iCraft

iPods dominate the world of mp3 players, being the choice player of over 70 percent of American consumers (Disclaimer: this is a Wikipedia statistic. Insert grain of salt). This means that 70% of the people in the United States who are listening to an mp3 player right now have owned or do own a pair of those awful white earbuds.

They're uncomfortable, get dirty almost immediately, and crap out right when you need them most. Even so, wearing them is a status symbol - It's like saying, "Hey, you might not care what mp3 player is in my pocket right now, but I'm going to tell you right now that it's an iPod." Other people, like me, just wear them because we're lazy and they're free.

I, having gone through three iPods (a first generation mini that was outdated almost the instant I got it, an iPod touch that was outdated almost the instant I got it, and an iPod classic that may be outdated, but, by God, it has enough storage space that I no longer give a shit what anyone else thinks), had a small hoard of those chintzy white headphones, and not a single one of them worked properly. So I, being the crafty girl that I am, and also being in pursuit of anything to do that wasn't homework, decided to put them to good use.

With a bottle of super glue, a pair of scissors, and the little spring-loaded squishy thing that was supposed to keep my laundry bag shut (I actually dedicated some time to finding the name to this sucker: it's called a cord lock) in hand, I went to town.

The result was, I think, Plankton's audio-robotic cousin.





He now lives on my bookshelf, and I am the happy recipient of this eternally judgmental glare.

Science!

One of my favorite classes that I have taken at Lawrence was Weird Science, which I originally took to knock out a graduation requirement, but actually turned out to be an amazing class.

We didn't really learn all that much chemistry, which is what the class was supposed to be, but we did learn some good things about science in general, and about ourselves as people. We all came pretty close to death at least a few times, I'm sure, using fire, tools, and dangerous chemicals without the proper safety equipment or procedure, and I saw more beakers broken in that class than I ever knew was possible.

The most underrated part of the class, however, and the most weirdly underused, was the chalkboard lab tables. I left lovely drawings on there quite often, although no one got to use the room and enjoy them besides our class.

This one is my favorite.





It turns out that drawing in white on a black surface is really difficult, at least for people who are more used to sketchy line art and are suddenly crippled with a complete inability to sketch at all, instead relying on picking up highlights with gentle washes of white.

Difficult, but fun.

Now, if I could only get better font for handwriting...

Job Monkey

Ah, yet another long hiatus, and yet another return with more random uploads in one giant post dump.

In my most recent Computer Science class, our final project was to make a web application using Java, similar to one that has already been created by a company called TaskRabbit.

In case you don't feel like reading the article, the basic gist is this: employers post jobs, and potential employees make bids on the jobs. Employers select the best fit for them, and then the site facilitates the completion of the job.

My group and I decided to name our project Job Monkey, which was one of the more creative titles, if I do say so myself. We divided the assignment into three parts - design of the employer side for one of my teammates, design of the runner side for the other, and design of the administrative component for me.

Since designing GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces, or windows with buttons and text fields and the like)is fairly simple using our design program, I took a few minutes to whip us out some graphics for our main page.

They are by no means the most amazing graphics ever created, but I am pretty proud of them for a few reasons:

1) I finished all three of them within about two hours.
2) I used no stock art, reference images, or ideas outside of my own mind.
3) We were the only group with any graphics at all.

First I created the site logo:





And then the icons for each individual side of the site:









It rekindled my love of graphics, and of photoshop, and was, overall, delightful.
Also, monkeys are cute.

The AstraeA Saga (An Image-Laden Journey)

As I have mentioned before, my friend Todd is in a band called AstraeA. I have never actually heard any of their stuff, since they are very picky about what they have been doing in the studio, but I do know their album art, because I sort of had a hand in that. Sort of. It's a long story.

So. I was first given this, along with a couple of stock photos snagged from deviantArt and Google and some vague color descriptions, and asked to see what I could do.





With that in mind, I came up with this:





Although it's not my greatest work ever, I really liked this beginning, and I was pretty proud of it, but then I was introduced to the wonders of making things for other people when they already know what they want.

