Gallery 303 is open! And my stuff is hanging up there!

They're out of order, though. I just wrote the staff an email about how important it is for the labels to correlate with the pieces (and for them to spell "Paksenarrion" right), and we'll see what happens. I have half a mind to correct the label with a pen, and rehang the pictures myself. ^^;;

The show should be up until April 28th or so, and the Gallery is in the HFAC, directly across from the ticket office. Go see it!!! And tell me what you think!!

My BFA is now scanned, matted, framed, and signed into the gallery, awaiting hanging. What a load off my chest! Now I feel like skipping class and going home to sleep. Or maybe that's the stupid cold talking.

But I can't. I have 5 more heads to do to break even this month. And they're due tomorrow. And I *can't give up* this time!!! (What about the piece that's due today? I feel strangely not-worried about it. And because I'm lazy and exhausted and sick, I'm going to go with that.)

The book on tape I have right now is the beginning of "Wuthering Heights", and I'm reluctant to go back and put it on because the narrator talks too fast and I can't just chill while I'm listening. :( I wish the school library had a better selection.

I knew I'd feel better if I slept on it. And "After the Fall" helped, too.

Here's the plan:
Work for about an hour, to make sure there are people at the framing desk in the Bookstore. Or I can call over there to check. Clock out, run to the studio, get the glass/backing and take them to the Bookstore to get cut. Back to the studio, unmat the pieces, take them to the print lab and scan them (got my jump drive in my pocket so I don't forget), remat them, take them and the frames all over to the Bookstore, and have them put them together for me. Must remember all the little metal pieces that came with them. I imagine they'll charge me for cutting and labor, and probably a rush fee. But that's not too bad, because at least they won't charge any materials. Have them ready at 1:00, which is about when I'll get out of my meeting with Bethanne (maybe we'll actually talk about the paper this time). Then I'll go back to work and work until noon. One hour or so won't hurt my paycheck too bad.

And classes? I kind of don't care. In fact, I forgot my book for Japanese, after reminding myself several times last night that I needed to put it in my backpack. Too late now - I'm not going home to get it. I probably won't be home until 9 or 10 tonight, because I need that time to paint, to have enough heads for Don's class tomorrow. (I keep thinking today is Thursday, when they're due, and my mind panics because I don't have them all ready yet. Gaah. That's what happens when I try thinking ahead. I get disoriented.)

But for now, I'm at work, and everything is fine. I love work. Work has never been a refuge before, but here I know what I'm supposed to do, and nobody keeps me from doing it.

Today started out so well!! I had a lovely time at work, got a lot done, read several chapters of a great KotOR fic (thanks for your recommendation, miss_marion!).. Devotional was great. Got off work and went to the studio, spent four hours or so fixing up my BFA pieces, which are due to the gallery tomorrow, MATTED and FRAMED and ready to hang. (No big deal, right? I've got the mats and the frames and the backing already.. WRONG!)

( Cut for angry, angry ranting )

Seriously, could tomorrow get any worse?? *cries!*

And now I have a cold. And it stinks.

I'm going to read After the Fall until I feel better, than read scriptures and stinkin' go to bed.

I'm frustrated now. Not because my fingers are sore from scraping dry(ish) oil paint off my palette. Not because my class tonight is cancelled. Not because the lady at the library waived my overdue fine ($9! it would have been.. 3 books, due Friday). And not even because when I finally picked my mats up at the Bookstore, the window was almost 1/4" off from the specifications and it's going to make the job more complicated to fit it.

No, I'm frustrated because I was just informed that entries for the Annual Student Show were due Friday, *period*, and I've missed my chance to win money for Paksenarrion. I was under the impression (I believe I interrogated my teacher for clarification on this point) that if the piece was a BFA piece, it had until the 29th to be entered in the Student Show. Apparently he mixed it up with entries for the Senior BFA Show, which gets *displayed* concurrently. Really, that's the only reason I didn't enter it; I thought I had another week and a half.

Curse this disorganization!!!!!!!!!!


[EDIT] I've mentioned this to Dena, and she said that I was right. According to *her* understanding, we just have to pay the entrance fee to have our BFA work considered in the judging. Phew. That makes me feel better. (And if she ends up being wrong, too, at least I'm not the only one who thought that.)

