Re-Touched Watercolors

I've re-touched two of my earlier watercolor paintings for the final today. I still have some things to revise, but at least it's almost over :)

Turkey vulture. Watercolor, gouaches, watercolor pencil.

Elk. Watercolor, gouaches, colored pencil, ink.

Jumping fox. Watercolor, gouaches, watercolor pencil.

The pics are also better quality. I think these turned out ok, though I still have a lot of work to do in order to become proficient with watercolor and gouaches.

Final Digital Illustration

Here's my final for Digital Graphic Illustration. There's stuff that I wanna fix, but the computer keeps spazzing out :/ Anyway:

Rose garden, Piazzale Michelangelo

I love the rose garden right below Piazzale Michelangelo. It's probably one of my favorite places in Florence. I hope I can get up there more often next semester!

How To Make Tea

Here's the last project for my Digital Illustration class. I'm actually gonna miss it, but I'm gonna keep working with the stuff that I've done.

I love tea.

Visiting London this weekend! Expect pics!

Christmas Card

This is a nice little piece of propaganda- I mean *gift* that I may be sending to all my friends and relatives. Showing them that I care about them, and encouraging them to hire me, or tell their friends to hire me, for design/illustration/freelance work.

Yay! Shameless self-promotion!

Enjoy the beginning of the holiday season :)

I made it look better.

Digital stuff

Digital illustration portraits: original, iconic, abstract, and literal.

I don't like it, but I have time to fix it.

Animal and bird painting practice

I'm trying to improve in painting birds and animals, and I'm trying also to get better with using guaches and watercolor. SO.

Turkey Vulture. Watercolor and watercolor pencil.

Elk. Watercolor, gouaches, ink.

Of course, the lighting in my kitchen is bad, and my point and shoot camera is worse, so these look nicer inn real life.
We just got a tree for the apartment. I'm pretty tired from hauling that and the groceries up with one of my apartment mates..... gah.

Works in Progress

Working on projects for my watercolor and gouaches class. I have to make at least 3 panels about the street that the art building is on.
So. Here is the work in progress:
They are sideways because my camera is a piece of poop and I'm lazy right now.

First panel

Second panel

I found this and wanted to share it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8xJtH6UcQY&feature=player_embedded#!

Watercolor and Guaches Practice

I've been doing some more practice with watercolor and guaches for my class. Also because I really need to get better with these media. I think that I'm making progress. And I'm staying home this weekend, so I can do some more hardcore painting practice.

Watercolor

Watercolor

Watercolor

Watercolor

Self portrait for class. Guaches

My camera is poop, so they're kind of blurry. I've done some figure drawing also, so when I get around to it I might post it. I think that I might play with these in Illustrator or Photoshop also.

Digital Illustration Portrait Practice

More portrait practice for digital. Live trace and other practice. Enjoy.

Live Trace Practice Assignments

Practicing live trace in Illustrator of digital graphic illustration. We are starting a self portrait project, so here it goes.

Playing around with the preset settings.

And with color.

I like the trippy looking ones at the bottom right, but I think that this one turned out the best.

Me in the Atlas mountains.

So there it is. Working on more stuff in watercolor and guaches, so there'll be some traditional stuff up soon. I painted from the model yesterday in class and it was like being able to see fresh again. I love figure drawing. It was actually the first time that I've painted from a model, and I've also only used guaches a couple times before with varied results, so it was interesting and a ton of fun.
Naples this weekend, so maybe some sketches of Pompeii and Herculaneum to come. I hope that maybe if we visit the theater quarter, I can take some photo refs/ sketches of the theaters so maybe I can work on a piece more geared towards archaeological illustration. It should be interesting regardless.

Halloween Masks and Amsterdam

I made two masks on Halloween: Guy Fawkes and a Samurai!

These masks were unfortunately too flimsy to wear out, but I like them anyway. The samurai printed really small by accident.

However, I did remember the 5th of November. IN AMSTERDAM!!!

Holiday lights!

A canal near our hostel.

The sign

Falling off the sign.

Occupy the Museumplein!

Wintery trees.

The park was lovely.

Flower market!! So many tulips!

Seedy entrance to the Red Light District.

WHAT NOW?!

Candace and I sitting by the canal before my camera died.

It was a great trip. The city was beautiful and fascinating. Some other things i visited not pictured (because my camera died) are: the Anne Frank Museum, the Van Gogh Museum, more of the RLD, the coffee shops, more of Vondelpark, churches, bars, and cultural stuff.
I loved Amsterdam. There were so many hidden things to see, and a weekend was definitely not long enough. We missed the Heinelkin Experience, and the night of museums (because we had to catch an early flight), the canal boat tour, or any formal tour of the city, the ferry rides behind the train station, the zoo, and the botanical gradens. Not to mention the tons of little galleries in the historic center. So. Contrary to popular belief, there is a LOT more to Amsterdam than sex and drugs (But that was fascinating as well....).
I spent most of my money on food and transportation, which was different from a lot of other trips where I actually bought souvenirs. One of my biggest regrets though, was not buying a cannabis themed Amsterdam snow-globe.

I definitely want to go back. The city has a wonderful lively atmosphere both in the daylight and at night. It is now on my list of places to look for a Masters program in addition to London and Chicago.

