Of Dæmons and Halloween

I took this quiz on The Golden Compass Myspace page. It first told me my Dæmon was a crow, but there's this quiz thing where friends can answer and then your animal changes according to what they said. So mine has changed to either a ferret or ermine-type creature. Cool. That's what Pan's favorite form is in the books. I can't wait for the movie, though I am worried that they will screw it up by making it a kid's movie. Or worse, trying to keep the original theme but dumbing it down so it's a weird mix. So they either have to kiddify it, or keep it as close as possible to the book. The actors all look like they can pull of the part, but if the girl playing Lyra can't act then we have a big problem.



The PCA&D Halloween party is tonight, and I'm almost ready. Still need a boa, and maybe a sparkle-y purple pin to put in my hat. There will be many pictures, as my roommates are going as Bob Ross and the Prince (from Katamari Damacy). Katie is going as something she hobbled together, but she won't tell me what it is, so I'll have to wait and see. She's very excited about it, so I bet it's pretty nifty. Jason waited till now to figure out he can't afford the V costume he wanted (he was going as V, but the apron and oven mitts version, when he's making the eggies in a basket) so we're going to try to get some Ninja stuff together for him. He already has the cowl.

Wow it got cold. Definitely going to have to wear my winter coat around more.

Alone with the Light Table (& Registration)

Usually on a Tuesday I spend about 3 hours at my college. Today I spent about 8. Registration was today, 1-5. I got there at 11:40-something and was the third person to pick non-sucky classes. Yay. Yes, it is necessary to get there frickin' early. Then I had my 3 hour studio class, where we did an under painting in acrylic. Bleh. I like how the skull is so far though:



And then I got the light table closet key from the Dean and spent the next 3 1/2 hours working on my "rotating name" animation. 16 drawings never took me so long. -_- Perspective and 3D letters are not fun. For me anyway. If they float your boat, great for you (you freak). But it's done, which means I have all day tomorrow to shoot them and then fiddle in Flash to make it run smoothly.



I finished my comic layout over the weekend, and that's due tomorrow. Hmm, only thing I have to look at some more for tomorrow is info on the picture book "Tuesday" which is what I chose to do my picture-book speech on, for Children's Lit. And for Thursday my New Yorker cover is finished and Jason ran me to Kinko's last night, so now I have the digital print with the font to turn in, as well as the original piece. Lookit:



Whew. I'm tired. This semester has been crazy with work, and because I'm insane (or just wanting as much as I can get in college, considering I'm paying for it and loans will eat my soul once I graduate) I signed up for several studio electives, meaning next semester I'll be on the 18 credit instead of the normal 15. So even more work to do, and probably less social time, since I can't skimp on my actually part time job. God. I'm going to be busy.

Pizza and Guy-Me

I'm currently at Jason's place, but as he just managed to fix his computer (new processor) and is doing all his online homework right now, I am bored. So figured I'd update. I'm making a freezer-to-oven pizza, and I hope it's almost ready because I'm starving. Damn Papa John's server being down and me being too lazy to actually interact with someone on the phone.

In school news all students have to enter a "What is Beauty?" contest/thing. No guidelines besides the size, really. It was just an open thing, but then they made it mandatory for the Fine Art majors, and then for the rest of the school too. :/ Besides the bitterness of an extra homework assignment-

Pizza!

Okay. I'm back, with a full stomach and a burn blister. Bah. Anyway, besides that and the fact that we have less time to do the thing, I think it could be kinda fun, it will give me a chance to do something less illustration-y. I have some ideas which I kinda sketched out in thumbnails. Need to do some better sketches though.

In Anatomy we have to draw a self portrait and ourselves as the opposite gender...I normally handle self portraits very well but ever since the end of freshmen year when my face thinned out I've had a hard time with it. I think I see the problem now that I'm posting this crappy pic of what I have so far up:



They eyes and noses are off placement wise. Bah! I mean, it looks like me, but too cute. Ick. And Guy-Me is harder to do then you'd think, even with the help of a beard. I don't have a brother to base the assignment off of, and my dad's features aren't helping much. Guy-Me looks like a monkey. -_- Sigh.

Because I'm bored and Jason is currently playing video games I sneak-attacked him with my cell camera. Mwahaa!



Nice expression, eh? I like how it caught the movement.

I finished the New Yorker project, but I'll wait till I scan it in and put the font on it before showing it here. I have to find time to get to Kinko's and print out a digital copy too before Thursday. Time is going to be scarce this week, and I still don't have all the things I need for the Halloween party at PCA&D. I'm going to be a flapper, and I have the hat, necklace and shirt for it, and I just bought a cigarette holder and some fake cigarettes. Still need to adjust the hat and find shoes. So much to do...

Oh, For A Light Table...

I've figured out why it took so long for the weather to get colder. Persephone and Hades are having a marital spat, and she didn't want to leave her mother. :/

Well the critique of George Rocking Out went well. First time in a long while where I thought I got a positive critique. No glowing adorations (except from Matt, who is a Fine Artist and lives upstairs, and likes guitars: "Is that a guitar? Cool. Is that freaking George Washington!?!"), but I got the sense it was liked, and did get some good feedback from my classmates on how to perfect it, like by adding details to the guitar, and white to the spot lights. So yay. Will do that.

