So I wanted to do a warm up sketch, self portrait, something to get the juices flowing so to speak. 5-6 hours later.... jeebus, that took forever. AND NOW I GET TO RUSH THROUGH MY ACTUAL HOMEWORK WEEEEEEEEEEE!

Ref photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovenotes/4126062999/

In other news, it was a cold and miserable day in Northpoint. I did not get out, I did pass go, I did not collect $200. Anyone wanna help with that last part?? >:D

Wanna be better about these "Sketch of the Day" posts. WB to LJ J! Reading entries made me a bit nostalgic and ended up digging through some old reference photography. Sorry of the colors seem harsh, I was just messing around with analogous color schemes and ended up liking this.

Something I'm actually happy with (FOR  NAO). Of course it's monochromatic. Portrait of Isabella from my Heads and Hands class. Didn't finish adjusting the values on the base drawing, mostly because she moved her head position once I got to shading. That AND she was continually smiling at whatever the other model was doing behind me on the other side of the room. Seriously dude, go flirt and try and get laid elsewhere, drawing is challenging enough! Anyway, I asked permission to take a photo ref of her at the start of class. She looked conflicted for a bit and said she usually says no... but she smiled and said ok (yay)! I said I understood/was ok with it if she said no, of course, but I'm really happy to have a ref to work with on this a bit more here at home. She's actually one of my favorite models, her cheekbones are INTENSE.

My upcoming weekend is packed, and that doesn't include anything Halloween related. For Friday, I think this pretty much covers my approach to the upcoming Y-Con. I can only really make it on that day, which is fine because I don't think I can handle more than the merchant's hall anyway. AX leaves me wary of berserk Yaoi fans, and having never gone to this con before, I have no idea what to expect. Some (ok a lot of) fans scare me ...but but some of the artwork is sooo pretty. Also Friday is thankfully the cheapest day, so yay. I know three people going (Jeanniephoenixdown7, Ellome antieden , Xiamara), and one other person, who I don't really know except through LJ even though she goes to my school (she seems awesome tho!! *waves @ masakocha *). Gah, I'm torn because, well... workshop time would be awesome too. Friday is workshop day; my Heads and Hands instructor's workshop (2:30), then there is Illustration Club (3:30) and Henry Yan's workshop of awesome is at 6pm. So, depending on how homework looks, I may not even go to Y-con. :X Maybe I can swing down there at night and get pictures of my favorite cosplayer all dressed up and maybe meet up with said other attendees. But I don't want to stay out too late since Saturday I have class at 9am (waaaaaaaay too early for a Saturday painting class but it is kind of a moot point now). THEN, Sunday is Costume Carnival! The Academy of Art University Illustration Dept holds a workshop where the models are dressed up in fantasy costumes, with horns and wings and such. All the work I see come out of that looks awesome. I missed it last year so I am determined to go this year. Also Helen wants to come <3 I wanna sneak her in!

Does my life seem busy? Well, that may be because it is. Right now I can't decide what to do. I could...

•  Work on my oil painting head portrait of my sister (partial progress due Saturday)
•  Work on illustration of girl in surfing on a car in a wave curl away from catholic school (Ill1 hw due Monday)
•  Work on rendering of my toy car from photo refs (Ill1 hw due Monday)
• - Print two copies of car rendering and color them in, one warm one cool based off photo refs. (Ill1 hw due Monday)
• - Make chart of colors I plan to use in chosen warm or cool final piece, this is done in gouache (Ill1 hw due Monday)
• Re-work patterns in B/W ink Dragon/Magic card illustration (Ill1 hw resubmission due this Monday or next)
• Work on the 100 heads and 50 pairs of hands notebook I have to have for Heads and Hands class. (due at end of term)
• Work on self portrait from mirror (no photos) for Heads and Hands (I actually forget when this is due... 2 weeks maybe)
• LA class HW that I don't even want to look at even though class is 2morrow at 3:30
• Any of my personal projects, like a comic about going to APE and meeting tons o awesome. D:

( Pictures and stuff )

I'm struggling. I can draw and render, but at this point in my education I feel like I am in dire need of a "lvl up!" I'm no longer just happy to be able to render what I see before me in black and white, using my charcoal, pen, pencil mediums. Light and dark are not nearly enough. Color is evading me. And to transition from a simple technical drawing to telling a story, to be a true illustrator has got me pulling at my hair. Sometimes I look over all my work and I want to trash/delete it all (O.M.G WHY is that soooo yellow?!!). But I know becoming an artist is 10% talent and 90% hard work.. so I just need to keep chugging on. Gambatte is the word, or concept, that comes to mind (something that was expanded on for a whole section in a Japanese culture class I took). So so so so so... I'll keep drawing and trying to color. *tries so very hard*

LJ is like swarming with artistic contacts now that I don't know if I want to read my angsty emotional er... vomit. But w/e... It feels so good to just write that artistic anxiety away, even if I can't be sure anyone is reading it.

