The roller coaster week

........I'm just gonna summarize the mess that happened these past 7 days. It's been cray.

Let's start with last Tuesday....easily one of the worst days I've ever had. Basically, Tuesday was the day I was going to finally be added to Gerry's drawing class and my evening Life Drawing class, it was supposed to be like the best day ever or something. However, due to bus complications, I was two minutes late to Gerry's class....and guess what, the one day I'm late, HE FREAKING MAKES THE RULE "YOU MUST BE HERE EXACTLY ON TIME TO ADD." What. Let me first remind you this is the same teacher who didn't even show up the first day of school....actually I should be more sensitive, because in all seriousness, he was sick with the flu, but still. TWO MINUTES. I was mostly pissed at myself to be honest, I felt like I could have left earlier. Long story short, no luck there.

That same evening, I was late to Life Drawing as well...same bus issue, it broke down. Anyway, I get there and it turns out like no one dropped. Which even the teacher thought was unusual. So my luck, once again, flew out the window. Also found out that day I was rejected from Motivarti...I knew I was going to, but it didn't make my day any better.

Wednesday was the same deal with the other drawing class I was crashing. No luck there (seemingly).

HOWEVER, Thursday is where things got interesting. 

On Thursday, I went to Gerry's class one last time just in case, no luck, and I had to leave the classroom, at this point I figured I was shit outta luck, and things couldn't get worse, so I figured I'd call the animation guild just for the lulz. Turns out they had an extra spot in their figure drawing class for that night. Needless to say I dragged my ass to Burbank that night and signed up with the quickness, and I LOVED the class too. Karl Gnass is my instructor. He's a genius, plus he's super nice. He worked on some of my favorite childhood cartoons too, so it's kinda awesome being taught by him.

This weekend was nothing too special. I drew a lot and hung out with James for a bit, but mostly drew a lot. Then yesterday happened, and things only got better.

So yesterday was Monday, my Drawing I class with Prof. Melody, whom I thought was going to tell me to leave because there was no space for me yada yada, however, turns out, she had been looking for my email to tell me she planned on adding me! Then BOOM, she whipped out an add slip and handed it to me. I was sooooooooooooo freaking happy. Like.....you don't understand. I finally got a class! 

BUT WAIT, IT GETS BETTER!

Today was my day off, so I was going to use the time to catch up on all of my homework for Prof. Melody's class. She assigns a bunch, and since I was a new add, I was wayyyy behind. I planned on showing up to the Life Drawing class one more time just because. I figured it couldn't hurt. So I did. Showed up a bit before class started and drew for a bit, I saw the people slowly make their way into the classroom, and I could tell by the sheer numbers no one had dropped. I was honestly about to get up and leave, but I kinda just wanted to hide in the corner and draw the model anyway, so I did.

As I was drawing, the teacher walked by and spotted me, mostly surprised by the fact that I still was showing up. She sighed and kinda gave me that look I'm so used to by now by instructors. The "I want to help you but I can't look." And I don't mind, because it's not like the teachers really have that measure of control, so I wasn't upset or anything. But, instead of asking me kindly to leave, she told me she was going to add me. Much to my surprise. And her tone was more like "Screw the administration, I will allow you to take this course despite the rules." And I have to say, that easily just made my week. Of course I have to see if my request will process tomorrow morning, but I'll deal with that later.

And what's more?? I was talking to students in the class about additional Life Drawing classes at CSUN, the college near me, and some of them saw the life drawings I did in class and they liked them! Which left me confused, because they weren't just saying it to be polite, people even said they were going to try my "technique" and they were "jealous of my line work." I shit you not they said that lol. And I'm just sitting here like......I have no idea what I'm doing hahaha.

Anyways, so yeah, in one week, everything just kinda went full circle. I really need to sleep now, so I'll post an update like tomorrow or something with some new artwork.

Laterz

Delayed Beginnings

So this week was....mildly unsuccessful. I'll just do a quick rundown of my week.

