FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today I finished printing all 17 posters for my Senior Thesis at Pacific Northwest College of Art.

Y'all know how much labor this is. I wish I knew what my final project would be at the start, so that I could have had, say, 30 finished posters. Just show something really really epic. Just art and color and posters EVERYWHERE. But this amount is pretty damn awesome. I love it. I'm not tired of my thesis at all. In fact, I just want to do more art. But nope, have to do my speech. Have to do my paper. So that will be what consumes the next days and weeks of my life: paper and defense. But honestly, I'm not too panicked about my speech. As Martin says, I have all the stuff there. I just need to organize it.

Anyway. I got a slower start than I wanted. Woke up with my hands hurting. I need to be in better shape to get through all this printing. Got the portrait done. Had a little breakfast. Got the text done. Went to school, scanned and edited the text. Went to the studio and emulsified my screens. Went to the library and printed my text. Exposed my screens. While the screens dried, I went to Chipotle and got a burrito. Ate half that burrito. Then I got to printing! Listened to That Mitchell and Webb Sound, a very funny radio comedy sketch series. After I finished the four color layers, I ate more of the burrito and talked to Robin. Then it was back to printing! I did the drawing fluid for the second print layer and then the emulsion. This guy I didn't know spilled tons of emulsion while emulsifying his screen and then left. A big freaking puddle! I was really pissed. Why leave that on the ground? It doesn't exactly dry fast and no one wants to step accidentally in emulsion. Also, generally you shouldn't emulsify a screen if you don't plan to expose it the same day. But it was obvious by the guys screen emulsifying technique that he didn't know jack diddly about the method. I cleaned up his mess for him. Grrr boo. And it only took a minute to wipe down and wipe away the spilled emulsion.

Anyway. Continued printing and it all went really well. Switched to listening to Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz (I finished Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest yesterday, the third in the Millennium Trilogy, the book made the least interesting of the three movies but as a book it was phenomenal, I think because the content plays out better in writing, where as with the first two it is told better visually, and also when it comes to the third movie they edited out some great moments from the book). But now I won't be listening to so many audio books. I won't be printing anymore.

I got out of the studio at 1:20am. Pinned up my posters. Now I am home and waiting for Game of Thrones to download. I don't care that it is 3am. I'M WATCHING IT.

Todays Portrait Is: Christian Bale.

defense is on the calendar

Woke up feeling refreshed and ready to print. Ate a scramble. Got my affairs in order and headed down to school to print. Emulsified two screens. Printed the lineart on Lacey, and that went wonderfully. The Asha layer didn't go so well. A lot of them overflooded. I think it has something to do with the tension of the screen that I'm printing on, because that one isn't all that taut. The DeAnn layer printed fabulously. Then I got a nice slate color and printed the color layer on Madeline, and then the lineart. The lineart went really well. And then at 9pm I was done printing the final four portrait layers of my thesis! Only four text layers to go and then I'm done with the art. Whoo! The posters are looking so good.

After class Dominic in the studio gave me his old Verizon Samsung. Apparently if I go to Verizon, I can ask them to add that phone to the line in place of mine. Or something. So I'll give that a try.

Hmm what else happened today?

Oh Kristen watched Spice World for the first time!

OH I also got my thesis time. Wednesday the 27th. 9am. WHOO! Now I know. T minus 11 days. Egads. But I'm not worried. It is the paper that is the hurdle. But once the art is out of the way, I can focus on just that.

Todays Portrait Is: Ewan McGregor.

I'm so close to being done

Every move I make is agony. I may have reached a limit and may spend tomorrow just with Martin, Yoga, and then in bed with books. It hurts. It hurts a lot.

BUT! Today started off being not in pain. Just very very very tired. Got to school at around 10:40 and scanned and uploaded my two pieces for Illustration. Madeline showed up and I got a ride from her to Pinball Studios, a place where we were having a field trip to today. First I got an energy drink and some doughnuts and we talked Game of Thrones. Then we picked up Kristen. We got there ten minutes late, but most of the rest of the people were a bit later, including the teacher. We got a little tour of the printing studio, which had a fat cat named Mimi, and some cool printing presses. None of which I'm the least bit familiar with. We got some freebies as well. Madeline dropped me off at the studios, I grabbed my paper and went to print!

Printed the first text layer on Diana and Morgan, and the color layer on Lacey and Asha.

We did partner yoga stuff, where we used each other to do some poses. It was interesting stuff. I was teamed with Nico. I felt revived, but then in about three hours I crashed.

Printed the color on DeAnn. Exposed the line art for Asha and Lacey. Printed the final text layer on Morgan and Diana. Folded and editioned those. Headed home, feeling utterly spent. I think I'll let my body recuperate tomorrow and bounce back for the weekend. Too many late nights.

