Rah Rah Ah Ah Ah

Oh my! Thank goodness it's Winter Break!!! o___o My abnormal sleeping patterns have not gotten any better yet, but :P

I hope (hope o.-) To finish up some paintings I'd started earlier this year over the break when I have no workto do but so far I haven't done much (I haven't searched for my missing oil paints and brushes yet either -___-) Buttt this is what I'm working on at the moment!

I hadn't intended the paint to be that dark o_o I haven't used acrylics in a while either, so :P Hopefully I'll get this finished before next semester starts because I will most definitely not have time.

End of the Semester Blues.

Well here's this little gem I just finished -____-;; The requirements were *drumroll*: Stairs, a 1'x1' base (at least), a removable roof, and at least one curved surface. In all honesty, this was not an awful project to do! It's quite fun to have something you sketch out on a piece of paper come to life! I was just getting frustrated that the joints weren't coming together the way they were supposed to and the roof didn't sit right and I couldn't get the turret thing to work out and stuff got benttt. Oh whatever I got a B- on it. I'll take it. I just hate doing this stuff knowing that if it doesn't look like a machine pumped it out, I'm gonna get a bad grade. It makes me even angrier to know that I spend all of this time working on projects...and I have to do them ALL over again! I have to do it for Specialization Review (which is at the end of the first semester of my sophomore year). I'm not feeling optimistic about it either because I've heard plenty of people saying things like "Oh yeah, 20 people went up for spec and only 4 passed." and it's just like... what?

It's like a giant spit in the face. Here, do all this work that we're going to tell you you're bad at, tell you to redo it, and still tell you that you suck. Well thanks guys, I really needed that encouragement there. This project I need to do over especially because, and I quote my professor, the head of the design department "really has a boner for the 3-D projects."

It's insulting that I'm paying all of this money just so they can tell me that I'm not good enough and I can't move on to the classes in my major. I came here to draw shit, not to cut out little black squares and glue them on a piece of illustration board you tell me to.

I can't say I don't understand why they want us to take these classes, but I don't like it. While other art majors are off drawing oranges and naked people, I'm staring at squares. How very inspiring. I can see where all this stuff would be applicable to graphic design majors -- make me all these black squares but there needs to be a focal point -- yes, if you're making a new logo or identity for a company, you need something that draws the viewer's eye to what's important right away because they're not going to stand around and look for it and if you haven't caught their attention in the first thirty seconds they're staring at it, you've lost a potential customer. Great. How exactly does that apply to illustration?

It's just...infuriating. I'd come to terms with it until I was talking on the phone with my mother. "...What do you mean you have to re-do ALL of your projects!?" Yeah, mom. I think it's bullshit too.

I'm considering very seriously looking into the art institute of Boston. It's not SCAD, but it's an art school and it's still close to some family, so that makes me happy. Plus, north=good.

I don't want to seem like I'm giving up here. I would keep on it if I thought I wasn't wasting my time. But that's exactly what it feels like. I don't have the time to fail spec and go back and re-do projects (each of which I slaved over for like a minimum of 15 hours) and retake classes. I want to practice drawing, learn how to draw stuff I don't know how to, learn how to use colors, and all that other fine arts stuff. But guess what? Illustration just HAD to be in the design department here. These classes did not sound the least bit hellish when I looked at them in the course catalogue. There should be a warning on them: CAUTION: THIS CLASS MAY MAKE YOU SUICIDAL, DEPRESSED, OR PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE. TAKE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

It's a damn good thing I've already got some happy pills because I know of two people already who've started going to counseling because of the stress.

I don't want to go to design school to learn how to control people's minds with useless UPS logos and billboard ads. I don't care. I hate that stuff.

I want to use my imagination to help create stories that carry people out of this world and make them happy and interested. I want to come up with characters and develop their personalities. I have my doubts whether I'm ever gonna get there if I stay here. I understand that it's going to be a lot of work wherever I go, but I don't want to spend every waking moment of my life doing work that I don't learn anything from.

dedicated to Erin.

Human life is annoyingly frail.

Someone I didn't know at all really died a few days ago in a head-on collision (and people wonder why I'm afraid to drive.). I'd only met her once or twice in my life and I had the pleasure of attending her wedding a couple of years ago. It made me really sad to hear that she had passed away, even if I didn't know her. She seemed like a really happy and loving person and it just upset me more that she just recently got married. I can't imagine what her wife is going through, or her parents, who I am well-acquainted with....and they're just really amazing people.

I don't know where I was going with this. I had some more profound thoughts when I found out about it but...it's just really upsetting. In just...less than a second without even expecting it, your life could be gone. It's even more upsetting because it's something that could have been avoided if someone else hadn't been acting foolishly.

Rest in Peace.♥

The Greatest Man That Ever Lived

Finito for now. I have a lot to babble about but I won't :P Weezer has taken over my hearing.

