The Gecko Cafe

january again

2012-01-05T20:04:00.000-08:00

here's a deleted storyboard panel from my current film

Happy New year everyone!

2011 was an incredibly memorable year for me; I'm so glad it happened. I'm really looking forward to this year too. It's such a trip to be graduating this May. It feels like just last year I was preparing my portfolio to get into calarts. And now I gotta prepare to say goodbye. :(

catching up on summer

2011-09-24T07:11:00.000-07:00

Finally an update. :)

This year has been one of the most amazing in my life so far. It feels strange to say it now, but several dreams have come true this year.

Having my most recent film, "The Funny Thing About Lois," (on vimeo: http://vimeo.com/amelialorenz/lois) play in the Producer's Show earlier this year was really an honor; my second time in the show. And in case you're wondering, it doesn't get any less scary to have to watch it with hundreds of talented professional animators surrounding you in the dark. ;)

Several weeks before the end of school there was the annual Portfolio Day, where I was asked to meet up with some folks from Pixar to talk about art and animation, and with a nice guy from Disney about my story portfolio. The next day I got the call from Pixar, asking if I'd be interested in their animation internship.
Of course, I said yes, and the summer flew by in a day. Or, at least it felt like it.

"As few avars as possible!!!"

A sketching field trip to the Ferry Building in SF.
Being there was very surreal. I wasn't sure what to expect, so I tried not to imagine what it would be like. In a way it was like a very long, wonderfully geeky daydream. I met really talented interns there who taught me a lot. And of course I owe most everything else to Adam Burke and Gini Santos, our creative supervisors, for their incredible support and encouragement. My mentor, Jamie Landes, was also great. The assignments they gave us not only challenged my animation skills (like, a lot--and this is going to sound cheesy), but they also helped me grow as a person.

Really! I learned a lot about myself this summer. I can't say what career I'm set on yet--becoming an animator is certainly top of the list--but there are still a lot of questions I'm left with, now that summer is over and my fourth year at CalArts has begun.

For example, what will my film be this year? It's the first time in a few years when I've come to school with a completely blank slate. And what kind of portfolio(s) will I want to showcase next year? Animation and story have always been neck-in-neck vying for my attention, and I love them both. Last year I set my goal to animation, but I put together a story portfolio too. I got to spend a lot of time with CG animation this summer, and I learned a lot about it. Do I want to pursue it? Yes...but I also want to pursue hand-drawn animation and story. At the moment I'll just worry about school. But for after graduation, I just want a creatively stimulating job somewhere with awesome coworkers; hopefully with some classmates of mine now.

Here's a stitched-together look at where I'll be spending a lot of time doing animation homework this semester:
Just an end note... Another summer highlight was going to see one of my favorite bands, "Tally Hall," at the Bottom of the Hill music club in San Francisco. Pictured below: the band, in all their blurry glory, and below that: Meghan, Avner and Uri, three of my animation intern buddies. Uri apparently wasn't finished moving his face when the camera clicked...
That's it for now! Maybe next post I'll have something film-related to share...

saturday sketches

2011-07-31T14:15:00.000-07:00

Here are a few rusty sketches from last Saturday's SketchCrawl in Berkeley. Lots of fun hangin with the girls. We started at a tea place on Shattuck and moved across the street to Cheeseboard pizza for lunch. That pizza place is the best. Delish.
All summer I've just been clicking and not sketching! I want to draw more. Looking forward to starting up school again in about another month or so. The pixar internship has been incredible so far and I'll update later with how it ends. We only have 4 more weeks left. Where did the time go?!

the funny thing about lois

2011-06-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

My most recent film has been on Vimeo for a little while, but now I finally managed to upload it here! This is my 3rd year film made at CalArts, with music by composer Ivan Carames Bohigas and voices by Catalina Sonnenburg, P.T. Plew, and Stephen Herczeg (along with many other talented friends). Many thanks to my friends and classmates who helped me through the crazy process of making a film from scratch.

It's been a week and a half of summer break and already my "summer" is almost over... Starting Monday I'll be an animation intern at Pixar animation studios for the next three months! It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I can't be thankful enough to have the honor of taking part in. I feel like years from now I can look back at me right now and say, "You have no idea..."

At the moment I'm just glad it didn't start this week, since I was hit with an unusual summer cold! I'm just hoping I'm back to my regular self by next week. I'm going to need all the energy I can get. :)

happy summer!

2011-05-17T23:59:00.000-07:00

Year 3 at CalArts is coming to a close. It's been fantastic and it went by super fast. I'm getting very excited for this summer; I feel like it's going to be amazing. Here are some examples from my portfolio for this year. Hoping to update more in the coming months!

2010-12-26T16:33:00.000-08:00

Okay, lets see here.
This poor old blog has been dormant for ages. I'll try to sum up the past six months as concisely as possible!

Last summer, June through August, I had a wonderful learning experience at Lightstream Animation studios in Petaluma, California. I helped out in organizing reel submissions for them, taking notes at dailies, drawing up little designs, and I even got to animate for them a little too. My favorite part, besides learning as much as I did with Maya, was being a part of the dailies meetings and conference calls. I learned so much that way, about how communication works within the studio, how animators could plus their shots, and how long it takes to do certain types of shots. It was nice to see that even the experienced, talented animators took time to get a shot working just right.

After my summer months at Lightstream I had a few weeks off before starting up school again. I took the time to visit with friends, go to the Walt Disney Family Museum (again), to the Pixar exhibit at the Oakland museum (for the first time), explore the city, and just hang out at home.

By the first week of September it was time for CalArts; my third time around. Seems like each year I gain a new perspective on those in the class before me and after me. Seniors now don't seem so daunting (since I've now known them for two and a half years), and freshmen seem so happy and, well... fresh!
I need to put myself in a certain mindset for this year. Last year, for whatever reason, I could easily make myself feel like it could be my last year at school. Thinking that way created a feeling of urgency that really helped me get through a large work load! This year I don't feel that urgency yet; maybe because I now have that security of knowing I'll be around school next year too. That's the plan at least.

This year's film is bigger than what I've attempted before; it has dialog and more than two characters! In fact, I have a whole playground full of characters. Luckily I won't have more than a few on screen at once. Once again, like last year, it won't be colored-in characters, not enough time. Watercolor backgrounds are probably the way to go--although digital background paintings are sounding more and more appealing to me, since I could paint right over pencil drawn backgrounds with time saved (very important!) and no risk of accidental smudging!

The sketches above are random storyboard drawings for my film. It's about a loris's first day at school. Do you know what a loris is? My main character is a loris, and her name is Lois.

Below are some figure drawings for this year.

Well, take care everyone. You may not here from me again for another six months. If that happens, I apologize! But I hope I have something fun to talk about next time I write. :)

catch-up

2010-07-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

Oh look, I still have a blog!
Sort of. I have been doing a pretty terrible job of keeping this up for the past few years. I blame school for that--but then, I don't have school at the moment so I really can't use that as my excuse any more! No excuses, no matter what time of year. I've just been neglectful. :(

Well this past year at school was a roller coaster, ending on a high note. I was really happy to be a part of the Producer's Show this year. Job fair/portfolio review was pretty intense, and it happened a few days before the Show. I stayed up all night arranging and printing my story/animation portfolio (as did most of my college buddies...you gotta pull an all-nighter sometime, right?). Went to bed around 8 am and slept till sometime in the afternoon, when it was time to go back to check on the results at the portfolio review. Thanks to my friends I was kept on track and didn't miss it!

To my surprise I had a few callbacks-- Pixar and Disney were exciting ones, story and animation with Pixar and animation with Disney. Talk about nerve wracking!! I was in a daze the whole time, trying to be myself and stay positive. It's so easy for me to spill out all my weaknesses when I'm in a situation like that, but I tried not to. Who knows if I succeeded. haha.

Anyway, the fair was a great practice-interview experience, and by the end of the day I was feeling pretty comfortable. No internship at Disney or Pixar for me, but I did land an internship at a wonderful place close to home (with no connection to portfolio day). I get to draw in Photoshop and animate in Maya, and each day I'm getting a little more comfortable with the computer.

So there's my summer plan: a full-time internship at a great local studio. I'm having a blast. ;)

fill the gap

2010-06-06T23:27:00.001-07:00

Here are some things from sketchbooks that could fill the gap in posts for a while:

Change in the Weather

2010-05-17T19:20:00.000-07:00

Here's my 2nd year film from CalArts. Enjoy!

tiger lady

2010-04-29T14:28:00.000-07:00

Well April 26th has passed and films are in the can. I turned one in on time this year! Haha. yay. I'll be posting it up here pretty soon, so hang tight. Open show is this Saturday and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's hard work up on the screen. (except watching my own film will be torture! haha)
This was a photoshop doodle I did yesterday. I like the fancy fuzz brush; it seems to be the "in" thing these days..lots of people are using it, but it's fun! It allows you to be a little more loose with your drawings, even though they're digital. Easy to erase, just apple-Z. Fun! This is based off of a picture of a circus performer I found... http://farm1.static.flickr.com/105/276438377_a23528c423.jpg

newer stuffs

2010-01-21T19:45:00.000-08:00

Hey there, class was canceled tonight so I decided to scan these in and post 'em. Classes are really great so far, and the space between classes has been pretty productive too. Yay. I'm starting animation on my film soon!! A whole month before I did any animation last year. YIKES. The Annual Character Animation Gallery Show is on tonight at 10. It's our one time all year to show off our stuff to the rest of CalArts, besides the Open Show. So we get the party tonight! Might just poke my head out for a minute, then go back inside the cubes (where it's relatively safe!). Hopefully you'll hear from me sometime between now and May. But if not, I apologize!! :)

happy new year 2010!

2010-01-07T12:03:00.000-08:00

Down to the last week of winter break...is it already over!?

I flew up in mid-December and have been seeing friends, working on storyboards, doing some necessary shopping and just enjoying time at home. I'm looking forward to getting back in the groove at school but I certainly feel like I could use another 3 weeks until then. I miss seeing everyone though, and that's the best part of school, really. Along with the wonderful learning experience, of course. ;)

I'm writing this more as a journal entry for myself. I've found that this old blog has helped me remember things from my past. So what to remember about the last month of school then?

Well the second-to-last week of school was pretty hectic. Sound projects were due Monday morning, character designs due Monday night. Final dialogue animation was in the works for the following week, as well as an essay. Final exam in History of Character on Wednesday morning and final story reels were due that night. That Thursday at midnight a bunch of us went to see the Princess and the Frog at the Arclight in Hollywood. That was a fun night. Had a latte accidentally and ended up staying awake until 7 the following morning. Caffeine, man...it's powerful stuff...
The following week everything was either due or had been done, so it was a combination of sleeping when we could and putting the last bit of energy we had into final assignments. Also many of us got to go to the Disney Studios to see Frog again. I've seen it two more times now at home. Go 2D!!!
At the end of the week I attended a nice small dinner get-together at Mimi's to wrap up the Semester. It was a good bookend; I had begun the semester at Mimi's and to end it there seems fitting. That restaurant has been the place we can go to escape school and pretend we're in France.
So here's to next semester, a toast;
Let's Do the Best We've Ever Done!! (and have a good amount of fun doing it)

You'll be seeing more toucans as the year goes on, I promise... ;)

end of thanksgiving break

2009-11-29T11:02:00.000-08:00

Awh Thanksgiving break is nearly over already!
I've spent most of the past three days walled up in my room for some reason; I think mainly because everyone I know is either back home or asleep during the day. But at night I have come out...last night I did some people sketching. Both for pleasure and for homework; story class requires a sketchbook of observational drawings this year but I like doing it anyway.
I'm looking forward to winter break! Home will be so comfortable...the best food, great company, comfy bed...ahh. :)
CTN was pretty cool! Elle and I spent the day together barraging all the booths and asking them to look at our portfolios. Elle's is gorgeous...you should check out what she's been doing. Here are a few pages from my portfolio.

I learned a lot by going to CTN and asking people for advice on my portfolio and my work. It makes me pretty eager to go back and really work on a solid final portfolio for the end of the year. The most prevalent critique was that I didn't have a focus--and it's true, since I don't really know what I want to do yet. So I have to sort that out too. Glad I did this now though, instead of wait until the jobfair to find out what I could improve on.

