Sunflower
 | I’ve recently discovered an awesome feature of my gallery plugin, NextGEN Gallery, which allows me to display single images, and to prevent the layout from looking all screwy, I have to write a lot about the picture (not a bad thing, I guess). So here goes my first try.
This is the first page of my mini-comic, Sunflower. My markers were super fresh before I started… Panel 1 established my motif of the shadow people, part looking awesome and part me being too lazy to draw so many people in detail. I don’t like how Sunflower looks in this panel. Too much like a blow-up doll. Eww. I’m very happy with panel 2, except for the bottom black square. I couldn’t think of anything more interesting to put there. Panel 3 was pretty fun, and I got to use my oft-neglected airbrush. |
| I got a bit lazy on panel 1 of page 2. I’ll admit it. I dont think it takes that much away. I probably could’ve put some sort of indication of a background in like I did in the previous panel. The next panel I also like. I think I got the perspective and western-y feel down. The next 2 combined panels got messed up because I didn’t use a drafting T (you know what I’m talking about) and I forgot I was putting the 2 together so the perspective on the awning got screwed. I could’ve fixed it with Photoshop if I wasn’t going to show it off less than 24 hours from when I scanned this. |  |
 | Page 3 is the most…simple. I had a bit of trouble planning out exactly how many panels I needed to draw and what orientation each was. Despite this, I think the top panel came out very well. The perspective isn’t perfect, but I think it has a very “Fistful of Dollars” sorta feel to it. I don’t think it’s sup apparent that Morning Glory saw Moonflower earlier. The lower panel was when I really started to rush with this project. You can tell because there are large black spaces and Morning Glory has a noodle arm. |
| The top double panel on page 4 more or less killed one of my favorite markers. Luckily I only used it on half of the page. The right half is fairly obvious Photoshop computer magics. I thought it would be funny to give the cowboys swords (even though Moonflower isn’t much of a cowboy.) The sceond panel took me a while because I’ve never really drawn a skeleton before. I was ruching at this point and didn’t pay so much attention. I think it made it look sorta cartoony like Mexican Cinco de Mayo skeletons. Which is fine by me. |  |
| This was a great experience, but next time I do it, I for sure won’t use markers. It kills them too fast. |
Choosing a College
This post is mostly me writing down my thoughts.
All of my college application results are in as of today. I came up 3 for 4, accepted to Oregon, Puget Sound, and MCAD and rejected from CU. I’ve heard about financial aid from everyone but MCAD, but should be getting information by the end of the week.
These 3 schools are all incredibly different. Oregon is a fairly large state school, Puget Sound is a smallish liberal arts school and MCAD is a very small art school. I know that Oregon is about the same cost as Puget Sound with all the aid applied, and, for the sake of argument, I’ll assume that MCAD also comes out roughly the same. This does not by any means make my choice any easier. Because price won’t vary much, it is not really a factor any more. I need to weigh these schools based almost entirely on what I’ll get out of them.
I never actually wanted to apply to Oregon. My parents made me. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad school by any means. It’s more or less CU away from home. I don’t know if that’s a good thing though. Eugene is supposedly the same thing as Boulder, and I’ve grown sick of this place in the last while. The school is more personal than CU, but that’s not saying too much. I can do well in just about any social setting, but I have a hard time seeing myself in a big university setting. Oregon has a vary varied class offering, and, being a west coast school, good Japanese program. Like CU, I’m expecting a lackluster art program taught by TAs and grad students. I’ll find out when I tour later this month. I thin the bottom-line thing I’ll get from this school is a very academic education.
Puget Sound, I hear, is an amazing place. I have friends from school and camp who will be going there for sure. I’m a rain guy, weather isn’t a big deal for me. However, I’m very unsure of their art program since they’re a small liberal arts school. I toured Macalester, a similar school and was very disappointed in their art facilities. I’ll find out more once I tour, of course. Puget Sound is very into bonding and stuff. I think it’s a great place for “finding yourself” and whatnot, but I’m not positive it’ll give me the right kind of education for me. I’m not sure I’d like to end up in Tacoma after college. I think the bottom-line thing I’ll get from this school is a “great experience”.
