Look, Ma! It moves!

Suzy wanted us to try animating in photoshop (so we can make e-books or whatever) before the semester and gave us a little over 2 hours to work on it as an exercise. I haven’t animated in photoshop (…or at all) for about five years, so it was FUN to realize what I do and don’t remember.

(And yes. It’s choppy. I realize. But I also was getting kicked out of the classroom soooo)

I've always enjoyed doing little things like this on Dad's palm pilot, but I can safely say animation is just a hobby. E-Books would be the extent of my professional use. ;)

General Conference Notes

If I were an excellent person, I would fill this post with actual notes about conference. I LOVED this past conference session and felt that every talk had some great merit, many talks were crucial to my life, and some just pierced me right to the soul.

However, I am kind of really pressed for time right now (Finals are quickly approaching, my BFA portfolio is almost due, finals again are quickly approaching, and edits on every single art piece I've done this year so far are also due...uh...today), so I can't spend my Wednesday afternoon writing a long-winded post about Conference. And honestly, if I DID have time to devote to this blog right now, I'd give my header a makeover. I look at it and all I can hear in my head is Meg from Hercules, saying "weak ankles".

So instead, I'm going to share some of my doodles, or how art kids needing to work on their faces/positive feature exaggeration take notes.
These were all done within the time of the talk, so roughly 5-10 minute sketches. I posted a few on Instagram, but not all of them. I'm not even sharing all of them HERE, just nine of my favorites. Because I really believe that all the readers of this blog saw conference, so you guys might be amused.

 

Older people are the BEST KIND OF PEOPLE to draw, by the way. So much character in their faces, so many important lines, and such great expressions! And best of all, I seem to remember the talks of those I drew better than of those I didn’t. Which is kind of the opposite of what I thought would happen, goooo figure.

The Creation of Ganesh

This here is “Creation of Ganesh”, for a gallery show on “Tales from India” in BYU’s library. It’s photoshop, and it was suuuuch a fun piece to do. I had so many learning experiences, too!

Quick summary of the story behind this piece: Parvati (not shown) wanted to take a bath, so she created a little man out of white mud to protect her. He (Ganesh) was instructed to not let ANYONE into the bathhouse. So along comes Shiva (blue god), wanting to see Parvati, and Ganesh wouldn't let him through. Angry, Shiva cut off Ganesh's head. Parvati was FURIOUS, as any woman who just basically created a son would be if her husband chopped off his head, and demanded Shiva find a worthy replacement. To be worthy, the head had to be facing north, and the first individual facing north that Shiva found was an elephant. So in this scene, we see Shiva, attaching the elephant head to Ganesh's body, thus creating the God Ganesh.

A lot of my best friends from high school are Hindu, so I was thrilled to hear about this show and do a piece from it. Ganesh was always my favorite Hindu god, so I knew I wanted to do his story right away. And I showed this to one of said Hindu friends, by the way: she LOVED it. She said that Shiva is never portrayed this way, but it totally makes sense. Parvati totally wore the pants in the relationship, so of course he'd be terrified to see if it would work! And that is exaaactly what I was going for. Not commonly portrayed, but still respectful and still super accurate.

If you happen to be at BYU anytime in the next few weeks, come check this out! This is the first time I'm in a specific gallery show at school besides the "Freshman Core Show", where I had a whopping 3 pieces. But since this one was themed, it feels a little more...elite.

(which is totally silly, because EVERYONE in my class "got in" to this show, since my teacher's the one hosting it, and that freshman show was actually competitive.)

Anywaaay, the show's on the second floor of the Harold B. Lee Library, down the hall towards the family history center. There are two classes participating and a whole breadth of talents displayed. It's a fun, iiitty bitty show! And you can see this same piece, but behind glass and a frame instead of a computer screen!

Chicken a la Chicken Comp Sketch

Yes, I know, it’s a terrible camera phone picture. But I’m only showing off a WIP of a sketch comp anyway, so I think we can all forgive this little faux-pas.

