thinking about other things

SO DISCOURAGED I HATE MY DRAWINGS FROM LAST NITE

from 12-1am

i went to sonic with a few people and got right to work again. i was just leafing through some old references/clippings from the file and found an ad i liked. i took it and altered it and simplified it down to a few colors (of my choice: black, sepia, lilac, and violet prismas). not so sure how i feel about this one, but alright. (click to enlarge both images)

another shoe, from life. altered colors.
good night, maybe?

another piece

so basically i stayed up until 3am yesterday working on this little doll bust which i think is really cute. it's somewhat inspired by the curls of j. david mckenney which i so adore. (see previous entry). i am so excited, because i know that my WHOLE summer is going to be exactly like this. here are some photos from the process:

frame (1): the head, complete with eyelids, eyeballs, nose, and opening for mouth.
frame (2): the finished head + shoulders (and clavicles). obvs there was an anatomy book RIGHT by my side.frame (3): addin' some curls up in here, i think there are something like 50 curls.
frame (4): as close to complete as it can be without being baked and painted!

i am so excited for the painting, it's always been one of my favorite parts of the process.

feedback!?!? i think i am improving on my sculpting skills. i also love to add new mediums to my vocabulary, which can never be a bad thing. today i went to the library for a few hours and literally went through books about ceramic techniques because i'm taking that intensive ceramics class over the summer. there is a LOT to learn in that area, but i am really excited for it. i have so many ideas that they're brimming over in my sketchbooks, etc. it's always really fun to sit in the back of the library and sketch/take notes, etc. in the quiet. :)

i've taken over the pink room

the pink room is a room in my house with a television, a vcr, a computer, and also houses all of my art supplies and other related materials, including reference books, etc. so all of my stuff is strewn about on the ground and this room looks very chaotic, due to my creative goings-on. trigonometry test wasn't bad today. just thought i'd note that. anyway i haven't really touched the clay since i finished my self-portrait (II), and i am currently working on another one! i really like the way it's headed and there will be images of my process up pretty soon. anyway i promised sketches from yesterday, so here they are:

(from images from vogue)
(from life)

lauren's shoe that i think ended up looking a little bit like a glass slipper!

lauren went to sleep and i am up left to my own devices lol. the sculpture i am making has soooo many curls. there may even be images up in a few hours. haha i NEVER sleep

instead of studying for my math test

i love coming home after school and not having to do ANYTHING. it's just incredible. i also love when i don't have to do anything during my free periods (especially when i have 2 on a-days). that's when i just get to mess around in the studio and do whatever which is a really freeing experience. i started a new piece today so that i can rotate working on the smaller one (the series about spanish-american poets). i spent the whole afternoon just tinkering around, looking at bina abling stuff, the pictures from my mom's old illustrating fashion and basically whatever else i can get my hands on. i'm working on some prisma/pencil sketches from fashion magazines, which should be up before i go to my math tutor. i am SO fucked for the test tomorrow. wow, i really don't care. teachers don't understand that i'm done with school.

instead of driving lauren to piano

i just realized that pretty much every time i write on this thing i'm supposed to have driven my sister to her lesson, like every wednesday. i think i may take a bike ride in a little bit after i'm through with the computer. i think i am finally becoming able to make a picture. mostly, i start pictures and get through with them and then leave them unfinished for the rest of always. but i am actually starting a series, which is something i've been struggling to do for a while now.

anyway last night i did a lot of surfing on other artists' web sites and there are a lot of great images to look at out there. here are some of my personal favorite finds from then:

(1)
(2)

(3)
jean james (1) j. david mckenney (2) sarah caterisano (3)

i helped lo.ue paint obama's head. (!)

i've also discovered my bike again. and colored pencils!

instead of going to hershey park

i know the art show happened a little while ago, but here is a pretty good picture of the statuette i made as my self-portrait. since it's a little far away, the details have been compromised a little bit, but i'll do my best to get some closer pictures (that are truer to color as well). and yes, i did use gemtac to apply false eyelashes...haha. i am really upset though because someone brought it to my attention that in the movie coraline, she also wears a yellow jacket. i was really upset because i was afraid that it would take away from the originality of my piece. i hope that didn't happen.

i've been working on a few more pieces and have just been in a completely different place artistically than i have been in the past. i'm experimenting with a new idea--illustrating poetry. i got this anthology of spanish-american poets from the library and have been working from that a lot. i started a series (approximately 6"x5" i think) that interpret poems from the book. in them, i use some expressionist and non-representational techniques that i think are really interesting. they really take me away from my usual consumption with rendering. aside from that, i don't know why...but i've been tracing back to my roots in fashion which i'm kind of confused about. nonetheless, a lot of my sketch pages have been fashion/lifestyle related. weird, right?

