Don't follow the shadows

Well, the scoring on Threadless has finally ended and my design came out with a 1.95 out of 5. Not bad considering I did nearly the entire thing in less than one day, not to mention that it’s not exactly what I’d call finished. I still did better than everyone I’ve heard from in the Intro to Design classes and 525 people felt strongly enough about my design to vote for it one way or another, which is good enough for me. Here are some of my favorite comments it received:

“Gave it a 5 for being the most mehtul thing on this site.”

“There’s something bad-ass yet My Little Pony about this drawing.”

I actually considered putting a lightning bolt or a rune on the horse’s butt. :P

I also just realized that I keep forgetting to post the drawings from some of my finished work, so here’s the original drawing I used for the t-shirt design as well as the one for the print of Odin’s ravens I did last fall:

( + 2 )

I’m currently working on my series for my Advanced Drawing Strategies class. We have to do 12-15 themed drawings outside of class this semester, and mine is on Baldrs Draumar (Baldr’s Dreams) and Dauði Baldrs (Baldr’s Death). I was originally planning on giving the Norse mythology a break and doing the series on the Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley) from Irish mythology. But after rereading it with an outsider’s perspective in mind, I thought it might be a little to obscure for my class. At least with Baldr, I can explain that he’s Odin and Frigga’s son and Thor’s half brother, and people will instantly get a sense of who he is thanks to Marvel Comics. The whole story of Baldr’s death is also fairly easy to relate to. I’m saving Ragnarök for my Advanced Painting BFA Exhibition series, so I figured why not use the event that leads up to that point for this series. I don’t have any of these drawings finished yet, but once I do, I’ll be sure to post them.

The idea behind this drawing was that it was worked on it for 2 - 2.5 hours during class for three sessions without looking at it or adjusting it in between. During the second session, the drawing had to change at least 50%, and 25% more had to be altered during the final session using additive and subtractive methods. The subject matter assigned was 8-16 attributes that describe who you are without actually showing your physical self. This is what I ended up with:

Graphite, charcoal, gesso, white pastel, and Sharpie marker on 18’’ x 24’’ Arches printmaking paper.



( Larger view under the cut )

During the first class, I penciled in all the attributes with graphite. I originally had a quill and ink pot in the lower left corner and a corsage of dried flowers in the lower right. There were only two peacock feathers and the meditating woman in the lotus did not exist at all. During the second class, I went over a few elements in charcoal that I wanted to emphasize. I entirely erased the two objects in the bottom corners and randomly covered a few areas in gesso, including a large white space in the middle. In the last class, I drew the lotus in Sharpie on the gessoed area and highlighted some attributes in Sharpie. I also drew the meditating woman on a separate sheet of paper in Sharpie, cut her out, and taped her onto the drawing to give it some physical dimension. For the metal fans reading this, I know it’s painfully obvious that it’s from Epica’s Design Your Universe cover art, but I liked it better than any of the other reference pictures I found. I did change it a bit, but it’s not like this drawing is meant for anything other than personal use and fulfilling the assignment’s requirements. ;) I also don’t mind that it directly references the album because as I mentioned in my previous post, it really does mean a lot to me.

( I’m sure you all know by now how much I love symbolism, so here are the attributes I used and what they mean )

I also wanted the composition to play with the concept of symmetrical and asymmetrical balance. “Life is about focusing and balancing. If you focus and lose your balance, you fall. If you balance and lose your focus, you die.” – Yoko Ono

I wish I had more time to clean up a few areas and make some adjustments, but the focus of this drawing lies more in the process than the final result. Other people in my class never took anything away from their drawings or covered old parts with new additions. They simply continued adding to the white page so by the end, all they did was finish from where they started on the first day. Many didn’t finish at all. Their drawings looked a lot cleaner and neater than mine, but they didn’t get anything out of the experience. It’s truly liberating to rip up something you created, start again, destroy it once more for good measure, and finally finish with something that looks complete and has a visual story behind its evolution.

While it still is Odin’s day, here’s the drypoint intaglio print on PVC board (10" x 12'') I finished last night:



( Larger picture to show more detail )

The theme was time. I originally wanted to do something Tolkien-inspired, and after thinking about Galadriel’s mirror for a while, I thought what could possibly be better to illustrate the past, present, and future than the Norns. I also figured if no one knows what the text means, they’ll at least recognize the figures as the three fates from Greek mythology. The text, by the way, is translated directly from Voluspa from the Poetic Edda.

