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Friday, April 24, 2009

grease is the word

Another day with a tad misjudged weather. Dressed in light short pants and shirt and a hoodie and I should have worn full pants and maybe a thicker coat. Anyway, I stayed inside most of the time anyway.

Solved my cube for real for the first time! We got more group theory (closure, identity, associativity, and that other one). We also got the grading rundown. If it takes us under 10 minutes to solve the cube without notes, we get an A. With notes it is a B. I can do it real fast with notes. Well, I haven't solved it again since. It kinda broke open during a twist and I think I put in a piece upside down (which I didn't think would matter). Anyway, trying to solve it. I solved Madeline's cube so I know I can do it.

I wasn't feeling too good so I mostly just sat at a table in the library and talked to who came and went. Mostly Jon and Terry. Well, mostly Jon. Cool guy. We both agree drawing ladies is much more fun.

Had some meager lunch munchins. Didn't have much of an appetite, I just had to get something in me.

Digital tools was goofy. We went over thumbnails an rough sketches and joked about ideas. A lot of people were just in a laughing mood (or a weird car discussion mood). I left a little early because Madeline called and said she had an extra ticket to see Grease at the Keller Auditorium! It is the travelling version with that Taylor Hicks fellow who was on American Idol a few years back.

Anyway, changed into much needed warm clothes and pedaled down to 3rd and waited for Madeline to show. We had balcony seats but she came with binoculars. It was a fun show. NOT the high school edit. The binocs allowed me to see the actual expressions and sheen of sweat as they performed under the lights. I do hope Madeline has extra tickets in the future for shows. Whee musicals! Made me think of Ma.

Anyway, when I got back Katie and Nicky were watching Fatal Attraction so I sat with them and watched that. Okay, if the police tell you that a crazy stalker lady can't be found, why do you leave your wife alone for longer than a minute? Like, go on vacation or something. I get that you don't want to show that you are afraid of the crazy stalker but come on! It had some lovely direction.

I'm going up to Seattle for this weekend. Going to see Bloc Party, going to hang with Llyw, going to kick back and relax before returning to Portland for final projects. It is focus week, which means everyone is giving Thesis so I get a few solid days to just work (with exception of the proposals that I see).

To do:
Digital Illustration! (just need references, a tablet, my headphones and I am good to go)
Screen Print! (three of the transfers are on one screen and the final just needs to be applied, four colors in an edition of under 38? Please, I could always add a few more stripes if I see fit)
Revised sketches, color compositions, light passing by paintings for Illustration! (a little more tricky, I just need to sit and work)
Rubik's cube practice!



Anyway, like I said. I will be up in Seattle so I probably won't be blogging. Full report Sunday night.

How to solve a Rubik's Cube (or what I have to remember, in order, so that I can):
R'D'RD
URU'R'U'F'UF
U'L'ULUFU'F'
FRUR'U'F'
RUR'URUUR'
URU'L'UR'U'L
R'D'RD

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Fortune Cookie Concept Sketches



In class, Joe gave us a fortune cookie to determine our next assignment. Mine was "The next full moon brings an enchanting evening" or something like that. Here are my initial idea sketches: me getting attacked by a werewolf, dusktime demon hunter who looks a lot like a certain friend, pretty lady, pretty lady about to assassin a guy with a fortune cookie.

Marker and micron in flimsy moleskin.

rumbly in my belly

12:30 already? Oh they day just went by.

Woke up early and sat around on the computer while waiting for things to happen.

Left at 10:30 to get paper. Bought 13 large sheets of Stonehenge paper, which later turned out to be twice as much because I misunderstood what a "half sheet" was. Now I can do twice as many prints! Or do the amount I was thinking of and save the paper (that was Karen's suggestion, been thinking about it more actually even though I blew it off a little when she first suggested it which was mean. I think I've been more mean lately. Maybe stress, maybe irregular eating habits).

Printmaking was half productive but half counterproductive. I have my transfers and stencils cut and ready. All that is good to go. I just had a lot of trouble getting the flat color to work. In the end, after about an hour or twos worth of effort and piles of newsprint, I decided to nix the idea of a flat background and just go for the stripes and Luna design. Yeah, I'm doing Luna art. Actually people really did my representation of her and her recent weight gain.

