Homeworkkkk

So....last weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada. I spent the whole thing holed up in my room doing homework. Literally, 8 hours a day of homework. I didn't get ANY personal artwork done, like I promised myself. BUT SOON.
I DID do some pumpkin carving. You can see mine on the right up there, a pumpkin saluting the world with a martini glass (it was supposed to be a beer, but the martini glass got the idea across better) We did these carvings at maybe midnight on Saturday. After some consideration, and the realization we had nowhere to actually put our pumpkins (the hallway??) we decided to go have a little fun and leave them around the school. So we did just that.
My friend Curtis (who incidentally looks exactly like Zac Efron, just for reference) did most of the work (kudos to him). His first choice location was on a ledge over the door to the SCAET building (which houses all of the computer animation and film classrooms) Of course, the SCAET building is made completely of windows...and a spot for one of the security desks. Actually, you can see it in this picture above. He jumped up there, a security guard appeared behind him, and didn't even see him as he jumped down and we ran off. We came back later to do some adjustments to the pumpkin, as it was meant to be puking. Me and Tahini's pumpkins landed in a similar location by the A wing, although in an area with less windows.
The pumpkins are still there too :)

Last thursday I went to extra, didn't get much I liked though. The model had some intense black dreads (extensions) that got in the way of a lot



Here's some handiwork from my other classes:

Drawing-
This is the continuous line/atmospheric drawing we started in class, which I finished up later during the weekend. Still some kinks to work out, some things that aren't angled properly, little details I need to add. She is a wicked hard grader, I don't expect much from this, but I am trying to pay more attention to line weight and sensitivity here.


2D Design-
Our latest project is about rhythm in architecture. Here are some thumbnails of old photos I took (Left to right, bottom to top: denver art museum, san diego convention center, the arc de triumphe, my basement, florida beach house, the golden gate bridge, music experience museum seattle, sheridan) I like it because it reflects all the trips I've been on over the years :) I do love me some traveling
This is the final I did, 8x13 on 10x15 illustration board in gouache


Color Theory-
Finished the DAMNED motifs. Turned them in today
Also got assigned this "fridge" assignment, which I adapted to my pantry. We were to mix swatches according to the items in our fridge. Mine sucked, but I still got 8.2 out of 10 on it...which apparently in Canada is an A? WTF mate. (its messy, I know, I glued everything down an hour before class)
In class today we did our first still life (finally, REAL painting!) It was dreadfully boring, as it was all white objects. The only thing that bothers me about this is how unstraight everything is...she forbids us from sketching it out with pencil first. It's all in paint. (this is SLIGHTLY bent over in the picture though, I'm not that crappy at it) I kind of felt crappy about this work, but whenever she came over she never had anything to say (and trust me, she always has something to say) At the end of class she looked at it for a minute and asked "have you painted before?" I told her I took a class (well I did....two years ago) and she said something about how it worked and blah blah blah. I think that means it was good??

Drawing Systems-
More perspective. This is the toy I'm designing out of shapes in 2 point perspective. It's going to be a race car :D
Some shapes in 1 point
Aaaaand in 2 point.

So that's what I've been up to.
I keep seeing all this crazy cool work online, and it really makes me want to break out and just get really creative, some time really soon.
Reading week is in two weeks. As for right now, I'm just staying here, maybe driving to Michigan one day to get my noodles and company fix, or maybe around upstate New York to see the fall colors, but mostly I'll be doing homework (we are supposed to get assigned extra work over the break) and hopefully portfolio work, and some fun stuff (that still contributes to my portfolio). You know, comics, illustrations, and the like. That'd be good.

Recent Thoughts

So here are some drawerings, from recent extra classes. This model was friggin AMAZING. Totally hilarious. The first thing he does when he arrives is go up to the black board and where it says "our model today is:" he writes "some guy"

All kinds of props. Also gave me free food. Win :D

In Lieu of my new residence, I found his pose very patriotic
Same model as the first week again tonight. Not as good this time, must've been tired. Can't blame her.

