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!

So much room for activities!!

We finally have a REAL apartment! Sure, we paid rent and utilities on the studio and lived there for nearly 2 years. However, when you cram two adults into one 200 sq ft room for an extended period of time, it starts to feel more like a jail cell than a humble abode. The irony of the situation is that I end up spending a lot of time in the living room with Josh anyway. I guess the CHOICE makes all the difference.

Furnishing the joint was fun (that's sarcasm). Even though it took around 2 hours, I did enjoy putting together my new art desk (which can be viewed at the end of this blog). Unfortunately, in a rush to get a couch (because there is something fundamentally incomplete about a living room without a couch) I managed to pick the world's heaviest one. Seriously, the thing weights a MINIMUM of 250 lbs. I'm pretty sure whenever we decide to move out of here, we will be doing it without the couch that I suspect may be made of dark matter. Moving on...

I did a bad thing last week and skipped my drawing class. Actually I blew everything off that took place after I left Brick City at 4:00pm. It couldn't be helped. When a girl is in go-go-go mode for over a week straight, something has got to give eventually. I have to make up for it now, but at least a majority of the move is done with, so that won't be filling up every free moment of my schedule. Of course, we're adopting a dog from my mom, so training him will soon be taking up a decent chunk of my time.

And dear GOD what did I do before Internet?! AT&T had to set me up with new service that was SUPPOSED to start last night, was ACTUALLY connected last Saturday and DOESN'T work so we have to wait for the technician to come by tomorrow. I'm redoing all these mobile posted blogs once I have access to the full website again.

Blah, that's all boring stuff. Let's just wrap this up and get to the pictures. Today we finally got to draw something other than boxes and box-like objects. We got to draw plaster heads on sticks. Well, we weren't supposed to identify them as heads in our minds, otherwise we would not truly draw what we saw and would recall memory of what a head looks like instead (which is what I STARTED to do on the first one). Anyway, the product of about and hour and a half of work can be seen somewhere below... Darn blogger app not letting me place pictures where I want them.

Oh well, until next time!

Plaster Cast Head on a Stick

 

Snazzy Desk that can be purchased HERE!

Wait for it...

SHAZAM!!

And then The Collegiate Gods said, "There shall be NO rest!"

Man, it has been a busy week... Or has it been weeks? Projects have been keeping my hands full, but I have enjoy all aspects of my new homework.

I did, however, manage to find the time in the late hours of Saturday evening to order myself a snazzy work desk. I'm completely serious when I say this is the most handsome thing I have ever laid eyes on... After Josh, of course, but I'm still in love with this desk.

It has a glass top, so a simple lamp on the floor turns it into a light table for tracing. The table can lay flat or tilt up to a 25 degree angle, so no more hunchback drawing for me. It's got a lot of other cool features, but if you're interested in one, you can check it out at the following link:

http://www.dickblick.com/products/studio-designs-futura-craft-station/

Anyway, while I'm waiting for that to arrive, I will share a piece from a couple weeks ago. This was done at a friend's house the night that I FINALLY quit my soul sucking job. That's probably a bit of an exaggeration, but I don't seem to be alone in my thoughts on the place.

I had actually intended to work on a homework assignment, but forgot some key elements needed to start it. I ended up drawing anyway.

I didn't NEED to draw the coffee table covered in various trinkets, but I really WANTED to. This is further encouragement that I am on the right path.

Oh yeah, and we begin moving this week. We are going to have a whole 650 sq ft to ourselves! It may not sound like a lot to some one else, but when you've had two people living in a tin can of a studio together for 2 years, having the living room, kitchen and bedroom actually be separate rooms sounds like a mansion!

I think that's all for now. Until next time!

Two Posts in One Day? What is Going On?!

Very brief post, mainly to show off my first completed design project. The project is known as the 'Black Square Problem' and apparently is a project all design majors will encounter. We were given 6 adjectives and required to create a picture that would convey that adjective or emotion by using only 4 black squares. I actually posted the initial designs on Facebook to gauge how accurate I was and only ended up changing one at the advice of my instructor.

I'll go ahead an post the image first if you would like to take a guess, but don't scroll to far because the adjectives and reasoning are listed below.

It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I reworked one design, tweaked another and ended up having to completely redo three of them because they had glue spots on them. The adjective are shown left to right, top to bottom as follows:

Ordered
This one is relatively easy to convey. The first design was just four equal boxes forming a larger box shape. Then, I moved on to something that looked like the Purina logo. However, after reading a few of the synonyms for this word, I went with the design you see because it shows motion. It's almost as if they are coming off of an assembly line, all the same and orderly.

