this isn't root beer

I planned to wake up early today and get a jump on things and hang out with Peeler later. But I fell asleep after I turned off my alarm and didn't wake up till noon. Oh well.

Mum, Dad and I went into town for a movie and errands. We saw Juno. It was okay, it might have been better a few years ago when all the hipster indie movies were just starting to hit mainstream. The cast was excellent. The soundtrack was really annoying; all the sounds sounded the same and didn't fit the lead characters that much. Some of the teen speak was very forced sounding. I give it a maybe DVD rental.

After than we went to Artist's Edge and I used my gift certificate to buy some art supplies. Art supplies cost so much. Booo for art supplies costing so much.

We hit up the mall next. All the teens look exactly the same and all walk around in same-looking lame little packs. Hanging around with artists and art school students sort of makes the rest of the people look the same. When I visited Seattle all the UW students looked the same. There isn't as many generic flat-hair-with-piercings scenester kids at PNCA. There are some sceney people, and tight pants are everywhere, but no one really seems to force who they are or how they dress. It is very refreshing. I'm really glad to be there; I never fit in here.

We ate at the Mongolian Grill where you select the food and they cook it up for you. When we were finishing up our meal and assembling all our food trash mom dumped the soy sauce into the soda cup for some reason. Dad was unaware of this and, much to our horror, took a drink. He promptly spit it out and we had a good chuckle at his expense.

I was so tired all day. From the instant I got up all I wanted to do was climb back into bed. Now I am in bed and it is GREAT!

never too young to sled off the road into the ditch

Well Mom and I were planning to go out to Silverdale today but it was snowing something fierce (well it was rather gentle actually) and we were trapped. By the end of the day we had 4 1/2 inches! A nice constant down-float of white misery.



At some point in the day Mom yelled at me for sitting about doing nothing for days on end so I put on some boots, jacket, gloves, scarf and hat and we went out to hit trees with sticks (to vanquish the snow from them).



When we returned from our walk we all sat about and drank cocoa. And I called it quits on the exercise for the rest of the day.

blue nude

Figure study from an open life drawing session on campus. Ink and bamboo stick pen.

relax mode: engage!

I did nothing today. Nothing nothing nothing.

Slept in. Sat about on my computer. Watched some Twin Peaks. Watched some Futurama.

Ate some chicken.

I think I'll watch some Tekkonkinkreet now.

Tomorrow I think I will actually venture outside.

I'm in deep relax and recovery mode right now. Been at the school thing full steam from September 4th (or close to that, whenever) up till December 20th. Nearly four solid months of work. Looking so forward to the next four but right now I need to just enjoy nothing.

snow, sardines, starships, straws, sugar, strategy

Well Christmas has come and gone.

Slept in a little more than usual for a Christmas day, my stocking was waiting for me all plump and full of goodies. We had cinnamon rolls, bacon and grapefruit halves for breakfast. Not the largest of gift exchanges we have had in the past but we are all to the point of wanting things we need and not wanting extra things.

I received from the family: crazy straws, sardines, socks, pringles, chocolate orange, bike fender, and sweets. Lots of sweets. Also Kirie and Mark sent me these VERY AWESOME snap closure leg warmers from Harlem. Very cool (and warm!).

I gave a Post Secret book to mum and dad, some skeleton stickers to mum, a treehouse making book and a PNCA tee to dad, and the Perry Bible Fellowship anthology to Nathan. Not the greatest amount of gifts but hey...I'm poor.

Rubie gave me these photo coasters that had photos of me, Nate and Basil in them. Sooo sweet! No photos of her and me so I'll just paste over Nathan's face with hers. Auntie Celia gave me some sweet art supplies.

We sort of chilled out for a while. Nathan got this game called Khet and wanted to play us. He beat dad and then I played Nate twice after that. I wasn't really paying that much attention and I beat Nathan at his own game. Hehehehe. That never happens. Dad beat me pretty quick after my two rounds with Nathan.

It had started snowing around Noon so we decided not to head out to the Grandparents right at that moment and see how the weather was going to shape up. We went outside and played in the snow a little bit.

I watched part of the first episode of the second season of Twin Peaks. That scene with Dale Cooper laying there on the floor after having been shot; EXCRUCIATING!! Oh my...I knew he would get help but when was just trying my nerves. Also around this time was when I started to "acquire" the new Christmas Special of Doctor Who. I don't like David Tennant but I do like Kylie Minogue. Ooohh I couldn't wait for it to finish...