Well, I plan on getting outside today... Not sure what I'll do or when I'll get there...maybe I'll eat breakfast outside. Mm, muffins... :)
Have a good one.

camels and ctn-x

2009-11-17T10:54:00.000-08:00

Here comes CTN-X this Saturday! I'm not sure what to expect, but I hope I can meet some cool people. I really want to have my portfolio full by then, and I plan on making some cards today. Also that day, coincidentally, is SketchCrawl #25! I think my friends and I started at the 4th Crawl in the City. Haven't been able to make each one, but I've tried to sketch something on each official day. CTN should be easy to sketch at--so many people to draw! So I'm looking forward to it.
I gotta stick around the dorms today until someone opens the pantry again...I left my sketchbook in there when I made macaroni and cheese last night. But I don't have a key to the pantry, so...I've got to wait it out and hope it's still there! Gotta get a pantry key...

Here are some old character designs from several weeks ago. The assignment was "Young and old camels." I overheard someone say "My little Camel" when they saw mine and at first I was embarrassed...they certainly do look like My Little Pony camels. But I thought about it, and actually I think it's a hilarious idea. Maybe I should go back and re-design these so they DO look exactly like My Little Pony. That'd be great!!

This was supposed to be an older camel. In class I lost points for his hump being so monumental. He's old! He's supposed to have lots of extra fat stored up in there over the years! But I see what they meant, it's quite large. I did these two before doing the others:

I will be doing more scanning this week and hopefully after that I'll have something to show that I like somewhat. I see all the things I would change now in these camels but for the lack of having anything else to show, here they are.
Well I should get ready for my day. Have a good one, everybody! And let me know if you are going to the CTN-Xpo!

an update and some emus

2009-10-28T18:03:00.000-07:00

My camera has been out of commission for over a month now because the charger stopped working... So I have no pictures of the past month to share with you, unfortunately. I just sent it in to get it fixed, so hopefully my brand new toy will soon be back and all charged and ready to take some pictures!
Just got a package from home today...cookies!!!! And a few other goodies too that I really love. Thank youuuu Mom and Dad!

Above are some of the first character design drawings I did this year--the rough sketches were accepted a little better than the final drawings. I was all inspired by Carter Goodrich. His designs are so cool!! These are really the only things I have scanned right now. Maybe I'll do some more this week too...gotta keep up with that so the amount of work to be scanned doesn't pile up at the end of the year!

Okay...so I'm trying to think of what to write about... I think the main thing is that time is going by very quickly already, and it's nearly Halloween. This year has been good so far. Good, but not the same as last year. I definitely know how to manage my sleeping habits better this year, which has been great...but then, that was such a new, exciting part of coming to college last year! It was the late nights when everyone was tired and hungry but we had so much fun anyway. Then again, struggling to stay awake the next day is not something I miss. So I'm glad I can go to sleep before 2 now, but with that I'm going to have to sacrifice the jokes and stories that come with staying up late.
It sort of feels like we got off on the wrong foot this year, unfortunately, because one of our main classes (like, the most important one) has sort of been a struggle. It's a challenge to stay in class because of the teaching method. It's no fun when we come here for animation and that's the one class we dread. Things will get better though. We'll pull through!
Anyway, life is grand, school is tough but it's still the best thing ever. Class starts in 20 minutes so I should probably go get ready. Have a lovely evening!

One of my last pictures taken before camera hibernation. Sunset outside Mimi's Cafe.

calarts week 3

2009-09-30T13:52:00.000-07:00

And school takes over!
Summer time was perfect for a good 5 hours of computer time a day. Now I'm lucky if I get in 5 hours a week! It's kind of a good thing--I guess it means I'm working on other things (homeworrrk). I hope I can keep posting; more than first semester last year at least!
Its hard to describe this year compared to last year; there's definitely a different mindset that I sense everyone is in. At least for me, it's been about having a little more discipline about work and going to bed on time. I've been doing alright on both accounts so far; it was easiest the first week. But you know how things go when the cycle repeats. Monday comes again and again and it just felt like yesterday. Now we're in the full swing of things and it will just keep coming until winter break.
Up above are a few pictures of how I painted my cube. It's watermelon-taffy-gum-christmas colored, I guess, since those are all the things people used to describe it. Also gecko-belly was one descriptor and maybe that's my favorite.
I've enjoyed character design class a lot on Monday nights. It gets pretty tiring but I enjoy doing the homework. Layout is like reliving perspective class last year since we still have Dan Hansen. He's awesome. His class is great. Last week we studied scenes from 101 Dalmations and that made me happy.
Traditional animation is in some flux right now. New teacher, new curriculum for us, and everyone's in a whirlpool of trying to communicate what they know or how they feel. It's a combination of a lot of little things that are adding up to make life a little more complicated. Or maybe we're making it more complicated. Either way, most of us know something could be going better.
Story class is going to be interesting tonight. Our teacher Jim Hull and a guest artist Dave Pimentel will be reviewing our story assignments. We were given two characters, a man and a bird, and were told to give the guy a flaw and to have him solve his problems by reversing his motivation. I'm curious to hear what they say! I love doing the boards but the actual pitching part really isn't that fun--or rather, waiting to pitch isn't fun! Pitching can be really fun actually, especially if you know the crowd you're in and if you feel like it's going well. I hope I have fun tonight, and that everyone enjoys the pitch!
I should probably go get some feedback on the boards now. And then it's on to layout homework maybe. This week our assignment is to draw an orangutan and a walrus having tea together. That sounds like fun. :)

Just for fun here's a picture from the D23 expo from a few weeks back! Wall-e is wearing a princess mickey hat!! This was the awesome animatronic Wall-e. He spoke and moved and could roll around too. So cute!!

Oh, and a picture of my cat, Blue. Because he's so handsome. :)

an update, finally :D

2009-09-14T06:23:00.000-07:00

Good Morning.
I'm writing from the character animation hallway. I'm 25th in a line of tired sophomores. It looks like a natural disaster has occurred outside and we're all taking shelter; people wrapped in blankets, sprawled out on the floor. It's just like last year when we thought we had to stay up all night to get good cubes! Why are we here all over again if we didn't need to do it last year? I guess because we can't trust the system at CalArts enough to know that things will go as planned. So most people here have been here for at least 5 hours already.
I decided to sleep at the dorm room instead, but I did get up very early to get here. I don't know which cube I want though. What ever it is, it'll be decided today!! And I'll have to work with that for the rest of the year.

We got home last night at about 10:30 from a long day at the first D23 expo at the Anaheim Convention Center. We got to see some great new stuff coming out from Disney and Pixar (and some not-so-exciting stuff...a series of Tinker Belle home videos for example...), presented by John Lasseter. There were also many booths and events happening, and a whole section on Imagineering which was neat. I got to see the real-life WALL-E!!
The day before that we spent at the Disneyland themepark and California Adventure. I'm pretty sure it'll be my last trip there for a while. My pass expires in October, and I doubt I'll be finding the time (or transportation means) to get there. Unless Mary comes, then it's another thing. I will make an exception for that. ;)

Back to today, once we all have our numbers for cubes, section 2 students (last names L-Z) have their first class: Sound Design from 9-12. Right after class I gotta run back and sign up for a cube. At 4 I have another class about sound. Sound and the Image, which is a film/video class, looked interesting. I don't know if I'll stay in it, but if it doesn't take away homework time, then I think it'll be worth it. Still not sure exactly what we do besides listen to movie clips. We'll see! Then tonight I have character design with Rik Maki. I had a 2 week workshop with his class earlier this year and he was pretty tough with critiques. But I enjoyed the rest of the class, which felt like a drawing-work out. It was therapeutic! Hopefully it stays that way this year!
But I'm all registered and signed up for classes by now; won't need to worry about that again until spring.

Monday: Sound Design 9-12 Sound and the Image 4-7 Character Design 7-10
Tuesday: Twentieth Century Modernism 4-7 Traditional Animation 7-10
Wednesday: Story Development 7-10
Thursday: Computer Animation 7-10
Friday:Figure Drawing 9-4 Layout 4-7

Well sorry this post is a little wordy. Oh yeah, I turned 21! My parents took me to a winery for the day. It was built like an Italian castle! Very pretty but...I still don't like wine. :)

fair adventures

2009-07-30T00:11:00.000-07:00

Last week I was able to sit in on a few figure drawing classes with my former teacher from the junior college. He teaches a great class during the school year and during summer that I sorely missed at CalArts. But it was great to stretch my drawing muscles again on the (required) 18X36 paper (so big!). I realized that figure drawing isn't something that will come back automatically...at least for me, I'll need to be doing it consistantly if I want to improve. Over 3 days I filled up a thin pad of this big paper. Gotta get some more of this for the upcoming school year. Oh yeah--school starts again early September! Second year, here we come.

Today my family visited the fair! Mom and I got in free because we submitted a few things to the art shows; it was kind of cool because we both placed first in the categories we submitted for. :)

I also took the liberty of exploring the kids' tunnel inside the flower show building...

And earlier in the day we stopped by our friends' store--he sells cool eco bikes and electric scooters! So I get to test-drive them every once in a while!

Have a great rest of the week, everybody.

PS: thanks to mom for all the pictures ;)

SketchCrawl # 23

2009-07-13T21:16:00.000-07:00

I had a fabulous time in San Francisco for the 23rd World Wide SketchCrawl. Next time I should do more drawings though. "Next time" might be tomorrow morning-I have jury duty for the first time and I hear there may be a lot of waiting. So time to bring out the sketchbook once again! I always wondered what it would be like to be one of those courtroom sketchers. Don't think I'd be able to draw during the actual trial though. ;)
Have a great week!

before and after

2009-07-02T23:26:00.000-07:00

Drew her in the car mostly, painted her at home. I think I'm submitting her to the fair this year...we'll see how that goes!

2009-06-30T16:06:00.000-07:00

I've discovered a new favorite illustrator!
T.S. Sullivant
I've always admired pen-and-ink illustrations from the turn of the 20th century, but never knew a name to put to it. Here's one name that I've somehow missed until now. The way he caricatures the people and animals feels like such a perfect balance; and I can tell how he would have influenced the Disney style. I think his artistic sensibilities have trickled down through the generations and influenced many others today, even myself, though I didn't know the source.

I also like the illustrations in the earliest Winnie the Pooh stories, and recently I bought an old version of the original Pinocchio story book because of its pen-and-ink illustrations.
As I write this I don't actually know who did the Winnie the Pooh illustrations, so um... let's find out!
Ernest Howard Shepard!

And look! He illustrated Wind in the Willows too. Cool!

Roberta MacDonald did the cute illustrations in Pinocchio. Unfortunately I can't find any written info on her, or images from inside the book. (By the way, the original Pinocchio story -or, at least the children's version that I read- is QUITE different than the Disney version!!)

Now that I look back I'm sure I've heard of T.S. and E. H...it just took some time for them to stick! I've seen these illustrations on many blogs, but thanks to Hans Bacher's blog today for posting a T.S. drawing and inspiring me to look into it more. I don't know why it took me so long!

toucan watercolor

2009-06-27T13:09:00.000-07:00

I like the way he came out for the most part...but the initial design i had for the ukulele changed and I'm not quite satisfied with that or the way I painted it. Perhaps I'll come back to it and change that. Also, I scanned this before I put the final touch on the feet--they're actually quite a bit bluer. :)

a few pics from utah!

2009-06-20T15:36:00.000-07:00

Some photos Mom took from our Utah trip. I recommend seeing the parks in southern Utah. We could often see for miles in every direction and were constantly made to feel very small when surrounded by the enormous rock formations. It's hard to get a sense of the scale unless there are people nearby to compare. If you'd like to see more from our trip, Mom has posted a few pictures on her blog as well : Nancy's Blog

mall cops

2009-06-15T19:27:00.000-07:00

These were fun to do. I pretty much only like the middle far left one though.

blue and dug

2009-06-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

Missing my kitties. But I'm enjoying the trip. We're in Utah right now, by the way! In a bike-rider town called Moab. That's my Dug plush behind Blue (my cat). It may not look like much, but it's a talking dog!!

misc. drawings

2009-05-28T18:22:00.001-07:00

A few drawings!

