First week of classes, complete!

I can’t believe we’re already finished with the first week of classes, and that week number two, which is short because of Labor Day, starts tomorrow! Classes are going really well, but I can’t believe how much outside of class drawing/sketching work I’m going to be doing this semester. I have two classes back to back on MWF: Theatrical Rendering and Costume Design. They’re great classes, and they’re both essentially art/drawing classes, but they are two totally different concepts! Rendering (right now, at least) is about drawing from what we see, not from our imaginations, so our renderings become more true-to-life and representative of what we’re trying to portray. Design is the total opposite, and we’re currently just sketching up quick thumbnails from our imaginations. The fact that they’re back-to-back is driving me a little bonkers, since I have to make a huge mental shift artistically in the ten minutes between classes.

Never before have I done a still life. Can I admit that? That being said, it was incredibly intimidating when she set up this pile of things in front of us and basically said, “Draw it.” I don’t think I did too terribly, for a first time still-lifer, and I’m particularly proud of the shading on the hat. Again, forgive me for the terrible image quality. Still haven’t gotten the camera setup figured out since the move, but that’ll be coming soon.

The rest of my drawings for that class have been in this vein. Lots of cubes, spheres, cylinders, and cones.

I’ve done a few assignments in my design class based on the above image. It’s some hanging wisteria in a garden in Japan, and I love the colors and the texture! One of my fellow grads, Megan, actually found the photo for me online, and I’m super grateful.

One of our assignments was to design a hat, and I really like the idea of using French net to mimic the trellis, then using a piece of black wire mesh as an anchor for the flowers trailing down off the pillbox. I need to do a final rendering of this, though, since this is just a rough sketch with some colored pencil.

Next is a shoe I’m really excited about—I wish I could actually produce it! I don’t have any color in it yet, but I see a dark grey silk dupioni as the base, with some black mesh over the front, and purple faux flowers trailing down from the heel area. I still need to pull together some rough sketches for a couple of period outfits, a haute couture outfit, and a surface textile. I took a little bit too much of a break over the weekend, so I’ve got a lot of drawing to do tomorrow to have these ready for Wednesday’s class, but I’m really excited to do the work.

Speaking of things that have kept me busy, my birthday was last Thursday! We have a chalkboard in the grad office where we have all of our birthday written, so on Thursday, my friend Randall circled the date, and drew a star next to my name so everyone would notice. (The fact that I brought in homemade cookies for everyone didn’t help at all… nope…) When I came in the next morning, I found this on the chalkboard:

I’m still not entirely sure who wrote it, but I think it’s super cute, and it made me smile. =) We’ll see how long it stays up there….

I got quite a few nice gifts, along with some money I’m really excited to put towards a new computer that’ll be a little bit better suited to my design work. I also got some gift cards to some of my favorite stores, so I hope to have these in my wardrobe in the next couple of weeks:

I’ve been looking for a pair of boots to fit my skinny calves for ages, and I think I might have found a pair—wish me luck! Also, this “vegan leather” jacket from Express has been on my wish list forEVER!

At any rate, classes and life are treating me pretty darn well, I must say! I’m a little bummed that J didn’t get the role he was auditioning for recently, but he had a fantastic audition anyway, which is always something to be proud of. And now I’ll leave you with a photo of the dog Jesse got me for my birthday, since we’ve both wanted a puppy forever…

Ciao, all!