Another Year, Gone

Freshman year is over!  And now I'm a Junior.  Funny how that works.

All in all, my freshman year at college was probably one of the greatest years ever.  At least in terms of learning about myself and really starting to become someone.  I had some bad points, but overall I'm pretty happy.

I was finally able to get some time last week to use the large scanner on campus to scan the rest of the pieces I did for my 2D design class last semester.  And without further ado, here they are!

These three were a series we had to do based on a previous work we'd done.  For some reason they remind me of the hero's journey.  The first one's my favorite.

This one is personally my favorite piece I did for this class, but unfortunately my professor was less than impressed.  To be fair, this was my first ballpoint pen drawing.  Anyways, the assignment was based on the golden mean.

This assignment was based on texts.  It was somewhat difficult since, at the time, I still couldn't text, but I just used some facebook messages instead.  It's a poem that my sister and I wrote together while she was downstairs making a sandwich and I was too lazy to go find her.  I really like how Megan turned out, but I look . . . special.

And finally - my final project.  I had a really hard time deciding what to do and changed my mind at least three times, the last time being the weekend before it was due.

 The one below is probably my favorite from this series.

Erggg!  Sorry this post is so late in coming (not to mention poorly written . . .).  But I've been extremely busy with a new family blog over at greenegrassgrows.blogspot.com (psst . . . you should check it out) as well as Spring Term classes and getting ready for my Study Abroad (ohmigosh I leave next week!).  To leave you all with - here's another commission I finished for a friend of mine.  Yay!

Gosh I love those mannequins.

The Greatest Adventure Starts Today

"My dad had the right idea. And it all worked out. He used to say to me: 'Son, don't miss the wonders that surround you because every tree, every rock, every anthill, every star is filled with the wonders of nature.' And he used to say to me: 'Have you ever noticed how grateful you are to see daylight again after coming through a long dark tunnel?' 'Well,' he'd say, 'Always try to see life around ya as if you'd just come out of a tunnel.'"

-Jefferson Smith as played by the wonderful James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Guys, I'm tired.  Tired of living in the tunnel.  Tired of sitting around and twiddling my thumbs when there are things to be done and mountains to climb.  Tired of forgetting the wonders that surround me.  And mostly I'm tired of being tired.  And I'm going to do something about that.

I'm not entirely sure what that something is, but I'm guessing it's going to involve quite a bit of hand-shaking, lip-biting determination.  But I think I've got the guts in my blood for it.  For starters, I've decided that my life is, in fact, already exciting and I don't have to sit around waiting for adventures to find me.

That being said, I'm coming out of the tunnel today and I wanted this post to be all about the exciting things that are surrounding me.  (Be warned, I'm about to start talking about myself even more than usual, today.  Oh, and there are also going to be pictures of me . . . you have been warned.)

As most people already know, I'm going on a Study Abroad this summer.  It was somewhat of a crazy, impulsive thing I decided to do Fall semester.  I heard about it from one of the professors in charge of it, saw the posters in the art building on campus and said "what the heck, why not?"  Suddenly, a semester later, I find myself buying plane tickets and trying to learn German.  How much more of an adventure could I have asked for?  Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Some of you are probably interested to know the details of my impending excursion.  So, I'll be in Europe for the entirety of summer term, mainly in Berlin, but we're also spending time in Paris, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels (among others).  It's going to be insane.  Especially when you consider I'm also having to focus on classes in the midst of all these really great experiences.  But I think it will be good.  Between devouring delicious European street foods and creating my own art I won't have any time for second-guessing or home-sicking.  In addition to the program, I'll also be visiting Iceland (I've got some pretty lengthy layovers there on my flight there and back) and spending extra time in Brussels with my brother.  So, yeah.  What's not to be excited about?

Oh, and here's this "selfie" I took on Instagram.  It's one of those rare occurrences where I actually like a picture that I took of myself on purpose.  Oh, and that's my passport.  (We won't look at my actual passport picture, because I look like a total convict).