I love comp review days. The journey between thumbnail and comp is one of my favorite parts of a piece and with this project, I loved it even more than usual. I mean, what’s more fun than drawing a chicken putting on a chicken suit, huh? There’s not much!

But even after creating my comp, I got to show it off to Chris, and he really loved it. Most important to me, he laughed. And that, great void, is what I LOVE. Making people laugh or smile or that magical combination of the two with an art piece of mine.

It’s moments like today that just remind me, yeah. This is what I want to do. I want to make fun art that brightens days and makes children giggle, reading under their bed sheets with a flashlight.

(and her right wing looks a little dink, now that I’ve been staring at this, writing up my meta. Ooops.)

And almost one year later...

I'm posting again. Would you look at that??

I'm actually cheating on Blogspot. In our Digital Illustration class, we have to create a portfolio website (mine is still being tweaked to perfection: I'll post a link once it's satisfactory) and an art blog to go alongside. So, looking at it professionally, I decided to host my art blog on tumblr. It's a blogging system that really works better for artists than blogspot does, because along with following, it's a very VISUAL display. The search function is easy, the audience is wide, and artists can repost eachother's work with complete credit.

I'm not supposed to be advertising tumblr right now, so I'll stop talking about that.

The important thing is that while I made my first post on that blog, I thought, "hey, I should cross-post to Blogspot! My family might care about this stuff, too!" And if I'm getting myself in the habit of blogging again, I can come here to post non-artsy things as well.

I know, I know, I missed an entire year of living in Disney World. But realistically, I've always preferred blogging about daily life anyway. Things we can all relate to. I like to find the Extra in the Ordinary, because that is how you make your life extraordinary.

or at least that's gonna be my excuse.

And I'll fix my header to something a little less Disney soon enough- my mind is still in Epcot half the time, so I'm not in a rush ;)

Universal Studios!

I wasn't really sure if I was going to write about the family days in Universal at all, but Mom actually TOLD her readers to come over here and read more, so. I guess I'm postponing talking about my Disney training and first days in favor of The Other Park!

We spent two days there, the first staying mostly in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. That's the only reason anyone ever wants to go to Universal anymore, anyway. We looked around Hogsmeade for a bit, admiring the scenery and magic and everything. It looks beautiful and perfectly like Hogsmeade, but really eerie to have all the snow-capped roofs in such hot weather!

Almost right away, we got in line for the castle ride ("Harry Potter and the forbidden journey") and the line wasn't too excruciatingly long at all. Especially since in one waiting room, Ron made it snow. REAL ACTUAL SNOW!!!

The ride itself was, and is, amazing. Hermione transports you all out of the castle on these flying benches, and then through the magic of screens and turns and...I don't even know what it was besides magic, you end up flying all around the grounds. It's almost as realistic as Disney's "Soarin'", and we were worried about hitting the tree-tops. At one point when you enter the forbidden forest, there are TERRIFYING spiders that spit, a dragon that blows smoke....all sorts of frightening things like that. Probably one of the most amazing rides I've ever gone on, and definitely the best part of the park, as it is.

After that ride, we went to "Flight of the Hippogriff", which was laaame. But going to Ollivander's after that was just...I still can't believe my luck. As Mom said in her post, he chose me to get a wand! This is absolutely outrageous, because Ollivander is supposed to pick an 11-year-old. And I may act like one, but I certainly do not look like an 11-year-old. But hey, I won't complain! I tried the first one and broke a bunch of shelves (absolutely terrified me), the second one set off a thunderstorm in the ceiling of the shop, but the THIRD wand, a 15-inch reed wand with phoenix feather, chose me. There was wind rushing and everything. It was absolutely gorgeous, too.

I though about buying it, but decided that I'd rather go through the park without something to have to put in a locker. Which was a good choice! We really enjoyed just getting on rides whenever we wanted. And we did some other stuff, like looking at more shops, getting soaked at Sinbad's show, and going to some other rides that I don't remember, but eventually had to head to catch the shuttle back to the hotel.

