Something new

3:14 pm pacific 

Well, this semester I'm using yet another new medium! This semester's new medium is clay. 

First 3 weeks were around sculpting the human figure in basic shapes while using a model for basic reference. (rib cage and hip size ; varies based on gender.) 

Homework assignments were sculpting an egg and last week, a left foot ( as well as this week since everyone's foot needed fixing). Both are a lot harder in practice! This whole class really shows how things in theory are harder in practice. An egg is the hardest thing we'll have  this class to sculpt correctly.

 

3 class weeks to complete; female clay figure 

This week, we've got a male model and with a simple pose we need to replicate or at least translate into clay form. 

So far, I've for the hip box, upper legs and rib cage. The nexck and lower legs are currently in place holder mode. 

Lighting assignment included a theme for the last image

3:20 pm Pacific

For my Digital Media class, our assignment for this week was to take 8 technical lighting shots (one o which was the famous "ghoul lighting". For the last image, the 9th one, we were to create a image with the theme of "darkness rising". I took it as something creepy so I used the ghoul lighting but with the light source closer to the face for even more white. I used the original image and painted directly on top of it, smoothing out the pixels before changing it towards the theme. The version I had 2 days ago was more or less pumpkin skin, in terms of the bumps but not as obvious and a black robe and faded decorations. The neck, as it was in the original, was nearly white and decorated with pumpkin grooves. After thinking about it last night, I changed it even more from the previous version. Green hair to connect it to pumpkin vines and no neck to relate the idea of the Headless Horseman.  Additionally, I altered the lips from human to deformed carving since a pumpkin typically wouldn't have lips carved on it but I left the nose to keep the head between pumpkin and human.

Worries over the winter weather on the east coast

11:14 am pacific 

I really hope my parents and friends on the east coast are going to be ok this winter. The snow has been really frequent this winter and there was the winter freeze during January, which I got to experience during my winter break. I'm worried this storm is going to be worse; it already sounds worse from what the winter storm warning on the weather channel said. I believe 10-12 inches and heavy snow. The two storms I went through during winter break were about 8 inches max; the first storm was fairly light while the one a few days before the end of my break was on the little bit heavier side but it still wasn't heavy snow. I'm worried that trees will fall due to the weight and then either cause structural damage on homes or electrical issues if they fall towards the power lines. 

And I know people who've already slipped on the ice; one of which was my dad and his hip got hurt from the fall. 

I heard from my mom that he'll at least close work early for the upcoming storm, which is good news. I was afraid he'd be stubborn like he was during that other storm during my winter break where he still went to work anyways even though travel wasn't advised ( according to the weather channel). The roads that day were horrendous as some streets weren't plowed while others were; our town was like that too. My house is pretty close to the next town so when their town plowed the street and ours didn't, it was visible. 

free time during class ...in a way

11:25 pm Pacific

It's an odd explanation and it's not short. I have to take a class called Digital Media 1, which is basically Photoshop basics and using a camera to take photos for composition, lighting,etc. Since I know Photoshop pretty well, except for masks and textures which will be covered later in the semester, I, as well as some of the students who also know the basics, can sketch during class if we already know the material.

So that's how I have free time during class.
I had issues with figuring out what I wanted to paint last class; the furthest I got really was a fallen log in a forest but I didn't like it. Actually, I didn't like many of my quick paintings.
This week, today, I started out with the idea of an lighthouse on a cliff and the sea.

Then the remaining class time grew shorter so I saved this and decided to play around with some of the brush sets the classroom PS CS6 had, that I didn't have before sketching out a face, which on whim, turned into an elf. 

A holiday elf?

I think I had less than 15-20 mins left before class ended and I had to return the tablet pen so I could get my ID and catch the shuttle bus to my next class. 

