back in class and back on track

Oi vey, back to alarm clocks and all that business. Got up at 9:30am, like a champ. Showered. Made a massive scramble. Smeared some pretty on my face, and went out the door. Today's class is the second half of Advanced Illustration with Kristin Rogers Brown. It is an 18 person class, the Friday one is only four. Samala, Kevin, Jon and Sivonna will have a good time, I guess.

Kristin went over the gists of the class. We will be making a website, working on self promotion, working on art, and all that good stuff. Her computer crashed so we don't have a syllabus yet. The first assignment was to split into pairs and art direct one another. Madeline and I of course paired up. I art directed her to do a narrative illustration of a historical criminal or con man. She art directed me to design a portrait + text logo that would be used in web, shirt, and mail stuff. Love it! I wasn't hungry so during lunch we watched Portlandia. Literally everyone (but Madeline) has seen it. So painfully true and it hits so close to home.

The rest of class was about the next project, which will be ongoing through the semester. It is to make a blog and to keep it going for the next 16 weeks. I'm just going to make it my Portraitoday blog. It's a good project. I can just take the time to design it better. The rest of class I worked on the blog and sketched stuff. Then I went home.

I had a brainstorm breakthrough for my print project. So for the rest of the day, with a bit of a break, I sat in the bathroom and drew. I drew every object in our beauty cabinet. Every thing of eye shadow, every face goop, every hair band, every little thing. Took me three and a half hours. The idea is "uncurious cabinet". That is, a display of every thing that is in our cabinet. Lots of neat little drawings. Might end up being a minimal little print. I'm not sure how I'll arrange them just yet. Tomorrow I'll sit at the computer and arrange them and then print out a proof and turn in the proof. Took a break to unkink my hunched back and eat dinner and watch Community. A pretty weak episode unfortunately.

Returned to draw the cabinet itself. Now I'll work on my thesis calendar and idea for broader audience and visual language.

Todays Portrait Is: Sandra Scheller.

stuffffzzzz....

Decided to go ahead and get a ticket home for Thanksgiving. The pressure is piling up, and a break would be nice. I feel like I'm in a good spot right now. Got the late train on Wednesday and I'm going back Saturday afternoon. It will be good to have a whole day before focus week to gnaw on my fingernails and freak out.

My final animation project will be a mini animated video for Odd Owl! Hurrah!

By the way, a ton of storm drains in my area are clogged (some day the new pavers covered it up by accident, which is stupid. Covering it up I mean). So when it ran furiously, and I mean real horrible ran all day long, soaking the poor art students, the streets were steeped in water. Sucked.

We looked at some complicated video tricks before lunch. McClaren. This person's film

...

So cool.

Lunch! I scanned stuff and then wrote up and printed stuff. Then I had 10 minutes to grab lunch, so I got some flavorless Safeway sushi and perrier and nutrigrain bars. Lunch of lazy people. We had more AfterEffects, except this time I got it! Made stuff spin. Batched stuff. Then we met with the teacher to present our final projects. Then it was work time.

When class was over, I worked on my promotional mailer. Then it turned out sketches were not even due! Now I'm ahead with a good idea though. We had this guy Garth teach us instead, from Nemo design. Cool guy. He showed us his work and talked extensively about various design projects (maybe a little too extensive). Then we broke for class and I got the train tickets. Back in class he continued, showing us and talking through promotional materials. Got some good ideas. I think I'll silk screen a mailer onto chipboard. A quick little design. Could have some potential.

Despite the rain, Karen, Kristen, Beth, Leo, Danny and I went to Yur's. Gabbed about Harry Potter and thesis and asked what questions might be asked. Kristen drew some great drawings of us all. I ordered some tots. It was still raining on the way back home. Streets have so much water on them. It is ridiculous. Got back. Chilled. Now I am feeling like I'm going to pass out now I am really really tired.

vanity, it ain't so bad

Ohh I've had so much sodium and carbohydrates today. Totally going to gnaw on vegetables tomorrow. And fruit.

Got up at 9, like some sort of miracle. And had a nice relaxing start. Except I rushed my makeup and the eyeshadow slid off in like an hour. It always comes off one eye. I think I need a primer or something. What's the point of going to the effort, if it just comes off? I wonder if it is connected to my occasionally watery eye that happens when I ride to school. It's annoying. I don't know what irks it. But yeah, establishing a base to show off my efforts. I went from nice bronze shadowed eyes to a minimal look during lunch (simple fix, just rubbed the eyeshadow off). But I had my lipstick in my bag, so I threw that on. Makeup is fun, when it works.

Anyway, enough about makeup.

Animation had a lecture about modern animation that utilizes loops and spot animation instead of animating whole chunks. We studied some Astro Boy and Ren & Stimpy. I had no idea that Ren and Stimpy were supposed to be a cat and a chihuahua. Heh. Helped Dom with his crossword. Had a corn dog and some potato wedges and sprite for lunch (didn't feel like my usual burrito). After lunch we did some more in AfterEffects. We learned how to animate a bouncing ball and to change the frame rate in motion paths and the scale and flex of certain things. Slipped on a pool of water in the commons during break. Just landed lightly on my knee. Bleh. We looked at our lip syncs. Mine looked really small compared, but I think it was the only one that was rendered to proper scale. That is: mine was two megabytes in file size and everyone elses was about 150. For 3-6 seconds of animation. Yeah.

