some sketches

Hey so as you know I'm taking an illustration course.  I am a TERRIBLE artist so I thought I might share with you some images of a few things I've been sketching.  In just 3 short weeks I have improved a lot and am actually pretty proud of some of my drawings.  Like I said, they aren't great .... but an improvement none the less. So far we've been doing fashion croquis and faces.  Next week we move on to hand and feet. I like the lips in the one below ... I'm not too too pleased with the Cindy Crawford "shooshing" face but whadya gonna do?

A for Awesome

Sooo .... I got some grades back from last semester!   Just for 2 of the 5 classes though. 

Art and Technology - 94% overall

The bulk of my mark was on my e-portfolio (seen in link below) which I got 36/40 on. Hoooray!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/51728087/lsadler

Costuming for TV and Film - 98% overall

Happy Easter!!!!

Well, I gotta be honest .... I was super dissapointed that the would-be 3rd Annual Easter Beer Hunt was cancelled this year due to a lack of hooliganism tendancies in my Vancouver friends.  So instead, I became an adult and (with Montana, of course) hosted a fabulous dinner.  It was a good turn out! Char, Michael, Bryn, and my old roommate Justin Bedard.  Sierra was on her way when she popped a tire and had to call a tow truck to put on her spare.  She didn`t feel safe driving her spare tire from Burnaby to Kits so unfortunately she had to stay home.  That`s okay though! More wine for me ......

Menu

Veggies - spinach salad with assorted bell peppers, grated carrots, chopped walnuts, dried cranberries, and goat cheese. Also steamed carrots with fresh dill

Starch - mashed yams with brown sugar; roasted yams with cinnamon; scalloped potatoes; dinner rolls (bought, not made.  wish we had Maaam`s freshly baked buns)

Main - pork roast with garlic and fresh rosemary and caramelized onions sauted in pork drippings

Dessert - Charmaine made a delightful Chocolate Cream Pie.  It was the most delicious thing I have ever tasted in my life.

Reality Check

So .... if last semester was a breeze; this semester is a hurricane.  I went from doing cute little "cut and paste" weekly assignments to on-going semester long projects, weekly quizes, and 25 page essays.

Don't get me wrong, I love all my classes.  Fashion Awareness (the history course) is soooo interesting but the project we have to do takes a lot of man hours.  I spent the afternoon at the library last week trying to find pictures of Edwardian fashion and discovered it's very hard to find colour portraits from the early 1900's. 

My marketing professer assigned us a 25 page paper last week.  The topic: one product.  Not a brand, not a line, a specific product.  So if I wanted to do jewelry, for example,  I wouldn't choose Tiffany's; I would choose the Tiffany 1837 Bangle.  I'd really like to do my report on something as elegant as Tiffany's jewelry, or Givenchy cosmetics but I think I will keep it simple.  Simple = common = more research material available = less room for error.  I'm thinking Burts Bee's Lipbalm.  Opinion?

                                                         LIFE IN VANCOUVER

I don't see Montana too often anymore.  She's got a new boyfriend and hides away at his place in East Vancouver.  It's fine, I like the quiet sometimes.  Plus it means I don't have to do her dishes. She's kind of like living with a boy that way .....

I'm running the Vancouver Sun Run tommorrow morning; 10km of death.  Plus, I'm going to party tonight which I know isn't the wisest desicion but I'm doing it anyways.   I have a new philosophy on life and if I turn down the invite for tonight then I will be going against my new-found philosophy.  I can't dissapoint mysef .... I'd be so dissapointed!

I saw a skunk for the first time ever.

A crack addict recently thought me a lesson in human-kindess. I was embarrased and felt like an asshole.

and finally ..... I totally understand "the freshman 15" now and I think it's disgusting.  I joined a boot camp (gotta love Groupon) and I start next week.  I'm going to Vegas next month and gotta get fit for all that sunbathing and outlet shopping :)

Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Tuesdays:
AM - Visual Merchandising
I have the same teacher for this class as I did art and technology.  I was soooo nervous because she was a terrible teacher and so condescending.  It wasn't just me that thought so, I think every girl in the class gave her a bad teacher's evaluation.  And her voice!!! Like nails on a chalkboard.  Which for my first class after Martini Monday you can imagine would be terrible.  But I was suprised when she was nice, and funny, and even knowledgable in this subject!  I had to take an Advil from her voice, but the rest was great! I really actually enjoyed the class .We were all suprised :)

PM - Textiles
I feel well prepared for this course because we touched on the basics of fibers and yarns and threads in my Design Awareness class.  She's a tough teacher ... probably the toughest I've had so far but I know I will respect her and learn lots.