About...ohh maybe three-ish we headed out for the Grandparents Spencer. The Seabeck roads were highly treacherous. Nathan wanted to play another game of Khet. He made a mistake in the middle of the game and I would have won but I let him have a redo so he ended up winning.

Grandma and Grandpa didn't have their Christmas Tree up but there WERE party poppers. Ohhh. They also didn't have their bouncing angel. Dad made an over sized red wagon for Grandpa and I brought along some of my peanut brittle. We threw a couple Christmas Pizza's in the oven and dad played Santa and handed out gifties.

Nate and Pa received matching flying helicopters. Those things didn't so much fly as go up really fast and all about randomly. Lots of fun. I received a gift certificate for Artist's Edge, my favorite little art store in Silverdale (Utrecht and Art Media are gougers). I think I will apply it towards book binding supplies, pen nibs, and nice paper. Auntie Joyce gave me the very awesome gift bag of uber hot cocoa mix, uber uber brownie mix in a snowman shaped glass, and a gift certificate for Bed Bath and Beyond. Whoo!! Nathan also received brownie mix, but mine was the only one shaped like a snowman. Yeah, I rock.

Our festive Pizza was delicious and thick. Take that Portland Pizza! Nathan and I played yet another game of Khet. I won. Or..wait I think he won. Uhh. Oh right yeah we played two games. I won the first rather sneakily and complexly (my earlier wins had been rather simple two laser bounce wins) and the second time we played, a freestyle set up, he won.

Dessert was had, more games were played, lounging was enjoyed. At around 8:00ish we returned home and slacked for the rest of the night. My Doctor Who had some problems in its acquirement so I had to start fresh. Watched a little more Twin Peaks while waiting for it to meander its way onto my hard drive. Sooo worth the wait! Still don't like Tennant (teeth gnashing, etc.) but Kylie was so adorable. Nice little complete special with mostly good effects (great for Who).

So late. I least I have no plans for tomorrow and can sleep in.

how can I sleep?

Oh man oh man oh man oh man! I watched all of the first season of Twin Peaks. It is 12:36 am. That season finale cliffhanger!! I can't go to bed now...have to see what happens to Special Agent Dale Cooper!

Oh and it is Christmas Eve. How ever could I nod off on a night like this.

Lazy lazy day. Didn't have to be anywhere so I didn't go anywhere. Made some Peanut Brittle, ate some cookies, had a nice family dinner by candle light.

Sat about in front of the fire mostly. Big day tomorrow! Presents, food, candy, and the Grandparents! We are going to be eating Pizza. I. Can't. Wait.

fish coffee

I've been up watching Twin Peaks and I am only two episodes in and already I am a little scared. Just want to watch more now...

Today we went to Grandma and Grandpa Pedersen's for a pre-Christmas dinner.

I brought along my tube o' art to show Grandpa John and it was really well received. He showed me some of his work from the late 30's through the 50's; Cornish through when my mum was a child. Really amazing, the Cornish figure studies were exquisite (interesting how we work with nude male models at PNCA and they had underpants on at Cornish) in their attention to detail. His sketches from Mexico were great at capturing the people and scenes with fewer lines (and more in some of the longer market scenes). That is what I hope to be able to reach, that level of talent where you can capture something without having to go over it again and again fine tuning it.

Dinner was a tasty soup, even though I only got one shrimp.

After dinner I read the new David Sedaris story from the New Yorker out loud for everybody. A very thoughtful and poignant piece, it made me think about my own reaction to Tracey's death. I love Sedaris because he is very truthful about how selfish we are.

Showed Joe Z. and Celia my art. Wish I had more to show after a whole semesters worth of work.

We did some last minute shopping in Silverdale on the way home and then we chilled for the rest of the night. Whoo for being freaked out by TV that is older than me!

I miss...my bike

Left my heroic post up a little longer, to make sure everybody read it, for I am awesome.


Yesterday:

I barely made it to the train on time. I missed the Max closest to 2:00 and caught the 1:15 one and didn't arrive at the station until 2:40 for my 2:50 train. Had to lug my suitcase up into the train and find a spot for it; couldn't check it. Sat next to a nice enough guy who just watched skater videos on his Mac. I forgot my headphones so I couldn't watch anything from my laptop. Enjoyed a hot dog, soda and a cookie for my lunch and read some more of Rant.

Mom and Dad were waiting for me when I arrived in Tacoma. Yay! Dad! Haven't seen him since August, yaaay!

We went to Nathan and Rubie's new Tacoma apartment. Pretty nice, mine is bigger. Ate some more food and dismissed the offer of Oreo's. Mom doesn't like my Patrick-telling-off story. I think I was awesome.