MCAD has for a while been my top choice. I had to convince my parents to let me apply to any art schools, and I’m glad I did. I really like the Twin Cities, and would be very happy to end up there after college. everyone in minnesota is really nice. The faculty is made up of practicing professionals, which I really like, because I don’t want to be taught by TAs or grad students. MCAD is just shy of 1000 students, some of which are obviously weird artsy kids. That’s ok with me, and I have a lot of other friends in the cities. I want to continue studying Japanese in college, and I can do that at Macalester while attending MCAD. I very much like the way they go about teaching you over four years and that you have to have an internship as a senior. MCAD by far has the nicest facilities for art, though small. I’m a bit uncertain about the size of the school pertaining to social life, as well as academic roundedness. The bottom-line thing I think I’ll get from this school is experience and practice.
It comes down to three things: Academic education, finding myself, and practical experience.
My dad once told me I should go to the hardest school I can, compete against everyone and try to be the best no matter what and be a CEO or something. I think I could do this at Oregon. The thing is, I’m not really a competitive person and I don’t want to be a CEO or anything. It’s very important to find yourself and whatnot, but I’m not sure college is the right place to do it for me. I can always take a year off for that. I’m sure I would come out of Puget Sound with a great experience and a good deal of wisdom, but I don’t know about getting a job out of there. I tell myself a lot that I want to become a great artist, and the best way to do that, I think, is to draw/paint/etc a lot. MCAD would force me to do that. I have a minor fear that’ I’ll get sick of it at some point. Surely MCAD will be the best opportunity for art and practical experience in it, and it probably won’t be so hard getting a job with a degree there. MCAD would give me a very good taste of living on my own as well. MCAD seems to me like just the kind of change of pace I need in a college because the others seem a lot more like extensions of high school (especially CU, but I don’t need to worry about that.)
As of right now, I’m favoring MCAD. I can’t really make a fair judgement until I’ve received financial aid information from them and toured Oregon and Puget Sound later this month.
I’m not dead.
Figured I’d let you guys know what’s what.
I got into MCAD, as many of you know. You can see my portfolio right here if you want. I don’t think I’m going to get into Puget Sound because I am just about to send them stuff. A month late. My bad. On the bright side I will be ACTUALLY done with college crap.
Graduating is another story. I’m short credits. In gym. So I’m taking jogging. Online.
Nuff said.
Holiday Comissions
Hey guys. I find myself short on cash, so I’m pulling out my usual trick: COMMISSIONS! Hooray!
Prices are as follow:
Lines: $5 Color (markers): $10 Full pencil: $30 Painting: $40
In order by how long they take. No guarantees about how long it’ll take, but Ill try to have them done by the end of the year.
Thanks!
Making an Action Figure
So I was browsing DeviantART as I’m prone to doing, and I noticed this awesome custom action figure of Metroid’s Samus Aran. Instantly I was reminded of the days when my goal in life was to design toys. Inspired, I decided I would make an action figure. I started the most obvious way; asking the guy on DeviantART how he starts. Luckily, he responded really quickly telling me about a product called Chavant NSP-Hard, which is an oil based clay that must be heated to work with, and pointed me to the place I could buy the stuff. (People on DA are nice!)
So I’m going for an action figure here, not a lame, stuff model. To see how the parts go together, I looked to my own toy box from back in the day and found 2 great, basic figures of the blue Power Ranger and Spiderman:
I think Spiderman will come in handy later when I’m actually modeling the figure (I still haven’t decided what it will be yet…). The Power Ranger is useful because it is held together with screws so I can take it apart. Which I did:
Now I know how to make the actual joints, even if that doesn’t actually happen until you’re done with the basic model.
More on this endeavor later.
A rant on bomb threats.
So Boulder High received another bomb threat (if writing on a bathroom wall constitutes a bomb threat), which makes it 3 in 2 years I think. As a result, the administration is forcing us not to carry and bags of any kind to school tomorrow, which I obviously find ridiculous. It’s despicable that people would sink so low just for some attention. The worst part of it all, in my opinion, is that the school reacts by giving these people attention. The point of this small form and all other forms of terrorism is the make the target fearful, and doing so lets the terrorist become the victor automatically, whether or not there is actually any real bomb.