Monday: First day of school. Tried crashing a Drawing I class and got put on a 30 person waiting list. Also, turns out I won't be taking my sociology class after all, since the instructor didn't mention the add slips were first come first serve and ran out before she told me. (Either way it's my fault, but still).

Tuesday: Tried crashing a different Drawing I class with Gerry, a cool art teacher I met a year or so ago....but he didn't show up due to having the flu. Got put on another wait list. Crashed a Life Drawing class that evening and was placed on spot #2 on the wait list.....and the instructor said I'm as good as in now since it's the most difficult art class in the school, so people will drop for sure. Yay(?)

Wednesday: Went to the second meeting of the first Drawing I class. Did a neat contour drawing exercise. The teacher was strict, but cool. That night I went to go see Lego Movie and it was AWEESOMMEEE!! I loved it. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I sure enjoyed the hell out of it.

Thursday: Drawing I with Gerry went....interestingly. We didn't draw at all, we just talked as a class...which was nice. However, at the end of class, he showed us his sketchbooks. I regret to say though...I wasn't particularly impressed. His work was good, and he clearly had a strong foundation, and he was seasoned, but it wasn't fantastic. Granted, it was just a sketchbook or two, and I'm bad a gauging how good people are from a few sketches, but I'd honestly say, from what I saw, he's only a few steps ahead of me, which pains me to say because I admire him a lot, and I hate comparing my work to other people, I think I just expected a lot since he's an art instructor with a Master's in Illustration. I'm sure he's an incredible artist, again, it's just what I saw.

Friday: What did I do on Friday? Hmm, I think I just drew all day. I found out about this neat Animation Academy thing not too far from me, so I'm thinking about taking classes there too (as if I had any classes already).

Saturday: Umm..I drew some more. Saturday was really just a boring day. I just drew and played video games, and my laptop's mouse pad got all screwed, I fixed it.....for now.

Sunday: Today I went to an African Arts and Film Festival...and it was...interesting. I love all types of art, and African art has always had this unique spin to it that made me admire it. Also saw 'Ride Along' with Kevin Hart and it was pretty funny. Better than I expected, but the theater was small and smelly...meh. Now I'm sitting in my room, regretting overeating at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.

So that was my week in review. And as I stated before, I drew a lot, but I can't say I've really gotten any better, just been doing some studies. Here are just a few drawings I did:

Meh

My feet kinda suck...meh, I'll work on it.

Expressions. Did these like a week ago.

I like him...don't know why.

wat

Character Designs. I like drawing bee characters....so I did.

Till next update. Laterz.

Rainy Day Blues

So....today was particularly annoying.

Before that though, I got back from my Grandpa's funeral in New York about a week ago, which was sad, but nice because I got to see family I hadn't seen in a while. Anyway, I got back and one of my best friends, James, came back from his trip abroad in Europe. So we hung out the majority of yesterday and it was a lot of fun. Also he helped me shop for some sketchbooks and art supplies (including watercolor, which I currently suck with, as you can see at the bottom).

After he left though, I had an annoying drive to the airport with my mom to pick up my dad's car. I got lost like 5 times and I was really tired and wanted to just sleep. Then today, guess what, it's RAINING. And guess who had to drive my younger sister to and from school in the rain AND traffic. Yup. Moi.

I love the rain....just not driving in it.

To add on to this mess, I've been considering applying to Calart's summer session program as a guest student, which apparently, yet also obviously, requires life drawing as a prerequisite. Which isn't a bad thing, except that means I only have until March 24th to become efficient enough in life drawing to take their "Life Drawing Basics" class and a few others. I don't know if the life drawings have to be on the same level as if you were applying for real, but if so I'm screwed lol........meh.

Anyway, here are some crappy recent drawings I did (mostly posting so I can look at it later and document my improvement from these...things lol)

My Portfolio Spring 2014...

So this is my portfolio for the Motivari mentorship program. I wish I could have put together stronger pieces, but it's just to show potential mentors where I currently stand.

Motivation!!!

