(now with bonus UPDATES!)
OK, this is looong overdue, I've been putting this off for months! Here goes...

SCHOOL
I've been doing 3 arty-type subjects for VCE this year (year 11), as well as English and Texts & Traditions (fancy speak for Bible stuff, since I'm at a Christian school), which are compulsory.
The 3 subjects are Studio Art (general art like painting, sculpture, etc), Visual Communication & Design (basically graphic design), and Design Tech (designing a physical object, and building it).
For these subjects, I have to complete a development folio of your piece, and involves stages like design brief, research, idea generation, idea refinement, etc, as well as the finished piece. For all 3 subjects, the development folios are due at the end of the semester, but with Design Tech, you get the second semester to build your actual product.

STUDIO ART
For Studio Art, I've decided to do a semi-digital artwork of a ship sailing through clouds in the sky, surrounded by the peaks of mountains. The clouds will look like the sea, but more wispy and, well, cloud-like. I wanted a large fantasy element, so being in the clouds contributes to this, but I also wanted an unusual ship design, and strange buildings like lighthouses on the peaks, with ladders going down the mountain. I'm still having trouble with this part.
The digital part of this will be VERY challenging for me. Even though I have all the equipment, I've hardly had any experience. I'm using Vue to create basic 3D modelling for the peaks and the ship, so I can get proportions and angles right. I'll then use this as a reference for drawing up a more detailed picture, and then another layer I'll be doing digitally to apply textures and yet more detail, especially for the clouds. So it will be a digital/trad/digital/trad layering process. (Hopefully, that's if I have time!!)
Unlike most people in all 3 of my classes, I'm doing things which are very ambitious for me, as I have little experience in these areas, but enough to want to learn more. Most people in my classes would be doing art-forms which they have experience and talent in - but I'm just stupid!

VIS COMM
(short-hand for Visual Communication & Design)
I am designing some border-illustations and for Tolkien's The Hobbit. My intention is design borders with an illustrative quality, including characters and events which are occurring on the page, and is intended for people who want a visual representation of the story without having a detailed illustration imposing on the imagination, like the large borders you would find in a fairy-tale book, which combines traditional border elements with detailed-yet-symbolic illustration. However, this sounds MUCH better in writing!!! Not so easy to actually do! This is very hard to get the right balance, and where I HAVE seen the right balance in other books, it is hard to translate it to a Middle-Earth feel. Although drawing is one of my stronger talents, I have little experience, especially getting the balance right between illustration and border. At the moment, I'm struggling a lot with this one.
UPDATE: Due to time constraints (and the sheer difficulty), I have reluctantly decided to drop the border idea, and just go with the cover of the book. With just a month to go to the due date, I... well, chickened out. My original idea was highly ambitious, even for a professional illustrator. However, all my work will still be applicable to the cover, and will have the same idea behind it as the borders, merging border with symbolic illustration, but without the challenge I had difficulty with of designing for a specific page around the text, which unexpectantly stumped me. However, without the pressure of time, I might take up the challenge again outside school.
Design Brief: [link]

DESIGN TECH
(short-hand for Design & Technology)
In Design Tech, I'm designing and building a computer case. Except this isn't any old computer case. The idea is that it would look like it comes from the Victorian period, and was used in writer's study like a typewriter. Making modern technology look like it was invented in bygone times is called Steampunk. The design not only comprises of the computer case, but a case for the monitor on top of the computer, and a desk, and will look like one seamless antique unit. It will be mostly made of wood, with meatals like copper to hide the joins. Again, I have little experience in this area. (I know some stuff, as woodwork has been in my family, but I have little experience to this scale).
UPDATE: Due to time constraints, and because of my limited experience, I have reluctantly decided to make the case part as a "helmet", to be placed over the monitor and the computer (as a desktop configuration). This will visually have the same effect (hopefully), whilst doing little modification to the internals of the computer. This probably can't be classified strictly as a "case mod", however the new design approach has two advantages - it will be easy to access the computer itself and maintain it, and, so far as I know, is ORIGINAL!! I do hope to make a "real" case mod sometime in my spare time...
Design Brief: [link]

All of these have been very daunting - I'm supposed to be well past half-way of my development, but feels like I've only scratched the surface!

WORK EXPERIENCE
Last holidays (a few weeks ago), I had work experience at the Lampshade Collective, which is a small computer animation company based in Melbourne, but they are certainly NOT small in talent! There are a core team of around 10 people, with more depending on the project. I know one of the senior animators, which is why I had the privilege to be there.
It was very exciting, as they were working on a short film called Nullabor, which is nearing completion. It's a short film of the quality of a Pixar film, but from such a small group of people!!!
Everyone was very energetic, and as excited about their progress as much as I was! Some of them have spent years working on lots of films such as Star Wars, among other things, and have finally been able to start their own company, while some have just come out of film school.
It was interesting watching them discuss their progress with the director and editor, and I had to stop myself from adding my two cents on character development! When I left, they had the final render for the first half of the film completed!
Anyway, me being a mere mortal, I learned how to use Maya (the industry standard CG software), and made an animation of a podracer (you know, from Star Wars), which I'll publish soon. I did a speed-course (1 week) in modelling, rigging (applying skeletons and mechanisms), animating, texturing and rendering.
Although I watch all those making-of videos and have researched the film-making process and animation, you always think of that stuff being done by armies of hard-working people, with heads of departments, and heads of heads of departments, and so on. But you don't expect that great things can also be achieved by a small group of very talented people working closely as a team in a small office space in Melbourne... For me, the week was very exciting, being able to basically see a film being made in a stuffy little office.
BTW, the film is going to be shown at the Sundance Film Festival (I think). You can see a reel of their work here: [link]

Wow, that was long!

I hate stamps, so these are for my therapy...