working 11 to 8:15.

The print lab was crowded yet still functional. Everyone was in different cycles and occupied different parts of the room. Still it was busy. Lots of trouble shooting. Lots of "egads, why is it not printing right" and so on. I on the other hand was almost done and not having really any issues, having had to sort them out a week ago. I drew on my screen and while that was drying I mixed up the jade green. I should have started fresh and made it opaque so that it would layer less suspiciously on top of the other layers. Oh well, my bad. It still looks good. Got the emulsion on it and exposed it with Patsy's at the same time right before lunch. Set the puppy out to dry and went to Quizno's.

Comic club had a small turnout. I introduced the pictionary telephone game. It isn't that hard to explain? I made a tiny little speech bubble flyer to canvas the school with in interesting spots (a flyer away from flyers draws more attention than one amid the rest).

Printing went quick but I got so speedy I got a little sloppy and the last layer was more crooked than it should have been. I could have had more lined up correctly but I didn't I got sloppy. Oh well. The two color edition turned out nice. Gave one to Madeline. Her litho is looking purdy. I introduced her to the curved wood used to rest your hand when drawing. She was happy about that.

Read and internetted while waiting for Yoga. I did fairly well in yoga despite being two weeks out of it. I was a little tight but the twists did me good. I scarfed the rest of my Quizno's after.

It was raining heavily all day. I had my rain pants with me and they served me well on the ride to school (which I did with Karen who was leaving at the same time. Very fun. She is a semi-fair weather biker now! Go her!). When I left the school, at 8:45pm, it was dry! Dry dry dry! Hurray.

Now I'm decompressing and assessing all that I have to do tomorrow.

Oh, also gave Dominic one of the two color prints. And Serenity. They are going fast.

too ontop of the game

Liz, Karen and I banded together and discussed our ideas for our crop circle. Liz had some ideas worked out already so that was way cool. We settled on this rather biohazardian symbol. We aim to do it in the commons with chalk and sand. It will be very very temporary. We shall start practicing Thursday.

After that I went to work on my screen. Had to buy a brush because I left mine at home but that was probably for the better as now I have one specifically for the drawing fluid. And it is longer than my watercolor brushes so that makes it easier to get some of the spots. Between class and lunch I got it all drawn and dried and the emulsion applied. Left it to dry in the exposure room and then it was student council time!

Not much went down. We got this furniture we budgeted for three semesters ago. Some guerrilla gardening was brought up. We are getting a Foosball table. Then it was back to printing!

The line work looked great. Very clean and exactly what I wanted. I mixed up a ton of my color. Like, way too much and I had to split it into two plastic containers. The printing went really fast and it registered fairly well for the most part. It is looking quite awesome. I am excited for it to be finished. I just powered right through that sucker. I had tons of ink and time left so I bought some more paper and printed 16 smaller bleed prints (when the image runs off the paper). So when I am done, I will have 20 four color prints and 16 two color. The 20 will probably end up being a nice edition 6-8, about 7-9 unique prints that are still cool on their own, and then the remainder just being stuff I screwed up on too much or tester. I feel good about it. Silk screening isn't causing the frustration that other printmaking mediums tend to. All I have to do tomorrow is apply more of the drawing fluid, apply the emulsion, expose it, mix up the final color, and then ink that sucker. I should be done early as it takes no time at all to print.

I got it all clean in time for digital illustration. We had the pop challenge thing. I watched House while working on it. Then I finished up my Coles Phillips piece. Joe came by and said that removing the background pattern was a breath of fresh air. I agree. It did look better with just the smooth blue. I reworked the knee and that part I'm still iffy on. I never collected a reference.

Went to Safeway and picked up soap and shampoo and detergent and other things that feel like they cost a lot but last a long time so in the long run it isn't so bad.

Put things away. Ate dinner. Emptied dishwasher. I can finally return to yoga tomorrow. So happy.

Lovely Cardigan

Final version of the cardigan Coles Phillips piece (sans text). Got rid of the texture, it was deemed too much.

1500x1200 pixels. Photoshop.

quick fire challenge: lady

600x900. Quick fire popquiz digital challenge. We had to recreate this fashionable figure lady.

people need to wash their hands

Okie doke! Back to it and I'm feeling fine. I wore a skirt and it was chilly. Figures. Still, I looked good.

Joe has the flu! Again! Poor fella. We went over our sketches and had time in class to refine our ideas. Mine were generally well received, it probably helped that I had a range. Kevin amazes me every time he whips out his sketches. Boys got talent. Dominic is doing some flowerflage. Like camouflage but with flowers. Gabe found some Quiznos coupons so I used one for my lunch. $2 off a large! Hooyah! Sat with Madeline and Leah and Kody in the library. Talked about au juice sauce and where it comes from.

Joe and Farel's buddy Zachary Baldus came in to show us his stuff and give us an assignment. He is being recruited as a new teacher in the illustration program so this is giving him a little test run. We have a week and a bit to do a flyer for a theme party. I have ideas. In true Illustration Major fashion, once it was clear nothing more was going down everyone took off at 4:10. Dominic and I hung around and chatted with Zachary. Never hurts to make connections.

Then that was that. Watched movies. Read book. Worked on sketches. Had to prepare my own dinner as Gabe is off at his parents. Wahh!!

Tomorrow is math and student council and digital painting (if Joe isn't too sick). Also will work on my silk screen. Get ahead! That is my goal. Whooo!

taking notes

Threw myself at my sketches and script for one last push through the dredges of Spring Break. Got a few more lines of dialogue. Just pushing through it. It isn't so bad. It really is the hardest part. I could probably get all the inking and panels done in a week if I could just get this SCRIPT FINISHED ARGGGHH!! Yeah. Doing that.

Sat for hours with movies and TV playing while I sketched out some ideas and looked at art books. I'm so over thinking this project. Just thinking and thinking. Forcing ideas. It isn't fresh anymore. But I did get a cool character out of it.

I woke up early again. Freaking whiskey sour. I wanna sleep in!! Well it will help me get to bed right tonight.

Gabe made claw chowder but I'm not a chowder type. Also Katie started feeling ill so maybe it was for the best I didn't have any. It has been fun this spring break, just the three of us lounging about. It hasn't been fun having to be cared for when I was really really really sick.

Have some nice sketches. I feel fairly confidant about it. Back to the school stuff tomorrow! Holla! I have to crank out some stuff because I'll be up in Seattle this weekend. I'm ahead in the printing which is the most labor intensive part (it also requires me to be there). So printing is school dependant, and if I can get the script finished I can print that out and do the thumbnails wherever.

little day

Slept in to counter the early morning last night. Slept way way in. Sketched out some stuff. Watched JCVD properly. Sketched more stuff. Went to Scooter's with Katie and Gabe and got a cheap whiskey sour. Then we went to Jake's and had some stuff off the happy hour menu. I had a $3 cheeseburger and fries! We sat with some former coworker's of Gabes. It was really fun. The drink was on an empty tummy so I was like woaaaah when eating my burger. Still a little now. Anyway. Watching Princess Bride with them now. It was a fun little day. Katie made cookies and Gabe helped.

Tomorrow is the last day of spring break. Have to whip out those scripts.

JCVD is Jean Claude Van Damme in a serious role. He is playing himself and it is really good.

step off my 'turf yo!

My alarm went off at 7:50am. I slept in till about 8:40 and bounded out of bed to shower and pack snacks. I got to the printing labs at 9:30. Karen and I were going to silkscreen together but she was a noshow (other work had to be done). With a better squeegee and a new mix of ink, I actually got some decent pulls! And some, uhh, not so decent ones. It is about 50/50 right now. But I won't judge till I finish it up. I'll probably have a lot of singular looking ones that are still neat on their own.

