New York's hottest club is spiiicyy

Another cold morning sleep in. Had my tea and oatmeal. Did my internet routine.

Went into town. I should have left a little bit earlier, because I got caught up in school bus traffic. Still, got to town all right. Deposited my Odd Owl check. Went to Artist's Edge and got a pen holder and nib and a new brush. Then went to Michael's and got some supplies for Christmas presents. Whoo!

Got home right before mom did. Dinner was last nights delicious clam chowder. Glee was meh. Raising Hope was silly. Spent the rest of the night watching Nevermind the Buzzcocks and Mock the Week and working on a portrait of the Stefon character from Saturday Night Live. It is a bit scary, but I like it. I'll scan and post it tomorrow. Trying to add a little oompf to my portraits. It isn't an official Portraitoday portrait.

My sleep schedule is all wonky. Tomorrow I shall figure out how to drill a hole in something that may or may not be for the purpose of presents. Also I shall try to make something for Madeline.

Today's Portrait Are: Jeremy Brett and Benedict Cumberbatch (revisit).

monochromatically speaking...

It is late and I am tired from doing nothing all day.

Slept in, as I deserved to do. Had a meager breakfast followed by fudge. Did my laundry. Did a late in the day portrait. Dad came home. We talked a little bit but then he had to snooze.

Had some chips and hummus. And more fudge. Watched Community with mom. Watched Pillars of the Earth and Fringe by myself. I'm amazed that hours just sort of...slip away after 11pm. Where did they go?

I'm spending the night in Seattle tomorrow, so there will be no post. But there will be a portrait. I'm in the last third of the project now. It still isn't any easier. All though rather, some of the techniques are not getting any easier. Whenever my work is unsatisfactory, I change styles or scale and often it works again. Did three portraits in a row that I am very pleased with, and I did them in not that much time either.

Todays Portrait Is: Michael Fassbender.

that is what Chris Ware looks like???

I'm almost a week ahead of portraits now. Whipped out three awesome ones in the afternoon ( plus a couple extra doodles just for fun) and three more awesome ones in the evening. Don't have the three latest ones all queued up, but that will be fairly easy to do. Pretty much all the drawing fun time ended up eating up all my quilting time. Before I knew it, it was dinner. And the So You Think You Can Dance. I voted for Sasha.

I'll have to finish the quilt when I'm coming down from surgery I guess. Maybe since I've hyped up the recovery, maybe it will go smoothly and it will be a big let down. Dad set up the quilting frame indoors, so that will be nice to use. Watch tv, eat pudding, quilt.

Now I gotta wake up in six hours, take some medication, get my mouth cut open and teeth broken up and yanked out.

Todays Portrait Is: Warren Ellis.

tv and little drawings

Gosh. Spent pretty much the whole day watching television. Lots of Supernatural. And this show Spirited about a dentist who lives with a ghost (it is Australian and really good). Worked on portraits and little paintings. Not nearly enough portraits though. Need to really work at it tomorrow to get ahead so that when my teeth are yanked, I don't have to worry about it.

Dad and I washed Holly with a flea shampoo. Dad was very nice to the doggie as he washed her. I think he likes her.

Dinner was lasagna and corn. Mom and I soaked in the hot tub for a while, then finished watching Micmacs.

Didn't quilt. Need to finish that up as well.

Todays Portrait Is: Alan Moore.

drawing day

Spent a good part of the good sunshine of the day indoors working on portraits. Want to get ahead so that when my teeth come out, I don't have to worry about doing portraits. Right now I am covered up till the 8th. Want to be good till the 15th or so. I've returned to pencil and pen and the portraits actually reflect a certain increase in skill that is to be expected at the 215 portrait count. Eyes are still tricky.

Read a bit in the sun. Mom made delicious soup. So You Think You Can Dance was excellent. Did a few more portraits later on. Authors are good portrait subjects because they'll often have useful pictures to use for reference.

I'm really wasting these days though. Not meeting any sort of goal. Still haven't finished that quilt. Damn you Internet, why are you so entertaining!