Sandy is saved!!! I am so glad I didn't paint her out!

I talked to Brother Hull today during class, and he went through my BFA pieces and gave me feedback on them. (Bethanne would have told me what the consensus was, but I got to work late and then stayed late to make up for it, *totally* spaced our meeting (that we've been having every week all semester), and thus, miraculously, was obliged to get the information from Hull, who's a mite more dependable. Truly the Lord works in mysterious ways.) Anyway, there was plenty for me to change, but they're mostly small details that need to be addressed. I asked him about Elf Defense and its design, explaining what Bethanne had said, and he said that it didn't bother him much, nor did it seem to bother Brother Barrett, who's the associate dean. That's two against one, to say nothing of credibility. Life is happy. ^_^

And to make things even better, LJ has just announced that paid accounts now get 30 userpics instead of the usual 15!! I have TONS of room for KotOR icons! Yay!!!!!

Still high on KotOR.

I spent a good portion of my work time the last couple of days looking through fanart. Normally I'm not a fan of fanart (teehee), or fanfic, for various random reasons. One of them is that unless I'm really grounded in it, I have a hard time keeping canon straight from fandom. But I guess there comes a time - such as the long wait between games - when a fan needs the support of other fans and fan-created material to help with the withdrawal.

I've joined Kotor Fan Media and its LJ community, and I'll be putting up my first fancomic page up soon. I've just finished penning it, and I'm about to retrieve my eraser from my locker to take care of the pencil lines. I've also come to a painful realization during my gluttony of KotOR fancomics: my sense of layout and staging is CRAP!!!!! I know composition isn't my strong point. But still.. ouch. Anybody have a resource I can go to, something I can read or look at to help me fix this problem? (Yes, btw, I have taken a composition class, but it was four years ago, and taught by one of the fine art faculty, which gives me no practical application to illustration. Our faculty realize there's a discrepancy, and have sometimes taught the core art classes (like composition and color theory) themselves, but it goes back to the eternal problem of not having enough faculty for the students. It's an old issue, and there seems to be nothing we can do about it.)

Small world - there was a thread in the KFM forum about how some of the KotOR crew look like their voice actors. I thought, "Hey, that's interesting - I wonder who else does?" So I hopped on to IMDB. The first character on the list was Disciple, and I looked him up, and *surprise* he does NOT look like his voice actor. In fact, I recognized his actor instantly as "that hot officer in Pirates of the Caribbean whose name I could never figure out because his character doesn't have a name." He's the one who says to Norrington, as Jack and Will sail away with the Interceptor (right?), "That's got to be the best pirate I've ever seen." To which Norrington grudgingly replies, "So it would seem." So, yeah! Greg Ellis plays Disciples voice, and he's hot. ^_^ (*does happy dance*)

(Also, as long as I'm writing news about the Disciple.. I found out yesterday that he has a name.. >.< How did I not notice? Apparently it's only mentioned twice in the whole game, and only if you play the male Exile. Which I have yet to do. But yeah, it's Mical. Don't ask me how it's pronounced, cuz I don't know. But I'm pretty embarassed that I've been playing this game about 9 months and I never heard that.)

In other news: My BFA pieces are being reviewed as I write this. Or maybe they're done by now, but I don't get off work for a bit. The review was this morning, anyway. I'll keep you posted.

In other other news: I had a rough time waking up this morning, and as a result I forgot all accessories but my glasses. No belt, no earrings, no watch. I feel naked.

I should make more KotOR icons.

I've been, well.. just.. mad.. I guess, for the last couple of days. I should just get over it, but I'm having a hard time. I went to the library yesterday and checked out a couple of books because I think I needed an escape from this reality where I just feel trapped.

I think the problem is that I had scheduling things pretty much figured out - as soon as I turned in the BFA stuff I could start painting head studies again (I'd *counted* on it, since I made Don a deal that I would make up the numbers during this second half of the semester, because I would be done with BFA), and actually finish that a cappella commission, and do the other three paintings I have for Hull's class, and get the comic going again, and get to a couple of other minor commissions that have come in, and *SEARCH/APPLY FOR JOBS*!!! Stuff I've been continually putting off because I was concentrating on BFA.