Exercise from grocery shopping

5:46 pm Pacific

I told myself I wouldn't carry more than 2 bags of groceries but I've managed to fill two bags completely full and they were *both* heavy. Usually I get only one bag that's heavier than the other, and that's usually when I go buy the 1 gal milk. That was the case today but I also decided to buy produce like carrots. It shouldn't have been so heavy but I guess the V8 cans added to the weight with 3 boxes of pasta and 1 big box (2 bags) of cereal. And I've said that I've been getting exercise while in San Francisco. Well....I have been since I have to either walk everywhere or take the bus for either groceries or class. The walk either supermarket is roughly 15-16 mins, in my walking speed. It's probably 20 mins for average walking speed.
Today I really did get a good exercise though since I sweated...though I don't know if that's because of the warmer weather with a light winter jacket or it's because of the weight of my groceries. It could be both. My shoulders were sore though.  I use past tense because I took a hot shower to loosen my muscles. The downside of living in the city as an out of state college student: lack of parking which means no cars available for when I'm buying groceries. It's fine when I don't buy 2 complete bags full of stuff but it was killer the first day of the Fall semester since I had 5 bags then. Ugh, I just moved my shoulders...they're sore. Present tense.

Spent another day working on page 6

9:12 pm pacific

The roughs I drew out yesterday were really rough and since I had time today, I worked on detailing the rough sketches. I need to finish up the ink part and I got the idea of penciling in shadows. I need to work on more of the sketches to make them more realistic. This definitely applies to the last panel; Tactics doesn't look like he's falling over from a failed punch. He needs more form and a shadow to show where the floor is and how far he is from the floor. 

Rough for page 6 took a while

12:31 am pacific

It actually took a lot longer for me to get the rough planned out for page 6. I had thought I planned out page 6 and onward but I forgot about what happens when Team Q enters and confronts Mitchens. Big oops.
It looks like page 6 and 7 will circle around that confrontation before the big decision Spark Shock has to make reveals itself.

Spitpaints and drafting next page

12:41 pm Pacific

I woke up today with the decision between either going to a sketching competition at my school's basketball game or working on page 6 of my comic. The weather was making me lean towards the comic though as it was still pretty rainy. While laying in bed pondering, I got the sudden idea of spitpainting two scenes. One was the Rings Above the City that I had painted a few years ago in color before I learned some of the basics/foundations.

I figured I'd start the day with the spitpaints before working on the comic layout and draft. 

Teens of Valor - chapter 1 page 5

I've started using the pen for more detailed lines. It's not as great as publishing comics and manga but I'm working my way up. I'm trying to move the story along from the situation in the city to where the main character will eventually work alongside with the group.

Where's the rain we're suppose to get?

11:34 am Pacific

I apologize for the lack of blog posts the past week or two. The semester started up last week and I haven't had much to write about. 

I guess in terms of daily life, one of my cousins got married the past weekend so I was able to attend the ceremony and reception. It was really nice seeing so many of my relatives on my dad's side; most of which I haven't met before, before 2 summers ago. They're all in LA or southern California and me, having lived on the East Coast and currently in northern California for art school, had small chances and instances of getting together for a family gathering. I haven't even seen my relatives from my mom's side in 5 years due to college. We recently had a skype call during Chinese Lunar New Year, well the eve for us in the states. Unfortunately since it was a group call, we only heard each others voices. I don't know if Google+ works overseas, I didn't get to ask them that. 

So far my classes seem ok. I won't know how big the workload is until it's closer to midterm time. (Ha, sorry, sudden change in topic). At the moment, it looks like my weekend's will be a lot more open compared to last semester. 

I might have a chance to work on my comic though the release of a page might get altered to Sunday since I would only have two days to work on it if I plan on releasing a page on Friday. Page 4 got submitted to my deviantART today though. Page 5 is in the queue and page 6 has yet to be drafted but the story has been planned out past page 6. 

At the moment though, I'm trying to quickly finish an event League of Legends has , had?, for Lunar New Year called Lunar Revel. The event is still going on until the 11th I believe but I'm behind on the collectible icons. Four more matches to go, ranging from 20-30 mins to 40-50 mins.