I was mostly by myself for the whole day, mostly. The print aid, whose name I can never figure out, was there and mixed up massive batches of transparency base and process and opaque inks. Nice and fresh! And clumpy. My ink had little white splotches in but they didn't effect the printing too much. I managed to get two colors of 20 prints each done! I'm half way done! In one long day's worth of work. 9:30-5. But with breaks for food and waiting for things to dry. I reread almost the first two volumes of Scott Pilgrim while waiting for things to dry. It is nice when it is vacant because you can really spread out. So yeah, 20 prints. 10 on white and 10 on creme. I think I like the creme better. They are 11x17, 15x22 with the border. Very sizeable. I'm not looking forward to trying to print when there are classmates. I might try to whip out another color tomorrow. Ain't no thang to show up to class and be all "Yeah, I only have one layer and a week to do it. BOOYAH." I don't want to gossip but the majority of the screens of my classmates look untouched.

Rainbow was in the studio for a bit. She had free AstroTurf to hand out. I totally got a little bit of it! It sits proudly as a mat on my balcony right now. It is awesome. I'm so classy.

I reread the first four volumes of Scott Pilgrim today. Now Gabe is reading them. Watched Royal Tenenbaums as well. Good but sad.

SO MUCH PRINTING!!

screen and cut

My back has been hurting me. If I turn to the left it spasms. It is really painful but not constant so I can't really take an Advil for it.

Went in to silk screen today. Got my screen emulsified, my paper bought and cut, and all that. My screen exposed alright. I'm going for the soft, jagged edges effect. Karen was around and we chatted but otherwise the studio was very vacant. I managed to get the color that I wanted but I had serious issues getting it to go through my screen. I just don't have the arm strength for that size of work. Hopefully it will get better. Just have to practice.

Didn't do much else. Gabe made pizza.

Tomorrow I will be going in with Karen and getting an early morning printing session in. Hopefully it will go better.

chocolate badness

Just when I got better I get worse. Gabe made some hot chocolate that was just too thick and had a tad too much sugar in it. Made me so nauseous.

One good work day is followed by a nonwork day. I wrote down lots of things to try and generate ideas but nothing came to mind. Just did little drawings of Luna and Gabe and Katie.

Had a weird dream about a zombie invasion. I entered a building and this wolf attacked the desk clerk. I went into the elevator and Batman came out eating coleslaw. I wanted to go to the top floor, and the elevator only had one button. For that floor. I woke up in a scared panic and sat in bed quite numb. I went back to bed and fell into another vacant dreamscape. This person I was travelling with had Lee Pace in a box and was deceiving me.

I've been reading Another Roadside Attraction. It's an awesome old school paperback. $3.50 at Powell's. Right on.

cue Eye of The Dragon

I woke up this morning with INSANE energy! I'm better! I stuffed toast in my gob and drank tea and wore not pajamas! It is so lovely not being bed and couch ridden.

The first thing I did was my math homework. Which isn't due for a week! A whole week! We had to redo one of Zef Damen's crop circle reconstructions. This guy Zef, all he does is redo crop circles in proper math constructions. Shows how the people (or Aliens) who design crop circles do it. Pretty sweet actually. I had to restart about 21 steps in because the paper was too small and I goofed early on. The restart took less time though because I had figured out how to make some of the shapes needed. I used markers to color in the final construction so that I could still leave all the many pencil marks.

Then I took a break and watched telly.

Gabe made massive chili for dinner. And made me chicken soup. Because he is awesome. I put in Hot Fuzz and wrote out ideas for a new silk screen. Then I drew and colored in the one I liked.

Banana, math, chicken soup, silk screen layout, saltines, candy. I'm in good shape!

Katie and Jade Plants Layout

Layout for the reductive silk screen project (redone to be something a tad more interesting and less Coles Phillips). Katie with jade plants growing out of her head. Need I say more? The colors are not the colors that the silk screen will be, they are just a test so I know how things will lay.

11"x17". Graphite and watercolor.

day three

Feeling much better!

Even managed to take my bike out for a quick ride to Trader Joe's and back. Got veggies and oatmeal. Now I can munch my way to good health! Sadly I got the wrong type of granola bar but they are still good.

I'm eating larger and larger portions and keeping it all down. I finished up the inking on my comics so now all I have to do is proceed on the writing. I took a lengthy nap in the middle of the day and will likely go to bed early. Lots of rest, lots of water.

Katie and Gabe made Laab. I was only able to stomach the sticky rice. I can't wait till I'm healthy and can eat all this fabulous cooking!

still sick

I'm still sick. Keeping hydrated alright but I have no appetite whatsoever.

Just sitting about, wallowing.

Katie is awesome. She is taking awesome care of me. Got me 7up and saltines!

This is still the worst feeling ever. Uhhg. Two days lost!

sickness

I got food poisoning last night (probably from Montage). 12 hours of vomit. Little breaks of rest. Trying to keep hydrated.

It really sucks.

the lovely visitor and what we did

Inked in another page and a half worth of panels. Almost got it. If I get the rest of the script done by Wednesday, I should be golden. I can get the rest drawn in no time at all. All this stress better be worth it!

Dear Auntie Dorothy is in town for a conference tonight so we met up for dinner and a lengthy Portland stroll. She said she would be out of meetings at around 5 or 6 so I caught the max to Lloyd at 5:20. At around 6:30 I got a call saying she was at her hotel, about 12 blocks away from Lloyd so I got to walking. I'm so rarely in North East. Saw a bread making plant and walked by one of the TBA venues. We met up on Burnside and hugged and made our way further South to Montage.

It was actually open this time and we got a little table at a table section of three (they put people elbow to elbow). We gabbed about school and work and all those little things. I had the buttermilk fried drumsticks and she had the beans and rice. There are many things that I would like to try on the menu, it is very diverse. My leftovers came in a snail design. Very cool!

After the walk to Montage, we trekked across the Morrison Bridge. It was a misting sort of rain. From there we walked in a series of lefts and rights towards PNCA. The school closed at 10 and we got there at 9:10. I showed off our printing studios (and some of my prints) and the art on the walls. A quick little run down. From there we strolled along 10th and grabbed some gelato to top off the night. And there we hugged and parted. It was a nice little lovely visit with tons of walking (and for once someone keeps MY pace).

Now I'm enjoying some tea and really noticing how much energy I used during the day. Whoo!

party in cancun! and by cancun I mean the pearl district

Spring break! Yeaah! Whoo!

Math was spent in a computer lab. We looked at some construction geometry computer programs and crop circles. Our new assignment is to make a crop circle and reproduce it really big like.

Then it was break time! I sat in a classroom and worked on my screenprint layouts. Then it was free lunch May Day Soiree planning party. We talked about music and decorations. When I say we, I mean they. I didn't have much to contribute.

Then I was kicked out of the lab by the teacher (which I thought was silly because there were 10 students in there and it was clearly a studio work period). So I found another computer and worked there on my digital piece. I worked till about 5 and went home. Whoo! SPRING BREAK!!!

Watched some TV. Met up with Matt at Goose Hollow Inn and we had a couple drinks and watched The Office (meh) and 30 Rock. Matt is almost graduating, I'll be sad to see him leave Portland.

Katie had a little girly party with her friends.

Dorothy! Tomorrow! Can't wait. I think I will take her to Montage. Shhh it's a surprise.

Cardigan

A near final version for the Coles Phillips Digital Illustration assignment. Just tweaking the color and the lines that form the negative space a bit.

1200x100. Photoshop.

Screen Print Image Test

Some different compositions and tests for my first screenprint project. It is a little reductive so I wanted to lay it out before I began. I'm not sure about the clouds. Another Coles Phillips inspired piece. I'm on a real kick right now.

Photoshop. About an hour and a half.

painin

I got cramps really bad and they persisted all through the day. So bad I couldn't do yoga, and you know how much I love yoga.

Daniel showed up late for the comic meeting but Lacey and August and I started our discussion early. Things went over pretty well. I just need to keep churning out panels.