And now the teachers are finally telling us what's going on. They've moved the initial BFA deadline from today to Tuesday, because of scheduling conflicts with the reviewing professors. (Which means Bethanne WILL be there after all, which means I have to do *something* with Elf Defense..) And then they'll give us feedback in the form of, "These will be accepted dependant on x changes." Which we then have two weeks or so to make. The show isn't until March 29th, and will include BFA work from *all* visual arts disciplines, not just illustration. Which I guess makes more sense, but it would have been nice to give people the right information.

So I feel like it's dragging on and on and on and I'm frustrated that I can't seem to get a rest! I NEED to get back to my other classes! And I've been working at this stuff for so long, putting off the rest of LIFE to keep the intensity up, that I'm burnt out and fast becoming not only disinclined, but incapable of giving more.

I don't know what to do about it. I've been taking breaks, but it hasn't helped me rejuvenate. It just makes me feel guilty for not working, which makes me feel the crunch even more, which makes me panic and need to escape. Sigh.. It would be nice if I could talk to my advisor about this kind of thing, get some encouragement, but I've come to the impression that it wouldn't help. Maybe I just needed to vent about it, write it out so I can order it in my head, since I feel a little better already. Maybe I need some KotOR.

Mondays suck.

I don't have much to say today, yet. And I'm pretty tired, still. (Whoa, 9:00 on the dot?)

( Weekend recap )

So, since my BFA paintings are due soon, I'm starting to think about the paper that I'll have about a month to write. (I asked Bethanne about it last week, and she said something about that it wasn't a big deal, I could whip it out in a week! And I thought, "!!!!" I guess my classmates are right, that those who have her are lucky because she probably won't even read it. But I still want to do a good job!) I'm thinking I want to write about author/illustrators, since I want to do both. But as far as non-children's book fantasy goes, I can only think of a few people who do that. One is M. M. Kaye, who wrote The Ordinary Princess, and had also illustrated with gorgeous color plates as well as black and white spots, in the version I read in middle school. The copy you can buy now has a crap cover, and the color plates are gone, but it still has the b/w spots. Unfortunately, she died a couple of years ago, so I can't exactly interview her. The other person I can think of is Janny Wurts, who paints most of her own covers, but though I grew up seeing her covers (my dad read/reads them), I've never actually read any of her books. Does anybody have a recommendation for one? And can anyone else think of someone who writes and illustrates, both? (I guess Tracy Butler, but her writing's unpublished.. And there are a few people I know of on deviantArt, but, again, as yet unpublished.) If I can't find enough, I might just do the author/illustrator as a *part* instead of the central topic, and maybe move to "women fantasy writers/illustrators" or something.

And while I'm asking for recommendations, I have a friend who just watched Escaflowne and loved it, and asked me if there's anything similar that she'd like. I've been a bit out of the loop with anime, so I'm open to suggestions to suggest to her. :P

My roommate's computer is broken currently, so she's been using mine instead. Which would normally be fine, but she's lately decided that in order to study more effectively, she needs to type out notes while she's reading. And that means that she's on it a lot more than the occasional paper. And that makes me sad. :( It might be good for me to cut down on my time in cybertown, but I miss my safe place, my own little corner. (Sad that my computer is my safe place.)

That said, I worked on Stitches for a couple hours last night, and I only have one more scene to write before it'll be ready for the Quark writing group. If I write while I'm at work today, I should have it done well before the deadling tomorrow night.

In other news, the boy from last Monday asked me out again twice now, but neither time was I available. I feel bad, but I really need to get myself to crack down on BFA. I screwed myself over last week (knowingly, what's worse) by essentially taking the week off because Bethanne couldn't meet with me. So I have one to do tonight, for tomorrow, and TWO to do by next week. And I still haven't *quite* finished the first two! Which is why I will be unavailable to do anything with the aforementioned boy, at least until Wednesday. Maybe until Friday.

I am, however, hoping to be able to make it to the Quark film forum next Wednesday, where they're showing "Wolf's Rain" (Anybody seen it? Is it good? The poster looked intriguing), since my web design class is over this week! Hopefully I'll be mostly (all) done by then, so it will be a nice time to relax. And pixiepilot's coming back to town for a couple months!! WAII!!!! I offered her space in the studio (hopefully the professors won't object.. it's not really mine to offer), so that'll be fun.

