pint hug sketch

Design for an image made with the intention of being applied to a 3D object. A wrap around image of a woman hugging the glass.

Behemoth Label

Behemoth Wine Label Concept.

Pen and digital color.

5 1/2"x8 1/2".

dang oh well

I made a to do list of things to do, and on that list was to make a bigger thesis specific to do list. Just to help me keep on top of things. Though I just marginally was on top of things today. Got my Odd Owl piece done. Did the dishes. Forgot to do laundry. I'll do that tomorrow. The day just sort of slipped away from me. Even though the pressure is on, it's still not...there yet.

Tomorrow I'll get some printing done. Just so I have those ready to go. I really like this Odd Owl piece. It's for their new CD.

I'm a champion day waster. I can't wait to be gainfully employed.

It's just this "I'll get serious...tomorrow..." cycle. But I have a massive working draft of the paper due soon so, I can't delay too much. Read more. Outline more. Uhg.

But my art is really coming together. That is good, yeah.

And my eyes are as good as healed, which is good. And my new debit card arrived. Huzzah.

Todays Portrait Is: Elisabeth Moss.

midterm review

Tonight is one of those nights where I don't want to write a thing. I just want to go to sleep or watch TV and chill. Thesis midterm. It is very stressful!

So I accidentally set my alarm to off instead of on. So I slept in. Still, that didn't hinder me too much. I showered. I ate some food (not a scramble though). Looked at my art books and my history books. Wrote some stuff down. Talked to Kristen. At 6 I went to school and ate some food. They provided a free lunch for us. It looked like Tyler Stout didn't even show, nor Adam Haynes. So all that fuss for nothing. Anyway, at 6:30 the reviews started. Mine didn't come around till 8:30, so I set up my studio for the meeting. Mostly putting things into a corner and moving the table out of the way. Then I scanned in some stuff and reprinted a couple things. Then I chilled for half an hour. My panel was Dan, Damien, and Kate. Some designers mostly.

So the review went pretty well. I got a lot of really helpful criticisms from Damien. Dan and Kate were nice. It was a good balance. Got the positives and the negatives. I got some better ideas for the sides of things. The portrait side is there, the conversation isn't. But I got lots of good ideas for how to bring up that conversation. So it was really helpful. It wasn't a disaster or too easy. So yeah, all that stress. And now I'm in a vaguely better place. I'm going to get on with printing the other side though. Just so I have those ready for when I resolve the other side.

Afterwards I went to Yur's. Damien, from my panel, was there as well as another panel member Nick. I sat with them and Dom (after sitting with some classmates who were drunker than me and I didn't feel like conversing with them at that time). They both had graduated from PNCA years ago, which was neat. We talked. I had a beer or two. People left. I joined the design major clan and hung with them and played their games. At after midnight I returned home.

It was a lot of stress, sure, but it ended up being all right. Now it seems like I won't have to do as much public people drawing. Whoo.

Todays Portrait Is: Jon Hamm.

drawn out and tacoed

I don't like how my alarm doesn't have an independent snooze alarm. So if it gets shut off and I fall back asleep, I get up less early than I wanted. I was still up earlier than normal. Made a to do list. Got to doing it. Did some portraits. Did some showering. Went to public spaces and drew people (park, coffee shop, Powell's). Need to draw more. Need to go places where there is a large flow coming and going. Went to the studios to pick up some stuff. Ended up talking with Dom and Sivonna. Pitched them my idea for a tv show. Basically it would be like the documentary format that The Office and Parks and Recreation are done it, but with artists in a studio space. They were on board. As were Beth and Antonia and Phil and Mel. Maybe the weekend or so after we defend, we'll just film ourselves and make a little pilot. Yeah! Also grabbed some free food. I ate a lot today. Thats good.

Went home. Did dishes. Cleaned room. Went to Trader Joe's and got taco supplies. Made tacos. Rollyn came over. Just for a little bit, as I had work to do. We ate tacos and watched Portlandia and I showed him some of the stuff I've been working on and the print portfolio. He liked my piece before I even said it was mine. Huzzah! Then he left and I did some more portraits. I'm so ahead, it is awesome. Which is good because after Midterms the only thing I'll be working on is the paper. Have to get that done. I'm way behind. And then its back to the art process. Time is running out...it runs so fast.

Right now...I think I'll read my book. Tomorrow I shall get my studio set up and think really hard about my thesis. Like, really hard. I'm in the last slot of the day (which, come to think of it, I can probably set up my studio in the time between the dinner and my meeting, it's really just rearranging and pinning stuff up, I'm not painting). It starts at 6, and my time isn't till 8:30. Still, I'll set my alarm and get up and be productive. I need to make a massive list of things to accomplish because right now I can't focus on all the stuff that I need to do. It hasn't been concreted. OH! That is what I'll do first thing tomorrow: itemize the next two months of my life.

Next week features Mad Men actors! Minus Allison Brie, who I will be drawing when I get to Community actors.

Todays Portrait Is: Giancarlo Esposito.

time to get real

Slept in. Had my toast and tea. Drew some portraits. Went to Trader Joe's. The Girl Scouts were there!! Only bought one box of Thin Mints. Which I will save for after my mid term review. Found out my panel for the review. Tyler Stout will not be on my, he will be on Jon's. BOO! I have some lady from Nordstrom, some dude from Adidas, and some other person on my panel. I don't know if I should be excited or what. I'm not really nervous though I think when it comes to actually preparing myself, I will be.

Went to school. Printed out my print layers. Finished printing the line work on the Robin layer. Exposed a new set of screens. Got 15 test posters done. Talked to Mel. The emulsion is down to the dredges, so I had to apply it using a card and not a trough. The emulsion is also going to crap and doesn't hold up under the pressure. Mel had some of hers wash out where they were not supposed to. Mine almost did, but I stopped with the hose just in time. Laaame. The posters look great though. Really love the look of them. Can't wait to get the panel input. I kind of am really happy with where the design is. Normally I remove the emulsion from my screen so that my screens are always clean, but I left it. So that if I get the go ahead, I can just print the rest and not have to reexpose. All though it isn't really a "go ahead" but I'd like to have it reaffirmed by other people. Though the people I've shown it to dig the way it looks. Can't wait to print more. Though I'm now realizing how much printing that will be. I asked Patsy if I can use some of her screens in her absence (shes in LA), and she said YES! So now I have five screens. I think the first step will be to print a ton of the flat color sides. Just print a whole ton of those suckers. Saves time on applying emulsion and exposing another screen and clean up later on. And if I can enlist some help and expose a couple screens, all the better. Each layer on an edition of 50 is just under an hours worth of work. I want to print 10-20 posters. Each one is 5 layers. So thats 5 hours a poster edition, so thats 50-100 hours worth of printing. I have seven portrait sides designed, and one concept for the anonymous side. So I have to do a lot more drawing as well. It's going to be work work work from here on out. At least I have five screens now! And lots of time thanks to being unemployed and part time. I think I caught enough sleep the first half of this semester.

Got home at around 11pm.

Oh and also I have to do that paper.

Dinner was a nice salad. Watched me some Parks and Recreation and drew stuff. Tomorrow I don't know quite what I'm up to, but I'm sure to be busy. Oh I think I invited Rollyn over for tacos. Hmm. Might have to cancel. But I really want tacos. I'll get up early. Incentive to be productive? Or should I be a grown up. Class before....dudes.

Todays Portrait Is: RJ Mitte.

a day to print and teach

Oof my knees. The joyous pain of productivity in print.

So I got up at 10ish and showered and stuffed some toast in my mouth. I forgot my thermos of tea at home though. Booo. Got to school at around 11:30. Claimed the back six tables for my one off class. So cool that I was asked to teach over all the other qualified people. Why me? I know I've taught a couple people here and there. And I have a joy of sharing art and practices. And I think I'm generally personable if you aren't a total knob. Either way, hurray! It was only a class of five: Tom (who I called Dom the whole day, other people called him Tommy but I think he introduced himself as Dom and I repeated Dom and was never corrected) Carla? Sarah? Dominique and Emily. A nice little group of four seniors and one graduate. Heather and Mel graciously loaned me a screen for my class. So I started with emulsion. I didn't give a live demo, I just had each of them apply it to a screen in turn. And they all did super! Applying emulsion should not be rushed. Then I found out that through a miscommunication they didn't bring images to print, only paper to print on (and also not a lot of paper, but I had brought down a reem of my Mohawk thesis paper (I have 2000 sheets and at most will use 1200 of them, and that is a high estimate)) so I told them to either draw something, pick something from a sketchbook, or print something I provided. Three drew something, one picked from a sketchbook, and one printed a drawing I did on Mel (using Mel's screen). I also exposed a two color images just to show them how to do two color registration. While waiting for the screens to dry, BT was in attendance and I asked him to give a little talk on at home printing. And off the cuff he did a really great job of explaining and tips and times and stuff. I only know in studio printing, so it was great to have someone supplement it.

