Charcoal is MESSY

Here are two "Charcoal & Shape studies" - not particularly interesting, not particularly good, but they're unusually large about 18x24. The most fun part about charcoal is whittling the charcoal down with a thumb-knife... I call mine Knifey... the Knife.

hey nevermind, pic uploader is whack again. But imagine a PILLAR, and then a LIGHT.

Until next time,
J to the Crisos to the tomo.

"Firestorm 2007"

Hey,

As of 5pm, Art Institutes in response to the Mayor's request has closed until Monday (including Sat classes).

These past few days have been a whirlwind of events, well mainly just one big event.

It all started when Eric and and thought we smelled a BBQ outside of Wilhouse. It wasn't long (after checking the back window and seeing nothing) before we checked the front door window we realized that we were experiencing something like four years ago, a wildfire.

I didn't realize that it was that bad until probably Sunday night, Monday morning when schools throughout San Diego began closing, and in some cases for the whole week. The all too familiar orange glow of Smoke + Sun brought flashbacks of four years ago when I was a freshman at UCSD.

Things that I am happy about:
The overall preparedness and community support seen across San Diego and SoCal in general, and that despite the looming danger, the overall safety and protection of most residents' lives. It said on the news "property is not as important as life." But so many people associate the two as one, that there were a few who stayed on their roof and tried to fight the fire, only to be forced off their property by firemen whose efforts were actually hindered by those who chose to stay.

Things I found disappointing/weird:
Don't get me wrong, the majority of the 24 hour coverage is outstanding and informative, but that 10% of airtime that is devoted to asking stupid questions and getting a "story" (both on radio and TV) just pisses me off.

Questions to recent evacuees include: "Are you worried about the fires?" or "Could you point out where your house is right now?" (Note: it was pitch black AND the camera didn't pan, so we ultimately get an image of a guy pointing in the darkness)

By far the most disappointing and douschey has to be these two radio "personalities" who were on the radio at night arguing over who coined the term "Firestorm 2007" - they were saying how they were the FIRST to use it... the quote was something like this.

"I'd just like to say, we were the only ones up last night, and we HAD to be the first to call this 'Firestorm '07'" This on-air back-patting sounded ridiculous and unprofessional.

That is not to say we didn't make jokes... I'm not saying this is a funny situation - but just like four years ago, whenever you get people who are in an extreme situation like this, theres going to be attempts to calm the whole group down, and that includes joking about it. This doesn't make anybody less-sensitive, but when you're in the middle of it, it helps to escape for a few minutes.

The craziest thing I saw on the TV was shortly after they interrupted the Minnesota vs Dallas game on Sunday. Eric and I saw a commercial pop onscreen for "CHARGERS BBQ NEXT WEEKEND" Which of course had shitty word-art and 3 too many exclamation points... but the icing on the tasteless cake had to be the repeated clip-art of FIRE all around the screen with a voice-over yelling "It's going to be a GREAT WEEKEND!" - Oh man, but that's just bad timing.

Thank you to everybody who e-mailed, called, and texted to see how everybody was doing down in SD. I hope everybody is ok, or going to be ok down here and that the damage is minimal if any.

By far my favorite headline came from BBC News: "California Fires affect TV Shows" Subheadline reads: Filming of TV shows including 24 has reportedly been hit by the wild fires sweeping across southern California.

Well, that's ok, because "Breaking News" is the top show here in San Diego.

See ya later,
Justin

don't forget,
CHARGERS BBQ NEXT SUNDAY!!!!!

"Anxiety" and "Greece"

Here are two pieces I did. The first one is from Design Class, where we weren't allowed to use form, only line based on a single word. It's supposed to be "Anxiety" but I think its more like "Angst." Oh well.

The second piece I did was for Objective Drawing, based on a photo I took while in Greece. Enjoy!

And in music news,
SLAM tonight, and Z.Sos Gig The 26th!

