2013 was a year of pushing boundaries. The first half of the year, I was finishing up my senior year of High School, and the second half I started college at BYU, where I declared the Pre-Animation major.

Through the major, I was exposed to 3D art, and my ability to make 2D animations was pushed further than it ever had been before. But I still made time to do the things I had been doing before.

This year I also started writing a book that I dubbed Dreamwalker, which explored the idea of an interactive, creative world-building game built on the idea of lucid dreaming. With the pressures of my college classes, I had to set it aside, but I plan to revisit it, and maybe turn it into a web comic if not write it out as a novel.

This was also the year a couple of dearly-beloved original characters were born. Pictured as a LEGO Mini Figure is Sam Billings. He is a radioactive superhero, based on the song, Radioactive, by Imagine Dragons, and his story will most likely be a web comic.

I started a co-writing project with a friend revolving around the concept of a daughter of Robin Hood named Cadence, and so I was tasked with designing her. The co-writing part of the project failed. But I took Cadence and her story into my keeping and have been working on it on and off ever since.

This year was one of losses and gains. I was quickly beginning to realize that while I still loved animation, I wasn't sure I wanted to do it for a living. My self-esteem was taking constant hits, as I saw the work of my classmates and compared it with my own. If I could go back and slap myself upside the head, I would. I look back and I can see that if I had stopped worrying so much about whether I was good compared to the others in the program, I could have gained so much more from the classes I took.

Nevertheless, even with the self-imposed mental caps I placed on my talents, I still produced content I was proud of. This was the year to attack the human figure with vim and vigor, something I'd been too afraid to attempt before now. I dedicated much of this year to doodling in my sketchbook and class notes, trying to master arms and legs and faces. And even though I thought at the time that I wasn't getting anywhere, I can see now that those were just the first steps in a journey of major improvement.

Due to the pressure of the animation classes I'd taken, 2015 did not produce many artworks. I just about stopped drawing, as it was no longer enjoyable, and so the art for this year is not much more than a couple of sketches and doodles.

Instead of drawing, I threw myself into writing and music. I applied myself to learning the guitar and the ukulele, adding tons of chords and riffs to my repertoire, and even making some tab guides for some of my favorite songs so that others could learn to play them, too. I tried out writing music, though I produced nothing I was satisfied with, and was much more pleased with the poetry and short stories I was creating.

I also began my journey through the Pre-Advertising program, working this year on a Jamba Juice campaign, and submitted a video that - while it was definitely amateur - I'm still quite proud of.

Artistically, 2016 was my year of rebirth. As much as I'd love to say it was spontaneous it wasn't. I owe a great deal of my desire to draw again to the advent of the indie RPG, Undertale, by Toby Fox, in September of the year prior. I played it over that Christmas break, and came back to school in January with so much fuel that I just needed to burn!

And so thus began the year-or-so-long trend of Undertale fanart in all forms. I made a tee shirt design for my sister's birthday, a custom start menu button for my computer (and one for someone else, too), tons of class note doodles, and I even started doing some voice acting.

I also started two projects that are still ongoing: namely my Undertale Sketchbook Project, and my first attempt at a fan fiction.

Thanks to all the fan art I made, I regained my confidence as an artist, and grew as a creator in general, too. I took on a couple of commissions that tested my abilities as a painter and portrait artist, and started really expanding my online presence, becoming more active on Tumblr, and participating in the Inktober challenge for the first time, which garnered a significant number of new followers.

Right alongside the fan art and other personal works, I pushed the boundaries of my comfort zone and took charge of the creative for my second Advertising mock campaign, this one for Original Penguin menswear. It was the kind of aesthetic I'd never tried before, but I was quite pleased with the unity and sleekness I felt my creative carried. I was able to help my team score a high grade in the class, and I felt like I really grew from the experience.

And with another year of Pre-Advertising came another video for another application. This one was more professionally shot than the last one, but my goals may hav been a little too lofty for the time frame I gave myself, as is evidenced by my first real attempt at computer animation. There was definitely a learning curve, starting out with no recent animation experience, and using a program I was not at all familiar with. But I'm still pretty happy with the final product.

I also continued work on Cadence's story in the background, spending hours and hours drafting and researching the Robin Hood myth.

Overall, 2016 was the year that I grew comfortable with where I was as an artist and creator, and because of this, I found myself improving exponentially with each new thing I made, be it a drawing, a voice acting audition, or a written piece.

2017 was a good year for art, even if I didn't produce as much as the year before.

This years features more Undertale-inspired fan art, as well as the addition of art for the Portal games, and a good number of commissions.

During this year, I spent a lot of time focusing on Cadence's story, doing extensive research, and even using her story as some of my class assignments. Aside from her story, I gave my writing more attention this year, going through old projects and deciding which ones were still worth revisiting.

2018 has only just begun. So I don't have a ton to show for it yet. But rest assured, I am hard at work. This year brings with it a new icon for my social media, as well as my first attempt of many at fan art for The Adventure Zone, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast created by the Mcelroys.

Speaking of podcasts, I tried one of my own. I can already think of tons of way to improve it, but I thought it was a great first attempt, and a decent homage to the belovedly weird Welcome to Night Vale aesthetic.

I have also started yet another book, this one about a ghost who needs help moving on, and a middle school girl who finds she needs the much the same.