School let out like two months ago and I haven’t really gotten around to updating well… anything. I’ve been enjoying the shear unbridled joy that is working a 9 to 5 office job after spending 4 months living in an art studio from 8am until ‘to be determined’, taking floor naps and cooking most of your meals with an electric kettle.
I’ve been meaning to take pictures of all the stuffs I made this semester, buuuut summer makes me super lazy. I the meantime, here’s some fun things for fun:
But, ya know, in a good way? School has been royally kicking my ass up and down the street and tying my shoe laces together whenever it gets the opportunity, but in all fairness I’ve been dragging my feet pretty bad this semester. As it turns out, I’m kinda terrified of classes that take me out of my comfort zone. (wild notion, I know) Let’s break it down:
Russian History-
(+)
-Awesome history to learn
-Lots of interesting twists and turns (though the main theme is always that the peasants are fucked)
-Neat new words to botch with your untrained American tongue
(-)
-Professor’s lecture style is rambling quickly to himself, which results mostly in garbled notes that could either be test material or his internal monologue
-Paper writing. OH SWEET MERCIFUL FUCK. YEARS OF ART CLASSES HAVE ATROPHIED THAT PART OF MY BRAIN. I really seriously did have to re-learn all of that. (and much shame was brought upon my family)
Lithography Printmaking-
(+)
-Getting to make prints of anything I feel like scrawling erratically on a litho plate
-Getting to learn a new process
(-)
-The process itself. Lithography is a form of printing that contains about a million little steps, and each one of those steps is another opportunity to ruin your entire plate and end up with an edition of prints that just look like black smudges instead of the intricate drawing you started out with. It is a process you will respect and follow unerringly or IT WILL WIPE THE FLOOR WITH YOUR ASS.
-Being in a fine arts studio = very intimidating for some reason. This one is dumb but true. I’ve been trying to narrow down exactly why this is, and so far have come up with no good reason for it. But every time I’m in there working I just feel like the derpy crafts kid. Something to this effect is probably pretty dead on:
Fig.1 Derpy Crafts Student
Hmmm… anyway.
Here’s some things.
1) Your lace is solved.
Lace was a project on my DO NOT WANT list this semester. But I managed to get it finished with out crushing my loom with my mind rage or anything, all thanks to the Bee Gees. Oh and Ladysmith Black Mambazo helped too. Cassette tape is actually an excellent weft material and makes your finished weaving look like a space blanket! Everybody wins!
2) Real person job-type work.
The book work has been my nice break from doing school assignments. I get to draw simple nice lines and I’m allowed to throw in some silly captions as long as I make it pretty like. This chapter lead in is my favorite thing so far. I keep feeling I should hang it on the refrigerator for everyone to see… til I remember I’m 25, don’t live with my parents and I’m pretty sure the stink bugs we share our kitchen with don’t care much for illustration.
This got to be a long one by accident. Welp, back to work or drawing nonsense, whichever grabs my attention first.
OMFG WACOM TABLET. I have wanted a new one of these since forever. My old one is damn near a decade old, which is probably 102 in technology years. It was time to put it down and get a shiny new puppy tablet!
I can’t even begin to explain how magical this thing is. It was surely crafted by wizards who know how I like to draw. IT’S PRESSURE SENSITIVE YOU GUYS.
Anyway, here’s some silly drawings.
Poppy won't stop playing this song, so here's her with a unicorn barfing rainbows
sketchy sketch
THIS IS ALL I WANT TO DO EVAR. CAN I JUST DROP OUT OF SCHOOL AND GET A JOB STARING AT THE INTERNET AND DRAWING SILLY THINGS? Because really, that would be ideal.
Finally, finally got started on a large scale lace weaving. Lace is admittedly not my thing. It’s a slow process, where generally on the loom I like being a machine who cranks out weavings. And while it’s a good process to learn, I’m not totally into how woven lace looks.
So in an effort to keep it interesting, I shibori dyed the warps strings with black (which didn’t turn out. See: not all aspects of dyeing are subject to your whims and jack-assery, Jenn). And for extra fun points, the weft is going to be made entirely of the contents of one cassette tape marked “THE BEE GEES”.
In the meantime, I’m still slowly working out this little 12 x 12 embroidery. It’s getting somewhere. I just don’t know where.
Guess who just got an illustration job for a book. LIKE A BOSS.
accurate picture of me and Robyn (the writer) when we found out.
Spending your spare time drawing bullshit that makes you giggle = hey, here’s a paying job. More on this later, cause I should be in bed already.
Update: Just signed my first contract. I am officially a book illustrator. There are no words for how f-ing excited I am right now! And that it’s a collaboration with Grow Indie (who I will be shamelessly promoting here from now on, so be prepared).
But now I have shit to get done, cause in a few days I will be starting a long list of gardening illustrations that will last me til June.
Really though, winter. It kicks my ass every year. Been keeping super busy which is helpful. Check it, first embroidery of the semester:
Stillllll not sure about this one. I’m having a bit of trouble since we were told our first project had to be 12″ x12″ (it’s for a show). Size requirements kinda trip me up, especially since I like working bigger.
Other than that, I’ve been busy on illustrations for my friends at Grow Indie. For now, we’ll call this the super secret project. But if this works out, it will be a collaboration of AWESOME PROPORTIONS. Here’s a cute preview:
And then, on a totally vain note, Camron found this very nice picture he took of me (amazing he caught me with my camera guard down in the first place) at my loom about a year ago.
This picture says a lot about why I make so many warping mistakes. I’m definitely watching TV here. Good job me.
Now it’s time to get see if I can get into that very studio despite school being closed due to snow! Here’s hoping the ice storm doesn’t hit until after I get home!
As it turns out, it’s very difficult to take a picture of a scarf while you’re wearing it.
aaaaand, here’s a nice detail shot:
See the little robot faces? …It’s okay, I might be the only one that sees this.
Okay, so it’s this outside:
(my little sister sent me this picture of our parents house this morning. and I was all 'whooaaa that's pretty')
and my sinuses are all trying to claw their way out of my face FOR NO REASON. So today is a good day for this:
aaand catching up on work. There are proposals that need writing and illustrations that need drawing! Oh, and I finished that robot scarf yesterday. Pictures should prolly happen today before I manage to spill something on it.
After a solid two days of running around and pestering people, I now have a full class load! And a ton of work to do. Let’s look at my day, shall we?
8 am til about 11:
Ate breakfast and met with weaving professor. Learned I was going to have to make lace this semester. Was not overly enthused. Rest of morning was spent setting up loom.
11 am til 3:
Break for mango burrito, supply buying, getting drawings done for lithography class, smoking like a fiend and oh yes more weaving.
3 pm til 6:
Lithography class. Prepping the plate, more supply buying and mostly waiting for things to dry.
Then free hand drawing on things you can’t erase! Fun for everyone!
6 pm til about 8:
MOAR WEAVING.
The stripe here gives you a better idea of the pattern, which I like to call “a thousand tiny robot faces peering up at you.”
8pm til now:
Home for beans & rice, cocktails and mindless interneting break before doing other home work and some free-lance work. Then it’s pass out time.
This is my life until May happens.
GAAAAAHHHHH. So fucked. I can’t even begin to talk about it. I think this sums up my yesterday nicely:
But if I can manage to get some of my classes back today (solely by pestering professors, thanks for all the stellar help university administration), I may be back in my awesome printmaking class I had lined up. Sooo, we’ll see how that goes….
Also, this:
