Back to School

Yes... it's back to school this week as the spring semester begins at AAU. It's hard to believe it's been a year since I returned to college for my degree in Art Education. There's a little change in the weather this semester though as I'm moving into a new major ~ what for it.... Graphic Design!

I know, I know... it's really a no brainer. While working on my classes last semester I realized I was able to immediately utilize the skills I was learning ~ an invaluable quality for this 'starving artist'. So with a little in-depth thought, after all teaching is near and dear to my heart, I decided this would be the best avenue to take.

I do hope to have more opportunities to post about some of my assignments this semester, I know alot of you enjoy seeing the assignments we work on and as long as they're not too technical (= boring) I'll be sure to share.

So here's wishing all my fellow students a very happy and successful semester!

Enjoy~

A Dream~

I had a dream last night~ I was interviewing for a graphic design team and awoke knowing the job was mine. It was a great dream! Maybe my brain is getting in gear ~ knowing full well I have to begin finding a suitable full-time income to support my son and me. I'm really hoping to stay within the field I love ~ Graphic Design ~ and with my newly acquired skills in print design from this past semester I'm even better equipped than before. Now I just need a few good leads and I'm off~

Semester finals are finally behind me and these are the two final projects I submitted. I thought it was only fitting to use my soon-to-be ex as Zeus (LOL!) and it got me an A so I'm happy with that~

I'm not huge fan of working on Sci-Fi either but this earned me an A in my other class as well so I couldn't be happier~

With this semester behind me I'm finally catching up on outstanding projects and should soon have a hefty posting of completed custom creations to share with you all. In the meantime I hope you're all wrapping up your last minute shopping and enjoying a wonderful week!

Enjoy~

While We Wait~

Now that you've all entered my Holiday Giveaway (you have entered, haven't you??) and rummaged through the list of other fabulous holiday giveaways on my sidebar, I thought it would be fun to share this fabulous short video from my darling friend Cindy over at Whimsical Musings.

It's a brief inspirational message titled "Start a Blog: It Gives a Woman a Voice" and is based off her number one selling ebook on Amazon titled Blogging: It's a Woman Thing. The video is a perfect way to share with friends and family about blogging so feel free to pass it on to those you long to see in blogland!

Cindy also offers more fabulous goodies to inspire the creative soul in all of us such, as her free seminar "Amazing Art Adventure", as well as several other inspirational and creative books she sells through Amazon. So checkout her delightfully artistic messages over a Whimsical Musings to find out more and be sure to pass the word about my giveaway ~ ending this Sunday!

Enjoy~

Sharing Some Homework

I thought it was about time I share some of the projects I've been working on with my classes. It's not that I've neglected sharing this part of my life, it's simply a matter of not wanting to bore you all. While this semester's classes are interesting ~ Graphic Arts 102 and Illustration 133, in truth they've been extremely heady and quite technical.

Much of our time has been spent learning the ins-and-outs of using a digital camera and InDesign, a powerhouse of a program that's mostly used for publishing and print work. And so I've mostly been drowning in a whirlpool of technical jargon and techniques ~ blech! But just this week we moved into Photoshop and Illustrator and finally got to work on some fun projects.

The first is the image above and the project was to clone ourselves in Photoshop. This was SO much fun!! That isn't the image I turned in for my project since I discovered I needed a facelift and a diet in that one, but I was was thrilled when the instructor said that he couldn't tell which was the original image and which was the insert!

The second project was to create a collage portrait in the style of Giuseppe Arcimboldo. We were given a selection of black & white image sheets to use which included old mechanical devises, food, and other miscellaneous items. I decided to to give a try at recreating an image of Marlene Dietrich and although it was super tedious I really like the way it came out.

Even though I work with Photoshop everyday, because I'm self taught I'm learning tons of new tools and shortcuts which will not only help me work faster but leave me with a whole new world of tools to use on my customer's projects, whoot! So I hope you've enjoyed a little peak into my current studies and hopefully I'll have more fun projects to show you in the near future.

Enjoy~

Quick Reminders ~ Party & Win

Just popping in with two quick reminders ~ If you haven't had a chance to sign up for the fabulous Gypsy Dreams blog party being held this Saturday (yep, that's tomorrow!) then be sure to check it out, it's not too late to sign up and should be loads of fun for all!

And... don't miss a chance to enter my September giveaway ~ last month's winner was #1 so it's never too early to enter for a chance to win!

I hope you've all enjoyed a wonderful week!

Enjoy~

♫School's Out for Summer♫

Yes, I'm singing and doing the happy dance today! I've finally arrived at my last day of classes, whew! I can't remember there last time I felt such relief from the arrival of summer ~ it's certainly been ages.

This first semester back to college has been amazing and I've learned SO much but the sheer amount of stress has been nearly overwhelming at times.

Of course undergoing a move and juggling a freelance business weren't the easiest choices and time management was definitely my adversary but threw it all, the terrific teachers and wonderful students helped to make the process a bit more manageable. Oh and I can't forget my wonderful Personal Coach too, it's something the university provides to assist first year students and she was a huge source of inspiration too.

All in all it was a great experience and although I'm looking forward to moving on to my new classes next Fall for now I'm relishing in the days off and welcoming the opportunity to focus my creative energies back on full time graphics work for the next few months, whoot!

I've included a sampling of some final project shots and as always, I hope you...

Enjoy!

School Updates

With the end of my classes quickly approaching I thought it was about time I post a few updates. My first semester has certainly presented it's share of challenges, time management being the biggest, but all in all I've enjoyed myself and learned far more than I ever could have imagined.

This semester I took two classes, Art which focused on general concepts of beginning drawing and Sculpture whose name is self explanatory. Both classes were filled with their share of ups and downs ~ a goofed drawing, a broken sculpture, but I soon found this to be part of the learning process as well.