GABBO GABBO GABBO! (krusty gets kanceled reference)
Justin

note: picture uploader isnt working. stay tuned.

Week 1 Shape Studies: One Point

The following posts are my studies from Observational Drawing at the institute... I really enjoyed practicing the basics of drawing shapes... for each one of these 4 pieces there are like 10 scraps of paper scattered about my room... on sale for 50 cents a piece. Enjoy!

Two Point Perspective

See? There's two vanishing points! No? Who cares? Me neither.

Metropolis

This was a thumbnail that last minute turned into a final... I really should've re-drawn it, but I'd put too much time into it before I realized I should just start again. I'll probably redo this one with a straightedge eventually. Featuring a cameo by Superman.

ATHF!

My favorite by far shape study piece, I spent way too much time on this for it to end up looking like it did, a cartoon... but with more-than-necessary accurate proportions. The idea of the study was to incorporate a cube, sphere, cone and cylinder into a piece. Frylock = cube, Meatwad = Sphere, Shake = Cone + Cylinder... Master Shake is awesome.

Week 1 at the Art Institute

So I just finished my first week at the art institute. I am taking 6 classes, with about 1/2 relating to art, and the other 1/2 relating to success in the graphic design/art field.

FS104: Computer Applications (Tue. 8-12)
This course is a course on how to make effective presentations, business documents, business cards, spreadsheets, etc. I thought this would be the "worst" (aka most boring) class that I had, but the professor is very energetic for an 8am class on a Tuesday. He is ex-navy/ex-army and worked on bridging the "digital gap" (Just like this week's office) He said he used to operate computers on Ship-to-Shore communication and said that we know it now as the Internet. I don't know what he's talking about. Our homework is to make a 3-years-in-the-future bio about ourselves, and I don't know what to write.

FS100: Student Success (Tue. 1-3)
This course is taught by a very interesting guy, who specializes in "optimizing" our efficiency and organization. This class as well as Cpu App. makes this institution seem like a company and that we are the employees. They really want us to succeed... hence this title. Our homework is to map out our future (seriously, career, where you're going to live, marriage, etc.) We also have to bring in our syllabi from our other classes so as to build a day-to-day planner of how we're going to succeed in all our classes.

FS101: Fundamentals of Observational Drawing (Wed. 8-12)
The professor for this course has done everything in all branches of the art field. He is a Graphics Design major, with experience in illustration, fashion design, conceptual art, and interior design. He is pretty much the go-to guy for advice on anything related to How-To in art. He is a good artist, and is very helpful in that he demands us all draw 6 hours worth of 3 dimensional shapes... I'm like 4 hours in, and my hand hurts... I've never drawn so much, but I think its helping what professionals call "mah skillz."

HU111: Effective Speaking (Thu. 8-12)
Thie professor is a funny guy, and a caffeine addict. I think within an hour he had 2 Vaults and a cup of coffee. Anyhoo, he's really nice and makes us give a speech every class meeting. He has a history in theater and you can tell, and his specialty is melodramas, it's pretty hilarious. If you guys know pirates, he looks like Bluebeard. Our homework is to plan out a 3 minute "how-to" speech. I think my topic will be "how-to wing a presentation"

FS103: Color Theory (Sat. 8-12)
This class is pretty fun... because I personally don't like working with color. Not because I'm against them, but because I don't really know how to use/match/mix them. I know I don't know how to match, anybody who knows me knows i don't know how to match, hence all my black shirts. One time I wore green shorts and a green shirt and my friend called me a ninja turtle, and I ran home from school crying. It was the worst day of college ever. This class tho seems like fun because we get to PAINT! It's exciting because we watched the wizard of Oz in class (The technicolor version) so it was black and white until she got to Oz. I was so into it (i don't know why) that when Dorothy opened the door of her little house and the whole world was in color, I said outloud, "Whoaaaaaaa". No homework yet in this class.

