The Artmania Story - Part 2

 

Welcome to Part 2 of The Artmania Story if you haven't seen Part 1, please check it out. 

As I was previously telling, Artmania was officially called Artmania when I was almost finishing 9th grade, and it stucked with me because mania means passion and having high levels of creativity. That title works perfectly with my drawings.

Characters was one thing but I loved colors as well and I need to decide which aesthetic fits my personality.

My color palette hasn't been officially thought out yet. I did like warm ones, not too bright but not too dark either.

I was still obsessed with Looney Tunes in my early teens and by then, I explored a new website that has a ton of screenshots from animated cartoons. It was called The Internet Animation Database.

I was first visited to Looney Tunes Shorts that have their information and in those sections, there was screenshot section. 

Each short film in the series had a total of more than 10 pictures. I was invested and I managed to save some pictures.

Even the ones that didn't have the characters had a potential in me.

I was so attracted to imagery that it became a well staple with my style. 

2022 was a year just like 2021, but more interesting. 

2021 I was just starting to know what can lead me to the future, but 2022 lead me to revealing my style of art.

2023 was a whole lot different this time, but not only that, my personal life took a dive and it was alot different. 

Let me talk about education first.

2023 I was still in 10th grade, and let me tell you it was worse to be believed.

My brain was in a hot oven wanting to be kicked out of the flaming hotness of it all.

Photography class. The class that changed my life.

Welcome to hell.

This is the dark room I had to witness as a 15 year old who experienced light more than darkness and has a sense of overstimulation.

This was the worst time of my life. I was sent to an office, I wasn't in trouble, I just had a mental break from the internal suffering and rage inside my mind, when I entered to my classroom, there was nobody, not a human in sight. 

But wait? There was a thing in there next to the door of the classroom. 

WHAT THE? THERE'S A F***ING SECRET ROOM INSIDE?! 😱

To me the entire time I had that class that was used for something else. 

But no, it felt like a low-budgeted elevator. I was spinning this thing around until I got greeted to one of the worst invitations to man-kind. 

It wasn't like this. It was WAY darker 

(and cheaper too!)

I was literally like this.

My entire self was shaking in a unsteady manor. 

I felt like I was gonna pass out.

I didn't know what was going on since the teacher I had in that class didn't care about my oversensitive personality back then.

I'm not kidding. I felt like I needed my mommy. 

I was touching whatever was near me while the teacher blabbered about how much he loved this abysmal low-cost torture. 

Not only that, but the amount of students we had in this class was alot. Estimate is 25. That is too many for learning how these types of pictures were made.

I didn't know what the heck my grade was in the final quarter of my photography class but let me tell you, if grades were a being, it would be confusing.

My teacher was possibly irritated by all the fuss of students not liking this overstimulating job we had to do every class until I finished 10th grade. It just couldn't end and I kept on getting headaches for no reason being in that dark room.

Mostly every time I walk out of the dark room and back to the sunny side of my classroom I'm usually like this.

The teacher would come by in and out actively and I couldn't tell why. I didn't want to be in that room again and even then, I thought that was a only one week assignment sorta trip. This continued for months. 

For what came in my mind with me and the teacher with the dark room work was that I was so humiliated and the teacher expected me to be back here to do more useless picture work.

There was like over 100 pictures I had to make which is too many. Not even the fellers back in the 1870s could make that many pictures in a span of a few days.

I had to be dragged for more than 5 meetings every class and I was so frustrated because the room was that dark and red, it was unpleasant and spine tingling inside me.

Mostly at the end of every photography class I would run away and blow raspberries near the exit door to go to my next class and then cry in human adult tears so that I can finally seek the good in life again.

But with all that aside, what shined with Artmania and me during that stressful time period?

Well I did make a magnum-opus character that would potentially become my all-star cast, Montreal Fox.

Also by that time, I was experimenting on what Artmania could be in the future. Will it be run on a channel? YouTube would be an easy go to send my creativity, and in various drawings I would make posters of short film concepts and have the YouTube logo on it.

I was still enjoying Looney Tunes and wanted to watch every Classic Looney Tunes short ever made, and that impacted my life even more. I experienced some smart writing and clever jokes in these cartoons.

The short films lead me to having an interest in Classic Hollywood. The first experience I ever had with this type of stuff is looking into classic movie posters and I saved alot of these for further inspiration. 

My sophomore era was over and I have experienced alot of new and interesting stuff and also made more well designed and developed characters all thanks to Looney Tunes.

My summer vacation in 2023, wasn't special but it was sure worth a break. 

I wanted to make my characters have more personality and have more facts behind them.

But just as you know, summer break was over for me. 

11th grade rolled around and I was still able to find ideas and experience more good things.

Spoiler, it wasn't as good as I remembered it being but there was one particular class that was able to push me into my future. 

With all these quirky characters I made, I know I draw them, I can animate them, but what should I know about sound and editing?

Yes. I had a class where I learn everything about how to edit a video, edit in the sounds, like cutting out the potential breathing and make interesting effects like zooming and green screen.

This class was not all special. There was apps I had to use that were not all that fun, like knowing how to make logos with strict tools I didn't like, or making random advertisements I know I can do better in apps on my phone.

What school expects me to make advertisements.

How my own mind can make advertisements on my phone.

Just comes to show you that you can do more in your mind than in a dusty, sweaty building, almost.

While nothing much was going on in the autumn breeze of 11th grade, there was one particular animation director that I discovered, someone that even was more zany and creative and would go on to become one of my main heroes. 

Part 3 tomorrow 🤫