Okay, moving right along.  I'm not sure if I mentioned this here on my blog, but at the beginning of Winter semester I applied to some scholarships.  One was a standard academic scholarship (based on your GPA and all that jazz) and the other was something called a Talent Award.  Well, good news.  I got the academic scholarship . . . and a Talent Award . . . and a very unexpected scholarship . . . ta-dah!  There's not much to say about the academic scholarship, other than it was an incredible relief to have received it.  I think somewhat more of an explanation is in order for these other scholarships, though.  So, for the Talent Award I had to submit a portfolio of my art back in February and then do a good deal of waiting while professors and department heads reviewed and scrutinized it.  I struggle with waiting, but I endured and it turned out to be well worth the wait.  I got an email a week or so before the application for my major (Studio Art) was due, informing me that I had received a scholarship.  I was ecstatic and might have done a silent little happy dance in my bedroom.  Of course, having some of my tuition paid for was going to be fantastic (especially with all the Study Abroad expenses I was incurring), but I think I was even more relieved when I realized that I no longer had to apply for my major.  You see, the scholarship is an automatic in.  If you get the scholarship, you're in the major.  It was one of those crazy moments when I realized that my life is actually going somewhere.  I don't really know where exactly that is, but it's going.  And faster than I expected, which is completely terrifying, but also exhilarating and incredibly exciting.  So, anyways, there was this fancy award night for the scholarship winners and families.  It was here that I found out I also received a "named" scholarship.  It's one of those scholarships where someone sets up a scholarship fund in memoriam of a relative or someone like that who was very influential or did a lot of really great and amazing things.  The scholarship I got was the Anna F. Sommers scholarship.  It took me by complete surprise and it was very humbling.  Here I was, worrying and agonizing over whether I'm any good at art and second-guessing my future plans, when out of the blue I get this incredible award.  Obviously someone believes in me, so maybe I should too.  It's time for me to stop complaining and get to work.

These are pictures from the awards night.  Mostly it's just me eating brownies.  Yum!

And now we come to the last, most recent exciting thing from that life that is mine.  So, winter semester just ended for me last week and it was a little bittersweet.  I'm one of those crazy people who really loves school.  I know it doesn't always seem like that, but it's true.  I love teachers and classes and having something to do (even when I absolutely do not want to do it).  I'm always a little sad when classes end.  What if I didn't do my best?  What if I don't remember anything?  What if the teacher thinks I'm stupid and I've run out of opportunities to prove them wrong?  What if I never see any of these people that I've shared all these experiences with ever again?  I think it's probably thoughts like these that make me do crazy things near the end of the semester.  For instance, on the last day of Archaeology I went to thank my professor after class for the great semester.  I told him I was still in love with Archaeology and we started talking about other classes I could take.  Well, a day or so later I found myself in the social sciences advisement center filling out an anthropology minor request form and then taking that form to the visual arts advisement center.  It wasn't until I got back to my apartment that I actually stopped to think.  I just added an anthropology minor to my college education for no other reason except that I love Archaeology and want to take more classes.  Granted, I still think that's a good enough reason, but it was incredibly impulsive and a potentially life-changing decision.  But, I think being impulsive is good for me.  When I stop to think for too long about things, doubts and confusion fight their way in and I get paralyzed by the thought of going on, no matter what choice I make.  I need to start doing.  It's time I stopped thinking and wasting the day!

 

Words, Words, Words

"I'm so sick of words!" 

Actually, not really, though I dearly do love this song . . . and this whole movie pretty much.

I actually don't think I could ever be sick of words.  Although I did consider it after writing a massive research paper this weekend.  Ugh.  Even, then, though, I did like writing it.  In a weird sort of way.  It's hard to explain.  I liked my topic and I like to write, but then I start to think about other people reading my writing and whether or not they'll think I have good ideas or mayhap they start to question how I got into college in the first place.  And then all I want to do is find a good dark corner under my covers and live there for the rest of eternity.

Writing this is different, though.  I mean, it's not like I don't think you guys are judging me (because I know all of you are . . .) but I suppose it's because I'm writing this for myself.  I don't write my blog to prove anything to anyone.  Although, sometimes I wish my teachers could see it so I could show them that I do, in fact, have a brain.  On second thought, maybe that wouldn't be a good idea.