Oh I also added a 17th poster: Madeline. So right now I have the first layer on DeAnn, Lacey, and Asha printed which are posters 14, 15 and 16. I have 13 finished thesis posters. I'm so freaking close. Saturday. I'll conserve my energy and go at it full force. Get a burrito. I also need to design the text sides for the remaining four posters anyway. Yeah, tomorrow I'll rest.

OH OH the first schedule for thesis week was released. And I'm not on it. Maybe my thesis has been approved for being so awesome that I don't have to defend it? But yeah, I emailed Linda about it.

Todays Portrait Is: Dara O'Briain.

nearing the end of it all

I've had over 1,500 blog posts now! Hurrah!

Woke up in a weird haze. Also my back hurt. A lot. Too much physical strain in the past few nights, but getting it done NOW opens next week up to getting my speech and paper tended to. And those are the things that need tending. There is the very real possibility that I will be done with all my thesis printing by weekends end.

At 7:10ish I went to school. Karen treated me to a slice of pizza. She, Robin, and I chatted about after school plans. It's rough telling people that I in all likelihood will be out of Portland come June. If the plan of moving back home goes through, I don't think it will hit till around school time. I spent most of last summer in Seabeck and no one was much fussed about it. I'll throw a going away chili party.

Anyway, it was raining heavily and I got quite wet. After pizza I scanned in my text designs and printed those out. Went to the studio and finished Eva and Karen's posters and finished the lineart on Morgan's portrait side. Basically three black ink layers, which are easy to get through because it is all the same ink. The printing, combined with a free screen from yesterday, opened up four screens. So I emulsified them, made the print outs of Diana and Morgan's text as well as the color layers on Asha and Lacey's posters, into transparencies for the exposure unit and exposed them. So between six screens I have: DeAnn's portrait side color and lineart, Asha color, Lacey color, Diana and Morgan text. The text layers are good because they only need one screen for both layers. Tomorrow the studio is free so I will be getting on that. Should have Diana and Morgan's finished, with at least one more portrait side done. WHOO! My thesis poster total count will be 16.

After printing I pinned up the finished Eva and Karen posters. It feels so great looking at the wall of my art and it really feels proper. I'm so pleased with myself and the work that I'm making. I don't hate it and I'm not yet tired of looking at it. And there are more on the way!

Back at home I watched my tellie and got to work on my illustration project. The one that is due tomorrow. Gaah. It looks good, it just will fall one piece short of the assignment (two instead of three). Oh well. I at least go something done.

Todays Portrait Is: Alan Davies.

the ache begins

Uhhhgnnn. My arm hurts. Too much over use. But now I am generating muscles!

Got up at 11. Showered. Ate a huge sustaining scramble. At 1pm I headed over to Lacey's to draw her. First we went for a walk and got a free cone at Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day. Yum! We talked thesis paper. Lacey is already out of the school system, so she is a good one to talk to about the process of it all. She put on Twin Peaks and I drew her. Didn't have to draw oodles of her before I became satisfied with one of the images. We took another walk to Zupan's and she treated me to a dandelion and burdock root soda that was FANTASTIC. So delicious.

I rode home and drew and relaxed a bit. Went to school for yoga. Did yoga. Went to the studio and counted another reem of paper into 10 sheet stacks and also drew out some more text. Scanned and printed out the text. I didn't get to printing till 10ish. I got a layer on Morgan done. Got a layer on the text for Eva and Karen, though a lot of the text ended up blowing out. Don't know how those editions will look...I think I need to slow down a bit. Don't want to sacrifice quality for quantity. And need to use less opaque inks because opaque SUCKS.

Started listening to Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

Got three layers ready to print tomorrow. I can only print in the evening Monday-Wednesday. Thursday is an open silk screen studio day. Booyah. I'll knock out a lot then.

Tomorrow I'll work on all the other stuff though.

Todays Portrait Is: Rob Brydon.

catching up and getting ahead

Damn my sleep schedule is screwed. Keep staying up later and sleeping in more.

So yeah, I slept in BUT even with a late to school start time, I still got much more accomplished than I was planning. Ate a sizable breakfast and went to school. Drew Eva in her studio. Scanned that sketch in. Did the color layouts. Printing out the two layers of that as well as the layers of the Karen and Diana posters. Went to the lab, which was a bit crowded. Emulsified six screens (found Lacey's and asked her if I could use it). While those dried, I went to Safeway and got some snacks and some face lotion, because I was out. Went back, exposed, and then realized that I had set up the power of the unit wrong and exposed it on a low setting, so the image on two of mine washed out entirely. Oops. Still, got four screens exposed. Printed the color layer on Evas. Picked a pink which shifted into a little more pinky taupe. Very nice. Then printed Diana with a royal yellow color. Then Karen in a rustic tan. Then I emulsified the two screens again and exposed the line art for Diana and Karen onto them. While those dried, I printed Eva's line art. And then Diana's line art. And then Karen's. And then at 1am I was done! I printed six layers in the time I thought I could only maybe print five. And now I have three more halves, which when completed will bring my thesis poster total up to 12. And I did that in one day. Whoo!

