on seeing my reflection i'm looking slightly rough

So, I've been starting to pack up all of my stuff in my room for move-out on friday. It's really weird to see how much stuff I have, now that it's all sitting out on the floor in boxes and bags, it makes the room so much messier. There are some things that I refused to take down until tonight, like my bulletin board. I thought it would look too empty, and I really liked my colorful arrangement of pictures and such, but I figured, since all of my crap is piled up around my desk, I wouldn't be able to sit there anyway. But now it really looks bare. I have to pack it all up now because I am leaving about 2 hours after my last final, and I won't have time to pack on friday at all. And tomorrow I'll have to work on my 3D final project, so I won't have much time then, either.

Yes, I know that's not terribly interesting..sorry about that.

Also, roommate bought be a present which completely caught me off guard, and I was embarrassed because I had not gotten her one, but she also wrote me a little card, and filled a big red (my favorite color) basket with all of my favorite things. She bought me a 2-liter of Diet Coke, a big bag of Salt and Vinegar chips, 2 Warm Delights (molten chocolate cake, and carmel molten cake, my favorite flavors), a 54 pack of trident gum (my favorite gum), and season 1 of friends. Can you believe her? It was probs the best present I've gotten in a long time.

I also just wanted to post some pictures of drawings that I recently completed. They're in color, which I don't think I've posted any of on here yet. I'm not completely satisfied with them, but I think they turned out better than many of the drawings I've done in the past.

The three R2D2's are for our perception of color and light project, and we had to take three photographs of the same or similar image to draw them at those three different times of day. My small lego R2D2, as you can see served as my model. I really hate the backgrounds on all of them, mostly because I hate drawing backgrounds. It's not really my thing.

This is my final project, which was a self-portrait, and it is also huge, like 3 or 4...ft tall? I might be making that up, I'm not good with perception of measurement. This is it when it is almost done. This is what I showed at the critique, but I drew a little blue on the whites of my eyes, because as you can see, they flatten out a bit, after the critique, because that was one thing my professor said he'd like to see change. I was surprised that people commented on the eyes, because the thing that was giving me the hardest time was my nose, because it kept looking so big, and also my eyebrows, because in my opinion, and compared to the photograph, they are too low, and a little too dark. I also obvs took the tape off the edges.

Kick off your sunday shoes!

Holler, everybody, it's Wednesday. Which means for me it's Thursday, and tomorrow is Friday, and Friday is Saturday, pt. 1. I wish I could say I was going to be going home again and have an awesome time there, but I'll be at school this weekend, which is okay I guess because I haven't stayed for a weekend since I've been back, and I looove my weekend routine when roommate goes home.

As I said in my last post, I've been in an extreeemely good mood lately, and I'm scared I'll jinx it by talking about it so much, but I just want to point it out. I mean, sure, people have been getting on my nerves, and classes aren't the best thing to wake up to in the morning, but generally, my optimism is through the roof. I think it may be because ever since getting back to school, even though it's still really cold and snowy, and still is completely dark out by 6, it's like, Hey man, this is spring semester. Spring! I've never been one of those "longing for spring people", in fact I dread it if it means my precious winter must be over, but I always love it when it's here. I always forget how great it can be. Also as I said in my last post, I've been eating healthier, so maybe that's helping my mood, too. I really don't know. Whatevs, we'll see.

Anyways, I have a hidden agenda in posting, I just wanted to post all my drawings from this semester so far, just because...I feel like it I guess. Feel free to give an opinion, but don't feel like you have to.

This is my spoon drawing, which turned out decent. I don't think I'm a great reflective drawer, as the assignment was to draw 5 similar objects that are reflective in nature. Prof said I could have used more contrast, which I agree with.

The Black and White drawing on gray paper. We weren't supposed to blend the black and white, and I think I may have in some areas, but other than that I just used a lot of erasers and the gray of the paper. I'm also not really finished.

This assignment was "35 square inches" although, that could be represented however we wanted, definitely didn't have to be literal. I felt weird because I was the only one in class who didn't actually draw anything, and I took it quite literally, but my teacher said he liked the abstractness of it, and the pattern the squares makes leaves it open to interpretation as to what is really going on in the drawing.

