Still around...

Yes, I'm still here. Without school and with working a heck of a lot thanks to Christmas, (Christmas + retail = pure evil) I've hardly had any time to do art, let alone post. That and my card reader broke, and despite hinting to people that I needed one for Christmas, I had to wait till I was back from up north to buy one. So I can finally upload some pictures. Woo...

Also recently bought a new, handheld video camera. Just one of the little Flip ones. I put my photo of maiko Fukusato on it. So hopefully it'll turn out well.

Anyways, in light of not posting anything for a good month, have some life drawing photos!

Back to school on monday, so I'm sure there will be some new stuff to post soon.

Drawing.

Metaphor drawing is completed. Hip hip hooray. It came out kind of kitschy. But kitschy in a good way I think. (I like kitschy stuff.) Unfortunately, the teacher wasn't totally thrilled with it. She kept mentioning how the hair looked like it wasn't coming out of the head properly, and how the hairline was too low and far forward. Well, I tried to explain that it was a drawing of a woman wearing a wig, but I don't think she was really listening. So yet another B- for me.

Except for the grade, and critique gone wrong, I did have fun making the piece.I threw in some collage and stitching, which I hadn't done in a while for some reason. Because I love collage and sewing. And neither are done enough in art. Also did a bit of painting with tea. A wash, mostly. Never tried that before, but it was interesting. And now my brush smells.

Tea for painting. You can see a tiny bit of the wash there on the paper.

Some of the pages I stained. They were cut up into cherry blossom petals before being collaged into the drawing.

The original idea was to paint in "Living Art" with red ink, but my writing is horribly messy, and the stitching turned out nicer. (Though it's a little crooked... Ugh.)

Part of the collage. Using photocopied pages from Mineko Iwasaki and Komomo's autobiographies, and then some washi paper I picked up in Japan, and some random origami paper found lying around the house.

And the final piece. Light shading (which the teacher also didn't like,) light washes, collage, and stitching. The flower in the bottom corner is the crest of this particular Geiko's okiya, or geisha house.

This is the second time I've really done anything geisha related for class, and it's the second time I've had to defend my work because people either don't understand how a geisha looks or what it is they do. So, despite being one of my favourite things to draw or paint, I may have to stop because my grades may suffer from a lack of understanding from the teacher's point of view. It's incredibly disappointing. Maybe next semester I'll get someone who actually understands, even just a little.

(Not likely.)

A Little Better...

Well, my faith in my drawing has improved, as I have seen the mark I received for my texture piece I had been working on a little while ago. A-. First A of university. Go me. Which averages out my C-. So my drawing grade, like everything else, is just that. Average. Better than below average I suppose.
At least it's not another C.

As for the critique on my rainbow cityscape piece. Someone actually asked how much to buy it. Wow. Quite the compliment. I now must think of prices. It's 3.5x3.5 feet on vinyl. I don't know. I really don't know prices. The print was done for free, and really should be free, as it was not the size nor the material I asked for. Of course, if I am going to sell it, I would like at least what I would have paid for it, plus maybe an extra 50 or so for the hours and hours spent in photoshop putting this massive thing together. Because I would like a copy of it for myself, and would need to pay for the second print. But like I said, I don't really know.

I hate pricing work. I never know what people really want to pay for it. And generally, people don't really want to pay that much.

Stress.

Midterms and Another Drawing Assignment...

Had my Art History midterm today. I don't think I did too badly. But I also don't think I studied everything I should have. I also forgot most of the things I studied because I was in a frenzied panic to get to school on time. I'd like to thank the tard responsible for slowing up and eventually stopping the subway today. Thank you. I almost missed my exam and had to spend an extra 10$ on a cab. At least I managed to make it on time.

As for Drawing class. We have to do some metaphoric piece with an object, can have a human form in it, and must contain text. Going with what I know, I'm sticking with the Geisha theme, which has completely taken over my art work the past couple months. I'll be doing a version of my Kikumaru photo (look to your right -->) with a lantern in the background and a fan with the Hanafusa okiya crest on it and the words "Living Art."

I'm sure my teacher will find something wrong with it, but I've FINALLY come up with a composition, after worrying about it for nearly two weeks, so whatever. She'll have to deal with it. I like it.

The sketches so far. The plan is to go crazy mixed media with this, using pen, pencil, ink, watercolour, and pencil crayon. We'll see if that actually happens. But as it stands, this is somewhat close to the composition I want. ... And I have a thing for borders, so it will be surrounded by one.

Textures.

Almost finished my texture drawing for, of course, drawing class.

The basis of the idea was to draw a tree, but leave the leaves as negative spaces and colour in the background (the gaps where we could see sky) with different textures.

An interesting project. Though my OCD need for super well rendered detail came back to bite me in the ass. I've spent hours on this thing...

So, my work so far. Corn, leopard print, a metal flower on a bracelet, and in the top corner there, some paper stars. You know, the fold-y kind.

My work space. A messy pile. Three cheers for messy piles! Wooo... Note the picture of the adorable maiko, Fukusato. I have pictures of my trip to Japan scattered everywhere.

And the aforementioned paper stars. I have a big jar of over 2000. Never try to realistically draw these. It is a huge pain.