it's a regular thing

Another late night of Munchkin so I'll try to make this as detailed as possible while still being brief.

Cold. Still very cold.
Contributed a great deal to the first part of lit class, not so much after I dozed off. Chatted with Trevor a lot before and after.
Turned heat way up in illustration.
We were assigned to draw Vienna festival figures in space using references.
Lots of time spent making the windows good.
Not much time spent making the piece interesting except for a guy in the distance.
The usual crew rocked.
Went to Whole Foods for lunch.
Chicken and potatoes was cheaper but I should have just gotten a burrito or something.
All out of bagels and creme cheese.
Not having lunch is very expensive.
We got out early.
Napped.
Watched Anton Corbijn music videos.
Made cupcakes.
Went to Karen's and decorated cupcakes with piles of icing.
Munchkin crew came over.
Surprised Phil with birthday cupcakes.
Diana won.
Game took two and a half hours.
I didn't go far.
We also played the movie link game.
Then Robin and Diana went home.
We stayed up and drew.
Adam gave me some more glass pieces.
And we chatted.
Then we all went our separate ways.

Also, Karen gave me an application to work so I am going to get that filled out and turned in soon. MONEY!!!

rahful

A haiku:
rain in the city
bundled up and hunched over
anticipating

I walked to school as Karen was driving me home from the Spiegelman lecture tonight. It was bracing but still still with an enjoyable crispness to the air. We (Cece and I) arrived to class just on time even with the momentary scare that Diana provided by going BOO when I was walking.

We had the model with the lovely tattoos and she had many great gesture poses in which she presented many fun angles to draw. She is very knowledgeable in how to place herself and how to hold poses. She is quickly climbing to the rank of my favorite model. We did a 30 minute pose and I was amazed at how I have reigned myself back. I got the slant of the body correct, the stand looked accurate, and she was in relative proportion. The contours were a bit of a disappointment but it does show real growth. I love how Morgan is really beating the technical stuff into us. Nary a soul in the class even ventures near shading now.

Karen has acquired herself a fancy corner studio. I am looking forward to jamming with her in there. Maddison and Daniel helped her get a desk for her space. Jen is also moving into a studio. The Stevens Annex is going to be a rockin'! Karen has already set forth the layout plans.

Jen and I went to Baja Fresh for lunch. I find the checkered decorations there very peculiar. Like, the food is in a race or something. My chicken quesadilla was most filling and warm. The weather was taking a quick turn for the worst and even with my layers and scarf, it didn't give me much protection. It is time to move to my pea coat. She took me to Reading Frenzy and another little independent book shop. Both had wonderful hipster zines and a beautiful array of independent comics. I caressed many of them but oh woe, I must curtail my bad book buying habit.

Rain was coming down and we hitched a ride on the streetcar to school. I put on my best Russian accent (which wasn't that good but still funny) as we shlumped our way from the streetcar to school. I proclaimed how in our day we had to walk 10 blocks in the cold with only our hoodies for warmth. We ended up loafing in the library until painting started. Karen is borrowing my Scott Pilgrim volumes and is already half done.

Painting was just playing around with the frisket. I think I was a little lazy today but I was also groggy and as usual, tired. We drew hands and masked them and played with washes. I think once I add in lines to my piece, it will look really cool. The mask didn't quite cover as completely as I had hoped but it was much better than the type I was using. It didn't get the paper mushy like the cheaper kind. Our next assignment is an intense poetry illustration thing. It is a large scale piece with a smaller, spot illustration on the other side. We have about 2-3 weeks for it. I have high hopes for it and I will try to push myself to have more detail.

Class was over and Karen and I hopped in her car and zoomed to the Bagdad Theatre for the Art Spiegleman lecture. She parked at Fred Meyer even though she TOTALLY WASN'T SHOPPING THERE!! Jim was waiting and I collected my will call tickets and was dismayed to find the theatre not even a fifth full. Who would have thought that the only Pulitzer winning comic artist couldn't fill a venue within half an hour of it opening. I guess the weather or location kept people back. If it were at Powell's, it probably would have been packed. Karen and Jim grabbed some food and we got a spot on the left side.