Increase
This one was the one the instructor suggested changing, mainly due to the other mostly black design that was the odd man out. The first design started with a small square in the bottom left hand corner. The other three became larger and larger as they moved up to the top right in an arc resembling a parabola. His words were that we were going to see a lot of similar designs and that I should try to use the negative space to show the word. I kind of cheated because I had no idea what to do. By cheating I mean that I googled the word 'increase' and looked at the image results. I saw a whole bunch of arrows and that is when the design you see now came to me.

Bold
This one gave me the most trouble. At first I wanted to use a large square next to a small one, but that didn't quite do it for me. This design was initially an idea for Increase, but when Josh said it made him think of 'adventure' I started thinking about it in a different way. Some people see it as tumbling or falling down a hill, but the bouncing motion created is supposed to convey boldly charging forward  and up the hill. The split responses I got on this one actually told me a bit about the person depending on which direction the squares were traveling to them... A lot more people on my Facebook are pessimists than I thought.

Congestion
Meh, I'm still not really pleased with this one. The synonyms made me think of crowding and tried to cram them into a small space. The angle was meant to make it feel more off kilter than if I had just put the square edges parallel to the frame edges. I don't know, could have been better.

Tension
This one gave me trouble at first, but as soon as I sketched this idea down, I knew it was the one. Tension can be seen a couple different ways. While many of my classmates were viewing it as the physical tension like you would see in a rope, I immediately went to the emotion behind the word. Tension is very negative and I associate many synonymous feelings with it like stress, anxiety, pressure, depression, etc. So, it's meant to be seen as the serene calm of the dark being cracked harshly causing a sort of sting that could be perceived as large or small..

Playful
I got a lot of really good synonyms on this one. Words like bouncy, floating, fun, and others were used by my friends on Facebook. These are all positive and upbeat feelings I wanted associated when looking at this design.

There you have it, finished design project numero uno. It gave me small fits of grief throughout the process, but over all it was pretty fun. Our next project is going to be about balance, but for now, I must study for our design quiz tomorrow. Thanks for checking in!

Week Two Under Way

Sooo, I should probably be doing homework, but I've only been awake for about an hour now. Week two has been off to a relatively good start. I'm still not entirely enjoying my metalworking class, but I think if I can just bring in a pair of ear plugs with me, I'll be okay. Nothing but hammers banging against steel for the first hour of class yesterday, it would be a very bad place to get a migraine.

Regardless of the alarmingly loud noises to be dealt with, the day went pretty smoothly. My Black Square project is not due until the beginning of class on Thursday, so I will be finishing that up tonight and posting it in here as soon as I can get a good picture of the finished work. Drawing is still by far my favorite class, though.

Last night we were working on the concept of mapping out a figure with lines and geometrical shapes before adding the fine and organic details. This is not a concept that I am unfamiliar with, but it was nice to get back to the roots and remind myself of the techniques that helped me to become better at drawing. So without further a due, here are the two pieces completed in class last night:

Don't worry, it's just pieces of a mannequin. The legs gave me a bit of trouble on the first one as you can see by the copious amounts of rubbed away charcoal (not included the intentional shading) and, a known problem I've had with figure drawing for years, her head was too large. I had more fun playing with geometric shapes and shadows on the second one. Of course, I bypassed drawing any toes per my own limitations at this time. No big fret, though, there are months left to hone my abilities and next semester I have Drawing II, so they'll only get better.

Well, I suppose that is all for now. I must get ready for my interview at the library center, so wish me luck! Until next time.

No Pictures this Morning. Sorry!

It's early, too early to leave for class. I can't help it though, I'm wide awake. So, I decided to add a brief and, unfortunately, picture-less blog entry. I've noted a couple of things that tell me a degree in art is definitely the right choice for me. I'm sure they will continue to multiply as the semester goes on, but for now, here they are.


#1: I can't stop doing my homework!
Now, I should preface with the truth that I did put off doing my homework this weekend, but I also had to work. As previously mentioned, this current job has a tendency to drain creative energy. That being said, once I started the homework I kept saying to myself "Okay, that's all the homework I need to get done." However, I kept finding myself wandering back over to my desk to do more. It can't be stopped!

#2: I wake up without the aid of snooze button.
Most people who know me or have every lived with me know that I am the queen of the snooze button. I set at least two alarms every morning for about 30 to 45 minutes before I really need to wake up. So far, my second alarm isn't even getting the chance to chime. Obviously I hit snooze to turn the first alarm off, but after spending over 5 minutes fighting the excitement of another school day, I knew I wasn't going back to sleep and sprung out of bed to get ready.


The long and short of it is that I always hear people talk about the difference between a job and a career. A job is what you do to pay the bills. With a job you can't wait to clock out and go home at the end of the day. With a career, however, there never seem to be enough hours in the day. When you're doing what you love, it no longer feels like work. I think I've finally found the path I'm supposed to be on.

Phew, okay, I think I killed enough time blogging that I can go ahead and leave for class now. That's right, I used my blog to fill the space between waking up early and leaving the house. What of it?!