Explaining takes so much longer to get through all the steps, but we got through it. Screen by exposed screen, we got all set up to print. And we had a hoot of a time! The double color demo went over well and I gave them all a print from that. Having the reem of paper to print on really made the experience fun, because they were able to play instead of running out of paper. They printed a ton, though it didn't make much of a dent in the paper. And they used up lots of left over ink(always a bonus) and did split fountains. And it was enough printing that I was able to help a few of them trouble shoot different problems. At around four I said that it was time to clean up because more people will inevitably be coming in to print. I showed them one by one how to remove the emulsion. And we separated the piles of prints. I also photocopied a bunch of my little guides to printing, just so they could take home most everything I said and it wouldn't all be memory. It's good to have a record of technique to fall back on. Also told them to email me with any questions. We had some good goodbyes and when they left I did a little jig. Thought I did quite well.

Then I plopped down exhausted in my studio and talked to Jon and drank a soda. Went home. Ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich and drank some tea and watched part of a TED talk from the artist JR. Then I realized the library closed soon so I rushed back to school. Printed out the two Robin print layers. Applied emulsion to two screens. Set up my space. Oiled up my transfer. Counted out 65 sheets of paper (50 for the actual edition, 15 for the midterm panel concept one). The color layer is fantastic. It is a soft brown that fluctuates in golden tones. Very lovely. I only got about half way through the black line layer. The school closes at the STUPID time of 10pm on Saturday. I printed both layers on the fridge. They didn't come close to lining up, but now they are there until the fridge is replaced (the last fridge with my Lucky Luna on it is gone, this is a new fridge in dire need of art). I just put the screen against the fridge and pulled a print. Mel's pizza print is also there looking awesome. Robin is the perfect figure for a print fridge. Hehe. I got out of school right on time. It was raining and a couple of the prints got droplets on them, but no major biggie. The prints look good. My fingers might have smudged a couple. I'll have a good spy at the edition tomorrow or something. It looks like each layer needs an hour time to print, not including time to expose screens. It would take a little less if I had someone catching paper, but I can't plan to have that all the time. It's off to good start. I've missed the printing studio.

Now I'm back home, tired. Once I revive I'll draw some more portraits. Gotta get back ahead of it all. They come easier to me, which is nice.

Todays Portrait Is: Betsy Brandt.

oatmeal!

AHHHH just spent the night having a beer with Matthew "The Oatmeal" Inman. Eee that was so cool. But I'll start at the start.

Got up at around 11. Showered. Got dressed. Karen picked me up at about 11:50 and we went to the magic land of Arvey Paper to pick up my paper! It was such a little box, totally inconspicuous. And to think that all of that will become my thesis. All though only about half of it truly will. The rest will be scrap paper for projects and stuff. And also for other prints. It is good to have quality paper on hand. All though now I'm pretty short on cash. More so thanks to the wonderful hospital visit. BUT my eye is now in no pain whatsover and it is healing. There are still the sty bumps, but they are diminishing. Just gotta keep with the drops and all that. But the swelling is now almost entirely not noticeable.

I didn't make myself a single meal. Ate out entirely. Crap. After the paper and dropping it off, Karen and I grabbed lunch at Yur's. I just wanted a grilled cheese and a soda. Talk to Craig a bit, who was working. Then I went home. Did nothing. Went to school for yoga. It was a nice yoga. Though the leg lunges I'm not so fond of. Returned to the studio. For about two hours I listened to Feast for Crows and wrote up my guide to screen printing. Just tips and tricks. I'm teaching a small group of high schoolers tomorrow how to print, so I wanted to give them a little guide to take with them as a reminder of all the things. If you are out of practice, some things are easy to forget.

Then at 7ish I rode my bike to Powell's to see the book talk and signing that was happening there tonight. Matthew Inman does this website called The Oatmeal, and it is pretty funny stuff. And he made a book, so there was a signing and talk and stuff. Karen came as well, and there were a lot of nerdy looking types in the audience. But the space for talks was pretty full. When he came out, he stood right in front of me as he was waiting for his introduction. I did a quick sketch. He talked for about thirty minutes. Had some good laughs. It was a bit of a wait in the line to get the book signed, but Karen and I had a good conversation about topics. I actually got the book signed to Karen and I, I don't know why. We talked in line about asking him out to a beer but we chickened out. We then wandered in Powell's talking about how we chickened out. Then we went back up the the Pearl Room (where the talk had taken place) and got in the back of the line again. When we came up the second time (as the last people) we (by which I mean Karen) asked if he wouldn't mind having a beer with us at Deschutes. He said yes, gave us his card and said he'd meet us there because he had to do some stuff. AWESOME!! Yeah! We went to Deschutes and got a table and had a beer and chatted and waited. How cool is it that you go to a book signing and then ask the signer out for a drink and then he comes out for a drink!? Anyway, he came and we chatted for a bit. Then went to Low Brow Lounge to get some food. It was a good long hangout. Talked about this and that. About book tours and comics and fancy Japanese toilets. We parted ways at a little after midnight.

AHHH! After a hundreds strong book signing, he went out with US and had a beer. SO FREAKING COOL. And now I have a signed book. And now I should stop spending money on stuff. Going to conserve. Sandwich time. I think I have peanut butter stuffed away somewhere.

Todays Portrait Is: Dean Norris.

making my friends like me even more

Hurray! I woke up and my eye was significantly less swollen. And it didn't hurt. Yay! There is still a sty and the inside is red and there was white stuff, but it didn't hurt. Getting up was hard. I was tired. Showered. Got my tea and tiger's milk bar. Scanned and threw some color into my Behemoth label. Really liked how it turned out. Had a nice little critique. Our next assignment is to design something to go on something 3D. But if we have done shirts, we can't do a shirt. So I'll design a glass. We are also trying to make some contact with a local artist. Some sort of networking assignment. Hmmm.

For lunch I got a sandwich from Quizno's. Back in class Martin gave us a run down of how the upcoming midterm meeting will go and what to expect. Well not how it will GO but how it will unfold. We will be getting a panel of people in to give us a fresh perspective. We will talk about our work for 15 minutes and then there will be a talk. He rattled off some names of people they are trying to get in for the panels and he said Tyler Stout. TYLER STOUT!! Gahhh I don't know what I'll do if he not only shows up but is ON MY FREAKING PANEL. That would be awesome.

For the rest of class, it was open time. I'm really behind on my website. I don't even have a domain name bought. My art only looks good on the internet about twenty percent of the time. I don't put the effort into documentation. But I gotta do this for class. Hrrmmmn.

I worked on my thesis pieces. Filling in color and the like. At 3:30 I went to print them out. I chatted to Karen in the print studio a bit. Then I met with Martin....

...and it went really well! He really liked some of the drawings and the way they fit as a set. It felt good to place seven concepts down and really look at them. It will take no time at all to print that side. I just have to resolve what the hell I'm doing with the other side. I just need to draw and design more. I should set a goal to get the half of the posters that I have ready to print printed within the next two weeks. Just get them ready to go, so once I have the other sides finished, I just print and distribute that sucker. Just over SIX WEEKS till focus week. Holy CRAP. Ahhg.

Anyway, with that done I went to the studios and hung out with Karen and BT and Robin and made some comments that were taken in a way that I didn't think they would be. Normally about how when we hang out with people we get influenced by their personality. I called Arvey paper and my paper is IN!! Karen will be taking me to Arvey tomorrow at noon. I can't wait to get my case. At around 6, we parted ways. I chatted to the boys in the studio. Then yoga! It was a lot of lunges and the like. Not my favorite.

Back home I took out the recycling and had some udon and egg. Watched some stuff. Chilled out.

I grossed out a bunch of people with my eye. Mainly because the sty was draining, so there was tons of gross white goop in my eye. Totally nasty, but it didn't hurt at all and the puffyness was receding. Having an illness is such a novelty to me. Once I stop hurting. It has healed so much in the past 24 hours. I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring. Now I shall put some more drops in and go to bed. Paper! Printing! Yoga! Drawing! Powells!

Todays Portrait Is: Anna Gunn.

don't touch your eyes trillian!

The Internet has been coming and going, and I have just been able to get into blogger to update now. And I'm tired. Blaaah. And I've spent the last hour and a half redrawing my Behemoth wine label. I screwed up the first one with sloppy inking. I need to put brush and ink away for a while. So I started over at half the scale and used a pen. Tomorrow I'll get up early and go to school and scan it and throw in some digital color and stuff. Yup. I'll be tired tomorrow.

Today I went to the hospital. At about 1 in the afternoon I ventured out. I walked to Legacy something something Hospital. I asked at the front desk where to go to see about my eye, and the lady was all "oh my! that would be the emergency center" so I went there and checked in. I got seated in the little blood pressure checking station. They checked my blood pressure and my temperature. I gave the nice nurse a run down of my symptoms and how long my eyes have been screwed up. Then I was moved to another room. Another nurse came and gave me an eye exam. My vision in my right eye, the one with the sty on the bottom that won't heal, is considerably more blurry. Left eye is perfect. Then the doctor came and checked out my eyes. Lots of opinions on my eyes. She managed to flip my other eyelid and confirmed that it was indeed a sty in there as well. Everyone was pretty decidedly "yup your eye is pretty darn iffy looking". But thankfully no one gave the inkling that it was more than stys. And the doctor showed me some neat excerpts from a medical text. I liked her. She gave me a prescription for some drops to help along with the healing, as well as a contact for an optotholomotompetrist or whatever, in case my eyes didn't improve. So it was a nice visit. An expensive one. But I was in pain and not getting any better. I got my prescription filled. Grabbed a burrito. And got to nursing my eye back to health. I went to Fred Meyer's for soap and sponges and hair conditioner and other stuff. Went to school and scanned my sketches. Worked on filling in the sketches for poster layouts. Did that till the surprising hour of 10pm. Went home. Worked on Behemoth. Watched tellie. Put in drops.

