Hey all. I missed you. Have you missed me? A lot of craziness has been going down with siblings running away, financial issues, broken water systems, toilets, cameras, and children's book projects. I'm spent, and I haven't had time to journal/reply to comments as frequently. Also, I generally like to deliver good news, but every time I open up a fresh journal, a new catastrophe arrives to stomp the good news into pieces. I mean, I just starting writing this and found out that there was a murder or something loose somewhere on my street, like right outside my apartment >> But whateva.

Mostly I wanted to chat about my children's book project. Yesterday, we had a midterm review/critique. Essentially, the teachers of the graphic design department, six teachers in total, gather in a room with the graduating classes work. We students stand before them presenting the work we have done so far, and they say what they like/don't like about our projects. Underclassmen also come to listen to teachers. So, in short, it's an intense, public critique.

Mine went relatively well. LOL, they want me to make a movie (well, more of an animatic from my understanding) of my work because they feel my spreads are cinematic, rather than create a book, but *shrug* I'm not going to listen to that. XD It's not necessarily that I can't do animatic... I mean I can use flash well enough to make one easily but I was sort of set on a book so... yeah. They didn't like my cartoony goldfish, which I don't mind replacing. Also, they didn't like my colors or rather the milky look of my colors. I agree that they need more contrast, which is easily fixed in photoshop. They liked that the photoshop illustrations look traditional when printed out... everyone seems to think they are reproduced gouache paintings when I show them.

After the show, this guy in another class than I came up to me and told me he was really impressed and such by the illustrations : ) LOL, I hope I wasn't too awkward when I just kept saying thanks XD I don't know what to do with compliments XD But anyway, I was really flattered.

Today, I didn't work on my project at all. I actually bought a book, The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells for three dollars, and I had time to read several pages on the bus without feeling guilty or completely exhausted. Anyway, it was nice. I like H.G.

For those who want copies of the completed books. Right now, I'm thinking of printing a few books, binding them myself and selling them on etsy/having folks preorder. The binding will be similar to this: [link] and it will come with five bookmarks with handmade tassels. I'm hoping to sell the set for 10 dollars. I might allow preorders so that I can cover the cost of the initial printing.

Mm, well that's all for now. I'm going to read a book or something : )

Tasting the Rainbow,
Sasha L. Stowers

P.S. I'll also be making mini-books of my sketches bound the same way. If you would like one of those, tell me so.

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Livestreaming Over! Thanks everyone who came : ) Feel free to suggest additional topics for next time.

Thanks very much to everyone who came to the livestream. It was more enjoyable than I thought... Mm, I'll be doing another one tomorrow a.k.a. Thursday. I suppose I'll have to work supa hard and finish all of my design/drawing class work so I won't be up too late... I'm aiming for 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. We'll be going over how to draw hands. Actually, I think I'd better prepare notes... I discussed how I draw hair last time, and I feel that I did an incredibly inferior job of it T__T _{sorry everyone}

The video quality is rather poor... sorry, but I use camtwist and cannot improve the streaming quality. I'll do a test though with iShowU and see if I can record a higher quality video simultaneously. You'll be able to access them on Vimeo after I export, upload, and convert the video.

Let's see... I procured several helpful books for my 3d animation project... Some books on film techniques and terms, some on the planning of the animation, some concerning lighting scenes, and one really good one about modeling girls, called Virtual Vixens. LOL, the last book seems to, a first, be a book about men putting female figures in ah... provocative poses, but it has a lot of useful things about modeling in it. I couldn't really find anything that wasn't super technical when it came to character animation so... I'll just have to rely on my pal google for that.

I'm now doing a landscape for my drawing class. I don't like executing landscapes myself. I think figures are where it's at, you know. Anyway, I'm probably going to do this one in graphite powder on 30 inches by 40 inches. I'll try to upload a wip if you all are interested. *sigh* my last wip thing got ruined, and I had to rush and totally redraw the whole image in like 3 hours... so annoying.

Everyone in my drawing class draws so well. It's nice and intimidating. Nice in that we all really have our strengths, and the more I talk with these awesome people I can see the merits of my own work. LOL, maybe I've been in Graphic Design too long. I'm accustomed to my drawings being private and only viewed by me and probably Yue, my roommate/best friend... I suppose it's just nice to have work that still makes people ask what the heck I was drawing with and why they can't see pencil strokes XD

Well, I'm going to do some work for my drawing projects or sleep >> The latter sounds rather appealing now...

Bye Loves,
Sasha Stowers

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Livestream is over. Thanks to all whom stopped by.

I finally got my livestream working again... after uninstalling sunflower and camtwist, it turns out that all I needed to do was reinstall my flash player. *shrug* I actually think I'll broadcast something after my class today... even if having internet people looking over my shoulder makes me nervous. .__.''' I just know you'll all find out that I have no talent at all and you have no reason for watching me at all *cringes*

Mm, I've been uploading stuff to the drawing horse. I'm not going to call it a sketchblog and jinx it, but I'll be uploading in-progress shots and whatnot, for those interested in that sort of thing.

Later, I hope to upload raw materials for tutorials--all the random info I collect and sketch for tutorials. *writes on sticky note to upload shading notes from forever ago* I've been trying to be more organized and have started using Sunbird and sticky notes to organize myself. I've also started using Vue for mindmapping my tutorials and projects. I'm just hoping that all of this will help my crazy life feel less crazy.

