Hello, Steemit! I’m Ashley, and I’m an artist.

I make (almost) exclusively digital art, including animated short films. I thought an interesting way to introduce myself would be with a timeline of self portraits.

Hope you enjoy!

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The earliest self-portraits I have.

This was my first year of college - I was attending UC San Diego with the intention of getting a degree in literature. I was drawing and painting with acrylics occasionally, and always just for fun.

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At the end of 2016, I took my first film class.

Two weeks into this class, and I was sold. I switched my major to Film.

I didn’t make any self portraits, but I was introduced to a new medium - experimental film. Cue a few ultra-pretentious short films that I will spare you from, and I had learned a genuine appreciation for the application of time to artmaking.

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Enter animation!

I took a class where we spent one week learning stop motion. I made an animated self portrait with a photograph and acrylic paint. My first-ever animation!

Unfortunately, at the time UCSD didn’t offer animation classes, so I bugged the one professor with some animation experience for book and lesson recommendations. I took an independent study and used that time to teach myself how to use Toon Boom.

I made a few practice animations, one of which was a self portrait:

Bonus drawing of me at my workstation:

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I animated myself in a recurring dream I have about a haunted house with a deep mystery.

I’m like Nancy Drew in this dream, but a version that's really bad at solving mysteries. So not like Nancy Drew at all, actually.

I graduated and moved to LA, where I landed a job working in True Crime TV. I didn’t draw much for the rest of the year.

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Work, work, work, work, work - but I actually enjoyed it.

I was doing a lot of organizing, scheduling, and research (and just a little, little bit of writing) for the show I was on, but I really missed MAKING things.

I decided to start making short films again! But this time, I wanted to have great fundamentals.

I ordered a fleet of drawing and animation books and started drawing regularly. I kept at it for a little over a month, and then bought a giant iPad to draw on instead. Best upgrade of my whole life.

Last year, I spent a lot of time testing different techniques and styles.

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This year, I resolved to work on art that is meaningful to me.

I am working on a self-portrait series called “Things I Don’t Do Anymore.”

This is the first of them - swimming. All of the drawings will be centered around hobbies I’ve lost for one reason or another.

I’ll share the rest of the series as I finish it. I’m also working on a pitch for a short film I’m really excited to share my progress on.

Thanks for reading!

(verification)