The next day at Universal, we went around the whole park. WELL THAT'S A LIE, we went around the whole Islands of Adventure, so half the park. Dad got his fix of roller-coasters (as well as losing his hat on "Doctor Doom's Fall of Terror", because he didn't listen to the rules about hats!!), we three were all absolutely drenched from the Popeye ride and "Ripsaw Falls", rode my old favorite "Jurassic Park River Adventure", and did a few other things. I still looooove the drop in that River ride, by the way. Quality ride right there, even if it's a lot older than, say, the Castle ride.

While in Jurassic Park, we also went to the Nursery were they hatch baby dinos. We got to watch a little lady raptor hatch, and yet again, the worker there ignored the obviously younger children in lieu of letting ME name the baby raptor and keep her birth certificate!
I'm quite certain this had something to do with the fact that I was practically playing peek-a-boo with an animatronic raptor, but whatever.

We picked up a bunch of stuff at Hogsmeade before we left, including my wand and fizzing whizzbees! Which are chocolate and magically fizzle in your mouth. HIGHLY recommend them. :)

Anyway, I think that's a good enough summary. As of right now, I'm several days into my DCP, two days into training, but I can summarize these days later for a different post. I just wanted to get that out!

Leavin' On a Jet Plane

If you're reading this right now, most likely you're incredibly confused why I'd either be emailing you or why this blog is suddenly being updated after over a YEAR of inactivity. And hopefully, if you're reading this, you already know what's going on in my life that's exciting enough to start anew and promise myself to blog more.

I'm going to Disney World!! In five short days, I'll be starting in the Disney College Program in Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. I couldn't be more excited to start, and topping things off we're spending a few days in Universal Studios! This is a life that promises many, many adventures!!

We're already in Orlando, and even just getting here was an adventure. Aided, of course, by my scatterbrained-self.
Wednesday morning, Mom and I had the plan to leave around 9:30 am for the airport. And we did get out of the house at 9:27, so we were feeling on top of the world! It's not until we're at McDonald's for breakfast and Mom asks if I'm nervous that I admit (a worry I still have a little) I'm concerned about my I-9 documents. These are part of the elaaaaaaborate online paperwork I had to do for Disney, and they're the only forms that are still marked "pending" on the internet, not "sent". I'm 98% sure that's because they need to see my Social Security and Driver's License in person, and told Mom as such. She asked if I had my social security card. And I said no.

WHICH OBVIOUSLY WOULD NOT DO!
So we rushed back home, and after making our stop at Walgreens and whatnot, were already far behind schedule. The social cards were in a place that was nearly impossible to get to, even with Dad on the phone, and things were looking bleak.

But there was hope on the horizon! Mark, my wonderful brother and our knight in shining armor, accepted Mom's offer to drive us to the airport and shave off all that parking/walking-from-parking-lot time.

We got to the airport and, in yet ANOTHER blessing, were able to get a porter. This gentleman lifted our many heavy bags (I am moving for eight months, as we told many of the people in the airport who like to joke about so few people having SO MUCH LUGGAGE). And as a trusted airport employee was even able to tag our bags without officially weighing them from whence he took them to the X-ray machine. Bless him!!!

Security was going well, there wasn't a long line or anything, until I get pulled aside by the TSA. Oooooof course. They rifled through my backpack, finally finding a metal pencil case that was sitting next to an i-clicker (which is pointless and I shouldn't own anymore in the first place). Metal next to a power source did not exactly make something that the X-Ray machine liked.

Eventually we got through and to our gate, where we didn't have any problems. Nor did we have any on the plane!
WELL except for Mom throwing the luggage at a lady on an oxygen tank, but we can skip that part.

Our flight had a long layover in Houston, so Mom and I stopped for dinner at a lovely place called Bubba's City Grill. This poor dear next to us was waiting for a friend (she was early, friend was late), so she eavesdropped for a bit until she just piped up to confess. Apparently, Mother and I are very endearing to listen to.