Printmaking was five hours of instruction. Hour and a half about spreading the emulsion and the introduction of our assignments. Quizno's lunch with Madeline in the library. And then many more hours of printing explanation, using the waterbased stuff and assignment explanation. It took so long. Thankfully I had a preexplanation from Karen a while back. The irk in the stomach was very distracting. I walked home with Diana. Then I self medicated and curled up and watched telly. Nothing due tomorrow. Just have to bring in the tablet and a notebook.

Almost Spring Break! One more day! And Llyw says Auntie Dorothy

the other green day

Katie, Gabe and I went out for some Saint Patty's Day drinks. Gabe was buying. Whiskey sours. I was in no state to write when I got back but seeing as how there is all this lovely art to look at, I'd say it isn't so bad. There were some English guys at Scooter's and at first we thought they were using fake accents to pick up the ladies. Later when talking to one of them (Matt) he showed us his English driver's license. Oops our bad. We talked about Red Dwarf and other things. The place has crazy loud music so that wasn't so much fun. Katie is awesome. She locked elbows with me all the way home (which wasn't that long of a walk, only about 8 blocks). She is awesome.

We did paper folding in math. Just simple little exercises to try and better learn the concepts. Maybe to reconstruct the principals we are learning in a different kind of visual format. I got a handle of it pretty quick so I spent about 45 minutes telling Derek Franklin my jokes and playing hangman.

Made photocopies and chilled in the library.

Student council was uneventful. We are going to stage a protest to try and get some money from someone was payed money to a year and a half ago.

Worked on the thumbnails between the second part of my break. Just whipped them out. I have a whole list of ideas. I'm going to rework a few of them for my Illustration class.

The class itself didn't have that much to it. We went over our thumbnails. I got an explanation about creating brushes. We worked on our backdrops for another hour and then it was a "stay and work or leave" option. I stayed and worked. The security desk made a big fuss about me returning the tablet to them so I took it home. Well I also didn't want to just leave it in the lab, just in case of the possibility of something happening.

At home I inked about half of my sketched panels. And when I went over my script, it turns out I have like half of the story sketched! Well half of the outline. There is more action coming up but the dialogue is relatively simple. Huzzah! That was a good feeling. I'm on track. I returned Two Towers and borrowed Snatch. During the viewing of which Gabe made me a big sandwich with chicken and lots of other stuff. It was good.

And then we went out. It was not raining in the evening as the clouds had expelled it all earlier.

Cardigan

I'm going with the cardigan. Rendered at 1200x1200. Photoshop.

Belgium!

Two hour digital illustration quiz! Based after a photo from our trip to Brussels. Mural copyright Herge.

After Coles Phillips - Idea Sketches

Digital thumbnail sketches for the new Digital Illustration project. A quick critique will help me decide which concept to do. I'm like the towel and jetpack one. I'm doing this same project for another class so the ideas might double up slightly. Ha!

An hour and a half in photoshop total.

beebee

I've been feeling crummy all day. It has been raining like crazy so that put me in a sore mood. Just feeling tired and unenthused by it all. Yeah.

Illustration was a quick go over of our pieces. Mine was liked but the knife details received less than favorable responses. Spent time with Robin during lunch. Didn't get much to eat though. Didn't have a big appetite. Then we drew a clothed model for a few hours. Joe showed us some of the videos I had previously watched in his digital class. Our assignments in the two classes are the same. So I have to whip out some awesome ideas! Whoo!

The bag on my seat had vanished so I walked home with Robin. The seat was one big sponge, didn't want to ride it. The rain stopped long enough for our journey back. Acey walked with us for a while.

Spent the last few hours just sitting. Gabe made sushi.

Luna update: Luna is really cute. She is all fluffy and sits on my bed when Katie is gone. She whines at Katie when she isn't being fed. She is getting a pot belly. She has a slight lazy eye sometimes. We love Luna!

got stuff done, yeah!

29 panels sketched and of those about 10 are inked. Inking takes no time at all. I'll do that tomorrow. Just knocked out a HUGE chunk of the comic. Very productive.

Thumbnail: A rough sketch of the composition of an image (or comic panel).

Did my taxes! I owe nothing but I have nothing coming back to me. Oh well. I used TurboTax and it took no time at all (an hour). Lots of no I don't have a mortgage and no I didn't earn any money blanks to fill in. Now I have my FAFSA.

I worked on the thumbnails for a while and then went over to Diana and Robin's to borrow a Lord of the Rings to watch. The sketching took most of the extended version of The Two Towers. Never saw the extended version. There are lots of lovely little moments in it. A few more songs and jokes and all that.

Gabe made this sort of lasagna but not really for dinner. I ate a reasonable portion.

Yeah, productive Sunday! Whoodathunkit?

salad

Paneled all the thumbnailed panels today. Adding more detail and getting into the rhythm of it. Tomorrow I shall thumnbail and try to knock out a huge chuck. I only have half a script but a lot happens in a short amount of space so yeah. Just have to figure it out as I can only squeeze so much into a few panels.

Finished the second season of Arrested Development. Yeah I guess I like it but I'm still on the fence. Still hold the same reasons for disliking it. Watched Basquiat, the movie about Basquiat that is really good. Also watched a little bit of Edward Scissorhands. Another sad movie.

The day crept by and then POOF it was gone. Still, at least I have another day to my weekend.

candied Friday

La la la.

Slept in.

Did math.

Lollygagged about.

Looked at thumbnails.

Ate food.

Went to Goose Hollow Inn with Katie and shared a pitcher.

There was a man who looked like a secret agent.

Not much else happened.

Oh got a package from Ma and Pa. Thank you for the Pez!

another week has sailed by

We had four constructions that took up the whole of class. I got the equilateral, equiangular square while trying to make the triangle. Jen helped me with the triangle. Robin helped me with the octagon. I got the hexagon with Shaun's help. Took a lot of work.

Relaxed in the library. Made some photocopies.

Had another student leadership meeting. We talked about council and the state of things. It was a lot of talking about how to prevent people from attacking us when really a lot of awesome things are happening in the school thanks to Student Council. I got a slice of apple pie and a smoothie for lunch. Mmmm.

I chilled in the library for the rest of the break. Terry, Terry's man, Nathalie, Jen, Karen and I all made a little cohort consuming the couches. Jen and Terry played their cards. Like race card and gender card and location card. I don't know why but it was a jovial little time.

For the first half of digital tools we watched documentaries about current artists who are making it big as illustrators. Sadly most of their advice boiled down to, "I just did what I wanted to do and I got famous. Whooo!!" So I just need to do what I do and get it out there I guess. We worked on another little digital project. Repainting a building from a photo. I am doing it of one of the Belgium comic walls. The one by Herge where the cop is looking through the fence at the two kids. It is neat. It looks good thus far.

Jen and I went out for a late lunch. I had a burrito. Mmmm. We walked around in the chilly weather. We caught the 7:40 showing of Waltz with Bashir. I had no idea of the history. The music was powerful. The animation was fitting. It was a beautiful work, tragic because we see some of those images so commonly in news but they don't resonate. There is no story or attachment but this movie creates it. Faceless devastation isn't so much...

We hugged and hobbles back. Got back so late. Now is the time to go to bed early. I have a lot of comic catch up to play this weekend.

I hope you have been enjoying all the art I have been posting. I'll try to keep it up.

Sketchbook Upload II (markerfied)

More lifedrawing sketches. The introduction of marker into my sketchbook. Reverse chronological order (newer at top, drawn previously on the bottom).

Marker on flimsy paper.

hyperactive long busywhooo

Comic meeting: didn't happen. Daniel had a dentist appointment and the schedule was a week off anyway. Oh well. Lacey and I chatted for a bit. I browsed through a picture book while waiting for printmaking.