So this Materials and Techniques class was going well, we've just been using watercolors and every class I finished the assignment ahead of time. But now we're moving onto oil glazes. I hate glazes. We have to do an acrylic under painting and then use oil on top, of a celebrity and a pet. Not an animal that looks like them, but of one that has some characteristics of the person. Like powerful, or sly...like that. So my one idea is of Meg Ryan and a Platinum Pearl Cockatiel. Ryan makes me think of something small and perky. And sometimes loud and obnoxious, as Sam described it when I told her about my animal and celebrity pick. Here's the sketch:



I wish I had a light table. :( I could actully do my homework at home instead of freaking out about when I'll have the time to go to school while it's still open and get the key to the closet where they are kept. I didn't finish my work today, even with a full 3 hours spent on it. You wouldn't think animating my name would take so freaking long. It's hard to do. Perspective is my enemy, and 3D letters are not my thing. So most of the drawings I did today had to be thrown away, because something was always wrong with them. Sigh.

I should probably be doing something productive with my time right now, as I have no homework due tomorrow, I finished it in class last week. Hmm. Maybe I'll clean my room...

George Looks Out of Place

Spent most of the night on my painting due at 2 today. Still not happy with it. Here it is currently:



The background and figure don't seem to go together very well. Bah. I should work on it more...

There's something moving in my room. >.> <.< It's not the cat, because he's in my lap...Just investigated, can't find anything, though the noise seems to be moving around. I evacuated some of my stuffed animals to the common room. Yes, I have stuffed animals. Well, a stuffed paopu fruit and a Ninja, and then the others are animals. I bought myself a blue dragon one for my 21st birthday. I'm not weird at all. Anywho.

Back to the art aspect of the blog, though the bug noises are distracting (it sounds angry), here's a blurry pic of my New Yorker cover idea:



We're supposed to do a cover for "New York during Halloween" and we kept a look out for ideas while we went on our bus trip to New York. We saw a random girl dressed in a suit and wearing a skull mask, handing out fliers. Well. That's my roommates cover idea. I didn't get a picture of that, but I did of this:



Which I incorporated in some of my thumbnail sketches for ideas, a witch fashion display. But I eventually went with my first idea, before even going to NY, and that was the Statue of Liberty dressed up as a ghost. I like the cartoony-ness. This is just the color comp, the finished one will have the yellow and orange applied better, but I like the texture of the scratchy lines.

Update on my hair-coloring attempt: I dyed more of it last night, but it just seems to be making my hair darker, more then coloring it. I have yet to get in some direct light however.
I really should get back to working on the painting...

In-process, In-Studio & Purple Hair

Thought I'd put up another incomplete piece, this is due tomorrow so it won't be unfinished for long. We had to paint either George Washington, the Tooth Fairy, or Santa in a weird position/place. So we have here George rocking out. The color scheme is still giving me issues. Bleh. It's watercolor, and when everything is painted it will have ink outlining.



And here's the limited palette, colored-pencil piece I talked about in my last post, I'm very proud of it. The best I've done of Robin ever. He even said so. Heh, poor Robin he's used to seeing crappy drawings of him from me. But now I have a colored-pencil piece to put in any portfolio. Yay!



Went to the Guitar Store yesterday, did a sketch of one of their Halloween displays. Might put that up later, if I do another sketch dump. I should take better pictures of my last two sketches that I put here too, sigh.

I'm trying to dye my hair purple. So far the top layer has a purple sheen to it, but that's it. I'll be working on my painting tonight, but maybe tomorrow after I give Tandy a bath and before class I'll try to get to the rest of my hair. Once all the under layers are finished I think it will show up more. I hope. I have light brown hair so I don't see why it's not showing up better...but I do have a lot of hair...Guess I'll have to make sure I get all of it. This idea started while I was at work, and I asked if I could spray my hair purple for the day (we're selling those cheap hair color sprays) and my boss said I could, since the sale signs were purple. So he sprayed my hair and then the assistant manger's hair too (it showed up better on his, he had less hair and it was lighter). It made my hair feel like spider webs. -_- But I liked the color. So I bought the nice dye stuff. Here's my hair with the crappy stuff on it:



So far the nice stuff looks better, and not like my hair is crappy cheese-cloth. Must get ready for class now, and find out what grade I'm getting on this blog. Dun DUn DUN.

More Unfinished-ness, & Blabbing

I need to show two more unfinished pieces before this blog is graded, so I'm posting while on my lunch break now, because I'll probably be at Jason's and work for most of the weekend. Here's a sketch I want to clean up and finish some time, but it'll most likely stay this way for awhile.



Here's some sketches from last night, at anime club. I'd like to do better portraits of people, but right now they are just quick sketches. Only Eve knew I was drawing her, but she was also posing for my roommate. Jason might have, but he kept on talking. Amy and Matt were totally unawares, mwhaha.



I'm eating salami with ranch dressing instead of miracle whip. Anybody ever tired that? It;s pretty good, along side some orange soda and "Doritos Collisions" (hot wings & blue cheese). I'm in my anatomy class currently, and I'm actully happy with what I'm drawing. I didn't feel like drawing a live model today, but of course I went to class and pulled out my scrap of illustration board I've had laying around. The back side is blue I noticed. So I'm using that side, instead of the white front, with colored pencils and it's turning out pretty well. Robin, the model, even high-fived me. I'll make sure to post that as soon as I can...if I don't screw it up in the last 3 hours of class.

Fall is definitly in the air now, I could smell it on my way back to the apartment. <3>