pancakes vs waffles

My help was enlisted to provide assistance to Karen during the pancake breakfast that all of the RAs were putting on for us. This meant having to get up at 8:30 in the morning on a Saturday. Worth it for all the free pancakes.

I mostly moved things around and kept Karen company. She was the one to actually cook everything for us. Phil came over and brought his own fancy maple syrup and sourdough pancake batter. There were plain pancakes, blueberry pancakes, and chocolate chop pancakes. I prefer the chocolate chip variety. Alexis and two other young ladies joined us for pancakes. We had the door open and the smell probably wafted far but even for free food, it is hard to get up early on a weekend. Diana and Robin had a similar turnout out.

We visited them for a little bit and gave them some of our pancakes, including the extra large one. On the way back we grabbed their sign in a random act of mischief. When Robin came up she saw how we had relocated their sign and later on they retaliated. Robin and Leah slinked into the apartment in a guise of friendliness and shut the door. They kept it closed despite our efforts and when they fled we found our gigantic pancake brutally strung up on the door. We painted a design onto that tender bauble and strung up another, burnt one along with it. This was our declaration of war! The nice students with the apartment above theirs let us dangle our painted breakfast foods down onto their balcony. So far we are winning.

Also I beat Phil and Karen at Scrabble. I won a little accidentally. It was a long but good game with minimal cheating.

After that I've slowly been becoming more and more sleepy. I think I'm going to go to bed really really early. I took a nap but I should just sleep. My body needs it.

Olivia: Work in Progress

Olivia Presteign from The Stars My Destination. Work in progress. She is an albino.

Watercolor. 10"x14".

don't eat the icing

Got to school on time, got my papers all printed out and turned in, and I even contributed to class discussion a little. It is still dominated by the same few people. I think now I understand Blade Runner a little better. So much just went over my head. Next weekend is this HP Lovecraft Film Festival. Mike Mignola is going to be there. We have to read some Lovecraft next, just a couple stories. Well not "just" but it isn't as daunting as a whole novel.

Illustration critique was nice. It goes quick but the responses are fairly insightful and not full of the standard, "I like it!". Chad has no problem calling out bad presentation, but unless you admit you did it in an hour he doesn't seem like the type to say that it looks like you did. While mine missed the point a little, I got compliments on my lines and how it seemed like I put time into making it. Which I did. Marilyn whipped out amazing ink drawings once again, all though her jubilation piece wasn't that abstract. It looks to be an interest group still. Hard to tell what people do when it is abstract. The next assignment are three illustrations that accompany an excerpt from the Odyssey. We have three weeks for it in total. Now the "styles" come out. All though Morgan said to not be concerned with a style because if you try really hard at what you do, your personality will come through in all that you make. We had a lecture on caricatures and our in class assignment was to take either Obama or McCain and make a caricature of them as a food. I made a John McCupcake. It was his neck that inspired me. The shading was nicely realized and it did resemble him in the head shape and general neck area. Kevin, who drew him as an ice cream cone, captured the neck a lot better. Chase's Pumpkin captured his eyes. More people did Obama. Bekka rendered his smile so sharply. It was a great little assignment. Chad and I are going to have a one-on-one about how to set up a little job as a caricaturist. I think with a little practice, I could make some change. It isn't steady but it pays well.

When I got home I put on some R.E.M. and did the dishes. Then I watched Venture Bros and worked on my painting of Olivia from The Stars My Destination. The masking and base colors are in. I'm so productive, I love it. Today has been great.

nylon lederhosen

Both Diana and Karen commented on how much better I am becoming just since the start of this year. I am really feeling it. This is a good semester. A good workload, a good array of classes, and I really love what I am doing.

We did a 30 minute pose in figure drawing and I was feeling really good about it but I think I messed up the proportions between the legs. Still, I'm getting better at slowing down and studying the angles and relations. I'm unlearning all that I learned a year ago and then envisioning it into something better.

Karen and I were in an ice cream mood, despite the chilly clouds coming over the Pearl District. I had chocolate and she had mint chocolate chip. We discussed discussable things. We are planning a collaboration. Basically things that entertain us.

For my midterm project in Science F(r)iction, I am going to do a zine about the red shirted ensigns in Star Trek and about how they are the victims to ensure the Utopia.

During the break I watched Project Runway on Jen's computer. KENLEY!!! ARGH!! She should so not still be there. She is horrible. Suede isn't so good either but she is worse. At least he can take it. And Korto's design was goth rock, not punk. Suede rocked it anyway. Kenley is going home next episode, no question.

For about an hour and a half of the break between classes, I scanned in pieces from my two newer sketchbooks. The scanner doesn't label things and it took me a long time to figure out how to get things to scan in full resolution and not some blocky washed out color. It took a long time but once I got going and figured it out, in no time at all I had 20 lovely pictures all set up and ready to share with the world. But not all at once, I have to space out those puppies to keep people coming back for more. I'll scan some of my other things next break.

