Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

All good things must come to an end, as they say, and I believe a blog is no different. It is the natural cycle of things to be born, grow to maturity, wilt and die. For the last few posts, I have felt that the purpose of this blog has been declining and nearing the end of its shelf life. That is not to say that there will never be another post from your dear Lucky here again, but I feel that this period has run its course and it is time to move on to bigger and better things.

In the last year, I have made tremendous strides to reintegrate art back into my life. So much so that I have changed my major and redefined what the future of my education and life holds. It has been a wonderful journey of self exploration and I have enjoyed the time I have had posting here. It has given me experience in expressing myself via art and words and I believe the tools I have gained will serve me well in my future endeavors.

Ah yes, the future. Given the rantiness of a few of my more recent posts, it has become apparent that the tone of my narrative has changed from a fun loving art student to a young woman wishing to impart some wisdom and perspective on social and political issues. This does not feel like the correct venue for such thoughts and thus I have begun a new blog which can be viewed here. There will still be art, but more political satire and comic strips poking at social issues.

For this last, regular post, I’ll leave you with my most recent portrait piece and the time lapse video of its creation. This is Ada, whom I have not yet had the chance to meet in person but is extremely adorable and, from what I hear, wicked smart.

It has been a great journey here in the Right Brain Retrain and I hope the few of you that read regularly will follow me on to my new endeavors. Thank you all for your continued support!

Until we meet again, this is Lucky signing out.

Where the @%*# are your Parents?!

Spring Break has FINALLY arrived! Remarkably enough, I evaded pulling any all-nighters this last week. This was shocking since I somehow managed to put myself in the position to pull three during the month of February, but I digress...

The dear boyfriend and I have been watching a bunch of "Dose of Buckley" videos on YouTube lately and, as such, have been having some philosophical conversations about life, young people and the evolution of 'fame'. I feel like I must be getting old because my tolerance for the idiotic youth of America seems to lessen more and more with each passing year. It's not really their fault, what with being raised by a generation that uses TV and techno gadgets as a replacement for babysitters and parenting in general. However, I can't take a tour of the country to slap every slacker parent in the mouth. I'd never have time for anything else and probably wouldn't reach even a fraction of the offenders.

So, what's my beef with young people, you might ask? Self entitlement, mainly. I don't think it's a new concept, but getting on in years has gained me some perspective on the human condition. The problem that arises in this ever advancing technological age is the over saturation of the Internet and media with content from these unintelligent, ego-inflated, selfish little bastards.

Everyone wants attention, but few really deserve it. Okay, not everyone wants attention, but there seems to be an ongoing fixation with the concept of 'fame' in our society. Uncreative American welps want to be the next Brad Pitt, or Charleze Theron, or (insert some current icon that I don't care enough about to remember their name here). Memes are a perfect example. One idiot makes a video, five other idiots see it and say "Hey, that's popular. I can do that, too!" Then those idiots each make a similar video and the cycle continues as stupidity replicates at an exponential rate (to the fifth power in this specific example). Instead of developing talents and creating their own content, young people jump on the meme band wagon and replicate viral media in the hopes of getting views or likes.

No one lives forever and it's part of the human drive to want to leave an impression that will last passed our own existence (some people have kids, some people start a charity and some people just give every guy they meet a blow job). However, popularity does NOT equal immortality. Do you know how many popular kids from high school whose names I can actually remember? Maybe three, at best. The rest are mostly filed away as "rich douchebag".

Well, that was a fun little rant, but some of you may be thinking "Hey Lucky, you have a DeviantArt account, post your work on social media and you blog. Aren't you just trying to get attention like these idiotic kids you're talking about?" (and if you weren't thinking that, you should be). The answer is "yes".

I don't want to be famous in the sense that people would recognize me on the street. I do, however, hope to gain recognition for my artwork (and perhaps get a job). A great deal of my life has been spent honing my talents and, while I do it for the simple joy of creating art, I do hope that one day my work will be known (again, at least enough to get me a job). There is a big difference in perfecting your own skill set and gaining notoriety by creating original content than to simple get a few thousand subscribers or views because you filmed your own rendition of the Harlem Shake. Lets face it, do those subscribers really know who you are or give a shit if you croak next week? No, they don't. They won't even notice or care that you're gone because they didn't give a fuck about you in the first place.

Being known and securing a legacy that will live on after you have died are two different things. I have reached neither, so, given my lack of empirical knowledge, I suppose I should go ahead and wrap this up. Today's picture is a charcoal portrait of a gentleman named Steve. He's retired and going to school for art because, well, he loves it. Steve has made more of an impact on the world by creating a positive effect in ONE person's life than some 14 year old  with 150k views could ever hope to.

So, without further a due, here it is:

Until next time!

"Snow" Day

With classes cancelled for today, I thought it would be an appropriate time to update the blog. I use "snow" day liberally because it's not the awesome, white, fluffy stuff that you can sled across and build snowmen out of. No, it's the nasty "mixed" precipitation that accumulates in the form of ice and slush and pelts you with frozen icy bits from the sky. On a funny note, I didn't know class was cancelled until after I spent 30 minutes scraping ice off my car and getting up to campus.

I had a clue class might have been when I saw a completely vacant parking lot at the technical college on my way, and was almost sure when I pulled up and saw that my universities lot looked about the same. Still, like a lost puppy, I parked and checked my phone to be sure. Let it be known that I checked my phone before I left, but the notice was posted on the regular university site which I rarely navigate to. Even after confirming that class was not going to be in session today, I still sat there for another minute or two like some lingering, academics stalker.