Arrived home and revved up my computer to utilize the Internet. Watched the last half of Ratatouille with the parents. It didn't interest me enough to watch the first half. We watched an episode of Scrubs and then tucked in for the night.


Today:

Slept in nice and proper.

Mom stuffed some of the cookies she had made this morning in my mouth for breakfast. She gave me a glass of Emergen-C to balance it out.

Mum and I went to go see The Golden Compass. It was pretty good, it ended right where I am in the book so it is good that that part didn't get spoiled for me, not so good that it didn't get the full book stuffed into the adaptation and the ending is a little anti-climactic. It captures the energy of the book; which is to say that it shifts scenes really quickly without resting to long anywhere. The quick scene jumps are...quick. Still, sad that there won't be another adaptation because this one is totally failing in theatres.

We went home, relaxed a little and Mom, Dad and I swung by and picked up Joe Z. and Celia for Auntie C's Birthday Dinner.

We went to a place in Manette (Manet?) which isn't "Bremerton" but damn close. I dozed off on the car ride there.

The place, while cold, was very nice. We ended up being there for about two and a half hours. I had this ricotta and butternut squash stuffed in...something...with something on top...uhm. It was really good! Mom and Celia complained about how long it took the food to get to us but the place gave us lots of bread and I was perfectly fine. We had nowhere to go so why were they ranting about the time? They were understaffed and busy; perfectly good excuse for being slow. The food was worth it. Totally worth it, the first time I have had gourmet fancy expensive food that seemed like it was worth the price tag.

After I gave Celia her present (some Log Home magazines) and we all went home and chilled out for the rest of the night.

Mmm my food was so soft and gooey.

Being home I am so tired and sapped. I think it is because I am not riding my bike three miles like I am used to. Bah.

it is when the quiet ones snap...

I told off Patrick. He didn't say anything during critique again; just stared at the computer screen. His critique went quick as no one really wanted to say anything. Gordon closed out of his website and then I snapped and said something.

Pretty much, from the back of the room I said:
"You know what Patrick. During this whole critique you have just been sitting there staring at your computer watching movies. You haven't said anything. It is really disrespectful to all of us, and insulting. It is insulting to me. You come in late and say you don't want to do the project. We all did the final. We all did the work. It doesn't matter if you don't want to do it, you do it."

There was a moment of silence and Gordon said, "You know, she has a point."

During his short critique I indicated my mood towards him, a prelude or a foreshadowing if you will, with a little comment:

"For a photo major you don't have really any photos on your website."
"I'm not in a photo class this semester."
"Bullshit. We spent 10 weeks in the dark room in our 2D Design class."
"Yeah but I didn't like anything I produced."

After my comment I looked back at people's faces and they had a frozen expression of ecstatic joy on their faces. I have been basking in the praise of my accomplishments all day. Karen reenacted the events for Cidney, Laura, Tabitha, Robin and I later on. It was great. All of it was great. Just gotta stand up in class, stand up to the major E-bags who think they can get away with it. YEAAH!! I ROCK!

Chatted with Mel, Jim, Karen and Chelsea between the break of classes.

We had Paul for drawing and that was just painfully slow and bland. He lectured for ages about the techniques of the Masters and this line thing that doesn't work at all. I couldn't make a decent drawing in the whole class today, all the proportions ended up looking screwy even though I laid them out. A really slow and stressful way to end my semester. Scott was our model and he was great. Really friendly and top notch. Paul supplied us with cookies and juice again but Scott was naked so he didn't get up to get any (nice guy like that) but I asked if he wanted one and brought a cookie to him when he said yes.

Sarah, Danny, Mollie, Elaina and I went to Acorn for lunch. I had an overpriced sandwich. The staff was cute but it was way way overpriced. The talk was centered around their upcoming ADCS debates and not my heroism (I don't think they know Patrick).

After class I hung around PNCA; running errands and whatnot.

I am lending Sandman to Diana and on my way to her place to drop it off, I passed Tabitha and Karen. They informed me that they were not invited to Cidney's Going Away Party going on right then and there and they were going to crash it. I said I would join the after I swung by Diana's.

So I swung by Diana's and I did some last minute Christmas shopping. Went home, dropped my stuff off, and went down one floor and crashed Cidney's going away party.

