Midweek ramblings

I just sent my comp copy for project 6 to Stephanie and Allison. It needs a ton of refining, but I'm happy I finished it. The more I work on this project, the more I like my chosen topic. So, tonight the goal is to finish (or mostly finish) the Flash movie. I'll be happy if I get it almost how I want it and then just have a few minor tweaks over the next few days.

Words, words, words. I'm one of those people who definitely has a list of favorite words. Some of them I like because of the way they sound, some of them I like because of what they mean and some I have no idea why I like them, but for whatever reason, I think they're cool. Here's a sampling:

• serendipity (my all-time favorite word, in sound and in meaning)
• collage
• kaleidoscope
• snarky (the sound is the main reason I like this one)
• anthropology
• turtle
• dulce
• loquacious

I am so ready for this semester to be over. I'm not sure what I'll do with myself once I have my weekends back. Probably sleep. And go to the beach. And sleep on the beach.

Sunday night.

I'm feeling much more on top of things this week than I did last week at this time. My Flash movie is almost finished. I just have to finish my text and drag all my keyframes out into the timeline. I may add one more illustration, too, but that shouldn't take too long.

My concept for project 6 changed again. Mostly because I don't want to do something too complicated. So, I'm going to do "How to pack for vacation without suffering wardrobe separation anxiety" (read: stop overpacking). I've been wanting to do something fashion-related all semester and I just never felt like it was right for the project. I think this one will work okay.

On the health front, the poison on my face seems to be improving, but I'm still a little itchy and swollen. I feel pretty.

Okay. Need sleep now.

Project 6 revisited

It's Friday morning and I have yet to type a single word or draw a single line for project six. I did, however, manage to finish my classification so it's reasonable acceptable. I'm not completely happy with it, but it's fine for the comp phase. Unfortunately, I had to work through LOST last night to finish it because my computer froze and couldn't recover over an hour's worth of illustrating (which I thought I had saved, but apparently not).

However, since I'm staring down the barrel (a loooooooong barrel) of project 5, I'm not sure if I want to take on my initial idea for project six, even though I really like it. So, I might do my fallback idea of "How to watch LOST," but I'm not sure if I'll be able to stretch that out to eight pages. Of course, using lots of images would work, too. So, we'll see what happens tonight when I start working on this. This might be a pot 'o joe night, which sucks, because I woke up exhausted. At least it's Friday.

Midweek ramblings

It's Wednesday (I think) and I'm halfway finished with my illustrations for project 4. I'm not sure why I decided to illustrate all of these projects. It's kind of making me crazy and increasing the workload tri-fold. But, I'm halfway through and I'm liking the results, so no sense in backtracking now.

And project 5 is officially on hold until Saturday night. It's the only way I feel that I can get these projects done and do them right.

Project 6. Yeah. I've barely given it any thought. And the thought I have given it has been, I've got nothing. Well, not nothing, but nothing that I want to pursue. All of the ideas I've come up with are on the snarky side, but I'm using snarkiness for project 4 and I would rather avoid using it again for project 6. But, if I don't come up with anything that's not snarky (and not boring), then I guess snarkiness will rule.

Snarky. I like that word. Before we were dating, my boyfriend and I got into a debate about whether or not it was actually a word. I thought it was, he thought it wasn't. So, to prove I was right, and in true snarky form, I printed out the definition of snarky from dictionary.com and left it on his desk (we were coworkers at the time).

In between all the craziness, I managed to complete one creativity challenge project this week. It's actually from Sunday, so sadly, the past few days have been void of any creativity other than work and school. But, the school assignments are stretching and improving my skills as an illustrator, so I say they count. Hey, it's my challenge, I can make up and change the rules whenever I feel like it.

Saturday thoughts

I intended to come home tonight and work on my projects, but my brain is burning and there is no way that any good ideas are going to come out of it tonight. So, I gave myself a break and continued on my creativity challenge. Here's the result-it's colored pencil, not a medium I'm all that used to, but I'd like to learn more about it (and get better quality pencils).