While I've been traveling though, I've noticed that I've missing some things from home more than I thought. Here's a list just because I'm feeling whimsical and nostalgic:

- My family
-Fall weather and a dusting of snow (Upstate New York can keep their blizzards though)
-The Woods (and nature in general)
-The hippies that inhabit The Woods
-Wegmans
-Cheesecake and backlava
-Peanutbutter
-Popcorn
-Apple picking and corn mazes
-Grandma's cooking (a total clichè, but it is totally true)
-Staying up all night in the Illustration studio and wasting time making forts with the couches and having dance parties.
-Real chamomile tea, not the weird powdered stuff I got from the grocery store by accident.
-Powdered sugar
-Being able to drill holes in the wall in order to better decorate my apartment.
-Decorating my own apartment in general.
-Jamaican food and my Jamaican friend (Robbin Edwards is my love).
-My room mates from last year (Robbin, Tori, and Jackie) and my non room mate room mates (Andrew, Angela, and TJ)
-Horseback riding
-3258 Party network
-Working and getting paid
-Saratoga Coffee Traders
-Kitchen appliances that work in a manner that I expect them to

But here are some random things that I really like here:
-Pizza Frita
-My new amazing room mates or The DeMacci Family
-Learning a new language
-Exploring a new city
-The rose garden near Piazzale Michelangelo
-Being able to easily travel to different contries
-Understanding a different culture
-An easier school workload
-Being able to drink at a bar and not getting carded.
-My awesome apartment

Of course there's more to each list, I'm just really tired from all the travel today and it's actually late.
So. Next week's adventure is actually within Italy. Naples and Sorrento! Last time I visited, I loved Sorrento, and the weather is good enough that I don't think that it will rain. I'm visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum again! Hopefully I'll get to visit Capri and wander around Naples for a little bit. And hopefully my camera wont die on me :P
Cheers!

Adventures in Morocco Part Two (Because Blogspot Doesn't Like Me)

Blogger doesn't like me.
So.
After visiting Todra Gorge, we drove into the Atlas Mountains to visit a Berber village.

Atlas Mountains

Imlil

Imlil

We stayed in a homestay with a hilarious Berber guy and his family and hiked around the village. It was incredible to see first hand such a different culture and way of life. Visiting Imlil was definitely one of my favorite highlights of the trip.
Also. On the way there, we also stopped at an 11th century town where several movies were filmed including Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven:

No caption necessary.

After visiting Imlil, we drove to Essoaria, a city on the coast and I completed all my Christmas shopping. Unfortunately, I didn't get to visit the beach. It was beautiful and a lot of fun regardless.

We also stopped to herd goats.

Overall: Awesome trip, but I'm happy to be home :)

My Adventures in Morocco

I seriously don't know where to begin in describing the adventure that was my fall break. I learned way more than I ever thought that I would, about the Moroccan culture, about myself, and about life in general. It was not always pleasant or comfortable, and unexpected things happened, but that's the point of an adventure. It is a journey and a learning experience, not a vacation.
Even before I got on the plane to Marrakesh it was an adventure. I missed the first train there, and had to run around looking for an ATM in order to buy a ticket at all. When I finally got on the train, I met backpackers and we chatted till we reached Pisa, always intelligent and engaging conversation. I got to the airport and met the members of my group, and we started to get to know each other as we were boarding the plane
    As for the plane ride there, lets just leave it that my stomach and planes are not friends :P
After we landed we met our guide and the journey began.
I could write an essay about this trip, so I'll just stick with the highlights and my commentary on them.

A street in Marrakesh

This is a picture of a random street in the Medina (Old Town) of Marrakesh. The town has been there since the 11th century, so the streets were a labyrinth of narrow alleys lined with shops, riads (hotels or hostels) and apartments. The souks (covered markets) were very interesting also. Both locals and tourists shopped in the souks, and vendors sold most things that either a tourist or a local could want. We did some shopping there, but the highlight was a spice and herb shop. Many people in Morocco go to an herb or spice shop rather than a pharmacy, and the shop owner showed us different herbs and their uses. Most of us bought a ton of spices or herbs. I bought Moroccan mint tea, which we tasted on arrival at the riad. I love tea and am fascinated by the uses of herbs, so I was really happy that we stopped there. We also visited a museum and gardens.

Museum garden

The next day, we took a 7 hour road trip to the Sahara. I slept a lot of the way, partly in the trunk of the tour van. Once we got to the Sahara, the sun had already set, so it was pitch dark because it was cloudy and there were no lights from towns anywhere. We took an hour camel ride into the desert. It was eerily quiet and I could barely see the stars, but once we got there, I felt a lot more comfortable. As it turns out, there are about 3 million people that live in the Sahara. They make camp and use solar panels for electricity, and visit nearby towns for provisions. I found this out after I climbed up a dune in the middle of the night and layed in the sand and watched the clouds clear from the sky. I have never seen so many stars, and I could clearly see the other arm of the galaxy. It was an incredible feeling to be that close to being totally alone in the desert under a billion stars. I looked over the dunes and I could see the lights from other camps and the occasional bonfire. It was comforting to know that even in the largest desert in the world, I wasn't alone. The next day we rode our camels back to the hotel where we left some of our larger bags.

Needless to say, it was a huge highlight.
The next day we headed out to the Todra Gorge, another 4 hour drive, so we left pretty early. When we got there the group divided into those of us that wanted to stay at the hotel and swim and those of us that decided to go rock climbing. Of course I chose rock climbing, because it was a bit chilly. It was definitely the better choice, and I finally climbed on real rocks rather than a wall :)

On the way to the gorge

The gorge

Entrance to the hotel