We three discussed Disney for awhile, then she and I talked for a bit about GCB, which is Kristen Chenoweth's new/old (as it's cancelled now) show on ABC. And really, Cheno ought to just stay away from ABC because this is now the second time she's been in a show with honestly good ratings and cute characters, colors, environment, songs, and storyline and been shafted. But that's not the point of this post!

Our flight from Houston to Orlando was nice, and Dad was waiting for us in the airport. Oh, how I have missed humidity!!! Florida, I'm already happy to call you home. On top of all that, it was raining when we got in (or, as one of the airline workers in our tram said, "Liquid Sunshine". I'm going to have to use that line!), and I've missed rain even more than humidity. Okay, a LOT more than I've missed humidity. Living in a desert is tough beans, y'all.

The people in Orlando have so far all been darlings, and we got to our hotel without much of a hitch. The taxi driver cleaned us out of cash for sure, but the hotel is cute. At least I think it is...it was kind of dark. And Mom and Dad got a greeeeeat deal on it, so that's awesome, too!

Basically, Florida has yet to do me wrong. It's only been 13 hours, so there's still plenty to go wrong, but even more to go right!

"Leaving On a Jet Plane" is a lovely song by Peter, Paul, and Mary. Gif (not mine) is from The Princess and the Frog.

You're Harry Freaking Potter!

I love a LOT of things about this school, which I'm not going to even bother listing. One of these things is our bell tower. I have always had a love affair with carillon bells, to the point that one of the things I'm looking for in a future home is close enough proximity to a church that I can hear the bells. I expect that conversation will be interesting with the Real Estate Agent. "If it's close to a Mormon church, that'd be really excellent, but can you just get me near some non-mormon church with an old bell tower? No, no, I'll be attending the Mormon church. Half and hour to the nearest stake center? No problem. Five minute drive from the catholic church with the bells? Uh, that's a little far..."

Back to our carillon bells! Every hour on the hour they play Come, Come, Ye Saints and then at other times they have little mini-concerts called programs where the organ majors get to rock out to a large variety of different songs. Last year I actually got to go in to the belltower during one of these programs and played a few notes! Very poorly, but I still played them, which counts!

Yesterday, as inspired by a rather brave facebook event and some likewise gutsy organ students, the belltower chose to honor Harry Potter's 7th film release instead of the normal regimen.
This was what we heard every hour, on the hour:


Ohhh BYU. You are so weird and nerdy and AWESOME. :)

And by the way, I wasn't able to go to the midnight premiere. Sadness, I know, but everything was sold out within weeks... however, once I find someone with a car, I WILL see this. It WILL happen. Until then, I'm satisfied to go to a school where random students are STILL walking around in Hogwarts robes and where the hour was rang in with movie music for an entire day. It's almost as good. :)

"Harry Freaking Potter" is from "A Very Potter Sequel", which can be found on YouTube as a sequel to "A Very Potter Musical", which I recommend.

It's So Hard to Say Goodbye

Aimee moved out about an hour ago.
No, she doesn't hate us. Not THAT kind of moving out! In fact, everyone here is pretty much torn apart.

She's a very talented gymnast and while practicing, a long time ago, she fell and broke her back. Competing has been basically a nonoption and it flares up sometimes, but for the most part, her back has been just dandy. However, about 2 months ago (in a spot of terrible irony on the birthday of Kaitlin, her very best friend, if you do recall), Aimee was involved in a terrible, 4-car accident including a semi. She very well could have died. Thankfully beyond all thankfuls, she didn't. She did seriously injure her arm, including a nasty scar from her seat belt, and totalled her car. Oh, and her back got a lot worse.

Aimee lives in Lehi, so she took a bit of time off to see doctors and things. Then, about a few weeks ago, she was told that she would need to undergo surgery on her back, which would put her in bed rest for months. They scheduled it for the beginning of winter semester so she could stay here until then, but, of course, things don't always work out that nicely.

Aimee's doctor was worried about her having permanent nerve damage, so they moved the surgery up to next Monday. So she had to move out this afternoon (she's babysitting tonight and tomorrow) for the rest of semester, leaving our apartment very empty and without a very crucial piece of our family. On top of all that, she had to drop all her classes but the two that have teachers willing to give her do-at-home work.