My Art class presented concepts on values and planes, studying basic shapes in complicated objects, and human features including the torso and face. We're currently winding up with a photographic portrait which is shown here below.

For Sculpting we dove head first into clay by working on several sculptures, as well as working with wax to create a bronze casting and casting & carving a plaster sculpture. I've enjoyed this class immensely which came as a huge surprise since I'd never worked with clay before.

My professors have both been amazing, one is around my age with a background in graphic design/advertising (go figure) and the other, young enough to be my son and a truly gifted artist ~ here's a link to his website (shhhhh).

One of the surprises I encountered during this semester has been people's reaction to me attending online college. I never imagined I would feel a need to defend this choice as I just assumed others were as aware of the added challenges to online studying as I was but it appears there is still a common consensus that online colleges are subpar. I can comfortably dismiss those notions as the Academy of Art University offers an exceptional online learning experience.

Besides being impressed with the fact that they offer all of there campus classes in online format; through in-depth videos, discussion groups, and personal professors, they also work to ensure we're getting the most out of our experience by providing a Personal Learning Coach who calls regularly to be sure I'm managing ok with life and classes ~ who wouldn't benefit from that!? ;D

Reflecting back over this first semester I can't help but take pause and thank the stars for aligning in such a way that I've landed squarely at the doorstep of my future and I'm loving it. So, I hope you've enjoyed this little jaunt down the hallways of my first semester and if you're ever considering an art degree, definitely checkout AAU ~ it's worth the investment of time and money.

Enjoy~

Art Classes - week 2

The second week of art classes at AAU are nearly over and in reflection I enjoyed using a number of new tools and techniques in both of my classes. While I learned about proper shading techniques in Art 101...

I also learned to cover last week's armature with clay and create a realistic face with special emphasis on 3 three dimensional eyes, nose, and lips in Sculpting...

I'm really enjoying both of my classes and learning more than this little of head of mine can barely handle. Working in clay is the most surprising for me right now as I'm in awe of the semi Egyptian look the piece seems to be taking on.

This week also had it's share of distractions as my son and his wife gave birth to their first son, Orion Dominick Sebastian ~ what a name. Sadly he's in intensive care right now because of breathing issues, so if you could keep this little angel in your thoughts and prayers that would be wonderful.

Wishing you all a fabulous week ahead...

Art Classes - week 1

Well, here I am... at the end of my first week of art classes. For those of you who aren't aware, I've decided to go back to college for my Bachelor degree in Art Education at the Academy of Art University through their online program. Of course being able to teach art means you need to know how to do art and so we are beginning with the basics.

For my first semester I'm taking two classes, one which covers sketching, form, perspective, etc. and the other is a sculpting/jewelry design class ~ have to laugh at the jewelry part, what a hoot!

Art 101 - (not really the class title but we'll refer to it as such) was a huge challenge. Who would have thought that drawing simple 3 dimensional shapes would be so challenging, but after focusing on pressure, angle, dimension, perspective, vanishing points, and a boatload of other aspects ~ my arm was achy and my mind mush.

Sculpting 101 - (again, the 101 is for amusement sake) in this class I learned how to build and armature structure for a sculpture and what a maquette is. Our assignment is to create a clay sculpture of either an expressive or morphed creature. We had to submit a series of sketch ideas, supporting textural images, and finally a maquette which is laughable with it's aquatic nose (purely by accident) but my best attempt in clay at the moment.

It's a struggle for me on so many levels, time management being the biggest, but I must say I've already learned SO much and I'm really enjoying it.

One of the key requirements of attending an online university is participating in the discussion groups where students and teachers meet to post assignments, comments, and share feedback. It's all such uncharted territory for most of us and so many students seem to be in a similar place as me ~ feeling like a fish out of water ~ that it helps to know you're not alone.

The teachers are also extremely supportive, both in attitude and responses, and they're each exceptional artists in their own right. I would love to post the website for one of my teachers here but I'm not sure if it would tread on some thin-line of privacy so I've let that go for now.

All in all it was a great first week despite the intense stress and I'm looking forward to learning more as it comes.

❀I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for their lovely comments on my OWOH post. While I haven't had as much time as I'd hoped to get around and visit everyone, I'm looking forward to catching up with this in the coming week and can't wait to see what you've all shared. I hope you all enjoyed an equally artist & productive week ~

School Spirit

It's been a long time since I've used the words "school spirit" and meant them for myself. However, next week I will be starting college to study for my degree in Art Education. It's taken me a long time narrow down exactly what it is I want to do when I 'grow up' but some personal experiences over the past few years have helped me narrow it down...

I truly enjoyed my time guest teaching a jewelry class at our local high school a few years ago but it was the recent experience of donating excess jewelry supplies to a woman's shelter that was the final deciding factor. The reason being that I offered to guest teach there, knowing full well there was no way I could step foot inside without a teaching degree under my belt. And so the search began for an accredited online University.

I believe my final choice of going with the Academy of Art University is a great one and I'm excited to be starting my first classes next week. I'm sure it will be a long haul with many lessons learned along the way but in the end I hope to be better equipped to contribute toward art in the future ~ that and a more stable income wouldn't be bad either.

I know there are several friends out there in blogland who've expressed an interest in having me post about assignments and so I will do my best to include a posting here and there about current projects and such.

My new venture coupled with our family relocating this coming spring will keep the faeries and me excessively busy over the next few months and so I will be cutting back on custom order projects ~ taking them on a direct contact basis. In the meantime, my repertoire of free and low cost blog themes and elements will still be here for the taking and hopefully I'll have time to post a new theme here and there.

Enjoy!