New growth...

The last of the etchings for a while...

Craving minestrone soup now!

This is the 'soft-ground abstract thing' I mentioned a few posts ago. I was cutting up and adding cabbage to some minestrone soup and rather liked the look of the cross-section. I knew I wanted to have one more etching for my portfolio, so decided to crank out one cabbage-inspired piece. Packed up the cabbage slice and sat it next to me at school while I drew into the soft-ground. Etched it that day and printed it at the next class.

The result is this funky-looking thing. The color was the Prof's idea. Three ink wipe. It's nothing spectacular, but for being a last-minute experiment with my fingers screaming at me to stop drawing... not terrible. Fully committed to the effect of soft-ground. The ballpoint pen drawing that went in to the making of this looks almost exactly like the print--only black.
I liked the black prints actually.  So, while I only had time to get about five of these triple-color ones, I pulled an extra black and this blue fellow. Leaning towards liking it better than the above version. Dunno.

Anyway! I named it 'Take Root'... and there ya have it.

Still struggling with the domain madness. Meh.
Got a finished copy of a CD I did the cover art for and it looks AWESOME!!! HUZZAH!
That's exciting.
Also exciting is what I'll be doing over winter break... transferring everything on my computer to my brand-spankin'-new computer. Sticking with a PC. Windows 7. Rather intimidated about the transfer process, since I'm so deeply embedded in this computer, which I've been using for like 10 years. It's a mess. XD

I'll be posting some old stuff over the break to keep things moving.

Last run...

I thought nine prints was a lot for one open lab... today I got twelve!!!

Used the technique I mastered last semester for the final printing days. Inked two plates, signed up for the press (there's always a line), then inked another plate while I waited. Printed the first two, new paper in the water bath (we can't put more than two in at a time), signed up to print, inked a plate while waiting, printed... rinse... repeat. I should've taken a picture of my inking station because it was the most epic inking station EVER!

IIRC, the twelve prints include:

• 2 'Rare Solace' in purples
• 2 'Swelling Disruptions' in orange-red
• 2 'For Science' in standard black
• 1 'For Science' in deep green
• 4 Cabbage in three color inks
• 1 Cabbage in blue

The Cabbage plate is the new soft-ground abstract drawing I did. 'Abstract' is relative. We had minestrone soup the night before and when I cut the tough stalk out of the cabbage I thought it looked cool. I wrapped it up and took it to class... drew and etched it that day. It's sort of intriguing. Actually, maybe I'll scan on of the proofs tonight. I took the Prof's advice on the inking colors and I don't know if I'm convinced it looks good. I liked it in black. And the blue looked nice today. *shrug* It's a minimal effort plate, so I'm not very attached.

That's it then! No more etching this year. Just signing prints and the portfolio review next Wednesday. Finishing up the HTML/CSS final stuff. My site is done, so only peer reviews and evaluations to do. I'm glad I stayed so on top of building that site all this time.

Winter break will be healing time for the fingers and some long awaited projects to complete! w00t!

We've lost an intellectual titan, provocative writer, and great voice of reason. I wish I could have met and thanked him.

Christopher Hitchens 1949-2011

Knowing that he was on his way out didn't soften the blow at all.

He will be dearly missed by this atheist.

Folding chairs are cool.

My fingers were cranky and then I went and drew a soft-ground abstract thing. My index finger is back to being a sausage and my middle finger is well on its way. I wanted to draw one more soft-ground plate, too, a hot air balloon similar to one I did for a recent commission. Since I can only balance tools/utensils between my thumb and palm... that probably won't happen. At this point, I'm looking at a future of web-design, because I can't keep killing my hand with drawing and painting.

So, while I wallow in finger-swelling misery for the last week of class, I'll post these. Did them during the painting class I took last year. We only had a model once I think. It's the only time I've ever painted the figure from life, which is kinda sad. Still pretty terrible at drawing/painting figures. Have never practiced enough. As far as my hand problem is concerned... I won't be getting more practice anytime soon.

Lots of red, since I tend to not use much red.

Something looser for fun.

 The striated blue background in the last one still annoys me... otherwise I kind of like that piece. I wish I could paint again. T___T

In regards to the previous post:
Went back and forth with a Blogger Help dude... eventually he suggested I contact Google Apps. Did that, but it's probably going to take forever to hear back. *sigh*

It would be so nice to have a functioning hand for the last printing lab on Friday.
Probably not going to happen.