Painting was mostly a work day. We looked over our homework. James' studies were spectacular. Bryan had a lovely combination between his style and his subject. Karen's colors were very rich. Erin the Bartender had a choice use of luminescence but maybe not enough darks. Erin from Alaska knew she could do no wrong with Natalie Portman. We also looked through our thumbnails for the next project and Erin B. whipped out some stunning and dark Baba Yaga concept sketches. Reminded me a little of Marilyn Beck's line work. Erin A. is doing a scene from The Road. It will be great to see her work dark and murky instead of color and delight. The most finalized thumbnail I had was confirmed to be the one I should draw. I redrew it larger and checked out some books for reference. I am looking forward to working on it. This painting class is pretty much an instant portfolio booster all around. Thanks Farel!

Oh and earlier today I got some good black ink because the Higgins ink kept coming up with a skin and that is gross. I shouldn't use ink that has a skin.

After class Karen and I cruised the Farmer's Market. We had a lot of chatting to do. I worked on my writing assignments that are due tomorrow and then at around 9 I went up to, yet again, talk with Karen. We drew our own projects and talked about growth and the 8th Dimension. She made fennel cupcakes. A little over cooked but still tasty. Partly because they were half made up of icing.

Now to finish my writing and go to bed! I can't wait to return to art.

Powell's People

Watercolor and ink done later over sketches made in the Powell's coffee shop.

Graphite, ink, and watercolor done in my formal sketchbook.

sketchbook preview

Some small photos from my sketchbook. My rough idea sketchbook, not my finalized pretty amassed pictures sketchbook.

Graphite, watercolor, and ink.

●I rule

It feels much later than it is. I kept really busy working on art all day, just to get ahead.

●Finished the two screen shot paintings
●Finished watching Blade Runner
●Finished my Illustration compositions
●Half way through my painting thumbnails

I just need to read the Ridley Scott interview and respond to that as well as decide what show I'm going to do my media presentation on. Possibly Futurama or Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy if I am feeling narcissistic. And all that is due on Friday! And I have plenty of time to finish the thumbnails between class tomorrow. Holy cow am I on top of things. When have I ever been this good?

Watched a lot of Venture Bros while working. Ate a cheese steak for lunch. I just work work worked today, nothing much else to report.

Llyw's Birthday Card

One day I asked Llyw what I should draw and he said I should draw him using a ninja star guitar to fight off a demon atop Osaka Castle. So I drew it on a post card and sent it to him for his birthday (this was in April). I just noticed that I never posted the result, so here it is.

4"x6". Watercolor and felt pen.

my nemesis the tyger

Kristen and Kris have set their wedding date! January 10th! How exciting. And it is in Washington and Robin should be in attendance. Maybe some nice parents would let her crash at our place? I'd be there of course, but Robin is very nice. She'd never steal our chicken catcher or our elephant chair.

Morgan likes my figure scene. The next assignment is to do that, but make the figures more realized and have light and shadow in there as well. I'll have to put some extra time into that. Our thought web is getting huge. I added some parts to it. It is a large graphic stream of consciousness. I brought up Lisa Simpson's graph of happiness in relation to intelligence in regards to both the Homer Simpson strain of thought and the unhappy philosopher strain of thought. My figure drawings avoided shadow entirely and didn't have a strong defined contour for the most part. I am really improving with every class. I think I may just have to take Morgan's History of Printmaking class. He is too good a teacher to have only once.

Student Council had rice and stir fry. My fortune cookie said "you will be successful in romance". Diana is still the facilitator. Clubs were passed. I drew drawings that cracked Karen up.

History of Design FINALLY GOT INTO DESIGN. She talked about William Morris for an hour but it was mostly raving about how much stuff he did and showing pages from a book. I don't like how she shows us websites as an instruction tool over say, a slide show of images. It's like she took some "how to make education relevant to youngsters" class. She showed us some Art Nouveau people. All in all, I am still learning more from the textbooks. She really means it when she says we should "devour" them. Next class we give presentations about artists and have to use a website to talk about them. It should be fun, and it is always nice to have the students interact more. I did complete another full page of doodle notes. And she seemed overly modest about revealing some detail about the Moulin Rouge dancers. Karen was nodding off but I woke her up so she could see some of the Belgian architecture she was showing us.

Painting was devoted to finishing the homework. Farel was unaware that he needed to give a weeks advance for a model. Our next assignment is to draw a literary figure. I'm not sure if I'd tackle the girl out of The Stars My Destination again or pull something out of what I have been reading recently (or maybe revisit Piercing). Lots of options.

