, while there is room for improvement, I believe myself to be quite a capable artist.
During my graphic design years I learned a lot about shapes, composition, color and a variety of techniques like acrylics, watercolors, color pencils and even stop motion puppet making. I was accumulating the tools to build and engineer my worlds; the design aspect helped me make smart decisions on how to present my ideas to others.
My artistic skills grew but my people skills largely remained the same, I was still a quiet individual, and while polite and willing to help friends in times of need I wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to meet someone new.
Moving on
Graphic design taught me so much about presentation, I came to the somewhat dubious realization that a mediocre product with an outstanding presentation could become the next big thing. I decided to focus some of my final years in graphic design in improving my presentation skills (in terms of graphics) to better show my work. Now, this last statement would make it seem that I think my work is mediocre, but, while there is room for improvement, I believe myself to be quite a capable artist.
The next step
I successfully graduated as a graphic designer and made a
decision to continue my studies in the USA. I decided to pursue my studies in
Game Design. I realized that the answer was there in front of me all along, I
had always been an avid videogame player I was passionate about the worlds of
videogames and I wanted to be a part of that. My dreams have led me this far, I
keep meeting new and fantastic people and I keep improving my skills and this
is just the beginning…
Evaluation of character
The reason I went through all that background information is
because at this pivotal points in my life is where I learned all the
personality and character ethics that define me, this have been the key moments
that have made me the artist I’m today.
At different points I have learned different skills and
different things about myself.
I will go over the character ethics that define me and at
what points were this ethics acquired, I will also discuss aspects I need to
improve.
Integrity:
I consider myself to be very reliable and I’m always on time for
my appointments, however this wasn’t always the case. Back in my high school
years I didn’t care too much about delivering work and meeting deadlines cause
I just wasn’t interested in schoolwork. Later when I started realizing my
dreams and chose a career path, that changed, I learned that when you are truly
passionate about something you want to get it done, and done on time.
Humility: This area presents
particular problems for me because back in high school most of the people I
grew up with were trying to bring me down all the time and when I started my
career path I decided to take things into my hands and do my work with
determination. I truly believe I’m capable of great things, this might strike
some as arrogance but I believe that I work really hard. If someone needs my
help I will try to give them advice based on my experiences and choices, I will
try to be patient but ultimately we all make our own path.
Fidelity: I’m determined
and will always strive to get my work done to the best of my ability; hard work
will always shine through even if the results are unexpected. I also strive
towards self-improvement and do regular exercises (artistic and physical) to
keep my mind sharp and my body fit.
Temperance: For the longest time
in my life I had a very short fuse, I would yell and overreact at every minor
annoyance. Once I realized how much pain and inconveniences I was causing I
decided I would never be like that again. I still get annoyed with surprising
regularity but I mostly keep it to myself, I’m always polite and respectful
even in the most tense and dire situations.
Courage: I have a terrible
tendency to slide into comfort zones and just repeat tasks, I’m trying to pull
myself away from this comfort zones but fear can be a powerful deterrent. Some of my
more recent classes have helped me address my fears and thus increase my skills
in a variety of areas that I thought I would never master.
Justice: I always try to be
fair with my peers, I will congratulate them on a job well done and will never
call them out in front of everyone for their mistakes. I would never do unto
someone what I don’t wish upon myself.
Patience: I’m patient and
understanding with my peers. I try to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses
and will try to motivate my peers with encouragement on a job well done while
minimizing the weakest points. Weak points can be fixed and strong points can
be improved, we all grow together.
However I must clarify that I have zero
tolerance for laziness and will quit groups with people that can’t pull their
weight, I’ve done this before and will not stand for mediocrity.
Industry: On this point, while I
believe I work very hard, I think I don’t get as much work done as I
can produce. A reason for this might be that I have a very high standard for
myself and products that don’t reach those expectations are discarded. I can
push myself to the very limits to reach my deadlines but I believe that in the
long term this is going to be to the detriment of my health, I don’t expect to
live very long with my current sleep schedule.
Hopefully that should cover my character
ethics
Personality
ethics
Moving on to my personality ethics I do
try to be positive but I don’t succeed all the time and I’ve had problems with
authority figures before, I really have a hard time handling commanding people.
If asked nicely I will do my work to the best of my ability but I don’t respond
kindly to people that are commanding and shout a lot.
I’m not thick skinned at all and a bad
situation can sour my whole day making me a nasty person to be around. I will
try to avoid people that complain and whine a lot but I will flock to hard
working people with good work ethics and practices.
I will always congratulate my peers if I
believe they have done a good job and will try to elevate the quality of my
work to match that of my hard working peers.
Skills and conclusion
Keeping all the previously stated in
mind I assess that my overall skillset and character ethics can be summarized
as follows:
Skills
- Professional presentation and layout skills (graphic design).
- Understanding of human anatomy (still improving).
- Basic to moderate painting skills.
- Bilingual – Able speak and write in two languages fluently.
- Diverse skill set, can execute 2D as well as 3D tasks.
- Ability to organize and execute projects.
- Excellent reading and comprehension skills
- Will get work done in time.
Ethics
- Hard working and tenacious.
- Quiet but polite and respectful.
- Willing to listen to critique.
- Understanding of others.
- Low tolerance for failure. (My own failures)
Conclusion
I
could have covered more of my own failures and deficiencies but this is my blog
and my presentation, and part of that is being positive so I’m showing myself
in a more positive light. I believe that I was fair in my assessment of
strengths and weaknesses and anyone who reads this will probably have a good
idea of who I am and what my work ethics and character ethics are.
If you made it this far I salute you and thank you for reading!
If you made it this far I salute you and thank you for reading!