Critique: It went well! Negative comments on colors and the amount of hair rendered. Positive on carving and concept. Patsy had a beautiful bird and a lady block with lovely beautiful colors. Diana had some retro cactii. Devin had a nauseous OJ and Bre had a horror film Audrey Hepburn. Patrick had fireworks. Phil had a multi dimensional and hazy chessboard. Brandon had a sloth. Aubin made an insane Renaissance dolphin. It lasted a while but it was fine.

Comic Club: Ate lots and lots of pizza. Didn't do that many jams. Talked about Watchmen.

Rest of printmaking: We were introduced to silk screens! I found Jim's old one and I am navigating buying it from him alongside the other one I bought fresh for class. I'll be rocking it! Yoshi pointed out all the things and rules and equipment. We got out early but I stuck around. Yoshi helped me decloud Jim's screen.

The break: Scanned in the jams. Scanned in my comic. Scanned in the entirety of my life drawing sketchbook. Resized them all. Posted some.

Yoga: My knees were hurting really bad. I have no strength. It was a real challenge today. I wanted to quit and stop and go home but I stuck it through. There were some new people there today. Hopefully it is because of my posters. It hurt so bad.

Home: Gabe saved me a piece of chicken. I stuffed it between two pieces of bread with pesto mayo and chomped it down. Popped some advil. Now I'm just riding a relaxing wave and watching Breaking Bad.

Hyper: I had some Billy Tea for breakfast and lunch and some killer sweeties so for like 12-4 I was HYPER AS ANYTHING!! I was bouncing and skipping and all that. WHEEEE!!!

tiny sketch book scans

Scans from the little sketch book I am using for the life drawing homework assignment from Illustration I. It fits nicely in my palm as I draw all that is around me. Posted in reverse chronological order (first is on the bottom).

Pen, graphite, and ink.

it begins

Got four panels done on my comic! All I need to do is ink, yeah! Four is a big step. I just boiled down what would have been two pages into four panels. Rock on! And they are freaking TINY so yeah. Hope the print alright. Just have to keep plugging away at them.

Today was better. Math was spent trying to figure out two more constructions. One to do with finding a perpendicular line with a floating point and the other was about finding the...other point that means perfect balancing. Or something. Oh I think there was a third. Anyway, that was that. I finished my digital piece in the first break.

Student council was uneventful. Talked to Carla to try and sort out Modern Dance stuff. Ate the soup and rice. I just watched telly and farted around for the next hour and a half.

We only critiqued in class today. Joe has fluish symptoms. I went first and it was relatively painless. People liked it. Thought it was groovy. Karen's was really nice. Jen's was embryonic. Urusla was amazing. There were groovy things about. We got out at 4:10 so I went to Trader Joe's. Bought Emergen-c, can's of chili and soup, pasta, pasta sauce, juice, and some sweeties.

Gabe is crashing at our place for a few days while he moves into his new apartment. We hung out and watched Breaking Bad while I worked on my comic and ate Trader Joe-Os. Four panels!!

Productive. The comic part isnt so bad once I have thumbnails.

Even A Dog Can Shake Hands

Final digital illustration. 825x500 pixels.
10 hours of work? 12?







Uncropped version, 900x500.

I know it is a cliche but snow does bite!

Oof what a day.

First I had a poor nights sleep.
Second I had to get up at 8am for a meeting.
Third it was freaking snowing! Snow! Like coming down.
Fourth I missed the meeting due to a scheduling mishap and that pissed me off so I took a nap.
Fifth class was called off because Joe had to take his daughter to the hospital.
And, finally, sixth I had a tiff with Chelsey. We talked later and sorted some long standing things out. Foxy boxing solves every girl problem I tell you.

I medicated with chocolate and a trashy women's magazine. After I finished my prints (they don't look too shabby) I read aloud from it to entertain the other girls working. It is so horrible. So hilarious. I feel sorry for all the PhD's that give advice to it.

Prints done with a day to spare. Math done. Only thing left is that comic. During the break tomorrow I am going to finish the digital project yeah!

Gabe made spaghetti and meatballs (balled by hand) for dinner. We watched QI. I lay on the floor seeking attention. I didn't get it.

fancy pizza only

Today:

Got up and got right to it. Set up a queue of movies and TV and sketched and painted. 3 episodes of Arrested Development, Pulp Fiction, and half of Frost/Nixon later I had completed my piece for Illustration. It is dominantly a shade of turquoise with slight changes in the bottom and on the underwear. I had fun doing the white lace details. It took a while but I got it done and I am pretty happy with it.

Then I moved on to thumbnailing my comic. All the panels will be some variation of 3x2 so that I can get them to fit together. So I will do it in waves. Thumbnail a chunk. Sketch a chunk. Draw a chunk. Repeat. Not as much as I should have gotten done but I HAVE started.

Now I am eating a nice penne dinner. Mmmm penne and garlic pasta sauce.

Yesterday:

Got up bright an early for a full day of drawing and mini golf under black lights. First up was meeting Jen and people at the library for Illustration Drawing Club. Jen and I talked about Watchmen while waiting for Daniel to show. Robin was lagging behind but we set out anyway. We set out to a coffee shop four blocks away. We talked about travels and thesis and Dave McKean while drawing the scene. Robin showed up and joined us and got a good sketch in. Jen has such neat lines. Daniel had a nice bush pen on hand. I fell back on my usual colored pens.

I wish that I had my life drawing system down when I went to Amsterdam and Brussels.

We did that for about an hour and a half and then we parted. Jen treated Robin and I to Taken at Pioneer Place. It was freeeeeezing cold. We not so much freezing as I had dressed light. The mall was nice and warm. Taken was still awesome even in the PG-13 cut. Just a couple more violent scenes were changed or removed. Nothing too bad. It was still brutal and awesome with Liam Neeson kicking butt all over the place.

Jen left for Borders and Robin and I went back to the Goose to work. She walked a brisk pace and I huffed and puffed to keep up with her. I am just not a walker at all.

For the next couple hours I kicked back and did not much of anything.

Then 5:30 rolled around and it was time for Black Light Mini Golf, courtesy of PNCA Student Housing! Whooo!! It was a place under the Hilton. It was pirate/spooky themed. The black light added a lot of depth. Robin, Jaymee, and two others whose name escapes me formed one group and Amanda, Robert, Karen and I formed the other. I actually did farely well and was under parr for two holes (and one I got in 2 and it was a Parr 4!). It wasn't the largest of courses but it was still pretty fun. Robert won with a very impressive 7. Diana showed up about one fourth of the way in and joined our crew. After mini golf we all had Pizza Schmiza. Not the best of pizzas but free pizza is awesome pizza. Robin pouted when we wanted not exciting pizza. One cheese and one fancy kind was ordered. She is a self admitting food snob.

We split into two groups on the way back. Amanda, Robin and Diana walked back. The rest of us took the max. There was one scooting by about 4 blocks away and Robert bolted. We didn't see if he caught it but a later message from him proved that he did. That boy can run. I did a jig to keep from freezing. I hung out with Gabe and watched Fight Club and stayed up late watching Fight Club again with commentary by Palahniuk and the screenwriter with Gabe and Katie (I don't quite know why but I had no ambition to do anything else right then). It was a late night so I made my exit by scooting slowly on my stomach backwards into my room. And went to bed without typing a word up of my exploits.

missus clean

I clean house today! Sanitized the sinks and the toilet and the bathtub. Scrubbed the stuff off. Yeah. Cleaned the mold off my windowsill with a strong course of disinfectant. Put my scattered clothes away. Did a load of dishes and put them away. Cleaned counters. Put more stuff away. Got the apartment and my room in a less cluttered and insane state. It looks nice.

Gabe made shrimp and crab cakes on angel hair pasta and pesto sauce. Very delicious. So delicious. Giving Auntie Brynne a run for her money.

