Design a Building

House by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

Design a Building.

Dear god do I hate 2-pt perspective. I never really realized it until I had to do this card for my "Creative Grab Bag" series. But oh. my. goodness. I will never be an architect.

It all started innocent enough. I had a hard time coming up with an idea at first. But then I came up with this:

What happens if I took a traditional (and old) Arizonan house updated it to modern times and stuck it in the mid-west using materials commonly found there instead of AZ?

So yay, I had my idea. Then I say, "now why don't I do this traditionally? No computer for me! I don't want to do everything computer or traditional, I want to experiment with both!"

I am not a smart person sometimes.

So, I get the big bristol board paper out, the 11" x 17" and my ruler. I pencil it all in and ink it. Took days. Then I decide to watercolor it. That is when I messed up.

That's right folks, messed it up BEYOND REPAIR. Traditional work. No ctrl-z or apple-z to undo.

In my white hot rage I recall ripping it in half. After the dearest hubby calms me down a bit I settle and begin again. Same way, changing up the design a bit, and correcting mistakes I noticed on the first one.

Penciled it. Inked it. Decided to do graphic markers in all grey-scale.

This has turned out much better.

Evan had suggested I just call this one a failed creative experience and get a new card. But I said no, because I am determined to have a whole series of artworks from this. I got back on my horse after my hissy fit and began again.

I have a feeling this may happen again.

Variety

Well I have several things to blog about so I thought I would just hit them all at once.

Went outside today to the backyard and went to check on my plants. My peppers are doing awesome, I have about 4 growing and on of them turned red! My tomato plant is iffy. Some of its leaves were crisp (I watered it) but there was a good size tomato (still green) growing. We'll see. The lemon tree is good. I believe the little nubbins I am seeing are actually tiny itty bitty lemons. Yay! The kumquat tree is all green with nothing else but it seems okay. The orange tree...WAS doing good. My dearest puppy Gala thought that the lower four branches were apparently a SNACK. Hopefully it will recover.

Speaking of the pup, she has had some MAJOR shedding issues. So the brushing and the washing have not been working. She isn't allowed on the couch anymore it's so bad. So, I've been keeping an eye on Girlpirate's LiveJournal because her kitty has had some bad shedding too. People suggested to her the FURminator and she went and used it and posted pics of the outcome. That was good enough for me. I went out and bought one and gave her a bath and began brushing her. 0_o I had enough extra fur for a whole other Gala. I've been brushing her off and on throughout the evening as well and got another baseball sized tuft off her. This thing is my new best friend.

So, I ended up canceling all of my plans today. I woke up with a massive headache and sneezing fits so I wanted to relax today.

Yeah right.

So Evan said that this would probably be the last halfway decent weekend to do anything in our attic for the insulation. Let me tell you all, we got SCREWED on the inspection of our home. 100% so if any of you are buying a home get a friend who knows what they are doing for another inspection. The guy said we had 8 inches of insulation in our attic and we had about 3 inches in some places and none in others. Oy. So we went to Home Depot and got 20 bags of insulation (recycled! it's actually awesome) and rented the blower machine. Once we figured out how to work the damn thing we went through the bags quite quickly and Evan was up in the attic and put it all over the place. We are going to get about 17 more bags tomorrow morning and finish up before 1:30 to return the machine. We figure we'll do this once a year until we gt the recommended R-60 with all of this we are probably going to be at about R-19. Which is way better than the NOTHING we had.

All this week as preparation for our talent show at school. Last week we had the auditions and then this past Thursday was the dress rehearsal and Friday was the show. We were running around all ragged trying to get everything done last minute (next time, 2 weeks in between tryouts and show!) The show went great. We had one kid choke on his song (but we had sheet music so he had words to look at, at least!) and all the kids showed up. At the end of the show a parent came up to me and said that this was the most talented show she had seen and the most organized. I laughed when she said that and replied "I'm glad it SEEMED organized." Because wowza, we were literally getting stuff ready at the last minute. It went great though and I'm proud of the kids.

Started the picture for my next Creative Grab Bag project, it's almost done with the drawing bit, but then I'm going to ink it. I showed it to Evan and he said I should paint it to color it in. Uuuugh. I hate to admit it, but a water color wash would look fantastic. I'll probably finish all the drawing bits tomorrow. I need to check out to make sure I have water proof pens, I may need to hit the store.