Back in the studio, I talked to this fellow Brian. Who was very enthusiastic about my sketches. He was also a bit drunk. But I'll take the compliments.

Back at the apartment, I chilled with Mark and Kristen. I'm doing some printing for We Buy Diamonds and the poster that Kristen is working on is AWESOME. I can't wait to print it. It will blow people AWAY.

But now it is beyond an hour that I should be awake at. I've set my alarm and will focus on some initiative to get up, mainly because I think I actually have some stuff to do before class tomorrow, and it will take some time figuring out what that is.

Also I got a really nice email from one of the people in Joan's class (Qathi, which is an awesome name). Nice and helpful. How great a term is "present economy"?

Todays Portrait Is: Phil Jupitus.

time tables

6:00am: First alarm goes off.

7:05am: Get out of bed.

7:25am: get dressed after shower.

7:45am: enjoy a scramble

8:20am: head to school

8:45-10:40am: print the final two layers of my spirit animal print. Unfortunately all of the pink layers were misregistered so my whole print is off. All in all, I'm not totally satisfied with the result. It isn't my best piece of printmaking. If I had another week, I would redo it. But I don't have another week. Oh well.

11:00am: CLASS! We went through our websites. The websites are looking good. Lots of different looking sites. We are doing another art director assignment. I was the odd one out, so Kristin Rogers Brown art directed me. I am to illustrate a word or term in three different ways. Color. Detail. No faces.

12:30pm: lunch! I got a sandwich and accidentally ate the whole thing instead of saving half for later.

1:30pm: back to class. Worked on stuff. I folded and editioned my prints. Finally finished up my text sides.

3:05pm: scanned the text. edited the text. printed out the text.

3:somethingpm: went to the print lab. Emulsified screens. Laid out supplies. Exposed three screens. Chatted with people. Printed the color text layer on Leah and Robin's prints. Did the reductive drawing fluid to get them ready for the next layer.

6:30pm: yoga! Leg work! Lots of great fitness stuff. Felt good to work out all the kinks that are forming. Lots and lots of kinks.

8:00pm: gave away posters to people after yoga.

8:15pm: back to printing. Emulsion. Exposure. Wash out. Drawing fluid. Printing printing printing. Folding. Washing out. Lots of Sherlock Holmes.

9:30pm: walked with Daniel to Safeway to get a snack. Chips, Perrier, sweets.

10:00pm: back to printing.

1:00am: finish printing the final poster of the day. Fold it.

1:45am: leave the print studios with three complete posters, which brings my thesis total up to 9 posters.
2:14am: leave the Stevens Studios after talking with Jon for a bit.

2:49am: finish blogging. Very tired.

Todays Portrait Is: Joely Richardson.

way up high, two feet off the ground

Oh man, what a busy full exhausting day!

I got up at the magic impossible hour of 7:30am. Had a light breakfast. Showered. Got to the print lab at about 8:30. Got right to printing. Finished the Mel poster. I was three fourths of the way through the Beth poster when I was informed that there would be a Continuing Education class in the lab. BOOO. So I finished up the poster right quick and folded and editioned the two posters in the other lab. Robin was there as well. I was hoping to finish all four but it was for the best as I was starving.

It was one of those days that was both sunny and rainy. It came and went. Home from school it was sunny. I had some pasta. Home to the east side, it started to rain as I crossed Broadway. A thick mist of rain. The type that gets you damp all over, but you never really feel like you are being pelted. I am incapable of finding the Multnomah street turn off of Broadway. I've missed it about three times now, so I always overshoot and then have to get my way over towards Lloyd. It is weird to think that Lloyd is within a reasonable bikeable distance. Like 10 minutes off the bridge. I biked in a circle and eventually got onto 12th and rode that miserable, shoulder shaking, teeth chattering from the road construction road down to Burnside. I locked my bike up and spied Toon approaching. We exchanged an enthusiastic hug and got to catching up, but still had the same level of closeness like it hasn't been ages since our last hang out.