I'm going to go paint swatches after this. Basically make little mixes of all my paint to learn how it works together. This is the more technical homework you don't think about when you think of art school. I'm glad for it. The "let your inner self become reflected upon your canvas" type art classes are all fine and good, but this is really what I need ...even if it makes me want to commit unsightly violence against my paint supplies. Then tonight is more Heads and Hands class with Z. Talk about 90% hardwork, that guy is crazy... crazy awesome. Anyway, this is what I'll be continuing to work on tonight

So, I'm trying to learn how to paint in photoshop. If anyone has any good tutorials they recommend I would LOVE IT if you shared <3 As I practice, I don't really feel like I'm progressing at all, and it is stressing me out. The kind of rendering I can do in traditional mediums even, doesn't really translate over. Everything I color seems to have this blurry feel to it, and I know part of it is I don't really know how to do hard and soft edges on shadows or plane changes. Of course reference helps, but when I'm making something up, say a suit of fantasy armor or a glowing deck of magic cards, it's got me kind of stuck. RAWR! So yeah... >.>

( Recent sketches related and not.  )</div>

instead of focusing on homework. UHG. *does a little homework... scribbles for a long time in photoshop... 5 more mins on homework.... 45 mins in photoshop* You know what I realize? While it was a lot of fun to draw, there is nothing realistic about this picture.

AAU shuttle from Townsend to Northpoint. My class gets out at 9:50. The bus arrives at 10:30, gets to NP by 11. I was the last student I saw leave the campus ( most jumped on the 10 o'clock bus that doesn't go to my stop) & the only one on this bus the whole ride.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Homework inspires me to draw... just not what I should be working on. It is almost like this challenge... If you can you pull off all the mundane work/focus requires to produce an assignment you don't like very much, you'll have built up the endurance to do make the stuff you're dreaming up in your head. I guess I get a little over excited and rush into sketchy fun times and then have to rush homeworkomgitsdue2morrow times. That said, here's a little sketch up I did of my most recent favorite character in fiction/games/comics: Drizzt Do'Urden

I’m sorry I’ve been away. It is kind of my nature to disappear like this for a while, adventuring. Know that even when I do not say it, I love you. I am missing you and look for you in the face of every person I meet. Wherever I am, I am working hard to be worthy of you. Often I make mistakes, but looking over my shoulder I can tell I’ve come so far. With so much more ahead of me, this and the hope of joining with you are my two greatest comforts. We will be together, I promise.

(I wrote this in a friend's LJ, but I wanted to repeat it here:) I have a really hard time now doing anything but reading blogs when I'm online. I spend hours soaking up all this information and I hardly ever turn around and reflect on what I've been doing anymore. When I do, it sounds like the same old stuff b/c I never go in detail. (Today Gabi went biking. Today Gabi drank coffee and -SURPRISE!- she loved it!)  I feel that I'm just not as "into" or dedicated to recounting all of the inner workings of my heart. Part of me thinks this is because I'm slightly less of a narcissistic youth than I was before. While there is truth to that, it is also b/c I've become lazy and this thought makes me sad. As they say, the unexamined life is not worth living. This is something I will work on. More creative bits will go up on tumblr, I guess, to shared more publicly. But I want to return to more private personal reflections and to hear the responses of my friends. I may go unanswered since it seems the people I cared for most are either gone or hardly here at all. But, lately I've seen a lot of my people make LJ posts about not posting anymore. It surprises me almost as much as the fact that I still return here. I'd like to see a movement where my friends return to being reflective here. I guess I'll see.

This is taken from theremina 's post on her experience running into a group of irrationally hateful Prop 8 supporters here in the Bay Area.

"As long as I live, I'll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of the flood, storm and avalanche. I'll acquaint myself with the glaciers and the wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can."

-John Muir

At a size of 1,200 square miles of pristine wilderness, there was much more within Yosemite than Nick and I could see or do in any single trip. Forests, meadows, lakes, waterfalls, ponds, granite cliffs, trails and roads, I honestly wanted to cover it all but had no idea of how dauntingly huge the park really was. I haven't been to Yosemite since I was a kid when I was chauffeured from activity to activity and given plenty of entertainment material in the backseat of my parent's van. Now, as the driver crossing hundreds of miles to get to and travel around within the park, I truly appreciate the enormity and grandeur of it. Because there can be no end to new and awe inspiring experiences there, Nick and I are determined to return. That said, I want to share a bit more about this past trip (other than being stupefied by Yosemite's size haha).

( Picture Heavy Post Under Cut )