Munchkin is getting back on its feet! Robin was out but Amanda is in. We played Super Munchkin. It was fun at time but we got distracted for most of it. Diana had Katamari Damacy on her iPhone so Adam was distracted. Phil won. Or Amanda won. I didn't win. Karen gave us some awesome owl prints. Whee! Owl print!

Whee apartment that smells like clean.

99 luftballoons

Only math today. Joe is sick. Boo Joe, been missing a lot of class.

Math only focused on making a circle with a circumcenter and an in circle center. Thing. Yeah. Also we went over terms and vocabulary. Karen borrowed my compass. After class I sat in the print studio for a while and got a jump on my math homework. Then I took a nap in the library. Then I got some munchings from Safeway, checked out a tablet, put my headphones on and worked for about four and a half hours on my digital project. Just watched TV on the Internet and work work worked. I like how it is progressing but it needs less...something and more something else.

I Fandangoed some tickets to see Watchmen tonight. Did it for Karen and Adam as well. Nothing beats a midnight showing surrounded by fans.

When I left school, I was right behind Katie on her bike. We paced each other all the way back. I would have been a little faster but I was struggling with the shoulder strap on my bag.

Ate lunch. Relaxed. Waited out the hours till Watchmen. Nikki, Katie's pregnant friend, was over. I pushed the baby name of Bacon onto her some more.

At 10:30 I went up to Karen's. We managed to catch the max downtown. Adam stood in the way so that Karen could get on board. The driver glared at us but we didn't get in that much trouble. We cut in line with Taylor, Blair and crew. We met Taylor's lovely friendly girlfriend. We didn't sit with them though.

Okay.
Watchmen.
This was it.
Underwhelming. When it followed the comic, it did so perfectly. Word for word and with so many of the images. The ending worked. But overall it really just doesn't translate as a movie (I was also a little bit tired). Effects were good, nice casting, lengthy and I heard that there is a 4 hour director cut. Hmm. Not really all that bad. Karen had to shield her eyes at some of the violence.

Yeah.

Okay it is 4:00am. I'm going to bed. I'll ponder some more.

Even A Dog Can Shake Hands - Work in Progress

Two work in progress of the monochromatic shading of the line art. I made the lines black instead of brown.

Photoshop.

Yoga Poster

Quick digital illustration and poster for yoga. I love yoga.

orange gold and grey

Another member of the PNCA community was hit by a car while riding their bike. Asha was wearing a helmet and will be fine. It was a case, like with the other two, of a driver turning right and not paying attention. This time it was a drunk driver and not a cement mixer or garbage truck. I make sure to make eye contact and wait for drivers. I'm very safe and have an awesome helmet. I occasionally get cut off but I've never come close. I brake on time no problem.

Someone stole my Norwegian bike seat cover that dad gave me. Thankfully I have extras but what a jerk move.

Printing was long. I spent the first hour and a half carving. Madeline joined me for lunch. We talked about movies at sat outside. I had a burrito and a slice of apple pie. A little pricey but so good and the apple pie made for a great late afternoon snack. None of my edition is registered correctly. Oh well. The light gray blended to make a gold color. As long as the dark gray and black line up, it should be okay. Got that all printed. Patsy (not Betsy as I may have said) was printing hers at the same time. She asked for my advice and some tips which I thought was very sweet. While I was working, a large portion in the other room were watching Wristcutters.

After cleaning I spent another hour carving so that next time, all I have to do is roll up the black and off I goooo. Diana swept. Patsy and I moved some of the prints around so that more of the drying rack was freed up for other printers. We did it with lots of respect (unlike other people who just sort of shove them all together in a pile and assume they are dry).

Didn't have any break between class and yoga. Yoga was no so good today but I worked hard. Some times the sessions crawl painfully by but today it just sailed. We spent more time in certain things. Really strained the joints but in the end it felt good. I need arm strength.

Got home at around 8:30. Had a hell of a time getting in the door. The key wouldn't work. It eventually did but I had this problem last semester. Hung around with Karen. Went over to Robin's and chilled with her, Kristen, and Natalie. Robin is such an amazing painter. She can mix colors like nobodies business.

Rest of the night was spent chilling. It was a long day.

why do I need a title every time?

You guys enjoy all the art I put up? I love my digital class. So much fun and I feel like I am really getting it. Also, with everything being digital it is a lot easier to put up the work that I am doing.

I left early so that I could pick up a compass. They had one of those electric erasers for cheaper than the instructor said so I picked one up (it also had oodles of extra erasers). Sweet little thing. Can't wait to use it.

Math is now into geometry. Lines and segments and the five rules of them. The teacher asked us to find a congruent segment for a line and I raised my hand and explained it and he asked me to show on the board how I did it. I struggled with his compass but I did the whole, using one point as the center and the other as a radius and drawing a circle and drawing a straight line from the center to another edge on the circle to make a same line lengthy...thing...thing. Yeah. I got it. Whooo!! Construction is tricky but at least it is visual.

Spent the next hour and a half carving my block. So much wood came off that puppy and I'm still not done. Student council lasted only half an hour. Afterwards I helped Daniel set up a homeroom site for the ASL Club (which was passed, right on!).

I checked out a tablet from the Cage and worked on my digital piece for the rest of the break. Worked on the sketch and at about 30 till realised I needed color compositions so I did those. There was a class going on but I was quiet and kept to myself. I'm tired of being proper and waiting for empty rooms. They didn't use the computers at all, why are they even in that room?

We had another painting pop quiz. This time a sunset done in Corel Painter. It was tricky but I liked the results. Critiques in that class are so awkward. Well not awkward, people just are quiet. I miss the days when monitors were separate and teachers could turn them off while they conducted class. Since all we have are those all in one Macs, we are rather stuck to having a huge glowing distraction during class. We worked on our thing. We technically got out early but I stayed till 6:15, wanting to finish the line work. I think I will do it monochromatic. Just looks so nifty that way.

I'm giving Arrested Development another try. Didn't like it much when it was on TV and so many people are all about it being the best show ever. It does have some funny moments but they are all so set up. Still very unidentifiable.

How are you?

Even A Dog Can Shake Hands (progress work)

The various stages of Even A Dog Can Shake Hands. In order:
Final sketch (without the background or ring leader, she is on another layer).
First initial sketch of the composition.
Final sketch with the ring leader, background sketches (gray and red), and background notes.
Color and value tests.
Rough sketch that is under the final sketch.

Digital Pop Quizs

In class 30-45 minute illustration pop quizzes. The whole class went from a photo and recreated it in Photoshop and Corel Painter.

Even A Dog Can Shake Hands (work in progress sketch)

Work in progress digital sketch for Digital Illustration. A clique of girls being mean to a nerd. Inspired by the quote, "Even a dog can shake hands." 2-4 hours worth of work.

900x500 pixels.

eclectic electric eraser

At around 10:20 this morning some people knocked on my door, informing me of an insect bate to be placed in my apartment. I went back to bed for about three minutes before it hit me that it wasn't 9:20. I tore out of bed and showered and ruffled my hair and threw on some clothes and then I was out of there! And on time!

Joe was out doing something else so we had a sub in, the other painting teacher Josh. Err I think his name was Josh. A young talented painter. We reviewed our color compositions and our final products. Marilyn returned to class(she has been sick) and presented some more amazing line work. Took two hours to get through our decisions. After lunch he showed us his process on this commission and presented this way of doing a preemptive value study. He photocopied a sketch and did a gradient of pencil over it so it was all at a middle value. Using an electric(!) eraser he went into that and pulled out some highlights and then added some dark values with the pencil. It was instant awesome! We did the same with our sketches and it was revealed that a flat color that went over most of the image with shades in the knives and stockings looked a lot better than lots of separate parts. Whoodathunkit?

I had some Quizno's for lunch. Walked around with Mel and Melissa and chatted with Matt and Madeline after.

