Midterms are Over!

      Yay! That means less stress right? Heh heh heh, umm, no. Life has still been crazy around here, though I guess the fact that I'm on here writing means it actually wasn't as crazy. But anyway, I have felt just as crazy. I did get 100 % on the midterm test that I had, so that is awesome, I got 9/10 on my dragon picture, so still pretty good, but I don't know what I got on my temple graphic. Unfortunately, I did not make it into the student show, but I guess that is good, because that means I don't really have to worry about the frame this weekend, I can go a little slower on it.
       After Midterms, we got to work on color! So much fun! Our professor has only been allowing us to use paint so far (because its the best for mixing your own color, so you can figure out relationships between colors. I am absolutely loving painting, even though I really have no clue as to what I am doing. My first images weren't horrible, they were definitely better than the first pictures I did for the class, but they weren't anything great either. Here are the redos.

They look so much better than the previous ones, you cannot even imagine. Let me put it this way... My professor was walking by, and I had the still life on top of the stack. He literally did a double take and then asked me if they were the same as they had been last time.  (Obviously I said no). He then had anyone who had redone their pieces put them up around the room. He asked (on mine) which one people like better, and though I sit in front and so didn't see the actual vote, it seemed that at least the vast majority voted for the still life (including me). He then started talking about how I had made it believable because of the shadow (of the goblet) because it isn't one flat color, but changes based on the color of what it is falling on. He kept referring back to my piece multiple times as he then explained our next assignment. I was way excited and proud of  myself. He's told me that my pieces were getting better, but he's never used it as an example, or done anything to make me think they were actually good before. (And yes, his definition of good will be different than anyone reading this, because he's been painting for 30 years, so its a matter of comparison. His good is different from good compared to stick figures. ;) So, it felt great to have him do things that made me think he may actually have considered it somewhere approaching good.  Anyway, here is a closeup on the still life, but because of the light reflecting off the paint you can't see all the detail (sorry) on the stem of the goblet.

Anyway, moving on... Here is a picture of the start of my next (and probably last until I take a painting class) painting. Points to whomever can guess what it will be (with details).

 

I must say, I had great fun just slopping the paint on there this morning. It was also fun to learn what colors go well together. So, those colors will be my basic color scheme, but this is what is technically called the underpainting. It will be completely painted over. 

     So, with all of this craziness has come the time to register for classes for the summer. Well, the scheduling for one of the classes I would need to take didn't mix well with our scheduling, so we had to really sit down and talk it through. We decided that I need a full break, so I will not be taking classes over the summer. It will make it so it takes an extra semester to be able to apply to the Illustration program, but I took on way too much this semester, so I have been burning myself out. So it will definitely be very nice to have that break, but I am hoping that I do keep drawing and painting over the summer, and don't just get caught up on everything around the house and all my projects. (Though that all does need to get done too.)

And then, just cause she's adorable, we have a very cute picture of Jessica wearing her sunglasses.