DURATION: September 2022 – April 2023 (30 days total)
The main reason behind me doing the DPS year was that I knew that I wanted to be an artist, though I did not know what kind of artist I could be, nor could I imagine myself as an artist in a professional setting. My lack of experience and understanding of any professional creative field made it difficult for me to discern what I wanted to do as a career and what to aim for. The main debate was concerning whether I’d like to work under a company or as a freelancer, with both fields having their respective pros and cons. Rafa Aflalo, one of the guest speakers who had worked both as a freelancer and later signed with a company, gave me the advice that working in a company first to understand how the industry operated would make me much more certain and confident as a freelancer.
I first launched my Patreon in May this year to keep myself active creatively outside of academic work. It initially had one tier for early access to some of my works, though through my DPS year, I am hoping to challenge myself creatively and elevate my page to include exclusive art, comics, and videos. I believe that this would significantly strengthen my skills in self-management, writing, drawing, animating, as well as speeding up my process in order to meet deadlines, which I believe to be vital for freelance artists. I also believe that many of the skills I have obtained from my internship with Ogilvy such as communication, designing, adapting and knowledge of specific programs can also be utilized here.
My goal by the end of my DPS year is to maintain a Patreon page with three tiers that puts out content at least monthly and enhance the skills I would require as a freelance artist.