This was at the LA Zoo, observing the komodo dragons...

This was a saxophonist at the Palette Cafe just last night...

This is the hoover fixer Dad from ONCE (a beautiful film!)

Here's a duck in a bowler cap for Michael...

My cat, Buddy, who I made look like a little kitten, accidentally!

And Bryan, Tahnee, John and Bryan again at our last (pirate-themed!) Dress 'N' Draw!

summer!

2009-05-28T01:04:00.000-07:00

This poor old blog has been so neglected! I apologize, to the one cricket who still reads this blog, for taking so long to post. This post won't undo what damage I've done, but at least it's something for now.
First year at CalArts is in the bag!! It was amazing, and I can't wait for next year to begin.Farewell, my good desk. I'll miss this cube. I spent a good portion of my time here for the past 9 and a half months. It will always be remembered as a good place, with great new friends. Long hours, working hard, having some good laughs. Next year will start a new chapter. Longer hours, working harder, laughing louder. But now, here's to summer!!

too long

2009-03-22T20:23:00.001-07:00

It's been way too long since I last posted, and unfortunately this post will have to be short too. But here's a doodle I did a long time ago that's been recently rediscovered. The biggest news happening these days:
It's spring break! AKA: Crunch Time has Begun
Disney Inspire Days tomorrow!
We have a fridge and microwave in our cube now!!
I gotta animate...!
And...I get to fly home on Tuesday! Hooraahhhhhh

evidence of true rockage

2009-02-07T00:08:00.000-08:00

My former music teacher, bassist for Toast Machine, and friend Gio Benedetti now has a video online of bass tips and examples of true rockage. He was an awesome teacher that taught me a lot about music and has opened up many opportunities in my life. He's also one of the nicest, funniest and most talented people you'll ever meet. Go Gio!
Gio and the drummer for the epic band that is Toast Machine. Here's Gio's other band, On The Attack, and here's Gio's site, True Rockage.

second semester update

2009-01-27T17:20:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a while, so I apologize for that! The annual Character Animation Gallery Show was up last week. Every year the character students get to buy a spot in the main gallery to put up whatever they want. This was my pillar, on the left, next to the amazing Cindey Chiang.

Here are a few pics from the gallery opening last Thursday. There was an awesome line up for caricatures all evening. Most of the artists were students from the department. I hope they continue to do the caricatures again next year. Maybe I'll join in...

Above is my unfinished sculpture for last semester's Color and Design class. I enjoyed doing it but am disappointed that I didn't push myself further with it. I'm actually looking forward to sculpting the characters from my film this year--now definitely a gecko and a little frog. I can't wait. Maybe I'll buy some acrylics and paint them too. The last picture is of the same piece on the gallery wall. I decided to use pastels instead of gouache for the project...and I found it went much smoother and was more intuitive for me. Gouache can be beautiful but ohh how it can be so expensive and tedious!

This week we have been given an assignment from the amazing duo, Shannon Tindle and Shane Prigmore. Last Friday the entire department was given the challenge to design Oliver, Fagen and Artful Dodger from Dickens's Oliver Twist. Their second and last lecture is this Friday, where we're expected to present and defend our designs. Gotta start those...Wish me luck!
Have a great week!

second semester begins

2009-01-18T10:19:00.000-08:00

Well winter break is over, and my first week of school has come and gone. I gotta say it's not as crazy as I thought it might be at first--not yet, at least.
I spent my break mostly at home (getting spoiled with fancy home goodness and kitties to play with), but a couple times I was able to venture down to San Francisco for some fun. The first week I was back we got to go down too the Totoro Forest Project second gallery opening at the Cartoon Art Museum. What an opening! It was a cold, windy night in SF but inside the gallery it was bright, warm, and pretty crowded. I got to see most of the artwork from the book- all of it was fantastic and I was ready to snatch a few up if only I had had money to buy them! It was great to see familiar faces there and meet a few new ones. Plus on our way there and back we got to ride the ferry, which I'm sure I've said before but it's one of my favorite things ever!

Below is a painting Miyazaki donated to the TFP show:

I got back to school several days before classes actually began, so my friends and I lived up the life as much as we could, knowing that we wouldn't be able to much longer. We walked through parks and down to the mall, ate out, did a SketchCrawl, had a tea party, and a drinking party (cider, silly!), watched movies, opened presents...pretty much any fun thing you can think of. Now we're all signed up for classes and it's time to crack down on our films!!

Below is a snapshot from our most recent tea party. Left to right: Carlos, Mayumi, Natalie, Tahnee and Ellen.

Here's my second semester schedule:
Monday (every other week)-perspective
Tuesday- digital production and traditional animation
Wednesday-origins of animal behavior and story development
Thursday- life drawing and computer animation
Saturday- animal drawing at the LA zoo

I'll be taking more pictures soon to post up. There's a character animation gallery now up in the main building, and it's looking fantastic. Gotta take some pictures of that.

hello 2009!

2009-01-03T00:10:00.000-08:00

Here we go!
2008 was a great year to me...a lot of crazy, wonderful and exciting things happened. Most notably to me was getting into CalArts and starting my second life there. It really does feel like I have two lives now...! I've been very fortunate this year to have good health (minus the colds), a supportive community of family and friends, and plenty of life-lessons. I worked two jobs for most of the year and finished up my fourth and last semester at the SRJC. We traveled up to Shasta, down to Costa Rica, and visited my favorite city by the bay several times this year. This past week we took our semi-annual day trip up to Gualala too. And I've been to Disneyland more times in one year than I go in 10 years!!
I've discovered a deep love of geckos that I didn't realize I had. I've been looking through all of my stuff and finding more and more of them around. Even my blog name! So it seems only appropriate that I find a use for a gecko in a film. Stay tuned to see if that works out.
I've also found an absurd weakness for the cuteness of welsh corgis. Unlike the gecko thing, I have no idea where this came from. But maybe there'll be a corgi film some day?

I'm at the last few days of winter break. Time has gone by just a little too quickly. I can't wait to get back to school...but I can't help but gorge myself in the luxuries of home life. Like eating well, and sleeping in till noon, and shopping, and petting my cats...ahhh so many good things!! But alas, school begins on the 8th for me, which means I'll be getting back down there next Wednesday.

New years resolution time!
Go To Bed Before 4 am (excluding crunch times)
Watch lots of movies

There! That's not so bad, now is it?

Can you imagine this guy with a bow tie and top hat? I sure can! ;)

EDIT: I've noticed a lot of red dots on my Clustermaps icon in the left sidebar, and it's always so amazing to see how many people across this huge globe have stumbled across this little blog (even if it's just once or twice). It means a lot to me to see all of you there!

break time

2008-12-14T00:06:00.000-08:00

Break has officially begun! 

It feels like a whole year has passed since I left home. We’re half-way through the school year now, which is really unbelievable, exciting, scary, and sort of sad too. This week has many adjectives as well...but mostly it was tiring. Everyone was finishing up their final projects and pulling several all-nighters. Many character people didn’t sleep for days...and others didn’t even go back to their dorms at all. The cubes actually can be a pretty inviting sleeping place, especially if you’re half-dead and you happen to find a nice flat surface to pass out on.  

This week, after all the stressful stuff was over with, I had the opportunity to look back on the work I had done during the semester. On one hand I feel like I should have more work to show for what I did, but on the other hand I know I worked harder than I ever had before...and that I’m sure I produced more stuff within the past four months than I ever have in that time frame. I can look back at the semester and analyze the choices I made, some good, some not. But all of it helps me see where I’m at, and where I can improve myself for next semester. 

... 

That was written on the plane over, and now I’m back home! It’s so incredibly cozy here. There’s a fire going, and all the christmas lights are up around the house, and we have a beautiful tree, and everything is just so welcoming. Yay. I’m going to like being at home for a while.  But I am missing school!  I’ll try to get some work done over break. Gotta think of a story idea, for sure.

art?

2008-12-10T00:44:00.000-08:00

I realized that I haven't posted much of any artwork that I've done at school yet. These aren't very good quality--haven't scanned them yet--but at least it's a little glimpse of something I do during figure drawings sometimes.
Break is almost here. Just three more days...and hopefully no more all-nighters for a while...got myself sick staying up for too long! I should have known...

earthshake! (EDITED)

2008-11-30T13:36:00.000-08:00

http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Maps/Los_Angeles.html

Earthquaaaake!
No, I didn't really feel it. But I certainly heard it! I was folding laundry and my window suddenly started rattling up a storm. It lasted a good 10-20 seconds maybe. I kept trying to feel a real shake, but I couldn't detect anything. I thought maybe I was jumping to conclusions, but then I checked online, and there it was! Just a little dinky one, but exciting none the less! It's the one right above Palmdale.

EDIT:

Okay, so I jumped to conclusions. This is what really happened!
NASA was forced to land their space shuttle Endeavor in a desert near here, causing sonic booms!! I didn't believe it when my friends were telling me it was because of a space shuttle landing. I didn't even know they did that here...
But isn't it weird how a small earthquake happened right here at the same time? That sure threw me off. Sorry for all the exciting confusion...haha

1:22 Palmdale earthquake
1:25 Endeavor space shuttle sonic booms

...poor confused Amelia...

turkey day at calarts

2008-11-27T15:38:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!
Yes, it is time for an update. Once again, much has happened since my last post, including exciting fires...
Here's a view from our grassy hilltop here at CalArts, taken a couple weeks ago. During the day the fires were visible from the billowing smoke on top of the mountain just east of us. At night it looked like lava coming down a volcano. I hear this happens near CalArts every year partially because of the Santa Anna wind, which is a strangely warm weather pattern that comes around here annually. Add the spark from one match and the whole area goes up in flames... But we're in a pretty safe place, so I wasn't too worried for our own safety.

Guess what else happened? WALL-E came out on DVD!
Yep. We had a Wall-e party. In fact, a couple of us ended up pulling an "all-nighter" the night before it came out. At 7am there were two of us left, so we got in the car and drove down to Target to buy it. Then we came back, had breakfast and went to class. The following night we had our Wall-e screening. I bought some balloons and had a friend decorate the yellow Wall-e one. I drew an Eve on the white one I bought...Didn't get a picture of that one though I guess. Yay Wall-e!! Up next is to watch The Pixar Story. Can't wait.

And look what my cube-mate and friend Ashley has been up to...stockings!! She made them all, and they're already filled to the brim with goodies...I wouldn't have thought it possible, but now our cube looks even more inviting!

And check this out! Our story teacher here who works at Disney took five of us to Disneyland last Sunday! He got a discount on everyone who came in who didn't have a pass. We spent half the day in California Adventure (soaring over california, california screeming, toy story mania, tower of terror, and of course the animation building...such a magical place...!) but when it started to get dark we headed over to Disneyland and had an awesome time over there too. We couldn't do Space Mountain just once! We ran back around for a second time too.

It's strange around school now, especially in the animation cubes because it's so quiet. But those of us who are staying here for the holiday had a very nice dinner--with waaay too much food! But it was very filling and I'm sure there's going to be a Thanksgiving part two sometime this weekend. Definitely we're having a pie party tomorrow. :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Turkey Day!

i'm still alive

2008-11-07T10:27:00.000-08:00

Yes it's true, I'm still alive!
But it's been a tough couple of weeks! I was reminded by some friends last night that I never update now that I'm at school. I'm sorry...there are a lot of interesting things going on here for sure. How can I sum up the past month?