This brings me to today's point. I've talked about it before, but I will continue to remind myself (and any potential readers) that I know when I am doing what I love. Genuine heartache filled me when I accepted that I would not be working in the studio today. For most, it would be like a concert, or movie showing being cancelled or an old friend you haven't seen in a while bailing out on plans with you because something unexpected came up. It sounded so fun and you were looking forward to it, weren't you? Well, those feelings of disappointment are shared by me today... Except replace recreational plans with academic pursuits.

I've been having positive anxiety every school night for the last two weeks now. I guess positive anxiety could probably be better described as excitement. The best way that I can explain it is when I lay down to go to bed, I am like a kid on Christmas Eve (or any appropriate holiday based on your particular beliefs). I want it to be tomorrow and I can't wait! The only thing I want is to fall asleep so the next day will hurry up and be here. Of course, the excitement can create a conflict because it's hard to fall asleep when your mind is a flurry of excitement. I can't wait to get back to class and open the next gift of knowledge! Now, it should be noted, these feelings begin to fade somewhere around the six hour mark, but that's my own fault for shoving 12 credit hours into one day.

Either way, it is yet another sign that I am on the right path. My course continues to be corrected and with each alteration, my present and future look much brighter. For instance: I discovered I could fit the five years of planned courses for the Graphic Design and Illustration Dual Major into four years at the cost of removing all free blocks to take extra curricular courses (drawing, painting, etc). I accepted this, but began to lose focus. After some advisement from an instructor on lesser known options (things not included on the Univ. website), I discovered that I have the option to double major. After checking schedule options and what courses would be dropped, I decided to lose the Graphic Design aspect of my degree, focus on Illustration only and double major with drawing (because I love to draw). Even if I can't get a BFA in a second area concurrently, I will still be dropping Graphic Design.

It's all based in the notion of "If it feels wrong, don't do it." I was never too terribly excited about Graphic Design. It seemed boring and pursuing it was a continuation of my left brain practicality saying "This will get you a job, so do it." Well, money isn't everything (still), and I don't want to waste my time and the government's money learning about something that I have little desire to do on a daily basis. Beyond that, Illustrators have the same opportunities as Graphic Designers. Not in the sense that they will apply for and get the same jobs, but often they will work in conjunction at the same firms. Illustration was what excited me and if supplemented with excessive drawing courses (and perhaps an extra painting course), NOTHING CAN STOP ME!!

I suppose that's all for now. I didn't really have a work planned to post here, so I'll dig something up really quickly... Just a moment... Hmm... Oooh, that could work... Now a little Photoshop... And...

I almost forgot that we got to work with some clay last class period. This little dude is made from stoneware clay and the pictures were taken prior to being fired in a kiln (I won't see him again until next Tuesday D:). His dimensions are about 2.5" x 3" x 3", I'll have to get a more accurate measurement next class. Our assignment was to make a creature that could fit within the small box supplied by our instructor. He wanted them small because he planned to fire all 36 clay critters from his two sections at once. I started off trying to make a turtle, but had some difficulty, so I went for a little dragon instead. No, he doesn't have arms, but I like him that way. Every time I tried to give him arms, it looked stupid, so I left them off and added wings instead. I realized later how I could have added the appendages, but I am still pleased with how he (or she, I suppose) turned out.

Okay, so that's definitely it for now. Until next time!

I Survived The Week! HOORAYYyyeezzzZZZzzzZZzzz...

Phew, you know, I wasn't sure I was going to make it through this week. However, after spending a horrendous 36 hours conscious, I managed to pull through and get everything caught up.

My body isn't what it used to be and the lack of sleep plus three Rockstar energy drinks in a 24 hour period probably knocked at least 6 months off of my life span. I'm being serious. It was actually mildly painful when I finally laid down to sleep after my Art History exam. My poor little heart, I really should be nicer to it.

What made me fall behind? Well, I underestimated the time needed to complete a project and due to general laziness over the weekend I put off studying for my first exam in, as mentioned before, Art History. The test ended up not being too terrible, but I wouldn't have felt that way had I not skipped Drawing II to cram for three hours before the test began.

The problem arose with my 3D project. The assignment was to build two walls constructed of 100 pieces of cardboard. Each wall had to use the same shape (although the size and proportions of the shape could vary), one had to be constructed of regular cardboard, the other had to have at least one side with the corrugation exposed, the walls had to either intersect or create tension and the whole thing had to be free standing. Here's what I turned in:

"Conflict in Cardboard"

I had half of the curving wall done when I started work on this Wednesday afternoon. Most of my triangles were cut out and I thought it might take me 4 to 6 hours to get to a point where I could finish the rest in class. What a gross underestimation. I worked on that things for 8 to 10 hours and then ended up using the entire 2 hours in class to finish it. I hadn't factored in cutting out all the squares and while the super glue I used was quick, it didn't cause some issues.

When I found a stopping point Wednesday night, it was actually Thursday morning at 3:45am. Anyone who knows me knows that I will generally choose to pull an all-nighter rather than risk sleeping through my alarm if I'm going to get 3 hours of sleep or less. I knew this would be the case and chose not to risk it. I didn't get much done between 4:00 and 7:00am (I got my back pack ready and watched a whole bunch of Home Movies episodes), but I did leave early to get some extra time in the studio to finish those damned walls.

