Ariel McBride designs her future at Hudson Valley Community College

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By: Josh Bates

Staff Writer

Ariel McBride, a digital media major at Hudson Valley Community College, has a passion for creating art digitally and on paper.

McBride has been drawing since she was in kindergarten and said her main art style is cartoon based.

“When I started drawing in grade school my skills weren’t the best, but by sixth grade, my artistic aptitude really started to improve,” she said. “Once I got into high school, my talent really took off from there.”

“[My high school teachers] really wanted to get to know your artistic process,” McBride said. “Their job was to interact with students, look at our work and give improving feedback on how we could make our work look better,” she said. “Teachers at my school wanted to expand my limits to becoming the best artist I could become.”

Graduating from this encouraging high school environment, McBride decided to pursue art as a major and profession. She went on to Hudson Valley Community College to further develop her skills as an artist in the Digital Media program.

Hudson Valley Community College’s digital media program offers many advancement opportunities for artistic students who want to go into the field of Digital Media, animation and related fields.

McBride said her main source of inspiration often came from allowing her mind to wander and meditate, as well as from watching YouTube videos.

“My artistic process for drawing consists of starting off lightly in pencil then going over the drawing in black marker, then I try to sharpen and clean up any lines that I have, [and] finally I color it all in,” she explained.

She usually does her art projects on the computer. Now that she has moved to the digital media program, she has advanced equipment she can now work with to improve and perfect her artwork. However, there are tradeoffs for drawing with a computer versus with ink and pencil.

“When I use the computer, it definitely makes things look more perfect, as well with help of a drawing tablet it makes things easier,” McBride said. “Though with markers and pencils you get a little bit more freedom than drawing with a computer,” she said. “You’re not confined to the software you’re drawing with. You can draw whatever you want.”

Even so, McBride said she enjoys both mediums to draw and create her art pieces.

For her future plans, McBride hopes to finish her years in college in order to become a graphic digital designer or an animator and run her own show. “As long as it keeps me doing what I’m doing right now then I’m good,” she said.

McBride plans to continue to create imaginative art pieces anyone can be inspired by.

According to Hudson Valley Community College’s website, digital media students build their portfolio over the two-year program to advance their art skills and to transfer onto other schools and professions. In addition, the college displays these students’ artwork at campus exhibitions during parts of the fall and spring semesters.