I Survived Week Twelve!

I am so thrilled right now.

I survived week twelve.

Granted, on Saturday, the hell of week thirteen kicks in, but for the time being, I have tonight to relax.

Why? Because I finished fifty storyboards, my six page workbook, my nine page essay and-- Aaaah, isn't this beautiful?

So I spent my English class drawing pictures and reading a book.

It was beautiful.


You know what else is lovely?

Gettin' a chance to draw Kara. I've been having myself a good time working on Kara's build, and she's lovely.

I drew this earlier but got her arms all wrong, so I had to fix them up in photoshop, because I made them far too tiny for her build.

Aaaaah, this is just wonderful.

I could dance.

I'm not looking forward to the weekend, but right now? It is my day to shine.

*Does a dance*

*Does a dance*

*Does a dance*

Aaaaah. I'm going to just sit around and read a book and relax.

Aaaah.

Aaaaah.

Annie

11:27

Rush Rush Rush!

Okay so it's kinda late, and I'm kinda tired, and I really should go to bed before I have to wake up at nine for class. I finished my homework!! Yaaay!! So this is my layout assignment-- and I just realized that I'm again posting my homework, despite the fact that I don't normally post school work. Le sigh.

This one however is a work in progress for myself; that I intend to paint and render completely, so I don't mind sharing.

I like my layout class! I always wind up drawing something I actually like, even though this particular assignment has like, no layout in it at all. To the right I have the various layers I used to put this assignment together, moving from back to front.

I added some colour to the furthest back layer, just to add some visual interest and so I wouldn't have a blank BG layer. When I finish painting it, she'll be back lit from behind and it will be epic.

The snakes gave me a run for my money, I almost put them all on separate layers until I realized that wouldn't make much sense, due to the overlapping pattern of the snakes. Instead they have to be on the same layer as Zephira- else it wouldn't work.

Oh yeah, I named Sherry's mother, could you tell? She's Zephira.

I also named his sisters; Melantho (Mel, for short) and Admete, which I can't pronounce. Sherlock's name seems so out of place now...

I wanted to play with these series of pictures to give the wrong impression, haha! I think I did okay. In a series you'd think it was a boy being attacked by a snake, but zoom out and OH NO, it's Sherlock, being attacked by his terrifying full gorgon mother, Zephira!

Damn you Zephira, you bitch.

I think it is time I went to bed for the night.

Yay!

Annie

1:38

It Goes on and on and on and on-

Tada! I finished my horizontal looping pan. Yes, both edges meet up perfectly. I don't normally post homework, but this one was a lot of fun, so I figured why not.

I made a big textury mess and I played with contrasts to a ridiculous extent.

But it was fun! I put in a couple of my characters, people who know me will more than likely recognize both of the inserted drawings. I left them sketchy so they could contrast better- also because I don't have the energy to paint them and I really don't know how to paint them so they properly mimic a changing light source.. though I'm pretty sure I'd have to just paint them in flats. Fun times!

Some Sherry and some Tina, just to spice things up a bit.

I totally baked this monster today!

Have I ever mentioned I hate baking? I also really can't bake to save my life- this cake fell into four pieces when it came out of the cake pan, so it's really a cake jig-saw puzzle hidden under icing.

I don't trust it, and I really don't want to eat it- but I promised my friends cake, and so I shall bring them cake. It's a thank you present to my friends in second year who let me invade their studio once a week to work on my homework and talk to them.

Wee, I actually had a rather productive day today! TRON, homework, cake-

Pretty slick!

Annie

12:04

Something Personal!

I haven't had a personalized header on my blog since the first time I signed up on blogger and actually used their stock templates. Suffice to say, I could never navigate anything! With the new template designer it was a little easier- and I finally managed to delete something that was driving me insane. I'm still working on it, but for the time being, I'm okay with this.

I don't have the money to pay for my own domain, so I intend to add a couple buttons and stuff and make my blog mimic a website as best I can.

This is my title page for my-- er, well I guess it sort of speaks for itself, doesn't it? I never really care to put my homework up on my blog because it's just that, homework.

Though if I get a good grade on my next portfolio, I might actually take pictures and show off my lovely life drawings!

Haha, right, Annie can't draw from LIFE.

So here's my picture for my title page, and I was about finished inking when I realized I drew my corset; an article of clothing I promised to never again wear to my life drawing class.