Our final assignment is an animation of our choosing. Naturally we are to use the techniques we have learned in class. I'll probably do something hand drawn with the peg bar. I was thinking maybe doing a mock makeup tutorial or something. I think it would be fun and humorous. One half my advice, one half my failure (a few weeks ago I jabbed my eye with a makeup brush). Needs some more thinking about, but basically the parameters are "fun". Maybe make a little looping track in garage band.

We got out early. I wandered around. Got some Pellegrino and Smart Puffs and sunflower seeds. Went on the internet. In Advanced Illustration it was portfolio review and "look up inspiration for mailers" time. For Print Only (http://www.underconsideration.com/fpo/) is a really cool site that showcases some spectacular print design. I think I'll work with folding some more...hmmn.

Oh, also during lunch I picked up a small wire bound sketchbook and a new (not yet exploded) .01 micron pen. I intend to fill it up entirely with portraits (it's only 24 pages). And once it is full, I'll turn it into a poster. Amazingly, from the first drawing at 6pm, to the last at around 11 pm in Yur's, I amassed ten portraits! And good ones too. I mean, they should be good...I'm doing my thesis on them. I did Beth, Cotey, Madeline, Karen, Dom, Jon, Mel, James J., Diana, and Kristen. I'm really happy with Kristen and Jon's. Dom also drew me in my sketchbook. Pretty cool stuff.

So yeah, we went to Yur's. As usual. I had one beer. Dom, Jon, Karen, Kristen, Mel, Jim, James J. Leo, and Danny were all there. Some stayed longer or were in other booths. Kristen accidentally dropped her umbrella behind the booth, and when Dom was helping fish it out, he found a plastic bag full of beauty samples! There were little toner samples, moisturizer, cleanser, and so much more. Karen thought it as gross, but since they are still sealed and no sign of tamper is evident, we kept them (we meaning Kristen and I, and Mel grabbed a handful as well). Score! I pitched in on some fries, James got some tots. A nice lady came over to see my drawings and said how good I was and when I said I was working on a portrait project, she said "good you should do this for your work!". It was nice encouragement and also that she talked to me out of a table of about six artists. I also pointed out what everyone else was doing. James and Dom were collaborating, as was Karen and Kristen.

Walked home with Kristen. Now I'm just chilling out. Literally. It is cold. It isn't supposed to go above 55 for a while. Have my heavier blanket though, and everything is snug. I'll just finish watching Terriers and then tuck in to bed. I'm cutting down on some of my regular internet haunts, and it has opened up a lot of free time. And by free time I mean "reasonable sleeping hours". I need to be more proactive in getting up and getting on with things.

had some fun, still have to do the work

Another school week draws to a close. And another five days need to be strategically planned.

But first, animation! I got a good night sleep and was not exhausted through the day. Go me. No tea either. We had an After Effects demo for the first chunk. I accidentally got my cursor changed into a different function and that set me back. I got the animation sorted, but I'm not a fan of the program.

Got me some Quizno's for lunch, and then chatted with Samala and April. It is so weird not knowing AT ALL what the other class is doing. Unless we talk to them.

Back in class was a sound lecture. I'm not so enthused about sound. I'm not a good listener. Also our next assignment was handed out. I'm a little confused about it, but I'll track down the assignment sheet. Manipulating frames or something or other. After break, it was critique time! There were some really cool things. Tippi was phenomenal. We saw mostly all of everyones, so I kinda forget a lot of it. Class ended.

Break time! Went to the class room. Sketched. Scanned. In class it was the portfolio review by three non-PNCA editor type people. We set up the portfolios and chilled for a bit. We broke up into three groups, and the three reviewers would swap. Kristen, Beth, Karen, Madeline and I were one group. Karen had a brand table set up, Beth had a print out, Madeline had a nice binder with inserts, and Kristen had a plastic portfolio with inserts. And I had my fold out.

From the review I learned that I still need to do a book type portfolio. For meetings the folder just isn't professional. I need to edit and make it more cohesive. They liked the format and all three agreed that it would be a more exciting thing to receive in the mail. So I know how I'll edit it. Mostly cutting out a bunch of stuff, and making some things larger. Might edit the gratuitous self portraits (there are more than enough, but that is me being silly and I should be professional). Sucks that I'll have to do a book after spending this much time on the fold out, but hey! I have the mailer already finished.

They loved Madeline's, as they should. They were a little baffled but encouraging about Karen's. Beth and Kristen's got some organization comments but they tended to like them. All in all, pretty good. Class ran late.

Dom, Karen, Josh, Janessa, and myself went to Yur's for a beer. I spaced out while Karen and Dom talked about Star Wars and tattoos. Went home. Can't be bothered to come up with proper lists. Animation something something, slide show, finish up portfolio, Halloween costume finishing touches, uhhmmm that other thing?

love love love raising hope

Woke up, woke up with good time to spare. Forgot to hit the snooze once and then lost all that good spare time I had built up. Dang. Oh well.

Showered, put a hat over my hair, dashed out the door one layer too little, grabbed the spare blazer in my studio, and went to student council. The yoga intensive was tabled. I got some free food. And then meandered about for two hours waiting for the print lab to open up. It was crowded and the print lady (JP left) looked frazzled. I got some paper that I may not end up needing.

It was cold but not so rainy.

For the first half of class Martin talked more about client negotiations and what is to be expected for next week. It is slide show time. It is getting the focus week presentation together time. HOLY CRAP IT IS GETTING CLOSER AND CLOSER. And I don't vlog, I should vlog more. But not now. My hair looks gross.