Art Spiegelman reminded me, from a distance, of Dan (Stengel that is). His talk came mostly from a presentation of panels and images taken from Breakdowns. He said he had not slept in a few days but kept it together for the most part through it all, including the question and answers. He detailed a brief history and his own personal introduction to comics. Breakdowns is a reprint of a book he put out several decades ago. With it comes a 20 page introduction and an 8 page afterwards. They had pre-autographed copies selling for 30% off and, well, I'm a sucker for a comic deal. I didn't wait to talk to him in person but he is a relatively young comic dude, he will be around. One woman said that she had asked him 15 years ago how he would talk about Maus and the Holocaust with his children and she asked again how he did just that. It was a wonderful talk all around and even though I technically overpaid, I would have been fine with the price if that was what it was. Actually seeing artists and hearing them lecture is just as important to the overall study of art as practice and technique is.

Then I went home and tried to stay awake and read Man in the High Castle. My talking points in my response are: Did PKD not know about Unit 731 when writing the book or do the characters just not know about it. Funny how those Germans made great technological advances by not developing the television. Having the fictional novel of our awkward history within the book gives Philip K. Dick a blank check to write what he wants with convincing suspension of disbelief.

scary

Finished my illustration work. Well I'm satisfied with it, I probably will put in some more work between now and Friday but if I get back late from the Spiegelman thing and don't have time, well I won't worry. I am on the ball! And I even got a late start on it.

Watched The Boys From Brazil today. It irked me that I figured out the twist about an hour before it was revealed. For being a Nazi hunter, the lead wasn't too bright. Also, for being a two hour flick a lot of the characters were not fleshed out. But it didn't feel like a two hour movie so it was paced well. Next on my rental list is Dark City.

Read half of my assignment for lit class in one sitting. Man in the High Castle is really holding my interest and I can't wait to read more of it. Even though it is required, it doesn't feel like a chore. Also I am actually reading a book from my personal library. Fulfilling my New Years resolution to read more!

Karen has informed me that they are now hiring at The Gap(where she works). I am going to go for it. Lindsay also sent me some one shot postings for events at PGE Park. It didn't say anything about pay, just "compensation" so I don't know what that means. But I'll think about it.

I had a nightmare about zombies.

maus is in the haus

So I received some creative input and the reason why my cakes end up baking screwy is that I have them too high in the oven.

My week has started again. Before I know it I will be keeling over into my bed at 5:30pm Friday afternoon.

We had Kate in figure drawing. Kate is a horrible model. She falls asleep and snores and moves about and twitches and shifts without warning. She is grumpy and doesn't use a model blanket when she sits on stuff. I'd love drawing her is she was a good model, but she isn't. So following the David Sedaris doctrine: I am free to dislike her as much as I like because she sucks. Seriously, she is not worth what they pay models. Argh. But we didn't have to draw her that much today as we were mostly absorbed with critique and chat. I loved all the warped perspective drawings. Morgan did a baby perspective about how as they look around the color shifts (if it is real or not, I need to look it up to find out). There were lots of Chinese ones, a few fish eye, and a couple cave painting. The drawings were also incredibly varied and really showed the variation within the class.

I photocopied my comic club fliers and Karen helped me put them up around campus. Taylor had a couple up but I prefer mine as I think they convey the point a little better and have, if ever so slightly, something to do with comics. They are smaller and maybe are not as eye catching. In the future we need to photocopy on colored paper.

Oh man oh man, this design class is crap. She went through websites which, sure, had great examples but when I try to think about how she is explaining the importance well, I come away with nothing. While it is nice that I'm not having to go full steam in every class, I do wish that all this work actually amounted to something. She seems like the type to grade really hard out of nowhere. She doesn't even push people to present if they are not feeling up to it. This is a 300 level class people, you should have been ready to go a week ago! I was. I got up there and practically did back flips because Beardsley is so awesome. Karen and I drew a little comic expressing our feelings of the class. It was pretty funny. Karen's panels were the best ranging from: "this website was built badly but the type face will teach you everything about art nouveau" to "and this sexy number is a Morris. and why did he do it? Why not! this isnt lazy boy!". This is how the class is: here's a website. Here's an artist on the website. Look at this picture. ISN'T IT GREAT OH MY GOSH ITS AWESOME AND REMARKABLE AND MEANINGFUL AND TOTALLY CHANGED HISTORY. Here's another picture. Aaaarrrgggghhhhhhhhh!!!