Todays Portrait Is: Margaret Atwood.

frustrations

Spent a large chunk of the day trying and failing at portraits. They just were not coming out. Eventually I got to a point where I was satisfied, all though the one of Ackles isn't quite right. The project isn't quite what I thought it would be. I'm getting better but it doesn't seem like as much better as I thought I would be. Now that I've figured out the scanner, I'll try to devote more time to making really nice looking portraits. Mm.

The portrait errors put me in a bad mood.

Scraped some paint. Had some curry. Dad went to bed early because he is going to Brazil tomorrow. Mom and I finished the first disc of Angels in America. Now I'm going to finish watching an episode of Torchwood and then go read.

Todays Portrait Is: Jensen Ackles.

portrait work day

Just had some tea for breakfast, as there was no bread with which to make toast. Had some ramen with egg and Sunny D later. And I worked on portraits. Got the first three days of June up. Then whipped out Dolph Lundgren, Errol Flynn, Steve McQueen, and Harrison Ford. Watched Supernatural. I've watched, like, 11 episodes today. It is easily devoured.

Ma brought home takeout for dinner. Wrote up a card. Went on walkies with mom. Wrote up a "to pack" list for the upcoming two week vacation. Two weeks! On the road! Utah!

With dinner dispatched, I returned to drawing. Tim Minchin. Mitch Hedberg. John Hodgman. Still have quite a few to do and auto queue. Normally I don't say which ones are coming up, but since the amount of posting that will get done on my vacation will be spotty, I figured I might as well pimp the upcoming Portraits. They will be set to autopost, so continue checking Portraitoday.

Todays Portrait Is: Jason Statham.

work, fun, extra fun

Oi. Man, got up at a reasonable hour. How normal. 9am! AHG! But I actually got to school with time to spare. Got to the studios and got my job: finish up the tape job and then sand sand sand. My hair went a shade lighter with all the spackle dust. It was strenuous, but it only lasted two hours. Still, damn it was a lot of dust. Not fun.

Came back to the computer lab to find an email that rerescheduled my meeting, so I spent a couple hours adding color to the next five portraits! I want to get super far ahead with them again, especially since I'll be heading on a two week vacation come June. I finished five last night, also known as all of the band Hot Chip. So the rest of the week will be Hot Chip Week. Whee!

I went home, had a phone call with mum about stuff. Found out I could activate my phone through my phone, and didn't have to go to a store. So wham bam: my old Samsung from 2005 has now been decommissioned and I've moved onto Dominic's old Samsung, which takes pictures and flips in two different directions! It is really sweet. And not broken! So yup, I've moved on. It takes me a long time to give up a piece of technology, especially if it still barely works.

At 8ish I rode my bike over to Mel's. She was waiting for me on her bike and together we rode to the East Side. I think it was her first bike trip over the bridge. I went at my regular meandering pace, and it was quite a lovely ride. The Lovecraft, a sort of goth bar, was showing the first four episodes of Game of Thrones tonight, We arrived at fifteen till nine, but they didn't start till ten (even though their thingy said 9). So I had a couple brewskies and a salad roll. We chatted and all that fun stuff. We stuck around for two and a third episodes. They really work well in sort of distorted projected resolutions. Mel seemed to like it, despite how weird the show is prone to be.

And we had a nice ride back, all though some guy in a car barked at us. That was startling. Still, we made it home safe and sound. Mel will be a bicyclist yet!

Now I'm going to unwind with an episode of something, get up, and then go teach some kids how to screen print!

Todays Portrait Is: Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip).

breakfast in the afternoon

Oh boy, lots of work done today.

Slept in, because hey its me. I sleep in. Got showered and did a really really quick portrait. Ate a scramble. Tomorrow I will go food shopping, I'm out of just about everything. Especially breakfast food.

