Welcome To I Will Wear My Art Upon My Sleeve

Me, Myself and I

Hello, and welcome to my blog, this is where I gab about whatever is going on in my life, what's going on in my head, and notes here and there.

To start off my name is Francesca, I am a 3D modeler, graphic designer, and illustrator. I started drawing at a very young age self-teaching myself, and had on-and-off art classes to help my art skills grow but I never thought I could make it into a career until my second year in college.

Let me start off my journey in high school since a lot has happened there. So in high school, my freshman year I had a severe asthma attack that left me in the ICU for a week until the hospital got it under control. I had to work my ass off to get my grades back up after I got out of the hospital, which I still don't know how I did, since I was in all honors classes.

Then in the middle of sophomore year is when I really got sick, so sick that I ended up in a wheelchair for the duration of the school year due to intense back pain. I even had to go to a rehabilitation center just to learn how to walk and do anything again. It was hard, it was frustrating, and depressing. I also fell behind in all my honors classes, again, and struggle just to keep up.

So around junior year I was transferred to an online school that I can say I detest to this day. It was extremely boring especially for an undiagnosed ADHD girl, you couldn't listen to music and you couldn't talk to any of the other students in the building. I was so glad when I finished and got out of there however I was led to believe I'll be able to graduate with my graduating class when I was doing the online school in my senior year and that was a lie because I still had some classes to finish.

Well, I finished them early, mid-November instead of December, but I never walked the next year because I wouldn't be with my friends from last year. I did however get into a community College, which I didn't think possible with my new disability, and continued on my journey of going into biomedical engineering.

Yes, I was going into biomedical engineering, that was my plan since freshman year of high school, which might have been why I burned out so early. The biggest thing that got me so out of the degree was a biology class I took my first year at my community College. It was for the degree I was going into, it was hard, I struggled a lot, and my professor was a luddite. Meaning she was so against technology and behind that she had to connect to her internet to get it working. I hated that class so much that I did not want to go into biomedical engineering.

This was the turning point in my life because I was about to change my whole career plan and it started out with my mom mentioning to me about going into art and computers. So what I searched was computer animation and found so much with it. But I didn't really know much about it since I did either traditional artwork or digital art, I wanted to learn so I got Flash and tried to make my very first animation. It didn't go as planned and had a few technical difficulties that I had to bring in my drawing software but I still managed to make it and it was what I showcased in my portfolio to Columbia College Chicago.

And I got in, even though I had little animation knowledge I believe my skills still showed through in taking on the challenge to learn it and overcome obstacles. And man was there obstacles when I was at Columbia College. Just two years of general education under my belt I went in with an open mind and eagerness to learn. But there was so much to learn about animation, I won't get into all of it in this blog but I would love to go into depth about my time at Columbia College Chicago.

Anyway despite Covid interrupting and disturbing my College time I was able to graduate and get a bachelor's in arts for Computer Animation with a short film that I helped made one of my proudest works. However, it doesn't stop there with my education, finding that work was hard to come by for animation and wanting to get a better portfolio as well as stay in the Chicago area I decided to go back to my community College and get an Associate's in Graphic Design since there was a lot of work around Chicago for it.

I had a pretty good experience and was able to graduate with a second degree although I had to finish my unpaid internship later in the year. That internship was very interesting and I put my computer animation skills to work making an animated music video having to make and model a 3D character, rig the whole character which was not easy, and animate it to the music. It made me want to learn more about doing better animation and rigging characters since it was still beginner skills but I'm happy the musician and my supervisor loved it.

Anyway, catching up to current time I'm actively trying to get into more creative work while working a 9-to-5 desk job, which I don't enjoy mind you, and that is showing to be a challenge. A challenge I gladly accept. So my biggest advice to give, even though you weren't expecting one, is do not stop trying, sometimes life gives you impossible tasks or obstacles and it only shows how much you want the thing in the end so go for it. If I can get two degrees with a chronic illness then I believe anyone can do anything they set their mind to.

Side note; I know I did not go into my chronic illness and what my diagnosis is and all that because it's a whole other story that I will put in another blog, but I would love to answer any questions people might have about it. Yes, my chronic illness is a big part of my life, but I will not let it define me. accept.