Love these drops. Hate the way I look with a puffy eye. Can't wait to get better. Tomorrow is busy and all over the place and I'm not looking forward to it, but it will come.

Todays Portrait Is: Aaron Paul.

I want to claw at my eyelid till it gets better

Started the day with a portrait. I need to get ahead once again. I'm not happy with the style of today's. Need to work more on making it not look...goofy. I think its the eyes.

Tomorrow I'm going to head to the clinic and get my eye checked. It isn't improving like it ought and there is a bump remaining from the other sty. I'm bad about getting stuff checked. I normally have a "wait and get healthy" attitude. But it isn't getting better. I need to get it looked at. It is distracting and I need my vision to be not compromised. So tomorrow I'll get up, eat some food, and go to the hospital. I think the one near me takes the insurance I got. I'll ask.

I worked on sketches for Odd Owl. They are looking good...I think. I dunno. I'll scan and send them off tomorrow. Provided I don't end up in double eye patches or something.

Yoga was good, but I wasn't really in the mood for it.

I need to go shopping for more food as well. Plus side of buying just enough is that I don't end up with spoiled left overs hardly ever.

Hospital, shopping, scanning, drawing. Hurray. Oh also have to finish the Behemoth label. Fun fun. A lot to tend to, so I'll have to get up early. Today was a waste. It shouldn't have been such a waste. I just can't get my head in the game.

Todays Portrait Is: Bryan Cranston (thus begins the departure from friend portraits to those of actors and musicians and general celebrities).

my soul is null

Been such in the dumps lately. Unmotivated. Confused. Stressed. Worried. Just this big void of thesis staring at me. I know I have to fill it but drawing isn't just what I have to fill it with. I have to speak to a bigger picture and make the case FOR my art work. It's hard to do it honestly.

At 11, Robin called me asking if I would be willing to switch my 2:30 spot with her 5:00pm one. I agreed, because five seemed a much better deal to someone who was feeling anxious and lethargic.

My eye is doing much better. It only hurts when I squint it majorly. And it barely needs any tending to its swelling. Maybe another day or two and it will be healed!

I realized that there are only 28 days in February, so I ended up with an extra portrait for the month. So a special bonus to end the month with. Now I move on to drawing actors. Hmmm.

Ate some pasta and went to school. Drew Acey for a bit and talked about politics and school and how PNCA really needs to advertise itself as a conceptual school.

Then I met with Joan about my paper. AND HAD A WONDERFUL MEETING! It went so well and she gave me so many great thoughts and ways to encourage myself. I need to free write a bunch about these different topics and I have such a great direction. I felt so much better afterwards.

So much better that I decided to take the rest of the night off and go to the movies with Rollyn. We saw Drive Angry, which was just what I needed this soggy Monday night. The action scenes were shot in an understandable way (that is to say, they were not over edited). The cars were fast. Amber Heard was a babe. Fichtner was amazing, but he always is. Cage phoned it in, but I didn't really care. It was fun and my brain was suspended for two hours. Afterwards Rollyn and I had a fight about the artistic relevance of Duchamp's work during his readymake period. Okay not really a fight, but it was pretty heated. Hahaha. Ohh the problems two artistic oriented people have, one being a visual artist the other a performer.

The weather sucks, but I can always get dry. I think I should have more spare clothes in my studio...

Todays Portraits Are: Elnora Turner AND Blaire Stapp.

ILLUSTRAQUACIOUS

Woke up with my eye same as yesterday. Spent the hour in bed, waiting till the "must get up" time, holding a wet cloth to my eye to encourage the swelling to go down. It was actually kind of soothing. The video I was helping Abbie with was delayed till a 2pm meeting, so that was nice. Then I remembered I hadn't done todays portrait so I bolted from bed and got that done. Gotta get them up before 3pm! Showered, ate finished that up and got it online with time to spare. My role in the video was a spirit or something. I just had to dress in flowy clothes. I put on tights and a nice black top and put my silk skirt in a bag. Packed some snacks. Rode my bike to the Goose Hollow max stop. Caught the max to Washington Park stop. And there I waited. Listened to my audio book for a bit. Abbie was delayed because something got in her eye. And then that thing stuck and she had to cancel. Also the weather sucked. So I went back home. Changed. Rode my bike down to school and found Samala in the print lab and tailed her for two hours. Drew her. Hung with her, Dom, and Jon. Going to school and finding someone to hang with seems a bit easier than having to schedule stuff. Even two hours gets a lot of drawing in.

Returned home. Made myself some mac and cheese. Popped open a beer. Set my laptop in front of the TV and watched the Oscars. And drew. I'm a multitasker like that. Oscars were pretty good, a little rushed near the end as usual. I was surprised that Kings Speech won picture AND director. I thought Fincher or Aronofsky would get director. There were so many good films too. I ended up redrawing one portrait THREE TIMES before I was satisfied. I'm still not actually satisfied with it. But I guess it looks more like the person now...yeah. And I'm now done with all the friend portraits. March brings the start of a trend of actors and stuff. People who will be easier to get references for.

Me and the pals came up with a new word: Illustraquacious. Basically it refers to the quality of possessing a visage that is easy to represent through art. Some people are very difficult to draw, and some people are really easy to represent. Some people just have easy to caricaturization features. Samala is one of these people. Morgaine is not. We came up with the word because we liked the suffix -quacious, and combined that with chopping off the front bit of illustration. Technically the suffix that indicates being full of something is -acious, but whatever.

Now I'm really tired. And tomorrow I'm meeting with Joan to learn the, what I assume to be, hard truth about my thesis paper.

WHY IS THE NEW TOP GEAR SERIES OVER ALREADY? THIS IS CRAP!

Todays Portrait Is: Jackie Barg.

first a sty, then a splinter, now another sty

ARGGHHH. The combination of below freezing weather and wet eyes and make up and biking seems to have resulted in another goddamn sty in my eye. This time it's on my bottom lid. My eye was getting puffy last night. And now this morning with a cold compress, I can see the sty. Bleeeh. Why are my eyes giving me so much trouble! Just need to wait this out. Again. I wish my eyes wouldn't water when I ride my bike. I should get goggles to protect my eyes.

Anyway. Spent a large portion of the day trying to track down people to draw. And twitchy my eye. Uhg. It's so swollen and irritating and twitchy and not at all attractive. At least it isn't weeping...anyway. Went to Trader Joe's and got some food. And got Heather and Daniel locked in for some drawing. Met them at Ram's Head at around 6:30 ish. They treated me to a pint. We chatted, I drew. We went to Daniel's place and they watched some comedy stand up things and I drew and they drew a bit. Lots of talk. It was a lot of fun and I got a lot of drawings. One usable, but the fact is that I did a TON. Volume is good. I shouldn't have to settle for a composition out of a few mediocre images. My eye had been depuffed before I left with a cold towel. But by the end it was big and bad looking. I hope it is better by tomorrow because I told someone I'd help them with a video project. I don't know how much of my face will be seen, but I'm not pretty with this eye sty. The last one had one gross swollen day and then it had gone down by the next day.

Seems like a batch of seniors always develop health problems. Maddison got mono. Nathalie slipped a disc. Now my eyes are constantly dealing with stuff. BOOOO. It is really distracting.

So tomorrow will be a video project and then some drawing and reading I guess.

Todays Portrait Is: Caroline Cronshaw.

giving people back themselves

Martin meetings are either awesome or stressful and make me want to cry from stress. Not that he is mean, he is just very good at being honest and pointing out weak spots.

But first blah blah I got up blah ate scramble blah it's cold blah rode my bike. Okay.

So yeah, in the meeting the art got a basic thumbs up, though the anonymous group side of the poster might still needs some extra treatment that does...something. I dunno. And some of the color blocking on the other side needs more thought. Still, having printed the images out at 11x17, I must say that they look really good at that size. I can't wait to actually start printing my thesis. I need to do a ton more drawing. But the main thing is how do I talk about my piece beyond acknowledging that we are all individuals in a collective and that I'm drawing my friends and giving them art. THE BIGGER GODDAMN PICTURE. What I got now is that I'm giving people back themselves. I could give anything, but I'm giving portraiture. That means...something. It was very stressful and now I'm a bit scared of the midterm meeting. If I don't think harder and keep honest and true about it then I'll be wrecked by the panel. Baaha. No fun. Not looking forward to it. Just need to work work work and get my paper printed. My paper still isn't here for some reason. They said a week. Grrr. It'll show. And once I get it I'll print print print. I can always add words to the design of the poster later. Another layer ain't no thang (it just means I can't give them away just yet). Martin suggested maybe some proverbs or something that deal with the themes of the pieces. I don't know how I feel about that idea though.

The sub came for yoga and it was great restorative class. Much needed. Undoes all the stress of the mentor meeting. And I feel all floppy afterwards. It is very cold today, but there is no snow. Yet. Right now I'm writing at 6pm, and in a few hours I'm going to the east side for Thom's going away party. He is going to Korea. We'll miss the awesome dude.