Listen to me ramble on about things I'm going to do when BFA is done... Haha!! Hahahahahaa! Yeah. I should be thinking about how I'm possibly going to manage this, not about all the fun stuff I'm looking forward to once it's over.

Side notes: I've started listening to books on tape, instead of music, while I paint.. I find that the time really flies by that way, and I don't get as bored. Any recommendations? (And as far as physical books go, in anticipation for her new book coming out in March, I picked up Elizabeth Moon's Speed of Dark, which is technically fiction and not science fiction, but it takes place in the near-future.. It's from the p.o.v. of an autistic man, and it's very interesting, and I have a hard time getting back to reality after reading it for a while.)

So.. today is a lovely day. Why? Well, because things are going fine (not that it's not going to be a long, trying day).. but particularly because yesterday was so doggone bad.

It started out bad when I got to work and discovered that one of my coworkers had moved into scanning my oversize plates on Friday. I didn't know if he got them all where I left off, I didn't tell him how I needed them to be scanned in order to make it easier for me to stitch them together, and I'd started thinking of it as *MY* little project. Also, we're coming to the end of the project, and since I typically spend an hour or two in the morning all by myself, I need something to work on until I can talk to other people about other things to do. So I felt pretty justified in my resentment, but I'm over it now. It all turned out mostly okay.

Once I got off work (late, actually), I decided I needed a treat, so I bought a bowl of curry rice from the food court and took it to the studio to study Japanese. I went to class, where I nearly fell asleep several times (I don't know why I was so tired yesterday), but near the end of the class I remembered that slides for the Society of Illustrators student show are due on Wednesday morning, and that requires one to have slides made beforehand. I decided I really did want to enter my fish stick piece after all, so I devised a plan of action:

During my one hour break, run home, burn the stupid thing to a CD, throw my paints and illustration board in the car (I'd brought it home in an attempt to be productive, which of course didn't happen. in fact, I don't think I've *ever* had such a gratuitiously unproductive weekend), drive like mad up to the university press building, order a slide made, drive to the studio, drop off my paints, and then either find a parking spot for the car, or drive home and walk back to campus in time for class.

The problems: while I was at my computer, burning, I remembered that, sure enough, my page for Free Comic Book Day was due that day. Which I hadn't started drawing. I'd scripted it roughly, drawn a rough thumbnail of the layout, and l'd drawn out the size of the page. That's all. Also, regarding slide-making.. There's a $5 setup fee for digital images, and they upped the price for a rush order from $5 to $10, so with the actual price of the slide ($3) and the price to enter it into the show ($5), I'm paying nearly $25 for ONE STINKIN' SLIDE!!!! Also, parking on campus sucks. So I ended up walking back up to campus, which I hate doing even once a day.

The good: The painting for Hull's class which was to be due on Wednesday, is now due next Tuesday instead. (Hallelujah!!) So I used class time to work on the FCBD page - worked from approximately 4:30 until 1:30am (minus 15 minutes for walking home from campus and approximately 30 minutes during which I presented to my roommate my new favorite episode of Danny Phantom ("Mind Blank"), which I had to record on Sunday because they changed the time to while I was at Church). Oh, and when I checked today, the FCBD deadline seems to have been moved to the 19th. So if I have time, I'd like to give the page some softer shading instead of the flat colors (greyscale, actually) I left on the page.

And now: Time to finish up at work, then run and pick up my super expensive slide, eat something before I faint, then paint my brains out. Elantris is supposed to be due tomorrow and I'm on my usual schedule. Which is to say, it's going to be a long night.

But it will be infinitely better than last night.

Heard about this from chibidrunksanzo, and I agree. The Last Unicorn, book and movie both, helped shape my childhood (I even did a semester's worth of illustrations from it just last year!), and it's not fair that he should be screwed over for touching millions of people's lives. Spread the word.