Wednesdays:
AM - Marketing
I love this class too!! :)  The teacher has a great way of explaining things without reading the text book and uses his personal experiences in Marketing to help the information resonate.  It's refreshing too, to have a teacher acknowledge that 90% of what you learn in a classroom will fly in one ear and out the other.  But he says that as long as we can grasp and understand the basic concepts, we will succeed.  After all, you're always able to research Marketing Tips if you ever stumble across a problem in a real marketing position.

So overall it's gonna be a really tough semester.  Last term we only had 1 final and 1 regular quiz, and 1 in class essay for all 5 classes.  But this term, we have mid-terms and finals in 4 out of the 5 classes.  It's gonna be hectic but I love each class and I'm so pumped for it. 

Oh, and if you are wondering .... work is going well.  I'm 3 days a week.  Thursday and Friday at John Ross Insurance and Saturdays at Arbutus Insurance.  I work occasional Sunday's when I'm not doing homework or visiting Kevin.  So I KNOW you (Maam and Dad) cringe that I "booze" every Martini Monday but I often keep myself so busy 7 days a week that I really think I'm entitled to a few cocktails. 

On a good week we try to incorporate Wings Wednesday and WINGS on Granville.  It's usually me, Montana, her boyfriend Maneesh, our friend from highschool Bryan Tyler, Bryn, and his gf Liz.  Michael and Charmaine just expressed interest in joining so it'd be great if they wind up coming next week.  I think Ice Pilots has usally been on so they couldn't ever make it.  Other than that, me and Mont try to do Feel Good Friday once a month.  It consists of just me and her, a yummy home cooked meal, an $8.99 bottle of Fuzion Malbec, and a movie.

Char and Michael actually take me out quite a bit.  It's sweet actually.  We'll go for a quick bite, or a beer or 2 and it's always on them. I offer to pay for myself of course .... but I get the usual "you're a student!! Don't worry about it. Save your money for books"

Speaking of which, I managed to buy all my textbooks used from a girl her graduated last semester.  I paid $140 total whereas a lot of girls paid more than $300 for new books. I lucked out :)

Kay well it's 8:15 and I'm hungry so I'll write later xoxo

April 4th - Start of my second semester

Well hey there! Fancy meeting you here.

Today, after a well-lived 2 week break, was my first day back at school. I am IN LOVE with my Monday classes. As for Tuesdays and Wednesdays .... it's too soon to tell.

**Monday AM - Fashion Illustration
I had to go buy a crap tonne of art supplies for this class and I am SO not an artist. It made me kinda nervous. The 2-level craft store I went to was so overwhelming and I had to hunt down charcoal pencils, and graphite pencils, and 2hb and 5hb and tracing paper and graph paper and the list goes on. But during our class overview today I realized I have nothing to be frightened of. My teacher is super laid back - typical of an art teacher - and advised that as long as a person shows up and does what's asked, you won't just pass; you will get an A. Easy peasy.

**Monday PM - Fashion Awareness 1
I have always been so excited for this class and the reality of which did not dissapoint. My teacher is just a fountain of knowledge and I can't help but automatically have a tremendous amount of respect for her. It seems that you ask her anything at all and she will give you a 10 minute explanation of why it came to be, who designed it, the dates the photoshoot was released, who the designer had an affair with, the mistress' birthday blah blah blah. It's amazing.

This kind of stuff may not seem interesting to you but I adore it. I like randomly knowing that the classic Chanel quilted purse came out in February 1955 after Coco's 14 year absence from fashion due to her affair with a Nazi enemy and subsequential move to Switzerland after being shunned and ridiculed by Parisians for said affair. hahaha, I love that when you ask a typical college student "what did you learn today?" you will most likely get a dorky answer like - "well, in 1960 Joseph Kittenger flew 102,000 feet up and past the tropopause by hot air balloon then jumped into free fall to test the results of atmospheric pressure on the human body." Whereas you ask me this same question and you get gossip from the 1920's or the fact that so and so's Runway Show demonstrated inspiration from Egyptian Royalty. It seems kind of ridiculous and somewhat trivial; but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Oh - I guess I went off on quite the tangent there. To summarize what I actually review in Fashion Awareness 1 is this:

We disect different era's in fashion (today we started with Victorian era {1890's} and the Edwardian era {1901-1910}; named such because of who held the throne at the time) and we look closely at what they wore and why they wore it based on different political and economic events at the time. Also, we look at how these trends influenced art and architecture or those same eras (and vice versa). It's rad.
That's all for today; I'll let you know how tomorrow goes :)