art history, and a story of internships

Today I've applied to my 6th internship (it turned out that I'd applied to the same one twice). I've gotten amazingly better at writing cover letters I've also contacted a couple (but not enough) places on campus about summer jobs.

Halfway through April, and I'm still at a no-go for summer.

But my backup plan, my last-resort plan, is still to work on my own art all summer and build up a portfolio. But it's a last plan. A nothing-else-goes-through plan.

Besides this, I need to finish my 3 animation pieces. Each is 30 seconds.

But I'm almost done with my art history essay, and it's not due till Thursday. So. There's some hope?

shading adventures

Brown paper, some kind of pastel? and black marker. And the last one is one black paper... and looks like a mess.

more caricature

And then I accidentally drew Kirsten Stewart. Not looking up if that's the right name.

 

Caricatures

From my drawing for animators class.

Beethoven's 7th, mvmt 2, Allegretto

As I listen to more classical music- mostly from the Beethoven symphony compilation on my ipod- I would love to play bassoon again, just for the sound. Just enough so that I can play bassoon with a recording of the symphonies and play along and become even closer to music- just like singing along with an other song.

Right now, this is one of my favorites, Beethoven's 7th Symphony, 2nd Mvmt, the Allegretto.

But my art! Last semester feels like years ago as the weather brightens. I have a strip of sunlight coming through the window and warming my face every morning, begging me to get out of bed.

Last weekend was I-CON, which just was a mess of transportation, but I got to meet the nicest people and didn't spend nearly as much as I thought I would. And I survived without a jacket, too.

I have 1 month left of school. In that time, I have main projects to animate, I have 3 papers to write (one due each week starting next, and I've barely started them), and I have finals in the same classes.

Then, summer.

Because it's been forever.

I did my midterms. And today, I drew this lady, and I enhanced it in photoshop (I don't actually know what I'm doing in photoshop, though.)

The file is very big, be prepared.

I probably won't animate her, but I think I will keep this drawing around.

I fully do not expect this video to work, or have any decent quality, but it was one of my first animation homeworks this year (besides a slew of small flash experiments).

So, at first I thought that the teachers just didn't put a lot of work on. Then I realized just how much free time I have, and I better damn well use it.

I think I've done it.

One of the biggest things for next semester is tackling this procrastination.
I believe this will start with a better dish-washing routine.

Right now, my turntable for 3D modeling is rendering. It's rendering very quickly, actually. I may have done something wrong. I learned how to render animations 3 hours ago. I'll post the turntable when I'm done. Tomorrow, maybe. And I want to post my animation, even though I'm not proud of it. I should be, but I'm not.

Just keep playing that calm music and breathe and it'll be over soon.

Still going for more posts

Light-box working in my room. I planned to take a nap last night, and didn't get out of bed till 630 this morning. Ugh.

Less than 100 sheets of blank paper, and I have something like 20 seconds of animation to do in a weekend. At least the hole-puncher is free on monday.

In the meantime, I have work in every other class. So I'll get that done.

HAPPY NOVEMBER

So this is what I did in class today. I R photoshop genius! Not really, but this is my first attempt at coloring. I even used different layers. Why didn't I do this in high school? These are characters for my Animation I final. And there isn't even any purple.

it's been a while

I've been working and working and working and I've learned so much.
I've also not learned- last weekend I read 50 pages of world history, just for my teacher to spend all the time on the shorter reading. "I should have known" doesn't qualify, I don't have much foresight, but at the very least, I should have spent more time on the other homeworks. As soon as I find out how to screen capture on macs I'll try to get my scifi lab up here.

I've continued with the self-portraits, some are definitely better than others.

At this moment, I'm in a dark computer lab, on a mac, pretending to do my modeling homework. We use Maya 2012 and I must complete a science fiction lab by tuesday. I also have 2 small stopmotion projects, and at least 40 pages of reading.

I also stayed up till 4am last night. 4am is the morning. I don't like it. When I stay up at night, I feel like the sun won't come up in the morning.

It's not that much work. Or, I feel like it should be more. Or, I can sequence time and plan more effectively. I don't know. Next semester will be more, I hope. The best days are when I don't have 5 minutes to breathe, I have everything done and I get things done, and I come back to my room still energized after 9 hours of classes.

