Aquarium Visit #1

Watercolor fish sketches in an aquarium. It sounds like a good idea. Until you figure out that the halls are dimly lit so that the children can scream "I SEE NEMO!" because they have a better chance of seeing fish with the tank being lit.

So when all the colors look like they're mud, I was working with basically no light.

Fish and some abstract... underwater.... coral? rock? background?

   

A model and a bead-snake

I made a half-scale model of my children's chair design, out of illustration board and hot glue.
It is one of the most solid things I've made, ever.

I also got a pack of beads, and took all the small ones and made a snake. They don't look like the small ones, because they are in the same proportion as pony beads, but they are. Penny for size reference.

Also a few dots of you-need-to-clean-your-scanner.

Deep Blue Sea (and Co)

roughcut of my stopmotion film for 4D class.

hope this works.

It's also a sound editing project, but this was saved before I started the sound-editing part.

figure drawing, lcd hw, and

These are from today. Technically, I did a lot more than these, but I don't have a camera yet to take pictures of my figure drawings.

1./2. Figure drawing was on the 4th floor, so I put the camera out the window and took pictures.

3. Girl with string in her hair (I thought it was really interesting), drawing, while the teacher was talking. We have to take notes on his lectures/critiques. It's fine, really, because it's reference. His hand formed the position on the left.

4. We started drawing and then a minute in he said 'stop, tear it out'. Then, we went over the drawings, and we were instructed about beginnings. Mine was pointed out and used as an example; you may be able to see the darker marks he made on the right hip, arm, ankle, and crotch.

5. LCD hw, drawing of the hedge, in midday. I may go over it to make the darks darker and to make the pinkish sidewalk have actual shadow.

6. Animal-drawings were part of our hw, and we put them on the walls and talked about how to start and structure a drawing. Magenta caran d'ache, aka super-special-expensive crayon.

I've had 2 figure drawing classes and 1 extra 3-hour session, and I need a new pad of newsprint.

Getting things done day.

1. I painted more of the cow today. I'm making a cow. Out of foam-core. It may be my 'individual project', but I seem to have a lot of those.


2. Myth, my final for Mythology class. I'm writing sci-fi, because I would love to get an idea out of my head. I've been writing down the history of the future, a history of the protagonist's world. Or the opposite of history? Using historical patterns to create a fantasy future. It's fun.


3. Quest Project, Animation. I need a camera to actually take pictures of the frames when I'm done. But I have a  lot to do to lead up to 12-15 seconds. Basic characters, storyboard, exposure sheet, stuff that's unnecessary but I need to show something.


4. Health Project. A month to make a Powerpoint or Photo-story of the curriculum. Not bad.


5. Manifesto, another draft


6. Biography. Eat right through the book, write scenes, go through major editing.

hyperactivity in check.

New cat. Prudence, the black, stalking, young, green-eyed, clawed creature of the night. She already knows to keep away from the 140lbs-of-crushing-jaws that is my dog.


A weekend outside of personal accomplishment. Friday biking, total of 8 miles. I went home exhausted (as an understatement), but I love biking. It's so fast, and I don't have the stamina for running. Biking down Jericho turnpike is like a dance of curves, weaving, balance. Teach me some level of grace.
     Saturday, Sands Point. Spent over an hour walking around. I sort of wish I had a horse, or there was a flock of sheep on the property. That's what Sands Point preserve feels like. There was also a sundial. Then I cleaned out my car (my car!) and screwed on the plates.
     Sunday, DDR. My eye-foot coordination, shortly, needs work. But as cardiovascular exercise, it isn't as good as it could be. I don't finish the songs breathless because I can't play hard songs.


I had drawings. I'll put them up later.

This should be 248.

working towards 250.


7:30am wake up
Mom drives into the city, we meet family friends, and we drive home.
2:45pm crawl into house.
No sleeping in tomorrow, either.