About a month ago in animation class we were designing a six-year-old version of ourselves. Our final project for the semester will be animating this little character in a short scene. Homework for this week is to come back to that little design and to touch it up and create a piece that shows your character in that world, like a key scene from the scene we will be doing next month.
Storyboarding is just as fun and scary as ever. But I love that class so much! It's my favorite, even though it sometimes is the most stressful.
In CG we've been modelling a hand and arm, and we just got the skin and bones in it last night. It's really a very fun class when I can stay totally in sync with what the teacher is doing up on his screen. But once you get a step behind you're behind for a while unless you ask for help. I like modelling...I thought that part was the most fun, because it's basically sculpting but with a mouse. In two weeks we get to start animating!
Thursday's figure drawing is always a nice change of pace, but I missed it last week because of a crazy Story for Animators class assignment that was due Friday afternoon. In groups of 3 or 4 we had to create a pitch for a feature film. Our group took it pretty seriously...maybe too seriously. haha. We stayed up all night Thursday, took a nap at 8 am and got up to practice our pitch at 11. That was Halloween day! So we pitched it and it was over and we were exhausted. I then slept til 7pm. Happy halloweeen! What? It's Halloween?! I didn't even have a costume ready!! Such a sad thought...yeah life here can get crazy...

There's an ongoing joke within the Section 2 students (students with their last names L-Z) about our crazy schedule. I think both sections have their positives and negatives, but my section tends to like to complain about our negatives. Thursday and Friday are really nice, easy-going days for us (but for Section 1 I think they're kind of tough). But when Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday roll around, it's hectic. Usually we have one week to complete an assignment from each class, so we have time to do it for sure...the problem arises when we have 7 assignments like that due consecutively! So Tuesdays, for example, have been dubbed friggin' Tuesdays because we have three classes from 9 am to 10 pm. Monday we have only one class, but the rest of the day is spent working on homework for one of the classes on Tuesday. Sunday is also used as a homework day for Monday and Tuesday's homework. Saturday nights have become ritual color and design (tuesday) homework sessions. Wednesday morning a group of us animator kids have our foundations class-next week we've got an essay due- and Wednesday nights our storyboards are due. When did we have time to do our storyboards? Saturday or sunday or monday or tuesday? NO! haha
OK i know this sounds like a rant...and it is...but bear with me because it feels good to get it out. So technically I should be doing my storyboarding and essay homework now. But I'm not. I will. After I take a shower and get out of class and go to the bank. And make a costume. Tomorrow is Halloween Part II, a figure drawing session my friend is putting on so that people can wear their costumes one more time. Brilliant! But I've got to get together that costume...

My motto here is this: You either get your work done, or you sleep! CHOOSE!

And now some pictures:

random pics: 1-Cafeteria Food; 2-from left to right Andre, Chong (our teacher), Natalie, Mayumi, Carlos and Rich after Storyboarding class (if you look closely you can see evidence of the Krispy Kremes that Chong brought us that day!); 3-left to right Natalie and Ellen holding up their fish designs in Animation class; 4-left to right Natalie, Chong, Rich, Michael and Carlos making the "We didn't get into Disneyland!" face! But we had lunch there--a treat from Chong--so we still had a good time nonetheless. ;)

a short disneyland recap!

2008-10-14T02:23:00.000-07:00

I just finished off a great three-day weekend with a trip to Disneyland with a big group of friends! I got an annual pass for Disneyland today, which means I can now go as many times as I want, practically, for a whole yearrrr. Hooraaah! Now all I need is a car to get me there. haha

It was really windy this morning at Disneyland, but it calmed down a bit later in the day. I got up a little late...we were supposed to leave at 7! I think we finally took off around 7:20 and we got there around 9. There were 8 of us for most of the day, so we took two cars. There was me and my freshman friend, Natalie, and several second-year friends I've known for a while, as well as a new person I hadn't met before. We went on Indiana Jones (twice), Alice's teacups, Thunder Mountain, the Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Snow White and Mr. Toad rides, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (twice), the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Carribean, and finally we went on Space Mountain a whopping THREE times because it was so amazing. I absolutely love that ride. And we spent the whole day just in Disneyland, even though technically I could have gone over to California Adventure too. Next time! (haha and no Miley Sirus this time either...to be explained in a later post)
I got myself a spify Nemo cup that sparkles and two Wall-E pins. Yayyy. Now I've been back at school for a few hours, finished up some homework, ate dinner and now I think I'm ready to go to bed. My camera's batteries are dead so I couldn't take any pictures... Maybe a camera battery charger will be my next request from home...? hehe
OKAY, back to school tomorrow!! Gotta go to sleep...

Happy Birthday Mom!

2008-10-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while...much too long!!
But I have a very good reason to blog now, because it's my mom's birthday on October 4th.

It's about week five here at CalArts and my 'new life' has become relatively normal by now... I don't mean normal as in predictable; I mean I feel pretty comfortable here, especially socially because of the amazing people I've met. The homework load can sometimes seem unbearable...but somehow we make it though. It's a crazy vicious cycle, we've discovered, because as soon as we are over the homework hump on Thursday we have to start again on next week's load. Late nights have become part of normal life too; which can be unfortunate sometimes. But only if you have a class the following morning. I try to avoid that situation...!

Each morning I get up (sometimes with the help of my wonderful roommate Tahnee--she had to wake me up for class once!), get ready and go straight to class. On days when I have classes later in the day I might head over to the cafeteria for breakfast. And there are always animation students around--in the cubes, in the cafe, in the main gallery, in the Palace...so I always see someone, sometime, somewhere, every day. It's an awesome environment.

Now I'll give you (a.k.a. Mom-wink wink) a tour of my route around school!
Here's the entrance to Cube # 8! Instead of a full curtain we've got a window curtain. It adds a bit more homeyness to our humble abode...part candy shop, part tea shop, part living room. Seems like we get the most visitors! We've got a guest corner with my nice blue carpet, right next to Perky the percolator. There's also a guest chair right by the entrance. And then there's always standing room in between our desks! Note the cleanliness of my cubemate's desk verses my desk (the extremely cluttered one). Below that is a bird's eye view of our guest corner with Perky and our Ikea lamp. Perky is becoming quite popular here. We've made mostly tea, some coffee, and soon we might even make some cider and cocoa. It's actually getting a little chilly outside at night now.
I took a picture of the fish I animated for traditional animation last week. I wish I could upload the video of it for you, but maybe later in the semester when I have more stuff to show I'll learn to upload it... Animating it was a blast.
I also bought a packet of monster eye stickers at an art store at the beginning of the year--they've made the rounds of the cubes and now many cube numbers have faces on them. Even my video tape has a face!

So that's it for now...I should start working on Color and Design. We just watched a bunch of animated shorts and The Hunchback of Notre Dame...such a good movie!

I'll try update more to tell some real stories, instead of just the general sweep of things. Have a great day tomorrow, Mom! I just showed everyone your blog and we were all very impressed by the Popeye family!! LOVE YOU and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

(I always eat fruit!)

calarts post 2

2008-09-12T09:47:00.000-07:00

It feels like it's been a month at least since I arrived here at CalArts; but today's only day 12! I've met so many people it seems countless. Everything I encounter here seems infinitely daunting, inspiring, amazing, nerve-wracking... But I often remind myself that times like this aren't infinite; it'll last only four short years, and I've got to make the best out of it.

I have my last class of the week today, story for animators with Chris Meeks. I'm excited for it, since it has two words I live for already...haha (story and animators, if you didn't guess)
So far I think my favorite class is animation with Mike Nguyen. In an amazing stroke of luck I got to be his mentee this year, which means I can meet up with him to show him my work and get feedback. And I think he's been the most inspiring teacher I've met yet, so I feel very priviledged. Second favorite class would be story development with Chong Lee. Our first assignment in class was to draw the most impactful scene in your favorite movie, then pin it up and pitch that one shot to the class without naming characters or titles or anything. The class had to guess which movie it was from. Mine was a sinch to guess since three other people had done the Iron Giant before me! I think I got off a little easier than everyone else in that sense, since I could make a joke out of it before I even began. But at least none of us did the same scene. Can you guess which scene I did?

My other classes have been good for the most part; I have close friends in each one of them. Color and Design is going to be a challenge but also very fun, and perspective is actually really interesting! Much different than architectural perspective, thank goodness. Animation students can't stand that stuff. haha

Both classes that involve computers have been cut short because of lack of material to work with (ie we can't log in to the computers yet) so there hasn't been any action there yet. One will teach us how to use After Effects and one will teach us Maya. I'm looking forward to after effects a little more, but we shall see!

Yesterday was the big 6-hour life drawing class! But it didn't seem like six hours once we were done, partially because the longest pose we would do was 15 minutes, and partially because the atmosphere in there was so much different than the "normal" atmosphere in figure drawing, for me. We sat on the floor, listened to cool music (most of the time it was cool), and our model was super good. The last class to mention is my foundations class, which is required. It's called Doubles in Art and Culture, and it seems pretty interesting...but it also seems like a lot of unnecessary work for the animation major. But that's only how it seems to me now! HOPEFULLY it will help me towards being a better animator, artist, person in general. I just dispise writing essays usually. :(

Oh yeah, that toad in a robe at the top of this post is just something I did for fun last week. She's supposed to be wearing glasses, but it looks like tears or something! Aw!

The Totoro Forest Project auction was a huge success! My parents and our family friend got to go last Saturday and they said it was very exciting. I heard later that every single piece sold that night! No doubt we've brought global attention to the Sayama forest and to all of our personal forest spirits...we all needed a reminder that they're still here. I should go talk to my totoro soon. You should too. :)

Well, I should get going...eat breakfast or something...for once I don't have class until 1! I'm hopping a ride with some friends to go shopping again for paint and lightbulbs and other cube-beautification products. We'll also get some art supplies for Color and Design class all the way down in Pasedena. That's another thing that is infinite here: the ammount of money we have to keep spending! Supplies, supplies, books, supplies supplies. Food. Supplies. Yikes. I need a job again!

sheesh!

2008-09-12T00:28:00.000-07:00

I'll post as soon as I can catch my breath! :D

calarts post 1

2008-09-02T22:13:00.000-07:00

End of Day 2!
Here I am at my cozy dorm room...tired from all the over-stimulation, orientation presentations, meeting new people for the first time, meeting people again who I had met a year ago, meeting old friends. So many new people. Yesterday was a swirl of excitement and awkward hellos, though following most awkward hellos were interesting conversations that make it so worth while getting to know new people. I find sometimes I can be very talkative and sometimes I feel like I could go the whole day just listening to people talk. I actually don't think of myself as a very good conversationalist, but...it depends who I'm talking to I guess!
Anyway, today was another swirl of excitement and awkward hellos and interesting conversations; though each of these things were slightly diluted because there were more mandatory presentations (much sitting and listening), that were for the most part pretty interesting...though I find hanging out in the animation building a bit more stimulating ;)
Also the 'new kid' sensation came in pretty strong today as I met a group of sophomores, some of whom I know well, others I have friendly acquaintances with, others I didn't know at all. I don't want to make a bad first impression, who does? So I'm trying my best to interact without intervening and to converse without spoiling the conversation.
I was so happy to meet up with some good friends from CSSSA today. We're practically next door to each other in the dorms too, which is pretty sweet! So I went out with them on a late shopping trip and to grab some food.
Our dorm room is very nice right now, with the only major problem being that our toilet is temperamental. I managed to fix it for now, but knowing it, it'll break again soon so hopefully we can get that fixed for good!!
Well, I should get ready for bed. I checked on my bike and it's still outside locked up. I feel bad for it...like I haven't given attention to a pet in too long... and it's only been a day. I hope I can find time to ride it this semester, otherwise it will just be outside my window, whining at me. Tomorrow there are more presentations and I have to get my ID photo taken. It never gets re-taken, so it better be a good one...haha I'll be stuck with it for 4 years!