It was fun. Karen, as I mentioned, reenacted my heroism. Robin played her Cello. Then I played her Cello. Then Tabitha played it. And I played it again. We ate ice cream and fried bananas. Tabitha sells knives door to door. I never knew that, amazing! The night was filled with lots of chatter about whatnots. Fried banana is delicious. Cidney is leaving us for Evergreen. She is going to be a Geoduck now, bah! I wanted to be all awesome and Illustration Major-y with her. Bah! Sucks. Gave her a group hug and bid her farewell to the tune of "Giiiiiiiii..."

...

My first semester at PNCA is over.

no pain, maybe some gain

Oww my abs hurt so much. I didn't even know I HAD abs. Yoga activated some hidden muscle within me.

I came to school early to print out some more copies of my minicomic for class. The good printer was out of ink, the other printer had someone on it, and I couldn't use the worst printer because far too many people were using it for it to be viable for many copies. Grr! I hate how horrible the printers are at this school. You think, what with it being an art school and all that, it would have good printers and lots of ink cartridges on supply. Bleeh! So I only have about 6 one sided comics. That is no good for giving to people, none what so ever.

The 2D critique went fast. We didn't really any intense discussion. My messages didn't come across very well but my first collage was complimented as working really well as a piece. Tabitha's collage was beautiful. Patrick came in during the last 20 minutes and didn't even have his final with him. He didn't even say anything during the critique. Glad I won't have him in anymore classes; what with him being a photo major and a flake. It went quick and so we didn't have to return after class. Which does me no good because I have class at 3.

Comic Club had two more people show up and four old people. Sweet meeting some of the other people. We had Pizza Shmizza instead of Hot Lips. For some reason I horfed down four slices. A small meeting but a good show up considering it is finals week. I hung out in the commons after with the left over pizza, offering it to who ever passed. It got gobbled up pretty quick.

Craig had a slice, he said he is doing his science comic with scratchboard which seems unlike him. His paintings are so colorful and vibrant, I can't imagine him black and white. It will be super rad to see!

Time Arts was all critique and all the work was brilliant and well thought out. Some of it at different levels of completion but overall a great variety that was a joy to go over. There was karaoke, sped up eating, people walking with mixed up sound effects, illustrated Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, visual poetry, slow motion fabric, gridded animation, music video with a guy and an animated chalkboard rabbit, a comic about the end of days, a comic about purgatory, and a comic that seemed to be the exact opposite of mine in a way. I'm going to miss everyone, I'll see them eventually!

Oh and Marilyn can't be human with her ink skills. Seriously. Not human. Her work was just one page but she contained more lines compacted neatly together than I have ever seen before. Her work was about this gummy shark boy trying to win a beauty pageant. I don't understand it either but wow.

Yoga, as I mentioned earlier, was a serious ab workout. Even if we only did ab-stuff for a few minutes. Ow ow ow...

expressive use of line

I had a really great day today. I feel great. The energy from biking combined with all the Oreos: YAAAY!! I'm close to sugar-crashing though. Not so fun.

The first hour of Digital Tools was spent dealing with the network glitches that arose with publishing our website and then burning to a disk. The computers kept freezing, or they wouldn't turn on... I had to restart mine three times. Macs are such poo. We eventually got it to work and the critiques went off without a major problem. We have four left (we went alphabetically and so mine is last) and we agreed to meet at 9am. Yay for sleeping in a little on the last day. Some really nice websites, amazing what people did with the technology. Mine will be rather plain in comparison. Hmmn. Oh well. Still went great except Patrick irked me because he spent all the critique looking at trailers online and not paying the least bit of attention.

In Drawing we had Morgan Walker for a teacher and he barely seemed aware he was supposed to teach us. We drew for 10 minutes and then he gave us some proportion instruction and we drew proportional sketched up till lunch.

Mollie and I went to Hot Lips and had pizza and had an intense conversation about being mature, acting your age, relationships, social interaction vs world experience, etc etc. You know, girl talk.

After lunch we sat in a circle and ended up talking for almost an hour. We all learned a little more about each other (Eva is a Jazz singer! Morgan B. is insane in a totally awesome way! Nell has a dog named Indie!). The last 15 minutes we did 3 5-minute poses with each posed representing an emotion. One we had to draw sad, the other happy and the last a haughty socialite. I can see where Lindsay got the idea that he, Morgan W., is crazy.

After that I went Christmas Shopping and bill paying! Yay!

Stopped by Powell's and picked up a few things for some certain folks back home. I went to Finnegan's to see if they had the Hazmat Playmobil (I really want it for myself, not getting it for Liam) but they didn't have it (still great Playmobil selection). Then I went to the Portland Clinic and dropped some much dinero for that appointment I had months ago. Bleeeh so expensive to get treated.

