hi

hi

Friday, October 3, 2008

Tintin, what a jerk

In Illustration we spent the whole class doing a comic page. We brought it toys and grouped them in threes and did a story using just the characters from the toys and no words. My objects were Tintin, a model Shelby, and an octopus and I shared them with Marilyn. My story was about Tintin cruising and picking up a hitch hiker (the octopus) and eating it. Marilyn had the octopus looking in the car trunk and Tintin slammed the trunk down on it and drove off. Her inking was fabulous but she sadly didn't get it done. My inking was okay, should have spent a little more time with it. There were some great pieces with exquisite line work and some that were still figuring the medium out. The people who had the Kermit toy were particularly mean about him. Sivonna brought in a doll that she had made and that provided some disturbing imagery. It was fun.

The Lovecraft centered class didn't have as much intense discussion as I am used to. Trevor gave a little presentation about the man and how he is in the grand scheme of history. I was a little drowsy during one point but I didn't fully nod off. Wasn't the most riveting of classes but most people seemed out of it. Next we are moving on the Philip K Dick's Man in the High Castle.

During lunch, Chad talked to Bekka and I briefly about how to get set up as caricature makers. Right now we just need to study and practice and get together a portfolio. For the rest of lunch Lindsay joined us and our little group of four had many laughs about Popsicles and Mavericks. Toon/Lindsay seems to be doing quite well. Her skin looks great.

There was much rain today. I didn't bring my rain pants in hope of it clearing up, but alas I got home in a damp state.

I'm afraid

To make up for the lack of drawing in last class, we spent the majority of class doing long poses. We had our first male model and it wasn't one that I have had before. He had good twists in his poses. And a cute nose. The nagging of not drawing the model stand is continual. I'm getting better at it though. One pose was supposed to be three in one frame where we just draw over it. He kept one foot in the same spot so it wasn't such a challenge to figure it out in the frame of things. Our thought web is to the point were we can link three things across the web. We will make our own for our midterm so I'm excited for that. Have I explained the thought web? Basically it is a huge link of how things connect in the world. This leads to this that leads to this and so on and eventually it all links together. It is to help us understand the grand scheme of the world.

Then I took a nap in the library.

Then I got a sandwich and read some Lovecraft.

Painting class was also from a figure but she put on costumes. She was one of the regular figure drawing models so that was fun. She only did two poses, the first I colored in part however I wanted and then I put a closeup of her profile behind that image. My skin tones worked for me. The second I laid down three blocks of color in accordance to the dominant color areas of her pose (pink for the head, green for the mu mu, and blue for her pants). It was hard to work into but it is fun to try new things. People were generally in a good mood in class so that made everything a lot more fun.

Karen and I did a quick First Thursday run. A guy in one of those bike taxis gave us a ride down to the Everett Lofts. It was very fun. Portland was very vacant and the streets that are normally bustling with hipster art folks were desolate. I swung by to pick up my much neglected comic box from FWC. There was also Pixu and a Scott Pilgrim art book in stock, and both were good deals. The store looks great and Karen even found something that she wanted (a Lynda Barry book). Jason had some lovely French music playing and the general atmosphere was nice. We went up to check out one of the open studios and the artist mentioned that the other people were not there due to the vice presidential debates. The only time a Portlander will watch TV I guess.

It was dark I had work so Karen and I scooted back to PNCA. I had a nice ride back. It was raining in the morning a little so I couldn't wear the cute outfit I had planned. So I got back and started reading Lovecraft. Then I got scared so my reading response is going to be about that.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

reading, watching, biking

Did any of you see the new House? I'm really starting to like the new character and will watch his inevitable spin off. Heroes is a little bit, odd. Like they are just adding and adding and forgetting some of the chronology and what not. The Wire is awesome, as always.

