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>

I spilled apple juice on my tablet. I saw it happen, almost as if in slow motion. The cup poured, not into the easily cleaned plastic surface but right into the shortcut buttons. All sorts of finals projects still need working on. I don't know what to be more distressed about, the $400 tablet or the effect this is going to have on my grades/finals week work load squished into the lab hours schedule. Fuck you apple juice. Fuck you, Gabi!

Nick and I opened it and wiped down the inside. It is unplugged and drying out on top of one of the bookshelves. I hope to go it works after it dries. fuckfuckfuckgoddamnit

( 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.

I missed SketchCrawl ... AGAIN! uhg.

Wow, I've been really ...nostalgic over the Utena series. I dunno, maybe because the art was something that I worked on ALL THE TIME in high school. There was just something about the aesthetic that I absolutely adored. I'm wearing my signet ring as we speak XD Now that I am really learning how to illustrate, I want to master that style as much as possible so that I can pull my favorite aspects of it into my own. <3

Does anyone else remember Shounen Ou???

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:

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!)