hi

hi

Saturday, April 11, 2009

I did it!

Guess what? I got all the sketches done! And by 9pm. Amazing! I didn't think I could do them all but I did. It took a season of IT Crowd, a bunch of Kids Down the Hall, and a Heath Ledger double feature of Knights Tale and 10 Things I Hate About You.

Gabe made a burger and served it up right after I finished the comic. It nearly put me into a coma with its greatness. Mmm.

Then we walked to Hollywood. Now I'm going to watch some movies, relax, drink some wine, and relax some more.

Now it is movie time!!

Friday, April 10, 2009

medium goal

I inked the three pages that I had fully drawn. Took about an hour a page, a little more. Watched Gangs of New York and the new Red Dwarf episode.

That's right.
New Red Dwarf. Series IX. Nine years later. It is supposed to be a three parter. The actors were rather stiff and not quite in full character. They were also looking a little rough. I'll give it time.
But still, new episode!

Caught up on my programing. Breaking Bad. Lost. Heroes. And other things. Watched Kids in the Hall while doing the thumbnails. I have almost the whole thing done. Tomorrow morning I can finish and then set in on a marathon sketching and inking session. I have a lot of work but as long as I have something to watch, I'll be good. But I can almost see the end. Even if I just get the sketches done this weekend, I'm still in good shape and I can ink Monday and Tuesday. The high goal is sketch and inks. Low goal is sketches. Today's was inking and thumbnails.

Root for Trillian!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

threes

I'm really exhausted. Again.

The crop circles went over well. Someone had stepped in it slightly (from the angle we didn't mark off because Liz and Karen thought three sides would be enough). It was fine and resolved quickly enough. We had a good review. Most people had interesting alternate ways of doing it. There was projected light (which seemed like cheating), rice, collage, screen print, and one group went to the beach and did a 20 foot construction of the Death Star! It was way cool.

Cleaning was a snap. We broke apart the circle and swept it all into one trash bag. One big, 120 pound trash bag. I watched the stuff while Karen and Liz struggled to bring it to the dumpster. I had a meeting with Martin at 11 so I rushed to throw some stuff together.

He still likes my work, we talked about classes and why the heck was Narrative Image at the same time as his studio. He likes my work. It wasn't a very heavy discussion.

I chilled and finally ate something. Illustration Drawing Club had a meeting in the library. We talked about classes and what to do over the summer and maybe a use for the money the Illustration Department has. We are very proactive people it would seem.

Eh. Yeah. Printed out some stuff to make a portfolio. Should have one. Just need to document my other work.

Digital was another pop quiz. Had to recreate this insane portrait. Now it is an editorial illustration. Four topics, mostly about the economy or something.

I'm really tired.

After class, Karen and I rode our bikes up to 21st to catch the 7:00pm showing of Tokyo! We got there early and we were met with a notice that the theatres becomes 21+ after 6:00pm! What the hell? I mean, I'm, 21 and all that but now I can't see a movie with everyone that I would like to. Including Karen who left her ID at home. We enjoyed an Italian soda together and parted ways (I still wanted to see it, company or no).

Tokyo! is three short films by Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Joon-ho Bong. All of them center around people living in Tokyo. As the shorts go on, the reality of Tokyo decreases. Gondry's is very beautiful and a lot of the shots seemed like places I remember. It was touching even when it went a little weird at the end. It all made sense. Carax' was about this weird creature who lived in the sewers and tossed grenades and was sentenced to death. He had a weird language and talked about his God. This man was on of three people in the world who spoke the language and translated. It was interesting. Bong's was about this man who did not leave his house and what eventually drives him out into a world unfamiliar to us as well.

They were nice. It was raining when I got out at 9:00pm. Now it is time to sleep well, I have a full weekend ahead of me.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

this post is dedicated to Kody

Nonstop day stage 1:
Comic meeting! Lacey had a test print. It looks fabulous. She got her stuff so done on schedule and all that. Amazing. I am going to try for a broad sheet fold. I will need my comic to be done THIS WEEKEND. AHHH!!! I have three solid days to just work work work. I still think I can.

Nonstop day stage 2:
Printmaking critique! Mine went really well. Only one complaint about the color and that was resolved when I pinned up the print on the other paper. I felt really good and satisfied that it was so well received. Other pieces were more problematic in terms of color choices and composition. I wish the critique chairs were more on the comfy side. I squirm a lot in the metal ones. It has been a fun class and we were assigned our final project. Four colors, edition of five. Next class I will be working on my comic, if I didn't have two screens to use I might be worried that I might fall behind. With two I can get two colors set up to print so I'm not waiting for one screen to dry all the time. Rock on! The critique was split between lunch, as usual. Everyone was fairly nice. I wish I was a little more gutsy in saying things but I'm not sure how they would take it. Oh well. Yoshi gave us more demos about using a transfer and removing the emulsion.