The whole thing did actually have some meaning for me, so I'll do my best to put it into words. The two walls represent the duality of thought. I am always interested in the conflict between the right and left brain. The curvy triangular wall represents the creative right brain while the uniform square wall represents the rigid left brain. Originally, the triangular wall was the only one that was going to break apart. Very right brain people have a difficult time fitting into the rigid left brain world that society has created. It wasn't until later that I wanted the squared wall to be effected as well. Left brained individuals are very much about logic and step by step process and can sometimes become frustrated when dealing with a right brain who is fluttering in the wind. However, when they both smash together and play their parts well, they can make a beautiful piece of art.

It's not my favorite piece from that class so far, but the first with any meaning. I'll leave you with an image of the last assignment. It was an exercise in movement and repetition. We constructed 12 shapes with the same proportions made of packaging material (cereal boxes, 6 pack carboard, etc). I used boxes of tea and a glued card stock on the other die for color (something everyone got to do because of my ingenuity). I broke the rule for this assignment stating there should be 10% or less area of color. I don't mind the 2 point hit on my grade, though, because I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

"Ice Wrath"

That's all for now. Until next time!

Stone Age Meets Digital Age, Photography Style!

I'm going to try to keep this post as brief as possible, hopefully under 300 words. I am going to do this by trying to stay in the immediate past. Still, I've been known to ramble...

I am in Photography I this semester. It's been over a decade since I've handled film, development chemicals or photo paper and actually knew what I was doing. Needless to say, I don't trust myself (or currently have the time) to study ahead independently on dark room procedures.

Tuesday night I found myself playing around with my negatives. It was too late to go up to the MSU photo lab and, again, I have no confidence in myself (please refer to previous paragraph, sentence 2).

In a fit of innovation, I constructed a (mostly fire proof) light table using a floor lamp and a white sheet of printer paper and took close up shots of the negatives with my phone... I feel like MacGyver when I use more than two tools to solve a problem... Of course, one of those tools is usually my iPhone... Because smart phones are the Swiss Army knife for a digital society. Anyway...

Using a free, mobile Photoshop app, I straightened, cropped and inverted the negatives and was able to pull off some reasonably decent images. Most of the pictures are crap, I'm still figuring out this camera. In 36 shots, I have confidence in the content and technique of 1 image and I am looking forward to seeing a large print of another.

I won't ramble on about what this pictures means to me, but I will say that it has re-sparked the creative flame within me. So, with out further a due, here it is. Until next time! ... That was 291 words, by the way.

'Keep it in Perspective'

A WIP, Semester Anticipation and Healthy Life Changes!

Per usual, it has been too long since my last post. I had hoped to finish the drawing I am working on, but it has been causing me some trouble, so I'll just show you lovely people what I've done so far in the event that it never gets completed.

Oh look, it's Gollum!!

I decided to draw this little monster after my last blog post (some of you may remember the visual about fighting with myself while writing in my journal). I doubt I am the first to admit to others that I relate with Gollum, and I am certainly not the first to feel a connection to the character. His story such is a tragedy. That isn't to say that I think I am a complete tragedy, but there are similarities.

Much like Smeagol before the ring, when I was a child, my life was pretty simple and happy. Unfortunately, as many others who have come before me, I experienced some uninvited trauma in my later childhood. Smeagol didn't ask for the ring to come into his world, but once it was there, it dug its hooks in and became a damaging force for the rest of his life.

I have spent and continue to spend time and effort towards repairing the damage I inherited at a young age. The love and compassion of those close to me have fostered an environment in which I can really explore my own thoughts and feelings and heal my wounds. While most days I am able to compromise with my psyche's id, there are days when the angry child within calls to me like the precious. And so, you now understand why I feel a kinship to Gollum. However, I refuse to give into the darkness.

On a lighter note, class is back in session starting Tuesday!! This, by far, has felt like the longest break due to my employment status, or lack thereof. My goal for this semester is to procure a part time job that I can continue working at once summer arrives. Another goal is to quit smoking... I haven't been doing so well with that goal in the last 48 hours, but I continue to try.

Finally, I am making the switch to a whole foods plant based diet... Mostly. Josh and I watched a documentary called "Forks Overs Knives" the other day, and it inspired me to change my eating habits. The two main scientists in it showed the decades of research (done independently without knowledge of each other) showing very convincing evidence of links between the development of cancer cells and a diet heavy in meat and animal products.

I'm not going full blown vegan or even vegetarian at this point. I am not ready to quit drinking coffee, so I'm still getting some dairy consumption there from milk or creamer. Also, I love fish too much to cut it out of my life completely. At this point, though, I've managed to cut it down to one meal a week. Outside of those two things, my diet for the last week or so has consisted of mainly vegetables, fruits and grains. I feel pretty good... Well, except for the fact that I ate a bunch of nasty food at a late Christmas party last night, but no one's perfect.

Anyway, I think that about does it for now. With regular assignments coming in, hopefully I'll have more material and inspiration to post here more frequently. Until next time!

Ringing in 2013 with an Unconventional Resolution

I thought that, as I have been absent for some time now, it would be appropriate to ring in the new year with a blog post. Before getting into the nitty gritty of life changing matters, I suppose I should start off with content relevant to what this blog is supposed to be about... You know, art?

For Christmas, Josh and I spent a few days in Stockton visiting with his family. I felt that being with his family was more important than being with mine as a majority of his siblings had flown and driven in from Texas, Virginia and even as far as the UK. Before we went out to meet them, I had already made plans to create a piece of work for two of the three sisters that were visiting. This was due to the fact that I had an extremely belated birthday gift for the third and I didn't want to leave the other two out.

I came up with this plan less than 48 hours before we headed out to see them, so I didn't have time before hand to create anything that I felt would be worthy of being given as a gift. I also didn't work on it while we were out there due to the fact that I didn't have good access to internet for references and it seemed silly to waste what little time we had with them working on something that I could simply send them later.

