Photography

Today two things happened to me.

The first thing was my friend came over to borrow my camera so he could photograph some of his portfolio work. He asked if I had one of the "DSR-thingy" cameras, and I told I did, much to his surprise. When he asked me how to work it to get really good light, I told him I didn't really know, I never really figured out a lot about it.
The second thing was I found a deviantart of a really great nature photographer in Colorado (check it out: http://kkart.deviantart.com) who really inspires me

These two events reminded me of how I used to want to be a photographer. I grew up in a place, in my opinion, that is one of the most beautiful places you can live in. At least, in the USA. I suppose there are some really, really beautiful sights out there I've never seen. I used to go into the mountains all the time, and my mom, being well, my mom, used to drag me and my brother to all sorts of mountain town galleries. I used to stand in awe over some of the photography I saw.
When I was 14 I bought with my own money a DSLR camera, in the great hopes that I could become a better photographer. Many hours of babysitting went into buying that camera! It is probably, to this day, the most expensive thing I have bought with entirely my money. It was a Nikon D50 and I used to use it all the time. I have so many old photographs on my external hard drive I don't know what to do with them. I experimented with portraits, still lives, and nature photography.

From there I don't know what really happened. I never got into a photography class at school because in my freshman year I put it off for another year, my sophomore year I transferred and they couldn't get me any electives besides all the reject ones, and by 11th grade I started IB and didn't have room for fun electives anymore. Also by then I had decided I wanted to be in animation and focused all my attention on drawing.
Somewhere along the way I stopped experimenting and playing around. Now I only drag my camera out to photograph my drawings, and I don't even bother to do a good job at that. This make me sad. Photography really inspires me.
I really miss doing photography for fun, I think I'd like to perhaps take it up again, perhaps this summer when I'm at a camp for three whole months.


Two photos I took for an English project in 2007 nearby my house in Boulder, CO. I always looks at these to remind myself how lucky I get to (got to) live where I do (did)

Sheridan Portfolio

So this is my entrance portfolio for Sheridan Animation 2011. I figure since the whole deal is done and overwith, I suppose I should share my hard work. I turned this in Tuesday morning.
I won't know for awhile know whether or not I got in, but I will update this as soon as I do, for reference.

Edit: This portfolio was not accepted to Sheridan's BAA animation program. It scored a 2.84 overall, and for the 2011 fall intake class at least a 3.00 was required. You needed a 2.90 to 2.99 to be on the waiting list

Section 1: Life drawing.


I went with a lot of gestures for the figure drawings, knowing that they are probably stronger than my longer poses, and hopefully they will help me stand out since 5 minute, super structured poses are more popular submissions.

Life drawing score: 2.6


Animal drawing score: 2.6

Hand drawing score: 1.83. Ouch. This was my worst category.

Section 2: Character design

Ok, so this character design isn't exactly what I turned in...I redid the hands in the rotation, as well as the sad expression, plus minor touch-ups. I don't really feel like rescanning and putting another sheet together again, but this is basically what I submitted.

Rotation score: 2.8
Action Pose score: 2.75
Expressions score: 2.88

Section 3: Storyboard

Storyboard score: 2.78

I wasn't very happy with this section. I feel like I just don't know enough about story to do it right. Also, I hated the characters and the premise they gave us. So boring! I'm sure even the graders get bored with it.

Originals-

Section 4: Layout

sorry the quality on these suck. The sheets are too large to scan and the see-through quality of the paper makes it difficult to get a good shot. I've tried like a billion times.

Household objects score: 3.0


Room Line Drawings score: 3.33. My highest category
The following drawing is the only one that I only had to do once...minus touch-ups and the chairs and table in the background (which I are different from what I originally drew, and what is actually there)
Section 5: Personal Artwork

Personal artwork score: 3.13

"The Dragon Inn"

Bone studies- I feel so unoriginal D:
Sketchbook collage
Self portrait

Yep, thats it! I feel pretty confident about my work actually, but I won't know for another month whether or not it's any good, so the waiting game it will have to be.

New Beast

As much as love the good ol' Beast from Disney, he's not really my character so I finally got around to designing something original for my banner. Tada! My own beast. Probably one of the nicest looking things I've ever made on the computer. I don't know why it looks so crappy in the banner though, I'll have to figure that out and fix it.