She invited me to a beginning drop in class for aerial gymnastic fitness stuff. You know, that stuff where there are large silk ribbons hanging and people climb up them and spin and stuff? Yeah. The class was her treat. I signed a lengthy health waiver and got my exercise clothes on. We did 30 minutes of stretches. Lots of leg work. I'm glad yoga has kept me spry. Still, this was a lot of core building stuff that...well I have no core. No arm strength, no abs. I have strong legs though, probably. Strong enough that I can bike a few miles and not have wobble leg.

Not being able to really lift my own body weight really hampered my learning, but I soldiered on. There were a couple ladies in their 40's who casually mentioned that they did parkour. It was about half and half beginners and experienced people. I didn't feel so self conscious about being bad. It takes a lot of strength and finesse. It is a lot of taking slack and wrapping feet around lengths of suspended silk and clamping. I would love to try it again, but only if I had arm strength. I did get the hip lock. And after lots of failure, I got the foot lock as well. There was this stuff that we sprayed on our hands to get a better grip on the silk as well.

The class totally...just wiped me out. And I was only really on the silk a third or forth of the time. I don't think I could take any more though. Needed the breaks. Much respect to the dancers who make it look so effortless.

Toon and I went to Fire on the Mountain for a celebratory wings lunch. We gabbed and caught up. I got on my bike and had only a slightly better time getting to Broadway. It is weird how I'm just now figuring out Portland on bike, after I've been here for nearly four years.

I decided to go to school and print instead of passing out at home. I was pretty exhausted but I got into the rhythm of it. Callouses are starting to form! I finished up Samala and Acey, but didn't have the energy to fold and edition them. I'll do that tomorrow. I finally went home and slumped into a chair and chilled and hydrated and enjoyed me some Advil. I watched this great documentary called Yank Tanks, about the lengths that people with go to in Cuba to keep cars from the 50's running. I also worked on my spirit animal for the spirit animal print exchange. Since I've been going full out on thesis printing, I think I'll just print the spirit animal and work on the text. Edition and fold, but no thesis printing. Thesis drawing, yes. Thesis reading, yes.

It feels good to accomplish something before noon. "Think of what you can get done if you didn't sleep so much, Trillian" my mind says. "zzzzzzzz" logic says.

Ma and Pa, I'll let you know when I get my Focus Week time slot. I requested early in the week though, so I can get it over with. But who knows.

Todays Portrait Is: Michael-Raymond James.

x4

Didn't get that great of a night's sleep. My schedule is all out of whack. Only got to sleep for a bit before the 8am alarm went off. Rolled out of bed a bit after 11. Had a bagel and shmear and some tea and powdered water drink. Community was fantastic, as was Parks and Recreation. Finished up only four text sides, but that was enough for the day as it turned out. Got to school after 3. Scanned, printed. Went to the lab. Emulsified. Exposed. Set up my station. Not a very crowded studio. Mel came and printed. And left. I listened to Mockingjay. Lots and lots of Mockingjay.

Printed Mel's color text layer. That went well.

Printed Beth's color text layer. That went well, all though some of the tape kept coming off.

Printed Samala's color text layer. Had some issue with the opaqueness of the ink I was using. Hate opaque ink. But got it done.

Printed Acey's color text layer. Went really well.

Washed all the screens out and drew in the water resist for the second blank ink layers. Exposed. Washed out. They are all ready to be printed tomorrow. Another four hours and I'll have four more posters finished. Yaaay. I'll be getting up early to do that, because Lindsay, aka Toon, aka my first roommate invited me to a beginning Aerial class. You know, with the ribbons and stuff. So I'll be doing that tomorrow afternoon. And afterwards I guess I'll fold and edition prints. Bleh, have to get up super early. So I'm blogging now.

Have to work on my spirit animal print.

Todays Portrait Is: Donal Logue.

wednesday

Got up a bit early but was largely unproductive for the first chunk of the day. Ate nutella and toast and chocolate croissants for breakfast. Drew me some Walton Goggins.

Got to school around fiveish. A bit later than I wanted and with less work, but as it turns out folding took a long time to do. But I'm getting ahead of myself. In near record time, I printed three layers. I finished Daniel and Heather's poster and I finished Jon. TWO DOWN! Seven immediate ones to go and at least six or so more to create. Hurrah. I also finished Leah's side and that looks good as well. I then editioned the two sets and started giving them away. It begins! Tomorrow will be spent in whole on compliments. Can't print what I don't have ready to print.

