Fool Me Once...

Another holiday post, today being April 1st.  (I told my facebook friends that I had been hired by Disney to do all the concept art for their next movie...I got a nice round of congratulations until they figured it out.) 

I'm done with school.

Though, in general, one can not trust anything on the internet on April 1, this is simply the first time I have had the chance and quiet of mind to sit down and write a journal here -- so, a brief overview of what has been going on in the last couple weeks: 

I finished my classes. 

I had my portfolio review, at which I won Best of Show in the Graphic Design division and spoke to some very nice people that expressed an interest in my illustration skills.  

I then spent the weekend with my mother and her boyfriend, and we did some touristy things around Pittsburgh.  

They left. 

I worked on catching my breath.  

For the first few days after all the chaos had exited, all I wanted to do was chill and begin catching up on my internets.  Now, my exhausted creative muscles have begun twitching a bit.  Yesterday, I did my first 'drawing a day' (and discovered much rust on my artisticness....ugh!) since I had to quit them in the face of my monsterous schoolwork load...I intend to do another today.  Perhaps the Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy picture my bf has been wanting, in honor of the day.  

Wearin'o the green

Today is my birthday!  

I know that's not art-related, really...but I just wanted to get it out there.  I get excited on my birthday.  

This IS art-related.  I got an embossing set from my sweetie!  

Also, in order to be able to spend the day doing something other than homework, I worked hard to make sure my homework was finished...so other than setting up everything for portfolio review, I'm done with school.  This is strange for me.  I have been in school...forever, with brief breaks. I have been in college for about 10 years now.  When I was working rather than going to school, I didn't have a 'career'...just a job.  

I will have to find myself a candle to blow out today so I can wish myself luck.  

The End Draws, ya know, Nigh.

I have a smidge less than a week to go until the end of my portfolio and design studio classes, and a smidge more than a week to go until the end of my flash and illustrator classes.  

And I may actually get everything done.  On time even. 

Then I just have to worry about getting all my stuff for portfolio review together....and figuring out exactly how I'm going to set up my setup.  

Oh, and finding a job.  

The big news, I suppose, is that my BIG PROJECT is done...the ridiculous illustration project that I assigned myself is finished and getting sent to print.  I do not have to draw more stupid rolling hills or bear hair.  HALLELUJAH.  I haven't uploaded it to this site yet, and I'm not quite decided on how I'm going to do so, so for now, you can view it HERE.

Second, the 1/4 page cards I was working on for the Pgh/GLCC (in progress here and here) are done but for last minute changes, of which I hope there are not too many.  I'm, overall, pretty happy with them.  I was going for a comic-ish style in the color/rendering, and though I had originally envisioned going for the same style for both, the one I used for the girl card didn't work so well for the boys, so I decided to switch things up a bit.  I think they came out nicely: 

(the small text says '*where its okay to cuddle') 

(I just realized that this image needs the logo.  Oops!  Okay...fixed it in the original file.) 

Anyway, these were kind of fun to work on after my super detail-intensive illustrated book...it was nice to work in a more stylized fashion with more limited color palates.  

I have also been working on a poster for the Mount Lebanon recycling competition, which has been kind of fun, but also a little frustrating, as they consistantly ignore my favorite ideas in favor of choices that are, in my opinion, much more boring.  Of the choices I've given them, I think this is my personal favorite: 

This is a very rough image, of course, not polished or cleaned up in any way, but this is the general idea.  And I though it was a cute idea.  But they, apparently, did not.  Oh well.  

Now I'm working on something for them with a trash can, a recycling symbol and a compact flourecent bulb.  Its not bad.  Just not as cute as this. 

Other stuff that's new:

Last weekend, in the drizzly, rainy nastiness, the boyfriend and I headed out to the Southside and picked up my logo Tshirts.  They came out nicely -- I probably could have gone with a lighter grey shirt and brighter red in the ink, but over all, they look nice.  (My hoodie, which is both dark grey and heathered is a bit of a hard read, but the solid dark grey works.) The only other thing that didn't come out quite how I had wanted is that the sizes seem to run a bit small.  Like, a whole size small.  I put on a medium girl's tee and...well, I've gained a bit of weight lately, but I don't think I've gained THAT much.  And the boyfriend put on a medium guy's (his usual) and it was also...very snug.  We both moved up a size and it seemed okay though.  And the medium guy's shirt fits me very well.  

I also got my business cards and they are VERY nice.  The red not quite as saturated as I might have hoped, but still, pretty much just what I wanted, and the spot varnish stands out like nobody's business.  Then the boyfriend and i killed a few brain cells hand-inking the edges with sharpie.  We both were nauseous and headachy for the rest of the evening, but I think it was worth it.  Though also possibly worth it to do the last inch or two of cards in a better-ventilated area...