2008-08-25T22:50:00.000-07:00

One week left!
And tomorrow's my 20th birthday! Waaahhhaaahhoooo!
I had an awesome party this weekend with many friends and family. I received much good college advice and dorm room accessories as well. Some of the college advice:

-Don't fall in love with a creepy guy
-Don't embarrass your family
-Don't do drugs or drink alcohol

Hmmm...what are my friends and family saying about me now...? I don't do any of those things! Or haven't yet...haha. Guess that's the point.

life update

2008-08-17T20:59:00.000-07:00

Down to the final two weeks here at Home Base. It's been a wonderful, exciting, strange, nostalgic week...and I think all of these emotions will become tenfold in 14 days. Both of my jobs have ended by now, which is great, since now I have been able to do a bunch of fun things with my friends and parents when normally I wouldn't have done. However, if I don't keep myself busy with cleaning or practicing bass or doing more fun things with family, I am terribly at risk of boredom or couch-potatodom. So I've kept myself busy. :)

Last weekend Mom and I spent the night in San Francisco at the Mariott Hotel in the downtown area. We did get stuck in traffic when we got in the city (protest rally or something), but after that mess we had a real fun time. We saw our favorite Hawaiian musicians in an intimate concert Saturday night (VIP!) and visited many stores looking for dorm accessories and new clothes. I got a gracious gift from our family friend, so I was able to spend a bit and not fret about it! (well, not as much as I normally would at least!) On Sunday we went into the Container Store and saw Adam Savage, of Mythbusters fame! How cool is that! Now the shoe rack I bought there will always remind me of seeing that wacky Adam (one of my heroes I think it's safe to say)
Here's a picture of my inventory collected:
We also went across the bay and over to IKEA. It was my first time visiting this monster of a store. I actually didn't buy as much as I thought I would, but I did buy an awesome lantern lamp and a guard snake which I call Fredrick. He's not a real snake. But he will be guarding my cube at CalArts. Don't worry, he's friendly!

This week I found out my schedule for school! It's so exciting. I'll do another post on that all together.
We also went out to see "Bottle Shock" in Sonoma, at the famous Sebastiani Theater. I've always wanted to go in there, and Brenda Lhormer was there to talk about the film. She and her husband put on the Sonoma Valley Film Festival that I volunteered at last year. They produced this film. It was filmed right around here, and in Paris, too. I very much recommend the film! It's funny and light-hearted, and predictable, but it's based on something that actually happened, so we know what the end result's going to be anyway ;) The characters are interesting and conflicted and likable. Especially the British wine snob. Plus you get to see beautiful Sonoma and Napa counties! Go see it!

Yesterday we went to the Schulz Museum, finally...we live so close, it's silly that we haven't gone before now. But we were given two tickets, so Mom and I once again ventured out together and had a great time. There are so many comic strips on the walls that it'd be impossible to read them all in one sitting. But it really made me realize how important Peanuts is, and how special we are to have had Charles Schulz right here. He started the Snoopy Ice Arena, which has been there for forever to me. I used to take classes there when I was younger. I think Schulz even came up to me on the ice once, I'm not sure why; to help me out, or maybe he just passed me by and said "hello." I do remember that, strangely enough, though I didn't know who he was at the time. Visiting the museum--an example of fantastic, atrium-esque architecture in the main hall-- made me want to go back and read my Peanuts book. There was a whole exhibit on Beethoven's influence on Schroeder. Really fun stuff.

Today I had an amazing day too. I woke up relatively early and watched The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, my new favorite TV show, had pancakes that Dad labored over just a little too much (they were fantastic though), helped my Mom out with some cleaning to prepare for our party next weekend, then went for a bike ride with dad to see some airplanes from the Airshow going on this weekend. We saw a HUGE plane take off over our heads, and he came back several times! And we saw a jet nearly break the sound barrier!! It was surreal! So that was fun. hehe.
Then we had lunch, rode our bikes back to the car, and stopped by the store to get pie-supplies. Then Dad and I made a couple apple pies from our apple tree in the back yard. Yummm.
Sprinkled throughout the day were reminders of school, the Totoro Auction, snuggles with my kitties, and bass practicing. All in all, a fantastic day!

watercolor fun

2008-08-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

The Tororo Forest Project

2008-07-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

Recently my mom and I were invited to be a part of an amazing project, called The Totoro Forest Project. Enrico Casarosa, one of the fantastic artists making this possible (and who asked us if we wanted to contribute), sums it up perfectly on his blog:

Totoro Forest Project is an international charity effort to preserve Sayama Forest, also known as Totoro Forest. This endangered sanctuary on the outskirts of Tokyo is where director Hayao Miyazaki got the inspiration for his much loved character “Totoro.” Over 200 top international artists from animation, illustration, and comics are donating artwork especially created for this cause. On september 6th 2008 Pixar Animation Studios will be hosting an art auction event featuring all these fantastic pieces of art. All the proceeds of this fundraiser will benefit the Totoro Forest Foundation. On top of the auction we are producing a wonderful art book of the auction pieces and we’ve also managed to secure an exhibition at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco.

What an honor!! Our pieces actually won't be on the site or any of the other promotional places, but I do hope our small part helps out the big picture. What a cool way to say "thank you!" to Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli for their wonderful films.
Of course I look back at my watercolor now and cringe! I am almost never inclined to do a "finished piece" like this one, save for a school assignment or something like that. So I probably thought about it too much and made it look stiff. But I imagined this being a snapshot of Satsuki and Mei's life after the movie has ended...little sister Mei never gets lost now, because she is always looked after by the forest spirit Totoro. And Satsuki will always know where to find her, since Mei always forgets her hat at the foot of Totoro's forest! Looking back now, I wish I had put in little semi-Totoro shapes in the clouds or tree. And I hope it looks something like a camphor tree, since I only had photo reference online. And if I only understood something about color! haha. Hopefully the frame will make it look "professional!" I had no way to take a picture of it with the frame on it, since it was shipped out just half an hour after I got to see it framed!
Also an interesting fact I learned while doing some research-- I found out the rope and paper flags are called shimenawa, and the string is tied around sacred trees that are said to belong to spirits. Again, hopefully it looks convincing, since I only had photos as reference!
Please go to the site, it is chock FULL of amazing artists and their interpretations of Totoros. Wish I could be there for the actual auction, but I'll be unpacking my suitcase at Chouinard hall by then! But Mom'll be there, to take plenty of pictures. You can see her Totoro creation on her blog.

My Mom's Blog

The Totoro Forest Project

and more sketches...

2008-07-22T15:19:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more sketches... That upside down girl was done a long time ago, but it was extra paper I could use, so I just flipped it upside down and used it! I love working on scrap paper; you sometimes fall upon happy accidental splotches or something that make it look more unique, something normally I may not have thought of adding.
These pictures are both more saturated and more overexposed than my actual paintings. I wish they were as lively in color, but they aren't really. It's alright, but then you can't see the clouds very well in these pictures unless I penciled it in. Final piece up next!

preview

2008-07-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

Preliminary studies for a recent assignment...it was very fun to do, but I'm definitely the type of person who never does a "finished" piece, so this was really kind of daunting!

random things to show

2008-07-10T21:22:00.000-07:00

Two very different pieces here...the striped one was an assignment for my painting class way back last fall. We had to do a collage first...then paint it. So I did a very small collage of magazine paper, maybe 2 inches wide by 3 inches high. I painted it the night before it was due, and it was oil so...well, it was a challenge to get to school without getting most of it on myself! Oil is fun but it never dries...
The other one was pretty recent, just me messing around with ink on a piece of scrap paper. I took it into photoshop later and died it blue. Played around with what clouds could look like if I only used blotches of paint and eraser...ended up with half-circle puffs and crescent-moon shadows.

I think the next generation of CSSSA kids cometh into being next week! YAY CSSSA. It's been two years since that amazing program...maybe someday I'll be a CSSSA counselor! That'd be fun.

waAAAAlll-eeee

2008-07-02T23:18:00.000-07:00

For the past several years I've been pretty good. I mean, geek wise. Incredibles was fantastic. Cars was fun, and Ratatouille blew my fancy French socks off. But Wall-E has taken whatever geeky self censorship I had left, and I find myself again that uncontrollably geeked-out 14-year-old sophomore I was when I first saw Finding Nemo. I realized this as I went to pick up my specially-ordered Wall-E soundtrack wearing my I Heart Wall-E t-shirt today...I'm ashamed for being such a consumerist... But of all the movies trying to capture my heart, I willingly give it to this one. It doesn't need to ask twice. It's darker, deeper, and has more lovable characters to me than any movie I've seen in a very long time. I sort of forgot I was watching animation, actually... I heard they had live-action cinematographers work on the film, and it really comes though in every shot. What a world they've invented. I want to go back so badly. Maybe I'll visit that wondrous world again tomorrow...

more watercolor

2008-06-27T11:29:00.000-07:00

More from Thursday mornings. I submitted one of these to a Brickfish scholarship... I'd ask you to vote for me, but I can't get the right link to my posts there. Oh well...blogger's not letting me put hyper links on this post for some reason. Here's the site URL...Go look at all that art! http://www.brickfish.com/Lifestyles/ShowUsYourArt3?cpn=Lifestyles&tab=entries

Oh, and GO SEE WALL-EEEEEE!!!!! I get to see it tonight!

WWSC #19 *EDIT

2008-06-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

(EDIT: thanks Sam for the heads-up on the images being too light...here they are again, hopefully a little easier to see on those PCs!)

Last Saturday (the 21st) was the 19th World Wide SketchCrawl held in San Francisco (and all over the world too)! I went down with my mom and her friend and met up with a few other friends down at Fort Point. I think the fort was the best place to draw things, even though, ironically, I didn't draw very much there. Most of my drawings were done along the bustling dirt bicycle/pedestrian/newlywed path that headed to Crissy Field. I realized very quickly that the paper I had didn't take watercolor nicely at all, so I gave that up early on. I also attempted to draw the great Golden Gate, but I didn't have skill nor patience to tackle it well. Maybe another time...

Oh and guess what comes out this Friday that I've been dying to see for forever?? Robots, love story, outer space, writer/director of Finding Nemo. What?! no way!! :D

thursday mornings

2008-06-06T10:43:00.000-07:00

Thursday mornings I travel to beautiful Sonoma and find myself wrestling with pencils and watercolors. The watercolors usually get whatever they want...which is never what I think I want. But I like the results it gives me anyway. Its fun to do a drawing first then watercolor it; and it's also interesting to do it the other way around. I used line first for the left-handed one (also painted with left), and the seated back-view of her on fabric. The other watercolored ones I did with paint first, line after. It's cool how loose those ones are compared to the back-view one. It's difficult and it ain't pretty, but at least it gets me loosened up. I sure do like my pencils though still. The first drawing here was the last one from a week ago. I wanted to exaggerate something...and she looked pretty strong, so I gave her big arms! Too bad the back one looks disconnected. Oh well. See that Chris Sanders hand? Huh? Amelia! Bad copy cat!

back to the figure

2008-05-22T22:46:00.000-07:00

Figure drawings ! AT LAST...
the two with pencil were inspired by EGON SCHEILE... I like the second one the best, with her hands on the back of her head. I also played around with just straight watercolor no line or anything. The other two are the best results of that....cough... Oh actually, just the first one has no line in it. The third one down actually had a little blue pen scribble underneath it but the pen ran out of ink immediately, lucky for me, actually! :) I like the result.

puffy

2008-05-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

This is the first time I've tried uploading a video to my blog! Groundbreaking stuff! I wanted to try animating a fish today, so I looked through a Hawaiian Tropical Fish guide I found around the house, and discovered a very cute puffer fish. I looked on YouTube too. I like them when they're not puffed up; especially this one:

Wasn't that the cutest smiling, big-eyed fish you ever saw?! And that hermit crab had a fun time too...
So much for animating that fish...

a lighter version

2008-05-15T15:49:00.000-07:00

Mom said she could hardly see that last image I put up on her PC, soooo she lightened it up a little for all you who are PC readers! Thanks Mom!