Anyways, now that we've got that out of the way, I come to my point.  Words.  They're great!  Especially when you put a whole string of 'em together and make a rope, er, I mean, a book.  And that is what I am here to talk to you about.  Books!  Yay!  Let's all just take a moment to sit back and enjoy the Reading Rainbow theme, shall we?

I'm sorry guys, now that I've discovered that I can add Youtube videos to my blog, I just can't help myself.

Okay, okay, okay, let us begin.  I thought I'd write today's post on inspiring art books I've read/am reading.  I'll start with just a conglomeration of books I remember from my childhood.

Okay, actually, come to think of it, I really only have memories of Lee J. Ames' books.  Which were totally fantastic!  The one pictured above is an especially good one.  I highly recommend it.

On to stuff I actually remember.

Freehand Drawing by Gerhard Gollwitzer.  I read this book when I was in 11th grade and it marked the start of a sort of art revolution in my life.  I started to take art more seriously and the very first inklings of being an art major started to grow in a little unattended patch of thought.  What I love about this book is that, most of the time, you only need a pencil and some paper to do the projects he gives.  They're mostly just sketchbook stuff, but it's really great for someone who's just starting to try out art.  I remember it teaching how to draw faces in a way that I had never been shown before.  I need to go back and reread that part because I've since forgotten, but I remember it helped me out so much.  Here's an example of one of the exercises from it: 

Such fun!

This is one of my all-time favorite books at the moment.  I've mentioned it before and I post the projects I do from it quite often.  It's full of little projects that can take five minutes to several days to complete.  The great thing about it is that the projects are so open-ended that you don't feel like your creativity is being stifled, but they're also structured enough that they're easy to get into if you're having an art block or are just starting out with art.  Also, everything is so quirky that you don't know how things are going to turn out.  You don't have to worry about things looking any one way.  I don't even really know how to describe how fun these projects are.  Highly, highly, highly recommended.  Here's some of the stuff I've done:

Look familiar?  Yeah, probably.

Okay, last one.  I actually only just bought this book a few weeks ago.  I was talking to my mom after a particularly frustrating day and she told me to go reward myself by buying something from the bookstore.  Yeah, my mom's just awesome like that.  I'd been eyeing this book for pretty much the whole semester, so I wasn't all that slow to heed such motherly advice.  I'm only just beginning with this book, but I'm already in love.  I've had to put progress on hold for now, though, because the next project requires postage stamps, which I ordered off eBay (it made me feel like weird, independent single adult . . . ).  So now I'm just waiting for my bag of stamps to get here from Canada and I can move forward with this.  I've looked through some of the other things in here while I've been waiting and I'm very excited.  I'll let you guys know more as I get further down the road.

So go forth and read, my creative friends!  And let me know if you have any great books that I should be reading.

What is Art?

The age old question.  Art.  What exactly is it?  How do you judge it?  What's the difference between good and bad art?  Is there a difference?

Here's my opinion.  Art is everything.  Everything you see, hear, touch, taste.  Art is life.  Or perhaps the experience of life.  There is no good or bad art, just things you like or don't like.  To me, art is anything that makes you feel.  Currently, I'm looking at the clean dishes stacked up on our apartment's counter top.  I'm sure whoever put them there spent no amount of time dwelling on exactly how they were going to stack the tupperware just a little askew, or how they were going to place the pot lid leaning against a neat little stack of bowls, but inadvertently, they made art.  It makes me smile.  I don't really know why, I just like the look of all those dishes neatly laid out on that little blue towel behind that yellowing head of broccoli.  To me, it's art and an artist is someone who merely manipulates the things around them and 'controls' the art already existing.  It's a little like that rule about energy you learn in every science class since fifth grade: Energy cannot be created or destroyed, simply changed from one form to another.  Similarly, art is not created or destroyed, just changed.

Now, you're probably wondering what brought all this on.  That, or you're wondering how tired and sleep-deprived I must've been when I wrote this.  Well, I'm only going to answer the first one.

As I get further along in college I begin to realize that as an art major I will someday have to enter the "art conversation," whatever that is.  No offense, but I'm not a stuffy art person.  I don't take myself that seriously.  Wait, no, scratch that.  I do take myself seriously as an artist.  If I weren't serious, then this wouldn't be my major.  What I mean is that I'm serious about my art, but to me, art doesn't have to be serious.  I've tried explaining this before and it's always been difficult, but I hope I get my point across.  Let's just skip to my rant about the experiences I've been encountering.