Anyway, during break I went and printed my portfolio for the review. I bought some of the paper they had on hand in the lab, but I accidentally put one sheet in backwards, so it didn't print as nice. But it is just for review. It isn't the final portfolio. For that, I'll spend a little more time and intention. Martin dug it. We talked a little more one on one. Things are good in my mind. He hasn't expressed any concerns. I just need to make brilliant art.

Class ended and I dropped my stuff off at the studios. Chatted with a snuffly Karen. Then yoga! Lots of leg stretches and stuff. Then some balance. Class wasn't as jam packed as last week. It even got out a little early, so I powered back home and caught Glee! That episode had a lot of hype, so the part I was unfamiliar with (Meat Loaf cameo!!) gave me the most excitement. Still, good episode. Those this season doesn't have much plot to progress. Kinda spent it all in the first one. Then two back to back episodes of Raising Hope! I love this show so much. I laughed heartily.

Now I'll do some sketching and get to bed at a reasonable hour. I'm tired of being dead all Wednesday long.

b is for broadside, and breakthrough

In Yur's, talking with Karen and Dom about the immense struggle that is thesis, I had a format breakthrough, and it was this: it isn't the zine that is attracting me, but the act of unfolding a piece of art work. There is something about interacting with art in that way that really makes me go "whoo!" It stirs something in my thought process, much in the same way that the knowledge I'll be silk screening something makes me look at the art I'll be doing in a different way. So a broadside is a type of large printed poster that is used to proclaim something. It is a nice format that is getting use in stuff lately. I need to do more research, but this falls in line with that massive comic I did two years ago, but also speaks to the small printed projects I've been doing. But it is a poster, and posters command authority. And on the OTHER SIDE I will print something that is more image centric. So it will fold out and one side will be a large image poster and the other will be more text, with image. Or something.

But this format has got me excited. I think I might have backed off from doing a poster because it will be so close on Karen's posters. But it will be totally different materials and use of the format. But that is getting ahead of myself.

A breakthrough. I had one! AWESOME! Now I need to take another wave of research.

But back to the start of the day. Horrible night sleep. Woke up at 8am, and pondered getting up, enjoying a breakfast with several cups of tea. But then I managed to fall asleep and then I got up at 10am and rushed and grabbed a pop tart and left. Yeah.

We watched some Caroline Leaf animations. Beyond talented lady. For lunch I had a corn dog and some nibbles of potato wedges. I mostly sat in the studio and tried to stay awake. Bleh. Loaned TJ my PVA glue. Back in class we split and critiqued. Mine went well enough. Tippi and Emily's were insanely spectacular though. Tippi went to town with cut outs from Vogue pattern catalogs and old home and gardens, and Emily made tea bags shuffle like no other. Really good stuff.

We took a break. Came back. Finished the Hedgehog stuff. Got our next assignment, which is animating painted movements. Like pushing a malleable material around and animating that. Sand, clay, paint...there are a lot of options. I think I'm going to hijack some monoprint ink. Cherish gave me some plexiglass so booyah. It is a big thing of plexi, but I have it. For some purpose now. Whooo!

After class, I worked on my portfolio a little bit and the portfolio assessment. I went and printed it out on just the standard 11x17 copier/printer in the library. Returned. Class started. Our next assignment is actually from real art directors! And if they like our work, we might get legitimately printed in Bear Deluxe, Park City Magazine, or some doggie blood donation thing that I don't really care about because I'm going for the article in Bear Deluxe that has to do with this FDA official. Karen is doing the doggie thing because she gets to do some wiener dog art. Dom is also doing FDA. Competition!

Anyway, break time. I got some Safeway Sushi and Pellegrino sparkly water. Then we came back and critiqued portfolios for an hour and a half. That went well. And then class was over.

Karen and I went to Yur's and girl talked about stuff. I had a soda. Dom joined us and we thesis talked. Then we left Yur's. I went home. And now I am home.

Tomorrow there is a lecture at school that should be about something, then Friday there is yoga and an illustration party. Saturday I booked time in the animation lab. I booked time later in the evening, but I'll probably show up at like 4. All well fed and ready to work till I am done. Sunday is open. Monday is Madeline's movie night. Aliens! Then Tuesday comes around again.

Have to finalize my portfolio, so Sunday will probably be a "I'm going to school to work on my portfolio and won't leave till it is printable" day. But yeah, have the next five days pretty squared away, which is nice. I'll be productive, instead of lame, but there is ample time to kick back.

tumbling along

Joined Tumblr. Because I can. It is image sharing and stuff. I'm at: trilltrillian.tumblr.com It won't be art specific, just images I like and all that. Yup.

I was about to have oatmeal and tea for breakfast, and then I remembered I could have three slices of bacon, three eggs scrambled, tea, and two slices of toast. So I had that. It was so filling and good and I ate at the right time, that I was sated for most of the day. Hurrah!

Went to school in nervous, but high, spirits. For the first hour Martin gave us the run down of our next phase. Basically the next phase is working on getting the slide show together to present at the end of November/early December so that we can propose. This is in part nailing down the blurb, and figuring out inspirations, and ordering it, and all this stuff. It is a lot of stuff. And this is it pretty much. We need to start deciding. Then it was optional one on one meetings. I opted to meet with Martin. I wanted mostly to talk about how to connect the depth and the art. He encouraged me that, when it comes to talking about the thesis, to start with the meaning and message and then go into the medium. "I wish to reflect the dynamics and intricacies of friendships through non precious posters and zines" as opposed to "through non precious zines and blah blah blah". Keep it in the front. Also we talked about how best to example my art, and the idea that zines might be a bit low rent (my words) for how brilliant (Martin's words) some of my work is, and can be. Martin encouraged me to work large, like posters and tabloid format. It might be a better direction, because then that opens up wheat pasting and public dissemination, instead of personal distribution. I could still do zines, but larger work commands more authority. It was a really good conversation, and Martin's enthusiasm for the quality of my work brings me up.