Student council had lentil soup. This is just for Auntie B: I ate some and enjoyed it!!Rainbow didn't quite explain her reasoning about why the ticket system was bad but we got rid of it anyway. All though her point about how our money should be used for better things that food was a little silly because if you want the money spent on things that are not clubs or food, you need to put in a budget request for the thing you want and what it is for. If people don't do that then you shouldn't whinge about what the money is getting used for. The guy came in and explained why our Mac computer servers are horrible. Terry asked Diana (well not quite asked)that the issues of concern be put before the budget requests. There is a lot of upheaval taking place in student council. My job is just to get there early with Karen, move chairs, eat food, and listen.

I beat the system and got a 50 cent soda from the horrible 70 cents only machine. I don't know how it screwed up but I got a cheaper Dr Pepper! Hurray! We did a short critique on our portrait projects. They all looked good across the board and I think Karen and both the Erin's really stood out in terms of color and contrast. Jen amazed us yet again with her ability to make a person look like who she is drawing and have wonderful but not over bearing minute details.

We had a model for the rest of class. He just did one classic pose. My guy was rather orange and purple. I did a light orange layout first. No pencil! Karen's style is changing and the way she uses color is very interesting to me. I sort of ripped off Erin from Alaska's lines for the body hair of the dude. Class was very fun today. Bryan livened us up with theme songs from old shows sung on request. He reminds me a little of my friend Chris. Might have been because he was wearing the crowbar shirt. It was a joyful and relaxing way to end the day.

I figured out the knee problems I have been having lately. My bike seat is too long. I was sacrificing my joints for having my feet be solid on the ground. Just moving it a little higher up relieved so much of the aches that I have been feeling lately. If only I could do something about that knot in my back.

Art Spiegelman is in Portland Thursday night. I grabbed some tickets as soon as Karen said she would drive me. I got one extra because I thought Jen would be free but turns out she is busy. I'll figure something out. I sent a mass message out to my pals to see if anyone is available. It will work out, Spiegelman is the important part of it anyway.

polka dot poser

I modeled for Karen this afternoon. Just some stuff for her to draw from for her woodblock and figure drawing assignment. Mostly me sitting around in my yukata. She promised me cookies in return. We sat and chatted about comics and collaboration plans. She was working on a painting of our boy Tesla, who is now going to be in my thought web via Christian Bale and David Bowie. We also poured over my thought web and that was added on to (L. Ron Hubbard lived in Bremerton!).

I have started writing down all the images I'll need. They are currently in chains in an excel sheet with marks indicating if I have found an image or not. There are still parts not yet transcribed but as just finding a hundred images took a long time and I don't need to finish it for a while, well that isn't so urgent.

Robert was kitten sitting so I got to pet a little grey striped kitten named Dinah. I set up a little cardboard fortress for her to play in.

I had some meatballs, pasta, chocolate, and lots and lots of sunflowers today.

sketchbook drawings: eric, thomas, and olivia

Thumbnail sketches from my sketchbook for the literary character assignment. Top left is Thomas Lang from Hugh Laurie's The Gun Seller. Bottom left and top right is Eric Sanderson from Steven Hall's The Raw Shark Texts. Bottom right is Olivia from Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination.

Also I accidentally uploaded the larger, not resized scan. So heads up before you click it: it is a big file.

Graphite, ink, and watercolor.

glasses → buddy holly → six string samurai → red elvis → elvis → las vegas

Last night I went up to Karen's to play Munchkin. Phil, Adam, and Diana were there as well. The first round was Star Munchkin and I forget who won. We had cider and miny peanut butter cups. The people below us knocked on the ceiling because our walking around was too loud. We went to talk to them because seriously, we were just walking around. A poor sleepy guy opened the door even though it was his wife who obviously knocked. He spoke for her even though she knew English. There was another altercation in the hallway but I won't get into that. The second round combined Star Munchkin and Munchkin Fu and we were playing to 20 levels and with Super Munchkin rules once you got past 10. Phil died at 19 and lost all his cards and a couple levels and Karen won in the end. Lots of late night fun.

