dignity. always dignity.

again...forgive me.

here's the deal: due to probable popular belief in the blogging world, i've dropped off the face of the planet. verdict: i have not.

this semester's been crazy, but oddly sort of fabulous.

my class schedule's kind of nuts (wednesday is my favorite: i work from 9am-12:30pm. then i have class from 1:35-3pm, a class from 5-7, then a class from 7-11pm. guess that blows my new year's resolution to get in bed by 11pm each night!) XD

in other news, in these last two weeks (in no particular order):
i discovered midway, a town north of here and absolutely fell in love with everything about it. i took my big brother out for sushi for his birthday. i got trained for my calling and i'm getting the hang of it...for now. i've had 4 jambas. i'm more obsessed with typography. i took wedding shots of an adorable couple who which was loads of fun (although my feet were numb by the end: canvas shoes + snowy park hills = near frostbite). at work i got new toys: a wacom intuos pen tablet. and a new tripod. i've listened to coldplay's ep twice more. i got to handset type, ie, letterpress style and print it (like they do in 'newsies'.) i watched 'white Christmas' again, for the billionth time and it never gets old. i watched 'enchanted' for the 3rd time. i got an excellent oreo cheesecake shake at the Malt Shoppe, where i also inadvertently used the mens' restroom. on a date.

don't ask.


as for this week, i'm pretty on top of my homework so far. i may be taking more wedding photos on friday. that same day, 3 hardcore art competition entries are due, so that's what i'll be focusing on this week. i know that you're all waiting...with baited breath, i'm sure, for the rest of my 'antisocial' series, but i've had issues with technology: among other things, i just realized that my computer at work, which i do most of my photography and design work on, has a whoppin 80 gb on its hard drive. um...yay. i think i have about 3 gb left. ugh. so photoshop won't let me edit the photos i already have...it's just a hassle right now. so...i'm workin' on it. i won't leave you hanging for long.

and i don't planning on using any more mens' restrooms.

but i make no promises.

Antisocial: Part I (Illustration)

Forgive me!!!

I've been a complete blog slacker. But for a while, now, I've had a few blogs in mind I've wanted to write. This will be one of a series of probably 3. I realize that last semester, Fall 08, I was pretty antisocial...for me, at least. So I figured I'd explain why.

Reason #1: Illustration 1.
Taught by Prof. Richard Hull, this was a good class...but very hard for me. Mainly because I never had enough time to get all the projects done in the quality which I think I can get them to...which was frustrating. Each project (with the exception of the wolf and sheep one) required us to shoot from photo reference. This means we had to set up a scene and photograph it, then approve it with the teacher before we painted it. There was a LOT of time spent on these, especially because I'd never painted with Gouache before. Please don't judge too harshly, because they're still not finished. [Disclaimer: the cropping is pretty terrible, because I'm hurriedly putting this together. It bugs me, but I'll probably let it slide for now and re-crop and post them when I revise them.] But here they are for now*:

This was my first assignment. Monochromatic Still-life. I've since changed some things and it looks a lot better than it did, believe it or not.

2nd assignment: paint two full figures with a narrative base. (I still really hate the colors on this. I'll make the scene brighter and change the horizons so they look better. I'll also tone down the lil gal's skirt and pull back the contrast on her stockings. The photo shoot was fun; big sister Robin and cute lil' niece Gracie were good sports and fun to pose!)

4th assignment: book cover. This one was fun: Bro. Hull taught me about aerial perspective, and about how colors fade as they get further away in the order of the yellows fading first, then reds, then blues. Which is why we often see blue mountains in the far distance, and purple (red + blue) mountains before that.

This was the final project. We had to design a hero and a nemesis (or sidekick) and a scene. We turned in all the sketches, and then for the final we painted them all in the same piece of work. This, my friends, is why I finished my finals on the Monday before Christmas (which was on a Thursday...I still have gifts to give).

This was actually my 3rd assignment, but my favorite overall: I started painting at 9pm one Sunday evening and ended at 8:30 the next morning. With no breaks. :D It was kind of funny: the next morning, my sister Robin (who happened to be staying the night) woke up and was all disoriented, and saw the painting. Half-awake, she exclaimed, "Woah! Those are our toys!" then, "I used to pull Jonny around in that wagon! And that's the lunchbox! And your little stool we put in the bathroom when you were little so you could reach the sink!" Needless to say, it made me happy.

Please comment and critique; I'd like to get your feedback.

Part II: coming soon.

* all artwork copyright kristin gulledge, 2008