FS102: Fundamentals of Design (Sat. 1-5)
This class is kinda like Observational Drawing, but a little bit more focused on the actual layout rather than mah skillz. Today we had to draw line drawings geared towards emotions (We did the same thing in Color Theory but with colors) - Its weird how influenced people are by visual stimulus. I already know that a spiral can hypnotize you, all I need to know is what color to make the spiral, and on what background. Also what that instrument that goes "WooOooOooEoooOEeeeEEEoooo" is called. I think it's called a Theramin. But I don't know. Our homework is to "draw either growth, anxiety, construction, destruction, transformation or tranquility using lines in any medium but without symbols or forms that represent stuff.

All in all the courses are pretty awesome, and the teachers are all working in the field or have had experience, so they're really passionate about it. I like the creative environment, but i'll describe that later.

The Environment ( I guess I'll do it now)
Everybody in this school is artistic/creative/crazy talented. These are the kids that drew comics during class, played videogames on a friday night, uh cooked a lot, or liked to dress up barbie dolls with outfits they made out of paper. I was all about all of the above (Minus cooking a lot.) Anyway, in the cafeteria, there's a free game arcade that plays a ton of arcade games, but also games that the game-designers created. The school is pretty diverse in that it ranges from culinary to animation to interior design. I know i think at least one person from each major... EXCEPT culinary... they're so cliqueish (b/c they have class at 7am)... i really want a friend who can cook. A lot. For me. Anyway, most of my new friends are graphic designers, with a few Game Designers, and one Animation major who told me the following, word for word:

Her: "I'm an animation major... but I don't like animation or drawing."
Me: "uh... don't be surprised when you go to class thats what they're going to ask you to do..."
Her: "I didn't mean it like that. I mean I don't like animation."

You get the point. I forgot her name but I know for a fact it rhymes with Madonna and is an M name. Go figure.

There's a Halo 3 LAN party going on right now but I opted not to go, seeing as they're probably ridiculously good... it IS their major.

It's a tiny school and I've already had lunch with the Academic Director, and even (unknowlingly) the President of the whole Art Institute.

So she was serving food at the grill (as higher-ups like to do during welcome week) but she was wearing a chefs uniform. When she sat down next to me I was like:

"So... are you a culinary student?"
"No."
"Oh... they just let anybody wear that?"
"No, they gave it to me whenever I serve food?"
"So you're a server?"
"No, but I love to serve my students."
"Oh, so you work here! Sorry! What's your title?"
"President."
(Me motioning to the building) "Like president of THIS?"
"yes."
"Oh! Uh... Thanks for letting me come here... I'm going to go check out the club booths."

And that was awkward.

Other awkward moments included me and my Speaking professor:

On how to capture an audience, he used a metaphor:
Him: "What do whales Eat?"(pause)"Nobody knows?"
Me: "Krill... whales eat krill." (I used to LOVE whales.) "They filter it with baleen and - "
Him: "You're a genius! How'd you know that?"
Me: "I majored in Whale at UCSD."
Him: (excited) "REALLY?"
Me: "No." (pause) "Sorry."
Him: Hahaha, funny... you've got a good... humour... sense of humour.
Me: "Sorry" (the class was laughing too loud and I was embarassed, i dont even know why i did that... it reminds me of that time in Oasis Math tutoring....

Me: "I hate integrals."
Noah the Tutor: "Are you kidding? We used to have Integral Bees!"
Me: "By 'we' do you mean 'you'?"
Noah: "...no!" then "i'll get you back."

he never did, and the damage was done, he was mean to me the rest of the quarter. Just kidding, but he seriously hasn't gotten me back and i'm worried.

Oh well, hopefully this makes up for the lack of posting Carol and Christina. Yeah I know you're the only two who read it, well plus me... but I kinda just skim it. So to the 2.5 readers, stay tuned, I've been doing a sketch-a-day since the first day of school, and once i get a scanner or digital pictures, I'll put them up!

Justin Saturday October, 6th @ 7:28:28pm