Read about it here: http://www.conlanpress.com/youcanhelp/

And as an extra source, I'd heard mention of it before, here: http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue456/interview.html

~~~

Othernews: Elf Defense is *almost done*! And I'm pretty proud of it! Elantris is next - I have to take reference photos, and do some research to decide what exactly I want the city to look like. Brandon said he'd envisioned it as "having the weight of an ancient stone structure, with perhaps a classical feel to it, only done in black instead of white. I imagined it aged, with massive towering stonework." I hope I have time to do it justice! (And I hope I get it done in time for the Symposium - I promised Brandon a print of it, and I know he's going to be there.) I also have to work on the Deed of Paksenarrion sketches - I've got thumbnails, and I need to come up with some good roughs. And then send the whole lot to Jody. Finally. Urg.

Using the Darth Malak icon not because I'm mad, but because it's just such a dang gorgeous picture. I print-screen'd it from the opening image of the game. ^_^

( Yup )

I stayed in the studio from 3 until 10. That is, I worked on a BFA painting from 3 to 10. Two hours of that was technically spent running up and down the stairs to and from the print lab as I was scanning, resizing, printing, tracing, drawing, cutting, pasting, and working with my camera. But it was an interesting struggle today - first time this semester using acrylics, and I had to remember how (since I've been using oils for Don's class) (which reminds me, I need to get back on the horse with those 2-hour studies), and I met a sort of milestone during the last hour or two. (Side note: I'm painting Kelerison from Elf Defense, and he's turning like a blond Willem Dafoe.. who is creepy.. so I guess it fits..) And just as I was starting to enjoy the breakthrough, it was time to clean up and meet the Brute Squad, lest I wanted to walk home alone in the dark. But it's very exciting. And I've got more work to do to be ready to meet with Bethanne tomorrow (unfortunately, Elf Defense is *not* finished, though, as I said, I'm feeling very good about how it's coming).

So.. yeah!!! Gahh! The Red vs. Blue team is up in Park City at Slamdance, which goes until Friday, and I really really would love to go up and see them. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to leave until Friday at 3, at the very earliest. Stupid class and all. And who knows if they'd still be there.. and it's an hour drive.. the roads might be icy.. and I wouldn't want to go by myself...... Dang. It's like when they were in Glendale a couple of days before I was going to be home for Thanksgiving. Grrr.

I guess it's a good thing, though. There are better things I could be doing with my time (like painting). And I don't know where my Caboose shirt is just now.


So.. feeling significantly better. (Thank you, everyone!!! Your well-wishes helped a TON!) Things haven't changed a whole lot, but my 4-7 class was cancelled last night, so I spent the time working on the roughs for my BFA. I stayed in the studio until 9:30 or so, and I got a really promising sketch for Elf Defense. That's about it, though. I learned that it's not so scary to spend time there, and it's a lot easier for me to concentrate, and there are friends there who are fun to talk to. And I also found out, through talking to my classmates throughout the day, that pretty much everybody's struggling, and there are several (of just the ones I've talked to, which bodes not well for the rest of the class) who haven't started their BFA projects and are more behind than I am. So that all contributed to my feeling better.

I'm not sure what is going to happen at my meeting with Bethanne today (I've *got* to get a good rough for Elantris before I go, though. Then I'll be able to focus on bringing TDoP together in a cool matching design, and stuff.. Really focus..). I'll know in a few hours. But I figure, if I've got at least one good sketch to start with, I can start painting that one, and work on the next/other sketch/es at the same time.

Today's also the Career Fair (my poor sister, who works at Career Placement, had to be there at 7, and will be there all day), and I dressed up (except my socks, which are black with white skeletons with red eyes) so I won't feel silly when I go there to look for cool free stuff. (Not really interested in networking anyone there.)

And I'm listening to a greatest John Williams soundtrack, which has me singing Moosebutter's "Star Wars" in my head..

PS!! Save Danny Phantom!!! And here's Nickelodeon's contact, both for my reference and for anyone else who wants to write them:

Nickelodeon
1515 Broadway
New York, New York
10036

So, it seems that a lot of the people on my flist need hugs lately. Sorry e-hugs will have to do.

Me, I'm still struggling. Today I have to work at the fast scanner, so I unfortunately can't get much drawing done for classes. This scanner goes almost twice as fast as the one I'm usually on. Oh well. I should stop being mad about it.

( Whining about school )