It was mellow. Had a mellow little lunch in the library. Talked to Jim. Worked on my cube.

I got some silkscreen ink on my favorite shirt but I caught it just in time and washed it off. I just changed into my yoga shirt for the rest of the day.

Yoga was nice but my tummy was hungry.

Gabe made lamb thing. It was tasty.

I did two loads of laundry, now I am set on clean tees and pants and everything else. Hurray!

Finished Arrested Development. Yeah I liked it but it got so disjointed in the end. Now I have to put my laundry away if I wish to sleep in my bed tonight.

Oh, I also entered a couple things into the Illustration Juried show. I totally failed at how to submit things though.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Katie With Jade Plants


15"x22".
Four color silk screen on Stonehenge paper.

blarg

I solved my Rubik's cube for the first time today! All though it happened by sheer happenstance. I didn't use the last algorithm to solve the thing. We got all of the little codes in class to solve it. I can the first few memorized to solve one layer and I am getting better at solving the second. I'm happy I have a slick cube that moves. Trying to work with Karen's is a pain. It is so herky jerky and stiff.

During the break I worked on the cube. Robin and I took a walk to get a free cone for Ben and Jerry's free scoop day. It was a brilliant and sunny day. All warm and perfect for ice cream nibbles in the park blocks.

Upon return to school, I sat with Nathalie at the fancy table and benches. Amanda came and joined us. Then Karen. Then Bryan pulled up a chair. Jim lingered. It was neat.

Critique went well for me. Mostly nitpicks and questions about weighing the importance of the bus versus the larger meaning of the cars. It was a brilliant day and we were given the option of staying in or leaving early. I was going to stay in but then I got an invite for Margaritas from Ursula, Amanda, Karen, Nathalie, Terry, and Erin. I decided to go for it. I've been so good.

Karen, Ursula, and I rode our bikes over to Mazatlan and were the first to get there and spent some time pushing different tables together and irking the waitstaff. I should not listen to people when they suggest orders for me. I started with a Fiesta which was a nice cocktail. When the second round came up, I was urged to get this drink that came in a bowl. And came in a bowl it did. Nathalie helped but still that thing kinda knocked me on my butt. It was a long meander back to the Goose with Karen. Long long long. A sad little baseball game was playing at PGE Park.

And then I crashed on the couch. I got some teasing from Gabe and Katie but they were overall nice and gave me some Ibuprofen and chilled ice water. Spring focus week is almost here. I don't have much due this week (if anything). Just have to work on my screenprint. Will probably head out early and get some paper. Also need to document some work for the Illustration Juried Show.

Monday, April 20, 2009

time to rest

Back to school after such a very long but wonderful weekend.

A brilliant and beautiful day greeted me this morning. It was all sunny and warm and stuff.

It was a quick little sum up of the color studies and thumbnails. Not a lot of people were able to get them done. Robin did. Hers were excellent and photorealistic from a distance. We teased her a little and then I felt bad. We were only teasing because she was totally awesome and we were totally projecting our own anxieties about our performance. Yeah. We all adore Robin, we mean no harm.

Anyhoo, lunch greeted us early and I got Yo's chicken and sat with Daniel and Vanessa on the loading dock. There was quite a bit of wandering inside and out and all about. And oh shoot I just realised I left half the paper I bought for today's assignment in the classroom. Oh well, I don't think anyone will nab it. Anyway, the rest of class was this rather fun mixed media assignment where through the course of it she would instruct us to switch mediums and switch the orientation of the piece. Mine turned out cool but I liked the initial sketch much better. But it was a nice day and we got out early.

The Goose Hollow people FINALLY found the package that Aunty Celia sent me for my birthday. It has this amazing hat which is now a little out of season, but only because it is wool. It is too neat to not be in season:

Also my hair is getting so long. The longest it has ever been in my life and probably the healthiest it has been in years.