So it started when I discovered that a girl in my Irish Dance class is a Sculpture major.  I got all excited and we started discussing life as art majors.  She used a lot of terms that sounded vaguely familiar to me from my AP Art History class all those years ago, but I couldn't really remember them enough to do anything other than nod politely.  I explained to her that I was interested in the Sculpture major but was applying for the 2D Studio major instead and then deciding if I wanted to switch once I had taken the core classes (which involve things like both painting and sculpture).  Very flatly she told me that probably wasn't a good idea and would involve a lot of paperwork.  This is where our conversation began to turn.  I tried to explain that I really loved "sculpture" (this word doesn't quite have the connotations I'm looking for, but we'll go with it) but I wasn't really sure that the things I did qualified as real "art" or would be considered more "craft".  Immediately she assured me that there is a very distinct line between art and craft.  Craft, she sniffed, is something anyone can do.  Art is more sophisticated than that.  At this point our conversation was pretty much over and I had some time to stew.  I've always believed that anyone can do art, that it isn't a gift reserved for those precious few who have some magical ability to see the world differently.  Artists aren't better than anyone else.  The only thing that makes us different is that we've practiced.  I hate it when people say things like "I wish I could draw as good as you" or "you're so amazing, I could never be an artist like you".  For one, although it's supposed to be a compliment, it's really hard to take it that way.  When people say things like that I feel kind of crummy, like I have some magical power that no one else is allowed to have.  Secondly, it isn't some magical power.  I wasn't born with the innate ability to draw.  I do believe I've always had the desire to be an artist, but I've had to work for it.  When people say things like, "I'm so jealous of your art" I always want to retort "are you also jealous of the hours I've had to spend practicing over and over again?"

I'm sorry, I'm digressing.  So the aforementioned conversation caused me to ponder exactly where the line between "art" and "craft" was.  I have come to the conclusion that there really is no line.  Even if craft is something that "anyone can do" why does that make it not art?  There are a lot of things that people would likely consider craft that take countless hours of practice.  I'm pretty sure I couldn't go out and become a master tablet-weaver or professional embroiderer in a single day.  Just because a blacksmith makes things that are useful, does that make the status of artist unattainable for him?  I say no.

On to my second rant.  There's a kid I sit by in my 2D Design class who is incredibly talented at drawing.  He works at a bank and draws on sticky notes there.  I absolutely love his drawings.  They're adorable and humorous and a wonderful picture of human beings as they really are.  (His drawings kind of remind me of the photographs Lilo takes in Lilo & Stitch - "aren't they beautiful?").  Anyways, he recently decided to apply to the Illustration major this semester and I think he's got a fantastic shot at getting in.  The other day, one of the professors in that department came into our classroom and this kid asked him to take a look at his sketchbook and give him some feedback.  The professor said little about his talent, but discouraged him from continuing to draw on sticky notes and said he needed to get a better quality sketchbook.  I was a little perplexed.  I love that his drawings are on sticky notes.  It adds so much more charm to the figures.  Why should the quality of materials take away from his obvious talent?

Well, now you know where all of this came from.  I'd like to take some time now and just feature some "art" that I've come in contact with here on the internet and let you decide for yourself what it really classifies as.

(Artist)

 Fan art and anything that's considered "in" is generally taboo.  My Little Pony is bizarrely incredibly popular right now and while I'm not a fan, I do appreciate the creativity it has sparked.  Personally, I love this.  It makes me smile.  Like, whoever would've thought to make a Sokka Pony figurine?  It's great!

(Artist)

 Again, fan art isn't really art, right?  So, this person surely isn't a good artist.  They're completely void of talent.  (Howl's Moving Castle is really a great movie, you should all see it.)

(Artist)

And what about this?  Anyone can learn how to sew.  The fact that it's one of the most gorgeously designed dresses I've ever seen has absolutely no effect on the fact that cosplay couture can never be an "art" form.  (You guys know I'm being sarcastic with all this, right?)

