For Science!

Drawing drawing drawing drawing...

Lots of drawing happening recently. My method of finger-taping is thus far keeping things fully functional and therefore inspiring a lot of work. Multiple plates taking shape, multiple drawings, sketches for paintings, and projects ongoing. I'm in over my head, but for the first time in a long time--it feels really good.

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This is the idea I'm building for my 'Science' plate, minus the color I added in Photoshop. It might be too daunting to make it an etching, but I would like to try. I still want a DNA double-helix in there, so there will be some erasing and re-drawing before I move to metal. It would likely need a line etch first for the linear stuff, soft-ground drawing for everything else, and an aquatint with super careful stopping out to get what I want. Eek.

The Shamisen drypoint is going well. She has some simple background architecture behind her now and a few alterations. We started doing a pale yellow-ish transparent roll on the plates to give a slightly Chine-collé effect. The prints look great. Our Prof was feeling restless about the double-drop with aquatint color and decided to forfeit that part of the project. I'm alright with that. Ha. I'll scan one of my Shamisen editions next week.

Lots to do this weekend. Drawingdrawingdrawing and the first quarter of my HTML/CSS class is wrapping up, which means coding my site for the final. The recent rain has also uplifted my mood, but the forecast-ed sun for the week will also be helpful as I walk to and from class with plates and art stuff.

The King Ridge GranFondo was lovely. Volunteering at packet pick-up late Friday night and Saturday morning (4am) was hard. Half an hour of sleep between those shifts and the overall fast-paced social blitz were brutal on me. Haven't come down with a cold from it yet, but it really wouldn't surprise me. It was fun watching thousands of cyclists take off at the start though! As long as I'm able I'll keep volunteering for the Fondo. Great event.

Oh yeah... my 23" monitor is so glorious I can't even describe it. I have essentially doubled my workable screen area. It's incredible. *weeps with joy*

Peace.
じゃね！

Copper love...

Weeeeeeeeeee!!!
I've taken four prints so far. The burr is standing strong, which bodes well as I more forward. Some background to add. Then the transfer onto the second plate, aquatint, and color decisions. Double-drop headaches beyond that.

Since I've found a method of taping my fingers that seems to prevent my swelling problems... I am a lot more inspired to work. Or at least I'm not as scared as I was.
I have three 'braincrack' plates sucking up grey matter.

• 'For science!'. A high contrast twist on the Tree of Life.
• 'Flight'. To a child, a large box is conveyer to every surreal landscape imaginable.
• 'Regatta'. A steampunk vision inspired by the yearly, local, and upcoming Handcar Regatta.

All three require a lot of drawing time. I would be happy if I could finish at least ONE of them before the end of the semester.

Getting a new 23" monitor for the computer. Excited!

Diablo III is in beta. So jealous watching some testers uploading gameplay videos. Eeee!
Too many projects going all at once. Needing to sprint to keep up. I might be headed for a youtube-worthy faceplant, but I'll just forge ahead anyhow!

<3

In Heaven

...
Eyeballs are swimming and... yeah...

Probably the hardest part of watching it is knowing what inspired Jaejoong to write the song in the first place. While recording in LA in 2010, he spoke to his good friend Yongha on the phone. Yongha offered they should go out for drinks when Jaejoong got back to Korea. Yongha killed himself the next day.
An experience similar to this affected my own family early this year.
No judgements here. Suicide is brutal... from every angle.
Shared by many survivors, including Jaejoong, is the feeling that if you could go back in time, you would never leave their side. You would change things. You would treat them differently. You would do... something. If only you knew.
Sometimes you can't know, but even that doesn't throw off the burden and grief.

No more about that.

In Heaven: The album is lovely, honest, personal, and very much outside-the-box as far as the Kpop industry is concerned. We'll see if any broadcasters step up and allow them to perform on TV. Junsu's acting is pretty adorable in the video. Jihyo is gorgeous and well-cast. Very pleased with the way it's shot, the colors, the pacing, etc. The Gregorian chant bit in the intro is a nice addition, too. Apparently, there will be a 10 minute long version released. Not sure if that's a rumor. Regardless... lovely. 300,000 preorders on the first day. Unheard of. After two years of hell--it's a good time to be a JYJ fan.

Playtime...

Semester #50281347538485
Fall '11
First project for etching is a copper/zinc duet. Drypoint on copper with either the theme of work or the theme of play. We will ink the drypoint and print it right onto the zinc. Drypoint the zinc a bit and eventually aquatint it to block in color... and double drop for the edition. Double dropping scares the bejeebus outta me. XD

Totally uninspired for the project, I browsed the interwebz and flikr. Found some lovely vintage Japanese photographs. Rather liked this woman playing shamisen. Trying to figure out who the original photographer is. Some related images were Tamamura, but I don't think this was.

Above left: raw scan of my copper plate after one session of the scratchy scratchy.
Above right: reversed and inverted in Photoshop to get a sense of where I am.

Still a lot more to do, but I'll take the first proof on Monday and keep at it. Still terrified of double dropping. I haven't even done a proper aquatint yet. Eeeeeeee.

Also taking HTML/CSS online. I guess we're building our student server site for two quarter classes. Decided to make my topic on etching since I'm up to my eyeballs in it anyway. Lately been working with a musician on album art... drawing hot air balloons. I might do a simple/different version for myself and make a soft-ground etch out of it. Mostly just loving the coding process. Tedious Allison loves tedium. And I'm almost choked on my drink when I opened a classmate's site. His topic is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Brony alert!

Parallel parking is fja;9i3edmkmcvaeeesfmvneie guh.

JYJ's album releasing on September 15th! Guess who already pre-ordered! Yeeeaaaahhh!

Each time 9/11 comes around my atheism surges and I have to watch beautiful things to calm myself down. Like this...



Love.