Went home and Lindsay was working on her "delicious" final. I had SO MANY OREOS!! eHHHHEEHEHEHHEHEEHHE!!! WHEE!! YEAAAH!!! OREOREOREOREOREOREOREOREOREOREO!!! BWAHAhAhAHA ohmanI'mtired

the power

Guess what?
What?
I AM DONE WITH FINALS! EARLY! HAhAhah! YEAAAHHH!! Whooo!! Now I can buy y'all presents in my free time (haha not really...).

Art History had some difficulties with the technology (how many times has this happened?) so we rejoined at 9:30, when someone was there to tend to the technology. We watched a video about cathedrals that featured a guy talking about them in modern day and some really cheesy animations about people building one. Super cheesy. Those cathedrals are just, wow! So much detail, how come we don't have more structures like that?

I finished my second collage for 2D design. I used all recycled images; nothing new was produced for this piece. I used gouache from my color wheel, magazine cutouts, these weird Japanese cards left over from...something, I don't know, and the photos from the darkroom that didn't quite cut it for being finalized. It represents "isolation". I think it does it quite nicely. Sort of. Uhh. Well I'm done and that is good.

I had some of Yo's soup for lunch. I wasn't able to finish it but Robin had the rest so there was no waste.

I was the first up for critique in Time Arts. It went pretty well, the comments were really useful and honest. It was a real critique it felt like, none of that "yeah the composition is nice" stuff; I really felt like they payed attention to my work. I had printed out some minicomic versions of my final and Diana, Marilyn and Pete took them with enthusiasm. I'll print out some more for Wednesday; for class and comic club. Yay! That went really well. Well and good. Good and well.

Amanda had an animation completed and went after me. It was AMAZING. 200 individual sketches she did for the final! Holy cow! It was beautiful. That girl is crazy talented. Go Amanda! Rose had a great comment about her piece, "The power of animation! You could be in Narnia."

Kim gave an extra-credit presentation about artists whose art is wrecking up flats and the like with parties and calling it installations. Uhm, yeah. Then it was a work day after that so I got to leave at 5:30.

Lindsay made delicious hot cocoa and we had extensive girl talk.

Craig stopped by to return the comics I lent him. We chatted about cats (his, mine and Ibanez) and..umm I think it was mostly cats. Hahha. Craig gets to move out of Goose Hollow. Lucky duck.

describe the necking

I got and and had my breakfast and headed pretty much straight into inking the panels. I inked till 2:30 and it looked like I wouldn't be able to finish them and still have enough daylight to check out the architecture that I needed to photograph and write about. So I packed up, showered, and headed out. I turned down Yamhill and took some photos of the Pioneer Courthouse Square and went up Washington, across Park, down Burnside and around Couch street taking oodles of photos. Once I knew what I was looking at, I saw Roman and Greek motifs everywhere!

It was raining, not enough to be totally soaked and miserable but enough to be unpleasant and chilly.

I got to PNCA around 3:30 and inked in the library for about an hour and finished. It looks...all right I guess. The lines are all sort of the same. It really needs some value/color but I don't have the time to put that in. Scanned it in and put it together on the computer. Took me a while to figure out how to print it out on a single page (front and back) so it would fold up into a nice, neat little comic. Well, a while to figure out the orientation. It came together nicely. I just have to tweak it a little but it looks great. Printed sort of cruddy but I will figure it out. My critique is tomorrow, but I could turn it in Wednesday.

Left the school at around 6:00 and it was well dark and cold. I passed a really cute guy on Burnside. I smiled at him but I don't know if he noticed the smile in my eyes (the actual thing was obscured by a scarf). I miss up a lot of chat-up opportunities when riding on my bike.

Relaxed and ate a sandwich courtesy of Tuna Clause. Relaxed a little too long and didn't get around to doing my essay until about 9:00pm. Oops. Well, I got it finished before Midnight and that is pretty great, huh?

three am

New record for late staying upness and general working on projects. 3:17 am! Booyah!

Got up, ate breakfast and showered. Watched Family Stone which was surprisingly depressing. Good but depressing. It was just alright. The inclusion of the deaf brother was very human but I still can't stand Sarah Jessica Parker. Baah.

Chatted with dad a wee bit and buckled down and did my comic.

Watched QI and other comedy related to people who have been on QI. Not as far along in my comic as I would like to be but I should be able to get the inks finished in an hour tomorrow. Right now it is at 50 panels with all the borders inked in and all the text is inked as well. 18/50 of the panels have complete lineart. Okay maybe it will take 1-2 hours to finish it.

