Hiya! For this entry, I'm changing up the pace to talk about my recent job shadowing opportunity in all it's nontraditional glory! For my required job shadowing, I worked with Stephen Byrd, Erin Richburg (the best art teacher :^) ), Raenan Coore, and Yamila Rodriguez, along with the video staff at Trinity Church to create a large-scale projection piece portraying Thomas, Mary, and Peter's stories from the bible in the style of stained glass.
I think, above all else, I learned about just how much communication is required across so many platforms in order to get something on this scale and with a diverse group of people is necessary. I did hands on work, but I think the most memorable thing from this experience has been just how many times I texted Richburg to let her know what work I was getting done and to do progress checks, and going back and forth between students and teacher on different platforms.
Additionally, however, I mainly worked on the concept sketches for the pieces with Richburg. I think another important thing I learned was how when you work on a large scale work like this, things from the beginning stages aren't always necessarily translated or even used, since it's all trial and error. So I had to learn to cope with the fact that only a fraction of the actual work I did was incorporated into the final work. But, it is also important to know that despite my work not being directly translated into the final projection, my work was important to the development of the piece even still.
I'm not so sure if this persuaded me to pursue any specific career, but I am very grateful to have had this experience because now I feel more confident in my ability to collaborate with others and work as a part of something for large works, even at a developmental stage (or maybe, specifically!). I've even become more confident in emailing people directly for job interests, as I already have done so and they've gotten back to me! (Wish me luck please it's a youtube animation team thing :^) )
The first column is my concept sketch for Doubting Thomas with the finalized sketch of the design below, the middle column being my sketches for Mary with additions by Richburg, and the final column is a sketch done by Richburg where I drew the roosters in their places, which were translated into the final piece and the linework I did for Peter below.
This is what the finalized design looked like and what was projected during Trinity's Easter projection and recorded and projected out to several countries to Navy soldiers on deployment. I additionally did line work to section off some of the pieces that were ultimately revamped and altered in the final design.
Overall, I am pleased with how the piece ended up, and extremely thankful to not only Stephen Byrd and Trinity Church for allowing me to work with them on such a large and important piece, but also Richburg for trusting me to work on this piece as well.
This was an very important educational experience for me when it comes to working on the process for large projects like this and working with other people!
You can find information for Trinity Church right here!