very awesome

Yesterday (and a little bit of the day before):

Picked up Llyw without a hitch. Well, the train came in a little late but I had the Nintendo to keep me company. This time he remembered to bring a scarf. The Blue Line took us to City Center and then told us that a train was having trouble so we walked back to my place from there. Not a bad walk. It was nice and brisk. One time when he visited it was raining as we went back. I made a big batch of popcorn and we watched SLC Punk.

In the morning he made cheesy toasted bagels with not really all that runny yolk fried eggs. They were delicious. I made Earl Grey tea. A very lovely and filling way to start the day. Many hours were spent rummaging Powell's. He found a Sulamith Wulfing art book, I found a great riddle book and bought some light weight Moleskins to use as sketchbooks. My gift certificate from Averie is not quite used up. There was a post that the new Scott Pilgrim volume will be out in a few days. I can't wait!

A perfect day for walking, we went up to 21st and enjoyed some root beer floats at Coffee Time. I made some sketches and he browsed through his new book. Coffee Time has wonderful artwork on the walls and sky light. It is a warm, earthy little place. With good root beer floats. A quick jaunt into Trader Joe's for butter and we headed back to my place. The two of us put our feet up and relaxed. Llyw worked on finishing the fourth Scott Pilgrim volume. I worked on my riddles.

Layers were added and we headed out to catch the Max to take us into downtown. We got off on third and went in search of the pedestrian path on the Morrison Bridge. It was found easy enough and we began the trek to the other side of the river. It was a really beautiful clear night. The river glimmered and the bridge hummed as the cars went by. The warehouse district is too empty to be really scary, still it was suspiciously empty. We located Montage no problem. The place is naturally dim but sadly this day it was actually dark and shut down. Probably because of the Super Bowl. Didn't think I needed to call ahead. Big bummer but it wasn't such a horrible walk across. The way back was very pleasant but I needed a rest half way across the bridge. I'm just not a walker. Llyw played with his laser pointer, testing to see if it really was visible from a mile away (it was).

I don't know any places to eat so we took the easy way out and went to Chipotle. I wolfed down my burrito and then felt ill because I had eaten an entire burrito. Llyw was wise to save some. The max bore us home and it took me a while to recover from all that eating. Gabe and Katie went out and we stayed in and watched Night Watch while enjoying a lovely Shiraz Cabernet. I don't know how well Russian Horror and Red Wine are supposed to go together but they fit nicely.

Today:

Morning was just simple toast. Nothing fried or melted. I gathered what I needed, Llyw packed his things and we were off. Class started before his train left. I took some reference pictures of street corners for class. It was a bright, lovely day. We hung out till I went through the red door, through which is the illustration room. I got to introduce him briefly to a couple people that I ran into while trying to get my pictures from my camera to one of the iMacs (didn't work at all). A brief hug was exchanged and it was time for class.

Robin didn't save me a seat so I was forfeit to the front of the room. The first little project was to do portraits of one another so that Joe can put names to faces. I drew Josh and he drew me. His portrait ended up with eyeliner. The technical difficulties resolved, Joe explained perspective (honestly, how do you get to late in your sophomore year without knowing one and two point perspective?) and gave a quick little slide show of Golden Age illustrators. Lunch was an onion bagel and some tea. I sat with Robin, Josh, and Janessa and we solved riddles.

The second part was followed with more lecture, some on location perspective drawing (20 minutes outside, 20 minutes in the commons, and 20 minutes in the classroom) and an introduction to the new assignment. We are assigned, in one week, to combine a real street corner reference and to add our own people to it and have them blend together. Learning how to draw figures in space and all that.

We were let out early but I lingered to talk to the teacher. We chatted about comics and movies and just how good or bad the Watchmen movie is. I missed the streetcar so I walked half of the distance home and then sat and drew people while the streetcar caught up to me.

I had some mini tacos for dinner.

Math homework took me about an hour and a half. I feel like I get most of it, but it still feels like a trick. If it comes to easy there is the chance I am doing some part of it wrong.

Did I mention that Dorothy passed on some of her old wood carving tools to me? No? Well she did and they are awesome and she is awesome.