Oh and I went to figure drawing this morning, which was a lot of fun but very VERY hot. We're going through some kind of heatwave now in Cali. Whew.

ok

2008-05-15T00:35:00.000-07:00

Do something scary every day...right? Sooo painting in photoshop! Yeah, it was scary at first, but it became super fun to do real quick. I used photo reference for the bowler hat. I had drawn a made-up hat there for the longest time and it just didn't work. Bowler's hats aren't all that magician-y, or clown-y, but that's what I imagine her wearing. Oh, and I don't know why I gave her blue skin. She's not crying (though she is making a pouting face), those are makeup tear markings, like on some clowns or mimes. Actually, yeah, I see her more as a mime than a magician...anyway...
The nose was the hardest part, and it still sort of looks like her nostrils are glowing. haha. But I'm glad I had the black background to work with, because it filled in all my darkest shadows already, and I had somewhere to start from. I drew this over the other drawing, on a new layer. So three layers in all, just the black background, the yellow sketch, and then the color version on top. Woo hoo-- here's hoping I can get a better hang of this over the summer...like doing more scarier things like cityscapes or something like that.
Ack! I could just keep working on this for forever. But I must leave it. For now. Goodnight!
(I'm going to figure drawing sessions tomorrow! twice, hopefully!)

warning: freaky clown girl

2008-05-13T00:35:00.000-07:00

Yikes! what a stare. Okay, well sorry if she's freaking you out right now. She ain't staring at you, so don't worry. I looked at lion eyes for reference. Can ya tell? I'm still too chicken to "paint" anything with photoshop. I gotta draw something before I paint it, right? Or just stick to painting with one color? That's kind of like painting, right?
Anyway...

EDIT: if you're not on a mac, this could look really, really dark. That's a feather coming out of her hat. I'm too lazy to fix it...

:P

2008-05-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

THIS looks like fun. I sort of wish I didn't work on the weekends. That's pretty much when anything ever happens...

to figure or not to figure

2008-05-07T23:07:00.000-07:00

A drawing of a girl in my figure drawing class last semester. She was drawing someone else, and that person was drawing her too. It'd be cool if I could do figure drawing this summer. I don't know if I'm allowed because I've taken the limit number of classes already. Maybe if I did it for no credit? Plus it'd be 4 hour classes...4 days a week...I guess that's not too bad compared to some intensives, but still I know I'd be working the other 3 days of the week if I did this class! I don't even know when my priority registration date is...guess I'm not too into it. But wouldn't it be great if I could be on the ball as I come in to CalArts? If I don't do any classes till then I will have had no figure drawing classes for an entire year. Yikes! That sounds painful...

doodles in ps

2008-05-05T23:54:00.000-07:00

Doodling in Photoshop. I want to do a cut-out piece like the fish-in-the-coffeepot doodles. Most of the shapes there were made with the lasso tool, as if I actually did cut out pieces... I still know so little about Photoshop. I will learn!

mom's photo...

2008-05-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

flora y fauna de costa rica

2008-04-28T21:21:00.000-07:00

Alright, well, I went to Costa Rica, for my good cousin Nina's wedding to good cousin-in-law Lorcan!
My parents made it a two-week trip, so we went down a week ahead of most of the rest of the family party. It's a different world down there, especially in the road rules department. Crazy driving! But we managed to drive all over the place in one piece. For a full report on what we did and where we went, check out my mom's blog, at the bar to the left!
One of my favorite parts was the Tabacon hot springs resort---no, not for the hot springs or the fancy resort, though those were physically comforting---it was these lizards! Technically these are called Emerald Basilisk lizards; and they're bright green with earthy stripes and blue specks. This is a girl, I believe, because she doesn't have the amazing fins that line the big male's heads, backs and tails. Too bad I couldn't catch a sketch of one of those. But literally every pool I went to I'd see one, maybe two. Seemed like everywhere I looked, if I wasn't looking for them intentionally, I'd find them. I seemed to always find them feet in front of me, staring me down. It was amazing, like looking into the eyes of a dinosaur baby.
Also something I absolutely adored drawing and watching were these two pet toucans at our first hotel in Alajuela, just north of San Jose. These two toucans lived in an aviary with a rabbit (don't know why...guess they get along ok). They seemed so thoughtful, peaceful, sort of sad. One had a scruffy tail with a couple feathers missing. I liked that one best. He or she seemed to be out in the open more often than Regular Tail, who hid in their box a lot, or flapped around a lot, or acted just a little bossy. Unlike most birds, these guys could move slowly and gracefully if they wanted. Not much noise out of them, I only heard them once. This isn't a great scan of my pencil drawing of the scruffy tailed one. I used coffee for the rim.
At one of our hotels there was a frog pond with stepping stones that went across it in three paths, so you could go out and sit in the center of it. I went out with my watercolors and painted a fountain spilling into it. I'd love to work more with watercolors, so I can get some sort of balance between value and saturation and shadow and color...that green spot at the bottom still makes me flinch, but oh well. A reminder for when I do my next watercolor.
I'd recommend Costa Rica, especially the Arenal Volcano area. One hotel we wished we could have stayed at was the Arenal Volcano Lodge Observatory. But we could observe it pretty good from our own window, several miles away!
Anyways, it was a great trip. Now back to wrapping up school, and taking a summer off :)

a little teaser...

2008-04-27T22:45:00.001-07:00

...before I commit to an actual Post on my trip to Costa Rica...and yes, that is where I've been the past two weeks!

april

2008-03-31T23:34:00.001-07:00

Well, another SketchCrawl under the bridge. Gray in the morning, but sunny later in the day. Oddly, the temperature seemed to behave opposite the weather--warmer in the morning and quite chilly and breezy when the sun came out. But everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves. It's great to see familiar faces and meeting new ones. I didn't do anything fantastic--but I had fun experimenting a very tiny bit. Used no lines in this tugboat one, just watercolors. And, predictably, I couldn't keep track of where anything was! I tried a big fat brush at the same time a little kid came up to the edge of the fountain. Somehow his head came out nicely, but it was an accident! The people, of course, were the main course. Delicious, all! Its hard to stop drawing them. I plan on going to coffee tomorrow morning to get some more of them in. If I can get up.
CalArts is finally sinking in for me! It feels so good...and then scary! But then really really good again. haha. They did give me about $1000 financial aid, which is great, though it is about a fraction of the cost...it will cover books, though! Thank you calarrtsss
I want to show you more of this robot I have. I have more time now, theoretically, so I should have more time to work with him. Remember the little scribbles in an earlier post? That's him. We'll see if he turns up some more soon. Have a good week! Happy April!

yipeeee!!!

2008-03-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

I'm IN!!!!
CalArts, you do care!

It came in a big, beautiful envelope, and I found it on our dining table when I got home from working at the cafe this morning. I think I scared my cat when I started jumping up and down.
Thanks for all your support everyone, especially during these past couple weeks. I could really feel the good vibes coming in. So thank you sooo much. You guys are like a support group or something!! ;)
IT feels SO good having some idea of where I'll finally be, and what I'll finally be doing for the next four years of my life. There's just been these two years of uncertainty. Now the waiting is over, and I am set. I send a HUGE huge huge thank-you out to Louie, Ronnie and Brigette who might read this sometime. Thanks for everything!!

congrats!

2008-03-12T21:16:00.000-07:00

Because SketchCrawl is coming up in another two weeks just about, I thought I might mention that there's another new crawler in our world--though she actually hasn't even started crawling yet :)

still nothing from calarts, but...

2008-03-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

THERE'S A TRAILER!!

...

2008-03-04T21:06:00.001-08:00

CalArts CalArts CalArts CalArts....
PLEEEEAASSEE send me something happy........pleeeaaassseeeee....!

80

2008-02-17T19:30:00.001-08:00

OK
It's been waaay too freekin long. I apologize. I have been working at the coffee shop ("My Friend Joe"), going to class two days a week (sooo nice) and thinking about how good life is. That is as true as it is tacky sounding.
I drew myself at 80 years old for a scholarship contest called "Show us your best smile!"...but I submitted it the day before it was due, so uh...I didn't really get a chance to win haha...
I think I need glasses soon. I can tell because I drew myself with big glasses when I turn 80. That means I'll need them sometime, apparently.
Also, I've become hooked on Heroes! The TV show. We watch it on Netflix streaming online, which is cool.
OK, so the pizza's done, so I should go in and eat and watch Heroes...I'll post something more significant next time, but for now here's a little buffer-post, okay?

Happy belated Valentine's day! Go get your half-off chocolates!

big news(es)!

2008-01-20T21:38:00.001-08:00

I say news in it's plural form (that I conveniently made up this one time) because it feels like a lot has happened recently. Two things are tied at the top of the list for biggest new thing:
1) I have started a second job as a barista!
2) I have acquired a long-desired possession: a Xooter Scooter!
Here's a very bad picture of Penny, my scooter. Pretty Penny is her full name...mainly because, well, she did in fact cost a pretty penny. But she's all worth it. I LOVE to scoot around on this thing! No electric powered motor or gas motor or anything, just old-fashioned kicking action. I took it to Sonoma today and really enjoyed gliding through the main square on it's winding sidewalks. As a side note to the picture, you can see all of my animation and art books stuffed on the shelf. I need more bookshelf space. (also note more books piled next to and on top of my night-stand that couldn't fit into said shelf)

I am working just one day a week at the toy store nowadays, with the exception of a shift to cover here and there. I'll have been there for three years in May! I've had a great experience there, and have made happy profits there, but college life is coming up this year, and a once-a-week job won't be getting me where I would like to be finance wise. Now I've started a second job. My second job as barista is getting better by the day. I've probably never mentioned it here at the Gecko Cafe, but I've wanted a job at a cafe for a while now, probably around a year and a half. I didn't want to be a barista for any particular reason that I can think of either (which is kind of weird)... but I guess part of it comes from enjoying spending time in coffee shops, my slowly developing interest in coffee, and just the idea of building up a different set of job and social skills. I got lucky one day when attending my favorite coffee shop. I had ordered my drink from another new barista and was talking with the shop's owner as she was getting ready to leave. I was thinking in my head "...hmm...should I ask her if she's hiring..?" But soon she turned around and walked to her truck. Shoot! Lost my chance. Before getting in her car though she turned around and said, "By the way, we're hiring! Interested?" Hoorah! What luck. Of course I took up the opportunity right away. So I've just learned the basic basic basic stuff about what it takes to make a latte and a cappuccino, and I'm getting the best kind of training there is around. It's like a full-on apprenticeship. I feel so lucky to get this kind of training that is so thorough. So wish me luck in my on-going coffee endeavors!
So more news is as follows:
3) I have started my third and final semester at the Santa Rosa Junior College! (EDIT: it's actually my fourth. I'm going crazy.) I'm taking ceramic sculpture, comparative mythology and astronomy! All of my classes are great.
4) Yesterday was SketchCrawl #17!
I haven't been able to attend a SketchCrawl since last MAY, so Saturday was a super treat. It was great to see Ronnie, Enrico, Emma and the rest of the SC crew. Somehow I missed Paul! Next time! And it was also great meeting new people, as it always is. The pigeons and Chinese lanterns are from the SketchCrawl, held this time in China Town, starting at Portsmouth Square. Mom and her friend had a good time too, and finally mom was able to hand off a work of felt-art to Enrico and his wife Marit! You can see her felted dolls on Enrico's blog :)
Also of note:
5) I FINALLY got Ratatouille! YAAAAY!!!!

ed]

calarts portfolio is online! edited

2008-01-09T20:21:00.000-08:00

My CalArts portfolio is now up on my photobucket site! So for all of you all who wanted to see it in its entirety, it is there. *Edit* Okay, now it's all in order. It starts with an oil painting I did last semester from a collage of paper scraps. If you click on this image it'll take you to the album.

new year

2008-01-03T12:07:00.000-08:00

OK!
Wow it's been a while. I apologize to you (those who are still reading this blog) for the delay.
First order of business:
I've finally sent in all my CalArts application stuff!!! I want to thank everyone who helped me on it. I couldn't have gotten it done without feedback on my portfolio and the help with letters from my recommenders.
So now it's the waiting period... which may or may not be as grueling as last year. But I'm excited about the new year no matter what. I'm supposed to call the Academy of Art today to talk about applications. I applied online last Sunday. So now if I don't get into CalArts, I've got AAU to back me up. For once I'm grateful for 100% acceptance...haha
So that business is halfway done. Whew.
Also, the semester is over and I'm enjoying my winter break. I had a fun christmas eve with my parents and a crazy christmas day with almost 30 family members at our house! It was fun though, and we had a special show put on for us from our friend Ernie, who creates wooden puppets. (His website is a link at the left here!)
I feel like a lot has happened over the past two weeks. Getting my portfolio out the door was certainly the best thing that happened besides christmas. A good way to start the new year. I've been having a little bit of a hecktic time at work these past few weeks...with inventory day, lots of extra hours and even a scary customer...but after this week I'll be back on my normal work schedule. I can't believe I'll have been working there for three years in May!
Also new this year is our family trip to Costa Rica! This is something totally new to me. I'm used to Hawaii and France, where people speak English and French. But Spanish?? Whaa??? I gotta do some research here. My cousin Nina is being married there in April, and since my dad's birthday is the same month, we decided to make it an extended trip. Probably just a couple weeks. I'm excited!
Also there is an ant crawling over my computer screen right now. I have an ant on my hand. I blew him off. So yeah, there are ants in my room...but I've gotten rid of all the sugar here. Except my chocolate penguin, but he's safe inside his plastic wrapper. I suppose they just want in from the rain.
These are some figure drawings from last semester. I put the one of the guy's back in my portfolio at the last minute. My mom graciously took pictures of everything in my portfolio for me, so some time I can share those with you ifn you wanna.
OK so...thats it for now. Have a good rest of your break, if you're on one. Come to SketchCrawl 17 on the 19th in San Francisco!