Didn't get out to see the architecture like I should have. It was gray and it went dark before I had the chance.

Lindsay, Brandon and I watched Superbad (while I worked diligently figuring out the last seven missing panels). All the parts with McLovin were hilarious. The rest was kind of...Ehh. I didn't like the main character; he was so insecure. Plus I have never really been down with the whole "hey everyone in high school parties" philosophy. Then again the inclusion of the one female character (none of the names I remember) who didn't drink was a great touch. Nice that it is like "hey not everyone drinks". That is rare in teen movies. I dunno. On the fence. But the cops + McLovin scenes were awesome. Wish there was a "Just the good parts" version. But everyone has a different idea of what the good parts would be.

Gotta get up and work work work. Busy day ahead of me!

pirates VI + not the angry itch

Yesterday:

I wore the mint green cropped jumpsuit to school today, the one I got at the holiday sale for $5. Got some compliments on it; nice to dress fun when it is so dreary all around.

Scanned in some of my new darkroom work and sketchbook to add to my website. The scanner kept scanning things smaller than I wanted and I had to redo about half of what I scanned. The weird glitches and kinks in my website seemed to get worked out. As much as I like Gordon, I will be glad for this class to be over. Only two more classes! One more week!

The substitute for Arvie was really enthusiastic about teaching. His methods were far different from Arvies; he had us to straight lines to build up the form and then come in with a contour. Sort of hard to explain, the final pieces don't have much emotion to me. Not really my cup of tea method of drawing. He gave us juice and cookies at the end. That was awesome. More teachers need to give out snacks.

Student council didn't have lunch, only candy canes. I stuffed my pockets and sat in for the meeting. Diana is the new moderator and that is downright awesome. Shes a real cool lady, that Diana.

After council, Jack and I went to Quizno's for lunch.

I made my comic run after drawing. I haven't been since First Thursday in November. Been a while, lots of comics had piled up. Two issues of The Boys, American Virgin, Black Summer, Y the Last Man and THE NEW PIRATES OF CONEY ISLAND!!! This comic was an eight issue mini-series. The first issue came out in October, 2006 and there was four monthly issues after that one. Then it went on hiatus while Vasilis Lolos did Last Call and I have been waiting since March for new issues. Such a rad comic, that one. So happy it is back with new goodness.

On my ride home I passed a Police Lady on a horse. About two blocks later I passed a pile of horse poo.

I finished my collage. Well, I haven't drawn in her face yet so I don't know if I am finished or not. It looks cool, nice and yellow/violet. Not quite Paranoia anymore. Hmmn.


Today:

Got my work done real quick. I do a good job, it just gets done quick and I have to kill time. Maybe something to clean will come up. Read some comics. Sean Carney gave me the OK to use the MFA's computers. Speaking of the MFA, they treat me nicer than the BFA's. Well they are a lot more conversational, some of the BFA are great and some just ignore me. Still, I like my job.

Midnight Update:

While biking home I saw Lindsay at about 13th and Burnside so I decreased my gear and escorted her home.

We watched Hedwig and the Angry Inch while eating dinner. Wonderful movie! Lovely songs and a good story. Is it wrong to be a little jealous about the costumes Drag Queens get to wear? I can't believe I went this long without watching it; what held me back?

Then I watched Kill Bill volume 1 and got to work on my comic. That movie and the part of Sin City I didn't finish a few nights ago; while watching those I achieved 23/50 panels pencilled onto Bristol paper. I got into a good rhythm, but the quality started to falter so I'm going to stop work for the night on it. Two more movies should be good for finishing it, if that. Then I have to ride my bicycle and find some of the architecture Libby recommended I write about.

Weekend goals: Finish comic on Saturday, scan it in and print out nice copy on Sunday so it can be critiqued on Monday. Find architecture on Saturday and write about it on Sunday and turn in paper on Monday. Plan out and start my second collage in the open time; due Wednesday.

squares and holes

I achieved more today than I thought I would. Add that to the fact I might be a little behind...it evens out to being right on track!

Got to school early and photocopied and cut up the fliers for the next Comic Club meeting (the last of the semester). The fliers I designed are a little on the small size but they use large font and are bold so they are semi-eye catching.

We had our final (and only) test in 2D. I did fairly well, though I mixed up chroma and hue when it came to describing chroma. Oh well, that was one little bit. I received an A on my painting compositions that I turned in late. Booyah! In the break between other people finishing up their tests and working on my collage, I put up about half of the fliers for Comic Club. Lots of clumping around in my Wellies and running into Kurt again and again.