i also really like this photographer's flickr...it's really inspiring to me. here's the link:

miss aniela

here's another illustrator i reallllllllllllllllllllllly love: (i am lucky enough to have one of the t-shirts he designed for heatherette!)

j. david mckenney

this prettttty much means nothing

basically, today has been a drag. the only real reason that i'm writing on this now is because i've been basically deprived of art all day. fine, i've had one hour. but one hour is really not enough for me. i am currently writing an english research paper about the existence of adhd which is really no fun compared to anything else in the world i would otherwise choose to do. i don't think i'm really going to go to school this week, except for the fact that i have a yearbook meeting and a national honors society meeting tomorrow. i have superlunch though, which means i can probably sign out early. i am really upset though because i haven't even looked at my physics notes and i have a test tomorrow, which probably means i need to do well...since i got a terrible grade on the last one. no worries, though, i still have a pretty good mark. rambling...i was reconsidering my end of the year project in lo.ue's class and i'm really not sure what i want to do yet. i've been working on something that i like...it's basically an illustrated version of the poem "mi prima agueda" my obsession with spanish literature lives on...HAHA. anyway, i don't know why but lately i've just become enraptured with learning. anything...so i think that's probably good? my portrait of bine hasn't been touched since about saturday, 4:30. kind of a bummer, but whatever i hopefully will have plenty of time to work on it this week. i might go to the shore with my mom on thursday instead of going to hershey park. i really couldn't say yet but i have to get out my feelings right now...right now.

**another note to add, i just wanted to say that i finally understand what lo.ue was saying when he said that art isn't always the best that took the most time. it actually clicked with me. i finally understand. wowwwww. i mean, i guess it's really just that i understand and better appreciate the principle of the "effect" after going through this year of art.

pretty quick, actually

i was just thinking about how weird it is how many things art can teach a person. it's actually so strange. but i've actually been learning that it's good to look back on some stuff you did in the past even if it was awful. for instance, i was just looking back at a page i posted on here called "always gray!" and honestly, at the time, i thought that drawing of me was alright. but now i notice that i really just don't think it works. it's weird that i made that drawing only about a month ago, and already it seems like last year.

anyway i just started a painting of my dog and i like the direction it's moving in. i'm going to post a progress shot of it just for kicks. here it is:

the proportion of the ear is a little off, and i haven't even started working on the values in the ear--pretty much staying close to the face, but i think it's working. i don't know why but i've been in a rut with acrylics recently and i'm starting to get on better terms with it. i want the painting to develop a little bit further though into a composition, and i really haven't decided where it's going to go in that sense yet. i guess i'll just give it time, that's all for now i am probably going to post some sketch pages later

just slow, i guess

things have slowed down significantly since the last time i wrote. art has been pretty boring for the past few days--just cleaning up the studios and it's really sad to see the walls all blank and everything. we're getting a new assignment, and it's basically just a "whatever you want" project...which we've all been working on something of our own anyway. but yeah it's going to be so weird next year when there's only 9 of us all in one class...i am like kind of nervous. whatever, i guess. hopefully, it will be pretty intense which is what i like! :) so i've been having to direct myself a lot more, which i'm enjoying. i have been going to the library a LOT and i love it. i'm revisiting some of my old fashion drawings and just reproducing other people's work (especially that of some really traditional illustrators like anne-marie barden!) obviously, JDM is always on my mind though. trying to work in broader strokes and just getting a good sense of color movement, nothing more. i'm working on a small painting of my dog from photograph it's coming along pretty well. i'm planning on getting a few more small wooden sheets from merion art tomorrow just for fun (after i drive lauren to her piano lesson, obviously...i love wednesdays). here is a particularly savory find!

leesa leva (above)

"confused deer!"

i guess a lot has happened since i last wrote, because i kind of forgot about this blog. yeah, i haven't had much free time to do whatever, but the art show was last night! it was absolutely incredible. i really feel that i ended making a good panel. my large portrait ended up working out fine, but i just had to shift gears a lot...i think i was stuck in a box in terms of finishing an old portrait (from about 9 months ago) i couldn't think clearly! well, after an entire night of staying up and working, i fell asleep on the floor at about 5:30. wow i'm cool... anyway, other than that, i had a lot of other pieces displayed. (11 total, including sketchbook pages.) my little sculpture turned out great, i think! i'll post pics later. i have to go pick up my sister from her piano lesson and then go to my SAT tutor at 6pm. but i'll probably go to the library afterward and chill for a while...I LOVE THE LIBRARY!