Yesterday was a party, and in the middle of it I get the call that my dog has run away. The whole party and half the neighborhood ran around looking for this small cow for an hour. I was saved from having to be pleasantly social. We found him in a few blocks from the house. Thanks to everyone who helped.


Making my CalArts portfolio today. I won't freak out. Magazine design has helped me a bit.

Goldfish

Lets get to 250 before the end of the year.


Grats to people for blogging during break. I'll read them.


I was looking through my portfolio photos and I found this closeup of a cutout I did last year. Single-edged razor, no predrawing, some invisible colored pencil.

I want to do a project like Ganes did years ago: a self-portrait a day. I wanna do a lot of things.

too much history channel as a child

I spent today in the city doing everything except figure drawing. I got to draw animals at the zoo and I figured out a cardboard suit of armor from the Met Museum.


Armor. I like the simple examples of Gothic German armor and the Italian armor of the 15th century. Basically, knights were still fighting in wars, the armor wasn't unnecessarily decorated (that happens in the Renaissance), and I don't have flutes running everywhere, as in German armor. There are also a lot of things you can do with metal that I can't replicate with cardboard. I took notes:

And this is Gus the polar bear.


I think, because I don't have science or history as classes, I'm overcompensating. It's great to study something interesting.

good tea, but i'll still have lipton in the morning

I'm getting a dog tomorrow!! His name is George, and he's a newfoundland, and he's not totally trained but that's okay and I can't wait. The house has been empty for too long.
edit: sometime next weekend. he still needs his vaccines and we need to get the right food and bowls.


In the last two days I have been to two very different teashops. This is the article, super-brief and without my notes, and I hope to touch on the same points for each place.
1. Tea and Sympathy, a very British tea shop with some very good food, and seats about 24. British high-brow teas, really too expensive for me. Real food, a real restaurant, just very small. I don't know where they cook it all. There are closets bigger than the kitchen. Don't miss its candy shop next door. Good for a small number of your closest and dearest, and be ready to pay city prices for real food, like pheasant and shepard's pie. If you can afford it, go right ahead. I'm just cheap. Mostly an older crowd.
4.50 for 3 cups in your own teacup, saucer, and small pot. Around the block from three train lines, in the West Village on Greenwich ave.


2. Witches Brew, the eternal living room of comfort. Even the ceilings are fabric. Tea and coffee, but I don't think it had meal-type food. After-meal desserts. It's about the tea, though. That was good, I'll be back for more tea and pie. Self-made menus are really not easy to read, but they look cool. Seasonal decor, soft lighting, soft everything. Normally for a younger crowd, but not for little kids.
2.75 for a small pot with your own tea, loose-leaf, about 2 or 3 small cups. West Hempstead. Not cheap, but it's a fair price for food that wasn't made in a microwave and some comfortable couch-space.
    and from a few weeks ago:


3. MoJoe's Cafe, eclectic new york cafe right by Mineola train station, used to fast-pace. Looseleaf teas in hand-wrapped bags. Not just cupcakes, the cafe also has a full grill. The best thing, though, has to be the decor. It's an eclectic combinations of every decade since the 50s, including an original Donkey Kong arcade game. The first game Mario was in. Ever. And I don't think I mentioned the hand-drawn signs for everything. Has people from everywhere, especially with the train station and Winthrop hospital across the street. Don't get stuck on line when the shift ends at 4.
1.50 for a small cup of tea. Cheap in comparison, but it doesn't come with a pot, teacup, and saucer.

zoo frustrations.

Only stupid people were at the zoo today. Central Park Zoo, midday, weekday, during the winter season. No one. If I ever skip school, you can find me in the middle of manhattan drawing sea lions.

Man to Wife: Yaknow what the difference is between a seal and a sea lion?

Wife: What?

Man: Age.

Wife: So, I guess the seals are the baby ones...

Seals and sea lions are different. These are adult people, with kids. There are both seals and sea lions at this zoo.

In the rainforest exhibit, there is a small mammal called a Chevrotain that can only be described as a small, orange deer.