Anyway, got to the studios a bit late. Over the next couple days there are three three hour shift blocks a day, and we have to do two of them (two shifts). I am doing the 1-4 today and the 10-1 tomorrow. I arrived and was assigned blue tape duty. Hurrah! No heavy wall lifting or disassembling! There was a studio that hadn't been emptied yet. Booo! But I got it taped off to the best of my ability. Taped the wall outlets and the stairs and the I beams. Helped Dom and Jon with one of the walls. It went fast. Then I was assigned top of the wall cleaning duty. TOP. OF THE. WALLS. CLEANING. While you can see the tops of one half of the studio sections from the second floor, the other half you can't. Still, I got up real high and cleaned and cleaned. It wasn't quite effective because it wasn't paint so much as plaster, and it didn't so much as clean as just...absorb the dirt. Still, I kept with it till my shift ended.

At a bit after 4, I went to Safeway. There was a shindig of sorts at Phil, Karen, and BT's and it was breakfast food themed. So I picked up some orange juice and doughnuts and headed over to the other side. Ohh so much great food. Mel brought fancy jam. There was bacon. Waffles too! Phil's cousin Erika was there and her boyfriend...something. Forget his name. I mostly just chilled. Beth came. Mel showed me how to do macrame, and I made a bracelet! Mel was making herself a new semi-permanent necklace. She wore her last one for three years and was changing it at this sort of...time of change. I think that is pretty neat. Her new one is looking fantastic. Karen donated a bead to my bracelet, one that she said described me, "colorful and funky". I agree. It is a nice little bracelet. A friendship reminder.

We played Scrabble, though we used words that can't be mentioned in this blog. And spelling most heinous. But it was fun. Then we played Apples to Apples and I WON! Whooo!

At 10pm I went home. Queued up my Game of Thrones and The Borgias and knocked out FIVE PORTRAITS! And damn good ones too. I'm going to add digital color tomorrow during the time between my shift and my meeting with Martin and Kristen.

Todays Portrait Is: Santigold.

bending/packing/drawing/watching

Slept in so hard. So well. But a little too much. Rushed the portrait. Got to yoga almost right on time. Blissful yoga. Slow sustained stuff. Very relaxing and contemplative.

It was a rainy icky day. After yoga I worked on taking down my studio. Took so much longer than I expected it to. Unscrewed the shelves. Put the art in a flat portfolio. Rollyn is helping me move it tomorrow. I got it as ordered as possible. Once everything is out, I'll be repainting the walls. I don't have to be out of the studio for another week, but I figured it would be best to do it now instead of later, when everyone is rushing.

Got home. Went to Trader Joe's for food. Watched Fringe. Watched some Doctor Who. Watched some Supernatural. Yeaaah. Also worked on portraits. Need to get ahead of the game again. At least my portrait project will keep me drawing after school. And I'm enjoying drawing in the 11x17 format.

So yeah, tomorrow I'll haul the stuff out of my studio. And I'll clean my room. And have tacos. Yup.

Todays Portrait Is: Karen Carpenter.

new record?

Got up a bit earlier. Ate a scramble. Did a portrait using just watercolor with no pencil presketch. Went to school for this special lecture on speaking skills. It was informative, I guess. Helped Mel take some photos for her thesis. Drew Asha while she printed. At 6:30 I had a meeting with Joan about my paper. It needs so much revision, but I felt that would be the case. I agreed to have another draft in to her in a week, so that will be a good deadline to get that locked down.

After that meeting I grabbed some doughnuts and a drink and parked in the illustration lab and worked on some of the thesis poster sides and text. Kristen was working on a poster that I offered to print in collaboration for their thesis. As long as she got both layers done, I would print them Monday night (tonight). I wanted them done by 9pm, but she got them printed by 10:45. Got six screens emulsified, exposed the two We Buy Diamonds posters and four thesis portrait sides (DeAnn and Morgan). Kristen helped catch paper so in three hard printing hours we got 100+ (about 107...) two color posters printed. The colors started at pink and blue and went to purple and then blue and then green and then pink. Really freaking cool. Had some trouble with the black layer. I should have printed with process black. I just really wanted the rich opaque quality. Oh well. Some of them are really freaking cool. And got them DONE in the magic allotted time. We left right as the night guard was telling us the school was closed.