*****

Just got back from the partay. My ears are so cold. They are the old bit that gets exposed to the cold air, that and my face. It feels all funky and chilled. The apartment is warm, which is nice.

Anyway. The house where Thom is at was on 33rd and Knott, or just about. But on the east side of the river. Which means going from 22nd, down to the river, and then 33 more blocks. Plus a bridge. At 8pm. In freezing temps. I had my long johns on, and my long sleeves, and my sweater, and my gloves. It was my damn ears though. Brrr. Still, it was a clear night and there wasn't much traffic. So that was good. I was the first of the PNCA clan of friends to show up. A lot of people I didn't know, but they were cool and I made conversation. Ate pizza. Drank a responsible amount of booze. Thom leaves on SUNDAY!!! I'll miss him, even though he comes and goes from Portland so often. We'll cross paths again. Hes like the nicest guy ever. Anyway. Samala came. I chatted with this guy Sam, who is Chloe's brother. At least I think her name was Chloe. Josh, Janessa, Jon and Dom also came. And Jalissa and Morgan B. and Kevin C. They came and went. Soon it was just the PNCA clan. We played King's Cup and Jon improved a song and we sang to Thom. It was a really nice night. I kept mostly sober because I knew I'd be biking. Drinking and biking, its a bad idea. Especially when you know you'll be coming across street car tracks on your commute. I took lots of pictures. Love my friends. Totally rad people. Some good times have been had in Portland.

Portland has some great great people in it, and that is what I'll remember about it. The people. Not the trendy coffee shops or the hip this or the hip that. It's the people. It will always be the people. Some of the greatest, nicest, honest, awesome, devoted, ambitious people in the world are here. And I love them passionately.

Ride back seemed shorter and less...taxing. And less windy.

Todays Portrait Is: Jade Sheldon.

the great portland blizzard

It snowed! Like an inch...but there was legitimate snow sticking around in the morning. That was pretty cool. The great thing about Portland is that when it snows AN INCH, classes get called off. Okay just the morning classes, which have no actual relevance to my life. Still. Pathetic. Come on Portland. You call this weather? It wasn't even iced over or anything. Rode to school. Photocopied my sketches. Unfortnatly the art director lady couldn't come in because the day care she puts her daughter in was closed. Boo! So we talked about our sketches. Mine and Kristen's were some of the first that people were drawn too. Huzzah! There were some fantastic ideas around Behemoth. Nicole had two pages and when she revealed the second page, we all went "ooohhh". It was a nice little batch of stuff. For the rest of the first half of class, we worked on getting our stuff onto the class blog and general art...stuff. I ate the remainders of last nights meal for lunch (and late lunch). On Tumblr I discovered that the fabulous illustrator Scott Campbell was doing a live webcam stream of his latest Showdown (a series of small illustrations of famous showdowns). So I got in on that, and then it turned out that there was only 50 people allowed to watch the stream at any given time. I kept it on, on mute of course, and sort of double tasked the rest of class. I would see the drawing and then listen to the web design lecture. I'm not terribly interested in the web design lecture, all though we do need to get a proper website made by the end of class. It is good to have this stuff and good to know the resources. I think I'll probably get a domain name for cheap (trilliantrillian.com or something...maybe trilliantrilliantrillian, a Beetle Juice type thing) and do the design through Indexhibit. They mention not wanting sites to look too templated, but I'm not a web designer so I don't really care. I think that as long as I do some great background designs and stuff, that will work. I have ideas already...mmm yeah. Anyway. So that was the rest of class. When class was over I was able to turn on the audio of the live stream and at the end, Scott Campbell answered a few questions. It was really cool, seeing him work. Sketch, scan, manipulate scan in photoshop, print, trace onto paper, color it, line. And he was working really tiny too. So cool. I then worked on scanning my thesis stuff at the monstrously huge 600dpi. Most standard print resolution stuff is 300dpi, which is the number of dots per inch. The more dots, the more resolution. I needed to scan my small drawings at that high a resolution so that when they get blown up, they don't get too horribly pixeled. I went to my studio and dropped stuff off. Talked to Mel. Went to school. Put on yoga stuff. We had a substitute for yoga but she never showed (probably due to the weather). About eight of us were there and all wanted yoga, so we taught ourselves! We knew the general order of things, and we all guided one another through downward facing dogs and "the warrior that isn't the other warrior" and "tricky bind" and pigeon and wheel and "counter flop". It was great! Amazing how the students most noted for slackers all stepped up to the plate. Art students I mean. We rule. We also did three Oms. All though on the third everyone was reluctant to start for some reasons and then when one did, which was really awkward, we all broke into giggles. I love it. Love love love it. That is how community works. We all want something and band together. Sure it wasn't the most trying of classes, but we went forward and did it anyway! We culminated our knowledge. Chatted with Jon and Dom. Went home. Ate a salad and drank some orange juice. Watched my tellie. Now it isn't even midnight. A really good Thursday. Tomorrow is my meeting with Martin, yoga (if the sub shows) and then Thom's going away party. He is going away to Korea to teach English. He'll be a great teacher.

Todays Portrait Is: Nicole Cuvin.

draw day

Slept nicely in. Maybe I would be more stressed if I didn't sleep so much. Maybe I would get more done if I didn't sleep so much. Hmmn.

Had a massive scramble to give me the zest for the day. Documented and queued up the next few days portraits. Then at about 3pm, I headed down to Pioneer Place. It was so cold. I need to remind myself why I even have long johns. Keep forgetting about them. Keep thinking "oh it isn't that cold". When it says it will snow in Portland, I know it probably won't snow in my area, but it will at least be cold. Anyway. I went to the mall and drew lots of people in different ways. Trying to figure out how to do my "anonymous scene drawing" drawings. One half of my thesis art is anonymous collective stuff blah blah blah to counter the personal portraits. Did that for a few hours. Called Heather at 6pm, who I planned to hang with and draw. Got directions to her house and headed out.

So I went up Morrison (or whatever the west one way street is) turned North on 12th. Turned East on Lovejoy. Crossed the Broadway bridge. Turned left on Williams. Rode that for a while. Went past the venue where Odd Owl played at. Turned onto Fremont. And turned on another street, but I won't say to not give away Heather's location to any internet stalkers. But it was a good 2 mile bike run. And thanks to it being so cold, I wasn't dripping with sweat when I arrived. I wasn't all that exhausted either. Need to put some air in my tires. I'll do that tomorrow. Anyway, we hung out for a few hours. The drawings I did of her were not quite right, but at least I was drawing. I have plenty of the friends side of thing to draw from already, so that isn't a major issue right now. Keeping up with the drawing is. Afterwards, I went to Karen, BT, and Phil's to hang out with them. Since I was on that side of the river, might as well touch on all the bases. It is actually a lot easier to get over there than I thought. Broadway is also much more convenient than Hawthorne ever was. We swung by Fred Meyer's, and I got myself some Deli food. Then we hung out and watched BT play Red Dead Redemption for a bit.

Then it seemed a good time to go home. Didn't want to return when it was too late or cold, but it was already pretty cold. What with the snow and all that. It didn't really become apparent snow till I was in Nob Hill, and it wasn't sticking. Still, snow is snow. It was a pretty brisk ride home. But the apartment was warm and Justified was waiting to be watched. Did some more Behemoth drawings. Tomorrow we will have the art director in class and she'll give us feedback. It would be so cool if one of us got printed on a wine label. All legit and stuff!

Tomorrow is class and yoga. In between that? More people watching probably.

Todays Portrait Is: Amanda Belmont.

good mood day

Woke up to a chainsaw in the courtyard. They are apparently bringing in some landscapers or something. So they just took out a bunch of plants and trees and stuff. It looks barren. So I'm looking forward to the time when they put more stuff in. My eye is doing much better. Hurrah. A little bit twitchy, but not nearly as teary as it had been. I was worried about pink eye or something. Just hysterics. Yay healthy.

Went down to school at 1:30ish to get a cupcake from Kristen and Tabitha. They were holding a bake sale to fund their thesis. So yeah, did my part. Chilled and chatted. Then returned to home and did some portraits and went to Trader Joe's and did some shopping. Found the seaweed snacks. They moved them to a place that I couldn't find. But now I know where they are.

Then yoga! It was a fun class. Volunteered to help this girl with a video project on Sunday. Back in the Studios, I hung with Jon for an hour and drew him. Thesis stuff.

Went back home. Ate some stuff. Tomorrow I'm going to go to the mall and draw people and then call Heather and hang out and draw her. Holla!

Right now is television (Glee, Lights Out, White Collar) and more portraits. Like being on top of them.

Todays Portrait Is: Rachel Haywood.

double digest

Sunday:

Got up. Had a breakfast. At 2:30ish I set out to find a coffee shop to settle into and work away. Bubble Tea place was packed. Starbucks was packed. Coffee Time was packed. I need an outlet for my computer (it doesn't hold any charge), so I can't just settle in anywhere. There was a second Starbucks way down on Lovejoy and that had space. I got an iced tea and a sammich and got to writing. It was slow going. Very slow. At around 5pm I returned home and then hopped on down to the studios. It was horribly slow going. I was mostly just spewing my thoughts in a somewhat constructed manner into several sub sections and stuff. It got later and later and I got tireder and tireder. Also when I was putting on my eye pencil, some flake or something from the wood got into my eye I think. And it really irritated my eye. Its hella blinky and teary. It comes and goes but is generally annoying. I've flushed it many times but it still is irritated. I left for home from the studios at around 11:30. Relaxed a bit. Ate some food. I was up till 3am working.