I had a good long sleep in which I dreamed that I was on lunch break and in the forest. There was a cheap cafe where I tried to get food but they were really aggressive and served me used plates instead. I found my way to Sting's house and tried my best to not be caught. Eventually I was and I had to get back to PNCA because I only had three minutes to do so. Somehow I was on the other side of the river and far south. Sting's helper gave me a floaty and directed me towards the nearest on ramp for the water slides. It was a huge auditorium witm people waiting to slide into the slides and get where they needed going. I got through easily enough and found my way near school in no time at all. I walked past this art sculpture building that has shown up in my dreams before. There is always a group of people raving about it as they enter on the ground floor and I am always above it looking down. Strange.

I woke up as I was using the water slides as transport for a second time. Seriously, how awesome would water slides be as transport?

I finished up the season of The Wire and watched Pushing Daisies and Dead Like Me. I bypassed plans with one person to hang with another who cancelled on me when it was too late to start plans with the first person.

I also worked on my thought web. I have the rough draft almost done. I started with Artemisia's painting of Judith slaying Holofernes. It goes to bible stories, Artemisia, female painters, that Threadless shirt, and beheading. Here are some sample thought threads:
threadless → hipsters → american apparel → risque ads → dolce and gabbana → fashion → project runway → heidi klum → germany's next top model → america's next top model → the transgendered contestant isis → jenny saville who paints transgendered people → female painters → artemisia
or
beheading → marie antoinette → sophia coppola → francis ford coppola → dracula → bram stoker's dracula lived on piccadilly street → the royal academy of art is located on piccadilly street, london → jeff koons' cracked egg won the grand award at the royal academy of art in 2008 → jeff koons did a sculpture of michael jackson → celebrity sculptures → kate moss recreated in solid gold, said to be largest since the egyptian era → egyptian art → pyramids → alien creation of pyramids myth → aliens → alien movie → giger → giger's sketches for dune → dune → sting → sting is a (part time) vegetarian → david bowie is a vegetarian → david bowie as halloween jack wears an eye patch → eyepatch → chihuly → artists who have other people do their work for them → jeff koons again → jeff koons is/was married to a porn star → gloria steinem is against porn → she founded Ms magazine which prints offensive ads in the back and encourages people to write in and complain → risque ads → those edgy anti meth ads → jodie sweetin → full house → john stamos → rebecca romiji-stamos → x-men → stan lee → bit parts → peter jackson → santa in hot fuzz → edgar wright → blood and ice cream trilogy → cornetto → unilever → axe → old spice → bruce campbell → sam raimi → spiderman → kirsten dunst → marie antoinette → biopics → artemisia

Tintin, what a jerk

In Illustration we spent the whole class doing a comic page. We brought it toys and grouped them in threes and did a story using just the characters from the toys and no words. My objects were Tintin, a model Shelby, and an octopus and I shared them with Marilyn. My story was about Tintin cruising and picking up a hitch hiker (the octopus) and eating it. Marilyn had the octopus looking in the car trunk and Tintin slammed the trunk down on it and drove off. Her inking was fabulous but she sadly didn't get it done. My inking was okay, should have spent a little more time with it. There were some great pieces with exquisite line work and some that were still figuring the medium out. The people who had the Kermit toy were particularly mean about him. Sivonna brought in a doll that she had made and that provided some disturbing imagery. It was fun.

The Lovecraft centered class didn't have as much intense discussion as I am used to. Trevor gave a little presentation about the man and how he is in the grand scheme of history. I was a little drowsy during one point but I didn't fully nod off. Wasn't the most riveting of classes but most people seemed out of it. Next we are moving on the Philip K Dick's Man in the High Castle.

During lunch, Chad talked to Bekka and I briefly about how to get set up as caricature makers. Right now we just need to study and practice and get together a portfolio. For the rest of lunch Lindsay joined us and our little group of four had many laughs about Popsicles and Mavericks. Toon/Lindsay seems to be doing quite well. Her skin looks great.

There was much rain today. I didn't bring my rain pants in hope of it clearing up, but alas I got home in a damp state.