Cut up the gouache squares for the rest of the first section of class and cut up some Bristol. Lunch came quick.

Diana and I went to Tea Zone and had decent Strawberry Tea and the delicious perfectly sized Panini they make there. Gave many compliments to the super cute waiter. It was a great lunch, I treated Diana because she made dinner for me a few weeks ago. Today's walk for food was not as brisk as yesterdays but it still is very cold.

Drew out and painted/applied the squares to the background of my collage. I'm now half done! It really didn't take that long to do. Had to work fast as the acrylic dried almost as soon as I had applied it. Just need to think of what to do with my second collage. Hmm. This one is Paranoia so maybe Confidence?

I cut up and paneled all the pages for my Time Arts comic. Much of the time was spent figuring out more likes and dislikes for the characters and talking about the sheer awesome that are board games. Still, now that they are all drawn out it will be easy to just put the art in. The panels are also TINY so I won't have much room for detail.

Yoga wasn't so bad but my elbows were giving me some trouble. I still can't support my weight at all.

I punched out holes to use for the other part of my collage and that is all that I got done tonight after Yoga. I'm not worried. I'm on track. If I keep saying that I'll believe it.

fiddy panels

All my pages are planned out. All the panel layouts. 50 panels over 7 pages. 39 of which have a rough sketch for what will be contained/narration to go along with it. This is the hard part, after this is just sketching and inking it. I finished my comic page in about a night and that was 23 panels. I'm just doing about twice that with barely more detail.

Worked more on my website. Couldn't add much too it besides an influences page. I left my resume and extra image files at home (I'll remember to bring them this Thursday). Class went quick. Gordon and Ric had a tiff about the value of teaching us iWeb. Poor Gordon, even though he could totally own Ric in a fight. I do think that I would have liked more Illustrator and Photoshop projects but any Mac practice is good practice. I guess.

In Drawing Arvie told us to go out into the school and draw something from observation. Anything we wanted and spend three hours on it. I did not want to do this. The school has messed up architecture anyway so it is difficult to draw with the perspective tools we have been taught. I had to find a way to make this project fun.

I drew Jim sitting in the student lounge up until he moved and so I smeared out the charcoal drawing and drew Kat instead. It didn't look great so I smeared that. Then I layered another drawing of Jim (moves around so much) over that and then he left to work on a paper. At around this point I decided to just layer drawings over one another. I drew Kat a few more times, Evan sitting and working on his drawing, the microwave, the hall across the commons, the couch, the ceiling, and the railing. Lots of charcoal drawings over one another. Then it was time for lunch.

Kat and I went to Yoga Pearl, which was a very cold brisk walk down to Davis. I'm okay with Vegan food as long as it tastes good and my Mexican hot chocolate, brown rice and corn bread was DELICIOUS! Well worth the walk. Really warmed me up after the walk. Portland is really cold now. Like, I don't care if I look like a mugger I am going to buy a face covering ski-mask because it is so cold, cold. I sure hope Santa leaves me some long johns under the tree for me this year.

After lunch I didn't really want to add more black charcoal so I went back to the class room and drew it as well as Michael, Eva and Mel. For this I used white conte over the charcoal. When I had reached this point was when Arvie first saw it. I explained it to him as "well you told us to draw something from observation, you didn't say just one thing" he grinned at me and told me it was looking great. For the final part I went down into the commons and with the edge of a red conte I did a line drawing of the main stairwell and wall. The whole piece came together in that "it is abstract but there is still thought to the form and lines and still sort of cool how you can make out the different bits" sort of way. I'm really pleased with it and even sprayed it. I hardly ever spray my drawings.

Michael and Eva did self portraits. Kat drew someone on a couch. Tess drew Kat. Mel drew a toilet. Evan drew the student lounge. Danny drew the pool table. Sara drew the exercise bike/installation. Nell drew the student lounge from the commons. Alex drew a chair. Cool the variety that came from the open assignment.

Arvie said to me "some people say why, others say why not. good job Trillian." and he patted me on the back. Yay! I've really enjoyed having him as a teacher. He is going to Africa for the winter (90 degree weather, how ever will he survive) and so this was the last class he is teaching (we are having a sub for the last three days). While painting was not a requirement I'm still sad that I'm not going to have him again.