Monday:

And I got up at 8am to continue working. Just needed an extra page written and some editing. It wasn't so bad, it just lacks research. Which is kinda bad because it is a RESEARCH PAPER. I didn't get much sleep. And my eye is still irritated. Still, now I know the direction my research will take. Sort of. At 2 I called it quits and went to school. Turned in some extra prints for the portfolio (they miscounted, thankfully I had extras). Then I walked to Safeway and got a much needed energy drink (a small one, not a Rockstar or Monster) and some microwave meal. Microwaved it. Ate it while waiting for class to start.

For the first bit of class we talked about papers. Then we did more mind mapping, though the people who went this week it wasn't the most helpful because they'd already had to do the paper without our input. Joan was sympathetic to haggered and tired most of us looked, and were. During break I chatted with Rachel and Jenn. My eye started acting up. When I don't think about it, or poke at it, it gets better. I just have to keep it out of mind.

After class, I scanned in my compositions for illustration. I'm happy that I'm already a bit ahead on that assignment. It is wine label design for a real client (potentially). I have some more ideas to do. I chatted with Mel. Went home. Did some dishes. Watched House (good episode). Ate pasta. Going to relax now. Watch some stuff. Draw some stuff. Get to bed at a decent hour.

Todays Portrait Is: Chase Velarde.

twitch

I have a twich in my right eye from an irritant, or maybe it is just stress.

I'm tired. And still have a (small) way to go. I'll give you the full report tomorrow.

Todays Portrait Is: Jared MacKenzie.

can't spell fine art without fart

Horrible day in terms of productivity. I got a rough outline done, which is good but not exactly a comprehensive in depth thing. And I worked on this mock grant proposal, which is just another tool to get us to look at our thesis from a 1,000 feet view. But mostly I wasted time doing stuff I can't even remember. I slept in. Did laundry. Ate food. But in general, not good. Really bad.

I think I'll take an early night and tomorrow I'll go somewhere without wifi, or maybe just a coffee shop and not ask for the wifi code, and work. Headphones and microsoft word. No distractions. This rough draft will mostly be my own nonresearched knowledge and ideas. Once I get that done, I will know how to research it and what I need to research. Go all "okay these are my claims, how do I back them up?" I have a lot of topics that I can think and talk about I think....I just need to be in a good work environment. I guess the studio also works, just so long as I AVOID THE INTERNET.

But at least I have clean pillow cases. And clean yoga clothes. Hmm. Bubble tea tomorrow will be nice. It will also be a preemptive reward/incentive. I'll get something nice while I work. Three undistracted hours are worth like nine distractive hours.

Todays Portrait Is: Kinoko Evans.

print exchange!

Even though my alarm went off at 8, I slept in a whole bunch. Still, getting an early start is good. I had one of those bizarre mornings where I wake up at 5am and am not aware of the time and start doing stuff, and then I realize it is way too early, so I crawl back into bed. Ya know?

Anyway, eventually got up and had a scramble and some Emergen-C. Then I went to Coffee Time and drew the people there for an hour and a half. Had a large hot chocolate. Mmm. It wasn't the best of drawings, but it was a start. Ran into Carlson on the way out. If the weather wasn't so icky, I would have stopped and talked to him more. Went home and changed into wellies, as it was raining and icky. Went to school. Had a fabulous meeting with Martin. He liked the work and liked the direction I was going. By next week I should have some final designs of the posters ready to show him. Just to know how it looks like before I print it. So another week of drawing drawing drawing and some designing. Hurray! We have a mid term meeting with people soon. So I need to have a few posters made by the 7th or 8th or whatever. It shouldn't take more than a day to print one poster anyway.

After that I looked at my new Esquire and noticed that this reader letter was suspiciously similar to this letter that Karen said she submitted. Except it was by Kara in Kansas City. Turns out Karen wrote in under a pseudonym. It was her letter! Karen was published in Esquire! And it took up half a page! How awesome is that?

Yoga was relaxing and rejuvenating. It was a bit tough because my tail bone was so badly bruised from yesterday's tumble. But it was nice. Went home. Threw on a dress. Zipper was funky. Threw on another dress. Did my makeup. Karen called me and I hopped in her car. She cruised by her place and picked up Phil. We stopped by Safeway and Phil got booze (just a six pack). Then it was off to the print exchange!

The exchange was 46 prints strong. It was held at Christy's house. A very nice house designed for printing (upstairs) and hosting (lots of open space and tables and general great mingling atmosphere). We were a little late, but not so late that there wasn't food a plenty. Heather, Daniel, Heather, Christy, Yoshi, Tom, Patrick, Diana, Chelsey, Robin, Casey, Morgan, Morgan, Jalissa, Justin, Justin, Lacey, ...uhhmm. Anyway, tons of people were there. The whose who of the print department. And boy do they bring the booze. I stuck to a nice amount of gin. Chatted to people, ate delicious food. I didn't bring any because I am lame. We piled the prints so that we would all get the same number out of the edition. I drew #19 out of a hat. I roamed and chatted and had great conversations with tons of cool people. I forgot my camera, but Yoshi was a shutterbug so there are pictures somewhere. I had one of my Goodwill Bins dresses and some tights. Looked good. Fancy. There was a cat named Leche who was irritable and unpettable.

It was a bit of an early night, Karen took Lacey and I home. Got back at around 10 or so. Not a late party. I walked to Fred Meyer's to get some beer. Good old beer. I also needed to get ten bucks to pay for the box that the print portfolio will go into.

So now I'm drinking beer and watching Fringe. I'll probably call it an early night. Tomorrow and the day after are thesis paper writing days. Gaaah.

Todays Portrait Is: Annie Heisey.

ow my butt

I tripped over my laundry basket and grabbed my chair to prevent my fall. Too bad a wheely chair on wood floors does nothing to stop a fall. Now my butt hurts. Bleh.

Got up an hour early to finish my illustration piece. It just needed some final color and some texture. Did that. Had some toast and tea before I left for school. Got to class right on time. For the first chunk of class we played around making websites using Virb. Very little of my art looks properly nice online. I do such a poor job of documenting it. That is the benefit of digital art, it always is crisp. Hmmn. Anyway. We did that. Madeline and I got burritos for lunch. I think Chipotle are making them smaller than they did. They don't seem quite as filling as they once did.

Back in class we reviewed our projects. We got our new prompt. And then it was work time. The next assignment is wine label design. In front of the back row's eyes Chase whipped out an amazing digital illustration just like that. He sure is good at his monsters and digital art. Kid is a whiz.

After class I looked up the address to Arvey Paper and rode my bike over to the other side. Then it turns out the directions were all wrong and I was about 15 blocks north from where I needed to be. Going down traffic on crappy sidewalks isn't fun. But I got there. My thesis will be 11"x17". Because it is an intimate size, and it is easier to print, and easier to buy in bulk than single sheets. Hahaha. Anyway, I could either order one thousand sheets and pay around a hundred dollars (because I'd be buying reems and then paying for shipping) or buy a box of reems which contained two thousand sheets, wouldn't have shipping, and it would cost $130. I went for that. Now I can go for broke on the thesis. I'll be printing a "distributing" edition and a "collection" edition. So there will be one set of prints that are designed to be given away in a whole batch of thesis prints. For the parents and people. Yeah! Just need to start printing, now that I've figured out what I'm going to put on the other side of my poster. Just draw draw draw and print print print. Once I have my paper, I can just go full on. I'm so excited. Tomorrow I have a meeting with Martin and I feel really good about it.

But I did not feel good about riding my bike through icky traffic and across bad roads. But it wasn't that bad. Crossing over Broadway is easy, and it sets you down right in the Pearl District close to school. I finished my burrito. Talked to Jon. Then I went to the library and took a nap. I woke up right on time for yoga. Which passed by very fast.

Out of yoga I tracked down Mel and spent a couple hours tailing her and drawing her. Drew her screenprinting. Drew her eating pizza. Hot Lips was closing and they gave us free pizza! Huzzah! And I drew her screenprinting some more. Talked to people about my project. Was all "we should hang out!" to Carla and Heather. Three friends drawn! And if I draw three interiors then that is practically three posters done! Whoop whoop!

Got home 10:30ish. Downloaded my tellie. Drank some water. Fell on my bum. Now I shall retire. I'm setting my alarm for 8am. Trying to slowly get myself up earlier. Normally I hit the snooze on a 9am alarm a bunch of times. Setting it to 8 gets me awake earlier and even if I snooze a bunch, I'll be starting my snoozing earlier. Tomorrow is a full day. Going to draw some interiors. Talk to Martin. Go to yoga. Go to the print exchange.

Listening to Jamiroquai's A Funk Odyssey right now. Makes for nice background music.

Todays Portrait Is: Kristin Rogers Brown.

