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.

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.

long writing, music

I keep discovering albums on my ipod, thanks to friends who give me tons of music that I never get around to. So, I've been listening to Love Below, Outkast, and Welcome Interstate Managers, Fountains of Wayne. Yes, the Stacy's Mom band. The atmosphere of 'sad NY office worker needs a drink but knows it's bad for him' is like a different face of Jonathon Coulton's 'sad office worker is too busy dreaming to have any relationships'. This is also contrasted with the Decemberists's 'Victorian peasant is sad, has a sad life, and drowns after falling in love'. I love this, it feels so unabashedly bias and incorrect.

Today was the DDA meeting for the freshman in my department. We are 2D/3D animation and 'interactive arts', which I don't understand but it sounds really interesting and important. The head of the department gave us an overview of the next 3 years of our lives. I can't wait. It's going to be so much better than this year's mess.

So, that leaves me with the summer. There are so many things I want to do, many things I should do, and so many options. I know, though, that I need to redo my room. It hasn't changed much since the beginning of middle school, and now that I don't live there, it'll mostly be storage for art supplies and a studio. With a bed. And a large desk in the middle of the room, with a great studded-leather chair, a bust of Julius Ceasar that tilts backwards to reveal a secret room behind a bookcase. At the very least, a desk with storage space, and a set of bookshelves in the hallway (to replace the sideways one and clear up my room).

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.

these are some drawings

I believe some of the colors have been changed a little from the original scan, because photoshop tends to screw with jpegs.

The first is a combination of the words 'science' and 'art', in friendly bubble letters, colored with crayons. It's also a practice in translucency, which I think worked out decently well considering I used yellow and blue (which have drastic intensity/value differences).

The second is.... it's like when someone is talking, and you're not really listening, but you just nod? This is what I thought the writing version of that is. I figured that out while I was doing it, because I realized it was like writing without paying attention to anything. It's like someone in a movie pretending they know sign language, and flailing/gesturing so that it looks like sign language, but it's still ishkabibble.

As a note for the future, this is my first time using a scanner at Pratt (my scanner/printer/fax/copier was too bulky for my room), and it's rather lovely. It also makes R2D2 sounds.

listening to Neutral Milk Hotel

This is on the whiteboard outside Stabile524, my secret HQ. Striped hat, coat collar, earphones, complete. Not the best photo, but the idea is there.

It's my first anniversary ever! <3 Zach.

(this was done while trying to pay attention to a drawing lecture)

Design

Redesigned this blog. It's still yellow.

LCD and its homework.

The second day of Light, Color, Design.


I realized that it's very possible that the color problems (the assignments are set up as puzzles and problems, to be solved with color) may not scan well, photograph well, or be represented well in any way on a computer screen. That won't stop me from trying, but it's still not going to be 100% accurate.


First, these are the homework projects.
#1, 3 color-studies (not actual drawings) of the same scene, at different times of day, drawn outside. From left, morning, midday, night.
#2, A 6 x 6 grid, and text that's in relation to it. This is, approximately, the floor plan of my house, and the writing tells what the colors are for. The writing also visually contextualizes the house.
#3, A random 5 x 5 grid. This wasn't graded, because "random" is impossible, but it was used as part of the lesson.

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.

A note on dorm room design.

My side of the room is... vaguely blue, with a giant bulky computer and a couple of posters.


So, I looked up some interior design for dorm rooms, and got an idea of what I wanted to do from the colors of my keys.


Bronze-ish keys, a red token, and a brown button. And during winter, I'll have the same shade of red as my quilt. This lead me to think of some way to cover the cinder-block walls.


Cardboard tiles, of course. This is something I found online. I thing the two shades of cardboard might be just how the light hit two different sides of the corrugation, but it looks awesome, and it's the earthy, warming look I need. 

What I'm Doing

I have an idea of what I want to do, I don't know how to make a project out of it.
     I was taught that, to understand how to draw something, I should break it up into its shapes, thus rendering it into a two-dimentional figure within my own head. I don't know if other people do this, or if there is a better way to explain it.
     I also recognize that I want to learn how to animate in a three-dimentional world after a two-dimentional world. But if I understand how to make 3D things, I think my 2D art will be better. 'Better', meaning I'll know how the thing I'm representing in 2D is in 3D.
      If I made a full human sculpture, I would learn more than just drawing one side of it. And, I would be able to understand the side I'm drawing, and its relationship with the parts I do not see and do not represent.
     I want to understand the world as a three-dimentional place by building three-dimentional things. Sculptures. Paper geometric shapes I don't know the names of.

So, this week:
Make more 3D geometric shapes with paper. Get an idea for a final piece.
What if I just make a wire and plaster human face? Or skull. Homo sapien, Homo erectus, and Homo habilius. Human evolution, models, and an anatomical understanding. But where will they go next year?
What if I made a 1'x1'x1' cube like the plan, and wire the lightbulb and battery inside it, and make a glorified lamp?

cake art

Today, I saw my CAROUSEL logo... on a cake at the cast party. It was the most amazing thing. My art was copied... like Starry Night, or The Scream, or Sunday in the Park with George. I'm still amazed. Someone send me a picture, I need to post it.

It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring.

Some drawings today. I don't know what clicked with these, but now I know I have them.
First, the molten monster. This is a mixture of my feelings at the time and a psychology lesson on people without a definite sex. Next to it are the first notes for an art piece.