I'm afraid

To make up for the lack of drawing in last class, we spent the majority of class doing long poses. We had our first male model and it wasn't one that I have had before. He had good twists in his poses. And a cute nose. The nagging of not drawing the model stand is continual. I'm getting better at it though. One pose was supposed to be three in one frame where we just draw over it. He kept one foot in the same spot so it wasn't such a challenge to figure it out in the frame of things. Our thought web is to the point were we can link three things across the web. We will make our own for our midterm so I'm excited for that. Have I explained the thought web? Basically it is a huge link of how things connect in the world. This leads to this that leads to this and so on and eventually it all links together. It is to help us understand the grand scheme of the world.

Then I took a nap in the library.

Then I got a sandwich and read some Lovecraft.

Painting class was also from a figure but she put on costumes. She was one of the regular figure drawing models so that was fun. She only did two poses, the first I colored in part however I wanted and then I put a closeup of her profile behind that image. My skin tones worked for me. The second I laid down three blocks of color in accordance to the dominant color areas of her pose (pink for the head, green for the mu mu, and blue for her pants). It was hard to work into but it is fun to try new things. People were generally in a good mood in class so that made everything a lot more fun.

Karen and I did a quick First Thursday run. A guy in one of those bike taxis gave us a ride down to the Everett Lofts. It was very fun. Portland was very vacant and the streets that are normally bustling with hipster art folks were desolate. I swung by to pick up my much neglected comic box from FWC. There was also Pixu and a Scott Pilgrim art book in stock, and both were good deals. The store looks great and Karen even found something that she wanted (a Lynda Barry book). Jason had some lovely French music playing and the general atmosphere was nice. We went up to check out one of the open studios and the artist mentioned that the other people were not there due to the vice presidential debates. The only time a Portlander will watch TV I guess.

It was dark I had work so Karen and I scooted back to PNCA. I had a nice ride back. It was raining in the morning a little so I couldn't wear the cute outfit I had planned. So I got back and started reading Lovecraft. Then I got scared so my reading response is going to be about that.

reading, watching, biking

Did any of you see the new House? I'm really starting to like the new character and will watch his inevitable spin off. Heroes is a little bit, odd. Like they are just adding and adding and forgetting some of the chronology and what not. The Wire is awesome, as always.

Today I went to the Comic Club. I didn't go to the first meeting and Taylor kept inquiring as to where I was so I showed up. Lots of new faces with a couple familiar ones. We got a lot of comic jams circulating. I started two, one about a boy eating plants and one about a woman going down a dark alley way. I drew a panel about pregnant ice cream and a person shoving a sandwich at a hipster. We really need to make a binder collecting them all. Karen has about 1/3 of them and Taylor has the others. I think I'll ask student council for like, the 12 bucks to put together the sleeves and binder. We can have it in the library for the time being. I love jams.

After the meeting, Jim and I talked at length about comics, his work, school, and other things. Cece was in the commons doing some art project for class so we monitored her through part of that.

After we bid adieu, I swung by Trader Joes to get things like tea and those mini peanut butter cups that I love so much. There was some time spent at home when I got back but I had to return library books to the public library and get things at Safeway (I split up my shopping based on what is cheaper where). I checked out a book of Italian Movie Posters, a Postsecret book, and The Acme Novelty Datebook: Volume 2. All very cool. Stocked up on juice and butter from Safeway. Dinner was something gnocchi and not Gorgonzola cheese(more pasta saucy). It wasn't as good as the cheese version and burnt a little in the cooking process. Still it was filling and satisfying.

Now to go read more Lovecraft.

albinos

Morgan was late to figure drawing but the model, Anna, led us in some gestures anyway. He came in and said how it warmed his heart to see us already in it. We didn't get much drawing done today. We did one pose for about fifteen minutes and then we switched to the person next to us and corrected what they had drew. Diana used some really heavy charcoal and it was a pain to rub out and correct. Her arm angle, platform size, and leg lengths were a little off according to my calculations. Karen worked on my drawing and shaved off a few of the pounds I had put onto my model. Then Morgan talked about the thought web and the circus.

