Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2011, everyone! This year, I resolve to work hard, keep a good attitude, and stay upbeat! Which is what I try to do every year, but why should I resolve to change one aspect of my life when it's much easier to live a positive life anyway?

So...

It's been about 13 weeks since my last blog post.

Please forgive me. Bah, I don't need to apologize! I've been obscenely busy!

Almost immediately after my last blog post, things started to get a bit hectic. And that's putting it lightly! As the semester went on, the workload only continued to build up. Well, it didn't exactly build up, but we were given a lot of short-term projects with no breathing time in between.

While the workload was almost overwhelming, I am happy to say that I loved almost every minute of it.

At this point, we have the 10 boards that will compose our internship portfolios. At around the 7th or 9th board, we started to re-do out older ones to get them up to shape. Here are some before and after shots:

Do you guys remember this?

14/15 weeks later

I cringe every time I look at an old board.

Crazy what difference a few weeks can make, eh? It certainly helps that we have one (or two/three towards the end of the semester) of these due every week. Here are some more pics of renderings I've done:

A toy in translucent plastic. I (and most of the class) got scolded for using gray.

Not too bad! I really enjoy marker rendering now. It's super-fun and very rewarding. Unlike paintings which are often never "done," there is always a finishing point with these product drawings. The sense of accomplishment after finishing a board is maybe one of the most satisfying art-related things I've done.

As for the rest of my boards...well, I'm afraid I'll have to keep those secret. Secrecy is a big part of the toy industry, but I believe that processes are interesting and sharing knowledge is important. If you ever encounter me in real life, I'd probably be happy to show you others!

That's about it for this blog post. Tomorrow is the first day of Winterim classes. It's three weeks of re-doing our boards and further preparing our portfolios and resumes for our summer internships. I'll keep y'all posted!

Happy thoughts,
-J

P.S. Do yourself a favor and check out Every Day Is Awesome. I'll talk about it more next post, but...just do it.

Oh, and I have my own web address! You can get here by going to http://jordanliv.com now. How cool is that?!

Animazement 2009

Well, I don't normally do this kind of thing, but I feel like I should update the blog more often and perhaps expand some readership? This blog entry is about the only Japanese animation (anime) convention in North Carolina.

I've had an obsession with Japanese culture that started with Pokemon and expanded to Cartoon Network's weekday Toonami anime slot. That eventually expanded to CN's Adult Swim late night block and when I started high school, my anime craze went full throttle. I started buy the comics (manga) and DVDs when I could and soon became an otaku. Summer 2005, I had the opportunity to go to the "only fun thing that happens in Durham," Animazement. The idea of attending a convention where hundreds of other people like me would attend boggled my mind!

And great fun was had. I dressed up as my favorite character from Samurai Champloo, Jin and had a blast runnning around the Sheraton Imperial Hotel with my friends. The next year, I had even more fun. I did a fairly decent Vincent from Final Fantasy 7 (sorry, I had my photos on Cosplay.com but it seems like they revamped their photo system and a lot of them were lost in the process...). But every year since then has become a little less fun, a little less exciting.

Enter this year, Animazement 2009. May 22nd through 24th. I wasn't even really 100% sure I was going to go. I suppose college life made me grow up a bit and leave the otaku obsession behind. The sheer madness that occured at the convention every year was starting to wear me down. Part of it was timing- I just got back home from college and am still settling in. I just didn't have time to adjust my costume from last year to fit this year, either.

In the end, I decided to attend the 'con on Friday only with my friend Saiwen for old times' sake. Little did we know the epic journey that awaited us...

Alright, it wasn't that bad. Here's the abbreviated story: As we entered a parking deck in downtown Raleigh, Sai's car started to stall. We pushed it through the deck and to the other side and eventually discovered a leaking tube. Gas was splurting all over the place when he tried to start the car! So, he called a tow truck.

On the way to the auto shop, the tow driver started telling a story.

