Please excuse my rather extensive leave of absence. I could give some excuse about how college has been really busy and time-consuming and my life has been incredibly hectic with midterms and finals and scholarships and applications. And I could tell you that when I do have free time I have to spend it napping because I have a job that requires me to get up at 3 in the morning. I could tell you all that, or I could be honest - I'm just really lazy. The things I mentioned above are all true, but they're still not a good excuse for not posting since last September.
Now, because of my negligence, be warned, this is gonna be one long post.
I suppose I'll start with University stuff. First of all, though, I think some life updates are in order. Last semester was incredibly crazy; full of ten-page papers, good and bad professors, split decisions, and frozen pizzas. After some agonizing weeks of inner struggle and self-doubt I decided to switch my major. Twice. No worries, though, I'm still going into art, just a different field of it. Originally I was planning on doing Illustration, but my problem was that I'm really not interested in working for video game companies or doing a whole lot of computer stuff (although I do really want to learn digital art as more of a hobby). Then I considered 3D Studio, since, y'know, that was sort of my concentration for AP Art. However, I don't feel like my work is quite strong enough to get me into that program and plus, I still really like to draw. So I've finally decided to apply to 2D Studio. And before you ask, 2D Studio is essentially a traditional approach to learning art whilst encompassing as many areas as possible. There's a lot of painting and drawing and sketching, but you can also take sculpture classes, performance art classes, even some of the Illustration class, I think. So pretty much, you get the whole deal - which is what I really wanted in the first place. After taking the Studio core classes I may switch over to 3D if I really want to, but I'm not so sure that I will. We'll see. I've got a few more years to keep changing things up, right? Also, all the soul-searching I did inspired quite a few pictures similar to this one:
Anyways, as part of the prerequisites for most of the art majors you have to take a Drawing class, which was my only art-making class last semester unfortunately. (Although having to do several final art projects likely might've killed me). It was the absolute best class of my whole semester and likely my favorite art class ever. I never knew I could do so much until that class. I must admit, it may have boosted my ego just a little bit. In any case, I'm more proud of the work I did for this class than anything else I have ever done up to this point. Okay, enough talk, I should just show you all what I did and you can judge for yourself how much I've improved. These aren't all the assignments I did for class, but they're definitely the better ones.
For this assignment we had to make a non-objective collage, scan it, and draw it in black and white. I particularly like the upside-down ski lift.
For this we had to take an object and draw all sides of it. It's called orthographic perspective and I really love it! This is my awesome Dremel which I dearly love, but is apparently unfamiliar to most people.
This assignment was called Isometric Perspective. It's a perspective where lines and angles don't recede. It's a little MC Escher-ish. I'm still working on coloring the slime, but other than that, I really love the graphic and clean look of this one.
Ugh. A cubist I am not. I don't know why I keep including this picture in things. I'm not a huge fan. But my professor thought it was really good, so I guess there must be something redeeming to it. I do like the towel, I suppose. The assignment was to draw in a cubist style, and rather than going all Picasso, I wanted mine to be more reminiscent of Cezanne's softer, bicameral style. Hmph.
Um, it's a still life. Yep. That's all there really is to say about it. Except that Wellingtons are difficult to draw head-on.
Now on to my final project. I took inspiration from one of the other pieces we did in class (pictured below) where we had to do a portrait with classical highly contrasting lighting and I expounded upon that idea. My mannequin being the subject of my original drawing I took that idea and did a series of portraits reminiscent of classical and traditional paintings. This one is based off of medieval altarpieces and also the Girl with a Pearl Earring painting.
This was the original drawing that inspired the rest. I think it's better-looking in person, but I think you can still tell how much work I put in to this. I don't think I have ever wanted something to look so polished before and actually achieved it. It was mainly thanks to my professor who kept telling me I was almost there when I kept wanting to give up and call it "good enough".
And this was my final piece in my final project (which I actually didn't finish until about last week). When I presented it to my class the black part of the background wasn't filled in and the shading wasn't as blended as it is now. I likely wouldn't have finished it so soon if it weren't for the fact that I really wanted it in my portfolio for a scholarship I recently applied to. I honestly feel like this is the strongest work I have ever completed. I love the personality and the technical aspects of it. Getting everything to look right took forever, but I never really got that frustrated with it. Anyways, I'm just incredibly happy with this.
We also did a few other projects for that class like 2-point perspective drawings and blind contours and all that good stuff. But these are the better ones. I'm learning how to step back and edit my own work. I no longer feel like I have to share everything I ever do with the world (pshhh, that's what my new instagram is for, anyways). I can look at bad art I've done and let it be. I don't have to tell people how hard I worked on it and how much I struggled with the parameters of the assignment. I can acknowledge its existence and then let it go and move on with life. Oh, sorry, that was a little tangential.
On to this semester of classes. Rather than waiting 'til the semester is over and posting everything I did for my 2D Design class (the last prerequisite for my major) I'll get some of them out of the way right now.