About three-fourths of us gave our oral presentations in class. There were a range from just site analysis to a history of the artist. Mine went more towards the history side of this. My nerves I hoped were covered by the enthusiasm I had for the subject. I was really excited to talk about Aubrey Beardsley and how much he did in his short life and how generally amazing he was. I may have cycled through the images really quickly though. But I think I projected, which is always good. I shared my gummy worms with Daniel, who drew all the presenters. Karen and I took part in a little jam comic about spacesuits and anti-gravity cookies.

Student council had a delicious curry prepared. They are now implementing a ticket system so that if you stayed through most of the meeting, you get a ticket that gets you first dibs on the food. There was a quibble in the student accounts and so most of the discussion was taken up with how to sort out the food, which amazingly is almost half where our student fees go to! Eight thousand dollars just to feed us once a week. The guy who prepares it used organic ingredients. Bunch of namby pamby artists with their weak stomachs end up costing us more money and reduce the amount of things that can actually get done. Beggars can't be choosers!

Painting was a work day. So we worked. I finished my painting up (as you can see). It helps that mine was really simple, but still I was trying something new with the limited saturated colors. It was really quiet for most of the class. Karen and I had an ice cream break and James joined us briefly. I did a second painting of Olivia after I got home, more play with masking techniques and the colors left on my pallet. I'm quite thrilled at the result. I improve every week! This year, I think, is spelling some big changes for me.

A while back I entered in my cap number from a bottle of Jones Soda. One of those "text JONES to 5555 and you have a chance to WIN WIN WIN!!!" type things. I gave it a shot, hey why not? Anyway, I got a text from them telling me that I had won a prize and I should enter my number on the Jones site and see what I got. I won a case of MyJones Soda! You know, the kind that you send a picture to and they print up some with your image in the label spot. Sweet, huh? I didn't have many high resolution images so I went with that picture of me passed out in Amsterdam. Seemed like it would do well on a bottle of Fufu Berry Jones Soda. All free, they didn't even ask for a card. So I could have sent it to someone as a gift so show how much I cared. I'm nice, but I'm not that nice. Besides, like I said, everyone down here is a namby pamby artist who stays away from consuming anything that even cast a shadow in its lifetime so a high sugar soda is probably out of the question, and mom has her Rockstar drinks. Yeah, in 2-3 weeks I am going to have me some personalised soda pop!

Olivia Presteign (finished but poor quality photo)

Finished it, might need some final touches though. Will upload a proper scan later.

Olivia Presteign from The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester.

10"x14". Watercolor.

silver hatchet

So I finished my ensemble figure drawing for Morgan's class. The shading is very general but it makes parts of the figures stand out. There are jedi, gunmen, picnic goers, nappers, matrix fighters, choke-hold appliers, and general kick and punches all enjoying a day in the park. I'm quite pleased with it. Karen's looks good. Very dramatic and also dark in subject matter. I think Diana is also doing a fight scene.

I grabbed a caramel steamer and tried to read Lovecraft at the place but it was too loud so I went back home and read a part of it. He takes so long to describe the little things. Still, it isn't so painful. I just need to apply myself.

In flipping through one of the many books on Beardsley that I checked out, I came up with a pretty good oral report to present about him. Not so keen on the website portion of the presentation but I think I'll do a good job. Did you know that Burnes-Jones gave him a chance and looked at his portfolio even when his studio stopped doing such a thing? Beardsley rose to being one of the most notorious artists in England at 23. Remarkable!

Watched a lot of The Wire while working on my pictures. Also got Hacker's Manifesto in the mail. I ordered it about three weeks ago, thankfully I don't need it for a couple more weeks. That fit in my mail box but the care package mom sent me had to be picked up specially from the office. It contained lots of sweeties and Tiger's Milk bars and art supplies and MORE sweeties. She makes great care packages and double wraps them for extra opening annoyance.

red and white and red and white and red and red

I bought a Flarke today! And a red Lerberg which I assembled myself. I needed Cece's help with the Flarke, it sits next to my other shelf and both of them look nice and organized. The Lerberg is in my room and is used for art supplies and general miscellaneous items. So yeah, I went to Ikea today! Bought two shelving units which in total came to $35!! Hurray!

