textures of time: September 2015

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

stickers

I am making a zine with some classmates. It's about suburbia, because what else on earth is interesting?

Here are the stickers sheets I printed off. I like the design. I'd like to imagine if I had a skater skirt or long flowy dress with prints like these (particularly the second and third), I would be by far the coolest kid on the block.

original color

color variation

Also here are some my favorite photos we're going to use in the zine:

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Notes from Pete Docter

Pete Docter (director of Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Inside Out, and a generally adorable human) gave a talk in a nearby church yesterday. He was one of the more pleasant and charismatic speakers I've seen, and he was very humble. Here's some very short notes, typed-up because my handwriting is a cipher understood by only a select few (namely, me, and maybe my mom):

Strive to create things that everyone knows but no one talks about.
Every single part of the story is known before the animation.
Idea -> story development -> writing, script -> character design, visual development
Characters are compelling when they are relatable.
For inspiration: make lists, take walks.

Monday, September 28, 2015

figures from 9/27

I'm getting worse? (shitty iPhone photos in dim light are shitty...iPhone photos in dim light.)

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

orange + pink figures (and awful portraiture)

The figure drawing co-op finally started this year. I went on Sunday for like....three hours. But we only had the model for two—he was an hour late. And his poses were very strange so I left early.

There was an older white man sitting next to me and his work was so fucking good. I think that I will know I have "made it" in terms of art when I look at something I've created and think to myself, "Yup, that sure looks like a painter grandfather made that." But a girl can only dream.

Since he was late I took some time to draw some strangers. I think the woman above noticed I was drawing her, and she sort of furtively smiled at me throughout the rest of the class. I was a little uncomfortable.

30 seconds

This was the only gesture drawing I did that I liked. His hand is all fucked up, but I like how I simplified the rest of the form. Also, yes, those are testicles.

1 min.

This was the first figure I did that day that I actually liked. I quite like how I rendered his butt.

5 min.

10 min.

It's strange—when figure drawing, I am usually most excited by drawing cloth, or other objects that give context to the model. I don't know. And they always end up nice, even when the figure looks completely wrong. Anyway, I'm pretty proud of how this one turned out, though I regret adding in those black lines :-(

10 min.

10 or 15 min?

I'll go again next week. Markers are so fun, but I'm not too sure how to draw the figure nicely without creating a mess of scribbles underneath. It's hard to slow down, and my initial series of gestures often look like potato after potato after sprouting, moldy potato. I think next time I'll just go straight to the markers and forget about the lines—I seem to be more of a painter than a drawer, anyway.

I've started exercising again and it sux

New Balance kicks. Deodorant. Tri-weekly showering (impressive!). Long-expired Albuterol, inevitably followed by faint wheezing.

Not a self portrait.

The apartment complex I just moved into has a gym in the basement. The building has a rich history: first it was a women's hospital in the 1900s, then a derelict inhabited by only the loneliest vagrants, and now, finally, a newly remodeled apartment complex.

Because I don't understand social norms and revel in ~quirk~, when I was looking at the apartment with my soon-to-be-roommate I asked the apartment tour people (what are their job titles? idk. Hereafter: A.T.P.) about the layout—specifically, where the morgue was located, so I could pay my respects and review the location for my future Goth Scouts meetings. The A.T.P. told me that the morgue had been filled with concrete, effectively sealing away the sordid memories of death in the basement walls.

But I don't believe that. Not for a millisecond. For one, concrete is expensive (probably), labor even more so. Also, why would they care? Do good, Christian landlord even believe in ghosts (apart from the Holy)(if they're trinitarians)?

Anyway. The point of this is that I believe the A.T.P. and their associates/predecessors are lying about filling in the morgue—I think they instead transformed the space into a furnished fitness center. It just makes gosh darn sense. Here's why:

The first weekend at the apartment, my roommate—alone—ventured into the basement, exploring her (our) new home. While walking under the fluorescent lighting, hearing her footsteps echo around her in circles, she felt "weirded out" and wanted to "get the heck out of there."
The fitness center doesn't have any windows, save for a thin glowing row on the back wall just beneath the ceiling. And I'm not stupid. I've seen X-Files, Law and Order: SVU, NCIS, CSI: Miami, the regular Law and Order, and even House. And guess what? None of the morgues on TV have windows. Checkmate, atheists.
When I exhale I can sometimes feel the crawling sensation of sticky fingertips pressing their way through my legs and onto my neck. A strangling sensation. And if there's anything in the world I'm familiar with, it's knowing when purgatorial souls are enacting revenge on living beings.
I've asked the other girls in Goth Scouts, and they really love the location. Granted, it's close to most of their homes, and there's a CVS just a block away, and there's free parking for visitors, but: they love the location because it makes them feel at peace with the Devil and His Disciples! And why else would they feel so close to Him, our Lord and Savior, if not for the eeriness of what once was a room for the dead, now a room for the living trying to stave off death??

The facts cannot be denied. Today and forevermore I shall pay my daily respects. The Dark Lord bless.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

indelible but ephemeral existences

These are screenshots (without URLs) of all the online profiles I have ever had. There are certainly more. This is a work in progress. An installation.