My work for my blender animation project got corrupted T__T so now I have to start my 3d animation project all over T___T Oh well, I did learn some things about rendering and lighting *shrug* Since I have a *lol* fresh start, I might as well go ahead and do the project the way it's supposed to be done... you know with planning and everything. I suppose I'll do a script and do an animatic for the end result. I wonder if I can get some voice actors... and if I can use the theater department's sound equipment >> They have a sound studio, I think, in the Fine Arts building. Or, I suppose, I could try the music school.

I think I'll go to school early and get some books on 3d animation today, which I believe to be on the 6th floor, to get a feel for what all I'm in for. I'm a big believer in using books for reference and instruction. The internet seems to me to be just superficial for content, but books are usually a lot more exact, they don't gloss over as much (at least the good books.)

Well, anyway, I'm going to run and catch an early bus to campus. Check you later alligators : )

I'm just here to say that I have not left you. I've just started college again, and I am not a happy camper. In addition to being flat broke and allergic to my new apartment (honestly, I can barely breathe right now) my class load is rather intense, and my room is only beginning to look as though it is fit for human inhabitance. Bare with me, if I do not answer notes/comments promptly.

I have to do 50 complete drawings by Monday for my drawing class. Don't get excited. These will probably be ugly due to the time strain(I was given two weeks), and the fact that I need to do a 22 x 30 inches self portrait by Friday. I suppose I'll just slap some ink on there and hope for the best. I have to read the end of Gulliver's Travels, and do a science poster by Friday as well. *sigh* School is lame T__T I hope things get easier because... I really planned to make a livestream class thing for you all, but with all of this work, the development of such an institution seems unlikely.

Sometime, when I finish this... stuff, I'm going to do pretty things for you all again. I've actually planned out my BJD... what materials I'd like to use and everything. I dunno what people are saying when they say it's expensive to make it yourself. I own over half of the materials already...

Well, anyway, I'm rather tired now. I've been at school since 7, and I really should buy some Benodryl before my eyes go all puffy and red and I can't breathe again. Once I come back from the store, I'll probably start my self portrait, and maybe do some of my 50 drawings. If I'm naughty, I'll answer some messages XD

Hello all. *pat7 tagged me, so I'll be doing this little meme first.

1. Post these rules.
2. Each tagged person must post 8 things about themselves on their journal.
3. At the end, you have to tag eight people and post their icons on the same journal.
4. Go to their pages and tell them they were tagged.
5. No tag-backs!

1. I like to learn things. It doesn't even matter if the subject of my learning is something useful or not, but I like to look up the history of things and how they came to be. The other day, I was looking into creating my own BJD, formatting books on kindle, and how to create files in Blender that will be suitable for 3d printing. I think I'd like to make my own BJD actually...

2. I secretly want to be animator, but I fear I don't draw well/quickly enough. My dream would be to create my own feature length film from one of my stories. *sighs and looks off wistfully*

3. Everyone thinks I'm younger than I am. My sister is sixteen, and everyone thinks she is older than me >> They asked me if I was old enough to see the rated R movie. Once a lady asked me if I wanted a kid's cup >> I'm old though. Like as dust. Don't ask my age XD

4. I like to cook. I enjoy making my own recipes, which mostly depends on my mood, so even when I'm planning a certain meal... in the kitchen I might suddenly decide that the meal should be spicy instead. Also, I enjoy making sweets for the janitors in my building or the bus drivers. I them.

5. I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs, and have never done so in my life. It's fine that other people do, but all of that just never enticed me at all. I prefer caffeine-drenched carbonated beverages.

6. I'm a big softy. I'll probably cave on something if I know someone really wants something from me (unless it's against my morals). I'm the one sneaking treats to your pets because they look at me cutely, and giving your kids extra cookies.

7. Running out of things to say... Let's see... I sing a lot. I sing as I draw if the vocals are particularly strong in the song that's playing (my ipod is permanently attached to my hip.) Generally, I don't perform before others, but as my mom often entered me in contests--I'd do modeling, comedy, singing, whatever--I can perform when I need to (you know after the jitters ) I'm told I'm good... but those people are probably lying XD

8. I do graphic design and web design on the side. I've been doing web design for, gosh, 10 years? I used to even tutor my elementary school classmates on how to use image editing software. Seriously, I did a session with every student in own class so they could do their projects. XD I also was 'chosen' to do our classes' 5th grade yearbook. It really amuses me when people think I only know traditional media XD

I know I'm supposed to tag others, but I don't want to inconvenience anyone. If you'd like to post this, you may.

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Books

Okay, so I was going to go ahead an talk about all the books I've read this summer, well since I last time I talked about all the books I've read... I was going to tell you what I liked and disliked, what I would recommend and not, and what I would have altered, but instead... I'll just be lazy give you a list of the books XD:

Native Son by Richard Wright
Free: The Future of A Radical Price by Chris Anderson
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
Watership Down by Richard Adams
King Lear by William Shakespeare
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
Dress Your Family in Corduroy by David Sedaris
It Happened to Nancy by Beatrice Sparks
The Rag and Bone Shop by Robert Cormier
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Being Dead by Vivian Vande Velde
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Eh, I'm reading Moby Dick & The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey now : )

All of the art news is secret at the moment *shh*