(As a note, this is not intended to be some sort of passive-agressive blog bitchery. It took a looooong time to get to the end of this, but that's part of the process. Plus, I had fun!)

Anyway, following my new instructions (the girl needs to be greener, the halo gold, and the whole thing centered), I updated, also adding detail to the halo, since I liked that better. (Note: freeballing not recommended. It just gets you emotionally attached.)





Now that the figure was at least settled, I realized that I did not know which logo to attach, which was fun. Todd had drawn and facebooked a logo, which looked like this:

.



Using that logo (with a little added tweaking on my part, since it's me), and my new directives (adding mist, making her look more ethereal), I came up with this:





Now here is where my emotional involvement and stubbornness sort of fought with my desire to please. I was given the official AstraeA logo, and asked to make her more transparent, add more mist, and generally make it more space-ghost-ish.





Since this was sort of displeasing to me, and, as it turns out, to the band members themselves, I made this other one (Direct quote from me at the time, "I had another artsy bitch moment and am trying something different, just because I want to"). I centered the person to match the symmetry of the logo, and handed this one, my favorite, over.





At this point, I am not sure if the poor guitarist got sick of my shenanigans or if he just decided to second opinion it, but he sent it to the guy who did their official logo to tweak.
(As far as art etiquitte goes, probably not the nicest thing ever, but I am sort of alright with it, since this guy is sort of amazing? Check him out here)

Aaaaand, as it turns out, he's making them pay for it. So there's that. I'm sure the story will have a less anticlimactic end some day.
Hopefully?
Yes.

Ganache

It all started one fateful afternoon.

My friend Nathan and I were going out to lunch to catch up and hang out, whine about boys, etc., when we were served the artsy nutjob's favorite dish -- fondue. I, personally, am not actually a fan of eating fondue, but I am a fan of making art on the plate with the leftover chocolate and skewers. And so it began:





Poor Danny, our waiter, was blown away by this (or, according to Nathan, the creepy, sensual way I [accidentally] explained the concept of paisley to him.), and Nathan was inspired. He insisted that for his next dinner party, I would be decorating his plates, for pay, and so, a couple weeks later, I did.

Having been forced to take home the leftover fondue chocolate, I had surmised that the chocolate was not simply melted chocolate, but was, instead, ganache -- a smoother, softer mix of chocolate and cream that stays liquid longer, and has the consistency of a thick pudding when chilled (and eaten for several days later by a chocoholic homebound girl with no impulse control).

You (or I) can make ganache by combining cream and chocolate in a one-to-one ratio (one cup of chocolate, one cup of cream, etc.) in a double boiler and heating them together, stirring constantly to mix the two together evenly and avoid burning. As I learned when making mine the first time, it is highly important that you both use baking chocolate and heat the cream with the chocolate. If you add cold cream to melted chocolate, you will get a settled out mess that tastes delicious (imagine an incredibly moist brownie), but is actually impossible to paint with.

Anyway, given this chocolate and a set of beautiful, crisp white plates, I went to town.




This was my first paid gig (a whole $25!), and it was highly satisfying.

All you need is a wooden skewer, a double boiler (or a sauce pan and a glass bowl, really), and some chocolate and cream. And maybe a plate. Then, pop a couple slices of fruit on your fancy new plates, or serve ice cream, or do something else. Any way you do it, it will be both beautiful and delicious.

Dethkake

It was my friend Todd's birthday recently (well, recently-ish.) a while ago, and we decided that since he is a metal guy (he actually has a band and everything, feel free to check out AstraeA), we decided that he needed a metal cake to go with it.

The actual contents of this cake, taken care of by my guy friends, were obscenely sugary -- Devil's food cake sandwiched on top of chocolate brownie, held together with a nice thick coat of vanilla frosting -- reinforcing my theory that type 2 diabetes is actually hardcore metal.

