End of the Semester

Look at me, I'm sheepish!

Whew!

I am SO tired right now. For the past week, I've been going to bed around 3 or 4 AM and waking up around 8 or 9 for class or to do work. Thankfully, with the passing of Thursday, the semester has officially ended for me. Unfortunately, I've been super-busy packing my stuff and moving it into my apartment! I haven't had much time to relax, but today I took it easy after moving a bunch of stuff in the morning.

Anyway, time for the interesting stuff:

Tuesday was the day of my class' Cluster Review. We gathered all of our work and had a critique in front of all of our professors. Naturally, it was a ridiculously long process: we went from 9:30 to almost 6 with an hour long break for lunch. Thankfully, my abstract painting teacher Jeff Way brought us bagels!

My critique went really well. I actually wish I heard more negative comments from my professors, but they didn't have much of that to say. The only thing I remember them saying is that I might think or plan too much. Here are some pictures of my work:


We had to display three paintings from each class, not including homework paintings from Figurative Painting class...

...In addition to both sculptures, our best few drawings, and a few prints. I need to photograph more of the latter two. And on the floor are some of my embossings. I'll photograph or scan those too, when I get the chance.
You can see two larger drawings we did in Life Drawing class here. They're pretty recent.
And here is a closeup of the last abstract painting of the semester. I rather like it, but the blue and yellow one is my my favorite.

All in all, an enjoyable (but long) day. It was really cool to see my classmates' work collected together.

***

Winter break has pretty much started and I'll be going home on Tuesday (assuming this crazy snow isn't going to delay the flight). Super-excited to see my nephew, but I'll probably need a flu shot before seeing him. I'm coming back to my apartment on the 10th and will spend the remainder of winter break cleaning up, organizing, and working on my Toy Design home test! Expect a few updates on that, but not too many! I don't want anyone to steal my ideas now, do I?

Anyway, updates might be a bit scarce over the next few weeks, so don't worry about checking on a regular basis! 'Though if you do want to stay updated on my latest blog posts, follow me on Twitter! You can reach my page over on the right side of the page.

I know we can make it if we take it slow,
-J

Vicky and the Statue

Finished the last figure painting of the semester on Tuesday. At least, I think it's finished? Let me know what you guys think. Like I said before, we had to use non-naturalistic colors, and this is the result. I'm actually pleased after staring at this photo for a while; I hated the painting for the longest time. I really love the statue's face.Vicky and Statue

30" x 40"
Oil on canvas

And a peek at what I'm up to in sculpture:

Oooh, mysterious! Even I don't know what's happening!

Coming out of his cage, and doing just fine (for now),
-J

Metal + Me = ?

Finally, a chance to blog about my sculpture! I remembered to bring my camera in to class on Monday and took a few shots of what I've done so far. Unfortunately, the tech in charge of the tool room wasn't in class so I didn't have access to some electric metal shears and I couldn't work on the sculpture more. The shears give the edges a very clean cut, which is why I couldn't work on Monday despite owning a pair of hand shears.

Let's start from the beginning!
Our first project in Sculpture II is really broad and general: Abstraction from the human form. With that as our prompt, the professor had a model come in and do some poses for us while we did sketches and made small mock-ups. Here's what I tossed together with cardboard and tape:

I really liked the form of this torso and so did the professor. Once I had this made, I had to decide what my material would be. Almost everyone else in class is using chicken wire and some kind of surface filling, whether it be plaster or paper pulp or something crazy like that. After sitting around and staring at it, I decided to use sheet metal! Nobody else was doing it and METAL IS HARDCORE!

So I went over to Queens and picked up some metal from the friendly folks at B&B Sheet Metal. I had to decide how I was going to bond the metal, so the Professor suggested using a riveter.

Here's what I have so far:


It doesn't look like much, but it's actually quite large. The process for making this thing is really quick- I made all of this in two 3-hour sessions a few weeks ago. I'll probably have the legs done by next week and then I'll have to plan how I want the surface to look.

I'd like to maybe document the process some more, so keep an eye out for a step-by-step walkthrough!

Happy,
-J

Start of Summer!

Well, summer has officially started! I just got back home after a harrowing 11 hour long train ride. The past 36 hours have been very hectic and stressful for me, but it's all behind and done! On to the noteworthy items!


