Scratch that! This is for realz.

This wall here, is what I'm going to repaint and faithfully call "The Starving Artist."

It's basically a showcase space for me and Sarah Robinson's artwork. Painting a wall required more elbow grease than I thought it did! Anyway, that's the before..... 

....And this is the after! I find it so interesting that Luke took so much amazement in my typography work I did below. He said it was so incredibly straight, and the fact that I freehanded it was astonishing. I never really though much about it; I've always loved drawing type, but I thought nothing of it. Now that I take a step back and look at the however, I've always did this.

I started hanging up my work, as you can see. I mounted my charcoal sketches on black poster board.There is still much work to be done, and I have it pretty much sketched out up in my fancy noodle people call a brain.

Oh, and because I decided to cover up the Women's Faculty bathroom sign, I had to create a makeshift one.

Wahoo! I'm putting my art skillz to the test!

I told you I'd finish it. I'm happy with it!

This leads me into my next thing- fuck everything I said before about that installation- I'm going to hit you with something new. Not only is it super cool, but it will be super helpful and did I mention super cool? Anyway, what I'm going to do is make some sort of anatomical flip book. I'm going to make a muscle covered face next, and then a real human face. I might do it all in different mediums; we shall see. I'm excited for this, as it will be a challenge! But it's not like that has stopped me before. Wahoo!

Wahoo! I finally started my much awaited sketch of the human skull. I'm still working on it, and I aim to finish it by the end of tomorrow's class. I think I'm moving along quite well with this skull. It's about the size on an 8x11 paper. I'm pushing my boundaries and working larger than I normally would only because once you work large, you will never be afraid to work even larger. Same theory applies here; if one only decides to work small and let their fears of messing up confine them, they will never work big.

The space between the nose and the upper row of teeth is a little too wide, but I care too little to fix it at this point in time, haha. Everyone's different!!

Sick out of my mind today. I woke up with a fever while looking like a hot mess....and god, do I HATE being sick. I don't get sick very often, but boy when I do, I get deathly sick.

Don't think I'll be in school tomorrow.....

I can honestly say that when I'm sick, I'm not worried about my health but instead more worried about the amount of school work I'll have to make up for.....

The amount of stupid that shows up on my Facebook feed really astounds me. I think this is a red light going off and telling me it's time to delete some idiots from my friends list.

Anyway, I brought my Anatomy book into STAC on Friday, anticipated to draw but then I realized we had STAC art...not that I'm complaining! I think tomorrow I will have to work on that. Both as a release from my projects, flow of energy, and enjoyment, really.

I need to start thinking about what to put together for STAC night. As of right now, I have to get working on that light installation and format/put together/buy frames for the charcoal sketches I did.

Lot o' things to so, not so much time.

We had STAC art today, so I didn't really get to do much thinking related to my individual project. I did however get a flow of creativity going, which is always good. In STAC art, we're currently in the Pop Art unit and we're supposed to make a rendition of Andy Warhol's "Campbells' Soup Cans."

I chose my sister as a subject (She's such an influence within my life. It's painfully obvious and quite pathetic to an extent, I think hahaha!), and I've decided to just finish this off and give it to her as a birthday present. Yup, a painting of herself..for herself. Not creepy at all.

Anyway, this is 1/4 done, and this is what I have so far. I'm satisfied with it. I've always had a problem with color theory, and I know that Warhol had such a mastery with color so I just tried to let go and put together colors that look good and complement each other. I think I did alright.

I accidentally forgot to blog yesterday, but that's no big deal because nothing exciting happened yesterday anyway.

Today, I worked further on some anatomy. I'm quite satisfied with how the sketches came out. They're all out of a bunch of Vanity Fair magazines lying around in the STAC room.

My two favorite ones are the one in the upper right corner and the woman who's leg is propped up on a box. They just feel the most natural to me out of all of them. Oh yeah, I also really like how I drew the man's left leg (my left)! I successfully got the perspective quality down. Yes, they could use some more work, but I'm much more comfortable and I'm getting faster with more accurate results. There's this huge anatomy book I have on my bookshelf that I keep forgetting to bring into STAC- I'll make sure to bring it in tomorrow.

As you can see, I'm also totally avoiding drawing faces. This is because I'm scared of messing it up and just being generally unhappy with it. That being said, I'll have to tackle it eventually. But for now, I'll try to master the feel of the body rather than the face.

I've done some research on Egon Schiele since the whole single-lined sketches I'm aiming for is reminiscent of his work. I can describe him as a very horny and perverted genius. I absolutely LOVE the way that his lines curve and bend, taking on a life of their own. The way that his lines seems so sure of themselves...how they lack any hint of hesitation. It's incredible. Hopefully with enough [correct] practice, I can achieve a level of artistry such as his.