(Artist)

Again with the sticky notes.  It doesn't matter how pretty and composed this piece is, you just can't make art with sticky notes.

Says who!?

Blech, stuffy art people.  I don't ever want to have to enter the art conversation if art has to be judged by the materials you use and the subjects you portray.  It's so portentous . . . and dumb.  Ich.  Maybe I just don't have the mind of an artist.  Who knows.  But I'm going to continue to do what I love however the heck I want.  (Yeah!  Stickin' it to the man.)

Okay, one last, hopefully happier, point before I show the things that I've been doing recently.  As I've begun to think about art a lot more and what it is, I think I've come to understand it a little more.  I used to be somewhat judgmental of things like performance art.  But as I've come to redefine art for myself, I begin to see it differently.  Maybe this isn't how I'm supposed to look at it, but it makes sense to me.  As I said before, art is life, or perhaps the experience of life.  Art is a wonderful thing, in that you can do pretty much whatever you want however you want.  I have this problem where I'm interested in practically everything, but I don't want to do things the way you're supposed to.  Like science.  I think science is fascinating, but I hate the whole scientific process, or the fact that you're supposed to have an end goal.  Can I not just study insect wings without coming up with some thought out hypothesis.  Or if I don't find out anything hugely important or anything at all other than insect wings look pretty, was the study a complete waste?  This is where art comes in.  You're fascinated by the way different people brush their teeth?  Well, video-tape a bunch of people brushing their teeth.  Don't have more than fifty participants representing a standard variety of people?  Who cares!  It's art.  All you're doing is documenting the act of cleaning incisors, you aren't looking for any outcomes, you're just looking.  Because that's what art is.  I dunno if that makes any sense, but here, watch this video:

Okay, enough with my inner musings.  I actually have quite a bit of art to share with you guys.

 I finally finished one of my commissions from my Facebook page.  This one's for my sister for my niece.  Naturally, my nieces are a little obsessed with Frozen right now and the oldest likes to think of herself as Elsa.  So this one's for her.  Unfortunately I haven't been able to get these done as quickly as I should be, but I do have two more in progress right now.  I was hoping to get them done before the end of February, but right now I think we're looking at the end of this semester.  If you haven't checked out my Facebook page, you should totally go over and do it!  Please?  Algae Art

 I also finally got back to doing art exercises.  Perhaps an artist is supposed to come up with everything on their own, but once in a while I find that I need a push in the right direction . . . off a cliff.  As soon as I start falling, I realize that I do, in fact, have wings and I can fly again.  Ew, what a corny metaphor.  Eh, it stays.  So anyways, this exercise started with two randomly selected words; rabbit and bicycle.  The rest was up to me.  I like how this turned out.  Simple, but nice.  Sorry for the bad picture, I'll get a scan of it later.

 This was inspired by the subject of this post.  And also by the fact that I need to practice doodling.  Yes, doodling.  My doodles often are way too forced and you can tell.  So I'm trying to practice doodling without thinking.  I'll still turn out crappy doodles, I'm sure, but they're just doodles.  I think it's good for me.  And therapeutic.

Again, sorry for the bad picture, but this was another therapeutic art exercise.  I was having a weird weekend, so I decided to go on a quick hike up the canyon by my apartment.  And by hike up the canyon, I really mean hike to the canyon.  By the time I finally got there the sun was going down, so I sat on a bridge and drew the sunset.  I've always been terrified of drawing sunsets and skies and landscapes in general.  Then, even more terrifying, I came home and painted it.  It certainly isn't the most realistic paint job, but I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out.  It reminds me of Quentin Blake illustrations.  I was so scared to paint the yellow clouds.  They were all golden and beautiful and most definitely not your standard white and grey clouds.  I like it.  I think I should try to draw things that scare me more often.

Well, I think this has gone on long enough.  I was going to add some more things, but perhaps next week.  Or the week after . . .

Toodle-loo!  And make some art!

