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 )

Figure drawing class required that you take a "master work," something from the direction you intend on going (ie: classic oil paintings for fine arts majors) and make a "master copy" of it utilizing charcoal as the medium (mine was 24 by 30 inches). I chose the character art for Embla by Hyung-Tae Kim:




Ok... slept from 7 till 10:30pm >.> Time to watch serei no moribito! yay!

Things that I love:

The upside to eczema: nightly lotion rub downs from Nick <3
Blue Danube's B.L.A.T. sandwich and Greek yogurt
Green Apple book store = art books - used and thusly cheap (yay!)
Chilled fruity white wine (gurwetztraminer)
Apple Blossoms from Trader Joe's
Blue Bottle Coffee roasted yesterday, "three africans," ground few minutes ago and brewing as I type
Velum paper / Personal light box
New (better) electric eraser (old one broke D:)
Wacom tablets
Having a clean apartment
My comfy nike sweat pants
Laser printed versions of my digital homework <3

Things I'm Annoyed With:

Not being able to do everything I want to do right now. I mean, there is so much I wanna do right away!! (and here I'm writing >.>) and I can't do all 5 million things at once. D:
Inking in photoshop.
OMG portfolios DUE DUE DUE MON DEU DUDE!
Having to sleep. SUCH a waste of time omg.

 
I've been getting stressed out about my workload. But now I realize it's drawing/painting/creativetimes, and not accounting and I feel SO MUCH BETTER. KK off to draw! weeeee.....

...that was sarcasm. >.>

I call this one: A Portrait of AAU ...Kicking My Ass :D OK, not really.

I watched the two newest/leaked Avatar eps with Nick over dinner and somehow my drawing of a dude turned into Azula in a latex suit. haha latex. love it.

( Picture Heavy So Click Here )
Industrial Art Classes at The Crucible:


Am thinking either wood working... or glass? or... brass? ahhh I dunno. Ultimate goal: Being able to weld and make steam punk googles XD Foundry & Moldmaking sounds so cool! Tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding... There are FIRE DANCING CLASSES. wow. just wow. (I love the bay area). Anyway, Nick may take whatever beginner class I take with me. And um, Char? Would you be down? I know we talked about taking some kind of art class together at some point.

The Crucible's 2008 Fire Arts Festival



I am also taking Color and Design this summer. Basically, in my mind it is going to the Alchemy of Color!</div>

"Color Keys King David by homarusrex"

I plan on doing a swimming class as well a dancing one with Nick for YAY personal fitness. The loss of running er.. well I ran yesterday and well, gah OK there is a lot to say about all that so I'll save it for another post.

Also on the list: PAX and Comic Con. No explanations are needed I'm sure.

Wow, lots of plans I need to get the ball rolling with all this stuff.

I know the term isn't over just quite yet, but I don't feel I'll have it in me to do this during finals and in the OMG FREEDOM! period I'll be experiencing between then and the start of summer term. Anyway, I don't feel like I've let you guys in on how I have progressed here at AAU. Since I don't often post my day to day drawings, you don't get to see my more traditional stuff. And even I have not, prior to this post, really looked at new and old works juxtaposed. More often than not, I post stuff that is digital since it much easier. But I feel like I have progressed so much these past two semesters and as far as digital illustration goes, that hasn't been much reflected. Knowing anatomy and drawing it in traditional mediums is a completely different kettle of fish from doing so on a computer. So far my photoshop/painter skills lag way behind what I can do with graphite and charcoal. Anyway, I feel like sharing: Yes!!! The switch to AAU has been worth it and I can't imagine this not continuing it to be so. And here is the evidence:


This is my absolute favorite model. She is also the very first one I had in my very first figure drawing class at AAU. Here is the very first picture I ever drew at AAU:


QUITE the difference. I do feel I'm getting my money's worth. Now I need to work on being a more diligent student. Just to let you know, I'm more of a C grade student in comparison with my peers. *sigh* Gotta work on that.

one of my figure drawing classmates just asked if we could hot hot box in my car.

EDIT: lol i should name this "Hanging Under the 280 by SF State" 

At 6:45am, there's only one person I can imagine calling just to talk and shoot shit. I love that I can do that, that I KNOW from years of experience she's going to be up at butt crack of dawn because she's crazy. We spent well over an hour talking about this and that and everything in between, game stuff, significant other stuff and for some reason, the whole why neither of us want to ever give birth topic (I think we just needed to vent). I can't wait for the holiday, just so I can be able to hang out w/ friends back home.

Specifically, I am meeting up with Aimee and Roger in San Diego on the night of my birthday. They're picking Nick and I up from the airport and I'm gunna show 'em around my favoritest town evar! :D And then the next day will be the train up the coast to Orange County and the next day Disneyland with Brian and Juri!