It was me, Robin, Diana, Erin, Jamie, and two dudes. We caught the blue max past 100th and transferred onto the red. It was a beautiful sunny day with lots of warmth to enjoy. I had my standard meatball meal and we split a slice of chocolate cake. There was a lady that was fed up with her toddler because she didn't want to wear a bib. She was all, "Fine! Get food on your clothes!" Lady, that toddler doesn't understand what you are yelling at her for. Jeeze.

It was crowded and as we had specific items that we wanted, we breezed through most of the show rooms. I spied out the shelves I wanted pretty quickly. I was looking for weight (so I didn't have to have them delivered), size (lots of shelves), and price (because I'm an art student). I also picked up a three pack of scissors because one can never have enough scissors. Robin and Diana didn't pick up much, they were just there as RA's to monitor and get us max tickets. We all had at least one large item to carry so we did the sneaky and probably against the rules thing and pushed the carts out to the max and dropped our things off. The boys pushed them back to a collection spot, so not like we left them there. A gust of wind caught Erin's mirror and it fell over and broke. It was a Minde, so it didn't cost that much. Still, really really sucked. It took some maneuvering but we got all our things onto the max. Sure we took up a little extra room but on a Sunday afternoon, there were not many people on board. Diana helped me take my shelves to my room. She took care of the heavier shelves so now I owe her a favor.

The Flarke has an ugly white backboard but it blends in easily enough with my white wall and with books over it, it doesn't really matter. I'm so pleased to have the extra storage. And the red is a wonderful red, it goes really well with my room. If I have to buy a color option, I go for red. I might decoupage the Flarke, make it a little more special.

I started watching The Wire season four. Now the show has gotten into the schools and the lives of the kids. It just gets better and better and Prez wasn't featured much in the last season so I am glad to see him return. I am halfway done with my figure drawing homework. My plan was to get all the figures drawn in. Tomorrow I will shade them and study up on Aubrey Beardsley.

pancakes vs waffles

My help was enlisted to provide assistance to Karen during the pancake breakfast that all of the RAs were putting on for us. This meant having to get up at 8:30 in the morning on a Saturday. Worth it for all the free pancakes.

I mostly moved things around and kept Karen company. She was the one to actually cook everything for us. Phil came over and brought his own fancy maple syrup and sourdough pancake batter. There were plain pancakes, blueberry pancakes, and chocolate chop pancakes. I prefer the chocolate chip variety. Alexis and two other young ladies joined us for pancakes. We had the door open and the smell probably wafted far but even for free food, it is hard to get up early on a weekend. Diana and Robin had a similar turnout out.

We visited them for a little bit and gave them some of our pancakes, including the extra large one. On the way back we grabbed their sign in a random act of mischief. When Robin came up she saw how we had relocated their sign and later on they retaliated. Robin and Leah slinked into the apartment in a guise of friendliness and shut the door. They kept it closed despite our efforts and when they fled we found our gigantic pancake brutally strung up on the door. We painted a design onto that tender bauble and strung up another, burnt one along with it. This was our declaration of war! The nice students with the apartment above theirs let us dangle our painted breakfast foods down onto their balcony. So far we are winning.

Also I beat Phil and Karen at Scrabble. I won a little accidentally. It was a long but good game with minimal cheating.

After that I've slowly been becoming more and more sleepy. I think I'm going to go to bed really really early. I took a nap but I should just sleep. My body needs it.

Olivia: Work in Progress

Olivia Presteign from The Stars My Destination. Work in progress. She is an albino.

Watercolor. 10"x14".

don't eat the icing

Got to school on time, got my papers all printed out and turned in, and I even contributed to class discussion a little. It is still dominated by the same few people. I think now I understand Blade Runner a little better. So much just went over my head. Next weekend is this HP Lovecraft Film Festival. Mike Mignola is going to be there. We have to read some Lovecraft next, just a couple stories. Well not "just" but it isn't as daunting as a whole novel.

