What have I been up to

I didn't do a lot of art over the summer.
I did a lot of talking to people, and I started making sure that my body was okay from the sorry state I was in during the school year.

I started a job as a Tour Guide on my campus, which was wonderful and fun and nervewracking and awesome.
I got to be a homework mentor for my school's precollege program, which means helping and hanging out with 15-17-year-old comic book geeks. That worked out pretty nicely.
And lastly, in the week before school I was part of Orientation again.
And I started feeling like.... maybe I'm just not that good at doing art. I mean. I'm okay.
And classes started and now I feel like.... this is what I'm doing and I can do this forever.

I cooked. I prepared food and ate healthy and started doing beginner work-outs and walking miles. I feel great.

So as a last note on the summer, I got much better at talking to people, I gained a little more independence, I dyed my hair bright pink. I came into school knowing a lot of people and mentally prepared for the year.

I'll add drawings when I can scan them.

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?

   

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.

my 365

I've passed 300 in my 365, and I just finished scanning up to 220. And while I'm by a scanner...
I forgot my sketchbook for once in my life. This is a collection of World Civ. doodles.
During World Civ. and Art History, I made a small kingdom (set somewhere around the Crusades, before the plague. Or was it after the plague?)

Map of said kingdom. Each X represents the center city of a region (without real borders), each dot represents a main city (they're not very visible). I couldn't decide if the thing in the top right was a crater or plateau. Its scale is modeled after England, mostly, but what was most important about the scale is how long it would take the characters to travel from one fiefdom/region to another.
And, of course, it's a class-m planet.

This is a decent caricature of my gangly teacher.

end of 2011

at an uneven number. I've left the 'party' and my cat is in my lap. But there are some things that should happen in 2012, especially before summer.

I should start a series. Comic, blog, tumblr, whatever, I should serialize something. College cooking, perhaps. Political cartoons. Anything.

I should be able to drive on highways.

That is all. I'll say that it's an okay 2012 attempt.

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.

Daily Practice discoveries

I'm up to daily self-portrait 85 or so, and I haven't been posting them because I've been home all summer without a scanner. But I wanted to take some pictures and post some of the drawings that are in a style I'm beginning to see more of. It's made of straight lines and curves, and is very very geometric. I want to see how they translate into more three-dimentional drawings, but I like them so far.
#41 Lizy-Doll, #55 Bthing Suit Try-On, #77 Geometry trying to be more interesting, #79 Sitting on my hands, #80 Happy July 4th! (fireworks are scary)

Emotionally, most of these faces are hiding for one reason or another.


 

A little catch-up

STACnight. Congrats to the kids who put on an amazing preformance. I heard a lot of "I wish I could have done that" from my fellow alum, and overall, it proved to the parents and the visitors what a compassionate group of kids can do.
It was one of the best, if not the best, STACnight I've been to. It's also my fifth.

At the show, I was asked "are you happy at Pratt". I'm not happy at home. I'm happy when I'm busy. I don't miss the smokers and hipsters and film majors (sometimes all at the same time), but I miss the work.
I'm up to... I think today is #55 of my self-portraits. I don't think I've really seen improvement, but I know that I have to do it every day. I finished a small first sketchbook and started on a new one, which I dislike because felt-tipped pens seep through. I don't think anyone else actually cares about that.
The self-portraits give me 10 minutes a day to think about forming a positive and healthy relationship with my body. To believe, when I am alone, that I am beautiful, or quirky, or interesting, or that I just have big eyes. But I rarely feel ugly. I get down if a pair of jeans doesn't fit the way I'd like it to, but I have a lot of jeans, and I have time.
I have time. I don't know what to do with it. But I have it.
If that was the description of an object, I would throw it out.

I keep going back and forth on my personal religious beliefs. It is very hard to develop a religious opinion without the help of media, ministers, and parents. I don't like religious politics. I like moral lessons through ancient example. I like looking past and understanding context of texts. I hate when religion and politics cross in America.