Oh well, I'm very fond of that particular article of clothing, despite the embarrassment brought on by it.

So because I got this idea the other day, and I didn't realize I'd be utilizing it in such a tiny matter, so here's a slightly larger version of my blog header, that I just finished a couple hours ago.

I'm actually fond of it. It's not totally what I had in my head, but I still think it came out quite successful.

I was playing with some texture brushes, just having a good time. It's me sitting under a tree, in what was originally planned to be a forest of light bulbs, but for the sake of a blog header, I simplified it.

I think I might do some writing, perhaps.

Annie

10:45

I Love Piggies

Tada! This is my title page for my Royal Winter Fair assignment, but who am I kidding, I drew this for me.

I love pigs. I love them so much, they just make me smile and warm my heart.

While I was at the fair, I met this wonderful pig, who just wanted some loving. Of course, I reached through the bars and scratched its nose! Of course, piggy wanted to smell my hand and wound up pinning my hand against the pen bars and I had a total panic attack, but lesson learned! Reach OVER the pen, not through the pen.

I returned later in the day to draw the same pig- and as I was talking to her and enjoying her nose and trying to get her to sit still so I could draw her- she sneezed on me. All up my arm. It was really icky. I immediately went to a sink to wash it off, but I still love piggies. This is also probably the best cartoon pig I've done to date; as it's no secret that I'm terrible at drawing animals.

Getting better though! One study at a time.

So this is a portrait of me and the beautiful pig from the Royal Winter Fair; having a special moment of bonding that totally didn't happen.

Piggies!

Annie

6:24

Left Hand Makes an 'L' Shape

And here I present all ten finished Ninja's! There's a couple anatomy problems here and there in some of them, but I was really happy with every pose I drew so I wanted to include them. I had to add two more because I didn't have a 3/4 back view; and I wound up with two I couldn't pick between, so I drew them both.

I hope Enzo likes them, he was happy with my thumbnails, so with luck, he should like these.

If you look really closely, you can tell when I recently had my puffers, because the lines get all wibbly wobbly. Welp, in a few weeks, the shakes due to steroid inhalers should be all gone, and my lines will smooth out again!

These poses were a real treat for me, haha. They were rusty at first as I tried to get back into the swing of things, but they picked up towards the end.

The first page (on the right) wound up fitting together much better in a design sense than the second page, but that's alright, I'm in character design, not graphic design.

Following, we have my twelve renderings of hands!! I love hands, and drawing hands always fascinates me. I like the way they feel and the way they speak to me, and never cease to be amazed at how they move.

Honestly, some days I could just stare at my hands all day.

Printed off on nice, clean matte paper, I'm very happy with these.

I also managed to fix up the contrast on my CRT monitor, so I don't wash out my red lines and rendering while I'm trying to work. It will also help with cleaning up my whites, because they won't be washed out to a point that I can't tell they're gray, haha.

These, are my foot renderings! Hooraaay!

Everyone I've asked so far has told me they like the feet more than the hands and that they feel the feet are stronger drawings.

That saddens me, but at the same time it makes sense, because I drew the hands while I was slogging to school and feeling not too hot, but the feet I drew after I got an extension, went home, got some meds and recovered some.

I'm going to drop these off at Thurmans desk tomorrow, along with a thank you note for the extension.

This is what I've been up to! Still have a few more things to finish, some layout work, gettin' started on my ocean curve tomorrow, got textures to paint, and some bones to draw... Just trying to keep up to speed.

Hooray homework! It never slows down. Despite that, I still don't get the feeling every animation student I know complains of; never sleeping, being stressed to all hell, and like.. in general havoc. I'm still keeping pretty easy, sleeping plenty, and not losing my mind.

Time management, something I never thought I'd be any good at!

Annie

9:21

Sporadic! Innit Wonderful?

Ta da, the results from my character posing assignment. These are all drawings of Ninja, a character I picked because she's insanely fun to draw and poses just about any way I can imagine.

This is what I was up till three in the morning drawing.

I don't have any varied lines, because I'm taking a break on those until it clicks a little better.

Gotta say, I'm not having the best few weeks. Came down with a cough a few weeks ago that just got worse and worse, and nobody would believe me when I said it wasn't a cold. I couldn't really walk all that great, I was short for breath, I got dizzy easily, I lost my appetite, and I was coughing so hard it hurt to breathe and my spine felt like it was going to snap. I thought maybe I had the flu, and tried to sleep it off, but it didn't work so well.