Pedaled as fast as I could home. My scarf was bundled tight against my face and my hands were nice and cozy in my gloves. Nothing was protecting my thighs and they became sufficiently numb upon my return. Watched Saved and worked on my thumbnails. Brandon came over and Lindsay made us all dinner (she is awesome) and they watched Saved and for whatever reason I joined them. So yeah, Saved twice in one night. Great movie so I'm not really complaining.

geoduck vs sloth

Back to it all after a very disappointing weekend. Managed to get to school right on time only to find Art History cancelled. There will be no final exam, only the paper. So that's pretty...non stress.

Sat about and chatted with people. Robin drew me for her drawing project. Looks like me; she really got my nose. It is fun modeling for people.

We did teacher reviews in 2D design. Yeah mine wasn't so favorable in the whole "did you learn the concepts?" part. We had a review for the exam on Wednesday. I'm not too worried about it seeing as how I get her feebly explained concepts.

Had some Quizno's for lunch. Tasty though pricey. Cidney is leaving PNCA for Evergreen. Tabitha didn't know what a Geoduck was. She does now.

I have one of my collages planned out. Whoo! Just have to put it together and plan out the other one. Busy week ahead!

In Time Arts we looked at some installations of Rose's. Pretty cool animated projections; might be spooky if they blended more in with the surroundings. Wrote out and thumbnailed my comic. Helped Diana brainstorm, talked about weird Internet stuff, chatted about food, and even had a dialogue about smashing TV's. I'm on track.

Couldn't find my gloves so my hands were numb when I returned home. Designed the new Comic Club meeting flier. Might use it, might not. Hmmn.

David Not Delivered

Mom and Celia missed the punctuation in the show title. What we thought to be “David Sedaris reads Santaland Diaries” was really “David Sedaris’ Santaland Diaries and Other Stories.” There was not David Sedaris reading. Should have figured. Why would he be in Tacoma doing multiple readings during this busy time? So that sucked. Royally and hardly. The two man performance was cute but overacted and that always annoys me. Christmas Means Giving has never been a short that I liked so I was anti-thrilled when it was performed. The guy performing as David looked like Quentin Tarantino. He did convey some of the moods but his acting prowess was underwritten by his over exaggeration. Nothing can compare to the real thing. Some day, I will see and hear the real thing.

But this… This was not worth the six hours worth of travel.

And also this kid spit apple on me on the bus. And smelled like he needed a diaper change. Cry cry cry. Remember how I mentioned the sweet train riding kids? Hah. Yeah.

Michael picked me up from the train. Back home safe and sound. But uhg. What kind of parent allows a little kid to spit apple. Repeatedly? Bleeh!

harbinger of elfdom

Got up all nice and not really all that early for the train. Paniced for a second and thought I had slept in but I hadn't. Got all packed and headed off a little after 10:30. Later than I would have liked but still way early.

There was a man in an elf coustume on the max. A premonition for Santa Land Diaries?

The walk from the Max to the train station was quick but it goes through a really dicey area. I think I'll ask mom for cab money so I don't have to walk through that area to the max/street car at 9:30pm tomorrow.

I thought it would be all crowded because of the train delays and closures that happened earlier in the week due to bad weather, but it wasn't. Had 45 minutes before we would even start lining up so I got a good seat and read a little. There was about three nice parent/kid pairs in the station. All of them having fun with their kids and not yelling and trying to get them to fall in line. The dad/son behind me in line were especcially adorable.

The train was delayed about fifteen minutes. Not so bad. I was sitting backwards and no one was next to me, despite having an apparently full train this ride. I listened to music and dosed off (something that has never happened before) and woke up when the play list ran out. Watched the last episode of Nip/Tuck season four and listened to music all the way to Tacoma.

Mum and her friend were there, they had been waiting a while due to my late train. They came bearing fish & chips for me. Whoo! We picked up my bus (uhg) ticket, might as well do it then when we had the time. The lady at Greyhound was lazy not very helpful with the people in front of us and I feel bad for the person put on hold that had probably been calling for a while. So expensive and troublesome to visit home. Bah! They should use some of those thousands of airline miles and just put me up on a plane. Then I'd be classy!

Nodded on an off on the ride home.

Mum, Rubie and I watched Waitress. Not as good as I expected it to be but I loved the idea of a happily-ever-after with just her and her daughter. That was nice. And some of the pies looked dang good! Nathan Fillion was adorable sure but, I dunno. Maybe moms reaction towards the movie altered my own.

And since we were in the mood for Nathan Fillion we put on some Firefly. Mmm such a good show. Was it good that it had its series and movie and was quality or should it have been drug into the ground?

I'm going to take some tapes down to Portland with me. Yay, Red Dwarf!

Lots of travel tomorrow. David Sedaris is worth it!