My portfolio is basically done, though I am waiting on sleeves still, or rather, again, as I inadvertantly ordered the wrong size.  (face-palm)

Over all, things are looking pretty good.  Which is very good, considering how badly this quarter is thrashing me.  Have I mentioned how much I'm looking forward to that first week after portfolio review.  I am going to goof off on the internet without shame!  And get caught up on Gossip Girl Madmen!  And cook!  And after a few days of drawing nothing at all, draw some stuff I want to draw!

And find a job!  

Two More Weeks

I don't really know what to say...the prospect of my looming graduation and theoretically becoming a Useful Member of Society is daunting and seems somewhat surreal.  Or perhaps that's the sleep deprivation talking. 

Though I feel like I'm still under the world's giantest mountain of homework, I am making progress, and may actually get everything done in time.  Maybe.  My boyfriend pointed out to me this morning that, had I not chosen to give myself a giant and ridiculous project, I would probably kind of be coasting right now, not stressing graduation at all.  I really appreciated that little bit of insight, believe you me.  However;

-I have all but the last two pages of my book all but done.  Once they are all finished, I just have to worry about layout and intro and acknowledgement pages...I have two weeks to get that all done, and seeing as I've been pushing myself to about three pages a week, I shouldn't, hopefully, have a problem.  I can't believe how much illustration I have done in such a short time. 

-My business cards and shirts are ordered and hopefully on the way, along with my very own copy of CS5 Design Premium.

-My portfolio is all but done.  I brought it in today to get my teacher's feedback and changed a few things, and am waiting on a few more sleeves, but all the pages are completed with just a final few awaiting reprinting and/or sleeving.

-My project for GLCC is 2/3 of the way done and my client is happy with my progress.  

The only big worry I have is for my student website, which I am meant to make in Flash, which I mostly don't understand and I have to have it done five days before it is due in Flash class, as I have to turn it (functional and on the interwebs) in with my portfolio.  

Mostly, though, I'm in the 'head-down, power-through' stage.  The finish line is in sight, and if I just make that final push, I'll make it.  I feel like I should be freaking out more...but mostly, don't really have the energy to devote to non-homework tasks.  More and more, however, I find myself longing for the time after graduation...the first time since I began at AiP that I may have legitimate free time...at least for a brief while. (I hope it will be brief...i have a lot of student loans)  I long to go places, just for fun, and maybe linger without guilt.  I look forward to the possibility of social engagements...a table-top role-playing session that stretches late into the night and fills me with junk food.  I miss time to work off that junk food, and I desperately want to clean my house.  I have dreams of lying on the couch, catching up on blogs, web comics and this season of 'The Guild'...none of which I have watched at all yet.  

And after a week or so of that, I would like someone to hire me, please.   

busy and important

Phew!  

I did a bunch of stuff today and now I'm sitting and listening to Ace Of Base's 'Tokyo Girl' 'cause I've had it in my head since Friday.  

I got another page of my book done, and though I was totally fighting with it at first, I'm very happy with how it came out. 

I went on another informational interview, this time at Wild Card -- a super awesome craft store in Lawrenceville...I couldn't resist leaving without a book of romance novel-cover post cards and a zombie finger puppet (of which I immediately took a picture and posted it to Facebook with the caption "Grr...Argh"...I'm not sure anyone got it.) 

I went to order my t-shirts as well, but the Southside was having their annual soup tasting day and yuppies thronged the streets...and the screen printing shop.  As the shop had a theme of The Big Lebowskie (with 'The Dude's white bean chilie' or somesuch) and the staff were dutifully (dude-ifully?) downing white Russians, added to the zombie-like hordes of soup tasters...well, they told me to just drop them an email with my file and info.  Hopefully all goes well. 

On the way home we stopped at Michael's, because I was craving some craft-storing, though I used the flimsy excuse of wanting to look at gift bags for portfolio review, despite having 99% decided to order bags wholesale from the interwebs...but our stop proved serendipitous, as, though I ended up not purchasing anything at the store, the boyfriend had a House-like moment of inspiration when he struck on the plan of me getting my logo as a custom rubber stamp and then using natural brown bags, possibly with silver stamp ink...so when we got home, I sent the t-shirt store my info, then ordered a custom rubber stamp (yay!) and a case of translucent frosted bags (after much research, we discovered that we can get the brown ones ANYWHERE, including locally and we thought the frosted bags might work well too.)  If nothing else, I am SET for gift giving bags for the next...rest of my life.  And probably t-shirts as well.  (Though I threw in an order of a hoodie for myself.  Again, yay!)