Today I went to the Comic Club. I didn't go to the first meeting and Taylor kept inquiring as to where I was so I showed up. Lots of new faces with a couple familiar ones. We got a lot of comic jams circulating. I started two, one about a boy eating plants and one about a woman going down a dark alley way. I drew a panel about pregnant ice cream and a person shoving a sandwich at a hipster. We really need to make a binder collecting them all. Karen has about 1/3 of them and Taylor has the others. I think I'll ask student council for like, the 12 bucks to put together the sleeves and binder. We can have it in the library for the time being. I love jams.

After the meeting, Jim and I talked at length about comics, his work, school, and other things. Cece was in the commons doing some art project for class so we monitored her through part of that.

After we bid adieu, I swung by Trader Joes to get things like tea and those mini peanut butter cups that I love so much. There was some time spent at home when I got back but I had to return library books to the public library and get things at Safeway (I split up my shopping based on what is cheaper where). I checked out a book of Italian Movie Posters, a Postsecret book, and The Acme Novelty Datebook: Volume 2. All very cool. Stocked up on juice and butter from Safeway. Dinner was something gnocchi and not Gorgonzola cheese(more pasta saucy). It wasn't as good as the cheese version and burnt a little in the cooking process. Still it was filling and satisfying.

Now to go read more Lovecraft.

albinos

Morgan was late to figure drawing but the model, Anna, led us in some gestures anyway. He came in and said how it warmed his heart to see us already in it. We didn't get much drawing done today. We did one pose for about fifteen minutes and then we switched to the person next to us and corrected what they had drew. Diana used some really heavy charcoal and it was a pain to rub out and correct. Her arm angle, platform size, and leg lengths were a little off according to my calculations. Karen worked on my drawing and shaved off a few of the pounds I had put onto my model. Then Morgan talked about the thought web and the circus.

About three-fourths of us gave our oral presentations in class. There were a range from just site analysis to a history of the artist. Mine went more towards the history side of this. My nerves I hoped were covered by the enthusiasm I had for the subject. I was really excited to talk about Aubrey Beardsley and how much he did in his short life and how generally amazing he was. I may have cycled through the images really quickly though. But I think I projected, which is always good. I shared my gummy worms with Daniel, who drew all the presenters. Karen and I took part in a little jam comic about spacesuits and anti-gravity cookies.

Student council had a delicious curry prepared. They are now implementing a ticket system so that if you stayed through most of the meeting, you get a ticket that gets you first dibs on the food. There was a quibble in the student accounts and so most of the discussion was taken up with how to sort out the food, which amazingly is almost half where our student fees go to! Eight thousand dollars just to feed us once a week. The guy who prepares it used organic ingredients. Bunch of namby pamby artists with their weak stomachs end up costing us more money and reduce the amount of things that can actually get done. Beggars can't be choosers!

Painting was a work day. So we worked. I finished my painting up (as you can see). It helps that mine was really simple, but still I was trying something new with the limited saturated colors. It was really quiet for most of the class. Karen and I had an ice cream break and James joined us briefly. I did a second painting of Olivia after I got home, more play with masking techniques and the colors left on my pallet. I'm quite thrilled at the result. I improve every week! This year, I think, is spelling some big changes for me.

A while back I entered in my cap number from a bottle of Jones Soda. One of those "text JONES to 5555 and you have a chance to WIN WIN WIN!!!" type things. I gave it a shot, hey why not? Anyway, I got a text from them telling me that I had won a prize and I should enter my number on the Jones site and see what I got. I won a case of MyJones Soda! You know, the kind that you send a picture to and they print up some with your image in the label spot. Sweet, huh? I didn't have many high resolution images so I went with that picture of me passed out in Amsterdam. Seemed like it would do well on a bottle of Fufu Berry Jones Soda. All free, they didn't even ask for a card. So I could have sent it to someone as a gift so show how much I cared. I'm nice, but I'm not that nice. Besides, like I said, everyone down here is a namby pamby artist who stays away from consuming anything that even cast a shadow in its lifetime so a high sugar soda is probably out of the question, and mom has her Rockstar drinks. Yeah, in 2-3 weeks I am going to have me some personalised soda pop!