We stayed in Stockton for about three days and I had a blast playing video games and board games, eating good food and socializing in an honest manor with his sisters. I actually was quite sad when we left because I don't get to experience such feelings of belonging in a large group very often. When we got home, I got to work on the gifts I had planned.

Without further a due, here they are:

Dory and Marlin for Jennifer

WALL-E and EVE for Deanna

 I spent a day working on each of these and am pretty pleased with the outcome. I asked them in advance what their favorite Disney movies were and just happened to luck out when they actually named two of my all-time favorites. Beyond that, my gift from them was actually a large sized sketch book and some water soluble graphite pencils, so it was even cooler to use the gifts they gave me to create these gifts for them. I had hoped they might be able to swing through town on their way(s) home to pick them up, but it probably worked out better that they couldn't. I'd like to get better pictures of them for my personal record. Now, on to New Years resolutions...

To call a promise I've made to myself a "New Years Resolution" might be an underestimation as I see it more as a necessary life change in order to live a fulfilling and happy life. I didn't really even think of it until this afternoon. I realize most people promise to lose weight or quit smoking (which I actually do need to do), but my promise to myself goes a little deeper.

I have trouble with honesty. This is due to the fact that my private thoughts were invaded at a young age (in the form of my parents reading my diary) and subsequently I was punished for having these thoughts. I believe this event is at the root of some of my dishonesty. Beyond having trouble with being honest in friendships and romantic relationships, I sometimes have trouble simply being honest with myself because I'm afraid that my private thoughts will be exposed and those I care about with shun me for them. Of course, as many of you may know, not being honest with yourself is pretty much sentencing the rest of your life to repeated mistakes and feelings of guilt.

It probably sounds silly, but my New Years resolution boiled down to it's basic essence is to keep a journal for the duration of at least this year, and possibly longer. I haven't kept a journal for an extended period since the incident with my parents occurred and I need to re acclimate to being honest with myself, my thoughts and my feelings without fear of being 'caught' or punished for them.

So, this is going to be an interesting year. I foresee a lot of internal conflict as I begin to break down my own cognitive dissonance and become what I would consider a whole and complete person. It's actually a really funny mental image: Me, intensely scribbling in a journal while arguing back and forth with myself (much like Gollum and Smeagol in Lord of the Rings) trying not to rip my hair out as I overcome the fear of what lurks beneath the surface of my own mind. So, wish me luck. Hopefully I'll still have a full head of hair for the next post!

Until next time!

Finals Week is Upon Us!!

I haven't really thought out what this post is about. I'm feeling... restless, I suppose. So a blog post seemed like the best option for getting it out. Finals are this week, and this is the first semester where studying is not the only preparation I have to do for the end of the semester. Sure, I have an Art History Essay exam on Thursday (which I only need to make a 78% on), but the list is pretty short after that.

All we're doing for Drawing I is showing up to pick up any drawings the instructor still has. I thought metalworking would be taking up most of my time, but as it turned out, my focus for this unit had been working on the only thing that is due next Thursday. Everything else was due last Thursday, so I spent 48 hours in a mad dash to get everything done. Now all that's left is for me to design and create a clasp for the chain due Thursday that's pretty much done already.

That all ended up working out really well, though, because Up until Friday, I hadn't really started on my final project for 2D Deign. Sure, I had the concept and had sort of designed the general layout using Photoshop, but the actually piece didn't get any attention until about 40-48 hours ago. The project is to create two images. One with characteristics of Decorative art and one Plastic. So, definitions:

Decorative: I'm paraphrasing, but basically it is a piece of artwork that makes no illusions about it's 2-Dimensional nature. It is flat and doesn't try to appear otherwise.

Plastic: These are the pieces of art that seem to expand backward into the frame. They appear to 3-Dimensional. Plastic space is created by using many techniques including shading, perspective, fuzzy detail for things further away and muting colors as they move back in the frame... And a whole bunch of other stuff I can't remember off the top of my head. Anyway...

Of course I made it more complicated than I needed to and chose to do three images instead of just two. The first is still decorative and the last is still plastic, but the middle one will have properties of both. Here's a picture of what I have done so far:

There is absolutely no third dimension in the binary code, as you can see. It's very decorative. I ended up printing the binary and tracing it with pen on green card stock. I then colored in the black with sharpie. The second one is the in between that has aspects of both decorative and plastic. Each techno-gadget has it's own shading and they are on top of each other as they move to the front. At first I was going to do this in papercraft, but aftre stuggling for over and hour to get the keyboard done, I though "eff this ish." So I got the line work lightly traced and did all the color free hand with Prismacolor markers.

Today I am working on the last one. The full plastic image is proving to be a pretty large and complex project. Currently all I have managed was to map out the perspective of the street and the people on it. Now I actually have to start drawing and designing all the details. I'm not sure what medium I'll be doing it in yet, but I think paint or marker are the leading contenders.

That's all for now, I suppose. I'll make sure to post a picture of it once it's complete... Assuming that I get it done by the Tuesday deadline. Until next time!

Almost taken down by, of all things, a MIRROR!

Oh my, is Lucky going to start posting regularly again? Shh! Don't jinx it.

Today was the final day of class as I have known it for the duration of this semester. Finals are next week and, if all goes as expected, I'll be taking in a 3.75 GPA for the semester. Not bad for my first round of art courses. Yeah, there's a B in there, but it can't be helped. Metalworking ended up being much more difficult than anticipated, and I'm not holding out hope that this last assignment will be enough to pull me up to 90%.