Hooray for collage! I probably should've been more excited for this project from the get-go seeing as I really love collage and have been doing it for practically my whole life, but I was having trouble easing in to my 2D Design class and the intensely structured nature of our assignments. I guess I was more used to my Drawing class where assignments were more like: here's the assignment, now run with it. Instead our assignments are "you must do this, you absolutely cannot do this, it has to look like this etc." It's been a little frustrating, but I'm starting to cope.
Abstraction. Blech. At least I go to add hands to it.
Another piece from the collage project. That's another thing about this class. Everytime we do an assignment its never just one piece, its always a series and we always only have a few days to do like 3 or 4 or sometimes 10 pieces. It's a little crazy. Also, side note: tearing up books can be really fun sometimes.
Okay, random art time. In the last few months I drew a little more of my characters Svenna and Ditto and Ahser. Not much, but some.
Here's Svenna and Asher as Pazu and Sheeta from Castle in the Sky. I was probably somewhat inspired by a conversation I once had with my sister about cosplaying and making Studio Ghibli themed wedding announcements.
Oh look, the two sisters on something that isn't notebook paper.
Worked on developing some old somewhat abandoned characters from a comic I once started called Donny and Me. It's about this little girl and her cousin Donny who get into mischief and build clubhouses and have an absolutely perfect childhood. I started it because I always look back at my golden eight-year-old days where everything was wonderful and instead of just wishing I could turn back the clock, I wanted to rebuild some of the happier moments of childhood and make short little comics about these two. This was done around Halloween, sorry it's a little dated now.
And here's some paper dolls I made of them.
I also found time to do the next page of the comic I've actually made progress on. Woot! I've known the layout of the page after this for quite a while now, but I still haven't gotten much work done on it. Hmmm, maybe tonight.
Don't worry, I've still been crafting recently. This is a quilt that took me a bit to finally finish, but is now complete and keeps me very warm at night. I really love the concept of upcycling. I'm a very nostalgic and attached person. I like my stuff, but I also like being practical and if I have something (especially clothes) that I never use, then what's the point. So, you recycle it into something better. Nearly this entire quilt is made out of upcycled materials. All the t-shirts were mine as well as the jeans and jean pockets that I used between the shirts. Also, the backing is an old queen-sized top sheet that didn't have a mate. The only things I had to purchase were the batting, yarn, and bias tape for the edges. I really love quilts . . . and old things. One of the best aspects of this project is that my mom helped me out quite a bit (I've never made a quilt before) and I really love doing things with my mom, especially crafty things like this.
I also made another robot. Yay! I love my robots. (Wow, I'm in a lovey mood, must be February). I've been thinking about what I might sell if I were to open an Etsy store and I definitely think these little guys would make the list. Maybe I'm just biased, but I think they're pretty adorable.
Almost done, I promise! This is a project I did for myself. I was disappointed with myself that I only turned out good, finished works when I'm in a class, so I decided to try and create a piece on my own. It's not hugely successful, but I like it. It's hard to tell from this picture, but there are quite a few textural elements to it, like the fabric of my liripipe is actually fabric I glued down and folded and puckered. And the tie is actual string threaded through the piece. I'd really like to do some more pieces that involve a lot more elements like that sometime.
Okay, last of my stuff before signing off. I went outside to take a bunch of pictures the other day to try and get inspired. However, a photographer I am not, and this is really the only picture worth mentioning. That being said, I think this picture turned out really cool. I'm trying to do a painting based off of it right now, but I thought I'd share the original photo as well. I'm amazed at how alive things looked even though its the dead of winter. And what are those little cup things? Anyways, I was just fascinated by this and thought I'd share.
Because of the length of this horridly belated post, I'm going to skip my advice-thing, give you all a bit more news about my life and mention another artist very briefly.
So, life news. Among some of the crazy things that happened last semester I may have possibly applied to a study abroad program in Berlin. And I might have probably discovered just last week that I've been accepted. So yeah. I'm gonna go do art in Germany for a couple of months this summer. Yay! I'm actually incredibly excited and I'm going to get my passport photo tomorrow. I have a preparation class that starts at the end of this month. Eeeep! I'm going to Europe!
Before I leave you all for who knows how long, there's an artist I need to mention. So a few months ago I won a painting over on facebook from this artist I really love. Her name is Vanessa Matte and you guys should check out her page: https://www.facebook.com/vanessamatteart
Also, this is the painting she did of me:
Isn't is just the coolest thing ever!? Yes, yes it is.
One last thing (sorry). On the subject of artists on facebook - in an attempt to start networking as early as possible, I decided to set up my own facebook page for my art. Here's a link if you'd like to check it out: https://www.facebook.com/algaeart I'm currently giving away $1 commissions if anyone's interested. Oh, and I may have also joined Instagram. Follow me @autnott ?
Have a wonderfully creative weekend!
