November Starts

Here’s the weekly update:

Halloween proved to be a stay home and watch horror movies occasion. I saw Salem’s Lot (2004 version) and Dracula, the one with Gary Oldman in it. I was a bit exhausted from putting up New York trip posters on the main campus on Friday, so I decided to stay in. I guess I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into when I volunteered, but I don’t regret it. Part of me wants to ask Paul if anybody else as signed up a.k.a, if the notices worked.

(Okay, I just did this and it’s looking kind of slim. Oh well. On a completely different note: we’re going to have a model coming in on Saturday to help students who have missed a drawing class or just want to improve. It’s going to be happening for the rest of the month. I should probably go to get some practice.)

Sunday, I took Josh’s shift. He’s a graduate student that works at the front desk (he’s like Molly’s second in command, Molly being the my boss). The day was pretty calm (it usually is on Sunday), so I got some work done and goofed off reading a book.

Monday, we started a new portrait. This is one will be three classes long. I’ve decided to try a frontal view instead of a profile to add some variety to my work. Gabe let us do some warm ups before starting the real thing, which got mixed results. On one hand, this actually helped me out a lot. I made most of my mistakes first then knew what to do when I hit the original. Still, it looks like her face may be too wide (I always draw people heavier than they look for some reason), so I’ll have to try and correct that tomorrow. For a couple of other people, they had a harder time starting when it came to the real piece after the warm up. I’m talking about peers that are better than me and get this stuff intuitively. Then again, I could only think I’m getting it. All the more reason to look it over Wednesday morning and see. Drawings have a tendency to blind-side you if you don’t take a break and review them.

In Printmaking, we did our etching. Randal walked us through that step-by-step to make sure everybody had a print they could work with. The process needs lights to work. Basically you take an image, photo copy it on to miliare [not sure about that spelling; I’ll have to ask him], place that ink down on the plate, put a sheet of glass on top of both of these to flatten the image out, and expose it to light. The light shines through everywhere the image isn’t and leaves an impression where the light can’t penetrate. My floaral design came out very well. Floral designs aren’t what I generally do so this is a learning experience. On Thursday we’ll be looking at how to change our images (a.k.a introduce them in color or print on some kind of pattern, etc).

In Western Art one, we’re talking about Roman art work from around the beginning of the Common Era. Most of it is political work though we explored the architecture a lot. Talking about it is better than reading about it for me (I have a hard time staying interested and picturing what their saying when an author writes about any kind of architecture). When someone’s talking about it, its more engaging. I think I’ve said this before-I love reading and I’m looking to minor in creative writing, but history texts bore me.

We reviewed for our test in Sociology. I made arrangements to study with Alison at 11 o’ clock on Thursday. Class doesn’t start until 11:30, so that gives us a thirty minute window to check over what we know. She wanted to do something Wednesday, but I have no time whatever so ever tomorrow. That’s the last marathon day because its my last defense class. We’ll be running simulations. I practiced for a while in a spare room this morning, but I have to do a bit more before I got to bed. Some of the moves just feel really awkward when I’m trying to do them…

For Imaging tonight, we’re working on our texture projects and turning in what we have of our processfolio so far. I scanned my old schedules, notes, grabbed my final projects, and some of my collection of images together and put them on a CD (that was all I could fit). I’ve just realized I could point Matt in the direction of this blog, too (its accounting for my daily activities, which is extremely important when it comes to process. Maybe I should write the web address on the CD front.)

On top of all this, my roommate search has gone totally haywire. I’ve been calling people left right up and down over the past couple of weeks and I’m tired of it. The only thing I’ve learned about this whole ordeal is not to deal with international roommates or rental companies when it comes to paperwork. Period. I’ve called my old landlord for a second time with no response. I’m going to wait another week then threaten to get a lawyer. I really don’t want to do that, but it’s money I need for groceries, you know? 

P.S. Why is this always a novel?! I’ve got to learn to cut back.