A Deep Breath and a Cup of Tea

Summer, and I always feel like I'm going to do something great and then something blocks the way. okay. I'm not that sick. I just feel lousy. A snot-nosed kid. Doesn't that make me an artist? Being scared by dreams, worrying over nothing, flying from one obsession to another? Does that even matter?

I was recently asked how well I know FinalCut. Is there a way to respond to that? I don't know how to measure how well I know a program, except with a quantity of time/experience and a example of quality. I wish I'd learned by a universal guide.

I've been playing Advanced Wars, Days of Ruin on DS. It's become a personal obsession that reminds me of how much I loved Fire Emblem until all my characters died.

When I was cleaning out my desk, I found a ton of drawings that reminded me of how raw my artwork was in high school. Raw, but so interesting. If I ever get my computer back together, if I ever get a desk to put it on, I'll scan those in. They'll be reprints, but they're still interesting. And I found a poem, too.

So after about 9 months of intensive training, what do we do now?

I don't know. I'm going to finish my tea.

The third: What I learned in college. Year 1.

Time is fluid. I often had many projects to work on for a week, and I had to figure out when I would do them, and fit this around constants. I have a painting due in a week and I'm not doing anything Monday night so I can get it done then but the homework for Wednesday needs to get done Tuesday morning so that I have time Tuesday evening to do Friday's homework. After weeks and weeks of thinking like this, I don't think in any other way.

High school did not prepare me for this time scheduling because if we had homework, it was probably due the next day. I think this forces procrastination. I think this evolution of thinking about time happened when I realized that if I get something done sooner, I don't worry about it.

I realized that as much as I dreaded my drawing class, Professor taught us how to think about the process of the drawing. It wasn't about pencil control or shapes, but about how to see the human figure from the inside out. We break down the human figure into the gesture and then simple shapes.

I learned:
How different kinds of light create color,
how to mix acrylic and oil paint,
how to create any color with the primary colors and white,
how to see color and shadow,
how to make a design interesting,
how to paint from a still life,
how to arrange a still life,
how to use InDesign, Illustrator, FinalCutPro,
how to generally use a Mac
how to mount anything on nice paper,
how to conceptualize a plan into a 3-dimentional shape,
how to cut and rip paper in a straight line,
how to quickly pack,
a decent amount of pre-1800s art history

and I don't know what else. There's a lot that's not in there.

The second: What I had in college. Year 1.

Since packing, bringing everything back, and repacking, I've had a lot of time to reflect on things I've had in college.

Also, not all of them are material. Being home, I sincerely miss not telling anyone where I'm going when I go out, having my own clean existence, and not being able to choose food without caring too much about the price.

I have a lot of stuff. So much stuff. An unbelieveable collection of useless knickknacks, art supplies, clothes, books. And I want to see how far I can go with de-cluttering. Not cleaning yet, just getting rid of all of this useless stuff that I don't use anymore. Make scrapbooks of things, pick up papers from the floor, and do I really need so many books? 3 bookshelves of books and I'm trying so hard to fill boxes for donation. Do I really need two different graphic novel versions of Macbeth? Why do I have these anyway?

There is a specific problem: I have an object that was either a gift or something from a younger me, and I don't know if throwing it out will upset anyone. It may take a few minutes for me to decide. Will my Aunt care if the ceramic teacup gets trashed? What about the "Soup Bible" cookbook I'll never use? Why can't I just get tickets or experiences for gifts instead of things? I keep as many of my tickets as I can, and they fit snugly on a shelf.

How can I throw out the relics of my early teenage years? Or even before that?

I also found and went through a lot of my old sketchbooks. I went through a lot more sketchbooks than I thought. I have a lot of empty ones, too. I shouldn't have to buy art supplies for at least 5 years.