He has been a very good encouraging teacher these past three years. Do I want him for thesis mentor? I don't know. Maybe. Way back when, somewhere in my blog, there is a recording of our first meeting and initial impressions. Over time there is some documentation of whatever teacher/student relationship has formed. And this holds true for pretty much everyone I've met in college. Teachers, students, MFAs, alumni, and so on. It is all here and can be tracked. Chronicling things keeps me in a more positive mind about people, because if I am going to interact, I might want to report, and I want to report something good. Obviously I can't like everyone, and just because you are not here doesn't mean I don't like you. But I want to like you and talk about how much I like you. I want to promote positivity the best I can, because it helps me be positive. But some people just grind my gears. But my thesis isn't about gear grinding.

Yeah.

After class I went and got a 4GB USB stick for thirteen bucks. What a deal! Can't find my other one. Not lost, just misplaced. Talked to Daniel Williams and Heather. Someone wrote up an "I saw you" about Daniel, trying to fish for a coffee date or something. It was silly how nice they thought he looked. Daniel is nice, but also isn't nice. In his own Daniel way. Not an insult. He is a self admitted ass.

Yoga was full of people. 15 may not seem like a lot, but when everyone has to lay out on a mat, it gets full. Good stretching. Good posing. Good yoga.

Went back home. Chilled. Snacked. Joined Tumblr. Now to do some homework and then get to sleep. Or try to get to sleep. Stupid one day a week I HAVE to be out of bed before noon.

survival!

Don't know why I'm still up but okay, here goes.

Got up. Got to school. Had to scan and print. Realized I forgot what I had to print at home. Dang.

Anouck gave a lecture and we watched some Frank Mouris films. Our next assignment is a found object self portrait. Don't quite know what I'll do for it, but I'll figure something out.

Got my picture from home and scanned it and grabbed some Chipotle. It was delicious. Kelly and I had a good conversation about eating a burrito with a fork to protect the integrity of the tortilla and how just shoving it in your mouth destroys the form. Yeah. Back in class we broke to critique. After sleeping on it, my mermaid animation turned out well. The stress was messing with my mind I guess. Yeah. After critique was break. TJ and I chatted about food preparation. Back in class we looked at the first half of Hedgehog in the Fog using our scene breaks downs to analyze it. Even pouring over the film shot by shot, it was still amazing to watch. After that we did a group reading of sorts. Like, we all read the same paragraphs and then talked in groups and then presented the core ideas. It was one of those heavy worded things. Then the writer got on some tangent about how good public transit makes poor people even poorer. It was an interview so it had a lot of ideas, but was light on details.

With class over, I gathered up my package design and headed to the computer lab to work on my portfolio. It actually got thrown together pretty well. I'm forming a good base to start from. Karen and I giggled and joked while waiting for class to start. In class we glanced at our projects. Not really a formal critique again (which I like, because at this point it is sort of too late). They liked my shirt. Kristen gave us a lecture on how to face problems when we get stuck in art making, and then gave us an InDesign demo and then it was work time. And I got some good progress! Have some stuff to do by next week, including getting the better print resolution files into the file.

I chilled with Karen in the studios afterward and then at 10pm we went to Yur's for a quick drink and girl talk. The design cronies were there, as were some print people. Jim joined us later on. I just had one drink, kept it casual. At 12:30 I biked home. Whoo weekend! Need to do better about getting a jump on things. But first I think I need to tidy apartment. My room looks like a disaster area.

the stony silence that stops hearts

24 hours! Homestretch!

I lagged in the morning but I ended up just having the perfect amount of time to get everything done and not be rushed. Got to school at 11:45am ish with thermos, pop tart, and apple in hand. Scanned stuff. Photoshopped stuff for about an hour. Listened to The Strain. Gave Dom some feedback on his album sleeve. Got seven photoshops for my "thesis mood display" thing. Not like...composition...just images that give a feeling of the thesis. And stuff. Yeah. Went to Utrecht. Bought a sheet of chipboard. Cut it down. Got to my studio and realized I should have bought two sheets of chipboard. Didn't have time to get another sheet, so I just cut up the back of a used sketchpad. Perfect! Glued my boards together so they made a nice little display set. Wrote out my thesis statement on the back of one of them. And got to class.

All through class hung the air of tension and terror. When Martin is serious, you can feel it. The joking stops, and things get serious and silent. Iskra and Martin are quite the pair. Both are very adept at shoving the blade right into your heart through the ribs. They don't waste time making veal; locking us in cages and feeding us milk while we grow fat and weak and tasty. One person didn't do the board correct (it was really far off from correct) and Martin just told him he was unprepared and should take it down. Naturally I volunteered to go first. I got a pretty good review I felt. The main question was cohesiveness of style.

What also came up:

-playing to my strengths (they were not keen on the ink wash images)

-being as considerate of type as I was of people (Iskra called some of my text "embryonic")

-"I can say that because I know she can draw really well" (Martin in regards to a gasp uttered when he was not in favor of some of my drawings)

-being really conscious of how lines and things depict emotions and stuff

-more comments about my handwriting placement not being up to stuff

After class I asked Iskra for some advice on how to improve the emotional quality of large blocks of text. Normally when I do letting I spend hours doing 6 letters. Doing paragraphs is something else entirely. Tips were to consider negative space and what goes on beyond just the shapes, to study comic artists who do hand lettering, to write with a tool I love, to think of it as texture when it comes to image composition, and other stuff. It was good feedback. Just need to develop my message a bit. This week nothing is due. But I want to practice lettering and read some self help. Need to nail this fish to the wall while it is still flopping, if you get what I mean.