Went to the clinic, and was diagnosed with pneumonia and given a prescription for some medication. Continued to have a bad week, trying to get my homework finished on time while trying to deal with my symptoms. And I didn't finish my homework on time. I got a note from the clinic, and I got an extension. Awesome sauce!

I came home on Saturday, forgetting my entire family still hasn't adjusted to the fact that I don't eat meat. There's very little to eat in the house, and what I can eat, my brother eats before I can get there. Something with the elevation made my cough worse, which sucked, and finally, my mom dragged me to the hospital to get more medication, and chest X-rays.

Oh yeah, sexy hospital gown.

On the positive spectrum of things, I finished my project for character design, as can be seen above, my book page turn animation and I finished two of my cloud studies and I plan to finish the other three today. That leaves layout homework, painting homework, and life drawing homework. That would be three layouts, one painting and twelve drawings of feet.

Luckily the ocean animal animation got an extension on the deadline, so I don't have to worry about that this week, which is a load off my mind. Heck yes.

Tomorrow I'm going out to lunch with my friend Dickie, at some point I'll have coffee with my friend Meg, and tea with Stephie, somewhere along the line.

I'm feeling pretty chill right now. Had my new, really expensive medication (paying for it totally ruined my mood), ate something, and now I'm just chilling. Probably going to head downstairs before too long to do some more painting, but I'm going to relax up here for a bit first.

Oh Ninja, you lift my spirits to draw.

Annie

5:24

Let's Try Some Red Today

I've just been drawing depressing looking things lately.

Picked up a sketchbook from my shelf last night and realized I'd never drawn in it. Today, all through English class and break, all I did was doodle.

This was one I'd had an idea for a long time ago, but I'd never finished; so today I drew it, inked it, and painted it.

I'm taking a break from varied lines, because apparently I'm an idiot and don't understand how line weights are supposed to work.

Having a style crisis again; mostly because I feel compared to people I care about, and I really, really wish that wouldn't happen. As much as I have an impossible time figuring out what my art looks like, I still feel like I'm suffering from doppelganger syndrome. That I can't create anything original, and even when I have an original idea, I can't pull off an actual original drawing.

Which is funny, because I'm finally in animation, and I feel like I' miles ahead of some students, but miles behind others. I'm finally in the place I want to be, yet I panic and worry and fret over what my art is actually looking like.

I'm trying to take a step back and try to realize that it's a step in the learning process, and my art is going to change, as it obviously will as I pick up influences and learn things and get better at art... But I'm sitting here and really feeling quite awful. I've closed my door because I'm upset and want to keep to myself (so I'll just tell the internet instead, HAHA!), and I want to say something to somebody who can tell me something to make me feel better, but I don't know who to talk to, what to say, or what I want to hear.

It hasn't even got anything to do with anyone but me. My frustrations at constantly getting the horrific mocking 'B', the steady feeling like water is slowly raising up around my ankles, knees, thighs, waist, the fact that I feel like I'm going to do terribly in the class I was most excited for, the fact that I know I'm going to do terribly in painting class despite my best efforts...

Guess I'm feeling pretty scared, haha. I never really got to the point of answering "Excited!" When someone asked me how I was feeling about animation, my answer was always "scared" and here I am, scared out of my mind that things are slowly slipping out of my control.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to try and finish up my layout assignment. It won't be too difficult, tracing, inking, an hour or two tops. After that, life drawing class, and when I get home, I'm going to study for my "Shot by shot" quiz on Friday. Friday night, when I come home, I'm going to start my flat gray scale painting, and hopefully, possibly, maybe, probably not, finish it before I go to bed that night. Then I have the long weekend to finish the other two. Tuesday I have a book in perspective due for animation (let's hope I don't animate any pages doing nose dives), another character design class to just draw poses, seeing as they aren't due till week eight, I once again have no homework for Wednesday, but my three paintings are due that day, I have no idea what's up next Friday, and next weekend I'm going to spend the weekend drawing hands and feet, which are due week seven.

See? It doesn't seem all that bad once you plan it out, now does it?

I'm still very scared.

It's one in the morning; I think I might go to bed now.

Annie

12:51