Two thousand years of chasing taking its toll

...and it's coming closer♪

Registration

AHAHAHAHAHA getting the last seat in a previously-closed class makes me just feel all warm and fuzzy inside xDDD I'm not sure if, since I got the art history class I needed, I should drop the 'Elementary Chinese' class I signed up for to fulfill my 12 credit hours for the semester. They're both 1 hour classes though and I would really like to take Chinese :O There is always the option to S/U it so it doesn't mess up my GPA... I could also just drop it if it's too much of an interference with my other classes :O So much for an easy next semester? 16 Hours...hm. We Shall see. In any case, I'm excited. I really wanted to take figure drawing buuuut of course all the seats in that class were taken up by the time I got to it. Also, I would have to a Drawing I class before that and that interferes with the Intro to Computer Imaging class I have to take. >:\ Guess which one I WANT to take?

I'mmmm taking a break from my schoolwork to do this. AND I'm doing it with the supplies I bought for my classes >:D bwahahaha suck on that Visual Communications
Yeahhhh I just felt like drawing and I didn't have anything particular in mind so I've been looking at a photo to do this. It's not supposed to be a self-portrait but I guess that'll happen when you're using a picture of yourself -___-
Not sure where I'm going with it >_>;;;
...And I hate how this thing looks like some stupid little doodle in my sketchbook when I've been working on it since like 7:30 and it's like way bigger than I usually work. ...I don't know. I don't know why it's not coming out right. I think the face is drawn too wide...I may need to make the shoulders bigger too to fit with the head o.x Oi I fail.

Why I doodle in class

Welll the Working Title concert last night was a little anticlimactic. They played like six songs and I had to listen to two loud and crappy bands before them and my ear is still ringing like nobody's business. I did go to sleep early (though I'll be paying for that in a moment trying to start/finish a project before 6:30)

In any case, my classes are very boring and hard to pay attention to. For my Human Experience class (stupid name for ENGLISH) I USED to write notes in the margins of the book buuuut since my professor just talks all the

time and we never have to do anything with the readings, I have just begun to doodle. There's not much that can entert

ain me in an 8 a.m. class.

:O Not much in the way of actual drawings to show. I have no time to do anything nice on my own (I sound like a broken record). Good news though, for our final project in my design drawing class, we get to do an independent project and IIIIII get to decide what I'm doing :D yusss! I'll probably end up drawing a room or something since it either has to be a perspective or paraline drawing. We'll see what I come up with.

I miss figure drawing with a passion. I don't know if they have any open-studio figure drawing here (I know there are classes but I have to wait to take them D:) ....Alas, I

have work to do -- nine lovely drawings for design fundamentals and I'm not really sure what to do lalalaaaaa ♪

Homestyle Popcorn

As usual it's Sunday and I've waited until the day before to start my work :O It's very hard to motivate myself on the weekend when I've worked so hard during the week. In any case, this is what I'm breaking my neck over at the moment.

We're working on a graphic

simplification project for my Design Studio Skills class as well and I used some pictures from my bike ride on the Virginia

Creeper trail (which was beautiful as always this year!). All I can say is...Finally! A project where I get to DRAW! On top of that, I already did this with some photos when I turned in my portfolio for the Department of Design's PmyP scholarship.

I'm currently rewarding my finish of the first marker comp with some popcorn and wondering why the microwave always burns it...

I was productive in my own way this weekend xD I got a good bit of play time in on Zelda and I got some things drawn just for fun. Neither are finished, mostly because I stopped drawing due to the protests of my over-worked hand. This one I drew

while I was at work. Fridays are incredibly slow in the mac lab. I wish I had the time to draw some bigger things and get some color in. I can only be thankful I can at least time to give my sketchbook the attention it needs. I drew thisss after too many hours of Zelda and hating the old Great Fairy from the Ocarina of Time. The original looks like this (scary).

SIGH welll I should be back to my work!! :O hopefully this next photo will not take so long to draw out!

SPARTA

Well I do certainly feel like kicking something over in a dramatic fashion...but I won't :P

Ah! The copier was fixed just in time :DD After staying up for 28 hours, my work was finally finished! phew! I'll probably end up having to re-do the layout project for my Design Fundamentals class but hey, at least I got it in on time. As for these graphic simplification projects, I find them to be very interesting. Finally, I'm getting to DRAW! For this same class I picked a trumpet to draw since my professor found my adorable little cactus to be too boring >:(

I was particularly proud of a few of the eleven pictures I drew of my baby :O ...my poor trumpet needs a bath but that is the least of my worries right now xDDD

I love how it's been...four days since I got new ink cartridges and one of them is almost out already, and all I've been printing are pictures and copies for class.

I really look forward to the weekend! If I'm smart, I'll finish my work before Friday so I can go home and curl up on the couch with a giant comforter and my fat cat and get some hours in on my neglected wii and perhaps beat Super Mario Galaxy once and for all. Maybe get some Zelda in there, who knows. :O NERD TIEM IS SWELL.

Ground control to Major Tom...

I suppose I can add this to my list of things used to procrastinate/take a break from doing projects *which I am still not finished with* The mac lab's copier chose just the most AWESOME time to be broken. I still don't know how the hell I'm going to get a 9x12 copy of my two layouts. Sigh no sleep in sight for me until about 3:30. We'll see how that goes.

I'm fairly certain that art students worldwide could wipe out the Earth's supply of trees singlehandedly.

^...and this is the balloon that will fly me away to Oz away from this insanity.