Beth did well. Nice rough sketches. She is responding to dance movements and stuff.

Nicole's idea has changed to some cool mirror stuff.

Kevin's idea isn't about faith anymore. It is about masculine art, but doesn't look at all like my definition of masculine art (but it did have a gun in one of the paintings).

Sivonna had some nice pattern and stuff. She is working on a story that ties into a product line. Quite cool.

Jennifer is making some paper dolls about the female figure and stuff.

Jon's civil war monster survival journal "mood" images were insanely awesome and emotive. Loved them.

Dom's stuff was good. He is doing a guide to urban explorers. Like a how to guide to making books and brewing beer and just hands on stuff he has learned over his life time. Cool stuff.

Leo's images were brilliant. Not much could be said. He was quite clear and knew his direction. Iskra made a point about how saying "like" makes you sound really noncommittal it brings down your whole presentation.

Madeline had some lovely concept work for her children's story. I think that will be beautiful. She is a Corel Painter master.

Jeff had some awesome poster stuff.

I think that is everyone...yeah. It was a good critique day. Very direct, very quiet. We did stick up for one another a bit. Interjecting a "well do you mean this and not this, because the wording is..." and so on.

After that I went to animate. It looks alright. The movement is really jerky. I think I went too small with the paper puppet. Oh well.

Stopped by Safeway to get Kristen some cold medicine. Poor girly is really sick.

Watched Raising Hope. Worked on homework and watched Glee. Great episode! Worked on more homework. Going to finish up homework and drink sleepy time.

dried and ready to go

Last week, the week of blah and anxiety, really screwed up my sleep schedule. Didn't get that much sleep and didn't intake any caffeine. When the after lunch animation screenings rolled around, I fell asleep during one. But I have it written down so I'll check it out when I'm conscious.

Anyway. Got up. Tried blow drying my hair. And surprise surprise when you use a comb and don't dry dense clumps of hair, it actually goes quite quick! Who knew?

Animation was critique of the Dragon stop motion projects. Hill had an amazing Rubik's Cube show down that had a long solving sequence. Ours was well received, especially the focus. It ended up being in a weird format though. Stupid iMovie. Oh well. Oh wait. The critiques happened after lunch. Before lunch Rose gave a nice lecture on the unrreal in animation and we watched some Jan Svankmejer and some stuff from the Brothers Quay. Really surreal stop motion stuff. Good, just surreal.

I got some soup and bread for lunch and sat on the loading dock with Morgaine and listened to a girl drum on plastic buckets. She was really good. The soup, not so much. But I put it in the school fridge to eat later.

It was nice and warm outside, but the animation lab was cold. Spent most of the day in windowless rooms. So yeah, we critiqued and then the teachers swapped out. Anouk showed us how to do joint puppets for our next animation. And she showed us some videos too. That was when I took a nap. Then we worked on our character concepts for the puppet. TJ and Kelly and Anouk and some other classmates all talked about their kids. I've never been in a class with so many parents before.

I stopped in at the print lab and Karen's thesis poster is looking awesomely awesome. BT was helping pull paper. Then I finished my bread and soup and sketched some stuff.

In class we reviewed thumbnails for the first part. I'm doing a snarling self portrait tee shirt. It should be awesome. Once I get it drawn, I'll ask for shirts so that anyone who wants one, can have one. The rest of class was a lecture on portfolio stuff and review of portfolio. I'm a little behind on that, but I'll get cracking. Just need to locate the good quality version files of my artwork.

Walked home with Kristen. Put my feet up. Time to doze off now. Before I knew it, my weekend had started again. Dang.

yeah buoy

I can't find my favorite sunglasses. I don't think they are lost, just severely misplaced.

Woke up this morning to find that somehow or another, a bunch of spam email was sent out from my email. Don't know how to stop it or what it was about, but thankfully people seemed to take notice that it was spam. Also cleaned out my email contact list. Had a lot of people I don't remember in it. Ha.

Anyway, slept in. Got up. Did the morning routine. Picked out my books. Read my email. Actually got a good response from Martin and Iskra about my thesis prompt mock up thingie. I'm starting to find some good directions of thought to go down. I just need to concentrate on verbalizing these directions more. In class Martin gave us a little speech. It was the "I'm not going to talk about that email but you should all be thinking about it so I don't even need to put you in your place" talk about what to do for the next assignment and things. Say what you will, he can command a room. Then we had private meetings with him. Madeline went first and when she was done we walked and chatted. I returned and had my meeting. It went well. Talked about some of the directions I want to go in and the directions I don't want to go in. It was mainly encouragement for thoughtful design and not dumbing things down and maybe making some posters to go along with the zines. Yeah.

Beth and I rode back to my apartment and I made sloppy burgers for us! We, along with Kristen and Tabitha, had a nice little lunch gab and bitch session. Now I have sloppy burgers to eat for lunch tomorrow. Hurrah! It was nice. Then yoga came and Beth went home.

There were 12 people in yoga! And I'm actually a little more in shape that I thought I was. My strength isn't totally gone. My flexibility is and my mind keeps wandering more than usual.