Oh, and obviously the Republican candidates are a freakshow, but that 30 second ad by Rick Perry that's making the rounds... hoo boy!
Not sure if I've ever been so thoroughly repulsed by a person in such a short amount of time.

Saw a great response on Reddit. It deserves a re-post:

I'm not ashamed to say that I won't be voting for Rick Perry, but you don't have to tune in to CNN every evening to know that there's something wrong in this country when politicians can openly spew homophobic, unconstitutional rhetoric and still garner support. As citizens, let's end Perry's war on reason and tolerance, and fight against radical conservative attacks on our secular heritage. Separation of church and state made America strong, it can make her strong again.

 Word.

A backward glance...

My fingers were cranky and then I went and drew a soft-ground abstract thing. My index finger is back to being a sausage and my middle finger is well on its way. I wanted to draw one more soft-ground plate, too, a hot air balloon similar to one I did for a recent commission. Since I can only balance tools/utensils between my thumb and palm... that probably won't happen. At this point, I'm looking at a future of web-design, because I can't keep killing my hand with drawing and painting.

So, while I wallow in finger-swelling misery for the last week of class, I'll post these. Did them during the painting class I took last year. We only had a model once I think. It's the only time I've ever painted the figure from life, which is kinda sad. Still feel pretty terrible at drawing/painting figures. Have never practiced enough. As far as my hand problem is concerned... I won't be getting more practice anytime soon.







Went back a forth with a Blogger Help dude... eventually he suggested I contact Google Apps. Did that, but it's probably going to take forever to hear back. *sigh*

Unreal...

Just spent six hours... six solid hours trying to figure out the domain issue.

I got nowhere.

I'm totally exhausted. Getting any kind of help through blogger or google apps or anything else that is necessary to get things working... is apparently impossible. Never, in my whole life, have I come up against so many brick walls, infinite loops, and labyrinthine paths of non-information with technology.

Astounding.

I couldn't even post to the help forums because I got a pop-up limiting the characters in my post to 8129. Firstly, what kind of character limit is 8129? Secondly, my post was less than 1000 characters!!! I re-tried this on different accounts and reloaded browser windows and I got the same thing every time.

I need to access my DNS info at eNom. The way to do this is through Google Apps. I can't login to Google Apps because it requires a Username and Password that I never made because the process was automated through Blogger. I can't retrieve that information because (1) there isn't anything to go on and (2)it wants to send my info to a secondary e-mail account, which does precisely zilch. When I click through the option that 'I don't remember my secondary e-mail account' it sends me through a recursive loop, right back to the same problem.

Six hours of this. Six hours scouring various google searches and forum postings and articles.

I intended to go to bed early. It's now 5:23 am.
I could cry.

UPDATE: A day later... tried posting to the help forums from my mom's Mac and it didn't give me the character limit problem. Fingers crossed someone can help me out.

Great success...

...at the lab.

9 prints! 9!

"...and they call it a nine. A NINE!"

4 more Science editions, bringing my total to 11. Experimented with two transparent rolls on it. The first didn't have enough contrast. The second was interesting. Then printed those old abstract plates that I mentioned. The first caught a dip in the plate, but the next two were pretty awesome looking!!!

The weekend is for finishing HTML/CSS homework and another soft-ground drawing on a plate if I can make the time for it (and my fingers put up with the strain).

Domain should be AllisonClaire.net here pretty soon.
Giddyup.

Change in the air...

I should be in bed. 3:17am. Eep!

Printing lab in seven hours, which means I have to be awake in five. Been up all night figuring out blogs and potential website domains. The HTML/CSS class has definitely shoved me in the direction of trying to get a real site up for my work... in a more commercial sense. So, yeah. The domain will be changing here, among other things.

Left: Wild abstract plate that took four long acid baths with soft-ground and different things painted out. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. Printed one proof with orange, which was kind of interesting.

Right: Science plate edition!

The main reason I'm going to the open lab is to print this puppy. I think I'm at six so far. Should get four more... if I don't sleep through the lab hours. Must sleep! The goal is four more Science editions plus I want to try a transparent roll with it. A different look. AND THEN, if I have time (and some extra brain cells) I want to do a couple more iterations of those deep bite abstract prints I did in the Spring. I had a vision of rolling them up with pale gray and an orange linear gradient stripe... can't shake it until I try it. Might not work with ink, but it looked awesome in Photoshop. We'll see.

Need to update my Flickr photostream and put that to better use.
Aigoo, so much to do!

Oh, and my fingers are still problematic... I'm just... yeah... pretty fed up...

Thanksgiving was nice, by the way. ^^
Bedtime!