Nick is a slick artist.

Senior designer Nick is one persistent dude. As a beginning design student, Nick was not very good at vector art, by his own admission. One thing that he refused to do though, was give up on improving. He has really made strides this year, and it is very easy to be proud of what he has accomplished. Nick plans to attend Texas Tech University next year, and he had a few things to say about completing the vector illustration above.

"The truck illustration was almost an entire semester's project... I only finished it a few weeks before the end of the term. I almost gave up on it several times because I wanted it to be a very realistic vector."

Nick is sort of a perfectionist.

"One of the hardest parts was teaching myself how to do a metallic blend. Thankfully, it didn't take too long to learn. Another frustrating aspect was trying to vector the lights. I deleted everything I had on them at least twice. I'm glad I stuck with it though because I have learned new blending styles and I have an awesome vector of a Saleen Ford F150 to show for it."

Nick is right. It is sometimes frustrating for young design students to stick with a project and re-do parts and re-evaluate their work constantly. However, the ones who don't accept "version one" of everything they do and the ones that work hard to improve their work are the ones who end up looking at their work and feeling very proud of what they accomplish. They go beyond mediocrity and strive for excellence in their work. These are the students who will become pros and be valued so highly that they will continually advance and do well in their career.

I am proud of Nick for going beyond what he thought he was capable of doing and not quitting before the job was done.

Today was very busy in the studio. The printer was humming, running test prints for projects and getting work ready for competition. The advanced students have one more weekend to complete their projects, and then they will have to move on to process books and artistic statements. If it sounds like a lot of work, it is. Work is what we do around that studio. This morning our school was visited by the Texas Education Agency and I had the opportunity to speak with two gentlemen from TEA as they toured our studio. I was very proud of the students as the men from Austin talked with them about our class, and I couldn't help but think to myself how fortunate I am to know these young people. Things are going to be in good hands in the next generation of young professionals.

Tonight I sit here on my couch with my cup of after dinner coffee thinking about the day. Even though it was kind of cold and rainy, and even though I have a lot of work to do before I can call it a day, I feel quite good about how the day has panned out. I am looking forward to seeing the progress in class tomorrow and helping the students to accomplish their goals. Look for a feature on the "afternoon art table" tomorrow.