All an all it's been a great semester and I already feel like I've learned so much. Even in drawing, a subject I have been practicing independently since I possessed the fine motor skills to hold a pencil in my hand. So many great tools and techniques have been added to my artistic tool kit.

It seemed fitting that the final project in drawing should be a self portrait. I've spent so much time looking at everything around me and taking in so much outside information that initially the assignment proved to be a struggle. I've never drawn myself from a mirror before and I've never done a large scale portrait in charcoal... Actually, I'm not sure I've ever done a large scale portrait in any medium.

So, after having a minor freak out the first day and leaving class early out of frustration, I took some time to examine what was going wrong. There were a couple major things.

First off, I wasn't using my powdered charcoal which has become my new favorite drawing material. You sprinkle it on the paper and spread it around to give your canvas a nice middle grey. This allows you to add not only shadows with charcoal pencils, but also highlights using an eraser. It also didn't help that the mirror was a bit wonky and squished or stretched my appearance depending on where I was.

The second mental block was a fear that it was too soon to 'immortalized' myself. I was afraid that I would mess it up and forever be ashamed to try again. This is silly, I know, but I'm curious if other artists have had the same problem.

Last Thursday I left early and mulled all these things over in my head. After bolstering my confidence (and practicing drawing myself in the dark), I returned to class on Tuesday to give the self portrait another try. I moved to a darker side of the room because practicing in extremely low light had shown me that if my face were not as well lit, I wasn't as afraid of making the picture too dark too quickly. I also moved to a smaller drawing pad so the task didn't seem so monumental. Once I prepped my paper with powdered charcoal, I dropped all insecurities and began to go to work...

After two full class periods, this is the fruit of my labor:

 

It's not an exact likeness, but then again a reflection can't be. Seriously. I don't have a perfectly symmetrical face or hair line, so any drawing of a reflection is going to be backwards! All technicalities aside, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out... And I'll probably never do it again willingly.

My instructor is actually keeping this one for the foundations show next semester along with the fish painting from last week's post (different class, same instructor). He even went do far as to make sure that I signed up for the Drawing II course that was being taught be the best drawing instructor. It's cool to have teachers looking out for you and I'm mildly curious if my reputation will precede me in that class... Mustn't... Get... Big... HEAD!!

Seriously, though, I have done my best to keep my humility intact. As I said before, even in a subject that ie been practicing since I can remember did I learn something new.

I have got a lot of projects that I have been wanting to work on, so when the break is here, I plan to take a mini-vacation from the Internet... Or at least social networking. After all, I do need to find a job. The idea is to remove as many distractions as possible so that I can use the momentum I have gained this semester to work on things that are for my own enjoyment and not a grade. Either way, I won't be gone for too long. Maybe a week or two at most. I'll be sure to post before I go on break as well.

Speaking of projects done for fun... For anyone who hasn't had a chance to see this yet, this is the finished Thor drawing (WIP was in the last post) for my dear friend Shawnee.

Not bad for ten hours of work... Not bad at all. Until next time!

Because Tom Hiddleston is Overrated on DA...

These last few weeks have been... Shall we say stressful? I may have mentioned the crazy neighbors before, but it finally came to a head last week. They were having what a massive scream-fest accented by what sounded like striking each other and throwing inanimate objects around 4:00-4:30 Thanksgiving morning. Those whole ordeal actually woke me, the sleeping dead, AND Josh who had passed out intoxicated. Needless to say, we called the cops. As usual, the neighbors didn't answer and pretended like no one was home until the cops left, I got a gnarly recording of it all from the bedroom and, after being informed of this third major incident, the landlord has issued them a notice to leave the premises or be evicted. So, that's something to look forward to. However, until they actually LEAVE the other side of the duplex, I have and will continue to feel like I am walking on pins and needles. Now that I have THAT off of my chest...

The semester is winding down and finals are hardly a week away. I don't have many exams to study for, but their are a lot of big projects due soon. I'm trying not to freak out about the final 2D assignment because I caused quite a stir with my last assignment and I'm not sure I can top it! What was the last assignment, you may ask. Well, it was a 9 frame painting of a fish demonstrating the different color schemes. However , since I am blogging from my mobile phone, you'll have to scroll down to see it.

Go ahead. I'll wait...

I think it turned out really well. The color schemes are as follows (top to bottom, left to right):
1. Achromatic - grey scale
2. Monochromatic - many shades and tints of one hue
3. Analogous - two or more colors right next to each other on the color wheel (green, yellow-green and yellow)
4. Cool colors - purples, greens and blues (like water and space)
5. Secondary colors - colors created by mixing primary colors
6. Warm colors - reds, oranges and yellows (like fire)
7. Complimentary colors - two colors directly opposite each other on the color wheel (red-violet and yellow-green)
8. Original image colors
9. Primary colors - red, yellow and blue

The whole project showed me that I'm not that bad of a painter and that I REALLY enjoy painting water.

But, you may have noticed ANOTHER image at the bottom. If you missed it, go ahead and scroll down again. I'll wait...

...

Holy S***! What is that? Is it a graphite drawing of Chris Hemsworth as Thor?! It totally is.

This was brought on by some frustration with the current Drawing project. No one has ever asked my to draw myself in the mirror. I found it quite difficult. A lot of it has to do with the subject matter. It is now apparent that drawing is not something I consider where mirrors are concerned.

So I decided to draw someone else's face to blow off some steam. Actually, I had compiled pictures of the Statue of Liberty as potential references for future projects, but that seemed less relevant to my current study needs.