For those of you who don’t know anything about Norse mythology, the names of the Norns mean 'that which was', 'that which is', and 'that which will be'. They are giantesses that ended the golden age of the gods when they arrived in Asgard from Jotunheim. Although these are the three main norns, there are also many other norns of different races that determine the fate of every man, elf, and dwarf at birth. Not all norns are good, which is why some people have bad luck in life. Skuld, the youngest and representing the future, is also a Valkyrie, which is why she is wearing the winged helmet, chain mail corset, and has the swans near her. All swans in Midgard (where mankind lives) are said to have descended from these two birds. Valkyries can also transform into swans when they put on feathered cloaks like Freyja becomes a falcon with her falcon cloak. The tree is the mighty ash, Yggdrasil, which encompasses all nine worlds. It is kept alive by Norns, using water from the Well of Urd. This is a basic breakdown in order to understand the significance and symbolism of the piece, but if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. You know I love talking about this stuff! ;)

A few notes on the print itself: all the lines are straight; they just don’t photograph that way from above. The stylized ripples are also intentional, since I wanted the well to be emphasized while adding movement to the otherwise static scene. The background is also more minimal so the attention is focused on the Norns.

I know I’ve hardly updated LiveJournal in the past few months. I’ve just haven’t really wanted to make my presence known. I feel like being a recluse, actually making some art outside of assignments for a change, and emerging once I’m feeling more confident. Perhaps I just need to start drawing and writing more and through catharsis, I'll feel a bit more open again. I promised myself I'm going to do some drawings in an old sketchbook I made with various background treatments back in high school. That might help. More importantly, I need to get back to drawing in general, since I haven't created anything other than digital work this semester.

I think it goes without saying that I didn’t go to the Pagan Knights Tour over Spring Break. He never got back to me, and it came and went. It’s a shame he puts me behind his ridiculous number of friends when I’m the only other heathen he knows that also listens to the same music as he does and knows just as much about Asatru and Tolkien. However, I think that’s where the problem lies: he’s one of these guys who likes to be the know-it-all, and I’m a major threat to this. He’s too immature and can’t handle someone who may be above his level of knowledge on his favorite subjects. Just like all the others, he’ll probably eventually realize he made a big mistake, but I decided I’m not going to try to salvage any shards of a friendship that may remain. I also refuse to be his rebound once he breaks up with the nasty illegal immigrant, which I’m almost expecting to happen after the guys I’ve known to be just like him have done the same thing. Now he has the Gods to reckon with, since he really proved to be much of an honorable heathen. Pushing me aside, not getting back to me, and refusing hospitality aren’t exactly good for one’s reputation, nor follow the teachings of Havamal. For that, I am also sorry. Thankfully I’m not too concerned about going to Paganfest now, after Eluveitie dropped out.

On the bright side, my dad decided he doesn't really want to move back in, so at least that's not an issue at the moment. However, I'm annoyed that he planned a trip down to Texas over Spring Break and didn't invite us. To make it worse, SXSW was going on at the time, and I obviously would have loved to go.

There was some major drama with my photography class, so I felt the best thing to do was drop it. In a nutshell, I got locked inside the darkroom three times (which are also apparently soundproof) and had to wait until someone walked by and saw me moving the doorknob in order to let me out, had only 20 out of the 72 photos I took turn out despite putting them perfectly on the reels and following the development instructions to a tee, and wasted several hours over the weekend outside in below-freezing weather taking them. Of course, the critique would have been during the next class, and there was no way in hell I was going to try to retake the photos I needed over the weekend and spend hours developing them. Just to develop the film took five hours, since all the darkrooms were full, and I don’t have that kind of time to waste nor the extra money to spend on a bunch of rolls of film that may or may not turn out. I think I’m going to stick to digital or at least have professionals develop my film from now on and see if I can’t pick up a printmaking class or two this fall to fulfill my 2-D studio requirements instead. I also need to stay with mediums I have control over. I’m annoyed that I’m only taking 12 credits again, but it’s looking like I’ll have to go an extra semester anyway, so it’s not like one class is going to make a huge difference. The only things is I’m an art major and I have no studio classes this semester, but hopefully this will give me the opportunity to do some of my own work.

( Things with the guy from my Norse Mythology class are…progressing? )

On the bright side, I got Franz Ferdinand and Flight of the Conchords tickets (eighth row!). I’ve got to start watching my money, though, since I have a tattoo appointment in less than two weeks. I’ve also been talking to my old suitemates from last year, and they said they’d be down for going to Paganfest in Chicago if all our schedules allow it. Unfortunately, it’s during finals, so we’re going to have to wait and see as it gets closer.