Last Day of School

Today was officially my last day at Otis. And not just because I'm done with classes.

Today I turned in my completed withdrawal form and even my student ID :'(

I was really hoping that I could keep my student ID as a little keepsake. I won't be able to keep my Otis email for very long too. Very sad...

Maybe I should've just told them that I lost my student ID.

Anyways, I thought it would be very appropriate to log the last day of school at Otis like I did with my first day of school. Otis has been one of the best experiences of my life. I will definitely never forget it nor the people and teachers there who have been with me.

I remember writing about Irvine and how sad I was leaving because it became my comfort zone.

And here I am writing again, knowing that I will be moving in just a few months.

Again, I'm moping at the thought of leaving so many good things behind. But at the same time, I know that I will be leaving for other great things as well.

I guess that's just how life is. You never know where you'll end up cause it's always changing.

And knowing myself, I'm always optimistic and looking forward to where my life will take me.

But for now, I'm thinking about summer and all the stuff that I can do before school starts again.

It's going to be an interesting summer.

I posted pictures of the last sculpture that I did in class. It's the robot soldier from Laputa.

I'm not quite finished because we only had 1 session to work on it. This is probably something that I will work on during the summer.

I want to post pictures of the final landscape that I drew for my landscape class.

But I'm stupid for not scanning it.

And I'm even more stupid for taking pictures of the armature that I made for this sculpture.

This was the first armature that I made myself that was more involved.

I had to ask my teacher, Glen for a little assistance.

The top part of the robots chest, the part running across from shoulder to shoulder, was a bit difficult to get.

It's time to get to work already!

I have some internships to apply for :P

RIP Jun Seba

http://www.e22.com/nujabes/

I am very sad to have recently found out that one of my favorite hip hop artists, Jun Seba or Nujabes, passed away in a car accident in February. It wasn't until March 17, that it was confirmed and announced.

He was only 36 and had not finished his musical career.

It's a very tragic and tremendous loss for the hip hop community and I hope that his music will continue to live on.

Rest in peace Nujabes

just for fun

16 days until the end of school

Sooo... I went to the CalArts Accepted Students Day.

And the atmosphere and people are so different from Otis.

It really is a unique environment and such a different world. I think I'll come to like it.

But while I was there, I couldn't help but think of all my Otis friends and how I won't be seeing them next semester :(

It's going to be tough keeping in touch. I know that all my Otis buddies will be battling their way through junior year.

And junior year at Otis is meant to beat you down. But that means that they will be that much better.

While I start over as a freshmen at CalArts and go through another 4 years -_____-

But I don't mind, since I'll be learning all kinds of new stuff.

All that aside, I want to post pictures of the finished sculpture of my grandpa's head!

The first two are pictures of my work in progress. The second picture is an ear that my teacher built as a demo for the class. Ears are really fun to sculpt.

I still have some work to do, but other than that... I'm pretty happy that I took this class.

I'm a very hands-on person and I like building things with my hands.

The intricate wrinkles on my grandpa's face will have to wait...

And I'm also posting pictures of my last landscape field trip at the West Fork San Gabriel River.

I think it was the best trip by far because it wasn't just some park and it was more isolated.

Even my teacher was so psyched about the area that we spent most of our time hiking and not drawing.

But I managed to get 3 nice sketches in of the trip.

There's only about 2 weeks of school left. I'm looking forward to the summer, but at the same time I don't want the school year to end. These are my last weeks at Otis.

But at least I'm getting the best out of these last weeks. I'm currently working on an After Effects animation with a friend of mine about a zombie named Tom.

And I have my Chinese painting exhibition to look forward to in July.

This time, all the Chinese painters in our group will be creating a book of paintings to share with friends and family.

I'm pretty excited about that because it will be the first time my Chinese paintings are published.

So hopefully there will be posts about all that in the future.

I know that some of my Animated Buzz friends are creating new blogs for their CalArts experience.

But I think I will keep this blog. This blog has travelled with me for a while and I've grown extremely fond of it.

And it will be a good way to keep in touch with my Otis pals since they have blogs too.

This blog is ultimately about my journey as an art student and more.

I wonder what it will look like in 6 years...?

Another life

I don't want to make this post too epic, but I just wanted to do a quick review of my college life.

I've been to three different colleges in three years :P

And it hasn't been the easiest journey. Leaving friends behind in three different cities didn't make it easier.

But I finally made it into an art school with hard work and determination.

Art school is and has been a journey that will continue for the next few years that will introduce me into the industry.

I'm pretty optimistic about this journey and I want to live it.