Now back to thesis! Tomorrow I am drawing Lacey. I could potentially be sitting on 17 thesis posters. Waiting to be finished are Eva, Diana, and Karen. On screens are Morgan and DeAnn. Designed is Asha. Scheduled to be drawn are Lacey and Tippi. If I get these done, that would be something damn amazing. I'll just be at school as many nights as possible in the next two weeks. I really want to show an EPIC AMOUNT of posters.

Todays Portrait Is: Sean Lock.

saturday, what else can I say

Realized I left my camera at Karen's, so I went to school to scan my portrait. Also scanned in some of my thesis drawings at the same time. And edited them. So I have three portrait sides prepped. Hurray! So once I get back to printing, I have stuff to print! But first, it is the paper.

It was a nice beautiful sunny day. So nice.

Had a nice chat with Ma.

Kristen will be moving out in June, so I'll probably be moving out at the same time. Moving out to where, I don't know. Ahk, sort of scary.

Did my laundry. Did the dishes. Read a bit. Drew a bit. Lots of "bits". I really like the Ruth Wilson portrait that I did. But that won't be up till April 5th.

Todays Portrait Is: Richard Hammond.

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.

newakami

I hate it when I remember that I have to actually get up earlier that I thought and it is already late. Oh well. Getting to school by 11:30 am isn't that bad. Washed my hair, which is worth noting because I keep playing the "can I go another day without washing it?" game. Long hair sucks. And my hair is prone to tangles if I don't put goop in it. The henna kept it looking really nice for a while. Hmmn. Anyway. I got to school and put in my five entries for the Society of Illustrators student competition thingy. Then I worked on adding some color to tomorrows Portraitoday. There will be a bonus post! One month down, 11 to go and my list is almost full. If there is anyone that you would like me to draw, just say so.

Oh, I also hauled my Ikea shelves that I bought ages ago down to my studio, along with my power tools. Once I buy screws, I can put them up, and then I'll have even more storage space in my studio. Whoo!

I went back home after that little school excursion. Ate some scramble. The frozen veggie kind, not the meat kind. Had some tea. Worked on my writing analysis a little more. Not sure how I feel about it. Went to class.

Good ol class. For the first bit we did some free writing. And then we went to the library and pulled up Zotero. I struggled using the software. Also I need to find my library card. Or get a new one. So we tooled around on that. Zotero is a link keeping, bibliography making type thing. Then it was break time. I chilled with Robin and Mel and met this friend of Robin's named Kiki. Back in class Joan gave us a run down of different types of thesis papers. We also discussed the difficulty of "why". "Why is this important" "why is that" "why why why". I put forward my sort of thoughts about variant printmaking in regards to the standards of editions for a mind mapping experiment. So we discussed that. Then we moved on to a good discussion of Casey Brown's thesis essay. I put forward I think the most negatives. It was apparently a high pass paper. It did flow well. My negatives were mostly about it lacking definition and explanations for certain things. It did talk about sculpture in a very accessible way for a non sculptor.

Class ended. I rode to Powell's to pick up the writing manual that we are required to get. Also the new Ryu Murakami novel is out! Hurray! So I got the 6th edition of the manual and Popular Hits of the Showa Era. So excited! I love Murakami. Author of Piercing, not Wind Up Bird Chronicles. That is Haruki Murakami. Anyway. From Powell's I went to Ace Hardware and bought some screws. Returned home finally. Ate some dinner. Worked on some stuff. Watched Lie To Me. I think I'm done with that show (all though I think it just had its season finale). There isn't a larger plot. Just Tim Roth being awesome.

Anyway, I think I'll tuck in to bed early and read my new book that I have been very excited about for months ever since I learned a new Murakami book was due in 2011.

Todays Portrait Is: Janessa Bork.

livin' upside down

I thought it would be a good idea to turn my alarm clock off at 10am. Big mistake. Anyway. Had my breakfast of scrambled eggs and tea and an apple.