Kevin bleached his hair and now looks like me, crica 2006 when I tried to bleach it by hand. Remember? My graduation? Yeah. Well, I think he can rock it. He has some good looks in his closet.

Anyway, yeah we collaged and the fair weather bikers came out in droves. And moron bikers. Who text and wobble while biking. Dumb butt. So many bikers being all la la la when it is sunny. Where are they when it is cloudy and cold and raining? No where! Probably driving a car.

I spent the rest of the day resting and recuperating from the intense week. Ate a lovely dinner from Gabe, watched Arrested Development. Solved the top part of my cube, again. I can't wait to learn the second part!

There is an Illustration Juried show. I needa document some work and submit. Or else Thom will just grab it all. Hmmnn.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

My First Stumptown (as a seller)

Stumptown Comics Fest: 2009. Third year attending, first year selling. First time EVER selling my work for reals.

Saturday:
Rolled out of bed after such a long day working on the print. I hopped on the Max and arrived at a little bit before 10am. I stood in line for a little while before realizing that exhibitors can go right on. Got my badge and found the PNCA tables. Tables. Two. Two whole big tables for Lacey, August, PNCA stuff, and myself. No one else was there. I spread out my comic on half the table and showed many different formats. Lacey showed up just a little after I did and set up. No one else was there still. Daniel came with the PNCA pamphlets but there was no one coming with a set up. NO ONE! We had a couple comics spread out across a full table. Some people stuffed a half table with more than we were offering. It was a rather silly looking display. Very weak. But we still sold. Lacey would edge a comic along every now and again. She sold minis. I was selling mine for $2 so it sold really easy. People were impressed by the format and the colors and how unusual it was. I made a lot of on the spot sales. Sure I got the, "I'm just doing the rounds" line and the "I'll come back later because it is big and I don't want to crush it" stuff. And about four people did come back and buy it. So great. It sold. It sold well. I made about $45 the first day and about the same the second. It was a nice little return and it felt good to get my stuff out there.

I saw Keith Knight speak about the comics business. Jeff Smith was giving his lecture at the same time so Knight's was a tad vacant. Which actually worked out well for me because he recognized me afterwards and we talked and he bought one of my comics! Farel bought one. Jesse Reklaw bought one. Greg Means, who edits Papercutter, bought one. He was apparently showing it to other people all over the place. Some people came to my table looking for it because they saw it around.

I traded some and gave some away with chocolate. I'm not all that attached to it.

August took his sweet time showing up. Lacey and I had our pitches down. We would do one and the other and pimp each other out and trade off. It was a nice little enthusiastic show. August was shy or whatever and we didn't really sell anything when we left the table. I sold one when we took a half hour for lunch. You gotta make eye contact and smile and talk and talk and talk and show off the wares. I got some great reactions when I opened the whole thing out to its unfolded glory.

Jason (Dagit, not Powell) stopped by to support me and he got a comic. That was nice. He invited me out for drinks with him and a couple friends later on.

A lovely lady with the last name of Yanow and I chatted a lot.

Jim had a cozy little nook, he bought a comic. Bryan over payed but I bought one of his first, as well as 1-4 of BT's Otto Zeplin comic. I stopped by Farel's table a bunch. He had a lovely set up and was one of the honored guests.

Talked to Martine Workman, who was delightful and lovely. Dame Darcy was there and I was giddy. I love her work!

Kenan Rubenstein loved my comic so much and we traded. He had this epic calendar style format and the comic unfolded over a year and you turned the pages like a calender. It was really nice. He was super nice. He had a sort of fold out comic like mine, just smaller. He really loved Lacey's work as well. A lot of people did. The people that connected with it really loved it. It was awesome.

Thom and Dom showed up and sat at our table and brought some of the late afternoon energy. They also payed paper money for my comic. So awesome! I love being supported by my friends.

