Hi everybody! I'm a 24 year old English teacher who lives in Madrid, Spain. I'm originally from California. I went to UCLA and graduated with a degree in science.
After years of promising I would change careers to art for video games, I am finally trying to do it. Currently I am enjoying being in Spain, and I was thinking hard about leaving my teaching job here and going back to Los Angeles to study at the Concept Design Academy starting October 1st.
However, the idea of leaving was tearing me apart. The expat lifestyle here can be lonely (really, really lonely sometimes....), and I am poor, but being so close to all these different places to travel to as well as seeing more of Spain is intoxicating to me. Flights are ridiculously cheap. I just don't want to go home quite yet.
So, I am going to see how far I can get with tutorials online and maybe pay for some classes through the various CG Master-type websites, because cost of living here in Spain is a lot less. I can pay for my living expenses with my 16-hr week job.
So, let's see how far I can get with these tutorials. My goal is to evaluate how I'm doing by December. If I haven't made sufficient progress, I will move back to Los Angeles and try to get a part-time job SAT tutoring (which pays very well per hour, so I could theoretically pay all my living expenses with 10-12 hours of that), and then the rest of the time taking classes at CDA in February. My parents have offered to help me out with the cost of that, plus loans.
It's a scary idea for me (who doesn't fear failure?) but today I just started with my first free online tutorials from Ctrl+paint. For me the biggest stumbling block is overthinking and not starting. Once I get going I can get on a roll, but starting is a hurdle.
Anyway, hola a todos! También hablo español, si quieres. :-)
Looking forward to interacting with everyone here. I feel really isolated in what I'm trying to do, so I'm thankful that fourms like this exist.
After years of promising I would change careers to art for video games, I am finally trying to do it. Currently I am enjoying being in Spain, and I was thinking hard about leaving my teaching job here and going back to Los Angeles to study at the Concept Design Academy starting October 1st.
However, the idea of leaving was tearing me apart. The expat lifestyle here can be lonely (really, really lonely sometimes....), and I am poor, but being so close to all these different places to travel to as well as seeing more of Spain is intoxicating to me. Flights are ridiculously cheap. I just don't want to go home quite yet.
So, I am going to see how far I can get with tutorials online and maybe pay for some classes through the various CG Master-type websites, because cost of living here in Spain is a lot less. I can pay for my living expenses with my 16-hr week job.
So, let's see how far I can get with these tutorials. My goal is to evaluate how I'm doing by December. If I haven't made sufficient progress, I will move back to Los Angeles and try to get a part-time job SAT tutoring (which pays very well per hour, so I could theoretically pay all my living expenses with 10-12 hours of that), and then the rest of the time taking classes at CDA in February. My parents have offered to help me out with the cost of that, plus loans.
It's a scary idea for me (who doesn't fear failure?) but today I just started with my first free online tutorials from Ctrl+paint. For me the biggest stumbling block is overthinking and not starting. Once I get going I can get on a roll, but starting is a hurdle.
Anyway, hola a todos! También hablo español, si quieres. :-)
Looking forward to interacting with everyone here. I feel really isolated in what I'm trying to do, so I'm thankful that fourms like this exist.