Stopped by the print lab to give Karen an encouragement hug. Her latest poster is looking wicked awesome. Can't wait for it to be finished.

Went home. Watched Raising Hope. Which all of you totally need to be watching. It is hilarious. Then I ate some pasta and did hella dishes. This school week isn't heavy on things being due. Next week is. I'll have a busy (thank god) five days.

Now to sleep. Long day!

love mondo's designs and use of pattern

I've been in such a fog and a mood. Every time I think about my project I have to back track and think about what it means and what it could mean and what I will talk about. I did come up with two different point of views and stuff, really general poorly written view points. But it just feels forced. I still want to do it, but it shouldn't be a struggle to find a meaning in what you do? Right? I mean, all art is sort of a self portrait and finding how it reflects you shouldn't be that impossible? What do I want to reflect and talk about.

It's hard. It's like trying to nail a fish to a wall, except you don't have a hammer or nails...so you just have this wall and this fish and no idea how to get the two to stick. Or something.

Chocolate croissants. Went to Friday yoga. It was a more relaxing, stretching, meditating form of yoga that helped center me for as long as it lasted. Which wasn't long enough. Drat.

And then I wasted the day in a slumpy mood. Not good Trillian. Not good. But I don't know how to get out of it. I don't know how to take that next step. That one that leads to utter excitement.

I need to read something. Find a fact that interests me. Some little kernel to clutch onto. It is a numbing panic I am experiencing.

Oh, have I told you what I know about pigs?

whooo yoga whooo

Annnd it is back to wearing pants that stop at the knee. Holy cow weather, make up your mind!

Slept in. Got to to school for student council, and then remembered that classes were cancelled today because of some teacher thing and that also meant that there would be no student council. So I put up yoga posters and ate a microwaved burrito. Which proceeded to not sit well in my stomach, so I got some french bread and hummus and gnawed on that while waiting for the illustration rendezvous.

Chelsey, Morgaine, Dom, Sivonna, Jon, Samala, Beth showed up. We chatted about the assignment and got each other on the same page. Also discussed stuff and gave feedback and bounced ideas. Some people left. We chatted some more. Got some good buzzwords and a better frame of thought for my thesis. Is it people I know...or people that are currently important to me? what format? is it art therapy or art therapized? Self helped? If I go the sort of self helped, appreciation of my wonderful friends route then I have a direction of research to go (self help books and the desire for instruction in matters of the heart) of course this is also a sort of...well sappy route I guess. But it is generating a lot of thought.

We dispearsed. I nibbled bread and got lost in thought. Then it was time for YOGA! It is BACK! WHOO!! And the first meeting had about 10 people, which was awesome. Time passed and I felt I wasn't totally horribly weak. Though I have lost some of my flexibility. Still, great to have another part of my routine back.

Returned home. Relaxed. Kristen was dying her hair. I watched Raising Hope and then Glee. Which was a very fun episode. Lots of dream sequence dancing, and of course Brittany. Great character.

Read some animation stuff.

24 Hour Fitness has no sign up fee for students. I wonder if I had access to things like treadmills, it would encourage me to bump up the cardio. I'm feeling out of shape and a little down in the dumps and that is probably both causes of inactivity. Maybe join the gym? It is right next to school. Thoughts?

mumble mumble

blaarrggghhh

it was muggy and muggy days kill productivity

just sort of sat in bed way way lay and trudged around the apartment

put away some stuff, opening up the clutter in a corner of my room

Mum sent me a really good email that gave me a good perspective to think about on my thesis, just being able to express the points without laying it all bare will be difficult

Pressure is leading me to awful awful inactivity

I need to get something to do during my days off so I don't spent them doing so much nothing

gaaah

arrggh

no class, just the illustration discussion rendezvous

which will be nice. Just discussion and getting us all on the same page, whichever page that will be.

my energy levels are really low. I just can't get psyched.

"I'm so jealous of your burrito right now".

Oops, forgot I wrote. Updated earlier, but not with words.

Yay weekend! And the next five days have a light work load. No animation to draw beyond reading. No big illustration assignments. Just lots of thinking to be done. Whoo!

But lets back up to the start of the day. Good old animation. We started with yet another drawl about a third of the class not having the files where they should be. Then we split into A and B and got to critiqued our walk loops. Tippi had a lovely sketchy one that sort of skipped. Cotey had this moose man that was shot in fours by accident. And a couple people misunderstood the assignment (no one reads the sheet, I guess. Oh well). I got a good laugh when mine came on and people really digged it. Kelly and Matt gave high compliments (the other group looked at all of ours). It feels good to do good. Rose paused it and when we were looking at the frames she said "look at that butt!". It had swagger, I must say.

Lunch! Talked to Karen a bit and then and put money down on a burrito. Food for all day. Yum. Ate a third, put it away. In class we looked at some Len Lye and talked about film and different film vocabulary. Then Rose brought out the 16mm film. Clear film. To be drawn straight on by us. WHOO! It was taped down to the table and we all worked in different sections. 24 frames a second. I did ink and nib drawings of a face and some scratched in ink stuff. I accidentally spilled my ink, but nothing was harmed! Kelly tripped as well. The white board is really....trip overable. But yeah, we filled up 2 minutes 30 seconds worth of film. We played it to different music and watched it several times. It was AWESOME. Hill's music synced up perfectly. It turns out that I had drawn upside down. Dang. Still, it looked cool. Very abstract, but some brilliant rhythms happened. Something I wouldn't mind playing around with some more.