A pretty good day. Am I as productive as I'd like? Eeer no. But tomorrow is a Get Stuff Done night at BT, Berger, and Bone's (BT, Karen, and Phil) so I'll draw people there. And work on compliments. Huzzah. Friday Karen and I will go see Rango. And Saturday there will be karaoke. But I will also be productive and work. Friday and Saturday I will print what I make tomorrow. If I get five compliments, that is five screens. I can easily print five layers in one day. By Sunday I could have seven completed posters! And Sunday I could print the remaining two. Damn, if I could get all nine posters finished by the end of Spring Break. Wow. But I don't want to set myself up that high, because if I don't reach that, I might be hard on myself. But I can see the schedule working itself out. Just have to be really productive tomorrow. But man, if I do do that then I'll be in such a good thesis place. So good. And I'll get through Mockingjay as well, which is the third in the Hunger Games series.

Got home at around nine. Had a salad and orange juice for dinner. Bleh, healthy. Don't worry, I had some candy as well. Drew some portraits. Need to get on top of them again, the last two were drawn the morning of (and todays came up after 3:00pm). Now I'm tired. Report to y'all tomorrow night.

Todays Portrait Is: Walton Goggins

should work harder though...

Whooo got stuff done and had tacos!

Got up at 9:30ish, like some sort of miracle. Showered and got all cleaned up. Went to Trader Joe's for some supplemental shopping. Had a scramble. Got to school later than I wanted to. Emulsified two screens. Printed the first Jon text layer. Exposed screens. Printed the Leah color layer. Printed the first Heather & Daniel text layer. Put on the drawing fluid over the text layer. Got into my yoga gear with time to spare. We worked on hip openers and hand stands. Against the wall hand stands, not free form. I need more arm strength.

After yoga I put emulsion on the screens and let them dry and exposed the screens and washed out the drawing fluid. Hurrah!

Tomorrow is a really open day. So early on I'll work on three more text compositions, then I'll go to school and put them on screens and print as much as I can. Huzzah. Getting stuff done. I'll have two finished thesis posters by the end of tomorrow. Maybe more? Need to do more hanging out though.

Anyway, after all that it was time for tacos! Dom bought da beer and I cooked up the beef. He's all lactose intolerant and stuff, so all the cheese was for me. We gnawed on tacos and watched The Social Network. Good back stabbery drama. Well acted. Well shot. We said our goodbyes after that.

I'm almost done with Catching Fire, the second of the Hunger Games series. SO GOOD. Young adult stories also read (well, listen) really fast. Did da dishes. It is good to have a clean sink.

Todays Portrait Is: Timothy Olyphant.

edging forward...towards the bar

Another slow start to the day. BUT I managed to be productive for the middle chunk. Got two text sides done, and once I know how to do one then I know how to do the rest. So I went to school and scanned those and edited those (and the sketch I did of Leah) and printed those out. I emulsified some screens, all though when I exposed them some of the inverted text didn't do so well. It wasn't opaque enough. Oh well. I have three unexposed screens for tomorrow to expose, and two that are ready to print. I'm so close to finishing a poster! I printed both sides of Acey in what seemed like record time. Mel and Carla were working in the studio as well.

I'm just breezing through the printing stage. So tomorrow I'll print Leah's poster and print Jon and Heather & Daniel's side and then do the water resist emulsion for the second layer of Jon and Heather & Daniel's. If I get to school around Noon to One, that should be plenty of time. Four printing hours, one to two for technical stuff and set up. Whoop!

After printing I returned home for some food, and then I went to Yur's at around 11:30 to chill with the people. There was a design group and an illustration group at opposite sides. I hung with both. Talked to Alex and Mark and Jon and Dom, and also Chloe and Mel and Ashley and uhh...that other guy. It was a good night. I was there till last call even. Tomorrow night Dom and I are going to eat tacos and watch The Social Network. But before that: printing! and yoga! productivity! hurray!

And for that to happen, I'll have to get up at like...10. And stuff. which is totally doable.

Todays Portrait Is: Maggie Siff.

a day for junk food

When I woke up and saw that the alarm was 11am, I swore loudly because I thought I was missing class. Then I realized that I had no class on Friday and said so. Kristen laughed from the living room. So I went back to sleep. I ended up sleeping a bit too much in so the first few tasks of the day were rushed. I went to Trader Joe's and got a frozen meal and some snacks to sustain me. Went to school and grabbed a pop tart and my beloved Propel powdered water. I also like Emergen-c. I tend to drink at least one powdered drink thingy a day, and the rest of my fluids are usually just water.

Anyway, at school I scanned in the drawing of Beth and edited it. Oh, I also finished listening to Shades of Grey by Jasper Fford. Very good book about a society with a hierarchy determined by the amount of colors one can see. Now I'm listening to the Hunger Games trilogy. Everything listens so fast compared to Game of Thrones. Those books were LOOOONG. Anyway, hauling around stuff gets me flustered. I don't like hauling multiple bags and for some reason I don't like backpacks. I resist using one until I absolutely have too much stuff to fit in my shoulder bag.