Driver: "Yeah....I was locked up for 15 months. Aha ha hyuck!"
Me and Saiwen:"....oh yeah?"
D: "Yuuup. I came home one day and saw some boys foolin' with my 11 year old daughter."
Us: " o.O"
D: "Now, I understand if it's just one. I say, 'Aiight boy, you jacked up, but you made a mistake, i'll look past this, let's go get you some help.' But THREE?!"
Us: *crickets*
D: "I lost it and shot 6 times!"
Us: <(O_O;;)>
D: "...yup. That's why I hate the po-leece."

Needless to say, it was an awkward ride. Once we got there, we tried to get a number of friends to swing by and take us back to the 'con. Eventually, we got our good friend Derin to swing by...but by the time she showed up, Sai's car was fixed. The tube that carried gas to some important location split and the replacement was complete. So, Derin drove back to the 'con all annoyed and angrylike (we made her miss her group's photoshoot).

Once we got to the convention, time flew by. We ran into a few old friends and caught up a bit. It was an overall enjoyable experience. It was just enough to satisfy a former otaku's hunger for fandom. Although I wish we could've stayed for the Japanese Pop/Rock group Uchuu Sentai NOIZ. They ran out on stage during opening ceremonies in ridiculous costumes and tried to get the crowd to do a funky anime 'con dance. I've never been to an actual concert before and I feel like it would've been fun. But hey! I go to college in NYC. I'll have another chance to see a show.

Here are some pics. I've always been too shy to ask cosplayers if I can take their photos, so I only ever get crowd shots...

Outside the Raleigh Convention Center

Some random cosplayers

The convention hall was huge- AZ spanned 4 floors!

The other motivation for going: The Dealer's Room. Where we get our crack: books, DVDs, posters, figures...and so much more.

Hello Kitty Panda!
*explodes*

I picked up one thing from the Dealer's Room:

A new Gundam! I absolutely LOVE Gunpla. This is my first "Master Grade" model kit in a very, very long time. It has lotsa little pieces and cool accessories! *nerdgasm*

Look forward to me documenting the construction of this action figure model!

I feel like I forgot to write about something, but I'll update the blog later. For now? Sleep.


Hoping that the truck driver won't appear in my dreams,
-J

Home Base

If you didn't know, today is the eve of the release of Watchmen! I got tickets to a midnight premiere up here in the city and that's a good....7 hours or so away.

Because I love you guys (not cuz I need to kill time!), here's a new blog post!

Inspired by this post by my friend Julie, here's a little look at my work station in my room.



I spend a lot of time sitting at my desk on the computer. In fact, my productivity would probably increase tenfold if Facebook didn't exist. Or computers in general...My desk is quite cluttered as well.



The view from the front! Note the website! Check out Dudecraft for awesome craft projects and ideas. Another plug for ya, Mr.O!



Here are is my collection of toys up in New York.



I absolutely love Gundam models. It's a chance for me to see how action figures are made without going to a factory! These particular models are from Gundam 00, the latest anime series. I just started building these things again after a good five or six year break and was amazed at how Bandai's modeling technology has progressed. The gundam models I built in middle school were like stick figures compared to these things! Really fun to build, study, and play with.



Here are some Transformers! I got back into Transformers when the movie came out in 2007. These are from the Transormers Animated line. What I love about these are the design; the Transormers Animated cartoon has a very distinct, stylized anime-ish aesthetic to it. These toys capture that aesthetic very well without compromising playability at all. When these toys were first unveiled, I was dumbfounded by their awesomeness.



Some Japanese action figures and a Ganpen that needs some repairs...
The one on the left is a Figma Lelouch and the far right one is a Revoltech robot with a long name from Full Metal Panic. These guys are mad posable and have excellent craftsmanship. Very fun to play with.



Wall decorations! Wooo!


Here's a project my friend Kara did using my face as a reference. The idea is to write a few short lines, photograph someone reading them dramatically, then use those photos to make a comic strip that doesn't necessarily have to be in order. Cool, huh?



Some books! Note all the Watchmen stuff. All of the Watchmen books are signed by relevent people; the artist Dave Gibbons and the movie's photographer, Clay Enos. Also note the Ashley Wood books. Kinda hard to see, but I have Lore, Zomvies v. Robots Complete, Popbot Complete (until vol.8 comes out, anyway...), and a few art books.