As for my major individual project, I think I'm just going to stick to my original plan and make a light installation. I had tremendous trouble figuring out simple tasks (as Luke knows) like measuring the dimension of the lights (21.5 x 4......something. Dammit, I'll have to remeasure that.) I was practically a baby in a diaper. It was embarrassing, but it's okay. I blame my lack of mobility on the weather and my mood.

I will probably work more on my side salad in the upcoming days, since that's what I'm more interested as of now.

I didn't do much thinking or anything related to the independent project today because there was STAC art, and it just wasn't on my mind. Today blew pretty hard. Shitty weather, feeling lethargic, lots o' work, and just feeling the blues in general.

I didn't do shit today.

But, I once I do decide on doing shit, I'm going to continue to work on those single lined sketches and eventually get quicker and faster. It will help me in the long run because I plan on purchasing a small Moleskin to just carry around with me at all time.

I've figured it out. Part of it, anyway.

I've always had a fascination with letters, fonts, and print. Basically back to Andy Warhol and Austin Kleon. As we all know, my sister has a huge influence on my life and my work, so I partially believe it stems from that as well. When I was a kid, my sister took a silk-screening class at SVA over the summer and she silk-screened all the time. I realized that with a lot of what I do, I'm always concerned about how words are laid out and how they look. Even the previous lamp I made- it's all centered around letters and words.

Today I was kind of at loss for any idea or reason, so I decided to experiment. I painted something, took another blank sheet of paper, pressed it on top, and peeled it apart so the paint from the first sheet of paper transfered onto the other. This is what I got out of it. It came out pretty interesting, I suppose.

Anyway, taking this newly acknowledged information about my interest in typography, I'm thinking about creating a mural outside the STAC room. My idea is simple- create a mural on the importance of being selfish. One of the most important things an artist needs to do is be selfish with their work. It's all about "me, myself, and I." Here's a photo of what it looks like currently:

It's blank as of right now and it's already white + primed so I have a good base to work with.

Now, let's discuss my side salad. It moved away from just charcoal and possibly just into sketches. I'll go back into charcoal, obviously, but I need to first simplify my lines. That's what I'm really focusing on right now. Improving my anatomy and with that knowledge apply it to quick, simple sketches. 

For this, I wasn't so worried about proportion as much as I was worried about making sure the fabric "flowed" and looked natural. I'm working on it! I'm going to do more of these kinds of quick sketches and start doing it with live subjects; the people around me.

Day 7

Some more work. I need to find a way to improve, oi!

I got an unexpected video call today from one of my ex-boyfriends whom I haven't spoken to in a long time. We were together three years ago, and split since he had to move overseas for school purposes and because of other complicated issues.

Before he left the USA, I remember him telling me that he'll be back for college after he finishes up middle school/high school. We pinky swore that once he got back, the first thing we'd do was go to Six Flags Great Adventure together. Even though it's a small and simple promise, he remembered it and told me that once he got back from his oversea studies the first thing he'll do is call me and we'll go. I don't have feelings for him anymore, but that could just be my conscious mind speaking.

I wonder what type of a person I'll be 3 years from now. What I'll look like. Where I'll be. What I'll be doing. I wonder what type of a person he'll be in 3 years from now..whether he'll be the same person I knew when he left, or if he changed for better or worse.

I'm not quite sure why I decided to blog about this, but I find it interesting how although time is continuously moving, memories stay stagnant.

Day 6

Worked on some charcoal today. I like where this is going. I'm trying to find interesting photos of people which I can draw. Focusing especially on clothing and the body, less on the face. The face is another problem for another day.

Day 5

I played around with the physical properties of this, and look what I made, haha! I just stuck a layer of tracing paper behinds it, and I popped some tea lights inside of it to represent a prototype.

I do eventually plan on making it into an actual lamp/candle cover cut out of sheet metal..but before that, I must find out how one goes about that. I have to ask Mr. T (the tech dude!) what to do about my final project and where I could possibly get it done, so more on that later.

From this stemmed another idea. An installation. I was having a conversation with Luke, and we made the idea of taking every word involved on the lamp/candle cover and replicate it larger. This is to cover all the ceiling lights leading down towards the STAC room! Meh, I'm doing a terribly shitty job of explaining this. It all makes sense in my mind, I swear!

Anywho, I figured out what I'm doing for my side salad. I'm going to do some charcoal work in order to tackle my problem with anatomy. I decided upon charcoal since I'm not afraid to work with it. It covers a large surface area, which is convenient for me because if I happen to mess up, I can just rub it out. I just fooled around with the charcoal and tried to get used to the feel of it since I've never drawn with it before. It's cool.