The top of the cake, though, was my place to go nuts, and go nuts I did.
Inspired by the boys of Dethklok (see: Metalocalypse. No, seriously. Go watch all of it.), I crafted the Dethkake, featuring Dr. Rockso, the Rock 'n Roll clown.




He does cocaine.

(As a note: cake should be coated in syrup and given a layer of dirty icing before being decoratively frosted, in order to avoid the chunks and lumps evident here. Sometimes, though, laziness is totally necessary.)

Collage - An Experiment Gone Horribly Awwright

So, every year at my high school we had one week dedicated to a justice topic of some sort (People with disabilities, Immigration, Clean Water, etc.), but my senior year they decided that that was not enough -- and so JustARTS was born. Everyone in the school was encouraged to do something artistic -- write a poem, create a play, do a dance, something -- to address an issue they found important.

Some of these were kind of disturbing.
Example - The interpretive dance of domestic abuse.
Better example - The collage of EVERYONE IN THE SCHOOL's yearbook photos in the shape of a fetus, and a message to the effect of "Don't abort me."

Some of the others were really cool, though, and we had a whole hallway full from floor to ceiling.

I decided I would tackle pollution, and so I made this:




I made this collage out of a large pile of catalogs I hijacked from the promotional products store I worked at (with permission), along with the pages of a phone book, some tin foil, copious amounts of acrylics, and a board I dug out of somewhere.

My Inappropriate Love of Gouache

Although I did not know it at the time I first discovered it, there are actually several different techniques for using watercolors. I was trained in the transparent technique, in which you layer wash upon wash (or, in the case of young me in an art class, a single wash in each India-ink-penned section) in order to build a more shimmery, glowing finish. (Since you are using the white of the page to lighten your colors, the light that goes through the pigment and then reflects back out makes the work seem softer and more stained-glass like.)

In my youth, however, I was given more art kits than an actual art store, due to the fact that they are awesome gifts, and if you know someone artsy you always feel the need to get them art supplies. In these kits were my new best friend -- tube watercolors.

(In my art classes, we were just given the usual Prang trays, but we weren't allowed to use any of the colors besides red, yellow, blue, and black. This was, at the time, unholy frustrating, but now I can't even imagine using a pre-made color, so I guess they succeeded. )

Drunk with the power of the tube watercolor, I began to experiment, applying them thicker than is possible (or at least easy) with the solids, sometimes even applying them directly to the page and then smudging them around from there. It was a beautiful time in my life.

Then, several years later, in my Senior year of high school, I took a painting class in which we were given the formal name of this art form --
Gouache. Apparently the difference between this and transparent watercolors is really only one thing -- gouache takes a tube of white watercolor, and uses that instead of the page's natural whiteness to create a lighter or darker color.

This makes an overall more solid, less fragile piece of art, which I am absolutely in love with. (Although I am absolutely in love with most things, so I don't know how much good that does.)

My very first documented gouache was from my freshman or sophomore year, when my friend wanted me to do a mural for her room, and I was somehow under the impression that watercolor would give me a good basis for my wall-paint extravaganza.




That, however, still had some elements of transparent watercolor, seeing as I didn't actually have any idea of what I was doing, or that white watercolors existed. In my art class, gifted with the magic of the glorious tube of china white, I made this:




We were forced to make the poem a part of it, which I found a little more than annoying, but I kind of like it.

Testing:
I would like to figure this text message posting out... it's terribly unhelpful in the info department... and so I try!

The Reasons Most People Think I'm High All The Time

It came to my attention last year that since I was fairly young, my peers (Eww, me, using the term "peers" in a sentence.) have thought that I was tripping balls on a daily basis. I can come up with a good few reasons for this:

1) I am physically incapapble of frowning. It is just not something my facial muscles can handle. I try, from time to time, but I just look like an idiot. People are generally grumpy and stoic, so they assume that a constant smile (whether deliberate or not) means medication.

2) I am also physically incapable of opening my eyes any further than this:



Seriously. That was me trying. Needless to say, the big grin and squinty eyes are a killer combo.