I think this is it for tonight. Just lots of little things today!

Nerd Out

So I had a bit of fun today.

I out nerded a dude that works in a comic book store.

:D BWAAAAA

Yeah so I was perusing in the store and I found two new Neil Gaiman books (children's ones, not even a comic) and one was on a really tall shelf so I had this guy get it down for me. He ended up checking me out at the counter. (not checking me out per se...even though he could have been)

So he told me he was always meaning to read the Sandman series the Gaiman wrote years back and he asked where would be a good place to start with the Gaiman world. I told him that you can't go wrong with Sandman as these themes throughout a lot of his books.

He then asked me if I knew that he had just written a Batman book and I said yes, I know "Whatever happened to the Caped Crusader?" which I own and was fantastic. H told me cool and he asked if I knew about the artist who did the covers to the Sandman series, and I said sure, Dave McKean. Did I know about Arkham Asylum that he did? Oh yes, I say, and I own that as well.

I then told him I owned all of the Sandman, several novels, a few movies based on those, his children's books, an autobiography, and the biography about Douglas Adams he wrote.

The guy behind the counter seemed pretty put out that he couldn't turn me on into any new Gaiman material.

I thought it was hilarious.

Create an Infographic

Sailor Moon Infographic by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

"Create an Infographic"

I did and holy cow was it difficult. I had been putting it off because I didn't know what to do it on. Then when I decided on doing it for Sailor Moon I had to figure out how I was going to present the information.

This took me forever because of the text placement. I have deep respect for the people who make uber infographics because seriously. I never want to do one again.

I'm proud of it because it took me so far out of my graphic design comfort zone bubble but I know what I would do different if I had to do one again.

Growing Up

So, I'm going to be 25 in a few months.

TWENTY-FIVE.

That is a QUARTER OF A CENTURY.

Holy Crap.

The thought of this is slightly ridiculous. I mean, in my head I am always the same Sara I have always been. A busy geeky girl who likes to art and smile or try to smile even when she starts to panic about everything in life. But this seems different now, or at least slightly different.

Gone is the college Sara who would basically have a nervous breakdown a month.

Gone is the Sara who would buy loads of collectibles, comics, and CRAP.

Gone is the Sara who would make monthly outings to watch anime.

Gone is the Sara who would sit on the couch every night with her laptop while her parents watched TV.

Gone is the Sara that would seek out everything and anything Hello Kitty.

Gone is the Sara that would eat real ice cream every night with peanut butter and chocolate syrup.

Gone is the Sara that used butter. All the time. On everything.

Gone is the Sara that would do NOTHING all of the time.

Gone is the Sara that would always do what her parents wanted.

...

Life is different and so am I. So here is what Sara is now:

Here is the Sara that while she still gets overwhelmed is a helluva lot calmer about things, even when they go to pot.

Here is the Sara that has pared down everything she owns (books, dvds, manga, etc) so she can live a more relaxing and less cluttered life.

Here is the Sara that goes to friends houses and watches movies and have fun in a different geeky way.

Here is the Sara that sits on the couch with her laptop just a couple nights a week and relaxes as she pursues her interests while listening to shows that are interesting.

Here is the Sara that now owns maybe..10 things that have Hello Kitty on them? Everything is is GONE and replaced with things that don't make me feel 7.

Here is the Sara that maybe has coconut milk ice cream once a month and does not snack on 400+ calorie snacks every single night.

Here is the Sara that cooks healthy subbing in rice milk for milk, apple sauce for butter, and balsamic vinegar instead of Ranch on Salad.

Here is the Sara that goes running for 5 miles a few times a week, goes hiking, and has a gym membership that she uses on a nearly daily basis.

Here is the Sara that moved out of her brother's house, that moved into an apartment with a guy 2 months after meeting said guy, didn't get cable t.v., got a dog, joined accounts a third month later with said guy, made several financial and personal decisions, bought a house, got engaged, and got married 3 months later...without being pregnant, pretty much without her parents dictating what she was to do. She did what she thought was right and took a stand and the parents supported that.

I like this Sara, I hope she keeps getting better!

Britanick

So a couple of weeks ago I saw this HILARIOUS Youtube Video about "Academy Award Winning Movie" and it cracked me up. Then Evan and I were talking and he thought I hadn't seen it so he brought it up and I told him I had seen it but we watched it anyway.