Nonstop day stage 3:
Lunch! Okay lunch was a nice break. Lean Cuisine and a root beer. Sat with Robin and Natalie but they were studying and gave Madeline and I looks every time we talked so we moved. I'm sorry but I asked if we could sit and you said okay and then you get mad that we talk? Just say "only if you don't talk because we are busy studying" and that will be fine. So we moved to the couch and took it easy but some people totally joined them and they didn't ask them to leave! Probably in their class. I'm assuming because otherwise it would just be mean.

Nonstop day stage 4:
Figuring out my schedule! I figured that it is all screwed up. Most of my first choices for History and Social Science Seminar are stuck on Wednesday, which Martin French's studio is scheduled for. I have no idea what to take now. It is a weird mess and hard to find things that will work. Might retake the second part of illustration painting. Might take art since 1945. Might take theory and practice. Who knows. It is a mess and nothing really fits.

Nonstop day stage 5:
Yoga! We did lots of high energy, major warming, and back bending postures. We worked on Camel against the wall and it really pushed our limit. I'm drinking lots of water.

Nonstop day stage 6:
Crop circle construction! Karen rolled in with two 60 pound bags of sand at 8:30 and we got to it. The construction itself only took about 20 minutes. Filling some of the shapes in with sand took nearly two hours. Lots of packing and flattening and all that. I'll post pictures. It looks really good. It represents the Pacific Northwest sun cycles. Kody, awesome Kody, made us a massive sandwich to share! It had meat and all sorts of things. It was delicious and just what we needed. Kody rules. I left school at around 10:30pm today. I arrived at 9:45am to put up Illustration Drawing Club posters.

Nonstop day stage 7:
Had to stay up and write a damned paper about the crop circle. I'M SO TIRED! I'M GOING TO BED NOW!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

yes, Trillian can

Another beautiful day. I think it is said that it will hold for the rest of the week.

We did a practice run with our circle construction. Just doing the lines and all that. I drew, Karen and Liz held the strings. Some of my lines left a little to be desired but all in all it worked out beautifully. The mythology we are creating for it centers around it being a representation of all the false starts of Summer that Portland has. All the sunny breaks before it actually maintains for a season. We are also working on a dance to go with it but we probably won't perform it.

Thumbnailed another chunk of my comic. Listened to music. Loitered around Karen.

Student council was straightforward again. Not many people showed as it was sunny and bright and warm and we are all cooped up and have hot soup.

Joe has his third round of flu so class was cancelled. Bummer! So after chilling with Karen in the print lab, I went home.

First I stopped by Key Bank and dropped off my final two paychecks from Gap. $80! Yeah! Whoo!

Then I went home and chilled. Luna and I took a lovely nap. Then while Katie played Grand Theft Auto, I drew my comic. Got another some 15-20 panels drawn. I have about three solid pages worth to ink and about a page left to thumbnail. The end is almost in sight. I want to get it all sketched before I start inking. Thumbnailing in the afternoon and drawing at night is giving a great pace. Tomorrow I won't be able to work but Thursday I have a big lump of time. Hopefully I'll get all the thumbnails done in that four hour period. Then I will just have to hold up Friday and Saturday and work my butt off. I can do this!!

Monday, April 6, 2009

it ain't sweet tasting, I tell you what

16 panels penciled in two hours. Pretty good for a late start. I also ran out of thumbnails. Which means my goal during the break tomorrow is to print the assignment for Digital and thumbnail the rest of my script. I don't want to ink till I have all the pencils done. Just so I can do them all at once and build up a good pace, you know? It takes longer to work up the nerve to work than it does to get things done.

BEAUTIFUL DAY! Holy cow. Sunny and warm. I dressed for the weather and was quite satisfied. Lightweight pants just below the knee and a tee. I was pretty chill.

Illustration was another round of critiques with the more finalized sketches. It dragged a little but there were some cool middle work. I guess spending more time in this stage is better because once you are finished, you are finished. This is the point at which you can help people to make a pretty piece of art.

For lunch I got a drink and a lean cuisine. A not quite filling lunch but more affordable. Madeline and I crashed in the library and played with these design blocks. It was fun but it went quick.