I don't remember when or why Hemsworth first came to mind, but I made a definite decision around the time the third or fourth drawing of Tom Hiddleston or Tom Hiddleston as Loki hit my Deviant Art DevWatch. I'm not knocking those who like him, but he just isn't my style. Besides, I have a friend who is practically in love with Hemsworth and Thor so I'll have someone to give this to.

Which brings me to my last point. In Non-Westen Art History, we are learning about how many cultures do not see art as a product, but as a force that radiates forth from the artist. Many of these cultures have art that is destroyed or given away once completed because they knew that they can and will create more. So I picked something I knew I would be able to give away to practice this thought process.

I have a possessiveness about my work and have a hard time letting it go. Perhaps I feel that I have left a piece of me with the graphite, charcoal or acrylic paint piled onto a canvas. Perhaps I am just scared to feel rejection, or unimportant if the person should lose or mistreat it. Either way, as someone who is now studying art as a potential profession, I've decided this concept will be important for fighting potential hurtles in the future. I wont be scared of losing pieces of myself with my artwork but will be happy and excited to share and give my talent to others.

Until next time!

How About Some Metalwork For a Change?

I really need to quit making a habit of only posting ever three weeks. Such is life, I suppose. However, this blog post will serve to demonstrate what the hell I've been doing with my time since the last post!

As some of you may know, I enrolled in a metalworking class this semester. It's been hard work, but having the weight of a finished piece in my hand is very rewarding. I have enjoyed it so much that I've actually signed up for a 1 hour credit next semester so that I can continue to use the studio for some things I have planned. That will come later, though.

This week, I thought it fitting to show off my (mostly) finished hollow construction piece. The term 'hollow' denoted that it was crafted by creating a box like structure with a top, bottom and walls and soldering the entire piece together. I say mostly finished due to the fact that these pictures were taken before I had completed the sanding process, so there are still quite a few imperfections that can be seen in it. Without further a due, here it is:

Pretty sweet, eh? It's a ring, but during the design process, we were told not to think of it as a piece of jewelry but instead as a 'stie-specific sculpture.' I created it to have a hole for three fingers to prevent any tipping. The top part you see here is made of brass while the walls and back were made of copper. All and all, it turned out pretty nice. Sure, there was a little half centimeter stretch where I couldn't get the seam to solder, but I still consider the whole thing a success.

Seriously, though, I'm pretty sure I put a good 40-50 hours into this. If I had managed my time a bit better, I probably could have gotten it perfect, but that's a dangerous path of thought to begin down, so I'll just love it the way it is.

While I'm on the topic of my metalworking, I suppose I could go ahead and post the first two project that we did before this one. I warn you, though, the pictures are not too great.

This was our first project, the layer project. We were to design a minimum three layer piece using three 2x2" pieces of brass, copper and nickel. The design was based off of a set of 'evolutions' we based off of magazine tracings. I believe my original image was of a really interesting interior arch way. Everything was done using cold connections (i.e. no soldering, only rivets). The picture is pretty washed out, but I took it while the piece was actually in the display case at Ellis Hall. I could probably take another since it's back in my possession now, but I need to clean off some finger print gunk that's on it first.

An the simple ring project. The initial designs were a bit more complicated, but, for those who don't know, sterling silver is expensive. And I'm not even talking about fine silver here. I think this tiny design ended up costing me a little over $7 in material and a good 25 hours of work to construct it. She told me what the stone is, but I don't remember. I went with the blue one because it was the perdiest of the stones I had... Though, given my love of Slytherin House, it was a close race between this stone and the green one I had.

Welp, that's all I've got for now. I would say that once I take better pictures I'll post them, but then I'd have to go through and edit the whole damn post and take out all the comments about the horrible pictures and unfinished work. So, when I get around to taking better pictures, I'll put them on Deviantart and post a link here, that cool?

Until next time!

And then she found an amazing book...

I've been long overdue for a new blog post, so I guess I’ll go ahead and get on it now. Quite a few things have happened in the last… Wow, has it really been 3 weeks? Jeez, I’m horrible about keeping a schedule, huh? Anyway…

One of the coolest things that happened was that I got to mean a guest speaker named Rafal Olbinski when he visited MSU earlier this month. He’s a painter/illustrator from Warsaw Poland and he’s pretty much awesome. Part of why I was so excited to visit his lecture was because he himself actually started off doing engineering architecture but switched to painting at a later date. Beyond that, he gave me hope that as an artist getting a late start on my education, nothing is lost. Olbinski didn’t actual come to America, where he gained notoriety, until he was 37. And here I am freaking out about being just barely over 30 when I plan to graduate.

I actually got to meet him and gushed a bit to him about how he is my inspiration. How does he react? With graciousness and humility, that’s how he reacts. I want to be all these things when I’m older!! Basically what I’m trying to say is that if you have some time, you should really go check out his work which you can view here!

What else happened in the last three weeks? Well, I had a dog for about 72 hours, and then sent him back. He didn’t misbehave or anything, I just didn’t have the time or dedication to train an adult dog. Uuuum, I finished my second project for Metalworking. I started looking for a part time job (because I have WAAAAY too much time on my hands). Oh! And I offered to do a collaborative work with another user on deviant art!

I always find myself trying to give my own creative input when working with others. This can be good, but I also wanted to have a stab at not creative input (at least story wise) and strictly creating a visual experience of another person’s tale. She’s written a clever little short story and seems to be incredibly honored that I would like to do a black and white manga of it. I’m nervous, but it will be a great learning experience and hopefully prepare me for potential commissions in the future.

