Anderson Cooper + new stuff + old stuff

Anderson Cooper has the girliest giddy little laugh I've ever heard. Watching him lol on national tv totally made my night. I always thought he was cute being all serious-news-anchor-like but girl, he is adorable when he giggles.

Also, here is some work I did last week:

This dead fishie is based off of one of David's awesome pictures. I think I'll do at least two or three more because I just like so many of them!!

And another virile self-portrait, which I assure you this entry is full of.

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Okay, so I was out of town until last night so I don't have anything new besides the above to show, but here is some old junk I found while cleaning my old junk closet. Everyone loves looking at other people's awful old artwork, so here you go. Happy New Year:

These two I made while I was at a pre-college program at CCA in Oakland during the summer of '08. I wanted to take the illustration class, but that was full, so I got stuck taking painting and sculpture. I think most of the people in that class had the same issue. Anyway, I hated painting and we only used acrylic paint and we had too much work assigned every night and our teachers were kind of insane. But the weather was great and I got my 3 college credits for taking the class. And San Francisco was only a Bart ride away. I had a lot of fun.

And now the good stuff. I took AP art my senior year in high school, which I deeply regret. No one should ever take that class. It's a total joke. It actually made me change my mind about art and that's why I wasted a whole semester at the U of A.

We spent a long time on self-portraits, which I didn't actually do myself because I hated watercolors and I hated self-portraits.

This is the only self-portrait I've done where I actually intended to give myself a mustache. I have kind of a hunky Captain Hook sort of look going on in this one. I'd wear at least two gold rings on each finger and a diamond-studded grill on the weekends; mandatory red leather boots and massive amounts of Axe cologne. Also, this would be my theme song.

These last ones I made for my AP Art final. I used water-based oil paints for the bottom painting. I don't know what that means, but the paint was terrible. However, I do like the painting itself. I was really excited about the concept behind it, which I won't explain. It's a pretty cool concept, though.

I think I'll go look at Anderson Cooper laugh some more on Youtube now. You should too.

Are those pancakes I smell?

No, sir. That is the glorious smell of my rotten-water gesso seeping into the walls of my apartment. I set up a drying line over the dining table and now I have over a dozen gessoed sheets of paper hovering over my head.

I'm suddenly becoming very handy and I don't like it. I actually went to the home improvement section at Target for the first time and I wanted to buy everything.

Now that self-portraits are easier for me to do I don't mind doing one to warm up every now and then. Also, I agree with the general public's opinion that I channel my inner man in these. I imagine myself having massive amounts of chest hair and a voice like James Earl Jones'. Needless to say, I would totally date me.

I'm so excited about this dead fish! David Lortie was nice enough to let me paint some of his photographs in exchange for some of said paintings, and then also offered to give me free prints of his pictures! Artist friends are the best. I believe he deserves a pie or two.
Anyway, this is the progress I made on the first painting today. I'll finish it tomorrow.

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Female Jafar is done and done and done.

I do like it, but it was the source of so much frustration and anxiety that I don't think we can be friends anymore.

Hey! happy Merlin. Quit moving and bring a blasted towel to sit on.

Figure drawing and I made up only because Tarzan-Steve was the last model we got in that class and I got away with submitting one drawing under two categories it didn't really fit into.

I'm upset because it's 1 am and there is absolutely no cake in this house. Please disregard all of the above and have a good day.

Boyfriend + Aladdin + Schoolwork

This is my boyfriend. His name is Oswald.

He's the best Christmas present ever!!

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Since I treat this blog like a journal more so than anything remotely professional, I want to mention that I had another crazy dream recently. Two nights ago, I slept for only two hours and I dreamed that I was being stepped on for the first hour. Also, the people stepping on me were my family. I'd blame finals, but I think I'm just insane.

Here is the progress I've made on my Jafar painting. It's not a lot and I'm not very happy with it...Hopefully ignoring the other five classes I'm taking this semester to finish this painting will pay off in the end; in the form of a painting I'm proud of.

I don't have anything cool to show this week, but here's the super-short story of the thought-process behind my final painting:

I wanted to try using colored lights, so I bought a couple of colored plastic bags from Michael's and taped them on my desk lamp and boom. That's it.

These two were mine and Karla's favorites. In the end I went with the red one because I liked the color and the composition better.

(And I was wearing a strapless shirt, don't get all excited.)

I'll post these gestures for the sake of having something else to show, too, but figure drawing and I are not on good terms at the moment. We had a fight and haven't made up yet. I'm waiting for figure drawing to apologize first.

Good night.

A few weeks ago

My mom gave me a very nice piece of advice and now I'm sharing her wisdom with you.

Karla and I were drinking Mexican hot chocolate in the kitchen and she came up to us looking very serious and said, "NEVER drink hot chocolate without lighting the Christmas tree first." So there you go. something to live by.

And I should mention that we pretty much have the best-looking Christmas tree ever. It really does make my hot chocolate taste better, especially when I'm also dunking a warm coyota into it.

Funfact: Our dreamy Christmas tree has been up since the first of November.

Some prints I made. These are the three most decent ones out of the eighteen I made for this assignment.

I finally finished this! I just want to say that my stuff always looks 5000x more contrasty than everyone else's and my lips aren't that big. But hakuna matata, Simba. Hakuna matata.

Ha! creepy Steve.

Somehow this was a week dedicated to hands and not MY hands because nobody likes my hands.

Merlin hand.

Karla hand

Yubi hand.

Juju hand.

Thanks to everyone who helped the hand cause! I deeply appreciate it.

Seriously, this is the only figure painting I did this week that wasn't vomit-inducing. I might do better once I find a way to make my head stop feeling so fuzzy and utterly useless. I already failed twice at keeping it together this week, hopefully that's enough for the rest of the semester.

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And, to end on a brighter note, Adam Rex is joining my hit list!