i heart owls

2007-12-10T23:42:00.000-08:00

I cheated and drew those from a photo I found online. Unfortunately I can't find that picture again to show you. But I did find some other ones...

monday

2007-11-26T19:04:00.001-08:00

Ok that's enough of look at old 10 year old drawings (previous post). Lets look at me about to sign off the CalArts application form! Woo hooey! Did this last night with my mac laptop camera, that's why its backwards.
I think a few other prospective CalArts kids might read this blog...maybe...so if you are reading this, are you doing your homework??
I like doing this kind of homework though; putting together the whole portfolio is really fun. I've probably said that before on this blog, maybe. In other news, here's a photoshop thing I forgot about. Arms are really awkward. I find usually I'll just draw a trunk and then have to figure out something for the arms to do. It doesn't work too well--for example, the arm holding the balloon... Oh well. Maybe I'll get it someday.

good old pokemon

2007-11-25T19:36:00.001-08:00

Oh what beautiful drawings by a 10-year-old me. Ahh, back in the day when Pokemon was the only thing in the world. I look back now and cringe, but I must say that if I hadn't been so obsessed with it I might not have started drawing as much as I did. Nine years later and I still draw cartoon characters...go figure...

calarts wrap-up

2007-11-16T17:45:00.000-08:00

This silly blue wristband is still on.
Sooo continuing with the CalArts visit two weeks ago--another great fun time was had at dodgeball! It was actually really tiring...I'm not exaggerating when I say I was soar for four days afterwards...I couldn't get up without moaning! Guess I don't get much exercise. (read: any exercise)
Sunday morning I got up early to go to Corny's workshop at 10. I drew for a little bit (Corny sat next to me, and although I doubt he was watching me, it was kind of daunting trying to draw the way I normally do!) Later on I showed him my portfolio, and I think it went over pretty well. The thing he didn't like was that I folded all my drawings in half! So I got rid of the creases as much as I could, pasted them all on big 36x24 card paper so they were easier to handle, and spray fixed them too. I've got a while before I have to send it in, but it's still kind of fun to work on. Here are two ink drawings I did Thursday night that might make it into my portfolio.
Oh yeah! RATATOUILLE is out on DVD! Yaaaay!
Also on DVD is Meet the Robinsons, which I thought was a great movie for Disney. I thought the whole movie could be symbolic for the direction the studio's taken now...I hear there have been a lot of changes, but changes for the better. I'm looking forward to the Princess and the Frog; it takes place in the '20s I think, down in New Orleans. And Randy Newman's doing the music for it! Also, there are frogs (I assume), which is good because I like frogs. :)

calarts visit

2007-11-10T09:33:00.000-08:00

I've had this plastic blue bracelet on my wrist for exactly 1 week and 11 hours and 30 minutes. It's one of those flimsy strips they put around your wrist when you go to a theme park, or a fair, or some other event. For me, it was the CAL ARTS HALLOWEEN PARTY. WOo hoo!
My friend from figure drawing and I had been planning a trip down to CalArts for a while, specifically for the Halloween party that was going to take place the first weekend of November. My friend is interested in going to CalArts as well, and she also has a friend there to visit. I wanted to visit friends and get my portfolio reviewed more than anything, but the party was actually pretty fun as well. Plus, I got to use my jellyfish costume one more time!

Our original plan was to pile into her car (her roommate would come with us) and leave on Friday the 2nd. Everything was going fine up until the Tuesday before we were going to leave, when her car broke down for good. Then we switched to using my '96 Saturn...but I received powerful opposition from my parents about using this car, which might or might not be able to make it. So the trip was canceled, two days before we were going to leave. On Thursday my friend said she'd bought another car... I wasn't so sure I wanted to travel 300 miles in a car neither of us knew very well, so I backed out of it, and I thought neither of us would go, and we'd have to find another time to go and another way of getting there. Thursday night I saw my friend in figure drawing again, and I found out that my she and her room mate were still going to go in her new car. It was 8:30 when I called my parents in a last-ditch effort to see if I could go along. I didn't care anymore that it was a new car I had never seen...if my friend was going to go anyways, why should I just stay home?!
My parents were very brave and they let me go. I have them to thank! It was a risky thing to do, to send me away with so many unknowns. But it was SO worth it.

So Thursday night I threw together a bunch of things to take (including a whole backpack of useless stuff) and I was ready to go.
The drive went pretty smoothly, despite getting off to a little later start. We made it there around 4 and I ran into Jeff. Later I met some students in the cafeteria who I believe were from the Character program. My friend jumped over a chair as we left the cafeteria-- I tried to imitate him but tripped over the chair and nearly fell... all in front of a table of people I didn't know. It's been a long time since I felt like the new kid! But I certainly felt it there. I continued tripping throughout the weekend, twice in a row on the same stairs even. But I became so comfortable with the animation students I had met that I was joking about it all by the end of the weekend. It's a great feeling when you can make fun of yourself.
There was one close call on the night of the party. We were all in a huge line to get into the party in the main gallery, me and Jeff and a group of other animation students. But my friend Cindey was somewhere else. I was her guest, and she had bought my ticket. When I got inside to the desk, I found out that I couldn't get in without Cindey being there. I was told I'd have to call her and have her come with me. This would have been impossible...for one, I didn't have my phone. For another, she wouldn't have hers either. It would be close to impossible finding her in all the crowd. So I thought I'd be locked out for good. Then a girl I had only just met a few hours before comes up behind me, claims I'm her guest, and gets me in no problem. I was given the flimsy blue wristband, and was home free. I owe you one, bloody nurse!
This is getting pretty long for a post...maybe I should split it into two parts. So much more happened. The most important thing that came out of this weekend was the reinforcement of my desire to get in that school. The people, the teachers, the assignments, everything, EVERYTHING is amazing. I hope I get in this time, darn it!

thank you safari west

2007-10-26T21:04:00.000-07:00

Safari West is a great place just east of Santa Rosa that houses lots of wonderful animals, like lemurs, cheetahs, giraffes, watusi, zebras, and all sorts of gazelles. Even a few porcupines! The animals are fenced in, but are not given "man made" habitats, like most regular zoos. What is super special about this place is that a group of students can go there to study the animals, no charge (with permission)! I.e.: art students! So I got a few art student friends of mine to come with me.
The people were super nice, and actually gave us three a private tour through the back property where the large herds of animals were. It was like the Disneyland Indiana Jones ride, said my friend--we were on the top level of a heavy-duty jeep/safari vehicle, going up and down muddy rocky slopes. It was great, and I got a lot of drawing in. What's even better is that I feel like for the most part I did better drawings this time than when I went last year with my parents.
Have a great weekend!

jesters

2007-10-19T00:35:00.001-07:00

I don't know what it is about jesters, but I really REALLY like them. Especially when they aren't really that funny. What if you were a very introverted person suddenly made into a court jester? Make the king laugh or it's off with your head! Enough to make you a little nervous. This guy seems to be in such a position.

more figure drawings

2007-10-12T22:01:00.001-07:00

Here are some potential portfolio pieces. I'm gonna try to pull a portfolio together before the end of this month--I might be coming down to CalArts for a little visit very soon... :)

new stuff, old stuff

2007-10-07T23:13:00.002-07:00

Some sketches and a painting for my class. Octoberrrr...I like October and Fall and everything. I would like to have some rain too sometime soon :)
Next month portfolio's gonna get sent off...wahooo!

pen tablet drawing

2007-10-02T08:01:00.001-07:00

I'm fiddling around in Photoshop when I have free time...which, these days, doesn't happen as often as I'd like. But I do love my new pen tablet!

mom's sketches

2007-09-24T22:04:00.000-07:00

Since I was so neglectful that I didn't scan my Mom's SketchCrawl 15 pictures until now, it's probably too late to put them on the SketchCrawl Forums...I'm sorryyy!! She comes back from Utah tomorrow from visiting my aunt, her sister. She makes cool license-plate frames. So here are Mom's SketchCrawl drawings, done August 25th at the Luther Burbank Home and Gardens. The first one of the rocks in the stream was actually done on her recent road trip, but I thought I'd share it anyways because it's cool! Oh yeah...and do I see a doodle of a classroom TV perhaps drawn during her (extremely boring) architectural drawing class?? I must take after my mom...seems like all I do is doodle in Creative Writing!

breaking rules and figure drawings

2007-09-14T00:39:00.001-07:00

Ok, I'm breaking rules. I'm supposed to put figure drawings up on the Tomato Earrings blog, but it's kind of silly to have separate blogs... So I think I'm just going to combine the two again because it's better for me and for you!
Anyway, here are a few from my new figure drawing class. Our teacher is super amazing. I go through about ten bazillion (bad) drawings before I hit one that I like...these are the result of a few bazillion.

happy sketchcrawl

2007-08-29T20:04:00.000-07:00

These are a little late, but here are four drawings done on SketchCrawl last Saturday (S.C. #15!). Since I couldn't go to San Francisco this time, we met up with another Crawler in Santa Rosa and spent a few hours at the Luther Burbank Home and Gardens. We realized that it really was a beautiful place to go sketch; and for free! We must go back there some time to do more sketching.
I am a very super lucky person. I got many wonderful things for my birthday (19 on Sunday!), including a Wacom tablet for my Mac. So I'll be able to color some of these! YAY. I also got sculpting supplies and clay to sculpt, T-shirt markers, chocolate and gift certificates, and even a puppet performance so funny (and slightly creepy) that my cheeks were hurting from laughing. I got just as many sweet cards. Thanks everyone!
In other news, I've started painting class at school. It's quite challenging and very different from drawing...I expected this though, and that's why I'm taking it. I'm exited to keep painting tomorrow.
All of my other classes have been going well too, despite the amount of units. Second week in, so far so good!

school starts next week

2007-08-17T10:55:00.001-07:00

I don't often paint things in Photoshop, but I think it'd be a good idea to learn it better. I drew this lady a while ago in Peets and just decided to try painting over it. I decided to stay pretty simple with it and stay away from shadows...I'll tackle them later!

The girl's pants were just colored with a marker on the spot when I was in Peets more recently. The smaller one's much better for some reason.

I start class again at the JC next week...and I've got a full schedule. English, History and Creative Writing on Mondays and Wednesdays, and Anthropology, Painting and Figure Drawing on Tuesdays and Thursdays. No telling if I'll be able to handle this whole load...if it's not exactly what I'm expecting then I might drop Creative Writing. Just to free some time up for homework that is to come...shudder...haha
And maaan school is expensive...just the books alone cost more than the actual classes... At least I can sell them back later!

wonderful visits

2007-08-06T21:12:00.001-07:00

A year ago on Sunday, August 5th was the last day of CSSSA last year. That day I couldn't believe CSSSA was over. It was the last time I'd see Cindey Crayons for a long time...maybe even forever. But never say forever! Because just last week, just short of our anniversary of CSSSA's end, Cindey came to San Francisco, and she, me and Jeff (and Jason and DC and yes, even "R'coon") were reunited at last! And what's more, is our awesome TA from last year, Brigette, invited us to come visit her at Pixar Studios. SWEET!
She was accepted into their art internship program. YAaahh.