But I've been working on it. I don't know if I'm being heartless and trying to forget middle/high school, or if I'm being realistic and forward-thinking. Probably a bit of both.

more arts

These are two of a set of 4, all based around 3d glasses. I love both of them for very different reasons.

some arts

it's about time I got some art up here. These are still lifes with flowers and patterns, based on Matisse. Nice-quality watercolor set, but the purples were difficult. The top one is better, but the idea behind the second is more interesting- a silhouetted bouquet against the sunlight outside.

watercolor, i miss you

I finally got my hands on a water-bush- a synthetic brush with a little water compartment in the handle. Osmosis doesn't work quite as fast as I thought it might, so I'm consistently misjudging the amount of water that comes out.
     The pigments are actually really nice and condensed (besides lacking purple). 12- black, white, lemon yellow, golden yellow, ochre, crimson, vermilion (blood-orange), light red (?), yellow-green, viridian green, cobalt blue, and prussian blue (darker, less intense). all in a little box.
     It also comes with a sponge, which is crap and will be replaced by paper towel or jeans leg quite shortly.

Technique:
I have a habit of picking up excess color/water with a dry brush. Because your brush is also the source of water, you can't have a dry brush. In my brother's words, Roar.

Too. Much. Water.

Well, I'll keep going. Pics edited in later.

netflix, netflix, get away from me.

What have I done today? What did I try to do? What did I actually do?

I watched the Producers, The Jerk, and Burton's Batman.
I did my laundry, showed, ate meals.
I started my drawing homework but ran out of paper.
I broke my plaster mold.
I wrote a blog.
I went to the library and looked through a guide to FinalCutPro.
I painted my nails and went grocery shopping.
I drew 8+ pages of story work for a film project, which I am now debating on throwing out for a simpler, more surreal dream-sequence of a film, rather than a real story. But, why can't it be a real story.
It's because the ending. The monster roars and moans, and it's my soul that it sees.

I still have the drawing homework. I still have a rough draft of a paper due tomorrow. I don't have a thesis for it yet.
I still want to see Eyes Wide Shut, but I'm having trouble finding 2 1/2 hours of free time.
But I consider movies like my studying.
But I have schoolwork.

sketches

I don't keep a regular sketchbook, these exist in what's supposed to be my drawing notebook. The first half are ones drawn last night before I went to bed, around, say, 2am? drowsiness should be apparent. The others were drawn this morning while having breakfast in the cafeteria. Oh, and the sandals were drawn when I realized, during drawing, that I didn't have non-flipflop sandals to drive in this summer (I don't like driving with flipflops).

And sandals guy walked past me after I had his drawing on the page. The last drawing, of me drawing me with hotchocolate, was finished about 40 minutes ago from this post. Overall, a productive morning. I guess.

Paintings and Crayon Color Designs

In a proper title format.

These are last week's classwork and homework, as well as what I did in Light/Color/Design this week.
We painted a still life that had two opposing lights from opposite directions, then we recreated the still life with color-aid paper, aka veryexpensivepaperthatsmellslikechemicals and it comes in every color (unless it's second semester and you have a second-hand pack).

There's also designs, color ideas, and crayon tests for a design project. It's based on all the ways to use colors my class learned all year, and we have to create designs for the 4 seasons, on a 'grid' made of the diagonals and medians that occur when you make a symmetrical golden ration rectangle/square set. aka that mathematical swirl.

Some LCD work

These are all from the last 3 weeks, selected works. Oil paint, unless otherwise noted. We did Chiaroscoro, Cangiantismo, and Sfumato in the same month. Chiaroscoro bottles from life, Cangiantismo indoor/outdoor scenery, and Sfumato self-portraits.
Okay. Chiaroscuro: bottles, abstract with same palate. Cangiantismo: stained glass flower design (gouache on paper, then cut and pasted), indoor/outdoor painting. Sfumato self-portrait in a grid. And last is the case I made, so that I can carry wet oil paintings from my class to my room without getting everything ruined. It's made of a Crispix box, corrugated and pressed cardboard, duct tape, rubber cement, and masking tape. It can hold six 11" x 9" pieces.