The more I look at this one, the more I like it






I've just been doing some thinking today. I thought I'd write about it a bit.
First of all, its reaaally nice to look down at my work and not want to rip my guts out in sheer agony. I finally feel like I understand what the hell I'm doing. I'm not the worst at this, and I'm no longer embarrassed to try and be an animation student. Hell, sometimes I want to KEEP looking at my work for a moment after the model changes pose. It feels good, I guess, to have some confidence in myself.
And that goes for other aspects of my life too. It was only recently people started regularly pointing out how nice I look sometimes, or how much they enjoy my company, and damn, I mean, its just so great. :) I didn't know you could ever feel this good about yourself. And even though sometimes I still get down, it's not as hard to get back up again and tear myself out of the cycle. I feel like this really fuels my work as well. When I get depressed, I become completely non-functional, and I've spent a lot of the past 4 years that way. So now I can finally sit down and BE productive, I can do the work I've been wanting to for ages.

On another note, I find myself stuck in a bit of a predicament.
Even though I feel as if my work is really coming along (going to figure drawing 12 hours a week really helps...I already have as much work from the past month as I did collectively over the fall/winter of last year!) I still look at accepted Calarts portfolios and feel as if there is no way I can do that. It's all so out there, so experimental. I sit down, and I just want to draw the energy, the structure, the movement of the pose. Thinking about medium and style and how I can make it "special" is just so hard. I tried doing that last year, it failed me! I like this a lot better. And after all, thats what they want in the animation industry anyways. Why should I try to go out on weird-ass limbs, when I feel like I learn a hell of a lot more sticking to what I know? So I'm not sure what to do, what direction to go in. I can't wait for NPD, so I can hopefully sit down with a rep and talk to them about it. Hopefully they'll tell me something different this year, something useful. Not just "This is a good start. You're headed in the right direction." Oh yea, real helpful.
Speaking of portfolio work, Sheridan's portfolio is so comprehensive. I forgot about the whole thing. There's so much to work on. I can't believe I crammed it all into what? A week or two last year? There are so many things I don't know how to do!
I also need to start thinking about personal artwork. I forgot about doing that kind of stuff completely until today. I guess I find classwork satisfying enough as it is. Forget my own self expression! So I need to start doing that, this blog is nothing but classwork right now, which is so boring! IB art feels like a hundred million years ago...
Actually, everything from a year ago feels like a hundred million years ago. The first time I stepped into a figure drawing class feels like the beginning of TIME itself! All the drawing sessions I held in my own backyard, trips to the zoo, even the studio 132 nights feel like ancient history. Getting into art school has been such a PROCESS. And I'm not even in yet. I am dying for the day where I don't have to stress about it. One day, when my concern will be finding a job. That'll be fun. At least I won't be paying for that.
I'm glad it's all working out for me, finally. I was so anxious about this year, and it's not so bad. I mean, I'm not in my dream school YET, but even if I don't get in, I feel so satisfied doing just any kind of art right now, it doesn't matter. It'll work out, somehow. Truth be told, I'd just love to be part of some television/movie production process. Shit, it doesn't even have to be animation, I just love it all so much. But really, all of this, this is so much better than the way it was. There's only one point of unfinished business left, a piece of history that's been dangling over my head, plaguing my thoughts for years. Once I get that out of the way, I think things will suddenly become a lot better.

Anyway, here's a list, because I love making them, of things to work on:
-Faces
-Caricatures
-Character design
-Hands
-Filling up sketchbook
-Gestures
-"Finished" pieces
-Storyboards or comics or something
-Original artwork pieces and such

Awesomeness, all around

HOKAY! Lots to share from the past week.
On monday, I had 3D design. We began our foam cor sculptures. Here's mine, above, which I finished up this weekend. It was a pain in the ass. I don't think I'll do very well on it. But good news? I actually got As on both the plasticine and wire portion. Wow, wasn't expecting it.
After 3D was life drawing! Woo. Here are the warm up gestures we did


