Crosshatch, Line, and Stippling

I've decided to start blogging about my process on projects that I'm doing to help prepare me for my portfolio this Spring. Here is my latest piece:

A ways into the process...

Scared to do the faces...

...So I'll do them second to last

Hey! Not so bad!

I totally nailed that fur hat!

Right now we're wrapping up our cross hatch, line, and stippling segment in my Illustration for Graphic Designer's class. We were broken up into groups of three and had to decide on a theme for our project and then create a museum poster for said theme. Our group decided to go with a theme for the National Museum of the Native American. Other cool ideas in from other groups included a Mushroom theme at the World Forestry Center and a Reptile and Amphibian show at OMSI. I think I can honestly say that EVERYONE in the class went with stippling and only one person, who happened to be in my group, went with line for his illustration (I think everyone chose stippling 'cause of control issues! Hahaha, oh Graphic Designers...).
Overall, the stippling of my project took about 12 hours and I am pretty happy with the way it turned out! The hat on the baby is some kind of fur and I feel like I executed it really well.  Below you can see the final poster design with the line and stippling projects of my two classmates. I took the circle design from the woman's shirt to apply as texture for the top and bottom blocks of color. The typeface is Goudy Old Style.

What would you suggest I could have done to make this piece stronger? 

My Final Stippling Project

Final Museum Poster

Design is about everything.

Sometimes I feel like I won't be good enough. There are so many people out there, especially in this recession, going to school [for Graphic Design]. And if you live in Portland, everyone has some kind of creative edge, so what do you have that other people don't? I ask that question to myself every day. Maybe I don't have an edge on everyone else. Yet. But I guess, in a way, starting this blog is a way to have that edge.
I can't get design out of my mind. I find myself analyzing and picking apart everything I see. Logos, brochures, cereal boxes at the grocery store, receipts, EVERYTHING. But after reading this article, it gave me a little bit of hope. If I'm not constantly dissecting everything I see, then what am I doing? 

I have also been reading Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design by Michael Bierut for the past couple of weeks, and it's already inspired me to new levels. I'm not finished yet, not even half way through, but it's inspiring to me in so many ways. Bierut ends a chapter saying, "Not everything is design. But design is about everything. So do yourself a favor: Be ready for anything." I feel that it leads into the next chapter, which in a round-about way, explains that design isn't just about design. Design is about literature... It's about science, the local farmer's market, math club, economics, music, recycling, etc... In order to design well, you need to understand the components of what you are designing for.
After reading some of these essays, exploring design websites, and maaaybe playing a little bit of TypeWar, it makes me feel a little bit better that I will one day be a successful designer. There are many things I want to learn in my life. I need to remember I'm young and still have many years ahead of me to do so. With Graphic Design as my future, I feel that it will go hand-in-hand with each other and I will be able to do what I love, while constantly learning new things until the day I die.