We took a cool tour of the building and goggled at all the amazing artwork on the walls. It's all Ratatouille sculptures and paintings on one side, and many Bud Luckey illustrations on the other side of the building as a tribute to him because he retired earlier this year. We ran into Ronnie more than a few times, too- a pleasant surprise! But he was wondering why the heck I was there with Brigette, so we explained our CSSSA connections :)

When our visit was done, Jeff, Cindey and I all had spicy Indian food in Walnut Creek. We actually stayed a little too late...the last ferry I was supposed to take actually left one minute before I finally got back to the San Francisco ferry building. Sooo Cindey's family was very nice and let me stay in their hotel room for that night! Which was great fun, and I got to spend more time with Cindey, and I got to meet her family!

I miss you, Frownie!!!

wednesday

2007-08-01T22:49:00.000-07:00

I love looking at the little Clustermaps map every once in a while... It's sort of flattering knowing that people from all over the world have seen this blog. Blogs are wonderful things and I really appreciate having some people to blog to. Otherwise it'd be just me, and that wouldn't be much fun, now would it?

more doodles

2007-07-30T18:35:00.001-07:00

the yellow people on the silver screen!

2007-07-28T23:12:00.000-07:00

If you like the Simpsons, and are in need of a few (hundred) laughs, then I totally recommend seeing The Simpsons MOVIE. I just saw it in a pretty full theater, which was heartily laughing throughout the entire film. If you're not at Comic Con (all 12 of you), and if you're not reading Harry Potter (which I also HIGHLY recommend hehe...but read the books in order!), then you might like this movie. A warning though: they can do stuff in theaters that they can't do on television. But that makes it even funnier.

Rotten Tomatoes

trip to the fair

2007-07-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

three pictures for youuu

2007-07-11T18:01:00.000-07:00

On our last night in Paris we were allowed into Les Marmites D'Agnes, a restaurant that normally would be closed on a Monday. But Agnes, the owner and chef opened up just for us (even turning away other customers!). What a treat, and what a way to spend out last day in France!
So here is a postcard for Agnes, soon to be mailed. Now to try to remember how to write in French again...I might just skip to the English and let someone translate for her!
We had actually come to her restaurant (the size of a living room) the day before, searching for our dinner-spot. There was one family there eating, and when we asked them about it they were raving. They were from the states as well, and could talk to Agnes through another woman, possibly her daughter, who spoke both languages. When we learned it was reservations only, we had to turn away. But we came back later and asked if we could get reservations for the next night. Fermeé Lundi, Agnes told us. Closed Mondays. But after a moment or two, she came back and told us, Come back at 8 tomorrow, I will open for you. And that's exactly what she did. However the next night the bi-lingual woman wasn't there to translate. I got to use a lot of my high school French...so thanks, Mme. Stone, my wonderful French teacher for four years!
And the little black "Toy Poodle" is named Bonnie. Apparently Toy Poodle is a type of poodle. So it was a real dog, not a toy! But very cute. She was 5 months old when we were there! The food was to die for. Except you wouldn't want to die. You would want to eat it. Lots of it. We enjoyed the entire experience immensely! Just hope Agnes doesn't see this before it gets to her. Shhhh...
I got a new sketchbook, which for all of you who draw, you know this is an exciting and important turning point in our year. It means we will be spending hours, days, months face to face with it, holding it, carrying it wherever we go. So it's an important decision! I usually get those big, green Sketch ones with the metal rings binding it. I love those, but I have so friggin many of them, they begin to all look the same. So I bought a little hard-cover one by Canson and I really like the quality of the paper. Some strings binding the paper have snapped. So that's not real great, but I still like it and it's not like it's falling apart yet or anything...

And a drawing from said sketchbook. The flag is just there for her to have something in her hand...doesn't mean anything really. It was fun to draw in blue.

ratatouille character design

2007-07-07T13:44:00.000-07:00

I read a great article about character designer Jason Deamer this morning. The article talks about designs for Ratatouille and how Deamer landed a job at Pixar. Thanks to Upcoming Pixar for the link.

Jason Deamer article

teapot kettle for tea

2007-07-03T18:03:00.000-07:00

There's this neat teapot at Peets Coffee & Tea. I wanted to draw it, but it was kind of far away, so I just brought it to my table and sketched it. After a while the manager (I think) brings a customer up to the shelf where it had been. She stares at the top shelf and asks herself aloud, "What happened to that silver teapot?"

It's aluminum, actually... But I gave it back to her :)

A few minutes later a guy comes in who I recognize from seeing him in other cafes. I'd seen him before several times, and he had even talked with me once or twice. He's nice and all, but he also likes to talk. I was hoping he wouldn't see me, and for a while, my hoping worked. But alas, he saw me drawing and began to talk. Actually, he didn't even acknowledge that we'd previously met--I don't even think he remembered me (I have shorter hair now). He was polite--he complimented me on some really weird (read:bad) drawings I did of other teapots-- but I can't really draw when other people are talking to me. Soon he sits down at my table, watches me draw, and I don't encourage much talking. Again, he's nice, but I just can't draw when he's there. "I have to to to work. Nice talking with you..." I say. I really did have to work, but I had an extra half hour to spend.
So where else to go, but an art store?

Happy Fourth of JULY!

amelia's moving images review of rats and labyrinths

2007-06-30T21:12:00.000-07:00

I saw a movie on Friday about a rat named Remy who shows us that anyone can cook. Not everyone, but ANYone. In other words, even if they're a RAT!
Obviously, it's a Pixar film, (so it's bound to be better than any other film coming out this summer) but it's also a Brad Bird film. Lets see... Iron Giant, The Incredibles. Those movies weren't bad I suppose...wink wink... What I mean to say is that this movie was destined for greatness, because with Bird and Pixar, how can you not win?

I enjoyed everything about it. There was laughter, surprise, cuteness, wit. I can not think of one character that I disliked, or one joke that fell flat, or one scene that didn't leave an audible impact on the audience, even if it was a silent one (though most of them left the audience rolling with laughter). The images on the screen just by themselves are captivating to watch, with a beautifully crafted rendition of Paris and French countryside, with careful attention to details. Add on to that an idea you instantly fall into believing, fantastic layered characters and their hilarious (and sometimes hilariously harmful) relationships, and some of the most fantastic character animation you've ever seen, and you've got a movie that you must absolutely see tomorrow. Or the next day. And the next.

But I might remind you that this is a "Brad Bird" film; despite the medium's "kiddie" reputation, this guy isn't afraid to make the movie he wants to make, even if some of it it goes over the little guy's heads. I don't recommend you bring four year olds (come on...they're so young!). Maybe not even five year olds. But everyone else! That means you, animation students! :D
Take your work friends too... Friday's employee movie night, right?
Here's a nice article I found about it.

Oh yeah--do NOT leave before or during the end credits. Please. It made me so sad to see people leave while it was still happening, like there was nothing else to see. Dare I say it tops Incredible's credits? Wellll...I'll let you decide :)

---- On another note---

I just watched Pan's Labyrinth on DVD (I went to The Video Store to get it! Thanks Mary --wink wink). When it was in theaters we tried twice to go see it, and both times it was sold out. One other time we came too early I think. But I heard reviews from friends that didn't give it such a popular rating. I now join them in their opinion; or at least, I create my own that is similar. I felt it was long. It was depressing. It was violent, and each character that I leaned towards liking would either be shot multiple times or die in some other violent fashion. The only facial expression that I was aware of making, besides a blank stare, were grimaces and winces... The world in which Ofelia inhabits is dark and uncomfortable. But, if that's what the director was going for, then he did a good job. So he succeeded at making me grimace and feel uncomfortable. There were moments where I felt admiration for the characters-- the woman who was a servant to the captain stands up to him where no one else would-- but again, I could only feel that way after grimacing and feeling uncomfortable when she is wounding him with a knife. I guess in the end, this just wasn't my type of movie.

And now Amelia is a movie critic! Hurraahhhh!

And all you FLOOOVDE people. Happy anniversary, almost...(waaahhhh!!!)

click...

2007-06-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

HERE!
You will find some lovely pictures of us in France. You will see the Eiffel Tower, blue oceans, gold mimes dressed like Jack Sparrow, my parents, the GPS, food, buildings, an accordionist and a band that came up and played right in front of me (!), Notre Dame, and Snack foods.
Enjoy!

Thanks Dad for the link!

sculpting = fun

2007-06-23T12:09:00.001-07:00

Sculpting is a lot of fun with oil clay...I think I need to go get some more. And take a class! I don't know what I'm doing.

And that's one of my two cats, Blue. He's a very passionate fellow and often is at my feet calling for my attention. In fact, he's constantly doing that.

back from france!

2007-06-20T18:07:00.002-07:00

Paris is what happens when cobblestones meet fashion designers; where the sight of glazed and powdered pastries is equal to the amount of cigarettes around you, and where you can duck underground from the Arc de Triomph and come up across the Seine at the square of Charles-Michel on a single purple metro ticket. I hold Paris in high regard.

We started out in the city for three nights. It took that long to get use to the time difference... They're 9 hours ahead of us. But we took it slow the first night, eating only what we could find from their Monoprix (the local Albertsons, but much better). The second day was everything from the Eiffel Tower to the Louvre, and the third day we decided to spend in Montmartre, a quirky area but beautiful on top of the hill. The temple is magnificent to look at. And looking down from the big white building you can see where they filmed Amelie!
The next day we took the TGV train down to Nice, in the south of France. I think the train goes almost 250 miles an hour. I loved the ride. The weather was very different in the south compared to Paris; when it had been crisp and foggy in Paris's mornings and humid and muggy in the afternoon, in Nice it felt like 75 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course, because we're silly Americans) all day long. From 9 in the morning to 11 pm, when it was still light out. We spent three nights in Nice. I had been there before and really enjoyed Old Town, the part of the city that dates back to the 1500s or something like that...and the buildings from then are still being used! Cool food and flower markets take place there, and a flea market happens on Sundays, when most everything else is closed except ice cream places. Ice cream...Yeah...we had lots of ice cream.
The next four nights we stayed in Ville-Franch-Sur-Mer, an adorable but sleepy little town. To me it seemed like it was trying to be touristy but it wasn't there yet. There were not many people there, but it was a good chance to slow down and take a breath. Actually, ironically, we were often out of breath because we had to walk down and up a long sloping hill from our hotel to downtown. We went on a whale-watching boat on our second-to-last day there and saw lots and lots of dolphins! No whales, though.
We headed back up to Paris by airplane for our last three nights. I enjoyed Paris more this time because I think I was more conscious--no jet lag to deal with! We understood the metro system better (a great system) and we were in a better location too, I think. On our last day Mom and I got out early and took a ticket to the very top of the Eiffel Tower. It was so high up there! But when we got down again and looked up it didn't seem so high. If you're going soon, remember that it's higher than it looks if you want to go all the way up!
The last leg of our journey is now over. Though we're still a little jet-laggy (it's 4am there!), we've pretty much accepted that our time in France is over. Back to our lives!

off to france...

2007-06-04T19:23:00.000-07:00

Tuesday we take flight at 11am from SFO to Montreal, then after a couple hour break, we get back on the plane and head to: PARIS.
That means getting up at 4am...but! No complaints! Any person going to France is a happy person, I say. Especially the people in my family!
A few years ago I went to France through a program called ACIS that my French teacher did every other summer. That was my sophomore year in high school, three years ago. We had our own tour bus that brought us all over the country. We won't be ping-ponging around so much this time though. We're going to be spending the first few nights in Paris, then head down to Nice and a few towns around there. Then we'll head back up to Paris again for the last few nights. I don't know if I'm going to have internet or not; if I do, it will be at an internet cafe or something, because I'm not bringing my mac laptop (wahhh!). But I don't want to risk getting it stolen or broken or something...plus it would just be more weight. Wish I had a French-y picture to put up, but I don't. So instead here's a picture of my faaavowite city in the whole wide world. Lets see if Paris changes my mind! (mmm, I don't think so. But maybe it'll be a tie!)
Lets see if I remember any French. "Au Revoir!"

:)