I like Friday yoga because it slows me down. I get all rushed with stuff and it is an hour and a half to just take it slow. Tuesday Thursday yoga has more movement, it doesn't slow me mentally down as much.

After yoga, I rushed to the studio to claim dibs on a spot and...

...it was totally empty! There was no one in the silk screen studio and only Asha in the letterpress area. There were some people in the litho and etching lab, but I don't go over there. So I claimed three tables, emulsified four screens, oiled up three stencils, microwaved a meal and consumed it, exposed the screens, washed them out, printed the lineart on the Dominic poster, counted out the sheets for the Beth edition, used up my first ream of paper in the process, printed the Beth color layer in a nice range of blues that match her signature sweater, printed the line art, washed out both of those screens, and was out of the building at 9:50. Beth also came in and worked on her screens a bit.

Back in my studio, I counted out another ream of paper into stacks of 10, so later on in printing I can just grab the number of sheets I'll need. Another task minimized! I'm really getting a handle on how long different parts take. If I am doing any non printing tasks (exposing screens, counting paper, emulsifying) I need at least an hour to do them properly, especially if I need to take food breaks. I can do three layers in three and a bit hours if I have nothing else to do. I wonder what my times will be like if I have people catching paper. Right now it is just me. Having a buddy speeds things up.

Got home and had some pasta. And then taffy and candy cane joe joes. MMMM.

I'll figure out what I'm doing tomorrow...tomorrow.

Todays Portrait Is: Tommy Flanagan (with bonus material).

olivveeeerrr!

My alarm is set to 8am, no changesies. That is an hour before I would usually set it. More time in the morning is better. Either if it is more time lounging conscious in bed or more time for breakfast.

But since I'm out of breakfast food, I just grabbed a nutrigrain bar and some powdered drink and went to class. We didn't really have a critique. We just had an in class assignment to do an illustration representing a person without doing a portrait of their face. So I picked Richard Hammond and did a portrait of his Opel Kadett from the Botswana Top Gear special. I've never drawn a car before, so that was very difficult. Just did a pen drawing straight from reference with digital color.

Got a burrito for lunch because I knew I'd be at school and needed easy sustenance later.

This "having screens ready to print" thing really works for printing efficiency. In the three and a half hours between class and yoga, I got exactly three layers done on my posters. It's almost down exactly. Just so long as I have the same set up. I set up on a far left table and I spread my pages out to dry across the two tables to my right. The length is exactly ten by two posters wide. So when I fill two tables with prints, that is 20 prints, and that is just over a third done. Then I do another 20. Then I do another 15. It is much better than a drying rack, which frankly I hate. They are on springs and if you are not careful the springs will, well, spring and then the racks go up. And if there are other peoples prints, then they might slide around and stuff. It sucks. Having a full three table spread takes luck and/or getting up early. I'll see how it goes once it gets farther along.

So I got the Samala poster printed and half of the Dom image. Tomorrow I will get Dom finished and Acey printed and Beth designed and applied to screens. After yoga I only have five hours before school closes. Before yoga I'll scan Beth's in and get the color in and print it out and get that oiled up and ready to go. Then yoga. Then applying emulsion. Then exposing (four screens: Acey layers and Beth layers). Then washing out. And while those dry, I'll finish Dom. And then I'll see how much printing I get done. Two hours for set up, three for printing. Stagger home at around 10pm. LOVE IT! That is my kind of day really. Printing and yoga. Wheee.

I'll need to go food shopping before all that. Trader Joe's! Whoo!

After yoga today, I was tired so I went home. Watched Community (it was okay). Ate the other half of my burrito. Watched Parks and Recreation (hilaaarious). Now I shall watch some more stuff, drink some fluids, and go to bed. Big day tomorrow.

Todays Portrait Is: Ron Perlman.

eye see part two

I haven't been mentioning my eye issues because they've been getting better. The swelling is gone and now just some little bumps remain but those have been dwindling in size. And then I woke up with another stye. So I wanted to get my eyes checked out my an optometrist. But I didn't want to pay tons of cash to do so. I decided that after my meeting with Martin, I would call around to find a place to get my eye checked.

Meeting with Martin went well. Chatted about the mid term meeting. We won't be meeting next week, but I will instead email him some of my text ideas once I get around to them. We didn't fill up the whole usual 30 minutes. Good sign I guess.

So I got to calling. When I got a hold of the place Legacy Health Care recommended, they gave me the name of the eye doctors to cross check through my insurance to see if they are covered. I called my insurance and found out that medical eye exams are not covered. I called the eye place to see about an appointment and found out that an appointment would be $375. NO WAY. So I'm going to search around. Got some great advice about places to go. I also went to Safeway to see if there are some OTC sty medications. There are, but they were all sold out. I think tomorrow I'll go on a search for more. My drops are almost out. If I can get a remedy that remedies, I won't find a doctor. None would probably be open on the weekend anyway, none that were not emergency care. Lame lame lame.