3) I laugh. A lot. Most things are funny to me, and I am very loud about it. I enjoy life, what can I say?

4) Really obscenely weird things come out of my head on a daily basis. You may have been wondering how this all is going to relate to art, and not just me rambling on about my questionable status in the chemical department. I will now show you.

This is a photo collage I did for my Desktop Publishing class in my junior year:



I am unsure how I made it out of that school drug test free. Especially considering some of those assignments I turned in for Philosophy class (Which I definitely have to hunt down, now).

This is a stock photo bonanza, and one of my favorite old finds. Enjoy.

What May Be a Warning Sign - My Addiction to Rainbows

So, it is fairly clear to everyone who knows me, and 7/8 of the people who don't, that I kind of have a thing for colorful/shiny things. (Very confusing, because I usually dress in gray, but trust me.)

As I was going through my old stuff, however, I came to the conclusion that it is maybe more of an obsession.

Example:



Now there is no real need for this to be eighty nine different colors, but there it is.

(Upon revisiting this, I have lost most faith in my photoshopping capabilities... but I still really like it.)

A Nod - My Youth

In my formative years, I went through a phase where I only drew odd-looking women. I sort of referenced this earlier, but now I'm going to go into detail.

The deal was this:

A) My only source material was really my face, so it was much easier to draw chicks (although I hadn't yet come to terms with the oddness of my face, so they are all equally odd looking. [more on my alien face in the future, I promise.])

B) I was kind of stuck in that whole women = beauty, so I have to draw women if I want to draw beautiful things section of my life. (I went through a similar phase later, where I thought I had to draw only what I found attractive, so I drew just a bajillion penises.)

C) I felt like a creeper for drawing dudes, because I didn't want people to think I was sitting around fantasizing about random men (true). This was a double-edged sword, because I was also uncomfortable with the idea of people thinking all I did was sit around and fantasize about women (not true).

From this, I learned a good amount about drawing, and I kind of shaped my style. At the peak of my eighth grade year, I had a pretty set M.O., and life was good (if a little bit repetetive, predictable, etc.)

Looking at these is a really good way to get a handle on my learning of photoshop, anyway, and I kind of like looking back at them.

1) Luxurious


My friend Puffer, who is a writer and artist (Her works can be found on her DeviantART account here), had a Naruto OC named Orian, and this was a gift for her. I was secretly always jealous of her getting to draw people with colorful hair, which I still kind of have an obsession with.

2) Bask


I decided it was my turn to use some crazy colors... the result was sort of awkward, but it was a good learning experience. Please to enjoy my use of the Dodge and Burn tools, as that was ALL I KNEW.

3) Lovely


This was the OC I created to be friends with Orian. Her name was Lila, and she was pretty damn awesome. (All I can remember about her now is that she stole her weapons off of the ninjas she defeated, so she had an obscene amount of weaponry... and that the green highlights were as close as I could bring myself to identify with colored hair.)

Although these weren't really the most artistically impressive pieces of work, I like to look at them as stepping stones - I was getting a handle on shading, hair, facial structure (I definitely struggled with that one for a while), and color schemes.

Also, much credit goes to the Puff for influencing me so heavily. I can blame most of my anime-style artwork on her, along with a great many other amazing things.

Sometimes I Just Need to Sit Down With a Pencil or Two

Day two of my massive art dump before I get back to making real things and fixing my godforsaken layout.

Traditional art isn't exactly my forte, because I am an eraser-er, and I really enjoy not wearing holes through paper, but I still enjoy a good moment with a pencil (Or, in the case of my most recent art class, a piece of charcoal, but we'll save those for later.)

Here are a few of my favorite cases of me + pencil = Awesome.

1) The Leaning Tower

Watercolor pencil... A medium I had never played around with until this class, super fun, although drawing this tower itself was a complete pain in the ass. (If you'll pardon my use of "Ass")

2) Bottles

This was just simple pen and pencil, and I hit it with some green in the good old photoshop to make my case. I love mixed media.

