As I was shopping earlier last month at Samy's Camera (great place by the way) for some film for my photo class, I came across what is pretty much the new Polaroid (since they discontinued Polaroid film sadly enough). This one is by Fujifilm and the 210 (which makes the bigger pics) looks like an overgrown kid's toy camera, but it works well enough. I prefer the cuter somewhat reasonably sized Fujifilm Instax Mini. It's the same thing but produces smaller, wallet sized pictures. They are kinda pricey but still, I can't wait to get mine!
Fujifilm Instax Camera
Humor: Hurt Feelings Report
If someone ever hurt you (mainly the military) you can now file a report to them. Haha, no this one's for kicks. Although, I'm sure you could try sending it in...
Life Drawing Class: Portraiture and Final
Even though I'm no longer in life drawing seeing as the class ended in May, I have made note I am quite a few months behind on my blogging and am going to be catching up for a while. After gestures and drawing the figure, my class moved onto portraiture. I was not at all very good at drawing face accurately, but after I learned how to do this, I was amazed at what I could do.
We would still start with marking where things were and drawing a triangle to get a feel where the forehead and chin were. Then we would carve out the light from the charcoal, then gradually move onto detail. First starting with a chamois then moving up to finer tools such as an eraser. So here are some of the portraits I did (keep in mind some of them are unfinished since the models we had in class were only there for a few periods).
For my final, we had to do a self portrait, mine doesn't look like an exact representation of me for those that know me. Yet I did it in 7 hours and spent more time brainstorming about the piece. I chose a blue toned paper to bring this feeling of melancholy, and I wanted to focus on this one feeling because that was all I was thinking about. I was somewhat depressed during this time. I got a hold of a broken mirror (thanks to my dad) and cropped it so the cracks would be at the edge and cause this sort of tension and uncomfortableness, also that the cracks, spider web like are creeping into the picture. It represented this chaos and distortion, brokenness and sadness. I had one light source and the things in the background I blurred out because they didn't matter, at the time I didn't care about anything else. We were supposed to spend about 20 hours on it, but my teacher loved that I put thought into almost every little detail. Yay for a good semester of life drawing, one of the best classes I've ever taken :)
Life Drawing Class: Midterm
For our midterm in life drawing we had to reproduce a Vermeer painting using charcoal. I chose the picture of the Woman Holding a Balance. She's reassessing the importance of certain things in her life and I enjoy the quiet softness and thoughtfulness of this painting brought about by her calm demeanor and the shy light coming through the window.
Weird Awesomeness: Beard Championships
I just found out from a friend of mine after watching Dinner for Schmucks with Steve Carell, is that there really are world beard and mustache championships. Teams from Canada, the US, and Europe compete with categories for best mustache, best beard, there is a freestyle category, it is crazy what people can do with their beards...I have yet to see the bearded lady though. The first national US beard championships happened in June earlier this year in Oregon. Sad I missed it, but I'm sure there will be more to come from this. hahahaha. World Beard and Mustache Championships.
Journal: Quicksand
So I'm taking a poetry class this semester and my teacher suggested getting a small notebook to carry around. I recently got one for ideas, observations, pieces of writing that may be thought of during the day or whenever.
Here's a random thought and unedited writing from that little journal I now carry around:
Love is Quicksand
it happens all so fast and once it does, you're stuck and you keep sinking deeper and deeper. you get pulled out a little here and there only to sink faster than before. you keep sinking 'til you can't breathe anymore and become asphyxiated and at that point, no one can save you.
I'm almost to that point.
Artist: Sylvia Ji
I've taken a long summer break away from blogging I know, but to jump start things again, I've decided to post about an artist I recently discovered while flipping through one of my favorite illustration magazines, Hi-Fructose. Her name is Sylvia Ji, she currently resides in Los Angeles and creates paintings with simple materials (mainly acrylic on wood panel). I love the feel of these paintings something that attracted me to them so much was a mix of Day of the Dead, beauty, luscious flowers, and culture. She might draw you in as well...her work here.
Elle Magazine: Keira Knightly
When I was growing up, I loved loved magazines. I'd always tear out fashion pictures and make collages from them. I loved them (magazines) for the beautiful pictures, and I still have an attachment for beautiful pictures because it defies reality.
In 7th and 8th grade a friend and me designed clothes together and I thought about being a fashion designer. Yet I look at that world now and go...nope! I'd rather photograph it. I discovered a blog, Design Scene, which is now my current addiction instead of magazines, it just cuts right to the gooood stuff, and since I haven't looked at a magazine in such a long time, it's fueling my unfed desires.
I love this shoot done in Elle magazine (spring 2010) with Keira Knightly, it's soft, romantic, and some pics have a bit of playfulness to them. They're photographed by Carter Smith and I believe he did a beautiful job. Anyways, enjoy.
Want a Piece? My Rebel Re-Label Project
So I did end up sticking with Orbit Gum for my product project. My best friend helped me come up with a name as long as ideas. Since sugarfree gum contains sugar alcohol, if eaten in excess, this can cause diarrhea. Sadly, I've tested this and it proves true. So I've renamed my product MoreShit! A sort of half rhyme with Orbit, and it now (in my fantasy world at least) comes in Laxamint. Which by the way, in my search about different things for Orbit, I've found that laxative gum already does exist, so my product will have a spot on the market. Heh heh.
