I was owned by art school

Today is my last day of my first semester at Otis.
It has been truly awesome. I love art school and I'm looking forward to the next semester.
But honestly, art school has owned me.
I have not posted since the day before Halloween.
Which makes me sad because I like keeping updated with my blog pals. But now that it is winter break,
I'll have more time :)
And I hope to upload some of the work I've been doing.
But first thing is first, I must finish my Cal arts portfolio this winter break.
I'll be submitting my portfolio during the beginning of January and we'll see from there.
Spending a semester at Otis has put me in quite the pickle with this whole Cal arts thing.
But we'll see what happens.
I'm looking forward to next year already :)

Until then, I'm going to rest :P

Happy Halloween!

I know Halloween isn't today but Autumn is my favorite season so I'll just say it early.
This post has nothing to do with Halloween but I've been wanting to post my recent work from Otis.
I'm taking a Basic 3D class that teaches the class how to use Maya.
And we've been working on a new project every week.
So I thought I would post 2 of my recent projects. They're not the most elaborate and fantastic models :P
But I'm really glad that I'm making progress in Maya and I think my projects show that.
Here are some screen shots:




I had another project that I really liked but I forgot to save it onto my own flash drive after I turned it in :P
I'm pretty sad, because I don't know if I'll have the time to go back and finish it.
But it was a model of a contemporary/ modern room that had some Asian influence.
Sad :(

Another project that I'm working on is incorporating myself into a character from a story. The book that I chose is called Sabriel and the character that I used is Kerrigor. Kerrigor is portrayed as the Greater Dead. Which means he is a very powerful dead creature and he wants to take over the Living world.
I didn't work on it very long until I noticed that my creature doesn't look like me at all.
And also, it was scaring my boyfriend. He said that it kept staring at him.
So I decided to tone it down and start over with charcoal.
I really wanted to work with oil paint because I'm not very experienced with oil.
Maybe next time.

the photo is a bit washed out because of the natural light.
it's supposed to be darker and richer. I'll try taking another photo.



The charcoal drawing is much better. Except, I don't think it quite looks like me.
It's... prettier?

I hid the painting behind our dvd/game collection.


I thought I would include another show and tell because it's fun.
For those of you who are green onion fans, you can grow your own green onion easily!
(courtesy of Jeanette, who showed me how)

When you are at the end of your green onion stalk, leave about 2.5 inches.
and just stick it in water.
Your green onion will start growing immediately.
You will also see the roots start growing the day after you stick it in water.
In the picture, the really skinny green onion growing on the left one is new.

It's super easy :)


This week wasn't as stressful. I'm glad I had some time to relax.
But next week is crunch time. I have some pretty big projects due.

I can't wait till Thanksgiving...

Much Better

I must say that this year's portfolio day went much better!
I had the opportunity to present my portfolio to Libby Hux. She is Calart's admissions counselor.
I made an appointment with her previously about 2 months ago.
And she remembered me. Very sweet of her :)
She flipped through my portfolio and seemed to like it.
The only critique she gave me was to re-organize my portfolio. And she told me to include my sketchbook even though it's a hot mess :P
I'm really glad. Maybe too glad? I didn't hear anything negative about my portfolio.
Which is a good thing. But I guess it was too good to be true, so I wanted to hear some negative stuff too.
It was great though, I'm glad that it went really well this time.
I guess I'm ready to apply. And she suggested that I make another appointment with her before I submit my portfolio.

But, at the same time I'm really enjoying Otis.
So we'll see what happens.
Time is flying by so fast. When you start attending art school your weeks become 4 days long.
Seriously.

until next time!

Rain!

Yesterday and today were my first rainy days in Los Angeles. I miss the rain.
I'm glad that it's finally raining again. I feel as if California has been going through a drought.
Also, my car needed a car wash. I parked on the top floor of the parking structure so that my car can get clean.

This Sunday is portfolio day! I'm excited to show the new stuff that I have in my portfolio. And hopefully this time, it will be a better experience. I can't believe it's been a year.
But I'm not so surprised. Time is just flying right now.
It's already the 7th week of school. I swear my weeks are only comprised of 4 days now.
Seriously, when you start art school, your weeks only become 4 days long.

I seem to be saying this in all of my posts but I'll say it again. IM SO BUSY.
I really really want to post some of my work here. And I know I'll end up posting up my work towards the end of the semester and have this super long post with lots of pictures.