It was sunny then it rained for a minute then it was sunny and then it hailed and then it was sunny again.

After class, Josh, Janessa, Dominic and I went to the Annex for a couple drinks. Sat about drawing and chatting and we played telephone pictionary. Lots of fun sitting up on the second floor and viewing the surroundings. It is a lovely, cozy place.

We parted ways and I went home and had a two course dinner of cheesy pasta and cheesy rice with chicken. Finished up the disk of The Champions and did my laundry.

did I do something?

Today:

Slept in. Had a tuna fish sandwich on 9 grain bread for breakfast/lunch and some pasta with Alfredo sauce for dinner. Good eating but my stomach is all topsy turvy for some reason.

Had a Johnny Depp double feature while I worked on my color compositions and refined sketch for class. I'm doing the one of the girl laying on a bed of knives for the illustration assignment. I watched Blow and Sleepy Hollow. The former about cocaine trafficking (it didn't end well) the latter about the Headless Horseman(also didn't end well).

The day floated past.

Yesterday:

Uhh what did I do yesterday? I forget. After Patrick left I just read my book for a while and took a long nap. I worked on homework a little. Went out to a bar with Katie and Gabe. I did some nice sketches of people looking sad and lonely at the bar. People keep making remarks when they check my ID. I do feel like I look really young sitting in some of these places. Oh well. I should scan my sketchbook, there are some nice things in there.

I think I did more this weekend. Didn't go printing like I planned. Three day weekends don't last as long as you would like them to.

that's nothin'!

Late night. I'll start at the start.

Slept in. After seeing Nell reading The Mysterious Benedict Society I wanted to pick up a copy for myself at Powell's. There was one hardcover remaining and it was used. Score! Carson Ellis did the illustrations. She visited my illustration class last year. After I picked up the volume I went to Tea Zone and had some tea and a sandwich for a late breakfast/early lunch/big big meal. I sat in there for a good hour and a half reading and nibbling. It was nice.

Afterwards I rode down to 8th and Davis and went to Blue Sky Gallery and said hello to Patrick. I took a gander at the photos in the place and we sat and chatted and looked at YouTube for a while. I waved goodbye and confirmed I would indeed be back for drinks at Huber's later in the night.

I read my book for another hour. It has puzzles and orphan children heroes in it! Whoo! I think you would like it mom. Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. Check it out.

Karen was running late but we all got to school in the end. From there we met up with Patrick and from there we bugged Eva a bit while waiting for the streetcar and from there we took the streetcar to 11th and Alder and from there we walked down to 3rd and from there we went into a nice hotel and found ourselves at Huber's, a nice little place that survived prohibition. I had a mai tai that was huge and delicious and really freaking strong. Patrick had a mint julep and Karen had a long island that wasn't quite. So strong. We ordered some deep fried olives and a Spanish coffee which was prepared and set on fire and was awesome. If all coffee was a show, I might actually drink it. We were there into happy hour so we had some $3 meals and a couple extra drinks. I waited because that mai tai was huge. Before we left I had a sidecar. I was skipping up Davis (or whichever street we were on).

We went back to the Goose, picked up Adam, and went walking to the park up the hill. We wandered and played on the swings and the playground near the zoo. It was well and truly dark but our eyes were well adjusted. It was fun. Patrick crashed on my floor and I sent him out at around 10 this morning. It was a fun night. Sort of a date but not really but sort of. I don't know.

pop still life

Math test! I feel like I got it all except for the expected value and one of the writing portions. I slept in and got there a little late but no biggie. Katie loaned me her calculator.

It was sunny but cold today. It was warmer with the rain.

I got the whole second color printed. The gray makes the skin look really insanely orange. The registration is all over the place. I really need to rest and have a think about it. There are many options and I am really upset by what happened with this color.

I was done by 12:45 so I cleaned and went to the Illustration Drawing Club meeting. August, Daniel, Bryan, Jen, and I (and one other girl whose name I forget) all sat on the loading dock and stuffed our faces with Domino's and discussed where we wanted to draw next. We decided to meet at the library and go from there. Rock on!

Sat in the library for a bit and then went to the computer lab to finished up the thumbnails. I made a mistake and did a few for different words instead of some for one term. Joe had us do a pop quiz 30 minute still life of an apple. Mine was a lot of scratchy line build up while mostly everyone elses had flat colors. We were not sure if he was serious about the pop test. We critiqued our thumbnails. There are some cool concepts. In an hour I got all the figures roughed in and a few of them have line art already. I feel good about it, even though my thumbnails were crummy.

Caught up on Lost and Heroes and House. Don't trust Ben. Tired of the looping Heroes story arcs. Tired of the 13 arc and they went through the Happy House bit way too quick. Argh.

Gabe only made dinner for he and Katie tonight. I had oatmeal. Watching Capote.

dirty, grubby, oily, and blissed out

Long, hard day at school.

Fessed up that I was behind in the comic. But I have panels written so I have no excuse. I am going to change my format to mini posters versus a bound comic. Going to silk screen them. That way I can draw at a 1:1 scale and not have to worry about going to Kinko's or Lulu.com. Lacey has 1/3 of her comic done. She is doing three short stories and one is compleato. Amazing.

It was a work day in printmaking. My block was carved and mostly ready to go. I took a few more bits out, just to have more white areas. I did a quick run in red to see how I liked the amount of carving and that was that. Patrick and Devin were working on the letterpresses because they knew how to use them. Diana was working on a little owl image.

Comic Club was more silly jams. The pizza went quick even though there was the same number of people. If we see the midnight, Pioneer Place Watchmen showing we will get a slight reimbursement via our funds. Rock on! Have to get my ticket, ya.

Kirie sent me a birthday present. It was an adorable pen and pencil and postcard set from MoMa. I have been using the pens pretty much daily in my little sketchbook. They have an awesome line weight.

It took me an hour to get the ink the right color for printing. A bloody hour. Lots of white and red and yellow to get the right peach orange. I had a large pile of ink when I was done but after three and a half hours of printing it was just enough to cover it all. About on the 12th print, the sharpie started to get absorbed into the ink. No big thing as it will get covered up but still a little irksome. The ink peeled up really nice. It is very solid and smooth. I feel really good about this woodblock. The reductive style took a lot to wrap my head around but it is pretty neat. I only took a few minutes off for Tea Time. Talked to Madeline. Showed her what I was doing.

I finished up at around 5:20. 20 prints. Hope the registration works out. It doesn't quite match on the side for some reason so I'm just focusing on keeping it level with the top and the center mark.

I crashed in the library till 6:10. Talked to Matt a little. Dom came in with some goodies from the French Paper Company lecture that was going on. I dashed out to get some sweet posters from the table before they were all gone. Got myself a camel with a candy necklace poster and a monkey with a cherry for Karen. Got some sample books and some printed notebooks. Just a pile of awesome. Some people took one of each poster which I thought was greedy. Oh well.

Yoga was intense but I did really well. Got my palms on the floor, kept my balance, and even maintained some of the lunges. I didn't hear her switch poses until she pointed it out to me. The class had a little bit of a laugh, but we laugh at one another a lot. It's fine. It's yoga. We are all learning and clumsy.

I went back to the print lab after yoga and carved the skin out of the block. Now I can go straight into printing during my break tomorrow. Get to the halfway point with two weeks to spare.

I didn't get out of the building till 9. Called Mum and chatted. Then rode home and got all wet again. Stupid rain. I can't locate my rain pants either. Thus far I have been lucky getting to school. It isn't so bad if I can change when I get home.

Tea. Chili. Sleep.

sip of water (work in progress)

The sketch, the color layer roughs, and the block for my new print. Who is it? Guess. Drawn from memory and a few reference photos for my room and mason jar.

The block is 8"x10" and there will be two editions, one 10"x12" and the other 8"x12".

five pages!