And sitting five feet away is my entertainment system! A 23 inch lcd monitor with a TV tuner, cheap speakers from Kmart, my PS3, and lotsa games! Woo! Good for relaxing but I don't use it all that much.

That's pretty much all that's interesting. I've been thinking about getting back into using deviantART again. I want to put up pics of my paintings of models from class, but don't know if I want to put them up here. If you have thoughts about it, post a comment!

Comic-Con

As some of you guys know, February 6th-8th was the New York Comic Convention.

It was awesome.

It was the first really big convention that I've been to. After walking around the convention floor all weekend, my feet hurt for the first time since move-in day! I was fortunate enough to meet David Gibbons, the artist for Watchmen, and Clay Enos, the unit photographer for the Watchmen movie. Mr. Enos and Titan Books put out and absolutely amazing book called Watchmen Portraits. Like the name implies, it's a huge book full of black-and-white portraits of actors and actresses from Watchmen. If you've got the money and are a fan of Watchmen, it's definitely worth picking up. Amazon has it for the great, great price for $31.50. I also met Gabe and Tycho from my favorite video game webcomic, Penny Arcade.

On Friday the 6th, when I was wondering around the convention floor, I spotted some authentic, original artwork by Ashley Wood. When I saw a huge original Zombies Vs. Robots painting, I nearly passed out! Ashley Wood is my favorite artist and I was absolutely floored to see his paintings and sketchbook pages in person. I could've studied his paintings all day. Seeing photos is one thing, but seeing the actual layers of paint and the brush strokes is something completely different...If I had a spare $400, I would've picked one up, but I had to settle for drooling over the display table. Someday....

Well, I'm not planning to write up a big con report, but going to NYCC was a great experience. Not only did I get to fanboy-out, I recieved a bit of inspiration and a goal to shoot for. Tonight, on this blog for all to see, I am making a vow: Someday, I will be sitting behind a booth a Comic-Con, showing my artwork, selling my toys, and making a name for myself. With any luck, it'll happen within the next ten years.

That's all for now. School is back in motion, work is starting to pile up. I've really been enjoying painting lately because we're focusing on portraits and the human figure. In my next update, I'll post some pics of some new work. I'm pretty proud with my self-portrait and the process behind it is pretty interesting, so be ready to read about that!


Lesson learned and the wheels keep turning

One Week Left...

...'till I go back to the city! FIT's winter break is freakishly long. I suppose it helps to save on those heating bills, though.

Anyway, I can't say I've been as productive as I wanted to be. Too busy being lazy and playing Fallout 3. But I just recently rediscovered my brother's acoustic guitar under my bed, as well as another miniature guitar of his in my closet. I can't believe I forgot about them! So I've been fiddling around with them a teeny bit.

Fine arts-wise, not much has been happening. I don't know why, but it's impossibly difficult for me to get anything done when I'm at home. Maybe it's the prospect of someone looking over my shoulder every hour, seeing me work. I can't stand it when that happens.

BUT, speaking of work and artsy stuff, I want to direct all of you readers to Dude Craft! Run by my former tech theater teacher and big-time awesome guy Paul Overton, this arts and crafts blog has a number of interesting posts and projects for DIY-minded people out there. Definetly something to check out if you're in the mood to produce (unlike me!).

Anyway, enough about my (currently boring) life! Here are some pics of my 3d design projects! You may remember this from way back:


Since then, we've done maybe....5 or so more projects. Here are some highlights!



Project: Create form with intersecting shapes composed of parallel vertical planes.



Project: Create a radiating form that had the same profile view from all sides. Looks rather menacing, no?


This last one is our final project. We had to take a geometric/cubist/abstract painting and translate it into three dimensions. I took this painting by Theo van Doesburg and turned it into this:






I was going for a crazy Star-Wars-esque city/Death Star scape.

Pardon the crappy photo conditions. In fact, I am ashamed to have uploaded these without color adjustments, but alas, time constraints suck. Yupyup.

Later kids!