I hated this still life, because there was a bunch of paper everywhere, and that stupid weird cylinder thing wasn't actually a cylinder so it looks like I drew it wrong, but that's what it looked like. Proportions are off, and it feels too light. But whatevs. Plus, that's a mirror in the background. Who would want to draw a mirror??

knowledge comes with death's release

Well, sorry my friends, for being so absent these past couple of weeks. I wish I could say it was just because I was being so busy and popular, but my instant queue history will tell you otherwise.

I didn't update the monday after thanksgiving because I was busy working on my 2D design project, which, by the way, I did NOT stay up all night to finish. It was as done as it was going to get. (By the way, Thanksgiving was awesome. Too awesome, I think, I was depressed and had terrible anxiety my first night back. Ugh, coming back from Winter break is going to be murder.)

I didn't get the greatest critique on my painting (my 2D project), which I guess I was okay with. I wasn't completely satisfied with it. I think what we all agreed on was the craftsmanship wasn't the problem, the composition was wrong. Which I didn't feel good about in the first place, because I felt like my teacher made me do something I didn't really like that much, but she didn't really like the final project anyway. So I've reworked it for the final, because it's the sameexact project, we just have to do it using color harmonies.

It's supposed to be an abstract of a fruit or vegetable form, and mine was a squash. Which you can't really tell. It looks more like Watermelon, or like a Pepper or something. The composition for this project is better, at least I hope so.

Other than all that stuffs, not much else is new. I had a good weekend last weekend; I baked cookies with my floor (a.k.a., the, like, 7 people who showed up. But that just meant I got more for myself.) And then we went to Applebee's because it was my RA's birthday, and my neighbor Beth's as well. After that, Beth, Krista, Tegan, and I went to the Econo Lodge and paid them 4 dollars to let us use their pool and hot tub. Then we came back and watched Up, and I finished off the night with some Mighty Boosh.

This weekend I mostly stayed up late, and slept a bunch, and ate a lot of food, and watched the entire first season of 30 Rock on instant stream on saturday. That was productive. But I did get some good work on my drawing project done while watching Goblet of Fire. That is what we call multi-tasking.

I'm really only posting because I'm procrastinating writing my persuasive speech right now. My speech on the Office went pretty well. I don't know if I mentioned that at all. I didn't get to make my character map like I wanted to. But the topic I chose for my persuasive was recycling. I've been itching to give this speech for a while....I just haven't gotten around to writing it yet. And I have to give it tomorrow. But I have good ideas, and I already have info that I used for my design book. I'm thinking of doing some demonstrations, as well. I can't tell you how many people I've seen throw away plastic bottles in that room. I'd better not see anyone do it after my speech tomorrow.

And BY THE WAY, just incase people aren't aware, I got a snow day last wednesday. Holla! The last time I had a snow day was in elementary school. Although, I think that was considered a "cold day".

These are O.R. scrubs. Oh, ARE they?

So, as I mentioned, my life has been swamped this week with art related homework and projects. As you saw, I got covered head to toe with Char-Kole. Wednesday was just the busiest day I could imagine. First of all, I had an Art History Midterm, which I can safely say I passed with flying colors. I got 20/20 on the online portion, which isn't necessarily an easy 20 points. Just sayin....I wrote really long detailed answers for everything, and I was the last person in the classroom because I took so long writing all of my answers and such. I know that I mixed up some of the periods, and dates, and rarely did I know an artist, but I gave really good historical and cultural contexts for everything, and I got all of the extra credit points for sure. Hopefully this will pay off, and I'm not just giving myself false hope. That test, by normal standards, is a hard test. My studying just payed off.

Then I had to come back to my dorm to write my Self-Informative speech that I had to give on thursday (don't ask me, I can write speeches, but I sure can't deliver them; or make adequate note cards.) Once that was done, I had to start working on my 2d design project, which, YES, for all you people wondering out there, I HAD started on it before the night before it was due, but I just had the majority of the hard work to do. The project was a ink text self portrait, and I hadn't done any of the text, just the gridding and outlining. So after I was finished skyping with Jessica helping her memorize the Jimmy John's menu for her interview the next day, and my roommate was ready to go to sleep, I gathered my things and moved to the lounge, where I was shortly joined by Krista once again, and my RA, Sara, who had a paper to do. Although, I don't think she ever finished it, she kept falling asleep. Krista and I were kind of in the same boat, we weren't very far yet on either of our projects. So we listened to music, and talked. At one point we put Mamma Mia on in the background, which made the time more enjoyable. We made a pact however that we would both start on this next project sooner so we didn't end up working until the very end. But we're already planning on there being another all-nighter, so we don't expect much of ourselves. It turned out to be alright looking. I thought it looked pretty good, until I got to class, and I was so horribly embarassed, I thought mine looked awful next to everyone else's, but I got a really positive critique, and my teacher said she loved how I did the shirt in my picture. Holla! She also is giving us a chance to take our drawings home and work on them over the weekend to make improvements without being downgraded if we were prepared for class on Thursday.

