At Youth Digital Arts we grow amazing young digital artists and now with our Facilitated Freelance Program you or your business can benefit from their artwork. Select advanced students, Student National Mentors, and Student National Fellows will be participating in the program to learn about becoming a freelance artist without the pressure of running their own business. They get to focus on producing great art, creating a portfolio of their client work, getting paid for their work, and learning the business of Digital Art Freelancing at their own pace. Youth Digital Arts facilitates every project and handles all communication with the clients and our young digital artists.
The research below shows that our youth have very few opportunities to explore and learn entrepreneurial skills.
2/3/15 – A Gallup Student Poll found that only 46% of girls and 50% of boys in 12th grade strongly agree that they will find a good job when they graduate. The research goes onto say:
“Given that “college and career” readiness are hallmark goals of the U.S. education system, leaders of all kinds — from education to government to business — need to consider building a stronger connection between education and employment to try to keep students’ job optimism high as they advance in school.
Gallup-HOPE Index research indicates that less than 10% of students in grades 5 to 12 are currently interning with a local employer. And Gallup-Purdue Index research from college and university graduates indicates that less than one-third had a job or internship during college in which they applied what they were learning. Those who did were more likely to be employed full time and more than twice as likely to be engaged in their work. Therefore, American educational institutions and employers have room to improve by providing more real-world work experiences for students.”
January 22, 2013 – Gallup reports
“Practical work experience, in tandem with the guidance of a mentor in a new or small-business environment, may be a key to helping youth realize their future entrepreneurial aspirations.”
“America needs to quickly develop a system to identify and equip young entrepreneurs who can rev up the nation’s economic engine. This is critical to a future of continued global economic advantage and ensuring that generations of Americans can prosper and thrive.”
By participating in the Youth Digital Arts Freelance Program you can be one of the leaders who help students acquire a strong connections between education and employment, real-world work experiences, and an opportunity to realize their future entrepreneurial aspirations.
Our first Facilitated Freelance Digital Artist is Luke. Luke took his first Youth Digital Arts course 9 years ago in 2006 and has been with us ever since. He has progressed from excited young student following his passion for Manga, Anime, and Dinosaurs to Student National Mentor, and now, having graduated high school, is a Student National Fellow. Luke is an extraordinary 2D and 3D digital artist who pushes the boundaries of 2D vector drawing with exquisite shading and lighting into what we think of as 2.5D. His shading and lighting is so good it feels 3D. Luke is excellent at character design, both based on a reference image and his own original characters. He has also seamlessly integrated his characters into photos, melding the lighting and shading so the character feels part of the original photo. Luke also seamlessly melds 2D vector drawing with 3D modelling as illustrated in his Bird Biting a Mouse’s Tail work, complete with Japanese text, Kanji, in the speech bubble. The bird and mouse are 2D vector drawings, the room is a 3D model, and the pictures on the walls are 2D images. Luke also drew the skateboarder from a reference photo. Our goal was to illustrate the skateboarder’s elegant lines both in the inked line work and the color version. Lastly, one of our first Facilitated Freelance works was for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA. Luke created art work for their educational information kiosks.
Our second Facilitated Freelance Digital Artist is Caleb, one of our Student National Fellows. While majoring in animation at California State University Fullerton Caleb was selected by the Dean of the Animation Department as a 2D animator for a documentary on iconic surfer artist Rick Griffin. Griffin’s most famous rock album would be the Grateful Dead’s “Aoxomoxoa.” His 1968 Jimi Hendrix winged-eyeball Fillmore poster is just as iconic. After that, Griffin’s ornate covers for Quicksilver Messenger Service. He also did album calligraphy for Neil Young, Jackson Browne and the Eagles. For surfers it would be the posters for (the films) “Pacific Vibrations” and “Five Summer Stories.” The project never completed but here are a couple of Caleb’s hand drawn rough animations.
Our third Facilitated Freelance Digital Artist is Micah, one of our Student National Mentors. Below is one of Micah’s recent graphic novels. Micah has created several graphic novels and has had success entering them in contests. You can also view one of Micah’s animations that he entered in a contest for “I Can Afford College.com” by scrolling down a bit in our Blog.
If you are interested in submitting an art work inquiry or a project proposal please fill out the form below. We will email you to discuss it further.
Thanks!
Youth Digital Arts Facilitated Freelance Program