It's that time of year, folks. What do you want for Christmas? What do you get your parents for Christmas? My family has started the Christmas gossip already. "I know what she's getting you, but I can't tell!" 'Tis a love/hate relationship, but mostly love because my family gets ultra jolly around this time of year.
A list has been requested, thus I shall post it here.
1. I always ask for movies for Christmas and rarely get even one. Regardless, I'll continue to ask for more, struggling to complete my test-of-time movie library. This year's titles include:
(Not the digitally remastered version!)
2. I would also like various guitar toys such as:
This device for hooking my guitar up to le computer to record.
Either and ebow or real bow to make string effects.
A guitar slide. But brass, steel, glass? I'm not sure.
3. Some legit headphones, to listen to all my movies and beautiful recordings. Either Bose or Shure brand, I think. Preferably Sound Isolation as opposed to Noise Reduction; the latter uses a microphone and batteries to inverse the outside noise and adds it to your music. Boo!
Today I started my last in-class assignment for Drawing 2. Feels great! It's a 4'x4' piece all done with my left hand. So far so wonderful! Other than that -- I handed in stuff for le art sale. Nothing too spectacular, but hopefully I can make a quick buck!
For being their #1 fan, the Avenue Q crew gave me Princeton. I'm pretty sure it was more because Peter didn't want it, but at least they thought of me! :)
Now Princeton and I will have many adventures...watch out Sara and Marissa!
This was a piece I made for our Illustration patterns assignment. We could just take a theme and go nuts, thus I chose space/creatures. The background is black and white acrylic paint, and the shapes are all cut paper. I really enjoyed working on it and it's probably the only piece I'm proud of from that class. Let's keep it up!
Also, I have officially started my new blog, presenting my ideas, process and finished artworks. Hopefully I keep up with it. Find it here.
As for today -- I am making a ton of art for the art sale and researching for my final drawing assignments. Perhaps I'll see Avenue Q again. I saw it last night and was completely captivated. Fantastic!
Came upon this video. Not too bad! It just reminds me of Erin, so I thought I'd post it.
So I thought I might start up another blog strictly posting photos of my in-process and finished work as well as compiling project ideas. This could be fun, eh?
In other news -- the week has been long, but had a pretty solid outcome. It started off with a shaky F in Drawing along with the rest of the class for not following directions. But our next assignments should be pretty fun, so I'm excited for that.
Tuesday was Registration day -- supposedly the best day of the year. It's a bit hard to commit to that when you're in the last group for registering. After a bit of panic, this is what it came to:
History of Animation
Intro to Type
The Writer's Workshop
Stop Motion Animation (wait listed)
New Worlds: Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writing (wait listed, but I know le teacher)
Sound for Filmmaking
I really wanted to be in Travis' Web + Screen class, but they wouldn't even let me be wait listed. Thus, my persistence urged me to talk to Travis -- and I did. Without any reluctance he said I could be in his class and that he'd take care of any of le paperwork. Just another reason I love the Trav. When that gets taken care of, I'll be out of Type and into a more manageable class with 18 credits. 'Twill be a hefty semester, but I'm really stoked for my classes.
Wednesday I had animation and it was a short day. I have MUCH to do on my animation, and hopefully I stay on top of things. That's one thing with animation -- we have long work periods between projects and if you don't manage your time well -- well, I see why animators don't get any sleep. Later that night Carl and I had a homework sesh and I got a ton done on my illustration project.
Thursday was okay. Ideation was a typical day, but I felt good because I participated in each person's critique. I feel guilty when I don't, and the week before I remember I had said nothing about anybody's projects. I suppose sometimes I just don't have anything to say! Such is the day.
After class we went to a lecture by Alex Kirwan, who contributed to shows such as "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends", "The Mysterious Misadventures of Flapjack", and "My Life as a Teenage Robot". He had a lot of good things to say about the animation industry along with a bitter attitude towards Disney's and other studios' directions. I empathized with his opinions on Disney and their close-mindedness, and it confirmed my current disinclination to work there later in life. I have a feeling I'm more of a Nickelodeon girl, if not even Cartoon Network or Adult Swim. And the again -- I might not even want to work on a tv show but rather do independent projects or work on feature films. We'll see, kids!
Later that night Carl, Michelle, and I had another homework sesh and watched almost all of the first season of Flapjack. None of us had watched it before, but we're now in love. It's very Spongebob-y whatwith its art, humor, and general feel. It's refreshing! I'm sick of all these over-simplified, obnoxious, dumbed-down cartoons. A little texture and cut paper goes a long way!
Needing to finish my illustration, I came home around midnight, painted Space on my paper, and headed to bed for an early rise.
And that I did. At 7 am this Friday morning, I woke up with gooey eyes that begged close. I turned on the shower and waited for it to heat up to a tolerable cold, then tried to wash the sleep off me. With a solid amount of time before class, I cut out a few more characters for my assignment and then headed out the door. Our apartment closet was overflowing with kickballs, so I returned them on the way to withdraw from my Online History of Advertising class. I was about 7 assignments behind and was nowhere near turning in my final assignments. I hadn't gotten anything out of the class and wasn't interested in trying to catch up. Thus. I withdrew. I can take another class some other time. I'm not concerned.
For Sophomore Sem we had a visiting artist: Gregory Eudclide. I had seen his work at the MCAD Art Sale last year and was mega impressed. To hear him talk was a delight. He had funny moments and valuable advice, but I was tired and it seemed to drag on. You know, it's interesting to see different artists' personalities. To see optimism and pessimism. To see someone striving for success and to see someone trying to settle and work the system. This class, though I hate to admit, was very helpful in the shortest of ways.
Afterwards I came home and glued all my cut-paper pieces to my outer space paper. I was sufficiently satisfied, and so I celebrated with some Heroes and a delicious sandwich for lunch. The college center was hosting and Avenue Q Preview, so I gathered the buddies for the sneak peak. I think the show is going to be great; it sounds REALLY good. What's most impressive is their ability to pull something like this off with such a busy MCAD schedule. Passion can make anything happen, I've begun to notice. :)
Illustration was one of the least stressful classes all year, and I think it was because I was finally proud of my work. I feel like I was one of the few people who took advantage of such a fun project and just WENT for it. And the results were there. My teacher said it was his favorite piece of mine all year, and I agreed. I suppose I'm so proud because I've cried over this class all year, feeling dissatisfied with my own work to the point of embarrassment. I hope he sees that I'm trying really hard. Illustration just hasn't seemed to be my thing, no matter how much I want it to be.
I came home tired and hungry, and am ending the day on a very lazy note. Tomorrow I'm hosting a Saturday Morning Cartoons fest in our living room for Ideation. I hope just enough people come to make it reputable, but not so many that I actually have to do anything. Wow. Talk about lazy!
This weekend I have much on my To-Do List including making everything for the art sale, documenting all my work and start redoing my website, researching artists for my drawing final and write a proposal, video the live footage for my animation, and turn in all my late sophmore sem assignments. I get excited about crossing off physical To-Do lists, so this should be a good weekend for that. It's like making a worksheet in grade school; you take it one question at a time and once you answer all of them you're done for the day! Hooray!
This is long, but I just felt like writing, Sarah.
Sarah currently studies Animation at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, though she is originally from Blue Springs, Missouri. She takes inspiration from friends and family near and far and loves her cut paper.
(Not the digitally remastered version!)
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