During class we just worked on our flyers for Zachary Baldus' assignment. I settled on a Bad Taste Costume Party. So I drew three people in costume posing for a photo. It could have been in worse bad taste but as is, I got some good laughs and entertained my crew. Which is good. I drew a freckled dude dressed as Hitler with an arm around a smoking, drinking pregnant lady and Jon Benet Ramsey. Baldus loved it, even if JBR didn't read quite so well at first (it is hard when people are dressed up). I should have drawn the "pregnant" ladies' pillow under her shirt sticking out. Anyway, it was fun if a little in bad taste (but that was the theme). There were some groovy things and some unfinished things. Robin's cake decorating party was rendered insanely good. Trusty Ticonderoga. It was a fun class, aided by the fact that we had air conditioning available to us.

I went home to work on the comic. Took a while to get to it, but I did. Gabe made tacos.

Illustration Assignment: Coles Phillips Concept Sketches



Some of the preliminary sketches for my current Illustration Studio class. We are to do a Cole Phillips cutaway style image. The skirt, the arms, and the headband are designed to not have an outline and are defined by the negative shapes. The top image was the second, more formal sketch, and the bottom is the third drawn with references (which Katie was nice enough to pose for).

Sunday, April 5, 2009

blog post #666

Friday:
Got up bright and early and stuffed my weekend things into my Trader Joe's bag and set out at 1:00am to catch a 2:50 train. Very early set out. Stopped by Plaid Pantry and got some snackums for the train ride. It was sunny and I got very warm very quick. Picked up a hotdog at the station and chilled. There was a slight freakout when I heard a train was having problems but it was only the one that was Southbound. Got into my window seat and set out on time with no problems. Hurray! Read Graveyard Book and thumbnailed my script and did lots of fun things to spend the time.

Llyw was waiting with Meiji and Pocari Sweat(a drink, it is good and not sweaty at all) and all was good. It was a bright, beautiful day and the weekend kept shining. We dropped our things off and lounged about. Dinner was tacos handmade from stuff bought from the nearby Safeway. College kids, not art school kids, are so different looking. And they buy a lot of cheap beer. We nibbled on food and watched The Illusionist and eventually went to sleep.

Saturday:
Another beautiful day. Breakfast was quesedilla and eggs scrambled with last nights leftover taco meat. We had a later snack of Bubble Tea. I shook mine up and the plastic cracked and spilled green stuff all over my lap and shirt. Hoping to find a replacement shirt, we went to Buffalo Exchange. I did not find a shirt but did find a great deal on a sweater (50% off because the season is ending)and suspenders. The shirt and pants dried with no stain so that was fortunate.

Big Fish Games, the company Llyw works for, was having an office party. They were going to have it during Christmas time but the weather called a halt to that. We arrived fashionably lateish. I was in my floral velvet dress and tights and the only heels I can pretend to walk in. I checked my jacket and Llyw held onto my ID. But I wasn't carded anyway. Amazing the trust that exists in Seattle. Met a wide variety of nice and cool looking coworkers. Started things with a Long Island Iced Tea to speed away the awkward-being-in-a-huge-unfamiliar-group feeling. And it zoomed away. It wasn't that well made though. Anyway. Met more people down in the concert area. Rockaroke was scheduled. It is Karaoke with a live band backing the singer. A lot of people were very good (or the music was very loud and I was a little bit tipsy). Llyw performed Tainted Love. There was Buddy Holly and Rock and Roll and a ton of other things. Some prizes were given away by the fairly inebriated CEO (who wore slacks that were way too baggy and made him look very stunted and short).

It was very fun and we stayed all the way through. Then at the end Llyw checked his pockets and oh no, my ID had gone missing! We checked all the areas he had been, checked the coat check and the bar and all around multiple times and it was nowhere to be seen. Fortunately I have my passport. Hopefully it will show up in the next couple days. If not, I'll have to make another trip to Vancouver and get another one made up. Major bummer. So that put a damper on the rest of the night.

Sunday:
Last day. Brilliant day. Insanely sunny and warm day. 77 degrees out! What the hell? No word about the ID. We had orange rolls for breakfast and walked over to Trabant and had Italian sodas and played Mancala. Then we took a lengthy walk down to the water and all about while I sweated and wanted fish and chips. None were to be had because we caught the 4:28 bus downtown and ended up in the International District at 5 and I had to board right away. The lady in front of me had a Sandman sleeve tattoo and a Hellboy sleeve on the other arm. They were really well done.

The ride was uneventful but it went quick. I took a nap and read and ate another Hot Dog. Missed one Max but only had to wait five minutes for the next. It was a warm night and very quiet with no crazy people to be had. Now I'm back. The weekend went by so fast. Now it is time to work again.

I must admit, it was nice to take a break from the writing thing, even though I know how much you all enjoy it and look forward to it (you all being my family mostly).