Ohhh my god, I've already checked out for this semester. >.>

Anyway, now I think I'll go wake up Nick and take him to breakfast! I found an uber bonus of $200 in the bank from my Dad, for which I am eternally grateful. For seriously, I was down to under ten bucks.  Yay food!

There is a lot I'd like to just sit and mull about here, I really feel disconnected (once again) from LJ and the people I care about who're posting here. Instead, it seems I picked up a bunch of memes instead... >.> I've been pretty busy with school work; I feel behind (I AM behind! *sigh*) and like the next two weeks are going to be this huge marathon I may not even survive. Currently for this weekend I need to finish a still life in charcoal, a power point presentation, a portrait, and two hands. The drawings themselves have to be as photo-realistic (as possible?). Anything less, is obviously not going to get an A or B... or maybe even C, depending. G'ah! Last night while digging through my many stacks of drawing paper (at least 6 of them, all huge for me, at 18"x24" compaired to say a 8"x11" sketchbook) and it finally hit me how much work I've been putting out. I snapped some pictures of the good, the bad and the nooby (ie earliest stuff). I am amazed at my own progress, though at the same time I don't -feel- like I've gotten any better. Again I'm climbing this mountain of a standard:

Photorealistic Rendering in Graphite:
scan
step by step <-- omg isn't that just SO badass?! completely 100% traditional pencil ;_;

Anyway, this gentleman to the right of the above text, is a WIP and so far my best endeavor at a photorealistic representation of a person. Read: his face actually looks like his face, not his face w/ a slightly warped nose or too big ears or fat lips, and the list could go on... Add it to the list of things I also need to get done if I want to enter it in the Foundations Winter show. With a chance at winning $100 just for entering (raffle) I'll throw anything in. But I'd like it to be something that could win too. Maybe.

So I've posted a lot of new pictures of my work from this term up on my flickr gallery  I'm especially proud of my sculpture of Matahari Kinnaree, who went from looking like this to THIS! Yay! I was one of the two most successful in their project (and possibly the most successful depending one how it all goes down; I've not -yet- had any major problems while halving it, hollowing it out, putting back together... I just have to see how the kiln process goes and then paint her. Also, I'm planning on putting some green LEDs behind her eyes (I have green glass beads that are going to go in from the inside after its fired) so that her eyes will glow like in her concept art. Sadly, it won't be ready for the Winter show (just the first firing will take 4 days), but I'm saving it for the BIG OL' SPRING SHOW. 0.o I'll have my power point presentation (the one I'm going to work on this weekend) to tell a little story about her, the sculpture and definitely a reworked concept digital concept painting of her, as well as some basic line work of her in her armor. GAH! I'm so excited! <33333

I've also been busy on the social front (believe it or not!). I've gone to a couple festivals, Japanese and arty shows.

I went to that LiveJournal-is-Now-Owned-by-a-Mysterious-Russian-Company-Party they had here in SF a few nights ago. It was right next door to my school so how could I not stop by? I saw Frank the goat in a tiny pen outside D: But all the people in line seemed um, too dressy, too young urban professional or just too old for me to seem interested in sticking around. The venue was nice (111 Minna St. Gallery), though. I probably should have at least stayed around for the free drinks.

(SEE ABOVE POST FOR PICTURE)

Found a few new cool cafes (Brick House, Cafe Madeline, and one other I can't recall the name of).

Nick and I actually got some furniture for the apartment.Yay! Unfortunately one of our three bookshelves came with a wrong piece, two middles and only one side board. So we STILL have boxes of books, just not as many, thankfully.

This past weekend Nick and I saw a play of two short stories by one of my all time favorite authors at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. The play was based on “honey pie” and “superfrog saves tokyo” from the novel after the quake by Haruki Murakami.

Director Frank Galati won two Tony Awards for The Grapes of Wrath. Writer Haruki Murakami, author of The Wind-Up Bird ChronicleKafka on the Shore, earned Japan’s equivalent of the Pulitzer. Now the two talents collide in after the quake, a simple, gentle tale of life in the wake of earth-shaking disaster. A timid man woos an old flame, enchanting her anxious daughter with whimsical bedtime stories of a six foot frog’s fight to save Tokyo. In this poignant new play, we see that a storyteller can’t dispel the world’s woes, but he can teach a child—and himself—how to face fear.

