Thursday, November 11, 2010

NPD looms ahead


Some drawings I've spiced up and thrown into my portfolio for National Portfolio Day this Saturday. Hopefully all goes well. I really hope I don't get lost in Toronto....




I've got about 30 drawings to show the Calarts rep and I'm also taking my sketchbook to show as well. I've never had a sketchbook critiqued before. Urp. Very nervous
Still, I've come along way from last years NPD: http://merisartendeavor.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html, which I am glad for.

Cross your fingers that they tell me something good, or maybe helpful. I feel very much on the right track right now. With enough hard work, maybe I'll have a decent chance at this!

I'll have a sketchbook/school work update later....eventually...

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Weekly ongoings

Thursday extra life. Sat in a corner all by myself, tried lots of new things.
The frustrating part about being experimental with figure drawing is that you end up with a lot of bad drawings. But the ones that hit the mark really hit the mark, if you know what I mean. I am reminded of a quote by Sir Ken Robinson that goes "If you are afraid to fail, you will never come up with anything original." I try to live by that.

In color theory we did a still life exercise in class. She spent the first half of the class murmuring quietly at the front of the room about impressionist painters and history. I heard maybe 10% of lecture, so it was a huge waste. Then she allowed us 2 colors and black and white, depending on which object we were seated around (lemons, peppers, or bananas) and we were given 15 minutes to mix as many possible colors as we could. Then for the last half of class we painted. Here's mine. I think it looks like a dinosaur head.
In drawing, we finished up our contour drawings with foreshortening. This is mine. Not my best work, but eh, it's ok I suppose. She handed back our atmospheric continuous line drawings, mine was "an excellent start" but she wanted more contrast and detail in the foreground. We're allowed to resubmit them for a better mark. I tried my best to fix it up, but you can't add what isn't there in a still life/figure drawing very easily. I got a 7.7 so it won't be the end of the world if the mark doesn't go up.
In 3d design we were working on cardboard self portraits. Here is mine, I think I'm gonna call this sucker complete, although I'm sure she'll want me to fix a few small things next class. It's a little lopsided, due to the fact that I did build up the inside hardly at all before starting. It's all on 2 pieces of armature. I also didn't draw the chin long enough.


For color theory I decided to redo the assignment this morning, this time on a lemon, because the people who did lemons turned out a lot better. I think I can agree that this went better, although I'll probably get marks off because it's a bit dark.
Here are some paintings I did over figure drawings from monday night. I am putting together my National Portfolio Day portfolio for next week, they're already in the case. I like how it went for the most part, these oil pastels and water. I already know they're going to suggest more color in my portfolio, these stand out like a sore thumb.

In other events this week:
-On tuesday we attempted to go see Jackass 3D, which I really didn't want to see nor pay $16 whole bucks for. I was happy as a clam when the projector at the theater was broken and they gave us a refund and a free movie pass for another day. We made a pact to come back next week, although I think I'll skip out and do some homework, saving my movie pass for something I actually want to see/spend gas on.
-Thursday I really began to dive into my novel. I'm currently 6,600 words in, so I have a lot of catching up to do tonight. I'm feeling a bit down about it, it's somewhat of a depressing storyline, so I have to be in the right mood to write. I should have done something a bit whackier, something sci-fi again. Oh well.
-Friday we went to monaghans for some dinner after class, then watched Curtis and Jake wrestle on the grass platform outside their apartment. It was about 30 degrees out, so it wasn't very pleasant. Afterwards we hung out in their apartment, Jake singing and playing guitar, all his own improv stuff, he's absolutely hilarious. Then we came back to res to watch The Royal Tenenbuams, a great movie, and then I went to Mississauga for the night.
-Saturday I sat in a great big hole of unproductivity, which was impossible to get out of
-Today I'm going to bed bath and beyond, as I have a gift card! Woo!

So, that's life as of late.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Step One

So I had a bit of a really intense artistic moment tonight.

Recently I've been thinking very hard about my calarts portfolio--it even keeps me up at night. I know my work needs to be more expressive, it really needs to say something about who I am and what I'm trying to say. So today I told myself I would go in and try it out. To encourage myself I brought along my colored pastels, determined to break them out and use them.
I finally did at the second to last pose I stayed for. I was drawing, and I really liked it, but I knew it was missing something. Here at Sheridan in extra life for fundies students stay very conservative. They draw in conte usually on newsprint, tending to aim for either realistic or animator style figure drawing. There's little experimentation. When I reached for the colors I could feel my heart pounding very fast. As I started using them I could feel the eyes next to me glancing over at the bright yellow and orange all over my page. It felt embarrassing, but also exhilarating. I wanted to laugh out loud, I hadn't used color in drawing in a really long time, probably not since before I turned in my calarts portfolio. It felt very nice. And while this piece above is not anywhere near what I want to give to calarts, its a step in the direction. Step one. :) Tomorrow will be step two, and the next day will be step 3, up until I turn that sucker in.

