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Saturday, November 15, 2008

long days are not a stoppin'

Blah blah blah women's clothing sexualizes us waah waah waah. I'm so tired of the constant feminist ranting in my lit class. Everything is against women!! Arrrgghh! As true as it may be in some contexts, it is just a constant irking. The class had minimal conversation about the book and it was mostly about women and stuff. I'm probably coming off as an anti-feminist but really I prefer to focus on issues like the lack of pockets in jackets and how pink is the color of women.

Critique for the comic was a write-on-sheet type of thing. It was really nice with just a few helpful comments. A lot of people were frustrated with theirs. Robin had a great one but she is so anti comic. Almost hurts my feelings how much she hates them. I was dead tired and swaying back and forth. I tried to nap during lunch. I showed Chad the wall murals from Belgium. He assigned us the final project. Turned stuff in. It wasn't that eventful really, I think everyone had a lack of focus. Also a studio at the end of the week sucks. Next semester my studio is at the start of the week. I don't have any three class days, just a different studio right after the graphic novel class and a break between math and painting.

Chad let us out early so I went home, gained my energy, and went to see the new James Bond movie! Which isn't that good! The action is choppy and low class, there was one shirtless scene and the movie tries to have his tight white pants make up for it. I guess it works as a continuation (it literally takes place 15 minutes after the last movie) but on its own it is just not as good as Casino Royale. Had some good explosions and pretty good Bond Girls. The villain was sort of pathetic looking (played by Mathieu Amalric) and not really all that convincing as bad. Really disappointing and I don't think they weighed on me being tired.

Great new Watchmen trailer. Same for Star Trek (yay for Simon Pegg as Scotty!).

Picked up some library books (The Botany of Desire and a Winsor McCay book) and did some grocery shopping. Made some of my famous banana bread for the potluck Thanksgiving tomorrow. Should be nice, I guess. Lots of people that I don't know so I'm a little wary. Crowds don't do well by me and crowds of people I'm unfamiliar with? Yikes!

Diana won at Munchkin. Again. She makes such a fuss when we try to bend the rules to make it difficult for her. Her sister Melina is in town. Very nice lady. Karen and Diana had some RA duty and Phil, Robin, Adam, and I all grilled Melina. She wants to be a Veterinarian and all our artist talk was probably a bit frightening. Or weird. Probably weird. Phil threatened to lick Karen's elbow.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

spoil sport

Well my Jet Ski picture went over well. It didn't award much discussion. I blahed on about Eli Roth for some reason. I talked about a lot of things today for some reason. I ramble when I'm tired. Blah blee blah. Some nice pirate pictures. Karen's was painted wonderfully, Diana's was greatly rendered, Lacey was of course awesome. Her lines are so smooth. She is going to be in Graphic Novel with me. Booyah!

We moved onto pencil in Figure Drawing. I wasn't able to get contours on all of them but the move in medium shows my improvements in skill. The last drawing, Karen and I drew on the same picture at the same time and near the end Diana joined us. It looked really cool though very off.

During break I looked up Bruno Paul and Edmund Dulac to decide which to do for my sketchbook reproduction. I settled on doing close up studies of parts of Dulac's work. Try to get better brushwork over composition. Technically not what we are supposed to do but I'm too tired to care right now and it's only 11:31pm! I didn't get a good sleep last night. Sometimes it is nerves, sometimes it is Cece not being quiet enough when she comes and goes.

I had set my stuff down on the library couch and left to do some computer work (nearby, all my stuff was still in sight). I went to sit and rest and some people were having some INTENSE RELATIONSHIP ADVICE CONVERSATION. I figured they would either tell me to buzz off or move or be really quiet but they kept going with their exchange of advice and problems. Karen was napping near them as well. It was weird how private it was and how loud they were during it.

There was an opening in Pearl's schedule so I slipped in and sorted out what I'm taking next semester. Kurt is only teaching the alternate Illustration Studios now. I will have four different teachers through my four semesters in my Sophomore and Junior year. Chad and then Daniela, Martin and then maybe Daniela again. I really don't like that switch. I came here expecting and wanting a year of Kurt and a year of Martin. Sure different teachers breeds variety but you also start fresh each Semester and don't have the familiarity to build up a relationship through a year. It is really hard to be brutal and grow when you having gotten past that boundary with people in critiques. It takes ages and a semester just isn't enough. Argh. So I switched my Illustration Studio. Also I am saving the internship for the summer or my Junior year because I need to find out where I want to go first and then apply. I have no idea and the school doesn't have a list. You just pick and they help you get it. I'd much rather do it when I have the time to devote and I'm not busy worth school and work. So I added Relief & Screen with Yoshi to my schedule. In talking with Pearl, I decided to just go for it and take classes even if I don't need them to graduate. It is the same price to take 4-6 classes so I might as well take 5. Why not? I'm here to learn so I'm going to learn! Also I think this printmaking medium might apply more to my style than the previous one I learned.