So, a lot has happened today. I went to see Bethanne (my BFA advisor, and the department head), and since I was 15 minutes early for my appointment and the person before me didn't show up, I got to spend half an hour talking with her. Much was said. I brought some thumbnails, and Bethanne said they were too complicated, so I've got to redo them, loose. Then I get to take them to a "rough" stage, not quite the refined drawings that the painting will come from, but pretty defined. These I need to send to Jody, and get her feedback (hopefully she has time to give me a few words this week), then take back to Bethanne for additional comments. Then I have a week to bring them to full-on sketches, and then a week to paint each cover so I'll finish in time for the BFA deadline (March 10). It's a long shot, but I think I can do it, as long as I stay motivated. (I keep thinking I'm not going detailed enough, but apparently I'm making them too busy and taking emphasis away from the central idea/character/whatever. I think simplifying will make things easier.)

During our meeting, another student came in and had Bethanne sign a course replacement approval form, which I recognized from getting my "Beginning HTML" class (which I had for the first time tonight - I really like it so far) to replace that one credit I was missing.. And it reminded me that I had taken History of American Animation a couple years ago - could that maybe count for my last three credits of art history, instead of killing myself taking Gothic/Romanesque? Bethanne said yes, and signed a form for me right then and there. Yay!! So I decided that I'm going to audit it - still go to class (I chose it because I thought it was cool!! I don't want to miss out..), but not have to worry about papers or grades or keeping up with the reading! Yay!!!! That takes me down from 15 credits to 12, which is MUCH more manageable when I'm working 20 hours a week and taking art classes (I calculated that without art history, I sit (or stand) in class for 17 hours every week), and this way, I'll may even have time to do homework!!!

Another interesting thing.. doubledear posted the other day about an opening at Tokyopop for a "layout artist" - by the description, it seems to involve plugging in the English translations over the Japanese dialogue. I swore I would never be one of those illustration majors who ends up working in graphic design, but I never expected the chance to work with manga.. I'm actually fairly well qualified for it and I'm seriously considering applying. Drawbacks: I would probably have to move to LA (which I also never really wanted to do.. Like spiritofeowyn, I'd be scared to drive there, and would probably live in poverty..), and I there's a lot of manga out there that I have no interest in reading, let alone providing to the public..

But on the other hand, the possibility of applying for this answered a couple of my dilemmas.. Under my course load, I was debating whether it's worth the pain to finish my minor (which would look pretty good on my resume to Tokyopop). So if I go for it, the answer is yes. (And after today's class, I think I'll actually be okay - it seems that most everyone else started out poorly.) The other thing is about postponing a couple of classes and extending to fall semester.. But if they need a layout artist *now*, they probably wouldn't want to wait until December when I would graduate. And because of the art history development, I think my semester will be manageable. Crazy busy (dude, don't even *talk* to me in February), but manageable.

What do y'all think? Should I apply?

PS~ Lee likes it on my backpack. It even goes with his jumpsuit.

Something occurred to me just a moment ago, while I was cleaning the fridge (cleaning checks tomorrow, since we got to skip them in December) - Pam, are you guys going to ICCA tomorrow (since your brother's performing and all)? Wanna go together? My sister and I have to get tickets at the door, since I just heard about it today, but I figured since you're already probably going to be there.. :)

Today was rough, despite not having to work and only having one class (at 2). There's a show Bro. Hull wants us seniors to enter, and he wants to approve the pieces on Tuesday, so I was going to print out my Fish Stick (lipstick) painting for it, then take it to get matted at the Bookstore.. But the print lab recalibrated all its printers over break, and instead of the perfect print I got in November, the colors were all off in my test print. I didn't have three hours to play around with my file to try and get it right, so I just left frustrated. The bookstore was out of the last book I needed for Japanese, so I had to order it. My quiz in that class didn't go as well as I had hoped, either, but now I know what to expect for the next one. I'm a little worried, though, at my seeming inability to say anything in class. I follow it pretty well, but I can't seem to come up with anything intelligent to add to the discussion, let alone how to phrase it in Japanese. >.< This is new for me. Maybe I'm intimidated and afraid to discredit myself in front of a class of mostly guys. Sigh.