The original picture, which was cropped.

The sketch, which I think looked more like me than the final product.

And the aforementioned, final product. I don't think it looks like me, and I need to add more shade in the face and fix the awkward neck, and the hair a little bit, too. But I agree with my teacher, I think the shirt turned out really well. Which makes me happy, because I really like that shirt in real life.

I think I'll go home and lie very still

Well my lack of posting this week has been due to the fact that literally every waking hour this week (apart from eating and class) has been devoted to working on my 2D Design project. It was due today; so thankful that it's finally done. Which segues nicely into my new thing that I did yesterday/last night/today:

I pulled an all-nighter to finish a project.

Some of you will probably be angry about this, because all-nighters usually means you didn't spend enough time on the project to begin with (we call this procrastination, folks). But I hope that some people with be proud of me because of my fortitude. I mean I stayed up all night. Working on a project, no less! Two things I am not often known to do. There was so much cutting involved, and the use of my amazing utility knife.... I also sorely regret not investing in a hole punch for one component, though...

I don't know if people really now what my project was, but I had to literally construct a book on the principles of design. Like cut the covers, and cover them with paper and bind the book (which I screwed up, broke my needle and everything) and cut the pages and all sorts of stuff. It's probably the most involved project I have ever had to do for school. But just one sappy side note: It made me realize how happy I am that I'm an art student. The process of creating something that I know I couldn't have created before, and the fact that I can craft something that is comparable to something store-bought makes me feel so accomplished. Not to mention that Penco has become my sanctuary. But anyways, I digress.

So I've been working on this all week. On Monday night I spent hours (not sure how many, I measured it by one disc of 21 Jumpstreet) cutting out segments from close to 30 Diet Coke cans, and then cutting my coverboard. And then Tuesday I spent cutting my pages and inside covers. And then last night I had to do everything else. That means cutting paper for every single page, mounting text, gluing materials really cleanly (which...didn't always turn out so clean. Dang contact cement). I spent so many hours on it, and I could have spent 10 more hours on it and it still wouldn't have been perfect. I was working in the lounge most of the night, along with my next door neighbor Krista who had 2D this morning at 8. Poor child. I wasn't finished at 6:45, but went back into my room right when my roommate's alarm went off. So I took a shower and went to breakfast. Then I crashed on the futon, and woke up to finish my book. Still wasn't as great as I hoped it would be, but it's better than I thought it would be.

Front Cover:

Inside Cover w/Table of Contents:

My page on Economy and my elaboration. The text boxes are so wonky because they were too long, and I decided it looked like a recycling symbol this way anyway. But I got a little beat up for it.

My page on balance. I used plastic bags to extend the image in the elaboration.

Variety page. Those battery shapes were a pain to cut.

Page on Rhythm. The circle were even more of a pain to cut. This is where I wish I would have used a hole punch. But in the end, I like the handmade quality of it.

Page for Repetition. This was my favorite page conceptually. This is the one where I used all of the Diet Coke can cut-outs. The shape worked nicely, and the repetition of the phrase "Please Recycle." This is where the glue tripped me up because I had to use something a little more heavy duty than my gluestick. So contact cement had to do the trick, but it was messy.

Page for Emphasis. This is the elaboration that I was least pleased with, just because it wasn't very creative, and the image wasn't very good to expanding. I wish I could have done something to do with the recycling bins, but nothing jumped out at me.

Credits page. Clearly I didn't branch out a whole lot..

Back inside cover. You can tell that I had some binding tape issues. It was supposed to cover up another mistake I made, but it made it look even crappier.

Back Cover:

eh. I'm satisfied I suppose.