The Charm of Stop Motion

Hello hello hello!  So I had a thought the other day.  I'd really like to start updating this blog more often (like once a week) but at first I was thinking I don't really have much to show from just one week of work.  Then I realized how great of a thing that is.  If I post once a week, I can showcase smaller amounts of things and talk more about them.  My posts can be more focused on a specific topic rather than a pell-mell gathering of everything I've done for the past several months that all get stuffed into a single post like the way I stuff all my laundry into one washing machine because I'm too cheap to pay for two loads.  Well, it's time for me to stop being so stingy with my time and write better, shorter, more interesting blog posts.  I'd also like to start writing more about art-related things that aren't necessarily specific pieces I've done.  Kind of like the stuff I do at the end of each post, but better.

So today, I'd like to talk about Stop-Motion.

This post was inspired by a conversation my sister and I had last night while we were Skyping and I was supposed to be revising an essay.  That's when the best of conversations are had.

Recently I went to see The Lego Movie, which was decent, not as great as I was hoping, but certainly not a failure.  Before the movie started we were treated to the customary previews approved to accompany our feature film.  Side Note: I love watching previews.  I like to know what's coming up, but not only that, I think there's a sense of magic to previews.  It's amazing how much emotion a 1-2 minute sequence of second-long clips can stir up.  Previews get me excited (good ones that is) even if I don't always really care to see their movie. End side note.  So anyways, there were actually some decent previews we saw like Earth to Echo which looks a little frightening, but also intriguing, as well as this one:

The Boxtrolls!  A new stop-motion animated film from the incredible studio Laika.  Not only does this trailer make this out to be a wonderfully delightful movie, but it also shows you some of the behind-the-scenes magic of making a stop-motion film.

This is what I'd like to talk about today.  Stop-motion.  But not just stop-motion itself (that would take a very long time) but this magical charm and beauty that stop-motion has.

After watching this trailer for the first time I had the thought, "Looks great, definitely a must-see.  But why does everything in stop-motion have to be so . . . ugly."  Ugly isn't exactly the word I'm looking for, but I can't think of anything better that would encompass morbid and creepy and dark and something else all at the same time.  Don't get me wrong.  I love movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Frankenweenie, and Coraline, but why can't someone make a stop-motion movie where everything is beautiful and normal.  Movies like Tangled or Frozen.

After some stewing and watching a few more Youtube videos of behind-the-scenes stuff, I came up with an answer.

Stop-motion itself is beautiful, and it doesn't need beautiful or normal subjects to make it appealing.  I've often heard in interviews and movies like the one above about the "charm" of stop-motion.  Neil Gaiman refers to it as "the miracle of stop-motion", but I believe he's talking about the same thing.  Stop-motion can take something normally perceived as terrifying or ugly or weird and get people to call it stunning and gorgeous.  A work of art.  If you were to shoot just about any film like this as live action or even in regular animation, it just wouldn't work.  Can you imagine something like the Corpse Bride in anything other than stop-motion.  I'm suddenly reminded of the movie The Princess and the Goblin.  It's a bit of an odd one and I wasn't a huge fan, but I think it would be incredibly more successful as a stop-motion film.

Okay, sorry, that was a little off topic.

I think people make stop-motion films about odd and strange subjects because stop-motion can do something for those things that no other film form can.  It can make them beautiful without taking away from what they are.  This is where things get a little personal for me.  Let's face it, I'm far from what the world might call normal.  But to me, stop-motion films are proof that in the right place everything, even my strange ideas and general awkwardness can be beautiful.  It's not about covering up or trying to fit in (I realize not everyone thinks stop-motion is as magical as I do, there's a reason they aren't the films breaking box office records), it's about representing something in an honest, good-natured way.  Stop-motion sends a message about being yourself.  It's okay to be . . . different.  Different is great.

Okay, wow.  That went a little longer than I meant it to.  Okay, I just want to leave off with one final sentiment.  The beauty of stop-motion films lies in the fact that they are "ugly".  People out there trying to be "normal" will continue to find them creepy and weird, but that's okay.  If the big companies decided to get their hands on little studios like Mackinnon and Saunders or Laika, they'd try to beautify them and it wouldn't be good.

Erg, well, I'm not sure if I really got out what I was trying to say, but I hope you guys find this somewhat interesting.

Until next week!  (Hopefully)

Apologies, Warnings, and Very Exciting News

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!