This painting is pretty much finished. I won't be able to work on it for three months, but hey! The only thing I really feel the need to fix is the hand behind the head, which isn't finished. Her face still looks kinda pig-like, unfortunately, but I had a really tough angle with the face. That should count for something! Also note the floor tiles.

Here are some pics of our last sculpture in class. It's a pretty basic reclining nude full figure. In many ways, this was easier to make than Marcel's head. The only really tricky parts were the hands, feet, and face. The base we were working on was something like a 16" square, so small forms like the hands and face were harder to sculpt. One wrong move and hours of work could be undone! Luckily, oil based clay doesn't really dry out, at least not within the time frame we were working in.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take it back with me, so I ended up leaving it behind in the sculpture studio with a big "Give Me a Home!" sign on it.

***

On another note, I was surprised to see my room rearranged when I got back home! Here are some photos because I feel like it!

The view from the doorway. I get a good view of the neighbor's backyard, full of grass and a storeage shed. And the satellite dish that we never really used. It's so nice to see green on a regular basis again.
Enter my room and turn left to see part of the madness that lies dormant in me. My box-o-swords is just chilling in the corner there. Not that there are any actual swords. Well, actually, there is, but it doesn't count 'cuz it ain't sharp enough! The rest are wooden and props I made for cosplaying.
Right next to my door is my Wall of Nerdiness. Everything from manga to Playstation games to stuffed animals is here. My mom compressed my collections to the max to make room for everything. I'll rearrange it to fit my aesthetics later!
Aaaand the magic area where I usually can be found is here! Directly across from the doorway and facing my bed is my desk! With added shelf! As you can see, my Transformer collection is here. Well, the new stuff, anyways. I have a lot of Beast Wars toys in the clear case next to the desk. I expect the desk to get more and more cluttered as time goes on this summer.

***

Speaking of summer, I've always associated the season with one thing (and it's kinda silly): VIDEO GAMES! Yes, summer is the one time of year where I can allow my brains to turn to mush and play video games like mad. Speaking of video games, some friends of mine are playing through Persona 3:FES in sort of a MST3k style. Check 'em out, if you will! There will probably be a lot of them, seeing as how the game easily has an 80+ hour play time...

I've got a decent backlog myself...Little time for gaming at FIT! But I also plan on trying to find a job and working on my drawing skills. Can't lose what I've gained! MUST STAY PRODUCTIVE!

That about sums it up for now. I'll make sure to keep everyone posted!

OH SNAP! Almost forgot! OVER 2,000 PAGE VIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I were any good, I'd have a new banner up to commemorate the event. But I'm not, so meh!

Well, now I'm back at home and
I'm looking forward to this life I live

-J

Sculpture and MORE!

Edit: Added some pics of real-Marcel!

Man, no update in over a month! My bad, peeps, my bad. To make up for it, here are some photos of my recently artwork! Up top here is a Ganpen linoleum print I did in Printmaking class. I have a number of other experimental prints that I might upload later. If you haven't seen my movies or don't know about the greatest mobster of all time, check it out now!

***

Up next is the sculpture I've been working on since the start of the semester. It's a portrait of my friend Marcel. In class, we paired up and sculpted our partner's head. This is probably the most expensive project we've had; the clay and supplies cost over $130! That's more than all my art supplies in my sophomore year of high school!




It's a pretty hefty sculpture, too. A solid 9-ish bricks of oil clay went into Marcel's head. It was a great project! All of the other classes sculpted from a model while we got to work from classmates. Our next project is a reclining nude figure, which is shaping up pretty well.

***

So, right now I'm in the middle of spring break! It's been pretty cool, but it hasn't felt like much of a break. I actually have a decent amount of work to do ( 8-10 page analysis research paper....=_=), but a lot of it has been put on hold because of a little challenge a friend and I have going on. We have to complete a sketchbook by the end of the break! That's 184 pages in 7 days. I'm not far at all and it's unlikely that I'll finish in time, but....A CHALLENGE IS A CHALLENGE! So far I've done 23 pages. If I were on schedule, I'd be on page 80-something by the end of today. But I think I'll get started on that paper instead...

***

That about sumps it up for now. I'll try and update more often! I have a lot of paintings, but they're of nudes so I don't know if I should find somewhere else to host them. It's already Wednesday! Only 4 days left in the break.

Wishing there were more hours in the day,
-J