I'll do my best to make a post about this year's Portfolio Day.
Can't wait!

Art School Rocks

I've been pretty busy with art school. But I'm having a lot of fun . All the things that I want to do and improve on are already being done :)
Storyboarding, character design, learning photoshop, learning maya. It's so great.
(that contemporary art class isn't so hot ... -___-, but it's still interesting!)
I'm really looking forward to the rest of the semester and see how much I improve.
Art school is so great because I'm surrounded by such talented artists. It's intimidating and inspiring all at once. But everyone is really nice and always willing to help.
I didn't want another month to pass by before I blog again :P
Hopefully, I can start posting some of the work that I've been doing in class.

Also, national portfolio day is just right around the corner. It's pretty crazy how it's already been a year.
But I'm looking forward to portfolio day. I can't forget that it's about a month away. I have to start putting fixative on my pieces!

I wanted to post a few drawings that I did a few weeks ago. They aren't from Otis, but I always want to post work to compare my progress from before.






School really is overwhelming, but in a good way. I'm really happy that I made this choice to attend Otis. I don't have much else to say :P
except that... art school rocks!

Movie Review and other thoughts

I actually have some time to make a new post today :)
I've been wanting to do a little movie review for Ponyo and Inglorious Bastards.
Seriously, some of the best films that I saw all year. Two completely different genres but both great films.

Ponyo: Again, Miyazaki performs his witchcraft and delivers another fantastic film. Ponyo, though not as epic as Princess Mononoke or Naussica, is truly a sweet story that has the same feel as Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service. It is about a goldfish/ girl who wants to become human. The story is not hard to digest at all. It is sweet, simple, and really feel good. (Good date movie ;) So I don't have much to say about it. It surely met my expectations. Miyazaki never fails to make you laugh, gasp and fall for his characters. Highly recommended :)

Inglorious Bastards: Great movie, great story, great music, great characters. Overall, great great movie! This film is very impressive. I highly recommend this movie to people who love action and quirky characters. Inglorious Bastards definitely has a very talented cast of people. I think one of the most impressive aspects about the movie is that you'll find that some actors in the movie are multilingual and can speak up to 3 or 4 languages. I don't know about other people, but I appreciate the variety :)
Another aspect of the film that makes it so great is the suspense in the movie that keeps you guessing. I think it's Tarantino's magic that makes you feel like you don't know what is going to happen next in the movie. I don't want to say too much about this movie either because you just have to see for yourself. This movie is not boring and will keep you at the edge of your seat.


Some thoughts: Recently, I've been having some thoughts about applying to Calarts. I still want to apply, but there is a part of my brain that is nagging at me and is making me think that because I am already attending Otis, Calarts would not want to accept me. I got some advice from my fellow animated buzzers and so far, 100% of them have told me that attending Otis is not a reason why Calarts would reject me. I agree, that it shouldn't matter. I guess it's because I tend to put art schools on a high pedestal and I end up thinking strange thoughts like this. I don't know much about the factors that make an applicant worthy of Calarts, but I do hope that already attending an art school doesn't hinder that in any way.

Other then that, I must go art supply shopping now. So far, I'm having a good time at Otis. I have some homework due next week. I really have to get back into school mode and remember that I have homework :P

My camera is having issues right now. I hope to resolve that soon so I can post up the work that I've been doing.

until next time!
(by the way, boondock saints II is coming out? hmmm....)

first day of school

Today was my first day of school at Otis. My first class was Media in Motion and it is a 6 hour long class with a lunch break. I never had such a long class before and I thought I wouldn't survive, but I did :P
I'm pretty excited to finally be attending an art school. It really is a different feel knowing that your peers are interested in the same things as you are. I haven't been a full time student in a year, so it's kind of a rush to be back in the flow. (Though I do miss my part time student days -___-)
I just finished buying some course books and such online and I thought I would just post a little something.
I've been pretty frazzled lately with all the moving and the hot weather. But I finally settled down into my new place in Los Angeles and I'm looking forward to settling down in art school as well.

I included my school schedule in this post. I have mostly night classes now which is something I'm not really used to. I'm still a little overwhelmed by the first day of school.
I'll be keeping this post pretty short.
I did want to do a little movie review of Ponyo and Inglorious Bastards.
Maybe even post some recent work. But I have another class to attend at 7.
And I just want to rest right now :P

I hope I won't be too busy to post later on!