Is it Terrible I actually want this move to exist? Because I do ever so much.

So, I ended up at their website Britanick Comedy and much to my pleasant surprise they have more videos. I haven't watched them all quite yet but "Pillow Talk" had me rolling on the floor. I don't know how funny other people would think this is but it's right up my comedy alley.

An excerpt from their About Us:

"BriTANicK screamed into existence in early 2008 when Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher decided that they didn’t want to use the knowledge and experience they garnered in college for anything but creating short stupid videos that would make them laugh."

Sheer brilliance. I'm glad they did. You should go check them out, it's a good way to kill some time and unwind and really there are much worse things in life besides laughing a bit.

Create a Character.

Stormy Weather by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

So this is the next in my series of exercises. The card that I picked for this one was to "Design a Character" don't worry about back story or anything of the like. Just create a character.

So, I did.

When I was younger I would always create anthropomorphic characters of elements (water, fire, wind, nature..."Gooo Planet") and so I thought I would revisit this mindset and create a storm.

I've been focusing in drawing more real lately (don't ask why...I've had the itch) so I created a character in motion, dancing and swirling around creating stormy chaos. She enjoys her work, thus the smile.

I decided to "kick it, old school" and did this as a watercolor. I wanted a more non-linear look (for the clouds) and knew I could achieve the look I wanted with the paints. I only used black for this just using various shades.

I enjoyed making her and using the watercolors so expect more of things like this eventually.

Goal Setting

So I belong to a group of Geek Girls here in AZ. They are a wonderful bunch of intelligent (and hot!) women who like to get together, have fun, and not bitch and back stab at each other. Which really, has been my whole problem with finding long lasting girlfriends with the exception of a few.

So last night I went to a Goal Setting Meeting about Time Management. This meet-up is run by Shauna who is trying to create a whole program about setting goals and getting people to pay for it. Lucky for me, it's free to the Geek Girls.

So, last month we talked about goal setting and this month it was keeping our goals during such hectic times. Shauna gave us a lot of good ideas on how to stop making excuses and asking why we procrastinate or are so busy.

So, I'm gonna use a few of her ideas and apply them to my "rocks" which was from "7 habits of Highly Effective People" and you have to take the big ricks (the stuff that s uber important to you) and put them in your bucket and then fill in the gravel (the day to day drudgery that fills our lives).

My rocks (in no order in particular):

Sleep
Eat
Evan/Family
Friends
Exercise
Art
Work

So I want to focus on these in my life and tie my goals in with them.

A few things I'm going to read: iwantmorebalance.com and "The 4 Hour Workweek" Also as homework for the group was reading "The Alchemist" which everyone assures me is life changing.

Now my goals for the month!

Finishing 2 art pieces for the month plus an art sketch from life once a week
Socializing with the Geek Girls 5-8 times.
Blogging twice a week!
Weighing four pounds less!
Exercise 3 days of cardio a week and 3 days of weight lifting a week. No time constraints. Plus Wii fit Plus in the mornings.
House stuff: paint our bedroom and office. Evan won't let me clean out the gutters.
Eating habits are being vegetarian every other week.

So here's to the next month!

Little by Little

So, I'm an elementary art teacher for those of you who don't know. I switched from middle school to elementary mid-year. It was not a good half of the year.

So now I am smack dab in the middle of teaching the little ones and I must say for the most part I love it. Sure, it can get challenging and aggravating but I do enjoy it.

Today stuck out to me though. On some days I have two classes of the same grade level. Today was my double third grade.

The first class came in (honestly not my favorite, good kids...they just don't get along with one another) and we had to move seats around then I wanted to show some slides of abstract art and talk about how you illustrate feelings with abstract art. I had already had them try to draw some feelings in a previous class and now I wanted to show them some real things and they could change their ideas.

They kept interrupting one another and me. They wouldn't stay on topic and I even had someone ask if they could start the art stuff because this was boring. (insert rage here) I spent the last five minutes of the class half-berating them and half-pleading for them to start acting like actual third graders and not kindergartners (although out of my 5 classes of kinders only one acts like that). So after a harried class my next third grade came in.

Talk about a bipolar age.

