Still Doing

The frames for the color studies are finished: assembled, stained, just need to pop the paintings in. Apologies for the blurry pictures, I have a horrible habit of getting lazy and using my camera phone. Got the large frames assembled as well, just need to stain those.

Had a pleasant 3 day snowfall this past weekend. Read and watched the birds outside chase each other around and actually picked up a small case of cabin fever, which was cured today by going out and having a lovely lunch out on the beach with my mum! Again, watched the crows and seagulls chase each other around while munching on my foodstuffs.
I've been steadily sussing out summer plans, and I have decided I will be flying down to Brazil to stay with Vlad for a while in July! Not sure how long, exactly, but I am very excited nonetheless. Rio will be hella fun :)

Adventures in Home Depot

Went to Home Depot today to get molding to frame my DP pieces. Oooh, so many choices...
Decided upon one type of molding for the color studies and another, larger, but somewhat similar molding for the larger pieces. Home Depot didn't sell the stain I wanted (custom "classic black") in pints, only in quarts... So I am on a mission to go see what I can find tomorrow.Played with the saw for a while and am sussing things out. Will continue tomorrow with a fresh mind.

La Fin du Folie

I promised myself I wouldn't make a post about being done until I was actually done. I just finished my 4 essays just now and so, here's my review space!
It's an indescribable feeling looking at all my work on the wall. I was proud of nearly every piece I did this semester in some way or another, and nothing on the wall was really placed there as a space-taker. Well, except this fine portrait I did of myself for the reviewers:
I got good reviews from all three people, and the only suggestion given was to experiment with different people types, and not just focus on the ideal female figure, and to focus on a little more than the head. But hey, I got some attractive friends and models, what can I say! ;)
I got two pieces into the upcoming sketchbook show: my tiny white sketchbook of figure drawings and my Shaken Baby piece and its process work. I kind of wanted to do a little more to the Shaken Baby piece over the break, but I suppose I can always ask for it back at the beginning of the Spring semester, especially to temporarily varnish it.
After our reviews we kept our Degree Project pieces out for the jury. I was thrilled to find I got 6 pieces in! My Orange and Green pieces got in and all color studies got in, but the red one. Yeah, that was the color study I spent less than 5 minutes on so it's not without good reason... However, Margot wants me to just "finish" that color study and it will get into the show without question. Woot!
After the jury was done we celebrated at Stefan's place, dancing and singing to Mariah Carey as we always do...

It's good to be done. Now I can focus on personal pieces and competitions for a while.

Red Sketch

Showed Margot this sketch for my 5th DP piece yesterday along with the shittiest color study I have ever done, and she's pleased with it.
I finished the paisley last night, and Orange early this morning. An hour ago I popped into the 2D studio to shoot the SBS paintings, Blue, and Orange so I could print them out. Alas, I went to the computer lab to do so but the network is screwed and I'm left with $2 less in my printing account and nothing to show for it. The monitor apologized, the same thing happened to some girl earlier, and asked me if I could return in an hour or so when some other dude comes back and he will fix it. I'm not too concerned.
So, I'm just waiting for AJ to arrive so I could remedy this empty stomach and head to my TA class at 1:30, and leave there within a half hour to commence battle with the printer again! Crossing my phalanges...

Which one...?

Just finalized the pose and clothing (or lack thereof) for the figure in the first painting for my thesis. I had to trace the sketches because the original drawing was so smudged and dirty from erasing and redrawing limbs, et cetera...
However, I can't decide on which of the three headdress options to choose. I'm not too keen upon #1, so it's a decision between #2, which is more mysterious, or #3, which is cleaner and less busy. Something for me to sleep on tonight.

Quickie Oil Portrait

Alla prima, comin' atchya. Just finished this now, took me about 45 minutes. Just a "sketch" to accompany the necklace I made earlier. Oil on treated watercolor paper, 8"x 12".
I'm afraid I came down with the flu. All achey and sore and vomiting, no fun. :(
That's all for now, my bed is calling out my name, and I need rest.

Necklace Mock-Up

Finished my mock-up pill necklace today. Presenting this on Thursday along with sketches and my thesis proposal to get approval. I'm pretty confident I will sell my proposal and will be on my merry way and be able to move right on forward. :D
So this necklace is pretty much a cheap, rather weak piece I bought at the store. I popped out the plastic jewel in the middle and played around with pill combinations to fit in the center nicely. Unfortunately I had to cut the top three in half, but it's only a "sketch"per say, and I will be designing the pieces myself around the pills in the future, rather than taking pre-made shitty jewelry and working around the limitations they will present. The pills in the center consist of one ibuprofen and the rest are antihistamines. I just hope the actual medication I will be focusing upon will be as colorful as these... I know Prozac is a nice teal/white combo at least!

Epiphany

So yesterday instead of having our 6 hour full-class meeting for Degree Project, Margot had us meet with her individually to talk about our thesis progression. I met with her at 2:20 and no sooner had I sat down it was already quarter-to-three, accidentally going 5 minutes into another student's meeting time, not to mention my train was at 3:25...
To give a little backstory regarding my thesis, I want to focus on the sociology behind the abnormalities of man. I split it into 4 subcategories: physical, mental, actions and modification, as per Margot's suggestion to help my mind sort things out and clear the mental fog.
I let Margot know that I wanted to hone in on either the physical or mental, with a stronger interest towards mental abnormalities. Through a long conversation with my brother over the weekend during dinner I came to the conclusion that mental illness would be a topic better suited to my aesthetic and interest in visual and psychological dichotomies. I just thought that physical deformities would be too shocking or ugly-for-the-sake-of-being-ugly... That and I don't want to encroach upon Helnwein's territory. :D
So after talking with Margot about research, progression, my (obvious) enthusiasm for the topic I had to run to my studio and grab my stuff and head to Back Bay to catch my train. I got there with 7 minutes to spare before it left! Close call!
I always love riding the train, as 3 hours really gives you time to think and daydream. I can't for the life of me remember my train of thought (lol, pun) but after Providence I just thought: pills, and the flood gates opened. Thinking of how so many people now are on medication for one reason or another, and how commonplace mental disorders are now. I originally had these pictures in my head of drawings of people with pills in speech bubbles, but then I thought of the phrase "badge of honor" in connection to how people may treat their conditions/medication, and how I wish I had worn another necklace for some weird reason... Then I thought: jewelry!
Pills!
Jewelry!
Pill Jewelry!
That's all I shall reveal now, as further pondering and research must be done. But by golly I think I'm on to something! I'm so stoked!! :D