Painting was more nude models. Jen made me blush. In conversation it was revealed that the model was the same red head dreaded lady who I briefly met during my pre-college experiences at PNCA in 2006. Small world! I think. Our new assignment is to draw a portrait of a recognizable public figure. I was thinking Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr. or David Sedaris. The first because I have no guff with him and would like to portray him as so, the second because he has a great face with lots of character, and the third doesn't need explaining.

Finished painting my comic. Looks sloppy. It is decent from a distance but I just don't feel that dandy about it. I'm not too stressed about critique though, everyone is so damn nice that they'll never say anything too harsh. Not done with Handmaid's Tale (Even 100 pages a week is too much for me and too slow a pace for this class) but I can still respond to it. I just can't talk about the end and I am not looking forward to having it spoiled for me in class tomorrow.

Jen said that my blog has become less interesting recently and is just Gap Gap Gap. So, what should I do to spice up the blog? Include stories about Ninjas? Gossip about fictional PNCA students? Post more art? Tell lies about Jen?

four nudes (in class)


Four poses over two days worth of work. Each pose given to work from was around an hour and a half (give or take fifteen minutes).

10"x14". Watercolor.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

not Gap enough

Rough day at work. I operate best at the "tell me what to do and I will do it" type of chores. So I did it. This was my first time working off the sheets and I had no idea where most of the things I was looking for were. Took me ages to find a bloody fair isle set of mittens and the belts that are tucked away (no wonder they are marked down, no one can see them and thus no one will buy them). That wasted a lot of time so when it came to marking down the sale racks (continually, I know I'll be marking the same striped shirts down next week) it ran over the allotted time. Markdowns are supposed to take five hours and should have taken Brandon and I two and a half each. It took me about four and a half hours and he spent three. Argh. Paula told me that it seemed like I had been taught three different ways to do it and asked why it took me so long. I mentioned how much time was spent trying to find things when I'm still not familiar with the store (because they have me doing markdowns for most of my work and its the same sale racks and I'm not allowed to roam the floor much but I have a cashier shift this Saturday and it is during a sale, scary!!). Her last comment was a, "you can't wear those shoes again" in regards to my dirty white Chucks. Sadly those are my "clean" Chucks. Now I have to see if my Sketchers and not so obvious that I can wear them (we can't wear nonGap obvious shoes, Converse are sold at Gap). Damnit! So yeah, I wear a men's size 5 and a women's size 7 in Chuck Taylor Converse All Stars. Black is a good color but I'll accept anything really. Then again, Christmas is ages away and I have lots of work to do. I'll probably use my discount on a pair from The Gap. My designated "work shoes". It was a crummy shift. I can only go so fast when repricing a crammed rack. OH and Paula didn't like the radio I had on. Mariane liked it and Brandon didn't seem to mind. She came in and was all, "This is all mellow, where's the Beyonce? We should get our blood pumping!" Jazz is much better than Hannah Montana. Paula is nice but the way she phrases things isn't the way I'd phrase things.

Oh! And this lady was asking for boys sizes of this jacket and telling me about how all the girls jackets were under stuffed and of lesser quality because girls are not expected to play or be in the weather as long as boys. I said, trying to be nice, how girls fashion has more layers, but she wouldn't let it go. Everyone who helped her in the quest for that size 12 heard about how bad the girl jackets were. The last twenty minutes of my shift was spent at the register helping a person after another and trying to sort out all that code stuff. Karen you lied, it doesn't tell you what to do!!

I was glad for that shift to be over. It rained all day and I was nicely damp on both my Max rides.

Inked and colored my Jet Ski Pirates. Inked in what I had sketched for my comic. It just needs a few panels sketched and colored. It is a lot of work to be done tomorrow ontop of other stuff but I think I'll go for a minimal, solid color palette over a highly rendered one. I'm not being lazy, solid colors are tricky as well because you have to be more choosey!

I put on my rain pants for the journey to yoga. I am so dedicated to getting bent. Yeah! There were about 12 people during this session. Esteban was there, Olivia called me Trillium but as I couldn't remember her name until someone mentioned her later, I didn't correct her at the time. Getting the jist of it is swell enough. I have no muscle definition whatsoever. I don't know where my muscles went. Hopefully they will come back.

I treated myself to some Bellagio's pizza for dinner (and it will carry over to Breakfast and Dinner tomorrow). So warm, so good.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

beauty and the bedraggled

No model showed up for class. For the first part we hung out in the Feldman Gallery and discussed the paintings there. Morgan didn't like them at all, said they were immature or something like that. I can kind of see what he means by that as they don't seem to have that deep of concepts but are executed really well. Morgan, not the teacher, was very vocal in his disapproval stating comments about low contrast and not being crisp. Then when we returned to class and some people put up their homework, his was low contrast and not crisp. Ha ha!

I registered. Right now I am signed up for five things but only 12 credits (the internship doesn't have any credit listed for whatever reason). I am taking: Illustration Studio I: Word + Image with Kurt Hollomon, Illustration Painting Techniques: Digital Media with Joseph Cross, Graphic Novel with Daniel Duford, and Beginning Mathematics with Shawn Cardwell. Also there is in the Internship but that needs to be sorted out ya.