Yoga calmed me down. Then I printed out six more images to turn into prints. Counted 55 or so sheets for Mel's poster. Emulsified six screens. Exposed the six stencils I printed out. Printed Mel in a lovely Mel shade of brown. And then printed the black. The second layer always goes faster. Flats of color always take longer. Talked to Karen. Talked to BT. Talked to Nico. I must have lost some time in there, because I got out of yoga at 5 and finished printing at 9. I guess set up took a bit longer because of printing out and exposing and letting the screens dry and stuff. I've had good luck with the studio crowds. Printing late at night helps. Hung with Karen. Gave Karen the $12 I owe her (we always seem to owe each other money or favors, it's easy to lend to one another because we know the other is good for it) Showed her my prints. Went home.

OH. Well, I'll mention that when it goes through the pipes. Don't want to announce it and create a bum rush.

Aside from the eye, a good day. Printing. Yay. Mel, Heather & Daniel, Robin, and Jon make four. Samala and Dom are ready to be printed when I get an extra couple hours. I want to get all the images I have ready to go printed within the week. So I can get the other side on them when I make the other side.

Next two days will be fun. It is all research paper.

Todays Portrait Is: January Jones.

website and getting stuff done

I was screen printing and I thought "it's no biggie staying late and getting things done, I slept in!" and then I remembered that I didn't sleep in and that this is in fact the one day that I am required to get up before noon.

So I did that. Actually I got up at 9! And I got some stuff done! Which was awesome. Got to school on time. It was mostly a work day, a work day that was very much needed. I even worked through lunch, because I had a big breakfast and knew I'd be going home for lunch. Yay for not spending money. In talking to Morgaine and knowing how Jeff's site ended up looking (good) I went with Weebly. Part of the final project for this class is getting a domain name and hosting a site. I've been holding back because a) I didn't know what to pick for a domain name (sorry but, as much as I love being a Spencer, as an artist I just want to be "Trillian") and b) getting a domain and then getting hosting ends up costing moolah. Weebly, you get both hosting and a domain name all for the reasonable $40 a year. It's almost double that on the next cheapest site. Weebly also has tons of templates. It isn't the most individually customizable of sites, but I figured I could make it work. So without further ado, my website:

www.trilliantrillian.com

I'm still working on it, but I'm pleased with the direction it is going. At around 3:30 I went home. Ate some pasta. Watched some TV. Then I went back to school for awesome yoga. Afterwards I printed out some more stencils for my thesis and went to the lab. Set up for printing (that is: printing stencils, applying emulsion, counting paper, setting up table, exposing, washing out screens, and drying) takes about an hour. A little less. Each layer of printing for 55 total prints takes an hour. It's good to know just how much time it all takes. I'm printing 55 because I know I'm likely to fudge up around 5 in a manner that makes them not worth gifting. I left the studio at around 1:30am. School is open till 2am most weekdays. 10pm on Friday and Saturday, which is STUPID. I got the Heather & Daniel side printed and the Jon side. Go me! I want to get all seven halves printed in the next 10. Spring break is coming fast and that is prime work time. I need to get a lot of work lined up. I want to get 10-20 prints done for thesis. 10 is easy, too easy. I'll probably achieve 15. But it would be GRAND to get 20. If I expose screens and count paper sheets at night, I can print straight through in the morning times. 7-11 is open work time because there are no printmaking classes that start before 11. I can get four layers done, if I can just manage to get up at 6am. Which I can do when it calls for it.

I'm half way done with Shades of Gray by Jasper Fford. Great audio book. Just powering through it. Though anything feels like "powering through it" after the epic Song of Fire and Ice series. Those were some long long books. Madeline is now listening to the audio books, so I have someone to chat with about them.

Got home. Put some rice on. Put that rice into sea weed snacks. Popped a beer. Chillaxed. I've earned it. Tomorrow is another mentor meeting. And yoga. And maybe more printing. Probably more printing. I should get as much done during the windows that I can find. I'll print one more half tomorrow, but expose five total screens, so that three are ready to go come another day. Having five screens is AWESOME.

Also my prints look REALLY GOOD. I'm very pleased with them.

Todays Portrait Is: Vincent Kartheiser.

time to get real

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

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

Got home at around 11pm.

Oh and also I have to do that paper.

