Illustration Model

In my illustration class that I go to way more often than I planned to, we're building model rooms to photograph for reference. We were supposed to pick a room that was the scene of an emotionally impressive moment in our lives, so that we're invested in the scene and will therefore be invested in our drawings. I chose something that happened in the living room of the apartment Rachel and I shared on Evergreen St., the night before we moved out - therefore it's pretty empty. I'm not done yet - and these are really (really) shitty photos, but I wanted to get this up here before I forgot.






I've still got to make a boombox, papasan chair and light out of clay - then the figures.

New Project

In Letterform Anatomy today Joe gave us all rolls of tuppence to work on. This was awesome (especially he gave me two extras to take home!). I decided to do some free writing and I ended up with a sweet little story/poem/rhyme - don't ask where it came from, it just did. Here are photos of the scroll, and below that is the edited/completed text that I finished tonight.

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A nightingale once said to me,

“in time, my dear,
wait and you will see,
your heart will shine,
as once before,
and while I can not promise
nevermore, for a while
at least, your tears shall be cured.”

As time went by, my head hung low, I waited for a sign to show. A little key to prove her right, to bring her prophesy to light. I went about my daily tasks, doing my best to stay unmasked. For the nightingale, she also said,

“I know my dear,
as you do tend, to keep
your life up in your head.
Your face, it shows
contentment yes, while
really what you feel’s a mess.
Restless, darling, as you
may be, I think it’s time for
them to see, what’s in your head,
upon your face, and only then
may you find grace.”

And so I took her words to heart, believing if I did my part, keeping my face (heart) honest and true, that someday, oh, I would find you. And thus I went about my days, relating to people in different ways, taking comfort in honesty, letting myself, well, just be.

Quickly, though, it did not come, a change, a shift, had begun. Where once my days, they had been cold, a bright new warmth I now did hold. No longer did I feel the need, to find myself part of a ‘we’. Content I was, truly this time, on my own, for I did find, the nightingale, her words were true,

“the most important company to find is you.”

It was then, and only then, that I saw you there. You came to me as in a dream, for now I was prepared, to love someone as once before, no longer was I scared. For the nightingale, taught me she, in order to find your care, that I must find, for myself, that which must be bared. And as my eyes, open now, found your pensive gaze, I heard her words, so clearly now, over once again,

“And once he comes,
for you will know,
as if the world did bend,
to bring you two together then,
and draw you hand to hand.
Your love will grow with strength, with hope,
and with honesty, for at this point,
you will have become
what you are meant to be.”

_____________________________________________

I think i'm going to keep working with this because I like the text and I think it'd be fun/good practice to write it out and sort of illuminate it. I'm going to keep working with the scroll because it's awesome, and I want to do really ornate initial letters and illuminated borders. I think it could be pretty awesome when I'm done - although I have very little idea how to do it all. Time to stick my nose back in those books about illuminated manuscripts...

In Her Presence

School starts up again tuesday and while I haven't done much new work recently, I thought i'd post a project or two that I hope to finish up during this coming semester. If all works according to plan, this should be my last semester of my undergraduate career (WHAT?!? WOOP!!!), and after many long, painstaking, difficult (read, easy and willy nilly) years, I will be really glad to finally have my BFA.

Anyways, here's a project I started at least 2 years ago. A long time ago, I was hanging out on the internet and stumbled across this picture.


It's a photo of Bill Callahan and Joanna Newsom, taken while they were dating. This photo struck me for a bunch of reasons, but the two most prominent being: why would someone take a photo of these two? and, the chemistry between them is melting me. Yeah, to someone like me, seeing Bill Callahan and Joanna Newsom would be pretty wild and exciting, and I guess someone with a pap-sort of mind would snap this photo - but the fact that someone like that would stumble upon this couple and have the chance to take the photo just seems so unlikely. But more than anything, this picture made my heart beat fast and made me think of another photo I had seen of Bill Callahan, that was taken by Joanna Newsom. It's this one:


The first time I saw this picture, it also killed me. The look on his face is stunning; he's looking directly at her, enveloped in her shadow, the two of them trying to get some album photo out of the way, most likely not realizing how much emotion is conveyed through the snapshot they made.

So, I started searching for more photos of the two of them together, or that one took of the other. I understand that not everyone will see and feel what I do in these photos, and I know that my love for both of these musicians (especially Bill), and my heart-filled-dream-head that loves intense firey love is what draws me to these images and shows me what I want to see. But I saw it and I wanted more.

So, I started searching and found a bunch of photos - some more that Joanna had taken of Bill, but more than that, photos of the two of them playing together or photos of him playing while she was in the audience on backstage. I was interested in images of him primarily, for a thousand reasons (he's a hunk, i'm in musiclove with him, his music has governed/guided/soundtracked dozens of the most important interactions and experiences of my life, etc etc etc) Each photo I found made me feel the same way, and I realized I wanted to make a book based on them.

I started doing tracings of the photos. So far, I've only done three. These are them:






I want to print the photos full bleed, double sided. Not sure how I want to bind it yet. SMFA has an incredible printer that can do exactly what I want it to do, and will allow me to print on all different types of papers. It'd be fun to print on tracing paper, to almost exactly recreate the originals, but tracing paper is so hard to work with when binding. I don't know how it'll all pan out, but I really want to get this project done before I leave school, so I can take advantage of the facilities there. The title of the book will be In Her Presence.

Pattern Cassettes

Three scans of the pattern cassette's I posted a while ago. The first tape was tweaked in photoshop, but only by changing the saturation. Really love how these look scanned.