Karen and I quickly whipped up some Comic Club posters. She did the lettering, I did the picture. It isn't too shabby for a poster I must say. The meeting is tomorrow but I can't make it as I am scheduled to work till noon. I told Taylor I won't be able to make it so he has to supply the paper and all that jazz.

History of Design held my interest! We are getting to some of the modern designers and some of the images presented were wonderful. Margaret passed around a copy of Idea Magazine, a Japanese publication devoted to type and type related things. I did do a little excitement hop for it. Wonderful piece of print! She likes my thesis so now the bar has been raised. Our final project is to do a homage to some piece of design, I'll probably do something from Beardsley or Gulbransson, those two are my boys.

The MFA's were gathering around free coffee and mix CDs. I grabbed a mix CD and chatted with Matt for a little bit. Student Council was mostly a conversation about clubs and I put in my two cents about having clubs take a more active role in formation before asking for money.

We moved on to nude modeling in painting. Hurray! And we had Anna for a model. Hurray hurray! I did two nice little paintings with colored backgrounds. I'm quite pleased with them even though they are not as smooth as I would like. I think I'll do the background different on the next set. Karen painting conjoined hair twins, Jen drew one sitting on the other (and looking fabulously anatomical), Lee did some more groupings, Erin from Alaska is trying out the fur while Erin the Bartender is trying out the lines, and Bryan made her look like a wood nymph of sorts. Or something, it looked cool. The first half of class was silent while the second half had some nerdy conversation about Spaced, Anonymous, and Scott Pilgrim. I asked Farel how he felt about being scheduled for 8am classed next semester and he didn't know that he had been scheduled that early. Like most days our conversation took some weird turns but it was a nice class. We take long breaks, as evidenced by my ability to post the picture before I had painted the second.

I left both a plastic bag AND my rain pants at home. It was raining through most of the day and my seat gave me bum quite the chill, which was nice considering how warm I got ontop with the jackets and weight of the bag keeping me insulated and steaming. I sloughed off my clothes and took a hot shower and now I'm just going to sink into bed. No work on homework tonight, I'm exhausted! I have most of tomorrow to ink so I'm not worried (I work another mark down shift and have Yoga in the evening which should provide a nice break).

in class nude - lavender



In class nude painting.

Roughly 5"x7". Watercolor.

ketchup makes everything edible

My comic is sketched out. It needs inks and colors of course but I have plenty of time to devote to them. Also my pirate pictures is sketched! That also requires at least the minimum of inks but that will go fast. There is piracy from the legendary golden Zocchihedron to Bela Lugosi's corpse. It's awesome. Those two things are my major projects this week (I have another artist sketchbook due but those don't take me long).

Returned some books to the library and checked out a new pile. I also put some books on hold like Michael Pollon's Omnivore's Dilemma and Umberto Eco's On Ugliness. I saw a lady with a dagger face tattoo. It was on her cheek and it was glowing (well tattooed to look like it was glowing).

I looked at the class schedule. Sadly History of Printmaking is not being offered in the Spring. I think I will wait for it as none of the current history classes interest me. Right now on my slate is Illustration Studio, Illustration Painting Digital Techniques, Graphic Novels, and the internship. Not the official names but thats what I'm signing up for. Another thing will probably be added. It is a Monday-Thursday schedule. Three day weekends are nice. Math might be added on (oh Dad, I don't think I'll need a refresher for it as they don't teach the same math at regular school).

I kept busy today, pretty good. Quantum of Solace is coming up and Let The Right One In is playing at Cinema 21. Swedish vampire flick, sounds good ya?

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Marge, is this a pimple or a boil?

Glorious sleep in Sunday. I'm giving the heads time to dry fully before putting on another layer. They needed turning over because the bottoms were still very wet while the tops were really dry.

I'm all done with that season of Rome. I wonder what is going to happen in the second season, I thought they would take longer to off Caesar. Overall it had a great setup for the finale. Wonderful show.

Has anyone gotten their discount cards yet? I'm wondering if the ink smudged on the mailing addresses.

Had a work meeting tonight. They grilled us about the Gap Cards, the general appearance of the store, and about shop lifting. It's weird how difficult they make it to check someones bag if we think they shoplifted. We did a couple customer scenarios. I played a person who was grabbing clothes and shopping and not stopping at all. Met all the other employees. It's a really small store. I picked up another shift on Saturday so I'll have 9 hours plus the 3 tonight clocked in for this week. I'll be getting a paycheck soon. Whoo! It was a long sitting period listening to stuff. It really gave me a wide scope of how much I need to learn about the various tasks around the store. Folding is key.

Karen drove me home and after I posed for some reference pictures. She, Adam, and I talked about things over rice. Diana stopped by. It was an...interesting conversation. Not really fit for the PGness of this blog.

I have this bump on my hand that I don't think is a callous (as it is in a spot that I don't rub). Might be a boil or a wart. They said it doesn't look like a wart but it doesn't pop so I'm not sure that if it is a boil. Hnn.