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

Todays Portrait Is: RJ Mitte.

a day to print and teach

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

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

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

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

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

Todays Portrait Is: Betsy Brandt.

arvey & melissa

Got up early, well got up at the usual time of around 10, because Karen was taking me to Arvey paper! It was a giant place for reems of different papers. I needed to check out paper for my thesis and figure out what I am to print on. It was a nice bright day. Threw on my new shoes. Karen picked me up and off we went to the magical land of paper. Since I'm not picking "art" paper for my thesis, that is to say "archival", I have the benefit of ordering reems. I just needed to pick up some samples to test on. I needed to test how a sheet would react to say, three layers of screenprinting ink with double sided printing. And I needed to see how it folded. Didn't want to buy a ton of paper only to find out the paper was crap.

So I looked at paper. And then looked at a paper sample book. And then talked to the guy and found out how much a big thing of the paper would be. Went "EGADS" and he directed me to the paper I could buy by the sheet. So I grabbed a sample of each type, even though I knew I wouldn't be printing on some of them. It is good to know. I also bought some little tags to make business cards out of. Karen and I wandered over to this craft store to look at stuff, but there wasn't much to look at.

At Mazatlan we grabbed lunch. I had a chimichonga. We discussed "the system" and anarchy and stuff like that. We swung by my place, where I grabbed some of my reading, and went down to school. I figured that since I had the time I might as well be productive.

So Karen, Carla, Heather, and BT were there working on restretching screens (the process of pulling fabric taut and then gluing it to a metal frame). BT mainly tore the screens off, while Karen learned how to do it. I applied emulsion to a screen and got some stuff ready to print. Mainly just samples. Something small, something big and flat. Just some sort of printing to mimic the type of printing that I would do. So I would print that on the paper samples I had, so that I could see how the paper reacts to the printing and also how it folds with the printed matter.

So I got the screen ready to go and I printed and it printed well. And folded well. The thicker stuff, while it takes the paper really well it is a problem to fold because it is so stiff. And the stuff that is easy to fold because the paper is so thin doesn't take the ink well. But there was a perfect medium and that was the Mohawk Bright White 70 pound paper. Now I just need to order it. Though that can wait a little bit. It was actually next weekend that I was scheduled to go paper shopping, so now I'm ahead in one part of the project.

After that I went to my studio. Dom and I put our heads together on this little packet of hard difficult really big questions that Joan gave us. I don't know how to answer so many of them. But we got a start on it. And it was good because we could converse with one another and ask questions. Then I walked home, as Karen had been my ride and she had left earlier. Gave me time to listen to my audiobook. Kristen and her family left for dinner right as I got back. I decided to blog the day between my day and going to Melissa's birthday. When I get back, I'll fill in the rest of my details.

*****

Arrived at Oasisba, this Thai food fusion cuisine place, in celebration of Melissa. There was a reservation for 10 people and I was the 9th to show up. Melissa, Mel, Cidney, Phil, Robin, Sohkun, Travis, and Karen were already there. Oasisba used to be Sweet Basil Thai or something, but it changed owners. Now it is run by Drag Queens. So the wait staff is in drag, and every now and again they would sing and dance and frolic. It was AWESOME. Melissa was even brought up on stage for a number. Oh what a show. I had the special mojito. It was delicious. I had the avocado larb for dinner (in retrospect I wasn't that hungry and should have just stuck with the drink and had an appetizer at Rogue later). It wasn't quite larb as I like it. It was good just not what I was expecting. Shrimp was good. The food in general was fantastic. The location is kinda crummy. I think the word hasn't gotten out that there is a DRAG THAI FOOD PLACE. The word needs to get out.

From there we went to Rogue. I bought Melissa the John John Dead Guy Ale. I just had water and sipped from a few other people's beer. I'd already spent enough money dining out for the day. Way more that I should have, but I'll allow it because it was a special occasion and now that I'm not at school for long stretches, I'll be eating less bought lunches. Some people left between Oasisba and Rogue, and some more people (Mike, Shelby, Zaneta, uhm three other girls) joined us. From there we went to Red Cap. I just bought the birthday girl a jello shot. I only had like, two bucks in cash on me and didn't feel like dealing with a tab. I left at around midnight. Wasn't feelin' it. Red Cap is a little bit loud and dancing for my taste. Plus I think I'll get up early tomorrow, as I have a bunch of stuff to read and write. And I might hang out with Rollyn for a bit....so if I'm going to be social I need to be productive and if I'm going to be productive I can't drunk walk home at 3am.

Still, it was fun seeing Cidney and fun seeing Melissa enjoy her 21st immensely. So many free shots for that poor little lady. I hope she fairs well tomorrow. Mel will take care of her. It was a nice night out, even though I was all responsible and stuff. No fun till May now. Bleehh. It's all serious and work work work from here on out.

Todays Portrait Is: Eva Ashford.