Nick in the car, after the play. I had gone to get some coffee from SBUX so gear up for some post high culture rockin out to Rock Band at Mike and Andy's XD. Nick was reading up on Murakami from a program that had to be copied machined due to unexpected mass popularity of the play. I was really happy Nick enjoyed it and even took some interest in the author. He's an almost strictly sci-fi reader while I like lots and lots of fiction. I've always felt that if I could show him that there are some books he'd enjoy even if they aren't about knights or elves or space wars, then we'd have all that more in common to talk about. That being said, I love my some adventure fantasy books as well. At Berkeley Rep there is a 1/2 off discount if you are under 30 years old, so I would love love LOVE to see Argonautika  next. Yay Jason and the Argonauts!

We've had friends come up to stay with us for weekends, including Aimee and Roger as well as a guildie from WoW!

I went to Grace Cathedral for a class, to draw. It was sadly really dark (class was from 3:30-6) and I could not see the detail of anything. Coupled with the cold it left me snoozing in the pews. :X But it was a pretty church, the first 10 minutes before the sun went away.

We've been hanging out with our friends we made on the train to Penny Arcade Expo, and yeah, I just love those people. Best decision EVAR to take the train. We've gone over the Mike and Andy's house to play Guitar Hero III and Rock Band. Jo, the girl I initially met at the train station is so super sweet, though kinda crazy in that kawaii anime/video games has rotted my brain kinda way. We get along swimmingly, as you can imagine. We're, with that group, are going on a long weekend trip to Tahoe to ski/snow board/do a lot a boozin' XD come early Janruary. I'm psyched! I've also gotten to see a bit more Joy, who also seems to fit it with the PAX group.

OK anyway here are some pictures:

Can you believe this is homework? Ok, this is one of the rare easier assignments. But LAWL look at it!

Anyway, onto the meme:

Comment, and I will comment back with a picture of the fictional character that most reminds me of you. Then post the same in your journal and join in the fun!

As much as it pains me to admit it, I spend too much time playing WoW. *sigh* Yes, it has come to that point. I realized this when suddenly none of my pants fit as well, or at all >.>. Dresses that looked lovely before seemed stretched as if I were fitting them not over their owner but a whale. With the holidays coming up, where I'll be seeing everyone and all sorts of crazy picture taking is going to going on... I srsly need to drop some poundage. I'm gunna be honest and say the extra weight hasn't bothered me, as in I'm not really insecure about it on its own. Both Nick and I think I'm sexy.. and I enjoy having thrown guilt and worry to the wind when it comes to good food and drinks. I just know that A) it is unhealthy... and I already have enough of those types of problems as it is. B) I hate hate HATE coming home and having my family go off on me on how fat I am. I love them dearly, and I know they love me... but we're the kind of dysfunctional family the communicated through ribs, jabs and full on arguments. So to have "BIG BRIEEEE" chanted at me as my brother stomps into the living room sumo style, is not a holiday "tradition" I want to continue.

Also, as to gaming, I've been kind of getting tired of it. Not the raids per say, just the _having_ to be at them (which is an understandable requirement given the needed organization of a raid)  and some of the unsportsmanlike behavior ... like ppl having pissing contests over damage. Honestly, I'm always #2 on more focused fire bosses and #4 on more AOE behavior and neither of those placements makes me a better player than anyone else. I mean, we have healers who do no DPS and ppl who have to work on crowd control (Like me!) so DPS dips down.. And that kind of attitude undermines the team work aspect of the raiding, and I'm honestly quite sick of it. It is becoming a chore and I'm not paying money and spending my free time to do some worthless chore. Anyway, I discontinued my account, ie as of Nov 27, I won't be able to  log on. December = finals projects month. In the mean time I am not signing up for raids and I've blocked access at certain hours as sort of a reminder to myself to find better things to do during peak hours of the day. I actually didn't bother logging on at all yesterday. I mean, I thought about it... but it just didn't happen. Anyway, I now have a lot more time to work on school stuff at leisure w/o cramming. I dunno, I was kind of in this tunnel where all i wanted was to raid raid raid, gear up gear up gear up. I still love WoW and I still want to raid and gear up eventually, but I think I need a breather... and then go back into it whenever with much less intensity.

Here's hoping I get my ass to a gym in all that free time... >.> blarg!

Today Nick and I got back $2400 in American Express Travelers Cheques for being early/the first renters at our new apartment complex. YAY MONIES! I am SO looking forward to buying bookshelves and other furniture! We have just boxes and boxes of books and art supply things just lined up against the walls. I am really looking forward to some retail therapy. This week has been looooong. ;_;