Class was over then. Boo. I ate burrito, printed some stuff out, went to studio, and at 6:15 Karen, Madeline, and I headed down to the Museum of Contemporary Craft to see the Collateral Matters show and to get a special lecture from the curators Kate Bingaman-Burt and Clifton Burt. It was a show of the ephemera left from shows and receipts and stuff. Very much treating all these things like precious objects (Dad, remember the vase of Van Gogh's next to the painting of it?). We got some good talk on portfolio building and presenting yourself. It was cool. Walked back. Rest of class was a lecture on portfolio building and stuff. Karen, Kristen, and I looked at Madeline's portfolio and gave her our advice (I forget if it was solicited or not...). Shes amazing at digital art. Simply wonderful. We looked at Kristen's as well. It actually felt really productive. We were advised by the Burts to get a buddy and have them go through your portfolio and give advice, because they wouldn't have the same attachments to pieces that the artist does.

We left at 9:15. Wandered with Karen for a bit. Went home. Finished burrito. Watched Top Gear. Whooo!!

Before I know it, school week is over. Course it is moving REALLY FAST! THREE WEEKS! AHHH!!!!

I am really loving animation. I'm glad I took it.

whooo

It is 10:08pm. My check list is all checked off. My alarm clock doesn't go off till 8:40, and really I don't have to crawl out of bed till 9:40. HURRAY!

So I got to school at 12:30. Didn't try to do the before lunch ambitious activity stuff.

Voted on yoga. It was approved! Talked about tablets. The school constantly has to buy more of them, though no one is quite sure where they go and we have to keep the illustration ones from being stolen.

With that done, I went back to the studio and drew walk cycles till 2:45. Then I printed out my essay and took my poster of inspiration to class. Class was held in this little itty bitty classroom in the C4D (center for design). This was up stairs that I've only been up once and that was at the school tour me, ma, and pa went on three plus years ago. Odd to be at such a small school and to never be in this one area. We pinned up our stuff. Iskra talked to us about getting dead lines in writing. And one by one we got up and chatted about our little inspiration maps. I volunteered to go first, like a champ. I'm not afraid of public speaking, I just feel I'm not very good at it. I uhhhmmed and repeated myself, but I think I was able to explain the threads pretty well. It is good to go first because then you can chill for the rest of the class.

There were some good presentations and threads and some people who didn't quite understand. Still, it went fast. I bought some Quizno's during break. Turkey bacon guacamole. Mmm. Early dinner. Very good.

Class was over and back to the studio. A crew of illustration people (Jon, Sivonna, Dom, Beth and I) gabbed about class. At 6:45 I set back to work. Finished my walk cycle. I showed Karen it on the animation device known as the lunchbox (though the one that doesn't save because it is old) and it looks sassy and fabulous. Then I put it into iStopMotion and big bang that assignment was done. I am even putting it onto Vimeo right now and once that is finalized, I'll put it up on ye olde blog.

With that done I set in on the paintings. Just three rough things with ink overlays, like the Ravenous posters. These went faster than the animation. I'm feeling happy that they all look the same style, but I'm on the fence about one of them. Still, have some time to rework it. Tomorrow. I'm tired now. Going to watch Glee. And relax.

ALL MY WORK IS DONE! PARRRTYY!! I mean...relax.

UHGGG

Bleh. Felt like bleh all damn day and it was a long damn day.

Animation was critique for the first, before lunch, section. Got some good reviews on my can. Some really interesting hopping cans in class. Yup. Got a thing of soup and some bread from Safeway. Ate half and saved the other half for dinner.

Back in class we got lectures on Avant Gard cinema and its relationship to animation. And some Muybridge. And some McLaren. I did my best to stay focused through stomach pains, nausea, and fever. Obviously I would have left if I felt it was that bad. Just enough to stay. But it did get better. Our next 45 drawing assignment is a walk cycle! Whoo! It just keeps getting more complex. But pretty soon it will be not drawn animation. Groovy. Have a lot of illustration stuff to produce over the next five days. Thursday is recovery day though.

Sketches during break. Illustration was a sketch review. The assignment is 3 mock illustrations for New Yorker articles. I'm excited. Paint some. Whoo! Finished my soup. We talked about layouts and idea generation and stuff. Class dragged.

Tomorrow I'm catching a matinée of Scott Pilgrim! Yay! Also my check came for the business card I designed for Ben. Money! Yay!

Sleep time. Last night was very restless.

drip drip drip blegh

I just took an antihistamine and I think I forgot to get the non drowsy kind so I'll make this quick.

I'm rubbish at getting up when an alarm goes off. But I guess it is good to get my clock running on a certain time. I think as my projects start to pile up, I'll be getting up on a regular basis.

Robin promised to treat me to lunch so at 12:15 I went to drop my haul off at the studio and when lunch rolled around, Robin, Karen, Kristen, Tabitha and I went to Sushi Land. It took a while for a booth to open up and we gobbled down sushi. Mmm. Then we hauled butt back to school. I went to the studio, did some writing, did some analyzing of my 10 pieces, and before I knew it, it was time for class.

For the first half we discussed project ideas. Jon had a rad one about making faux civil war relics with soldiers fighting dinosaurs. Beth had a great idea about the novelty of the naming of groups. Leo was thinking about the pasts idea of the future (aka now). Chase is between lucid dreaming and concept art of this planet. And there were some other cool things. My nose was running like crazy. Bleeeh. All this phlegm is nasty nasty.

Second half was all about pricing, dealing with clients, contracts, and all that jazz. A lot of the stuff is sort of dry but it is good to know some of the terms when it comes to the real deal.