So, on to the art… I bought an AMAZING book last weekend. After a brief failed attempt to find tasteful nude photos to use as drawing reference, and by the way, where they hell are all these children on Deviantart parents at?! Anyway, I gave up rather quickly on Deviantart, ran to Barnes and Noble and found “Anatomy for the Artist” by Sarah Simblet.

The problem I have always had with anatomy books is that there are too many words! Even the artistic anatomy books have so much jabbering. This book, while still filled with good information and diagrams of the inner anatomy, is filled to the brim with human figure photos in color and black and white. So, I chose my favorite photo as my first self-study practice session tonight:

Actually, I’ve been drawing a lot of male head figures lately. It’s not entirely intentional, I don’t get to choose the subject our Drawing instructor puts in front of us. This image just jumped out at me when I was flipping through the pages. It’s a great lighting choice and one I was excited to work on. I didn’t really finish the finer detail because I was working with charcoal on a smaller surface than I’m used to. Regardless, I’m pretty happy about the outcome. I’m really looking forward to doing more drawings from this book.

Until next time!

Holy Hornbeam, we're SHADING!!!

Well, I managed to make it over 24 since my last post! I'm so sporadic with this darned thing. Anyway, there's not a whole lot new to say except that my drawing class has gotten way more interesting. The reigns have been released and we are now SHADING!!! As some of you may have noticed, I have already been shading a lot of my pieces, but I've been timid about it since we have been trying to focus on our line work up to this point.

This new approach is actually challenging my ability, so I'm super excited about it. Until this week, I have been finishing at least two drawings per class period. However, since we began shading, I have yet to really complete a drawing in class. I'm not complaining, though, because this means I am outside my comfort zone which means I am learning. Before this week I was getting kind of bored in class, but now I'm actually excited to begin my next piece.

These are the two pieces I have completed this week:

Plaster Cast Head Drawing 2

Plaster Leg Muscle Group Drawing

 
Another piece of information that is new is that I just upgraded my deviantart subscription and am once again a premium member. You should really go check it out at some point. It still looks about the same at this very second, but this evening will be spent updating and fancifying all the nifty stuff that you can when your have a premium membership.

That's all for now, back to watching Cloverfield and fiddling with my DA account. Until next time!

Making street signs and thinking that maybe I should have tried scrap booking...

Perhaps it was a bit dramatic for me to say that it could be weeks before I posted again. I think a break from the Right Brain Retrain could go very badly for me since this blog has become a sort of outlet to de-stress during hectic times. I've been so stressed out and trying to keep myself in overdrive for so long now that my hair is going grey!! Actually, I've been 'going grey' since I was 19, but during prolonged periods of stress I get a lot more grey hairs. At least my hair's not falling out. If that were the case I might have to seek the help of a professional who could prescribe me with a strong sedative. Anyway, where was I...

Ah, yes, I mentioned scrap booking in the title. I don't actually want to get into scrap booking, but I think I would have had a lot of fun if I had at some point in the last 10 years that I wasn't taking art classes. Paper art is becoming a favorite for me at this point. This is partially because I never knew the joys of rubber cement until this semester and partially because I had never really considered it a good medium for artistic expression... Well, of course, other than the paper you would draw or write or paint on.

This weeks assignment for Two-Dimensional Design was about one of the principles of organization known as Economy (The distillation of the image to the basic essentials for clarity of presentation). So, we made road signs. The objective was to choose three out of a list of six possible road signs and create a design that could quickly convey the signs' meaning to someone driving by. The sign stipulations are as follows: 6"x6" square which may be turned at a 45° angle to form a diamond, circle with 6.5" diameter or an 8" equilateral triangle sign constructed of colored paper and glued to Bristol board (attempting to use no more than 3 colors). I chose to create the following three signs:

Explanations Below (left to right)

Alien Sighting Area:

While this sign went through a couple of different transformations, the basic idea was there from the beginning. I knew that simply putting the unversally understood 'alien head' shape on the sign might not be enough to convey the entire message. While I saw many of my classmates choosing to use eyes and binoculars to express the concept, it was not my first instict. Living in the digital era means that when you are going sight seeing, you're going to want to document what you see so you can share it with people who weren't there. Nearly everybody has a camera these days, so I figured a simple thumbnail would suffice. As for the shape I chose, and alien sighting area is something I would not percieve as an urgent matter requiring the attention of every car passing by. And of course I chose green, why wouldn't I? The simple shape with the cool green color create a calm and orderly mood with this sign.

Spiders Ahead:

This sign is meant to be more cautionary. At first I had two lines depicting a road leading up to it, but then it looked like a giant spider, which is not the message I wanted to convey. I used the diamond shape to show that caution should be taken, but since the diamond is still a square it still comes across as orderly. Yellow is conventionally used to show when caution should be taken and the general design of the sign itself is modeled after countless other '[insert animal species here] ahead' signs. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Zombie Zone:

At first I wasn't even going to do this last one. "But Lucky," you might find yourself pondering, "Didn't you take your Sophomore Seminar on 'Society and the Modern Zombie'?" Well, you would be pondering correctly, assuming that you actually were pondering such a thing... I'm being generous because I'm not sure anybody really reads this thing anyway, but yes! I took a whole flippin' class on zombies: Why society loves them so much, how authors use zombie stories for social commentary and zombie survival strategies and techniques. So, why wouldn't I choose this sign? Because I knew that everybody wanted to do this sign. I don't pride myself on being a completely unique snowflake in a sea of shit bags, or anything. However, I do try to stray from the well beaten path. It is very difficult to stand out as an artist when you are doing the same thing as everyone else. But, as the deadline was approaching rapidly and I didn't even have a third design, I decided to return to this one and do it right.