My bestie also gave me the idea of a sort of Bertie Bott's every flavor theme, which I think is another great idea considering Orbit gum has every unnecessary flavor out there possible.
After I finished my product, I wanted to see how it fit back into the world! I went to the liquor store by my house, asked to place it on the shelf, I did, and photographed it. Oh, my bastard child from Orbit fits so well into the gum social scene.
Some technical stuff if I must, I created it in illustrator, I found an Orbit box template off the internet (thank God for the internet) and I just used the box outline. I pretty much started from scratch. except for the ying yangish "O" logo in Orbit. That I used Live Trace and recolored it. I created a signature in high school in illustrator, but that's about all the work I've done in Illustrator. So this project I shall say was a bit of a learning experience. A good one mind that, and I tried keeping it simple for myself. Anyways, hope you find some humor from it, and enjoy. :)
Sculptor: Kate MacDowell
As I was browsing one of my favorite art magazines I enjoy from time to time, Hi-Fructose, I came across Kate MacDowell and her sculptures caught me off guard, I loved it. Here's an excerpt from MacDowell's statement:
I chose porcelain for its luminous and ghostly qualities as well as its strength and ability to show fine texture. It highlights both the impermanence and fragility of natural forms in a dying ecosystem, while paradoxically, being a material that can last for thousands of years and is historically associated with high status and value. I see each piece as a captured and preserved specimen, a painstaking record of endangered natural forms and a commentary on our own culpability.
Check out more of her thought provoking work, here.
Food for Thought: Woody Allen
"To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer. To suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy then is to suffer. But suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you're getting this down." Woody Allen.
Photo Shoot: Scouting
I've had my eye on this little place that's relatively close to my house for quite some time. Today I actually decided to go out and check out the area for a photo shoot I want to do in the near future. Probably won't be until summer, but that's okay.
It looks like if I do a shoot here, it's going to have to be quick, and I hope my model is up for the task of hopping over fences because this place is not open for public use. I am a little concerned about the water, but we won't be dabbling too much or not at all in it. So when I've got more free time, I'll be planning the details. Fun fun :)
Photography: Chad Riley
While on my internet craze today, I stumbled upon a new photographer that I like. His name is Chad Riley, and while I do not know much about this guy, I do know his client list includes brands like Coca-Cola and Volcom. He also does shoots for Radiant and Zink magazines. Anyways, I like his stuff. Chad Riley Photography.
Life Drawing Class: Value
Just before spring break in my life drawing class we got into value. We started just separating planes on the figure when we did quick gesture drawings, then we moved onto longer drawings. It has certainly gotten a lot more exciting in the class. These are some of the things I've done in class and one picture is my homework assignment that I drew of my lover.
My professor basically says to think of ourselves as sculptors, we carve the form (light) out from the dark. We do a quick sketch, marking where important points are and the basic form of the figure, then we squint hard and unify the darks. After we carve out the strong light, then move onto getting into detail and middle values. Our movements get smaller and smaller.
I would have never thought I'd be able to draw the figure but my professor, Cynthia Grilli, in my opinion is amazing. Here's her website if you want to check it out.
Quote of the Day
So a good friend of mine gave me a quote to cheer up.
Yesterday
Me: This week sucks balls. big time.
Friend: I think you'd appreciate haha "Life is like a penis, it's short but seems long when it's hard."
Oh and I do appreciate that, ahahaha.
Things are Looking Up
I did not want to wake up this morning, I just slept and slept til about 9 am. I couldn't sleep anymore, but I still did not feel like doing anything. Well I got up, had a bowl of ice cream for breakfast, haha, then got ready. I needed someone. So I called up my lover, headed over there and chilled for a few hours, and I feel really good. I do. That doesn't take away the massive amount of work I now have left to do, but I feel like doing it now instead of laying around all depressed like earlier this week.
So I had a late lunch at In-N-Out, when I went to the bathroom to wash my hands, I walked in and EW it smelled like a Porta-Potty. I looked on the other side of the wall that I did not recognize before and saw some lovely urinals. Wow, epic fail, I had just walked into the men's room. Haha, boy was my mind elsewhere. So I quickly ducked out, and went into the correct facility. hahahha, I got a good chuckle out of that.
Not Feeling It
This week has started out craptacular for sure. I just have so much work that needs to get done and on top of that there's drama with one of my friends. What an emotional and stressful week this has turned out to be. Ick, I Hate drama. That's right, with a capital H. Oh, it's entertaining on TV, but no so much in life. Now I just really don't feel motivated to do anything. I have my project I need to complete by tomorrow, and I just feel like sleeping. I wish I could escape, if only for a day...
Photo Shoot: Locker Room
I want to do another photoshoot. I have somewhat of an idea of what I'm going to do, but need to tweak out some details. My last shoot (one that I actually set up for) was about a year ago. It was in the Cal State Long Beach art locker rooms, which are all tagged up and always changing.
I was photographing these two girls that were in my 2D art class first semester of college. They were crazy, wild, and lively and I loved that!
I have a new model, a friend that I haven't talked to in ages, and I'm super stoked for it! It probably won't happen til summer, seeing that end of the school year gets busier and busier, but that gives me more time to plan, and maybe hopefully, get a new camera. hehe.
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