Sooo... a lot's happened over the past couple of days. For one thing, I had my meeting at Calarts with the Film/Video admissions counselor, and it was actually really helpful. He was very friendly and we talked for a bit and he gave me some feedback on some of my current artwork (which was mostly just sketchbook pieces). His feedback was pretty direct yet helpful. He basically said I lacked depth in my life drawings, and that I need to take figure drawing classes, add color to my work, and start drawing things in see from real life. But, he also said, from what he could see, I had a lot of natural ability, considering I had never taken any art classes and that my drawings showed promise as a potential future animator (that made me feel pretty good), however as I stand at the moment, I am not quite ready. Which I already know.

In addition, he gave me his card and a bunch of cool things I could do in order to improve, such as doing a summer session at Calarts, which is usually not open to outside students I heard, unless special permission is granted. Either way, I'm totally doing that.

Since that meeting, and after taking a thorough tour of the school, I'm more in love with the school than before, and I already made adjustments to how I'm going to handle this portfolio. I met up with my friend Murphy today, who's kinda like my art training partner, and we just sat in the mall and drew people who walked by or sketched people sitting near us. We were there for hours, and though we wound up not getting as much done as we wanted (since we wound up talking about life), we still saw slight improvement in our work, just by doing it for a day.

Anywho, I still have to apply to Motivarti, so I'll probably post my "portfolio" within the next couple of days. Though if Calarts thought it wasn't up to snuff, I doubt they will, but we'll see. Either way, I'm going to work my ass off this year, and try to get better every day.

So Life Happened...

Heyy...people of the internet. So I have quite a bit to update on, which is odd because I never thought so much could go on in just a few days.

A couple of days ago, I found out my grandpa passed away due to complications with his cancer, that we all thought went in remission. I wasn't as close to him as I wanted to be, mostly because he lived in New York whilst I'm here in California, but visiting and talking to him was always a pleasure, because we were very much alike, which was refreshing because I'm the black sheep haha. He was also incredible positive and always upbeat, so I know he wouldn't want me to be sad....it's still kinda hard though.

After I got the news I went to my friends birthday party, which was sooooo legit. It was in a warehouse that his parents owned and we played Super Smash Bros Brawl, Cards Against Humanity, Street Fighter, etc. Plus we had tons of food and music and shizzzzz. It was bomb.

And today I met up with Andres again and we hung out all day and just talked about certain things, things that I'll probably write about another time. But it was really insightful because I needed some core advice.

Speaking of advice, I have a meeting at Calarts on Tuesday with the department chair of Character Animation, or something. I dunno, he's high ranking. And I'm going to get some feedback. Honestly, a tad nervous for him to see my work, but whatever.

Welp. Better get to sleep. Gotta get up in two hours to attend an event at my mom's job. I don't really want to go...mostly because it's too early, but whatever. I said I would lol.

Application Time

Hmm, updates. Past few days weren't that special. Got to hang out with another good friend of mine yesterday evening, and we caught up over some homemade hamburgers and video games. But, other than that, same old same old.

Today kinda marks the "real" start of my year. It's Monday, January 13th, which means that applications for two new internships I've been wanting to apply to opened up today: Motivarti and Paramount Studios. The latter is simply an internship at the studios in Hollywood, which I just finished applying for right now, and I honestly don't expect to hear back from them, since my resume is kinda lame and unimpressive at the moment.

Motivarti, however, is a mentorship program where you apply to be a 'mentee' for a specific artist, and they have a whole list of them, ranging from Pixar Animators to Freelance Illustrators. I'm going to apply for someone who works in animation, since that's my field of choice.....only problem is that I don't exactly have a portfolio. I mean, I have a bunch of sketchbook pages that I scanned, and a few comics I did while I was working for my college newspaper, but that's about it. I don't even have any strong life drawings.

Anywho, I'll post my portfolio and stuff sometime soon when I organize my art pieces better, because I actually kinda really want a mentor. I've never taken an art class in my life, and I'm trying to go to Calarts, so having a mentor would reallyyyyyy help, especially one from Pixar.

We'll see what happens.