Illustration critique was nice. It goes quick but the responses are fairly insightful and not full of the standard, "I like it!". Chad has no problem calling out bad presentation, but unless you admit you did it in an hour he doesn't seem like the type to say that it looks like you did. While mine missed the point a little, I got compliments on my lines and how it seemed like I put time into making it. Which I did. Marilyn whipped out amazing ink drawings once again, all though her jubilation piece wasn't that abstract. It looks to be an interest group still. Hard to tell what people do when it is abstract. The next assignment are three illustrations that accompany an excerpt from the Odyssey. We have three weeks for it in total. Now the "styles" come out. All though Morgan said to not be concerned with a style because if you try really hard at what you do, your personality will come through in all that you make. We had a lecture on caricatures and our in class assignment was to take either Obama or McCain and make a caricature of them as a food. I made a John McCupcake. It was his neck that inspired me. The shading was nicely realized and it did resemble him in the head shape and general neck area. Kevin, who drew him as an ice cream cone, captured the neck a lot better. Chase's Pumpkin captured his eyes. More people did Obama. Bekka rendered his smile so sharply. It was a great little assignment. Chad and I are going to have a one-on-one about how to set up a little job as a caricaturist. I think with a little practice, I could make some change. It isn't steady but it pays well.

When I got home I put on some R.E.M. and did the dishes. Then I watched Venture Bros and worked on my painting of Olivia from The Stars My Destination. The masking and base colors are in. I'm so productive, I love it. Today has been great.

nylon lederhosen

Both Diana and Karen commented on how much better I am becoming just since the start of this year. I am really feeling it. This is a good semester. A good workload, a good array of classes, and I really love what I am doing.

We did a 30 minute pose in figure drawing and I was feeling really good about it but I think I messed up the proportions between the legs. Still, I'm getting better at slowing down and studying the angles and relations. I'm unlearning all that I learned a year ago and then envisioning it into something better.

Karen and I were in an ice cream mood, despite the chilly clouds coming over the Pearl District. I had chocolate and she had mint chocolate chip. We discussed discussable things. We are planning a collaboration. Basically things that entertain us.

For my midterm project in Science F(r)iction, I am going to do a zine about the red shirted ensigns in Star Trek and about how they are the victims to ensure the Utopia.

During the break I watched Project Runway on Jen's computer. KENLEY!!! ARGH!! She should so not still be there. She is horrible. Suede isn't so good either but she is worse. At least he can take it. And Korto's design was goth rock, not punk. Suede rocked it anyway. Kenley is going home next episode, no question.

For about an hour and a half of the break between classes, I scanned in pieces from my two newer sketchbooks. The scanner doesn't label things and it took me a long time to figure out how to get things to scan in full resolution and not some blocky washed out color. It took a long time but once I got going and figured it out, in no time at all I had 20 lovely pictures all set up and ready to share with the world. But not all at once, I have to space out those puppies to keep people coming back for more. I'll scan some of my other things next break.

Painting was mostly a work day. We looked over our homework. James' studies were spectacular. Bryan had a lovely combination between his style and his subject. Karen's colors were very rich. Erin the Bartender had a choice use of luminescence but maybe not enough darks. Erin from Alaska knew she could do no wrong with Natalie Portman. We also looked through our thumbnails for the next project and Erin B. whipped out some stunning and dark Baba Yaga concept sketches. Reminded me a little of Marilyn Beck's line work. Erin A. is doing a scene from The Road. It will be great to see her work dark and murky instead of color and delight. The most finalized thumbnail I had was confirmed to be the one I should draw. I redrew it larger and checked out some books for reference. I am looking forward to working on it. This painting class is pretty much an instant portfolio booster all around. Thanks Farel!

Oh and earlier today I got some good black ink because the Higgins ink kept coming up with a skin and that is gross. I shouldn't use ink that has a skin.

After class Karen and I cruised the Farmer's Market. We had a lot of chatting to do. I worked on my writing assignments that are due tomorrow and then at around 9 I went up to, yet again, talk with Karen. We drew our own projects and talked about growth and the 8th Dimension. She made fennel cupcakes. A little over cooked but still tasty. Partly because they were half made up of icing.

Now to finish my writing and go to bed! I can't wait to return to art.

Powell's People

Watercolor and ink done later over sketches made in the Powell's coffee shop.

Graphite, ink, and watercolor done in my formal sketchbook.

sketchbook preview

Some small photos from my sketchbook. My rough idea sketchbook, not my finalized pretty amassed pictures sketchbook.

Graphite, watercolor, and ink.