I am pooped after an afternoon of art supply shopping. I only had to go to two places but it was somehow quite exhausting.
Items purchased: Wooden sculpting tool, small and large ceramic loops, fettling knife, putty knife, wax modeling tools, sketchbook, uhu stick, ph neutral glue, bone folder, flipbooks, art supply case, mounting board, tiny jar, self-healing cutting surface, med. vine charcoal
Misc. items to be bought: Saran wrap, disposable chopsticks, shishkabob skewers, and a spray bottle (all for Figurative Clay)
Hopefully that’ll be it for the semester, besides a few random things for specific assignments.
Yesterday was my first day of having 10 straight hours of class and hooo nelly, it was a long day. I’m glad that it worked out so that I have no classes today; it gives me some time to recover. The classes I had yesterday were both great though, don’t get me wrong; it’s just that since it’s the beginning of the semester my stamina is still sort of in vacation-mode, a.k.a. super low.
The first class I had yesterday was Time: Shifting Perspectives. After going to many different time classes that were filled up, I finally got into one and was incredibly relieved. I lucked out because not only did I get into a Time class that fits with my schedule, but I also seem to have gotten into a really good Time class. The subject of the course is the same no matter what Time class you sign up for, but each has a slightly different emphasis. Mine is fairly standard but with an emphasis on telling a narrative from multiple perspectives. The professor seems really great, and I’m excited for our assignments, which involve photography, film, comics, storyboarding, sound editing, book-making, and a final project in a media of our choice. During class we talked about the course, watched a couple of interesting short films, went to the SIM gallery (SIM is the Studio for Interrelated Media department, and I’d never been to their gallery before), and got to talk to a professor who had made a really interesting light- and time-based piece in the show.
My second class of the day was Figurative Clay. I wasn’t sure what the class would entail besides sculpting figures of some sort, but I am very excited for what it really entails, which is learning about the human figure in the classical “from the inside out” manner (which is a very specific style of figure study), sculpting the figure, sculpting an anatomically correct life-sized skull with facial musculature, and creating a full-sized sculpted portrait. How cool is that??! It makes me feel like I’m getting in touch with my inner Renaissance-era artist. The professor is so knowledgeable and gave a really inspiring lecture. Then we started off by learning a simplified version of the anatomy of the pelvis and rib cage, then sculpted them, and then did a challenging exercise where we had to arrange them to exactly match the model’s body position as he posed.
I’m so excited for this semester! It’s going to be a crazy amount of work but I am psyched to tackle it all!
This is a photo series by Duane Michals. My first assignment for my Time class is partially based on his works (we have to do a photo series that tells a narrative of transformation and surrealism). Should be fun.
Christopher Hinton - Nibbles (2003)
We watched a few short films by Chris Hinton in today’s animation class. This was my favorite. We went through a couple of sections of this one frame by frame to realize how he expresses SO much in such a minimal way, and we talked about a few techniques he employs. I love the crazy sketchy style of his work. It’s incredibly energetic. It made me think of my scriptwriting class because one of the things that makes scriptwriting difficult is that you are required to be very minimal; you have to figure out ways to set up situations and interactions so that much is assumed and understood without explicitly being written.
(Source: youtube.com)
