Time for bellydance!

This semester I'm signed up for some graphic design classes, watercolor, and bellydancing!

I'm actually excited about all of my classes. I'm hoping to make at least a few nice watercolors in watercolor class. I'll post pics as soon as that happens.

Last night I was up late sewing the elastic on my finger cymbals for belly dancing. They need to fit snug, so they don't come already sewn. I only got finished with 1 out of the 4. But hey, this, and the button that popped off of my new favorite shorts has inspired me to learn some basic sewing.

I'm pretty excited about a lot of things I'm trying to learn right now. I almost wish I could pick one thing to focus on and learn that well until I move on to the next, but there are so many cool things worth learning.

3-D Design

Last semester I made lots o' neat stuff in my 3-D design class. Here are a couple of sculptures:
This one was an excercise in portraying verticality or horizontality. Guess which one I picked?



I honestly don't remember what the focus was on this in terms of design, but it took me forever and a day and I didn't even finish it. Carving out plaster may not be my favorite form of sculpture. =P



This is actually a chair design. I decided to make 6 seats. I thought it would be nice for a large waiting room; someone in class suggested a bus stop.
I've hung it on me wall.
I attempted to make it out of 1 piece of paper. The whole top is 1 piece, but I think to make up the bottom, I used about 9 more smaller pieces. Next time I'll know what to do better.

In other news, I spent the weekend in the Bay area. We stayed in San Jose, but went up to San Francisco and down to Santa Cruz. It was entailed a lot of driving but it was really nice. We went to the Legion of Honor in San Francisco and saw some of Dale Chihuly's stuff. Pretty fun. But how did they transport it???



And then, of course, the Legion of Honor has a huge collection of Rodin.

I'm super happy I went, though we missed the Women Impressionists exhibit. We were actually meeting up and catching up with old friends, and thought we could squeeze in some museum time in there. There might be a chance we're going up there again, and catching the Women Impressionists exhibit is a possibility. I'm excited.

Comicon Shwag

I didn't get the chance I wanted to peruse the toys at comicon like I thought I would. I was hoping to come home with some new cute little mascots for my cubicle. Instead I was mostly looking at the artists booths or, when with my brother, searching for anime and manga figures.
Here are some of the things I did come home with though:
Awesome Frank and Frank book by Chris Appelhans. It's ridiculously long. I got him to sign it and managed to creep him out. I was excited to see him in person.


Cool, free doodles. Lovely reading material. Some signed, some not, all sooooo good. Several of the authors of the Cake book were at their booth and they were all super friendly. They all signed and doodled and were generally beyond cool.

If I go to comicon ever again I plan on going Friday, in hopes of less crowds.

Earthquake!

Yes, we had an earthquake in the Los Angeles area. It was a little freaky, but mostly I felt bad for my coworkers. This was the biggest one most of them had ever felt and they were a little frazzled afterwards.

I feel guilty for neglecting this blog so badly, since I want to post my artwork as much as possible. I feel like I haven't been home in ages though. I've been working overtime, the weekend before last I took a quick trip to Santa Cruz, and last weekend I took the amtrack to Comicon!

Comicon is a special place. There were so many cool things and people to see, and lots of interesting panels, but too many people! Just surviving the crowds seemed like a Herculean task, so taking pictures and rushing to panels was secondary to not getting trampled on. =Þ
Pretty fun stuff though.
I'm taking a break at work at the moment, but if I ever do make it home for anything aside from sleep, I promise to post pics of some of the schwag I got my hands on.

peace!

haHA! Finally I post

I really need to post more often. I painted myself my very first Munny. My lines are all squiggley, but I think it came out pretty cute.
This is Toph from Avatar. I'm not a fan of the show, but I know someone who is.





I've also taken some photos recently with my new camera. Got it for my birthday.
I've hardly played with it until this weekend.
Check it out:
Photos

And here's a squirrel with a lollipop, for good measure:

Omg, coolest thing

So now that I have my own room, with a nice tabletop resting on some nice legs, I can work on projects, and leave them be to work on the next day. I don't have to completely disassemble my set-up of supplies and tools and project the second I'm taking a break because I'm in somebodies way or the dog will try to eat it. 'Cause it's my space! And I can close the door from the dog!
Neato how that works huh?