On the other hand, I would be a little put off if the administration publicly acknowledged these threats and then took no action. It’s a hard situation to deal with.
I would also like to point out that the school is too spread out to either shoot up or bomb the entirety of.
Portfolio Time, Children
Just a lil’ update about what the heck I’m up to.
I’m starting to put together my portfolio for colleges. I’m going to put it on a CD in Coudal’s awesome Jewelboxing system with some fancy HTML gallery stuff (if I can remember how to do HTML… even though most of it I know was out of date in the mid 90s) and possibly using Cabel’s sweet FancyZoom.
The big thing in my portfolio I’m working on right now is a sequence I call “Sunflower”. More on it later.
Sing Me a Story
Hey everyone there in Internetland, Mason Sklar here. You’ve no doubt come here from Ged’s blog at gedblog.com and his Sing Me a Story thing. So without further delay, here I go.
1. Synchronicity II - The Police
Not only does Synchronicity II contain a message about the environment, it’s insanely catchy. I get this song stuck in my head for days at a time sometimes.
2. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da - The Beatles
Life goes on, ah! This song is probably in my top 10 Beatles songs. There’s no better way to describe it than just a straight up happy story.
3. Alchemists - Dolman
Dolman is a really tiny indie artist, which is odd for me because I really don’t listen to many. My brother turned me on to this guy’s only CD, which is mostly more on the mellow side, but this track is a welcome exception. When I first heard this song, I was reminded of The White Stripes. The song is about, as the title suggests, alchemists, and how people aren’t appreciated until they’re useful. You can listen to the song on Dolman’s Myspace here.
4. Two of Us - The Beatles
What can I say? I’m a Beatles guy. I don’t actually like this song as much as “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”, but I like the story better, probably because it reminds me of coming home from visiting my friend Galen in London with my friend Austin (who is also writing a post for this). That’s a great thing about the song, it sounds like some sort of love song, but it never really mentions love, just getting back home and taking your time going it.
5. Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens
Stevens tells a compelling story about a boy and his girl friend who had bone cancer and how it affected their relationship until her early death. This song’s story could be turned into a movie even, a movie with a great banjo part.
Stories have always played a very important part in music. This list is but one man’s opinions on some of the best. I hope you enjoyed it.
Last day
My last actual full day in Japan is tomorrow.
Today I went into Kokura again for the second time and my final train ride. I went to Riverwalk and that crazy strip mall place. In a music store I met a nice gaijin from Virginia named Eddie. We talked about music theory for a bit, and he suggested a music store where I might be able to find a cello. I found the store, but they had no cellos. Oh well.
At Riverwalk I finished up my shopping for people.
Tonight we had sushi for dinner at the kind of place with the conveyor belt. Is it a measure of convenience or cheapness to have the belt move as slowly as it does? The sushi was good though.
Tomorrow I plan on taking a final bikeventure around Yukuhashi and buying a few drinks such as melon cream soda to take back. If there was one Japanese drink I could make readily availible in the US, it would be that.
The day after tomorrow I have a really killer travel day. I go from Kitakyushu airport to Haneda, then on a bus to Narita, from Narita to San Franciso and finally to Denver. I arrive at the same time on the same day that I leave. Confusing.
Wrapping it up
I have less than a week left in Japan, time to start wrapping things up (literally and figuratively.)
Tomorrow is my last day at school, and my last day in Art Club. I have to try and finish a painting I started today… I have to get all my textbooks back to my teachers. I accumulated a ton of papers here, which I’m saving for the senior paper drop (woo). Most importantly, I have to clean my room. There’s stuff everywhere. Toward the middle of next week I’ll start packing and weighing bags. The weight limit is like 20kg per bag I think. I have no idea where I stand now.
Today I met my host sister An who lives away for school. Neither of us said much, but I gave her my 3rd Colorado shirt. The last one I’m leaving here for Takanoshin when he gets back from Oregon some time next year.
It’s all very sad.
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