I've got five pages. I think I'll start thumbnailing. I'm not fond of the writing but I'll work on it as I go. I just need to go go go. I just have all of March to work. Thankfully spring break is in March. Weirdly it is in March.

The student body has lost interest in Student Council. We barely had enough people to get a good vote. We need to generate more interest! Too bad so many people came just for the free food. Comic Club's movie field trip was passed. Movie Club form was turned in and afterwards I helped Daniel with his ASL Club charter. Whoo whoo. I need to email this dude about room stuff for the Modern Dance Club.

I had another of Gabe's murder by sweet cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Uuhhhnn.

Then I bought, cut, and registered my paper for my next print. It will just be 20, 10 of each paper size. And the image will be four colors, five if you include the white. I sure hope to bippy it registers. I helped Robin and Karen a little with their letterpress. I had a late lunch with Karen. Worked on digitizing the layers of my block print so I have a better idea of what comes after the next and which is on top of it.

Somehow I was at school till 6:30. It was pouring down when I rode back and I had not a pair of rain pants in sight. Very soaked on my return. Well not very because my leather jacket kept it off.

Worked on script. Worked on woodblock. Worked worked worked.

I could not have handled Gap Kids and this. No way. How Karen does it, I'll never know.

serious delicious

Saturday Night:

The streetcar was sort of broken down so I decided to walk to the train station. Suddenly it fixed itself and I ran to catch it. A lovely clear night. I read Coma and the train came in on time.

It was a lovely night and having not had any food, Llyw and I went to the Annex. Well, I ate a late dinner so he had a slice of pizza and I just had a few drinks. You would think that a cozy little place like the Annex would be a little more full at 9pm on a Saturday night but a nice little table was open under one of the heaters. We had a, whatchamacallit, Greyhound to start. Delicious. He had another and I had a amaretto and orange juice. Trying things out from advice and suggestions. So sweet, so tasty. It was a brisk but wonderful night as we meandered up 14th back to the Goose.

Sunday:

Damp! Rainy! Well not so bad. We went to Roxy's for breakfast. I had the breakfast sandwich which consisted of two fried eggs, bacon and cheese stuffed between sourdough slices and hash browns on the side. Mmmm. Llyw had corned beef hash and scrambled eggs and hash browns. Big tasty pile of tasty. The waiter was amazing and balanced so many plates on one of his arms.

I was so stuffed. We just meandered around downtown for a while as it started to mist. Picked up a monochromatic Rubik's cube at Finnegan's for my math class. It has a silver side, a black side, a white side, and three grayscale sides. Very awesome. Waltz With Bashir is playing at Fox Tower. We had some hot chocolaty beverages from Moonstruck Cafe and chatted and people watched. We caught the Max back to relax for a while.

The rain came down right as we were getting in. We decided not to see the movie and spent most of the soggy afternoon indoors. At around 7:30 we got hungry again and went out to West Cafe. Well we stopped by Karen's first and said hello and made plans to go out with her and Adam later on. West Cafe was closed. Dumb Sunday Portland. So we picked up chicken and pasta and sauce from Safeway and Llyw made a tasty feast. He powered his way through Scott Pilgrim (is everyone a faster reader than I am?). It was a lovely meal and we filled up quick.

Adam got in quite late. Too late to go to the Annex and Goose Hollow Inn was closed right as we arrived. We all piled into Karen's car and went across the river to Jolly Rogers on Hawthorne. It was called a mild dive bar or something like that. We grabbed a corner booth and ordered a pitcher of something that was too bitter for my tastes. I didn't have much but Karen ordered me a jello shot and that kind of made up the difference (not that it is a competition). The movie Talladega Nights was playing in the bar and I found it funny, but I was also tipsy so it probably wasn't. There was a mishap with Worcester sauce. Fries were ordered and we stuffed our faces. Adam was the designated driver. It was a lovely time just chilling and having a few with friends and laughing a little too hard at a cougar in a race car.

Whoo for 11am classes.

Monday:

Whoo for llam classes. Almost thought I lost my sketchbook for a little bit. Made a thermos full of Earl Gray and made a sandwich from left over lemon chicken. It was raining but not enough to warrant an umbrella. Still I brought one with me. The walk to school was over too quick and I parted from Llyw and jumped straight into class.

Our assignment is to made a 4"x6" card advertising a novelty new shop of sorts. I chose one of the options he gave and that was a cutlery and lingerie shop. I drew up some thumbnails of a sexy lady with knives. Some of them were more illustrations that didn't appear to sell a thing and others got the point across. I'm really excited for the assignment, I have some ideas that I can't wait to execute.

Robin and I navigated the puddles and rain and went to Laughing Planet for lunch. I brought mine but I still caved and had a slice of apple pie. It was good. Karen and Tabitha showed up for lunch and we sat at a table in the back. Rachel Allen was also there and eventually joined us. Natalie and Kristen walked in and also joined us. It was a large awesome table. I talked to Karen about my thumbnails and we read the "I Saw You..." from the newspaper.

Over all too quick, we trudged through the torrential downpour of rain. Robin and I shared my umbrella (which matches my bag).

We critiqued our sketches and came up with better ideas for one another. Robin is doing a tea and laundromat. Dom is doing a skate rink pub. There were a lot of things that were part pub. Kevin's was a dark room pub. It was fun. It will be fun. Two weeks for this assignment, which is a pretty nice amount of time. It took a while to get started but now it is kicking off. I can't even mention Courtney's.

Joe had to rush to the Bay Area for a meeting with Electronic Arts so we were let off early. Robin and I walked home together. Well we caught the streetcar. It was raining after all.

Gabe made potato bread. And with the bits left over he made cinnamon rolls with maple creme cheese frosting. It gave me such a sugar high and I ended up rolling around on the floor giggling for a few minutes. I invited Robin and Karen over (with Gabe's permission) for a sample and they both at first said no because they had homework but I threw some adjectives out and they did come over and both were thrilled. Gabe's sweets will be the death of me and I can take a lot of sweets.

I don't really have classes tomorrow. It is a test study day and Joe is gone so it is just a work day. Lots of work. Need to catch up. Carve my block a little, do some digital sketches, yeah.

buppy

Illustration Drawing Club had its first meeting. Robin and Karen met at my place and we all walked to the Union Station together. It was a sunny and beautiful day in Portland. A little chilly but not so bad. We were about 15 minutes late but only Jen was there and she was already drawing. We all migrated into the station and Jen went off somewhere to draw the ticketing area while the three of us took up a chunk of the bench. I drew this little boy with a blue Popsicle smear for a mouth and gradually worked up to drawing all his surroundings. I switched colors and was generally really happy with how the thing as a whole turned out. A hour whizzed by. We moved outside for a bit. I treated myself to a hot dog. Daniel showed up and had cookies to share with us. Samoa's. That's right. It's Girl Scout Cookie time people. I love me some thin mints.

Tired of drawing the train station, we migrated to The Pearl Bakery for lunch. I just had a soda and Jen went to get a burrito. She didn't return. Karen, Robin, and Daniel all had sandwiches. Robin's cousin Abby showed up. I bet her before. I remember that I made a big ice cream mess of myself last time we went, she didn't.

We went to the Museum of Craft or Contemporary Craft Museum or whatever it is called. They had this massive installation of crochet and beading. It was a massive structure. There were stars and owls and a giant pelican constructed out of the material. Very labor intensive and beautiful. Upstairs were some drawings done with thread on fabric. Very nice. The museum was very careful about having lots of DO NOT TOUCH signs and a lady that kept a careful eye on Karen's proximity to the sculpture.

At around 2 we split ways. Abby and Robin hit the town, Daniel went to work, Karen and I walked back to the Goose. I worked on cleaning the apartment, more laundry, more cleaning.

Katie's friend Amanda is in town. I think that was her name. There is an A in it. We met and visited. It was groovy.