She made us do this one with our non-dominate hand. She said it would be the best gesture we'll do all day...I do like it a bit
After warm ups, we did a contour exercise, where we construct the entire figure with ovoid shapes. It looks super lumpy x)
Then we began on the next assignment, which was a continous line drawing, focusing on the entire room, not just the model. I'm not exactly sure what this assignment is supposed to teach us, she put a lot of importance on having foreground, middle ground, and background?
Also, this model got a boner in class? o.O weird...I didn't see it from the side though
Our homework assignment was a hand exercise. We are supposed to draw some 5-6 hand sketches, pick one, and construct the bones underneath. This is my big hand, you can kinda see the bone drawing below it
And here are the bones...this assignment was tough because she didn't talk about it at all. Maybe it's not actually due yet? She's vague sometimes, she'll say a million things in class so you forget the important stuff, like what we're actually supposed to do
Here are my sketches
After that I stayed for extra!


My friend Mike said he liked these....Now, Mike is probably the most talented guy in class, so I like sitting next to him to see what he does and such, and occassionally, when he's not feeling like an asshole, he'll help you :) I didn't really like these, I dunno what he sees in em

On Tuesday, I did some sketching in my sketchbook in the cafeteria. I need to do this more often, my sketchbook is empty empty empty and that deadline is racing toward me. Yikes. Gotta get to the zoo sometime too
I had imaging systems on tuesday as well. We started perspective. This is what I did all class (bad pic, my apologies). It was super boring, and god, I hate making those ellipses.
Tuesday I didn't go to extra, I went to yoga instead! Ahhh it was so nice.
Wednesday was color theory. We did more motif work, after giving my presentation on process color (which went fairly well). This week was the complementary and analogous color schemes. I worked all day today to finish them. I like my analogous one a lot (I hope I did it right though) My complementary....not so much. It's messy, the colors are kind of off. Maybe I'll redo it. But each one of these takes about 4 hours, so thats a lot of extra effort on my part. We'll see what she says next class.
Wednesday extra life yet again!




On thursday, no class. But I did start doing some head studies from Burn Hogarth. I suck at faces, I'm trying to take steps at getting better at them.

Thursday afternoon I went with Christian (my new boyfriend....oh man thats so weird to say!) to Mississauga (yes, the famed Mississauga) We went to Chapters, as I'd never been. It's just like Borders, by the way. Then we went to Square One, this giant mall, and walked around a bit. After that I went to his condo, which has a stunning view on the 24th floor (24th! Buildings in Boulder don't get taller than 5!) The sunsets are beautiful there. But, we hung out so long I missed extra life. Never again! Although he finally did kiss me that night, so I guess it was worth it.
On Friday I went to 2D design. She handed back our last project, so here are pictures. Sorry the final picture sucks. I got one of the highest grades in class, mostly because my thumbnail work was well done (below) I guess the process is very important to her, which will teach good habits.

We are starting our next project, which is a rhythm in architecture design thing...we spent the whole class walking around campus and taking pictures. I haven't started any of the thumbnail work yet though.
Friday evening me and Christian and Tahini walked alllll the way to Lake Ontario from Sheridan. Its 2 miles each way! Bleh. But when we got there it was very pretty and nice out. We sat for awhile and then came back, right as it started to get super cold! Goodbye, summer. When we got back I warmed up and ate some food and called it a night.
Saturday I did some homework, then we all did some errands in my car for our international potluck. I cooked Beanie weenies (american), Chris and Bryce made poutine (Canadian), Amy make perogies (not really sure haha), and Tahini made chicken curry (well, thai curry. it was supposed to be chicken curry). We didn't sit down to eat until 10 because it took so long, but it was soooooo good. I ate a lot. Kind of a weird mash up of food though. After that, some of my classmates (Curtis, Pat, and Jake) came over, as they had just moved into an apartment across the street. We went to their apartment and had some crazy conversations on the floor, since they don't have any furniture yet. It was...an interesting night?
Today was all homework, actually, just color theory homework so far. Gonna start my 2D work after some dinner and maybe a shower and then go to bed for my long day tomorrow.
I don't even feel like I'm in school. It's just like...awesomeness. All around.