I'm feeling (slightly) better about the flash project. I have to finish my illustrations and I think I'm going to change my song to Dave Matthews "The Space Between." I find it more appropriate for my story. Speaking of my story, I know my storyboard was a little cryptic, so here's the gist-
Girl needs a dress for her fiance's birthday, which is one day away. She finds the dress in the store window, buys the dress, puts on the dress and goes to visit her fiance's grave. It is the first birthday he's had since his death and it's her way of celebrating and remembering him. Morbid, I know, but I'm making it work.

Project six doesn't seem too scary. Pretty easy actually. It's just going to be a matter of finding time to actually do the work and also, you know, sleep and eat. I may be forced to regress to my undergrad tactics of putting on a pot of coffee at midnight and plowing through my work until 5 am. I'm not sure I could handle that anymore. I guess I should probably just focus on my time management skills.

Midweek ramblings

I'm pretty sure my illustrations for this Flash project will not be completed for the rough draft round on Saturday. Since I'm doing them by hand, I'll probably get halfway through and the rest will have to be thumbnails for my storyboard. But, I'd rather do thumbnails anyway because in my opinion (and my professional experience), that's what a rough draft is. I hate to do too much for my rough drafts and then have to go back and change a bunch of stuff that wasn't working. I'd rather do some sketches and mock it up that way than draw and paint tons of stuff that I ultimately won't use. For me, this is the most efficient approach.

Coincidentally, I decided to take the Flash workshop at UB that's offered this semester. I had signed up before I even knew we were going to have a Flash assignment for this class. But, the workshop couldn't be at a more timely moment in the semester for me. I've used Flash a little before, but I figured I'll learn even more from the workshop.

I changed my mind (again) about next semester's classes. I decided against taking Editorial Style, mostly because it starts 8:15 pm and I don't think I'd survive a semester of driving home from Baltimore at 11 pm. I also think that it's a bit redundant from what I did in undergrad and I'd rather take Writing for the Marketplace or Scriptwriting for grad school. So, instead of Monday night Editorial Style, I'm taking Thursday night Typography (and I should still be home in time to watch LOST). I'll still be taking Media Design. I'm pretty set on that one, but it was a toss-up initially between that and the special topics motion graphics class.

A hint

Here's a rough image of the potential title screen for the flash story.

Creative unblock

I have to admit this week was the first week I walked out of class without at least 5 possible ideas for the next assignment. I didn't even walk out with one idea. And it was terrifying. By this evening, when I still didn't have a story, I was really starting to panic since I feel a major time crunch with this particular project.

But then, the elusive creative lightning struck. I've got a story! And I love my story. The hard part is going to be illustrating it. I want to use pencil drawings and possibly watercolors mixed with computer art, but this is going to be time consuming. I'll probably have to devote this entire week to illustrating and put my comps for project 4 on hold until next Sunday. Unfortunately, I'm illustrating that project, too, but not in the same manner, so it's (marginally) less time consuming.

For every other project, I've posted pre-class about my chosen topic. I'm keeping this one under wraps. It's movie after all. There has to be some element of surprise. Maybe I'll post my title screen once I have that finished. A preview of sorts.

Obsession confession

I love Anthropologie. Not anthropology, as in the study of human beings and their cultures, but Anthropologie, as in the store. The wonderful, artsy, creative store. Not only do I love their clothes and home decor products, but I love their graphic design and writing. Maybe I love their branding even more than I love their products. Their products further support my (emphatic) belief that fashion (and the design and the style resulting from it) is art. But either way, it's a fabulous example of excellent branding that carries throughout their print, multimedia, environmental and product design/merchandising. I also love how they incorporate collage and handmade items. This is the look that I'm hoping to use for my flash project.

Here are a few e-mail and website screenshots (I cropped out the part of the image that says "Shopping cart- 9 items"). *Sigh* My name is Christie and I'm addicted to Anthropologie.

Digital Storytelling

I've been meaning to post about The Painted Bride for a while and with our project 5 flash story looming, I thought now was a good time to do so.

I interned at this place when I was an undergrad and it was one of the most fascinating places I've ever worked. If it hadn't been just an internship, it would have been my dream job. They support both emerging and established avant-garde artists- visual, spoken word, instrumental, dance, theatre, vocal and now, digital storytelling. If you're ever in Philadelphia, stop by. It's truly a unique place

Here's a link to their digital storytelling page.