Anyway, here's the rest of the stuff from today. I was feeling very loose.








Last weeks extra life







Nanowrimo began today! I haven't written a word yet, so I need to get started! Woo!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Queen of Awesome Intro

I present to you the first page of The Queen Of Awesome.
I'm semi-happy with this. I can't figure out how to efficiently add borders on gimp, so I kind of just gave up on that idea. I'm mostly unhappy with the poses, they always turn out really stiff once I've drawn them on a tablet a couple of times over. That and I feel that my backgrounds and coloring are lazy. Gotta work on that!

The next page is already in the works

Actually looking at this, there are many things I want to change. I'm undecided whether or not I'll put the effort into going back and redoing most of it....hmm...or just keep moving forward? Tough choice.
I also forget a header o.o And the boxes (hyopthetically) are cut off because of my dumb camera.


Also...HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Influence Map

I saw this in someone else's blog and just had to do it myself. Rather than putting down artists that influence me (because there are so many even I can't keep track of them) I put down other things that inspire me and things I keep in mind when I try to create something. I just realized I didn't include as much animation as I should have. If I had remember, I would have included work from Pixar and Miyazaki probably. I would have also put in Rhapsody in Blue from Fantasia 2000. That short is what I would pinpoint as the work that made me want to be in animation.

1. 90s Nicktoons
2. 90s Cartoon Network (remember cartoon cartoon fridays? me and my brothers used to wait for that all week long!)
3. Other people's sketchbooks
4. Kurt Vonnegut
5. Indie Rock
6. Sci-fi, space travel, etc
7. The coming of spring
8. Elfwood.com
9. The human form
10. The Colorado Rockies (or just nature in general)
11. Felicia Day, Ellen Degeneres, Tina Fey
12. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
13. Road trips, travel, adventures
14. TED talks
15. Student Films (examples here are Pull, Crater Face, and Work. Some of my favorites)
16. Funny comics
17. Steampunk
18. Graffiti
19. Street Art
20. Random ass silliness, like Flaming Chickens
21. Pretty much every other page in Illustration Now
22. Fantasy art. Elves, fairies, dragons, etc
23. Video game art and animation. Legend of Zelda is one of my all time favorites


Yea, definitely should have included Rhapsody in Blue....
Actually, just looking at this, I can think of a zillion other things. Oh well. Perhaps I'll make another some other time...when it's not 3 am...

Friday, October 29, 2010

Ouch

You know that feeling you get when it feels like someone is pressing their fingers into your temples really, really hard and it feels like your brain might pop out your skull? Yea, I've totally got that right now.

I went to my boyfriends apartment in Mississauga with the intention of staying one night and it kind of turned into 4. So there was a lot of work I didn't get done this week that I was going to do. I guess that's what happens when you get to be an adult for the first time and don't have parents that make you come home or kick you out of your boyfriends apartment. :( Sigh, another lesson in responsibility. Whats even worse is that I left my sketchbook there, and I was going to do the majority of the work I needed to do in there.
So that leaves me with all the photoshop work I set for myself, and a cardboard head to make. Neither of which I really want to do.
Guuuuh the more I think about how much time I have left (about 7 weeks) and how much I have to do, and when I look at past portfolios the more stressed I become. I still have to get 2 recommendations as well...I asked my art teacher from last year, but I'm clueless as to who to ask for the other. Is there anyone else in the world who has the authority to tell calarts I'm awesome and knows who I am??

Monday, October 25, 2010

Graffiti Figure?

Sketchbooking a lot. I had this great idea about incorportating figure drawing and graffiti, I'm thinking it could make a really cool portfolio piece. I just can't figure out how to do it right...turning the figure into its own piece makes it seem very cubist and odd, but including it with words seems extraneous and out of place. I am having trouble finding an inbetween spot. Opinions?
The one on top below is just a word ^.^
Also...having issues with character design. I want to peg down the character for my portfolio this week, but I just don't know where to begin, or what they expect to see, or anything. I guess I should look at the rubric again.
I've also been mapping out and writing the first few pages of Queen of Awesome, so I can hopefully finish up to 4 pages and include that with the calarts portfolio...also gonna do a page of hands and possibly some longer pose stuff. I'm also planning on including the graphic novel piece I did in IB art last year, some of my sheridan portfolio, maybe some paintings (if I ever sit down and do any) or digital paintings (if I ever do some I kind of like). After that, all I have to do is fill my sketchbook up, and the portfolio should be set to go. 1 month and 3 weeks to go!! Ahhh!

As far as Sheridan portfolio goes, this week I hope to achieve some character design work (maybe begin the rotation), do the hand portion, and also begin the line room drawing.

On top of that, I have to do a 3d cardboard bust of myself, research and an annotated bibliography for a report on graffiti, and I'm planning on going to extra life 3 times this week.

Ahhh so much to do!! It's hard to be organized, I write lists and set goals each day.