One lady told her daughter that it was a hyena. Oh my.

green crayon reflection in sea lion tank.

snow leopards.

Story, the Risk game.

listening to 72 degrees and sunny, WALL-E soundtrack.

This week has been crazy. There have been so many ups and downs.

I don't know which one goes first, because it will affect the context of the next point.

I loved filming today. I like not being in the picture, I like making connections and working through mistakes and adding little quirks to things. Not having a script was hard to deal with, but the sequential filming made more sense in my mind. Filming in order also helped us make sure the story worked, and that we didn't forget anything.

My dog is dying. He's old and he has cancer and it hurts him to move. It's an anxiety that I try not to think about. We've had him for at least a decade, and he's been sick for a few months, so it's not sudden. But the waiting is so hard.

The house will be empty.

I can't say it's not fair, because this is what happens. I can't say I didn't have time to say goodbye.

But my world is gonna be a little off for a while.

Last summer I made a map of The Moud, which is a continent I made up as I went along. It came out really nice, so I'm making another one, but smaller. Then, I'm gonna make a Risk board, but with Grimm fairytale landmarks, 200 years after the stories. The kingdom set up by Rapunzel will still bear her name, and there will be a desert nearby, with the tower marked off.

I need 40 countries. The goal is to make a usable playing board. It would be the finale of my fairytale pieces. I also need to make cards for them.

I went to the zoo and there were lotsa little kids there and there were animals too sorta

Sketches from the zoo, all of them. polar bears and a snow leopard behind and lotsa people. and some turtles.

new sketchbook. I rarely finish books, but I decide that they are done. time to use the one thats been sitting in the hallway all summer. thinner pages, but it takes marker smoothly. "Strathmore Sketch" 100 pages, a bit thin. im going for over 1 page a day. Maybe 4 or 5. doesn't matter what or who, but drawing needs to be done.

school starts wednesday. i dont want to make a list of things i want to happen this year, because i still dont have a boyfriend from last year's resolutions. Still reading lord of the rings. 1/4 through Drawn to Life, and im trying to re-learn drawing from it.

5 periods of art a day. in the same room. yay!

Listening to: Across the Universe, playing from my brother's room.

BACK FROM DISNEYWORLD.

everyone is nice there. even the mechanic says 'hello' in the hallway. It would be one of the best places to work.

sketches raining and late at night

some sketchbook designs and studies. There wasn't a horse around. And the restaurant is all lifedrawing, and the striking face was a characature.

1. little black dress

2. characature

3. riding attempt

4. businessman anywhere thats not where he wants to be.

5. some creature thing and its skull, from different sides. tried to figure out exactly where the horns were.

6. more attempts at horn placement.

7. http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n263/HoD_Lizy/restaurant.jpg Full sketchpage of the restaurant across from me, the one in Rockefeller center when there isn't a skating rink.

the room is rearranged, the computer is back together.

FIT SUMMER CLASS:

REAL figure drawing! yes! And wait a sec- actual friends? this is quite an interesting experience, blah blah blah no seriously wow my social skills are lagging. But appearantly, I'm one of the more experienced drawers in the class.

the teacher collects drawings, so each night I'll have to load photos here. Some came out a lot better than others.

NYC AND THE ZOO:

New York City has so many tourists. The group psychology is amazing. There are so many languages- just today, there were families speaking in Spanish Spanglish Italian (methinks) Czech? Japanese, Germanic something. And there was a Scottish couple and an Irish grannie and a Southern family. And I'll never forget the black kid that walked up to me and goes "Whatcha doin'?", in total City fashion (the answer was "drawin' ").

I know the animals after 8 hours at the Central Park Zoo. There aren't that many, and I mostly like drawing birds. So fast, but all with the same basic shapes. Plus I learn more bird anatomy every Thanksgiving (vegetarians cringe).

My favorite favorite bird is the Long-Tailed Hornbill. Parrots are just silly compared to the personalities of these. I swear, they pose for pictures. The picture on the Wiki site is one of the Central Park birds.