The day creeped by. Now it is time to get ready and head to Union Station once again.

a little day

Outlined and knocked off a chunk of my comic script. Not the best but still a nice amount of progress. It is good to know just what I will be doing with this chapter. Also that Mamet book is helping.

I didn't really do much today. Slept in. Ate chocolate and noodles.

Munchkin is in the process of being reinstated. At 8:30 I migrated to Robin and Diana's. Chelsey and Kristen joined us tonight. Whoo. And Amanda. We sat about and chatted for a while. Then we moved up to Karen's and Diana and Phil joined us. We explained the game as best we could and it went pretty well. Kristen came close to winning and I was going to win but Amanda transferred the monster to Phil and he won unexpectedly. Natalie also stopped by and we all told jokes and played "would you rather".

The night simmered down and eventually it was just Phil, Karen and I talking about Harry Potter and movies and creating epics.

Not a busy day but Fridays are sort of a relaxation day. Getting over the week and all that. Yeah.

pink nails and pug dog tails

Oops, almost crawled into bed without blogging.

I was very successful on the math homework. Expected values? Yeah I got them. There is a test in a week. Review on Tuesday for those who want it. I shall sort through the homework and if there is anything I'm still confused about, I'll go for the review. Otherwise, I think I got it.

Then I pretty much passed out in the library for two hours. I didn't get a good night sleep. It was very restless and I was stuck in that waking/dreaming limbo. I read Tekkonkinkreet and just lay there for a while. Munched on Ritz and Trader Joeyos. Talked to Jen. The four hours went by very fast.

Critique went fast. There wasn't much discussion. It's hard to say stuff when half the people are still getting used to the technology. The next assignment has to do with illustrations from some short prompts. I think it will be fun. It is a nice class to be in.

Once home I worked on designing the reduction block. Now that I know how to layer, I need to think of more creative ideas than grass and clouds and sky.

End of the week. Tomorrow I MUST WRITE SOME SCRIPTS. Have to do it before Saturday night because Llyw is visiting again. I'm really well caught up in all my classes except for that darned script. I have two pages described and it wasn't so hard to do, I just need to open the file and throw myself at it.

Best wishes to Nathalie. Get better soon, but not so soon so that we don't get a chance to pimp your cane.

Traeger Joe's

Waking at 10 is lovely. So wonderful.

Today was sunny. Bonafide sun. I didn't really need the extra layer at that time. Wow.

Printmaking kicked it right off with a critique. Augin's howling wolf was well received. This cute bird was cute. Phil's woodblock of a woodblock was trippy. Devin had some nice lines. Brandon wasn't finished. Bre's wallpaper looked old. Diana's robot was still glossy. Junko had a lovely green. Patrick's was very bright and one of them hurt some classmates eyes (this was brought up in the critique). Mine was well received. Some people did a floating image in their field of color so registration wasn't so badly needed. Mine was all over the place. Next round of prints, I will have to be more careful. We are doing a reduction print, which means the layers will be made as I carve from the block so it will be one on top of the other and all that. I will start by practicing in photoshop. Do a sketch and then take it into photoshop and color it with layers, each one a copy of the last and only being able to subtract from that. It is hard to explain. We have three weeks.

For lunch I had a small salad and a smoothie from Laughing Planet. Healthy healthy! Karen joined me. We sat in the park and enjoyed the sun. The rest of lunch was served in the library. Diana hovered. I read some Mamet.

Yoshi showed us a little slide show about reductive printing. I looked up the address of a place to buy silk screens. Want to get mine ahead of time so I can practice a little bit. Karen and I might go on Friday morning. Printing takes so much money. Actually, not the woodblocks so much but getting that 22x30 screen (or whatever size it is). This Club Coordinator job will provide me three figures at the end of the semester. Sweetness.

We got out a little early so Karen, Diana and I walked to Powell's. I just wanted to draw people. After wandering with Karen while she searched for books, we parked it in the coffee shop. I was very happy with the multicolored scene I drew. I have free time tomorrow, maybe I'll scan some of my sketchbook. I walked back through the dusk by myself. Yoga is just for Trillian.

And yoga is also for like, 10 other people. It was a huge turn out and there were like five dudes there as well. Not dudes that are interested in me, if you get what I mean. I still can't balance but my joints are getting more flexible. Back into the bend of things.

I swung by Trader Joe's on the way back home. Toilet paper, canned food, cereal, chocolate, pasta, and other things. Oh shoot, I forgot to buy bagels. I need to stop buying lunch in the Pearl District. The amount of work I have this semester puts me in a position that I don't think I would be comfortable trying to find a job. I don't think I could take the work load of both of them, and that is being said before I start cracking down on my comic pages.

Jason Traeger was in TJ's. We chatted a little bit. The lady who wrung me up went to PNCA. We talked about Morgan Walker.

I like the ride home from Trader Joe's. After the ascent to 21st, it feels like such a breeze the rest of the way.

Finished my math homework up. Painting my toenails pink so I have something fun to look at during yoga. Watched Girl with a Pearl Earring. Had some Trader Joe-O's for dinner. Oh boy, I'm up way too late now. But it's still not so bad because I can get around seven hours of resting in the bed time. It isn't that hell of 6:30 alarm, 7:00 get up, 7:45 out the door. I don't know how I did it so diligently for three semesters. Blimey.

School is a lot of work. The stress and challenge got me last finals. Now is the point where I really have to work for it. Show up. Do the work. Think. Study. Know. Eat chocolate.

And here's a shoutout to Auntie Celia. You are awesome!

I'm doing good shopping

Comic Class was delayed for a week so now I can take some time to really focus on my really behind scripts. I've been very dedicated to reading my Mamet and I have been learning a lot. Doesn't say a thing about how to write scripts but oh well. Well it probably does, I'm just not there yet.

Math was uneventful. The calculator on my phone only allows a certain number of digits so I had to borrow Karen's for some of it. We went over homework and he introduced the expected value when it comes to things like the lottery and insurance. The class is only an hour and fifteen minutes long so we are not really able to cover that much.

I emailed some people about club stuff and talked to Michael and got a room schedule so I can tell people what places are available and when, in case they wanted to start a club. My prints had been moved to the bottom of the drying rack but they were in good shape so no biggie. Karen was eyeing which ones to claim for herself. She is very grabby when it comes to prints. SHE NEEDS TO GIVE ME A PRINT. SOMETIME. YOU KNOW. KAREN.

Read Mamet in the library.

Student Council was quick. We brought up the concept of a Prom, anti-Prom, Morp, Ball, Gayla or whatever. Just a nighttime dance party shindig at the school.

I just followed Karen around for the rest of the break. Chilled in the print lab, talked to people, meandered. Time passed by.

I started over on my Peep Show illustration. Still, all those hours spent drawing them didn't go to waste. I needed that practice so when I simplified it, they still came out looking like they did. I'm very happy with the final product. Karen tapped on my shoulder and urged me to talk instead of listen to stuff. Probably because she didn't have her headphones with her. Joe, the teacher, is really good as swinging by and giving little maybe tips to improve your piece. Like offsetting the color and adding a dotted gradient in the background. He gives tips but lets you tweak it for your own desires as well.

Karen and I hung about for a bit, working some more. I was on a roll so I was able to get mine done. The print lab was full of my classmates finishing up their prints at the last minute. Praise to me for working hard. Harder than I needed. Got piles of prints up in here, what what!

I walked with Karen back to the Goose. That is to say, I took my bike on the streetcar like a chump and went back that way. I could have ridden it back, but I didn't.

Ate the leftovers and some insanely bland pasta. Worked on my script and outline for my comic. Tomorrow is a longish day. Critique, new technique, and yoga!

Peep Show

Finished digital illustration of David Mitchell/Mark and Robert Webb/Jez from the BBC's Peep Show.

About three hours worth of work with tons of practice so I can get them to look like who they are supposed to.

Photoshop.