They were WONDERFUL. No seats had to be moved, we got right into our discussion, we actually discussed what they saw in abstract art, then what they felt from the colors and shapes. We talked about Picasso's Guernica and they were oh so close to figuring out it was about a bombing. We discussed Frank Stella's shapes and how one of his pieces was a beach. The discussion was going so well with people raising their hands and listening to one another that I even had to put time limits and calling on less kids. Then I passed their papers back and they re-did some of their sketches and colored in things. When I told them we were making watercolor paintings out of their sketches on real watercolor paper you could feel their excitement in the air. "Real paper, like a real artist"

I totally heart this class. They seriously have given me one of the most fulfilling teaching days I think I have ever experienced.

Also a positive note: My first graders did pinch clay animals and except for a couple broken pieces here and there they came out okay. I fired two classes worth of glazeware and have at least two potential art show pieces from that (it's in a few weeks!) and loaded up a kiln before I left with the last two classes. I'll probably have one or two from those classes too.

I live sculpture making so much more than vessel making. The other teacher that taught elementary only ever had the kids make different kinds of cups (small pinch, big pinch, small coil, big coil mug) BORING in my opinion. So I had my first graders make pinch animals. Any kind they wanted. Next year I'll do more things with the clay, like relief sculptures, greek vessels, mini-busts, and boxes. The kids can do it. You just need to expect more from them.

That's what I'm doing. The kids always tell me how hard my projects are but they love my class even though it is so hard and they complain. But their projects turn out great. Expect more and get more.

So things are good on the teaching front. Getting more and more comfortable every day. I'm already planning on what to do for next year if I have a job. I already know what I'll do if I don't.

Want to know?

I'll drink and cry myself into oblivion for the first week. Then update all my resumes and whatnot and go get a retail job until I find teaching employment.

I hope to avoid that.

Lets end on a happy note...I got married! Once I get some more photos and possible long videos (I have some short ones) I will do giant uber post.

New Artage

I have two new pieces! Two! In one month! Holy Goodness!

This doesn't usually happen folks, allow me to wallow in my excitement for a moment.

So we had two pieces to work on this month. I had my "Illustrate Your Sense" from my ongoing project from "The Creative Grab Bag" and I also had my yearly foray into the annual Gunmetalblack contest.

So without further ado: Common Sense Bingo

Common Sense Bingo by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

Another picture to add to my ongoing series from the book "The Creative Grab Bag"

This one asked me to illustrate my senses. The good thing about this book is that it has other artists using the same cards and I looked in the book to see what other people had done. Two people had done the same thing where they used food.

Well, I didn't want to do that so I went in a completely different way. Common Sense. Which is what I would like to think that I have a lot of.

Though my fiance' (soon to be hubby) has little to none. Several of these spaces are based on real-life things that he has done. Which to me are hilarious, so it's okay that they happen.

I based the bingo card on those really old kid bingo games from the fifties. So I used only a few colors for the whole thing and simple line drawings. Except for sketching out the initial idea this whole thing was done on the computer. Nothing was scanned for this.

The Sea Queen

The Sea Queen by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

This is my 2010 entry for the Gunmetalblack Contest. As I stated in an earlier journal entry I have entered this contest since 2006 and have always enjoyed it immensely.

So now we have the Sea Queen. Which sadly is on the absolute last page of GMB's Art Gallery. He has a ton of these underwater characters and flipping through his gallery inspired me with them.

So here is the break down of how this went. I picked the Sea Queen for my entry, then I printed a full size picture of GMB's original work. I then sketched out Sea Queen in the sketchbook very lightly deciding which details to keep or tweak or discard entirely (like I say every year, the detail, dude.) once I had the initial design down in the sketchbook is where I decide how to pose her. Now luckily the way I sketched her originally was pretty damn close to what I wanted anyway so it was cake from there.

I then took the sketch to work and made a copy of my final lines onto three different pieces of colored construction paper and decided on the medium blue-green which I thought look the most like water.

I then took my colored pencils and colored her in oh so carefully. I outlined different parts of her with black and other various colors.

I really enjoy how she came out. I believe her to look very regal like she is welcoming you to her part of the sea and with the way the colored pencils worked with the colored paper was fantastic. It was also very fun to work with her tentacles (although not to the extent of the original picture, yowzah).

I hope you all like her as well!

...

Now I need a new card to start working on. Which will be (drumroll please....)

Design a Character or Set of Characters.

Now this plays to my strengths a bit!