We stayed all the way through till 6pm, when things shut down. I had invites to the Cosmic Monkey party but I decided to chill with Jason instead. I met them at Lompac at 7:30. I rode my bike there as it was at 23rd and Raleigh. We had pitchers. I had fish and chips. Me his friends Sandeep and Chris. We drank and talked and laughed and were loud and I think some of the other patrons didn't like us. But we were making fun of them. Well mostly this one girl and guy. The guy wanted nothing to do with this girl but she was pawing him and sitting in his lap and all but throwing herself at him. He just sat there and ignored her and pretended like she wasn't there. It was kinda funny. We finished up there (I waved to my friend Michael on the way out, he was far from us and probably didn't notice me because I was with math majors and forestry chris). We went to the Matador for a nicer drink in a nicer place. I don't know how it happened but we left at 1:30am. It became a sudden long night. Sandeep lives a block from my place and Jason and Chris were crashing at his place so we all walked to the Goose Hollow region together. I really should have payed better attention to the time because 2am and 7:40am wake up do not go together.

Sunday:
UHG! So horrible getting up. It was a slug and a trudge and crawl. I stuffed some stuff in my face that made up some semblance of a breakfast and was late out the door. I got there right at 10:00. Not early but not late. Not late as I was the first one there again and Lacey the second. I brought blankets so now our setup looks a lot nicer and a little less pathetic.

I managed to make some rounds to creators and really talked to people. Talked to Jon Chad and he had some awesome format comics. One was about descending into caves. We traded. I talked to so many people and got such a wide variety, some of what happened is going to blur together. Most of the Greg Means stuff happened today I think. Today was fueled by sugar and adrenaline. Bought the set of Ouija Board Interview comics from Sarah Becan. She came by and got my comic as well. He talked and it was lovely.

Karen stopped by. She got my comic for free because, well duh, I couldn't have finished it without her screens. Farel gave her a print to give to me. He also gave her one. What an awesome fella!

Madeline was there and picked up a comic. So awesome! She said someone mentioned to her that she was walking with an awesome comic (when they saw her with it) and she hella name dropped me as her friend. Ha! She is so cool.

Talked to these lovely fellas with a castle set up display for their comics. We traded. Will Iversen and Dan Bouse I believe they were.

It was great to feel like my comic was being shown around and considered awesome. I traded a lot. I wanted a wide range of people to have it. And it seemed like they were eager to take it. Greg said cartoonists thought it was awesome. Some bought it as an inspiration for printing. It was, well, wonderful. I was this ecstatic feeling. I sold really well. I am at about 10 copies right now. I sold around 46. Gave away or traded maybe about 20. Hard to say. Didn't keep the best of track.

A guy gave me a card asking if I was interested in an internship. He said I seemed to know what I was doing. Lacey sold all of her comics and had a strong interest from local bookstores who might carry it.

Now I just need to think of a new, cool format. Or keep doing it like this. Make a niche for myself as the massive format comic girl. Cheap and creative. It also helps to talk and smile and network and introduce myself.

I was in a daze. Flustered and stuttering and it was so hard to get my pitch but I still sold. In the end I made $93 and Lacey made around $172. Pretty awesome for our first go.

August showed up for barely 2 hours. It was frustrating having to have to trade off the whole day. You don't want to stay at the table the whole time.

Oh and one of the models at school was selling her comic, Erika, she was really cool.

There were just so many awesome people who were psyched. I've used the word awesome a lot of times but that was what it was: AWESOME! My friends came and supported me, strangers liked my work, editors and professionals dug it.

Now I just need access to a screenprinting studio. Gotta get into the comic GAME YO!

Went back home on the Max with Lacey. Gabe made dinner. I am exhausted but have to pull up the stupid freaking Illustration assignment that was impossible for me to do half of it (how can I take pictures of the same inanimate object at noon and 3am when I'm at school or printing or selling my wares?). Argh. I'll do as much as I can but my heart just isn't in it. I WANNA SELL MORE AND PARTY! So much went down this weekend. I wish I could write it all but it is hard. I met so many people.

long day, late night

I had a long day and afterwards I went out for drinks and I just got back and its 2am so I don't feel like trying to recount the whole day right now.

But I'll say this: it went very very well! I sold a lot of comics and made like almost $50. Which is good for this type of thing. I'm selling it for 2$ so the price is right.

It's going good. Full recount tomorrow.