palsies

I actually will see her again this Saturday for eight straight hours of drawing. She's not only super nice, but always working. She's apparently been so busy that she never even got the chance to go to the Pepperd!ne show.

5 to 20s; last one is 30

I like long poses :) A bit tired but it was a lot of fun last night.

craving chocolate and other things...

Okay, that didn't quite sound the way I wanted it to, but it's all good. I'll post the usual tomorrow (or if I'm too tired, Wed. morning), but I haven't been slacking off. On the contrary, I've been doing figure drawing Monday/Tuesday/Thursday/Friday and this Sat I have another workshop that is all day...eight hours non-stop of drawing. I had a BLAST last time. Yay for drawing. Not to mention the B@rgue drawings I've been doing during the day..I try to do at least six copies per plate...currently on pl@te 31, using the Derw*nt Sk*tching pencils (love 'em!). Pr0gress0 wasn't working for me for the plates, but the Derw*nts were perfect (the 4B wash ones). I saw a student who had to do ONE plate ONCE and was frustrated...he was so ADD about it and thought it was 'boring', but I actually think it's pretty fun and it is very low-key to do at work...doesn't look too much like I'm jerking around with PS or anything, I can do it WHILE working, and it is very much like working a puzzle (anyone who knows me knows I like numbers :)). I did, however, get more than four hours of sleep on Saturday and Sunday, but by Sunday afternoon I was so anxious to keep working that I got all depressed haha. I agree with Kev!n, who said that the B@rgue is good. I know that some people think that concept is just creating things, but often you get a plate or a design that's already been finalized in a way (like the outside of a building's shape/ plan/ section) and you have to work within that for design. Wow, those pr0ducti0n d*sign*rs can DRAW! Dy@s, Ch@mbl!ss, D@nte Ferret!...look 'em up. So a lot of them can sketch out their ideas with the director..it's not like they're presenting stick men. But they also have a knowledge of lenses (how wide is a 25mm lens versus an 85mm in terms of how much of the set we would see, construction, painting..) A lot of people think it is always designing crazy stuff from scratch but I actually like its practical nature. So I think that the copying part is actually pretty helpful when I"m learning because I may have to copy a visual style that has already been established (maybe part of the team left halfway through the project...I know that in PS some teams share brushes so they inherently share the same 'visual style'). You're not an island on any sort of design team or anything at all. And you DO work for someone (unless it's your personal project). Also, not understanding what other people do can hurt you. A friend of mine (who is a pr0duction designer) said many of these concept people don't understand enough of what the team does but they make the director fall in love with their sketch or painting but it's absolutely UNUSABLE for production. "We can't make this"=not good. I wish in schools they had more of that kind of group training, because a lot of people can be very good but SINK when it comes to working together, working with someone above them or troubleshooting. The worst is becoming frustrated with a client because you're not used to following orders. NOT GOOD. Also, NOT speaking up is not good either but it's all so political and you have to be so tactful while knowing your place (suggest, don't demand). I've worked with or met people who work on everything and they are the coolest but firmest (in terms of why they choose to do something/ make choices) people, and noticed that the confrontational, arrogant, boorish ones who have no respect for the people above them (or working with them) don't last very long. The best designers (whether DPs, art directors, product designers) are really good at doing that balancing act of having great, strong ideas/opinions and performing but being super chill. Plus, isn't it nice when everything is falling apart that you have that member or your team who is level headed enough to just say "we'll make it work". I don't know about you, but I'd like to work with THAT guy/gal rather than the persons screaming running around with their heads cut off like chickens. I think that some of the best ideas for artists come with limitations. If we didn't have creative restraints maybe we'd all be drawing zombies and dragons or hot chicks for a bad remake of He@vy Met@l Haha. That wouldn't be too bad, I guess. I really liked that movie :) Oh well, what do I know.... I'm going back to drawing Haha. Until l8tr...

5s to 20s

A$hph0rd. I really liked her, and even took a ride home with her. She had a bit too many cups of wine, though, and couldn't stop talking about it haha.

life drawing

got some done in between talking about J@p@nese pen!s c@kes and taro for some strange reason. Ha! The model was talking about how she saw this one professor whose work I love go from stick figures to where he is today. She said it was in a short time (he obviously had some talent and worked incredibly hard), but that he did a lot of drawings and was in a lot of workshops. A friend of mine who recently moved to NYC (and a lot of people liked his work) was the same; a lot of the models said he was the kid who attended every drawing workshop. It's funny; my prof says the same "the better your l!fe drawing gets, the better EVERYTHING gets. Not like it's boring or anything..it's actually a LOT of fun with good company and the great thing is (which you don't get sitting at your desk doing master copies) you get to SEE other people's PROCESS. If you like what they do, you can even strategically plan to sit next to them and watch them stroke by stroke (discreetly, of course :) It's a wonderful thing to be able to do and quite a shame that people forego that kind of learning in favour of downloading and copying from the internet. To be able to learn a bit from 20 or thirty people at each session is incredible, especially in an era where people seem to become obsessed with an artist's style and idolize their mentors and proceed to set goals that involve wholesale blandly copying another person's style in the hope that they would achieve the success (or the admiration) of that person. I will say that I have no desire to be anyone but myself. I like a lot of different artists, and I think that certain stuff is 'cool', but usually I get over it because life is too short to be spent wanting to be a clone of someone else (at least in my opinion). I didn't choose to learn an artistic medium to become a living, breathing c@mer@ obscur@. When I attended the recent P*pperd!ne exhibit, I remember standing in such awe of this P@rr!sh painting. I had seen the image a MILLION times; in photos, on the internet, in books. But looking at it in the flesh was a completely DIFFERENT experience that was just another level. There was this immediacy and the colours sung in harmony in a way I had NEVER seen captured via an image photographically or otherwise. I had a similar experience with Terpn!ng's work. It's incredible. Enough rambling...back to work...

rough sculpt

And she's missing arms, but this is a WIP. Been pretty busy lately..most of my off-time is spent catching up on sleep :( I really like sculpting though. Something I intend to continue doing...especially from life :)

Happy Birthday to meeeeeee :)

Yes, it's that time again. Me me me me me. I can be a selfish person today. It's awesome, but after today I'll be humble again. I promise. Anyways, here are some drawings from last night's drawing club. It was fun. We had cake, and I got many presents and the phone calls and texts are still coming in. I actually feel so grateful :) Oh, this is Alexandria. I was in a different spot and the model was on crutches but it was nice to change things up a bit and not just go on autopilot (I think?)....