But my journey is about to take another turn because

I was accepted into CalArts for Fall 2010 :)

I've talked to people and have done my research and I will be pursuing my career through the Character Animation program at CalArts.

Otis has been a great year. I will be extremely sad to leave. My art school friends are really special and talented.

I'm kind of jealous that they will be graduating in two years and leaving to go work in the industry.

But I made my choice to stay and work for another four years at CalArts.

CalArts is probably my last stop for art school.

I am very excited to be part of the Character Animation program and I will definitely make the best out of it.

And I will take all that I have learned from Otis with me.

I have less than 2 more months at Otis before summer break.

I'll have some catching up to do with this blog when I have some time.

:)

It's March Already!

Well, it's already March! Which means that there's only about 2 months of school left.

And I'm planning out my summer as I'm going through school. There's lots to do over the summer.

First, I'm making myself a goal to score an internship this summer.

So far, I'm signed up for Nickelodeon, BLT Associates and looking into New Deal Studios.

Second, I have submitted a volunteer application for Siggraph. Hopefully I'll hear back from them soon.

Third, COMICON! I definitely want to volunteer at Comicon next year.

Fourth, I have to take classes at a community college so I can transfer them over and get those general ed classes out of the way.

Fifth, I want to take animation or storyboarding classes somewhere. Perhaps Concept Art Academy?

Next week will be my interview with BLT Associates. Exciting!

I'm posting some of the work that I've been doing.

This is the cat that lives in my sketchbook. I'm hoping that I can incorporate him into an animation or short film.

I haven't given the cat a name yet though. I'm thinking I want to name him Pachinko, after those Japanese gambling machines :P

Only because it looks like the cat would have a name like that.

My Landscape class has been going very well. We go on field trips every once in a while so we can draw outside.

Here are the sketches that I done:

Some of them need to be improved because they're not as readable.

But so far, I really like them :)


(Marker one needs to be improved :P ) ^^^^

Here are pictures of the sculpture of my grandpa.

I'm making very good progress and moving on to the eyes.

The back of the head is still flat but we're going to get there soon.

My grandpa's face looks a little weird now that I've drawn the eyes in. But our teacher taught us how to make the eyes.

I'll be scooping out the area where the iris and pupils are supposed to be to make the eyes.

Then it will probably look better.

Picturesss

It's kind of scary how it's already February. I think this semester will be passing by a lot faster than last semester.

I guess it's cause once the semester started, it's been busy busy busy.

I really like all of my classes. Especially the landscape class. We went on our first field trip this past Sunday to Huntington Gardens. I have some sketches that I have to clean up. And then I will post them when I get the chance.

Since I have some time right now, I thought I would post a little bit of what I've been working

on.

The sculpture class that I'm taking this semester is realllyyyy fun. It was a bit expensive getting all the materials and supplies but this class really is a lot of fun. We're sculpting a head right now. And we can choose whoever we want to sculpt. So I chose my grandpa. The process is really interesting. We started with a really flat generic profile. And now we're building out the lower area of the face. I thought we were just going to throw a bunch of clay together and start sculpting away :P

But we're actually building from the inside to the outside.

I've also included pictures of my grandpa. The front view only.

I also have a picture of him laughing. So when I'm done with my sculpture it will look like the first picture. hopefully...

Last semester, I was taking a creative writing class and we had Max Brooks come in as a guest speaker! Max Brooke is the author of The Zombie Survival Guide and other zombie books. It was awesome because he's a really animated guy and his books are great! His talk was also really inspiring because he was explaining how if you're going to be an artist, you have to not be afraid to put your whole heart out there for everyone to see. Because that's basically what you're doing when you're creating art for film, commercials, museums, etc. And it takes a lot of courage to do so.

To prove that Max Brooks is a really animated guy, I have pictures of my pen that he broke when he was demonstrating something to the class :)

I highly recommend his books for a great read.

I notice that I haven't been posting any Chinese paintings. Or, I can't remember the last time I did. So I took some pictures of some recent work I've been doing. My main subject right now is fish. I've been painting catfish and goldfish.

It's really fun. And as I get better, my teacher will start teaching me how to paint those big goldfishes called Koi.

I don't know the name of the fish in English. I only know it in Chinese and Japanese :P

So when I start posting pictures of Koi, that means I have mastered the catfish and goldfish :)

This is a painting of a bunch of flowers called wisteria. There's different styles of painting wisteria but this is my favorite by far. I actually should've posted my teacher's painting. Cause his looks better...

I'm working on a bunch of things right now that I hope I can share on this blog.

I'm making my own business card right now and a motion graphics piece.

Until then, I'll be busy busy!