We're all hoping and praying that the 2-3 months of bed rest will only be 2 months, so that she can come back winter semester and especially come back HERE, where she belongs.

She's coming back on Sunday for Sunday dinner...well, technically she's visiting Sunday...so it's a little easier to not freak out about. Aimee goes home often enough on weekends that this one will seem only a little stranger than most. But I have no idea what it'll be like after she leaves us Sunday night.

probably terrible. And I probably won't have the heart to write about it then.

Aimee's like our mommy. She makes sure we go to classes, lets us know when we're being weirder than we need to be, tells us what to eat when we're too hungry to choose food, makes all our birthday cakes, and gets mad when the kitchen isn't clean. She watches House during FHE, plays music on her iTunes that I thought nobody else had heard of, makes cute charts for cleaning the bathroom, makes us laugh when nothing else is really funny, and I don't know what we'll do without her. Especially Kaitlin, bless her heart...

If you don't mind, please join us in praying for Aimee's safe surgery and quick recovery. This next few months (and possibly all the way until Spring if things don't work quickly) are going to be worse for her than anyone else.

"It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" can be found by Voice Male if you use my version

All I Can Do Is Just Laugh

Tiffanie and I don't get our homework done until far later than we should. I'm not quite as bad as her, as I don't take a nap at 11 pm for to have energy to do more homework at 2 in the morning, but still. We're always the last asleep in our dorm family.

Yesterday gave us a little insight as to why you ought not do homework at such a late hour.

I was working on an English assignment, getting close to completion but still frustratingly far. She was doing I don't know what, most likely Chinese as that's all Tiffanie ever seems to do, and she stood up to grab an orange juice bottle.

Let me set the scene for you. Our bedroom has a shelf that runs all the way from the window to the door, a few feet above our desks and quite a few feet below the tack-strip, which is immortalized in my current header. On said shelf we keep things like books, movies, jewelry, and in Tiffanie's case, lots of orange juice. Our desks are crazy messy because we're bums like that, and so I keep all my electronic chargy-thingies, personal letters, important documents, and cookbooks in my pull-out drawer. This was, at the time, pulled out because we had needed a cookbook for to make chicken pot pie earlier in the evening, and heaven forbid I close a drawer 3 hours after I open it.

So Tiffanie grabs her orange juice with a little too much fervor and, for whatever terrible reason, it was slightly open. So, as Murphy would have it, the slightly open bottle of orange juice dives out of her hand and into my drawer filled with electronics and important documents. I didn't even notice until Tiffanie starts frantically apologizing and taking out dripping cookbooks and putting them on my towel on the floor conveniently right there. (And I thought leaving my towel on the floor was a bad idea!)

I look over and see my two old iPods swimming in an orange juice pool and everything just in the absolute worst location for a liquid spill and just start laughing. I helped her, of course, and we cleared the electronics and papers out, pushing the pendaflex hangers as far as they could go. But by the time we got to drying the drawer out and drying the electronics off for to avoid water damage, I was laughing waaaay to hard to be of any assistance. Tiffanie made some noise that was a cross between a laugh and a sob, asking me why I was laughing, which is understandable. I mean, I could have lost a lot of irreplaceable and/or expensive things.

Truth be told, I don't know why I thought it was so funny. But I couldn't start homework for about ten minutes afterwards because I was still fighting off giggles. I would say "I wouldn't have laughed if it had been more serious", but I think I might have, actually. Probably would have laughed even harder. Ideally, this is a sign that my sense of humor is awesome and that I will, in the future, be the kind of mother who laughs when her house is covered in marker, then clean up with the kids and teach them their lesson, as opposed to breaking down in tears or screaming. But that's probably not it, either.

I think we just need to get to bed earlier. And probably stop putting open bottles of orange juice on the shelf above our laptops and homeworks and beds.
"I Just Laugh" is by Never Shout Never. I've never heard the song, but the lyrics seem wonderful.