Aunt Brynne's Chili

16.667"x6.75"

Pencil and pen with digital color.

Drawn for TheyDrawAndCook.com

buddying up

The weather sucked and I stuck around in bed for a long long time. Rain and rain and rain. I like the morning. I just lay about and think. But then I have to get up. Boo. Had a scramble with frozen rice and veggies. I should get a straight up frozen veggie medley to throw in scrambled eggs. Rice is such a filler. Followed that up with some nutella and toast. Then I headed to my studio. Worked on finishing up my chili recipe. Inked it and did some pencil shading. Then went to the library and scanned it. Threw in some digital color. Before I knew it, it was time to head to Goose Hollow to see Robin. Tonight she was my drawing subject. She made me a wonderful dinner and I drew her as we ate and talked and drank copious amounts of tea. We walked to Safeway and got some cake and watched Glee. It was a really nice evening. Just hanging with a friend, talking progress and relationships and gabbing about this and that. Got some great drawing done. Really understanding my practice more. And last night I figured out what I'm putting on the back of my posters. On one side will be portraiture of friends drawn from meetings and chattings. On the other side will be anonymous group drawings. Malls and coffee shops. Anonymous depictions will unfold to personal ones. Lovely. I can't wait to just go places and draw draw draw and listen to my audio book copiously. I need to order my paper though. But I'm building up a good stock of images.

Left Robin at midnight. Now I'm going to finish watching Justified and go to bed.

Todays Portrait Is: Serenity Ibsen.

Editioning, Drawing, Yogaing

At 9ish, I was awake in bed thinking that I was so awake that I might as well get up. But then I went back to sleep. Damniiit.

Had my breakfast. And a salad. Went to my studio. Took a long while to title, edition (that is, to write the x/50 on every print...1/50 45/50 and so on), and sign all my print portfolio prints. But that is done! And in a few days time, I will have 48 or so prints from a brilliant crop of artists. Huzzah! After that I worked on the illustrated recipe. Got it mostly inked it. Tomorrow I will shade and scan and color and finish it. I'm meeting Robin later tomorrow to draw her, so I will have to get an early start on the art. Yay productivity! Yay not waiting till the last minute.

Last minute waiting exception: thesis paper. Saturday and Sunday I will work hard core on that. Right now, it is art time. Drawing and scheduling and yoga. Yoga was good. A nice full class. Lots of hip work.

At home I worked on some more portraits. I am almost a week ahead now! So I can relax during the next couple days....and work on real stuff. But now that I officially "draw portraits while watching tellie" I'm just going right through them. And I'm generally more pleased with them across the board. The ink and brush works a lot better than pen. Raising Hope was nice. Glee was funny. Lights Out is good but it is kind of getting into a lull. So funny how bad the actress is at covering up her accent. Why not just make the character Irish?

I need to order my paper for thesis.

Todays Portrait Is: Megan Fix.

red day

Another school week starts. I wonder how many blog posts have started with "another week starts". Probably a ton.

Had my scramble. Used a little less beef than usual and more onion. I bought the wrong kind of onion, so these ones don't dice into little pieces and more so stay in bigger bits. Still good though. Really got a liking for onion now. Had a big cup of tea as well, to get me stirring. Worked on my thought web. Basically it was a mind mapping and inter connectivity of our thesis paper and we were to put them on the board and get feed back in class. So I worked on that.

Then I grabbed an apple and went to class. James J. put his up and for some reason my eyes couldn't focus on his hand writing. He is doing some complex vision spiritual painting type stuff. There are tons of directions for him to go. I went next. I got some good feedback, mainly on the "don't cheapen my artwork" front and the "what it means to be drawn" side of things. Jen and Dom and Nico went. All were good. It was a fast paced fun class. Though this coming week will be chock full of outlines and writing. I actually start writing the damn paper this week. First draft is due in week. 10 pages. It will probably mostly be the artist side of things, as I don't have the research yet. But I can figure it out. I'm not too worried. If I have a good comprehensive outline, I can write. Outlines are key.

After class I swung by Safeway and got some food. Then I headed over to Rollyn's. It was rainy and sucky. Bleh. I mainly got the food for myself, because he had eaten and I know he doesn't have any food in his apartment. It is the most sparse fridge I've ever seen. And kitchen in general. But anyway. I ate and we watched the Rifftrax version of 300. Rifftrax is from the people who did Mystery Science Theater 3000. Basically they do funny audio tracks that accompany movies that you own at home. It's silly. I gave him this Bob Dylan valentine that I drew (he is a big Dylan fan). It was a nice relaxing evening. It wasn't raining on my ride back.

I have plans to draw Mel and Robin later on this week. Tomorrow I think I'll label my print portfolio edition and work on shading my piece for illustration. So a studio day. And then yoga of course. And some reading.

Todays Portrait Is: Rollyn Stafford.

beggar & trobrianders

I'm reading The Gift (it is 3:47 as I write this first chunk of blog post) and it is stirring a lot of thoughts. One of them is how linguistically, words that are in fantasy books shouldn't be in them because the world lacks the origins that the word we use has. Such as "beggar", which comes from the Beghards, that are these 13th century friars from Flanders that wander and beg. Fantasy novels that have no Beghards because there is no Flanders should not use the word beggar, because the origin of that word doesn't exist. Still, to pick apart every word would be time consuming. I think if I wasn't studying art, I'd be studying linguistics.

Went to Trader Joe's. Got vegetables a plenty. And baby spinach so that I can spruce up my salads even more. Tons of apples. Bread. Egg. Meat. Yum. I have a new episode of Top Gear waiting to be watching, but BACK TO READING!

*****

Reading went pretty well. Went down to the studios to draw Dominic for thesis. It went really well. We pretty much just sat and chilled. He worked. I drew him. Nice and loose. Smaller images, and he didn't hold still. They turned out a lot better. Four images drawn. Didn't take that long. And if I work on enough of these, I can create a good body of art. Just need to draw draw draw hang out draw. I love that part of my thesis is hanging out with people. All part of the process. And the more I know about my process, the more I can speak about it. So happy that that went well. Also had a good conversation with mom that lifted my spirits and stresses. Mum is so supportive. Love her.

After that I returned home and caved and watched Top Gear. And Episodes. And Shameless. But I worked on portraits! So after Shameless, it will be back to reading. And I have a lot of stuff to do tomorrow morning before class, so I think I will try to accomplish waking up early tomorrow. Make myself a scramble. I love scrambles.

Really loving the next two portraits that I made. I think I need to avoid pen. Ink is where its at.

Todays Portrait Is: Michael Anderson.

coffee shop failure

Got up earlier, which is good. Had a small toast breakfast. Today is a hat hair day. Left the apartment at around 1pm. Walked to Coffee Time and got a cookie and caramel with steamed milk. In a few hours of sitting I accomplished very little. Though The Gift is reading a lot faster now that I am past the introduction.

I spent most of the day picking up The Gift and putting it down and picking it up again. Took out the trash. Did the dishes. It is interesting, I just can't keep my mind on it. I'm having real focus issues. But seeing as how tomorrow is a big "lots of stuff to get done for Thesis Writing & Research" day, I'll probably be more productive. And when I'm not being productive on my book reading, I'll draw portraits. But my tellie doesn't come on till later..soooo. Yeah.

Goddamn. I hate feeling like a failure. I feel like I am not working nearly hard enough. Not reading enough. Not drawing enough. It has been a month and I have no pieces printed. What the hell? Gaaahh.

Todays Portrait Is: Matt Wilson.

soba!

It is utterly impossible to roll out of bed before noon. Blah.

The main problem with my thesis is trying not to try to hard. I was drawing Karen today and all the images were so forced. They didn't have the naturalness. Some were good, but the proportions were inexcusably off, and not just "full of heart" off. But I'm also not fully done with the images. They still need to be shaded. So they are not finished. I think I'll try drawing smaller. It is better to draw small and good than big and empty.

Anyway. Had my usual massive scramble. Now I'm out of beef again. But plenty of eggs. Need to get some mayo. And bread. I'm so uncreative with food. Oh well.

Yoga was restorative today. Longer held poses. Lots of twists. Some strain. But it was nice. I like having yoga in my life. I wonder what will happen when I graduate.

Afterwards I drew Karen in the print lab for a bit. Like I said, the drawings were just not natural. Trying way too hard. I think I should do smaller images. And draw faster. Draw like the zine. After that I finished up my print portfolio piece. For a wide open studio, there wasn't a lot of people there today. Just me and Yoshi. Then Lacey, Karen, and I went to Mio Sushi. I had rice, some shrimp ebi, and soba noodles. Because I haven't had soba noodles in a while. They were good, though kind of one note. We ate Lacey's vegetables. I'm now at the place in my life where I eat OTHER PEOPLE'S veggies. Whaaa. I'm a grow up and stuff, I guess. We had a great conversation about art and our art practices and how we relate to our different mediums. It was lovely.

Went home. Watched Fringe. Worked on drawing portraits some more. Now I'll go to bed and try to get up and do some reading. I think if I incentive myself to get a caramel steamer, I can go get some reading in a cafe done.

Todays Portrait Is: Andy Pilarski.

why is he in a wedding dress?

Last day with ever so slightly swollen eye. All though going fresh faced is a nice change of pace. Need to not be "reliant" on makeup. It needs to be fun.