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Olivia Presteign (finished but poor quality photo)



Finished it, might need some final touches though. Will upload a proper scan later.

Olivia Presteign from The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester.

10"x14". Watercolor.

Monday, September 29, 2008

silver hatchet

So I finished my ensemble figure drawing for Morgan's class. The shading is very general but it makes parts of the figures stand out. There are jedi, gunmen, picnic goers, nappers, matrix fighters, choke-hold appliers, and general kick and punches all enjoying a day in the park. I'm quite pleased with it. Karen's looks good. Very dramatic and also dark in subject matter. I think Diana is also doing a fight scene.

I grabbed a caramel steamer and tried to read Lovecraft at the place but it was too loud so I went back home and read a part of it. He takes so long to describe the little things. Still, it isn't so painful. I just need to apply myself.

In flipping through one of the many books on Beardsley that I checked out, I came up with a pretty good oral report to present about him. Not so keen on the website portion of the presentation but I think I'll do a good job. Did you know that Burnes-Jones gave him a chance and looked at his portfolio even when his studio stopped doing such a thing? Beardsley rose to being one of the most notorious artists in England at 23. Remarkable!

Watched a lot of The Wire while working on my pictures. Also got Hacker's Manifesto in the mail. I ordered it about three weeks ago, thankfully I don't need it for a couple more weeks. That fit in my mail box but the care package mom sent me had to be picked up specially from the office. It contained lots of sweeties and Tiger's Milk bars and art supplies and MORE sweeties. She makes great care packages and double wraps them for extra opening annoyance.

red and white and red and white and red and red

I bought a Flarke today! And a red Lerberg which I assembled myself. I needed Cece's help with the Flarke, it sits next to my other shelf and both of them look nice and organized. The Lerberg is in my room and is used for art supplies and general miscellaneous items. So yeah, I went to Ikea today! Bought two shelving units which in total came to $35!! Hurray!

It was me, Robin, Diana, Erin, Jamie, and two dudes. We caught the blue max past 100th and transferred onto the red. It was a beautiful sunny day with lots of warmth to enjoy. I had my standard meatball meal and we split a slice of chocolate cake. There was a lady that was fed up with her toddler because she didn't want to wear a bib. She was all, "Fine! Get food on your clothes!" Lady, that toddler doesn't understand what you are yelling at her for. Jeeze.

It was crowded and as we had specific items that we wanted, we breezed through most of the show rooms. I spied out the shelves I wanted pretty quickly. I was looking for weight (so I didn't have to have them delivered), size (lots of shelves), and price (because I'm an art student). I also picked up a three pack of scissors because one can never have enough scissors. Robin and Diana didn't pick up much, they were just there as RA's to monitor and get us max tickets. We all had at least one large item to carry so we did the sneaky and probably against the rules thing and pushed the carts out to the max and dropped our things off. The boys pushed them back to a collection spot, so not like we left them there. A gust of wind caught Erin's mirror and it fell over and broke. It was a Minde, so it didn't cost that much. Still, really really sucked. It took some maneuvering but we got all our things onto the max. Sure we took up a little extra room but on a Sunday afternoon, there were not many people on board. Diana helped me take my shelves to my room. She took care of the heavier shelves so now I owe her a favor.

The Flarke has an ugly white backboard but it blends in easily enough with my white wall and with books over it, it doesn't really matter. I'm so pleased to have the extra storage. And the red is a wonderful red, it goes really well with my room. If I have to buy a color option, I go for red. I might decoupage the Flarke, make it a little more special.

I started watching The Wire season four. Now the show has gotten into the schools and the lives of the kids. It just gets better and better and Prez wasn't featured much in the last season so I am glad to see him return. I am halfway done with my figure drawing homework. My plan was to get all the figures drawn in. Tomorrow I will shade them and study up on Aubrey Beardsley.