Portrait Swap

I did this as my half of a portrait swap with Andy.

Mail Box and Portrait

My professor was kind enough to email this picture to me of a mailbox I did for my 3d design class. The whole thing is made of card stock, and my intentions were to make it out of only 2 sheets and then some extras for the little bits on the bottom left. A few miss calculations in my blueprints put a damper on that though. The top right is intended for regular mail, the bottom right is for packages, and the left is for junk mail! Recycle that junk!

I also participated in a portrait swap, hosted by the portrait party!
I love the idea of swapping portaits with strangers. It's better than feeling awkward about the possibility of drawing an unflattering picture of someone you know while you make them hold still for you. =PI swapped with Arindam here. I hope I can get in the habit of portrait drawing with the people who frequent the portrait party. It's fun and good practice.
His portait of me is here.

In other news, my brother moved out. He's actually in the same apartment complex but right across the way. This means I get his room! I'm so excited about having my own room. It's been ages. I've moved most of my stuff in already, but I need to invest in some roomwares, and then decorate!
I've got some plans for homemade decorations and I'm totally stoked (did I just say stoked? I MUST be excited).
I'll just have to start pinching those pennies even harder for the rent now though. It's all good.
=)

Doodle

*for those who might be confused, that bird/man/monster's name is stress, and he is gripping the head of that little girl, making her lethargic, and poking at her with his tiny finger.*

Oops (from the sketchbook)

I accidentally drew a little person.

(click for larger view)
A couple of weeks ago I went to a free drawing session (instructor included!) at the Getty Center. The focus of the night was shape, so this sketch was built up from simple shapes observed from the original painting, and detail was added. This is something I struggle with. I was surprised because I usually make the heads too small but in this case I made the head too big!
I'm still pretty happy with it. There is another session this Friday (yeah, they hold them Friday evenings. Why??? I have NO idea.) but I'll be with my friends celebrating one of their birthdays.

=D


(click for larger view)
This one is from the same night. Again, the emphasis was shape but my proportions are all wrong. I was sitting directly in front of and practically underneath this painting when I sketched it, so it came out squashed. The original painting is actually vertically rectangular and I made it square. Oh wells. I was told that my sketching is 'bouncy' so again, I'm still happy.




**edit**


So now that you've seen my magnanimous renditions, here are the real things:
Portrait of a Man with a Sheet of Music
Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist

Happy Girls Day!

It's girls day in Japan today. I whipped up these little paper dolls this weekend for a special little girl. I'm hoping she likes them. She's already got a small collection of dolls from different nations so they should have some company when they arrive at their destination.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinamatsuri

Here's some info from wiki if you're curious about the holiday.
I remember first being introduced to girls day and boys day by my 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Teriyoka. She and the other teacher of that grade were both Japanese and were always throwing things in about their culture in class. Sure, maybe teriyaki hot dogs aren't the most traditional Japanese dish, but they're easy for little kids to make with their parents.

So everyone have a happy girls day. Even if you aren't a girl!

Slow to post

I'd meant to post a wire sculpture that I did for my 3-D design class, but my professor kept it. I'm going to have to post that next week when I get it back. For now, here is a watercolor I did for my friend of her and her bf. It was meant to be a Christmas present but it was delivered very late, and not even finished to my liking. I kinda like it though. I think just because I like the practice with watercolors.

Coming soon: A mailbox.

Yay Friday!

Well, today was the first week of classes for me this semester. One of my classes is a 3-D design class, so hopefully I'll be inspired enough to make something in that class worth posting. Not that I don't like making 3-D things, but I'm not much for studio classes. They're very difficult for me.
Here's to a good semester and a fun filled weekend.

Hello Blog World

I'm hoping to update this frequently with drawings and other artworks I might attempt.
Here's to that!
Silly me picked the first day of class this semester to start.
What was she thinking?
Maybe not so much...

Feel free to visit my DA or Flickr accounts:
http://skulligan.deviantart.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27827365@N00/