Pixar Internship Results and Reaction

Well. I finally got word back from Pixar. I got rejected. No surprises there. 

Didn't stop me from my expressing how I feel and having fun with it. 

So besides this reaction, I'm hoping to spend the summer doing the following:

1) Watching something informative everyday- netflix documentary or online advice, something.

2) Finishing something 'artistic'- like the comic gag above or even better, I need to speed up my drawing skills and eventually my coloring but I need to crank out more stuff. 

But first I've got files to sort out.

Everything you need to know about Kalkie in 2 pages

These were (hastily) done comic strips on our second meeting in Graphics Novel Class. It's a little embarrassing gushing about myself-the last time I ever did so where in my Reflection papers back in High School-confidence, where did you go!? D8

But still, the class has been pretty insightful so far not only because of the technical aspects of comic making, but it just makes me excited to draw my own comics and apply everything that I learned.

Oh-and cause I'm a silly sap-comment note from teacher:
'Simply put, this may be the most technically proficient and gleefully enjoyable two-page bio comic I've come across. Can't wait to see more of your work.'


GLEEEEEEEEEEE. :D

The Adventures of Captain Conroy, Storyboard 101 and Breaking Away

So last week Mark Andrews narrated to us this sci-fi space adventure he and a friend of his was working on, and our assignment was to illustrate one scene that struck with us.

Since this was a week ago and I barely remembered most of the details, I decided to go with the beginning, when the Captain and his motley assortment of aliens were held at gunpoint by spider-men with big guns and he was coolly relaying all his achievements in his nigh-immortal lifetime.



This being my first critique encounter with Mark Andrews, the only thing that held me back from crying like a little baby (from being the second person critiqued on and the class laughing at the work) was the fact he pretty much treated everyone the same way.

That and he drew out all these awesome alternative shots. A lot of which, as someone who drew comics and knows the importance of composition, makes me wonder 'Why didn't I think of this?'

What's the point of the moment, and how best to relay that point in the simplest and clearest way possible. My shot was a mess in that the lighting and tones were everywhere and nothing really popped. Conroy looks more angry than cool in the face of weapons (which you can baaaaarely see in upper left corner).

I also jotted some thoughts on the movie of the week, Breaking Away. The movie bored me to tears about this small town kid who wanted to be an Italian bike racer. It felt shoddy being one of two people who didn't like the movie and having to articulate my why's and being told I was thinking 'Dated'- taking the movie expectations of today with it's fast pacing to back to the 1970s.

I still didn't like it- maybe cause I couldn't relate or felt little empathy for the main dude. I just saw Mr. Smith goes to Washington last Saturday with friends and that's an older film and also slow movie but I felt more for the character there than Breaking Away.

Update on stuff

Bleh. I only seem to be 'artistically motivated' between the 1-2 am window; in which my brain is too bloody tired to be self defeating and cynical and whatnot so when that happens I can draw in peace.

Which pretty much stinks. It's essentially what I also do in previous semesters of work: I end up working on the last minute because I waste most of the time worrying and fidgeting until the final point, in which case my left brain gives up on me, telling me 'FORGET THIS- at this point ANYTHING is better than NOTHING' and then my mind is just free to do it's thing.

Apart from that, I've spent Saturday exploring the Exploratorium with my siblings and having a sushi dinner, and today I've had lunch with relatives and got stuffed eating more sushi. Delicious.

Kids

(going-6-year-old Bryce wants to go swimming at his cousin's pool)
Me: You can't do that! There's a thunderstorm over there!
B: So?
Me: Dude, do you know what happens when lightning hits water and you're in it?
B: (doesn't skip a beat) Fried Chicken? 8D
Me: Yea. :|
B: (doesn't skip a beat) So I can eat myself then? 8D
Me: ...that's an optimistic way of thinking about it.

=========
Man, I feel partly envious of the kid. Well not really since at that time he was supposed to be working on his KUMON homework and I was trying to keep him in line. But all the spontaneously unashamed brazen and imaginative energy in this kid, from the weird faces he would pull, crazy gibberish, rapid changing of voice, pitch, tempo and volume,  I could not help but look and pray life and society does not take away from him this wonderful energy he has-

-that and I wish I knew how I could have sketched it all but keep him working on his HW at the same time!

Failed Scanning of Old Art

Tonight, as part of my attempts to organize and declutter my art stuff before summer really starts for me (aka playing games and drawing projects 24/7), I thought I'd start off by finally getting around to scanning my old works (pre 2007) in this filing bin that I have as a way to preserve the ongoing learning curve that I have gone through. Results were, not so good.

I guess I've hit another milestone as an artist when I've gone from looking fondly at old stuff with sweet nostalgia to suddenly wanting to kill it all with fire but instead burying it under a flowerbed garden in the hopes that over time something will grow and cover the stench of its level of drawing and storytelling skills. Note that the drawings themselves are not horrendous and would hardly cause anything close to a massive eye bleed to the passing random stranger. But I think it's the memories of seeing a younger me, drawing the stuff that I did, thinking all my skills and ideas at the time were the most awesome thing since sliced bread that's just horrifying me at the moment.  

Strange that I find myself so horrified at the thought of seeing my old works come to light yet I would want to record and upload as much of my past as I could.

Last Day of School

Oppermann's little note on my Final Portfolio

Last day of class was freaking lovely. We all voted last week not to have to come to class at the usual 9 am (or 7am to catch 8am bus) so we met up at the campus gallery at 12 and there were donuts too. :3 Our final, besides submitting the portfolios was choosing maybe 5 pieces from said portfolio to be critiqued by both teacher and classmates. Surprisingly, a lot of us didn't pick for our 5 pieces works our teacher and classmates considered a whole lot better. As the note above said, some pieces I had chosen for her to ignore, she went and looked and preferred. 

Overall my critique that I got from the class was more or the less the same thing I've heard over the semester and midterm: I am lightning fast when it comes to locking down a gesture or pose (which she calls my talent), but oftentimes in my speed I already have like a pre-set model form in my head that in terms of capturing the human form, my drawings become generic or bland. I also have this tendency to stiffen up on longer poses because (again) I lock down on a pose fast, I spend the rest of time fussing so much about things that I overdo things. The biggest advice I got from her was to slow down, really look at my models carefully, pull back/ think carefully like where I should add another line or paint a shadow. Oh and also to take risks and mess up; if she never minded us having bad drawing, why should we? 

We finished up before the next school bus came so I wandered around the galleries checking out the Illustrations and Painting Thesis galleries (gorgeous stuff, as expected) and then for fun I bum watched this Architecture class whose finals were making these straw towers in what fashion, then were clamped to the wall and their points had to be able support weights dangling in a bucket. 

I think they pass if the towers don't break after maybe 5 pounds.

It was fun seeing the different structure designs and seeing what did or didn't work: some snapped or broke after a couple of weights, one tower snapped off his wooden base, and one fell apart from the 1st weight. The most interesting one was the one that, while the tower (the doodle to the back) collapsed on it's 'sections', it was still holding on to the bucket; even after 15 pounds! And when the teacher finally yanked the bucket out the whole thing magically went back to being a straight tower.