I need to figure out how to cook more things. I'm constantly wondering what to make when I'm hungry. I went to Trader Joe's and got some salad dressing. So now I'm back on the salad wagon, after a week of being off it. Dressing and toppings make such a big difference.

I foresee a lot of early mornings. There are no printing classes before 11am, so I bet I'll be in in the morning printing before classes, more than saving it for the weekend. This is good because if I can get most of my printing done early in the day, I have the rest of the time to draw and work on other stuff. As many no late nights as possible.

I wrote myself a note "its not worth it. spend your time on good pursuits" to rest on my desk. To remind myself to waste less time on the internet and on silly things. I'm already doing better with it looming right there. Once I have the structure of school, I think I'll keep on track a lot better. The pressure isn't on me, but I do feel the heat.

Had just enough quarters to wash my sheets and pillow covers and unmentionables. Yay clean stuff! I actually had one less quarter than I thought, because one of them turned out to be a Franc. I don't know how it got there at all. When was anyone I know recently in France? Maybe it was accidentally categorized with quarters ages ago and dispensed when I traded bucks for quarters. Hmm.

Tabitha promoted Portraitoday on Facebook and now I have people I don't know interested in my work! Yay! So one upcoming portrait might actually go somewhere. Anyway. Yay! I've been doing Portraitoday for a couple weeks and it has six followers. I've been doing Trillobite for three and a half years and it only has 12. Hurrah, popularity.

Watching Zen. Waiting for Lights Out. Going to do some portraiture and think about thesis and stuff.

Oh my teeshirts came! I never got an email saying they were shipped, so it was a nice surprise. I'm such a teeshirt hoarder. I should submit some designs to Threadless. Potential for cash there, if they get printed.

This is great:

Todays Portrait Is: Cherish Prado.

walkies and listens

I like my Pacific Northwest days like I like my apples: crisp. I like a dry day with a clear sky, I don't mind if its a bit cold. Perfect for walking. Planned some errands. Had my breakfast and tea and pint of cold fresh from the fridge water. Set out for Oblation to get some nice cards to send off to thank you. Headed towards Glisan along 22nd. Went down to 12th. Popped into the shop. Spent some cash. Popped out. Went down to 10th and went into Rite Aid for some soap. Picked out a lipstick and some lipliners that were at an awesome 75% off clearance. A buck fifty, can't beat that. I was feeling hungry, so I got a slice of broccoli and hazelnut pizza at Hot Lips. Then I went up Johnson. Popped into my studio to pick up my thesis notes, the ones from my presentation panel. Then back onto Johnson and back home. It was a nice walk.

I've been listening to Game of Thrones and now the story has really hit its stride. Really digging it. I poured myself a big glass of orange juice, pulled out some cheese, chips, and dip, and got to solving my Christmas puzzle. While listening to my audio book of course. Puzzle solving and audio books work well together. Took me a few hours, but I got it all pieced together. Did the border. And then the neon sign. And then the neon stripes, and then the turquoise car, and then the yellow and pink card. It all came together. A nice little diner scene with classic cars. It was nice to relax with the puzzle instead of wasting time on the internet. Afterwards I made myself a sandwich, piled a salad on the plate, and put up my feet to watch The Cape and do a mind map of sorts about my thesis. The Cape was campy and was aware of that, I only hope they play up the camp more.

It feels good to put pen to paper and really spell out the thesis shape. I've been much neglecting it. I've been at an impasse for the past few weeks. I don't know how to think outside of the box I've been thinking in.

Now I think I'll work on crossword puzzles a bit. Tomorrow will be a portrait and thesis work draw. Lots of drawing! And watching of tellie. At least the drawing is very productive. It keeps me constantly moving. I want Portraitoday to be a success. Artistically, of course, but I also want it to be popular.

Todays Portrait Is: Thom May.

portraitoday

http://portraitoday.blogspot.com

I'm going to do a portrait a day for every day in 2011.