Got up. Laid out my clothes. Had some breakfast. Showered. Went to school. Scanned. Went to class. Critiqued. There are some cool looking visual recipes happening. Sneezed a bunch for no reason. Got a sandwich from Quizno's for lunch. Beef dip. Mmmm. During lunch I watched Community with Madeline and Kristen. Jeff was all "is that the Dungeons and Dragons episode?" and I was all "yes!". Back in class we looked at some CSS websites and then it was open work time. I noodled about a bit. After class I went to my studio, prepared to leave, then remembered I had time to print, so I went to print. I had to keep reapplying tape on my screen, because of a blotch in my transfer. So there was a part that was printing ink that I didn't want to print ink, but because it is silk and a bit damp, the tape kept coming off. Argh. But I did get a layer done. Went home for a little bit. Went back to school.

YOGA WAS BRUTAL. Lots of thigh work. And back stuff. But mostly thighs. We did some insane moves. I felt brutalized after. But in a good way. Diana picked me up from home and we went to BT, Karen, and Phil's for the night. Evan and Holly were there as well as Lacey and Mel. They were watching Zardoz. I worked on some sketches. Mostly chilled though. Drank a beer. Mel left. Dom came. Phil and Diana played Katamari Damacy. Jalissa and Morgan B. came over too. And that was fun. It was a good little joking crowd. A nice night with friends. I have pictures but I'll post them later. Diana drove Lacey and I back. Now I'm going to chill. Drink some water. Tomorrow is yoga, drawing Karen for thesis, and maybe more printing. Or reading.

Todays Portrait Is: Craig Wheat and Cat.

Auntie Brynne's Chili (sketch)

Sketch for a visual recipe.

Rougly 17"x7". Graphite on paper.

Recipe courtesy of my aunt Brynne.

what a crock (pot)

It's weird. Once reading gets labeled as "research" I don't want to do it. I'm so behind in my reading. Just can't get around to doing it. Got around to doing other things.

My eye was barely puffy and barely hurt this morning. Hurrah, it is almost healed! I'll still live it alone for another day or so. Nursing it with a wet cloth is quite soothing.

At 4ish, I went to school to get to my print portfolio. The lab was pretty full of people carving and printing. So I got my screen and paper ready to go. And then I waited. Waited for the class to be over so I could nab some space. Amazing how many of the students actually sat around using the whole damn class time. What the hell kids? You are supposed to leave at 3pm! That's how normal students do it (not me though, I'm also responsible). I got one layer done (there is also a class at 6:30 pm). It is going to take so many early mornings once I actually get cracking on printing my thesis. Not looking forward to a reasonable sleep schedule. Bleh. Afterwards, Karen, Lacey and I went to Yur's for dinner. I had a grilled cheese and a couple Sessions. We talked Doctor Who (Karen doesn't like it but she started in the Matt Smith episodes, and with ones that don't show off the show in its best lights. Diana, who had joined us, and I agreed that The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances would be an excellent place to start). We talked thesis. We talked and talked. Then went our separate ways. I pulled up my television queue and started working on my illustration homework. It's 17"x7" just about, and it is an illustrated recipe. I'll scan it tomorrow and show you guys.

It is just a sketch, to be finished over the coming week. But it looks good. I'm excited for it.

Also I forgot to mention that two mornings ago I fell in the shower. Nothing major. Mostly just banged my side. I completely forgot about it till I lay down that same day. Still, a scary thing in the moment.

Todays Portrait Is: Olivia Britz.

eye see

Woke up with my puffy eye even puffier. Still no symptoms of pink eye, just regular old eye sty. Looked up sty on MayoClinic.com (WebMD should be avoided, thanks to my lovely yoga instructor Fawn for the health care searching advice) and followed the advice of a compress. The swelling went down. Still hurts a very little bit. Mostly just sore type of hurting. I'm just going to wait it out. For a second I was thinking about going to the clinic, but that is just me being a hypochondriac. I'll wait and see and if it gets worse or changes, I'll go. But for now, I'll stick with compresses.

Took my sweet time getting out of the house today. Had a second meal before I left, just to make sure I wasn't starving by the time yoga rolled around. It was good that I got to school when I did, before I forgot about print lab congestion. The class was just getting over with when I arrived. Boy, I remember a time when there was a full open lab day. Tomorrow there is also a class and I'm not sure if I should go SUPER early and print before it and get other stuff done in the mean time while they are in critique (they might be in critique, but if they are not, then I can work because the Screen & Relief class is still in Relief). Or do I wait till 5 and print straight through and listen to my audio book. Wednesday sucks for television anyway. I like the sound of the latter. Go late, take no risk and work work work. Instead of hitting the alarm a bunch of times and then taking a nap for four hours. I'll get to my reading tomorrow instead. But back to today. Today I took my paper to the chopper at school and chopped it into a very nicely cut 10"x10" stack. It looks so perfect and ready for printing. After that I played with my print pieces and thought about how they will be arranged on the paper. Before I knew it, it was time for yoga!

A lot of knee work today. Felt good. Got nice and warm. It hasn't been as cold these past few days, which is nice. After yoga I returned home. Worked on drawing stuff mostly. Nibbled on some more food. Contemplated tomorrow. The problem with not over scheduling myself, is when I leave the schedule open I accomplish less. I need to do better about setting firmer goals, instead of leaving things aside. Right now: print portfolio. Right after that: illustration recipe thingy. Right after that: draw people. THESIS! Right after that: work on mind map and writing. I've been doing tons of mind maps, though now we need to perform our mind map for the class. In some sort of performing monkey show.

Did you know Netflix has Top Gear on instant watch? Glee was good I guess. I like when we get character internal monologues. Raising Hope was funny. My eye sty is doing much better. I just put a cold cloth on it and the swelling goes right down. Hurrah! Guess it will be a lipstick only couple days. Oh well. My skin is looking great though. I think I may have nailed a routine that works. Cleanse every night. Use the gentle scrub every other morning. Once a week use the intense scrub.

Todays Portrait Is: Phil Bone.

preliminary thesis sketches

pen in moleskin.

unopen open time

Woke up with a sore puffy eyelid. The puffyness is barely noticeable, and I only really feel the soreness when I squint. Probably just a stye. See how it is tomorrow.

Another week starts. Another busy week. Got up early to work on stuff. Worked on sorting my bibliography. Ate a scramble. Yum yum yum. Big breakfasts are good things. Went to school at 12:30 and worked on the computers there, because it is much easier to use Zotero at school. Went to Utrecht and dropped some cash on paper for the print portfolio. Sketched and read during the time I had left. In class we mainly talked about format and our reactions to the reading and the stuff we worked on. Class moved pretty slow, but it moved. During break I scanned my thesis sketches and mailed them off to Martin. It wasn't the most eventful of classes. But we have 10 pages of our thesis paper due in two weeks. EEEEEKK!! Need to get on with my reading.

My next week doesn't have a lot of given responsibilities. It looks relatively open, but I know I have a lot of general work that needs doing. Printing and reading mostly. I'm drawing Karen on Friday. Need to order paper to print on. Reading and yoga and printmaking.

Back at home I ate some pasta and salad. Watched House. Drew some portraits. Drew the last piece for my print portfolio piece. Relaxed. Tomorrow I'll get up and get to work. Chop the paper down. Work on the layout. Maybe print a few layers. We'll see.

Todays Portrait Is: Kasia Alexander.

journey to the east

Something happened with my alarm and it didn't go off like it ought. Still, I wasn't in bed too late. Got up. Showered. Had my usual breakfast. Then I decided I would go drop off my pieces, no matter how long the bike ride. The show is a Thing-A-Day type thing, but only for January. Not a 365 project. So I swung by school and photocopied my first months worth of Portraitoday. Then I headed down to Couch via 9th. Then down to Naito Parkway via Couch. Got onto Hawthrone Bridge off of Naito. But I took a weird turn off and got onto Clay, and then 7th. Turned left onto Harrison. Rode straight on Harrison, all though not totally straight because there was a large roundabout and a few square gardens to zig around. The Harrison Street neighborhood is quite nice. Eventually I got up the hill to 28th and found St. David's Episcopal Church. That was where the drop off was. I dropped my stuff off. Filled out a form. Then I sat and caught my breath and relaxed a bit from my very long multiple mile bike ride. Whew! After I felt relaxed enough to hop on the bike, I did.

I zoomed down Harrison, and went over to Hawthorne by 12th. Stopped at Burgerville and got some burgers and a soda. Yum! Then I went over the bridge. Swung by Pioneer Place Mall and picked up a cheap loop to put in my one piercing hole. Maybe I'll get the other one pierced one of these days. Third times the charm? Rode back home. Talked to mom for a bit.

Went to Trader Joe's. Got some apples and food stuffs. Salad! Tabitha and Kristen were getting their hair did by this lady tonight. Highlights and a cut (I think) for Kristen, new nice shade of blonde and a good cut for Tabitha. I sat in my room reading and drinking tea. Now I shall read some more. And then draw while watching Top Gear and Shameless and Episodes. But first, more reading.

Todays Portrait Is: Casey Hatfield.

improv???

Blissfilled wonderful sleep. Mornings free of panic and worry. Great feelings. But now I just realized how much I have to accomplish tomorrow. Oops oh well.