Initially the sign was of just a brain with a bite taken out of it, but a brain is a very difficult object to simplify. So, the shocked human head with appropriately placed bite was sufficient. Triangles are supposed to be the universal symbol for danger, or hazard, or something to that effect. At first I had it upside down, but I thought right side up expressed a better sense of urgency. And of course it had to be red. Apart from the zombie apocalypse being a rather bloody affair, red is used to catch attention fast. Stop signs as well as yield signs are red because you need to pay attention to their message. Otherwise, you may end up in a car wreck or running over a whole troop of Girl Scouts! I was going back and forth between black and white accents, but, as luck has it, I was working on the color scheme for the Alien sign in a separate window of Photoshop. One of the color schemes looked like the green sign you see above and I already had the spider sign done. Suddenly it was so obvious and the whole project fell into place. I know that if I saw this sign I would do one of two things: 1) turn around or 2) check that all my guns were loaded, within reach and step on the accelerator. Which reminds me, I still need to look into getting a gun...

I actually have a second picture of them in a vertical arrangement. It was really a coincidence that the colors ended up being green, yellow and red. It was even more of a coincidence that the only vertical arrangement that looked balance was to put them red, yellow and green from top to bottom. However, I don't like to be thought of as a copy cat and I know my classmate Yee is doing her 3 circle signs in the arrangement seen on intersection lights. I don't want to steal her thunder, or her idea, so I will keep them in the horizontal arrangement... Or maybe I should just ask Yee which way is better... I don't know, I'm just glad to have them complete.

I suppose that's it for now. I have to get back to my Metalworking homework now. It's not nearly as fun, but it must get done. Until next time!

Nobody's perfect... But some things I just can't let go.

This will be a brief post since I’ve already don’t this once tonight. So, my last post was about how there were so many things wrong with the last piece. Well, since I knew I couldn’t turn it in to my instructor since it didn’t demonstrate proper techniques to be used in drawing, I saw it as an opportunity to play around with what I had.

As many of you may know, I am now pursuing a Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design and Illustration. It seemed like the safest bet as the graphic design aspect of the education could help me get a more practical job in a field like Advertisement. The Illustration classes are more to nurture my love of telling stories. However, the true, deep down secret about why I’m pursuing this degree is this: My life long dream is to make comic books.

So, I took the liberty of turning my wonky head drawing into a more graphic piece of art like you might see in a comic. Sure, it’s still not perfect, but it was a fun learning experience and helped me get introduced to some unfamiliar pieces of my art supplies. So, without further a due, here it is:

It kind of looks like a poster I’ve seen of Bob Marley, but that is purely coincidental. And, to wrap it up, I would like to say that I am in love with the deep, velvety black created by my Char-Kole sticks… They are too awesome.

Until next time!

Nobody is perfect...

Today’s blog is to demonstrate that while we may all have talents of our own, or excel in certain fields, no matter how good you think you are, there is always room for improvement. I was left with this thought after a particularly trying day in Drawing I class. We still have yet to begin shading, but I have been doing it anyway out of boredom. No to toot my own horn, but I am at the head of the class (toot toot). If I did not use shading to slow myself down I would run laps around my classmates as far as quantity of drawings.

This week we began drawing plaster casts of faces. As some of you may have read in the last post, we aren’t supposed to actually think of them as faces, but simple ‘draw what we see.’ Last week’s post showed what I think is one of my best drawing pieces. Aside from being very naturalistic, I also managed to frame it perfectly on the page. However, I will admit, it was not an exact replica of how the plaster head looked in class. Sometimes I will ‘fib’ in my drawings to make them appear more idealistic.

However, my ability to do this was utterly shattered today. We were still drawing the same batch of plaster heads, but today, many of them were turned upside down, or on their sides, or laid at angles to where foreshortening ruled the image. I got agitated with the first set up which actually had me drawing the same exact head from last time, but upside down. I gave it three shots and got extremely frustrated with the results.

After a quick break, we came back and had the set up rearranged. This time, I was looking at a head turned to three quarters view and tilted back drastically. I spent a good 30 to 45 minutes attempting to capture the cast’s likeness, but upon my third attempt, I gave up on making it look like the head in front of my and just drew the shadows but on a more ideal face.

The end result of my efforts was this:

 Now, I hear objections from others whenever I say this, but there are a multitude of things wrong with this picture. That is not to say that I hate it, in fact, I quite like it. For only spending about 30 minutes on it, it didn’t turn out too bad. Regardless, that is not what the plaster head looked like (apart from the shadows), and even so, the eye is off, the nose was haphazardly done and the lights were turned on and class dismissed before I had a chance to really rework all the issues I’m seeing with it now.

I’m still posting it, though. Not because I have nothing else to post. I mean, I still have a few days to find something better anyway. I’m posting it because it shows my own imperfections. Pride goeth before the fall and to hide your weaknesses is to deny yourself a chance to overcome them.

So, that’s it for now. I’ll be busy for a while catching up on projects, organizing the new apartment and, beginning sometime next week, training a new dog. Which reminds me, any suggestions on names for a Maltese/Shih Tzu mix with an under bite that makes him look a bit like an Ewok? His name’s currently ‘Duke,’ but that doesn’t fit. Oh, and before you flood in with a bunch of actual Ewok names, we decided Wicket is too abrasive and no other Ewok names really stood out.

Until next time!