I got my mid term project done! It features my best digitally rendered/painted picture ever. I'm so proud of it (for not looking like total poo) and I'll post it later, as it isn't on the computer I'm using right now. The bad news about this is... I'm probably still going to get a C- on the project. /cry Using computers for your presentation was not allowed. So my PP presentation with blow ups of detail work and lots and lots of concept sketches stayed in my backpack unseen. I made a printed out character sheet on some heavy parchment paper and some semi clear paper, so I wasn't totally without something to present. Part of the reason behind my TOTAL FAILURE was that I added the class late. My advisor put me in an advanced computers class, that later another advisor saw and told me I hadn't completed the pre-recs for; so, they re-did my schedule.. twice actually. Due to this, I was added into the Figure Modeling class after it started and missed the first day -- which is when he said students were not to use laptops to present. While the figure modeling instructor went over what an original character was extensively and what we needed to do when creating one once I was in the class.. he never again mentioned anything about not using computers. It IS my responsibility to know my assignments... but I didn't even know I was missing information because he went over it again and again in class... just never mentioning the computer presentation ban. Because of this, instead of the Q & A everyone got to do about their characters, he took up what would have been my time to lecture about how there is not consolation prize for _almost_ getting a project done. He also used that time to pull out another student's work, which was printed out on 3 by 6 foot canvas from Kinkos. It was done exactly like mine was, eerily so... a rendered character and some sketches of different views to the side on a back ground with textnotes. The difference was that his was huge. The cost to print it was $130. And I just stood there, with the only $20 I had to my name in my back pocket. Another student, who came right after me and who works at Kinkos, printed out her character, a robot, in 1/2 life size on foam board. It was cut up and jointed together like a doll so it could move and had lights in its head... as well as big foam board info sheets designed to look like futuristic computer monitors. $200+ worth in mats, though she got it all for free. I left the class feeling a) totally dejected and b) knowing that I need to get a job for extra cash -- to buy my grades at school -- and c) it'd best be a Kinko's job or the like.

That being said, most other students came in with hand drawn/painted stuff taped to a board. I feel that I put more work and creativity into mine that some pencil sketches and a text print out... but they'll prob get a better or equivalent grade to mine. ~_~


So, silveran , I looked into the Nutcracker at OCPAC and its only playing on Dec. 2nd -- as a kids production at that-- because the main event there this year seems to be... Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring The Rockettes! Sorry! :L So you'll probably end up going to Juri's suggestion... the only other decent one I could find was the Long Beach Nutcracker Ballet. Also, I know it isn't the Nutcracker (you can still see it where Juri suggested) but there's also A Count Basie Holiday - Christmas music in Big Band and Swing Style. As well as A Christmas Carol at the Barclay in Irvine (though as a local, I'd say the best Christmas Carol performance is in Knott's Berry Farm's Bird Cage Theatre. It's an intimate performance, and uou can eat -really well- at Mrs. Knott's Restaurant before hand and eat funnel cake and ride rollercoasters afterward. They also perform it in with "The Gift of the Magi" which always makes me cry ;_;)

Also, I was looking up "The Nutcracker Suite" and this is one of the links that popped up: http://www.nutsuite.com >.>;;

Going to art school is like... this amazing dream I never thought that I could be living. Each day that I pull and set my stuff down, I experience this moment where I'm somewhat confused like... "Why am I holding this charcoal again? ...Where are the text books? I'm not just drawing.. in the margins of my notes?"

At the same time, it is very hard here. No matter how talented I thought I was going into this school, most of the teachers i these "foundation" courses are bent on getting rid of as many students as possible. The only at work that gets As is of the photo-realistic variety. This is problematic in my figure modeling class, where we sculpt people, or parts of people. Having never really done it before, I am failing at it miserably. It is frustrating because I am used to being shown how to do something, practicing it in homework, studying that and then taking a test where my grade comes from. We've been given clay, shown how to do it, but doing it... is much harder than watching someone else do it. And I fail big time. Art school, of all places, is where I am supposed to be the star straight A student. Instead I'm being graded on what in other classes would be practice work/ the learning processes not the accumulated knowledge. *sigh* I'm currently getting a C-. I've been told everyone gets Cs in foundation courses, but this really doesn't make me feel better. It's my foundation, the base of everything I create from now on. I want that to be strong.

On a separate note: Who else is picking up their free iTunes tracks from Starbucks? I've gotten 17 (or $17 worth) in music so far. <3

I know, all I've been writing about has been video games. So, I just wanted to point a link out to my gallery for whatever work I'm doing for my classes at AAU. There's not much there at the moment (and omg pls don't look too closely at the figure modeling, but I hate that class and suck at it).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovenotes/sets/72157602379397190/

In other news...

I've been trying to wear my Dark Garden Corset every day. I love it. But it is kind of weird lacing up/tightening at school.

I got a new FREE power cord for my laptop. I spent two weeks w/o one since they a) weren't stocked anywhere and b) even if the were, it was going to $80 to replace mine. ;_;

Also.. I need to do more going to the gym and less going to the Starbucks/pub. *sigh* (but i luvs beer!)