Had a breakfast of bagel and tea. Need to go shopping. Tomorrow. I'll do that tomorrow.

Rode down to the library to get a new library card since I can't find my old one. Did that. Went to Josephine's Dry Goods and bought some new buttons to sew onto my pea coat (a coat that has been in need of buttons for years). All though the coat is so old and worn and was cheap to begin with...but buttons will spruce it up!

After that I coasted to a couple other places looking for something but I forget what because I couldn't find it. Treated myself to a cupcake from Cupcake Jones. Uber big cupcake. Then went home.

Finished Clash of Kings. AHhhh that final chapter! I don't get it! What was that? Time to start listening to Storm of Swords.

Tonight, thanks to PNCA, I got a free ticket to see The Mitch Show at Bodyvox. I wasn't quite sure what it would be, because the description was sort of vague. Improv? Video? I knew there would be audience participation, and I was down for that. So I went there. Met Carrie and her sister Jenny. My seat was front row center pretty much. He showed us some of his funny videos, that were perfectly hilarious. Then he had us all stand up and one by one sit down if an answer to a series of his questions applied to us. I got out with "I updated my Facebook status today" but not the ones about checking email since you had been in the theater and knowingly eating gluten free. The first major audience participation thing I volunteered for. We were all given mp3 players and headphones and a beanie to keep them on. The players were started at the same time and gave each of the five volunteers stage directions and lines to say. It all synced up and we all played parts of this play, even though it was totally new to us. And I must say it was FUN. I just wish I could have watched us do it. I played a mutant chasing a gang of teenagers, a person doing the twist, some person trying to pull someone through a time vortex, a lady in 1812 and a gunslinger! It was awesome. Everyone on stage really hammed it up and went for it. I had a blast, and was sad that it finished. Technology has really revolutionized things. There was another thing where he made a guitar hero esque game except with laughing that we all played. So when our laugh came up, we did it. It made an interesting audience coordination. There was ALSO a bit where he lined up people in the formation of bowling pins, Mitchell Rose in the front. And well explaining this thing would take too much effort so I'm not going to bother. But it was great. His videos were awesome as well. Loved it. So glad I went.

It was rainy on the way back, but I'll take rain over snow. SNL was hosted by Dana Carvey for some reason and it was pretty funny. Linkin Park was the musical guest and they were not good.

Now I'm just chilling. I think I'm going to sit in bed, sew buttons on my jacket, and listen to Game of Thrones. I'll set my alarm and get a fresh early start or something. Have a lot of reading to do and some writing as well. All though it is 750 words and pfft, thats like...nothing. Also have some drawing to do. There is also this drop off for this Thing A Day show. The drop off is on the other side of the river, and I have to photocopy my project. It will make a nice excursion. When I cruise down to my studio to pick up some stuff, I'll just keep cruising to the East side. Maybe. I might just get lazy instead...

Todays Portrait Is: Elliot Mann.

panic receding, is it a tide or a drain though?

Uhg. Totally horrid start to that day. I just couldn't think about ANYTHING with my thesis. Totally blocked. Horribly, horribly, inexcusably, blocked. So I knew waking up that I would have to face Martin and say "I'm blocked. Help." Got up early anyway. Looked at some portrait books. Piddled around on the internet. Just got increasingly more anxious and tense and about ready to panic. Time moves forward and I had to go face my fate with Martin. I managed to keep it together through it all, no tears! I just admitted I was stuck and he gave me some great advice. I pretty much lopped off the seven mantra for seven poster chunk of my thesis. Some of the core values of the mantras I am passionate about will remain in the body, but I won't be bound by that. Now my thesis is changing into studies of friends and the who and why. Still will be distributed, but it is more a presentation of my group and some of the bigger ideals. I really wish I had recorded what Martin said so I could listen to it again. His advice was perfect and the weight and panic lifted in such a short amount of time. Now I have some drawing that I am actually excited to do. Now I can spend time with people drawing them in a manner that I enjoy. Now I can do a thesis that I have passion for. When I started down this road, I did have the passion, but I didn't have a good idea of the images and lumping it all together. Now I have some freedom. It will still be folded up, but I think I'll have more free writing instead of analysis.

Just can't be bothered to do something I have no enthusiasm for, especially when it comes to art.

Yoga was cancelled, I think Fawn wasn't feeling too well. Went to Safeway and got myself a beer treat. A nice Ninkasi red ale in one of those slightly bigger than a pint bottles. And got some cash. Took that cash to the laundromat and changed it into quarters for laundry. Hurray.

Popped my laundry into the laundry machines. Two loads! A lot of shirts needed washing. Popped open my beer, made some pasta, and allowed myself to unwind. Now that I'm in a good direction once again, I need a night to regroup so I can attack tomorrow with vigor and enthusiasm. Fringe was good. Community, watching it another time, was also good. Now I'm waiting on Portlandia. But it should also be funny.

Todays Portrait Is: Nicci Spisak.

heat is needed

I'm not feeling too hot but I just drank a bunch of black tea so going to bed isn't an option. Damn. The problem with the studios at school is that every minute you spend in them feels like another minute closer to never being warm again in your life. There are overhead heaters in the open space that is used for critiques. But that doesn't do diddly for all the spaces. It is so FREAKING HORRIBLY COLD. I sit there trying to work and I have all my layers on. It seems almost warmer outside. I need to get a space heater. Maybe tomorrow I'll go over to Fred Meyers and check out their wares.

For the first hour of class we looked at our assignments. Some really great stuff was drawn. Mine was cool just not all that dynamic. I could have worked harder on it, but didn't. Josh's looked swell. Dom resolved the translation from the sketchbook image to the final really well. Nice batch of work. After that Kristin gave us a little run down about how to talk with clients and stuff.

For lunch I went to Chipotle. First lunch bought this semester, go me! Normally I'm lazy and buy lunch once to twice a week. Oh wait, I think I got pizza some other day. Err. Anyway. Back in class we talked about the website blog project we are working on. Mine is Portraitoday so I didn't really have much to offer, since I'm already on track and have the site set up and all that. It is good to be ahead on a couple things (blogging mostly) so I don't have to worry about adding another thing to my schedule that has been in my schedule for three and a half years now.

The next assignment was given. It is to do a piece for a themed blog and submit it. There is this site where people draw recipes called They Draw And Cook, and I'm going to do that one with Brynne's chili recipe! So I'll be drawing the recipe and submitting it to the site. There are other submission based things, but naaah. I'm just going with the first hunch. And I got some good sketches done. So I think this one I'll really spend time on, as I'm excited about it.

After class I froze in my studio. Checked out some books on portraiture. Took a nap. Stared at my notes trying to make some sense of thesis. I didn't think I'd be blocked like this. It SUCKS. I have a much needed meeting with Martin tomorrow. I don't know what to expect. A scolding? Maybe in the next ten minutes I'll have a breakthrough. I think I'll sit in bed and draw. Because in bed, it is warm.

Oh totally forgot to mention yoga. It was tough. Really strained my legs. We were extending in downwards facing dog the length of the mat and I'm short so I couldn't hold myself up and I flopped on the ground. Thankfully it wasn't a BIG drop. Got right into position and resumed. It felt so good though. I'm so glad yoga is back in my life. I've missed it so much. And it warmed my frozen body right up.

Todays Portrait Is: Travis Brainerd.

back in the studio

Slept in more than I intended to. It is so hard to face a long day of work. Shouldn't feel like work. But I think it is because it isn't drawings or stuff I'm doing with confidence. It is the nitty gritty. Anyway, got up. Got my stuff together. Packed a lunch of a sandwich, apple, meringues, and almonds. I put on many layers, planning to not need them. But the studio remained horribly cold all damn day. I was in shirt, light sweater, hoodie, and jacket pretty much non stop. Sometimes I had my scarf on. Listened to a lot of Clash of Kings. I'm now two thirds of the way through it just about. It is so good! So scandalous and magical and awesome. The first half of the first book is set up, and it has been non stop pay off ever since.

Worked on the text for my poster. Worked on finalizing a type face based on my hand writing. It was just a lot of careful lettering, but I've settled on my letters now. So that is good. Not sure how they will work on a bold scale. But I can always work on them and make them bold. Still not sure what I will say in the essay. Had a nice talk with Dom about thesis stuff. He is a rad dude to bounce ideas off of. Anyway. Worked on my letters. Then I read a bit from the Turabian book of technical things for thesis. Printed out the paper I have to read. Went to Safeway and picked up some food stores to leave in the studio for snack emergencies (pop tarts and propel and snickers). It is good to have food on hand. Worked on my stuff for Illustration. Didn't have references on hand for the rest of it. So I went home. To finally get warm.

I watched pretty much all of Downtown Abbey tonight. Thankfully I wrote most of this post at around 10pm, so now that it is 3am I won't be exhaustedly hammering out my days stuff. Downtown Abbey is FANTASTIC! Period drama. Great cast. Great costumes. Ahhh perfect show to watch while I draw stuff and ink stuff and otherwise do stuff that seems to take longer than it should. This piece looks so awkward. Totally not senior level stuff. Don't know whats up with that. I'm probably just tired.

Todays Portrait Is: Josh Ramp.