Anyways, it's reading week and I'm bored out of my mind and I am turning in my animation portfolio to sheridan tomorrow and I am so nervous. Eeep.

Portfolio pieces ^ and v I will post the whole thing once the ordeal is over and done with.
Also, I found this among my old drawings from october. I must have missed it entirely because I never even took a picture of it. I want to shoot myself because I think it would have been great with for calarts. If I don't get in, I'm blaming it on my oversight of this drawing >_>... just kidding.

Things that are happening

I had a very intensely vivid dream this morning where I was accepted to calarts and I was super happy and was beginning to cry when I asked myself the ever-so cliche question of if it was really happening, of course then, my mind clicked and I knew something wasn't right and I woke up and was super disappointed. Uh, so, lets just hope this is one of those awesome future telling dreams, right? (I had one of those once, it was really trippy) Because then I was imagining myself getting a rejection letter and trying to face that future just seems...bleak. Sometimes I think about it and I can't imagine myself anywhere other than Calarts. I know that's crazy. I know that a school is just a school and it is what you put into it that counts, and I could be perfectly successful at many places where I have been accepted in the past or may be accepted in the future. But it just feels...right. Like one of those things you just know you have to do.

Anyways, I finally got to go to class and have some real social interaction today and then I talked to a wonderful 4th year animation student Jamie Metzger again who helped me immensely with my sheridan portfolio, and now I'm ready to sit back down again and readdress some issues with it. Only one week to go. I'm dying to get this over with. I also can't wait to have more free time to work on my film again, as I feel guilty putting time into it when I know I have improvements to make with my portfolio.

The highlight of the day was that Chris asked to go to the movies to see I Am Number Four. Sometimes having a car when no one else does has its perks because people actually invite you to shit knowing that they can't go without you. Anyways, the movie was so-so, not very exciting as far as story goes, but entertaining nonetheless. I was just happy to get off campus for a few brief hours and be a part of like, the real world. I also haven't done anything social or fun in a really long time. Also, tuesday nights are the discount nights at movie theaters in Ontario, so it only cost $5. That is just my price :)

Anyways, that's my life that I felt like sharing for no reason at all today. Yep.

Iconographic image of the Quaking Aspen for 2D design, with a corresponding typeface.
Two self portraits for Color Theory. The top is along the theme of roleplay, I was trying to make myself elegant and whatnot. The second is for the uniqueness and history of my face (and hair)
I like the second better.
Studies of Aspens for 2D (scientific, shape, line)

I've also been recently playing around with TVPaint, which has been a fun and informative experience.
I think next semester I will going back and polishing and reanimating most of my IB art film, because it's been sitting around in desperate need of some work, and I really do like the premise for it, but the animation is just so shitty and everything. Plus, with a portfolio out of the way, what else am I gonna do? My social life has gone to shit. I haven't spoken to anyone in days over this holiday weekend...once portfolios are done I'm going to be smack dab in the middle of reading week wondering what the hell to do. I'd like to go to Ottawa or Montreal but I've got no one to come with me and I'm not brave enough to go to a new city alone. So yea, animation seems like a good choice instead.
I've got very little to distract me from the anxiety of hearing back from calarts. I pretty much have a running background noise in my head going "ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease" 24/7, and it keeps me from sleeping a whole lot. Fortunately I am very optimistic about this summer as I have gotten an awesome position at a girl scout camp as an arts and crafts specialist and I haven't been this excited for something in a really long time. It's going to be an amazing summer!

Some Figure Drah-uhns

After showing some potential figure drawings to a few animation students and whatnot they told me I had good gesture but needed to show more underlying structure...Unfortunately I've always tried to draw decisively and not clutter the figure with all that construction nonsense. So now all my drawings look messy and I lose a lot of the gesture of the pose because I get so distracted. Gah, I don't know what to do about it. I also sent most of my favorite work off to calarts, so yea, that kind of sucks. I've got pictures of most of it though.

About 2 weeks to go...I'm kind of wishing it were sooner just because I'm so sick of redrawing things over and over again after showing them to people for critique. I've drawn my hand in a specific pose 6 times now.

I look at past accepted portfolios and feel fairly confident, and then I see other peoples work around me and feel like there's no way I'm gonna get in. So confusing.

I really, really want March to get here so I can hear back from Calarts. I'm absolutely DYING.