3) Aztec

This was an old doodle I found, then added a bajillion layers of photoshoppy glory to. (Young me [this is from FOREVER ago] was way into that.)

So, yes. There's that.

Jewelrymaking, A Retrospective

In my junior year of high school, I took a class with the lovely Marcia Sheppleman -
Jewelry I.

(Side note: I only took Jewelry I so that I could then take Jewelry II, in which we got to do macramé [my specialty], metalwork [my dream], and untold other magical things. They canceled Jewelry II the next year, and a little part of me died.)

This class was like 3/4 fooling around with my friends who were also in that class (there were four of us, and we were the most hideously obnoxious table in that room), but from it also came an immense amount of very cool beadwork, jump ring art, and general knowledge.

They all got spread out to the seven corners of the world, but I will always have these pictures to remind me.

Examples:


Current Location: Ginger Jackson's house, probably lost.


Current Status: Living happily in my good friend Foley's house, somewhere...


Current Status: Chilling out with Lindsey Harris -- being one of the only things of mine she has that I'm not sort of miffed about not getting back. (I miss my body language book [The bracelet was a gift... that book was a godsend].)


Current Status: With the Lemon Yak


Current Status: Unknown Location


Current Status: With Miss Nitti, where they belong.


Current Status: Disassembled, packaged into little compartments so I can use the beads later.

So, yes. Beading and I went a good ways together. And so did the immense amount of inside jokes we developed in that room together.

It applies.

Best of Photomanipulations - Round One: "I've Seen a Fair Few Pixels in My Day..."

So, in my extensive work as an eighth-grade artist, I had a slight obsession with photoshop, and for some reason at least half of my works were composed of three basic elements:

A) A woman. It could be a close-up, an odd angle, or just a plain old, everyday chick, but that's pretty much all that existed stock-wise on the good ol' DA, and I was still in that, "I feel like a creeper working on pictures of guys, because I like them..." phase. Le sigh.
B) An everyday object. I kind of just picked whatever was cool looking and stuck in on there, then put them together.
C) An obscene amount of color. (That's not ever going to change, though, so I'm alright with that one.)

Here are a few of my favorites:

1) Green. Whoo hoo.

One of my most acclaimed works, this racked up a whopping 25 favorites, even despite the title that may define the term "undersell".

2) Roses Are Red...

I just kind of like this one. There isn't much to say about it, other than that...

3) Cloud 9

Originally named "Chillin'", because I am a complete failiure at naming things. Positives: An actually decent blend in some areas. Negatives: Quite clearly the work of an amateur. Even so, I took this stock photo from this girl's mom, and they both really liked it, so that's good enough for me.

4) Daisy

Another of my "big hits"... This one is actually one of my favorites, too, although it is Exhibit A in the case of my obsession with eyes. (I have an obsession with eyes. You'll probably spot it soon enough.)

5) Devilish

The last of this lovely collection... This tends to startle/upset my parents, but it is one of my favorites.


Anyway, there is a good sample of my body of work in that department...I moved on from that, for the most part, but now that I'm back on DA lord only knows what could happen.
Looking back on these has made me miss the old hue/saturation button, and my friend the blending options. Good times.

Whaaaa?

A post? What?

So, I have resurrected this blog, originally designed for me to test drive some CSS components for a friend of a friend, for far more nefarious purposes:
Self Promotion.

You see, I have come to a conclusion on my future, and that decision has sent my life into a spiral of uncontrolled fury.

Most importantly, informationally speaking, you should know that I have decided to double major in Computer Science and Studio Art, to further my goals of being a video game designer/artist. I figured, anyway, that I would at some point need some digital documentation of my actual art, and my defunct deviantART account would not do the trick (I am going to be linking the two together, both for safe image storage and because I'm too sentimental to delete the old girl)

So now I am here!

I am going to be uploading an immense amount of my old artwork, gallery-style, until I reach the new stuff I've been doing, so hold onto your hats. It's going to be a loooong process.

Until then, I leave you with a kiss. (And a pun!)