I picked up one of the Illustration annuals from the library. I love flipping through and absorbing all these new ways of doing and seeing things. Some of it wasn't that impressive to be but it did seem achievable. That is always a nice feeling: achieveability of success.

I didn't buy any lunch or anything today. Had a bagel and shmear for breakfast, free lunch, and a banana for a late afternoon snack. Thank you dad for the lunch advice! Anyone have other tips?

Judith and Holofernes Shirt Design

The shirt: http://www.threadless.com/product/1441/Judith_Holofernes

Personally I think it missed the point of the story of Judith and Holofernes: He was an advancing general. She a spy of sort. She got him drunk and sliced off his head and brought it back to her people. A great story and one of my favorites to see depicted in art (Artemisia Gentileschi's brutal portrayal is top of the list). So when I look at this shirt I'm a little dismayed. She is holding the head a little too affectionately and a little too highly. Judith is never seen(as far as I can recall) holding the head any higher than her shoulders. She is an idol, not some lovesick lady daintily holding the head to her cheek. It seems so off and so wrong. A great technical design but poor in conveying the message and theme of her tale.

What do you think?

Good Monday

I had to drop off some books at the library. I have so many, time to let go of a few. I swung by during lunch and sat with Jen. The sush lady was nearby and gave us dirty looks. In our defense, the library staff are much louder than us. After that was all over it was time to swing by the PGE office and pay my electric bill. I'm too lazy to set up an automatic withdrawal or send in a check so I went to the effort of going to their office. It was in the huge building on the waterfront. Sadly the office was on the first floor. No fancy elevator riding for me. The place only accepted Mastercard, which my Key Bank account is. I have never been to a place that reject Visa but takes Mastercard. Odd.

I was very weary and not feeling up to the incline bike ride home so I wussed out and took the max back.

The rest of the day was spent being really productive. I sketched out and finalized my Figure Drawing composition. Not quite as nice as I would have liked it to have been, but I was feeling uninspired for what I should have done with it. Didn't include the Jedi as was suggested. Watched a good portion of Blade Runner. The streaming video faulted during the Pris and Deckard scene. I started work on the Illustration homework but I cut the paper wrong. Which worked out for the better because I still did some practice pictures on the poorly cut paper and now I know how to make it better when I really do it.

Practice makes habit, good habits need to be made. Such as going to bed at a reasonable time on a Monday night. And planning out my projects so I do a good job and shine in my class. Finished one half of my painting homework, the sum of the two halves are due Thursday. Wednesday I plan to have my Friday work done because I have plans to chill with Jen Thursday night. That girl hasn't seen Brazil. Holy moly.

relaxation is not waste

Started working on some concept sketches for my figure drawing drawing. Rather hard to think of a large scene for 20 figures to take part in. I put up more pictures on my wall, watched more of Dead Like Me (it was actually a Showtime program not HBO). I cleaned my apartment, there was a lot of clutter laying about and that needed to be dealt with.

I did less today than I originally set out to do. But like I said, this coming week isn't going to require much of me. Need to recover. Soon I'm going to retire to bed and read some comics.

Cecine made dinner and Robert, Cecine's friend, made cake. It was tasty all around.

I practice my kung fu moves

Oh man, Karen invited us up for a 9:30pm game night and we went to 3:00am. Near the end it was getting intense. We were breaking the rules and pulling cards left and right trying to destroy one another (namely Diana who won twice in a row and almost had a third when everything broke down). Karen, Robin, Diana and I started with a round of Scotland Yard and Diana won. Then we played Munchkin. Between the first and second games of Munchkin, Phil knocked on Karen's door asking if what he had overheard was Munchkin. He joined us and with his boy tactics introduced, we became more willing to screw people over and be all around devastating. I had a strong allegiance to Robin. Munchkin is so much fun, I need my own set now(preferred: Munchkin Cthulhu). The more we know how to play, the better it is. As the night got long, we became more rowdy and it was intense and crowded.

Karen had baked some cupcakes with mint icing for us and to wash it down we had tea and fancy special home made cider. It was delicious!

Earlier in the day, Cecine and I embarked to Safeway with a mission to stock up on food. I was down to pasta, mayo, and meat slices. Now I have some easy meals, bagels, creme cheese, bananas, oatmeal, and cheese steak fixings. Plus udon, eggs, juice, etc. Yeah I'm good to go for a while. We had a lot of groceries but with Cece's motor vehicle it was easy peasy. And we got all of them up to the apartment in one trip.

I finished season three of The Wire. I have no idea what they will do with the next two. Seems like all hell is going to break loose. Can't wait! Also started the Bryan Fuller HBO series Dead Like Me. Fuller did Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies. Dead Like Me is about grim reapers. It doesn't have Lee Pace but it does have Mandy Patinkin.

So I didn't get such a jump on homework, but keep in mind I do have a three day weekend.