Some good too, though: I printed out my Sheppard picture (also, incidentally, a poor color match, but doable), and stuck it on my school binder so I can look at it any time I want!! ^_^ I hit 1000 page views on deviantArt, and my Lexx fanart from Alien Dice has the highest number of views of any of my gallery, and it's only been up for two days. I ran into Danny, my friend Steffanie's husband, in the bookstore, and that was nice. And I bought myself a page in ComicGenesis (formerly Keenspace)'s Free Comic Book Day compilation. ^_^ That should get me a nice bit of promotion this summer. Also, I got an email back from Brandon Sanderson, answering some questions I asked about Elantris and its cover, since I'm doing it for the BFA and since we're acquaintances.. It made me smile, especially where he says "I never did expect to get Raoden on the cover--an Elantrian just didn’t seem photogenic enough to sell a book." Those are thoughts I've considered as I've been planning it. On one hand, I want to put Raoden because he's the most important character, but he's just not.. pretty.. ^^;; (I recommend this book heartily, by the way, if any of you haven't read it.)

Well, I've got to eat something. I guess I'll finish cleaning later. (Pam, let me know about ICCA!)

Checked out The Deed of Paksenarrion from the library yesterday (I left my copy in Utah, and it's so well-loved it's not really fit to travel), and have been rereading it a bunch for details for my BFA project. When I posted about it last, I forgot to actually say anything concrete about it, so I'll mention it now.. I had planned to do book 2 of TDoP, and perhaps book 3, then decided that there was no sense in doing two books of a trilogy without the other, so I decided I'm going to do covers of the whole trilogy; that way I'll get to work on making them correlate and stuff. I'm also doing Elf Defense and Elantris.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about this next (last) semester, and the next step in life, and, like most college seniors, it really terrifies me. Despite my schooling and my experience, I don't really consider myself an "artist", and it's still hard for me to imagine making a living that way. I know at least some of that is coming from the creative vaccuum of an unproductive Christmas break, and part of it (partly as a result of the aforementioned vaccuum) from the realization that I still have such a long way to go til I reach a professional level.. I feel so overwhelmed.

So I'm afraid of the future and afraid I won't have enough time or courage to get there. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's ever felt that way. But I've been thinking lately about my minor, too, which is Japanese. My brothers all want to learn Japanese, and they've all begged me to teach them, but I don't know how. I looked into it, and it turns out that after this semester, I'll only be two more classes away from a Japanese teaching minor. But one of them is only offered during the fall. So if I wanted to, I could postpone my graduation until December (totalling 6.5 years at a 4-year school), take those last two classes (and probably another couple of supplementing art classes), and come out with a (more) marketable day job. I love Japanese, and I'd love to be able to share it with other people who want to learn. Other pros: Gwen will be there until December, and Parker will be back from his mission.. Since Hayley's getting married, maybe I'll live in the Japanese house again-? (Depending on the times of my art classes are. And maybe I won't even want to..)

On the other hand, I never really wanted to be a teacher, and I don't know how much more school I can take. I feel bad because it's expensive. And I'm not sure how it would work with the art major.. I wonder if they'd give me studio space for fall semester. Maybe they'd let me work on the BFA project until December-? Sigh.. What should I do? I can do a lot more with a Japanese teaching minor than a Japanese minor.. Gaaahhh!!!!

In the year 2006 I resolve to: Not forget poland. Get your resolution here

You scored as English. You should be an English major! Your passion lies in writing and expressing yourself creatively, and you hate it when you are inhibited from doing so. Pursue that interest of yours! </td> English 100% Dance 92% Art 92% Journalism 92% Sociology 83% Biology 75% Linguistics 67% Anthropology 67% Theater 58% Philosophy 50% Psychology 42% Chemistry 42% Mathematics 33% Engineering 25% What is your Perfect Major? created with QuizFarm.com

I got an email from Jody Lee yesterday, saying that she'd been busy with a cover for the last month and a half, but she's free to give me some feedback right now. On stuff that I haven't been motivated to work on all break. But I lay in bed thinking about my BFA project for a long time last night, and I thought of some good ideas that I'm excited to get on paper. If I can just focus long enough to *get* them on paper. (But since the kids started school again today, the house is QUIET!!! YESSSSSSS!!!)

I saw "Chronicles of Narnia" last night (with Hayley and Ian and the Aussies), and it was really good. They did a really good job on the critters.. I was nervous about the fauns and centaurs and such, but I was very pleased. And now I want to draw. ^_^ And also read the books, which I somehow never did before.

Also very excited that Stargate comes back this Friday!