Went back to the studio. Chilled a bit. Got some antihistamine and a sprite to settle my tummy and some lip gloss. Because I wanted to feel pretty. And it was marked down uberly. Forgot to buy shower soap. But just as well because Rite Aid tends to be over priced when it comes to certain things.

Went home. Ate some frozen Trader Joe's food. Drank water. Still felt gross and feverish. Where did this come from? I'm pretty clean and haven't been too cold...

Going to review the articles and then crash. My body isn't up to a late night. Gasp, I'll be in bed before 2am!

OH! Also I got my animation all captured and it looks great. I'm very pleased with it. Once I figure out how to make the files smaller, I'll post them.

I don't even remember any lyrics

Boy I am tired. One thing after another.

Animation! We split in half and got a lecture on this dudes theories on animation. A lot of sliding scales of one thing to another. Then we switched and critiqued our stuff. My video was shot in 1's when it should have been shot in 2's. So it went really fast. Still, there were some really creative animations with some good drawing.

Ate lasagna in the library for lunch. Mmm.

After lunch we split again. Got some more tutelage when it comes to object movement and got our new assignment. It is a hopping can with a tail this time! Whoo! We swapped and Rose gave us a lecture on the different timing and frames and stuff. Yeah.

I'm tired.

I finished my lasagna during the break. Got some paper, ink pads, and pens at Office Max. Screwed my coat hangers into the wall. Cherish and I are going to Ikea tomorrow! I need a table so bad. They should have some sort of cheap table. Maybe in the as-is section. I really need, and want, my studio to be ready to go for art. Especially since my animation assignments are lengthy.

In advanced studio we looked at Dom's site and talked about our illustrations and looked and Kevin's and mine portfolio and gave input. Then it was open work time. Which I wasn't feeling up to using.

At 9:05 I bolted. Dropped my stuff off at my studio and rode my bike down to the Crystal Ballroom to meet Kevin and see Panda Bear. We met at the Ringlers and after I caught my breath after the bike ride, we went in. The Crystal Ballroom venue is up a couple flights of stares and the floor is sort of bouncy. It took like, 30 minutes, for Panda Bear to start. It was quite crowded and the room smelled of smoke, but not that kind of smoke if you get what I mean. The show was....sort of not intense. It wasn't bouncy enough to really move to the music and it wasn't trance enough to put me in a trance. I sure did feel the beat. I dunno, not really my scene it would seem. It just felt long and drawn out...and I started getting nauseous. So not as fun as I was expecting, but it was good to experience something new.

Rode home. Stuffed my face with food. Now to pass out. Did I mention Ikea?

iWhatever

I got injured on the 18th. That took a long long time. Nearly three weeks, though I only have enough pictures to count to nearly two weeks. I thought I posted every night...

Oh well! Another school week starts. Went to school and used up my TBA voucher. I decided to see the more dancerly performances, as I prefer those over women taping fish to their arms (seriously, this is in the Time Based Arts festival, it is David Sedaris' 12 Moments In The Life of and Artist). Took forever because it seemed like some of the people getting tickets had no idea what they wanted to see when it came to getting to the front of the line. I went quite quick. I am skipping Mike Daisy because I don't want to listen to him rant for two hours about the iPad. He is a smart man and a good performer, but I just don't want to hear it.

Then I went to the animation lab and found all the stations in use, so I went to the computer and fiddled around. There was a recorder audio thingy job through Student Services that was listed so I went to Rachel Allen and threw my hat into the ring. Five other people are interested, so I don't know the chances. But it pays 10$ an hour for 2-10 hours a work a week. That would be sweet.

I brought my animation into iMovie Motion Capture or whatever the iHell it is called. I went home, ate some microwave mac and cheese and an apple, went back to school. I love leaving my bike in my studio because when it starts pouring rain, my bike stays dry! And it sure rained. A miserable real rain. I didn't think I would have to haul my rain pants out of storage so soon. Or my sweaters.

In Professional Practices we asked questions about setting up a studio, and got many many lists about things to think about, sites to look into, and other basic real world freelance stuff. We also talked about thesis ideas and I, ever brave I suppose, went first. The idea first on my mind is to create a guide to the people in my life. This would incorporate drawing people, which I like, and drawing people I know, which people I know like. And it could potentially touch on subject of the psychology of loving seeing yourself in art, and also how we formulate friendships these days because some of the research of my guide would be aided by my blog, which has a comprehensive list of when and where I meet people and what we do. It is also something that has no real cap to the art I could make. Yeah. Other people piped in their ideas.

We got out a little early. And it was miserable. My hair was dripping wet after only 10 blocks of riding. Changed pants, dried my hair, ate some more carbs, and relaxed.

It was a lot of fun with Kristen and Mel last night. And now I'll be skint on Friday and let other people buy her stuff. I'll probably just have a burger. Huber's has really cheap happy hour burgers. Like 3 bucks.

I love having a studio. I can just drop stuff off an not worry about it. Straight after class tomorrow I'm going to see Panda Bear at Crystal Ballroom with Kevin. It is at 13th and Burnside, which is just 8 or so blocks from school. I'll just drop my stuff off in the studio, meet him there, have fun, come back to the studio and cut up Johnson and crash. Not sure if I want to walk or ride to the venue, as I'm a bit worried about living my bike in a more high profile area. I'm getting really cautious because I've heard of several wheel thefts. I think dad did something that makes the tire harder to steal, and as it is a non standard tire...but it is also a tan tire and thus quite flashy. Hmmm. But it is only 8 blocks and I shouldn't be a wuss.