Eff snow.
Well we got roughly 17 inches of snow so this weekend was pretty slow. I got about half my car dug out before I couldn't feel my toes anymore and gave up. I watched Anchorman earlier today and forgot how funny that movie was. There's a part where Ron Bergundy and company end up in the bear pit and basically have to fight a group of grizzly bears.
Ok, some minor digital work. New twitter backgrounds for myself and my roommate. Follow me at archidisiac!
Well I got through 19 drawings out of 31 days in January. Really not too shabby considering I probably would have done considerably less without this blog. Anyways, deadlines met and done for now. Back to the drawing board.
Does anyone else find fish extremely difficult to draw? This is a FAIL. I put them up there with hands...something about their weird proportions. At some point in my childhood aesthetic development my Jesus fish grew fins and eyes and kind of never progressed past that.
Yesterday my team magically met our deadline at 3pm with only a couple minutes to spare. We were, in fact, printing up until the last minute before those drawings had to be on a plane headed to California. Nothing left to do but wait for upper management to present them and see how it all goes. A lot of stress, frustration and work went into those drawings, more specifically, all of my last week and weekend. If our high profile clients still aren't impressed I might have to go out there and punch somebody's face in. Seriously, our drawings are magical.
It also occurs to me that I write a lot about deadlines and working late but never explain what I do. I work at BCJ, an international architecture firm. I work hard and generally enjoy my work and my office. I intend to one day probably most likely perhaps be an architect. Late nights, high stress, and low pay are typical for my profession...all reasons which lead to my hesitancy in entering the field completely for the long haul. Lately I've added extreme frustration to that list. In any case, I do good work and get paid to do it...can't really complain.
So apologies again for my failure to keep up. I didn't go to the gym. I drove to work since I had to work late. We ordered take out every night. I drank a lot of coffee. And I didn't draw a thing...other than stuff at work. I pretty much broke all of my resolutions. Great.
I'm probably not going to get to any drawings for the remainder of this week and through the weekend. I've been pulling 13 hr work days that consist mostly of photoshopping and quite honestly I get home and don't feel like looking at a computer. Ciao until next week. My apologies.
A little photoshop practice. I really really really want a wacom tablet. Maybe in the spring after I finish paying off my student loans. *sigh*
Today was probably one of the most productive days I've had in a long while. I got a ton done at work, made my deadlines, read on the bus, took a spinning class, cooked a real dinner (it was delicious), and did a drawing. Awesomeness.
Yesterday I sold my horse sketch on etsy...yay!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/archidisiac
When I was younger I really didn't appreciate the story of Alice and Wonderland and her travels beyond the looking glass. I like the story a lot now but mainly because I recognize how messed up and freaky it is. Anyways, I can't wait for the Tim Burton film to come out. The Cheshire Cat was always my favorite character. Something so right and wrong about a smiling cat. So sneaky. You never know what's behind that grin of his.
What I like about watercolor is that you only get one chance. It makes me slow down and really think about my strokes and what they will look like before I put the tip of my brush down. The key to good watercolor is no hesitation which I think I often still lack. Another thing to remember is white and highlights. Without it watercolor looks pretty bland and two dimensional. Once the white gets covered up you've ruined the painting. These are a series of drawings adapted from David Downton. If you don't already know about him, he is probably my favorite fashion illustrator. His strokes are minimal and full of deliberation. Some of the most b-e-a-utiful blending and simplicity I've seen. Check him out at http://www.daviddownton.com
Also you can find the wallpaper for this (1440x900) here.
Ok sorry...I've been slacking. I had to work late all last week and then I went to DC to visit friends over the weekend. I know, not really good excuses. Anyways, I'll try to catch up or just do a really good drawing to make up for it this weekend. Anyways, this one I'm sending to my friend Adam as a postcard.
I waste a lot of money on coffee, lattes, macchiatos, cappuccinos....the list goes on and on. That's roughly $3.25 * 5 days = $16.25 * ~48 weeks = $780 I could be saving...for multiple shoes, to pay off my loans, to get my hair cut, to go get several full body massages. as;lkfje@#*sdl*!!!!! And sometimes it upsets my stomach. And yet I still continue to buy them. Gonna try to cut back to three a week.
Our server went down for maintenance at work today so I had a little time to kill. It couldn't have been timed worse since our deadline is Friday.
The great thing about drawing trees is that they are like clay and completely malleable. You can never go wrong. It basically takes any form and stray lines can always be turned into more branches.
Today I got some new books in the mail, now I can read on the bus (resolution no. 2). First up is Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann...will review when I finish.
Ballerinas...so hard to get the movement just right. I'm really out of practice...this started out as a one hr sketch and then became four hrs...it really shouldn't have taken that long. Anyways, like they say, the first few are the hardest, eventually I'll get my fluidity back. I think I'm going to try to sell this one. I am in the process of setting up an etsy site...will let you know when it's up and running.
I also made a wallpaper of this. You can find them on my Picasa Album. Most of them are 1440x900.
Working late all this week since we have a deadline this Friday. Hopefully I'll still be able to squeeze a few sketches in.
If you don't already know about Stefan Bucher's wonderful blog, The Daily Monster, you should check it out. His drawings have a simplicity and a refined character about them that I really appreciate. His animations are also quite humorous.
I spent most of today hungover in bed from too much tequila. I got up once to use the restroom, another time to eat a bowl of cereal, and another time to watch the last quarter of the Capitol One bowl game before crawling back to bed. I finally got out of bed for good around six and proceeded to spend the rest of the night watching the Law and Order SVU marathon on USA. All in all a pretty unproductive but necessary day.
I did want to write about the James Cameron film Avatar. I saw it last Tues and had mixed feelings. First of all, I paid $14 which is a little ridiculous considering I spent the first fifteen minutes adjusting to a headache the 3D glasses gave me. Avatar was the first film I saw in 3D and I have to say some of it is pretty impressive especially when the film transitions from focusing on the foreground to the background and vice versa. The effect falls short, however, in creating continuous depth throughout the film. Some scenes seemed only to have three layers of depth and that objects on each layer were flat, almost like paper cutouts. Most of the time it was fine, I only noticed the lack of volume a few times.
I don't have much praise for the story itself. Much of the plot and scenery reminded me of Ferngully, Disney's children's film about pixies and the destruction of the rainforest...in Avatar's case, it was on steroids. The depiction of the Na'avi was pretty horrendous and offensive. James Cameron basically hits his audience over the head repeatedly with corny and stereotypical primitive behavior and really shows a complete lack of sensitivity toward the subject matter. I did, however, love the aesthetics of the film. The overall color scheme and design of the creatures and environment were absolutely beautiful. I would love to work on a production team that does this sort of stuff. Coolest job ever.