Luck, The Importance of Planning,

I say that I'm lucky, I wish people luck. And I don't really believe in a 'luck', but coincidence, circumstance. And I believe that I know myself well.

To know thyself is to know how far you can go. I'd forgotten to hole-punch my animation paper (we use the  -        .        -  punch), so I planned out as much as I could. I have two hours of lunch before Animation 1, so I punched my papers and did it. 7 seconds on 2's, 100+ drawings, put into iStopmotion, exported for Quicktime. I felt like such a superhero. And I didn't gloat. I just smiled like and idiot in class, filled with personal satisfaction in my own abilities. When a mistake was made, I formed a new plan of action and did not succumb to stress.

But how far can I go? My classmates stay up almost all night, my own roommate gets sleep whenever she can. I don't feel the stress. I see time in blocks of hours, and I usually don't need to stay up later than 2 or I can wake up a few hours early if I need to. And in some ways I find this distancing. Saying 'oh, I am able to structure my time in such a way that I usually don't need to stay up too late' is elitist, arrogant.

I wasn't expecting my dashboard to fill with new stac blog posts. Good job, little artists!

I have been relaxed with my work, but I have time to get on it A busy semester awaits. A busy, paper-eating semester (between animation and screenwriting).

I have, however, found a new love in friendship bracelets. I brought some cotton thread with me to school and weaving has just been an amazing stress relief. Plus I've been using manual dexterity in almost every class this year, so it's good practice. Plus it's great procrastination. And a calm-down from the focusing energy of my work.

folding box

I've completed my first animation!!
and class isn't for over 12 hours. Success.
hopefully it won't be harshly received.

happy valentine's day

The manifesto didn't get sent in.
Valentine's Day is coming.
And it can also be used. as a hat.
I made a film with animation in it, as in, a movement every 6 or 8 frames that come together to make a whole. I filmed it through a window and in a mirror, with the drawings out of dry-erase marker. It came out well enough for the action to be conveyed, but I don't think it's anything close to smooth. Also, I realized halfway through drawing a walk cycle that I wasn't placing the body correctly: they were too close together. So I redid it, as shown in the Richard Williams book. All 15-20 secs of animation took about 3 hours. The editing of the video took about the same time. I've gotten much better with final cut.

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.

Sock-fish

Started my first stop motion today. It is about a wave that eats a ship. And there are fish made of socks.
I got 6 seconds into it, and then class was over. But 90 pictures in about 90 mins is absolutely fine. Plus, the timing is fine (if not a little fast), mostly because I don't understand 30 fps. Every book I've ever read has been about 24 fps. I wonder if my movie would be better if it was lowered to that speed. I bet final cut can do that.

hard work procrastinating

I'm writing this because I'm almost done with a drawing that took me about 4 hours, with many many breaks. Maybe it took me 2 hours. It was supposed to take me 6 hours, about, but there isn't much to copying a drawing and deconstructing the figures within it. I don't even like the painting. It's also about 3 x 5.5 feet. In crayon, too, because why the hell not? I want to draw from real people.


Yesterday, I went to animation club, and it was wonderful. This is where I want to be, and I want to do so much of it and work hard at this. These are people who know what I know and more. They give reason to my existence.


Once again, I was convinced that whatever the asian station in the cafeteria makes, it's going to be good. I don't want to know why, but I always end up eating actual vegetables. Thanks, Pratt, for sneaking peppers, squash, broccoli, watercress, etc into my asian food. And also rice. I have wooden chopsticks and a ricecooker in my room, so, I guess I really miss herricks.


I sort of wish I was doing more... hopefully I'll get real busy and won't have to say that again. But I can get 10 hours of sleep a night. I'll just have to keep a sketchbook.


The first three are platonic shapes, which is my 3D course, basically. Isocahedrons, cubes, octahedrons, dodecahedrons, and tetrahedrons. Fun fun fun. My current hw is to remake the first one, slightly larger, with more interesting external tabs (all the others have the tabs hidden inside).

LCD work:
#4, Eggs and white backgrouds.
4A, Direct light
4B, Diffused light
4C, Direct, one color-aid wall
4D, Direct, color-aid wall and floor
4E, Interesting composition.


#6, a value gradient with magazine


#7A, color study of apple in windowsill, direct light
#7B, color averaging grid of that apple

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.