http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:coerul&section=today deviantART RSS for by:coerul en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:09:17 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/28025641/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/28025641/ Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:43:10 PDT ...
And of course, making ritual sacrifices of pigs and goats to the Sumerian Art Gods.

Kidding.

But recently it's come to my attention that there are "tricks" to assignments that make things LOOK like they're better than they might actually be or at least more interesting than they may deserve to be. So I've compiled a list of what I believe to be cheap resolutions to otherwise unresolved artworks. Most of these have been experienced first hand, multiple times, in not only this semester. Keep in mind that good works of art can be created using these tricks, but only if they are not used as an easy way out (because it's so obvious when you realize it.) The process of making artistic visual decisions can be a complex one, and if you figure out a way to make a piece more effective, and you want to do it, then it should be done!

However, it should be said that some people use these methods as easy ways out of actually thinking about whether or not it's effective in their work. The effectiveness is often built-in to these things, and does not come from the work itself. Anyway, read on if you understand what I'm talking about. xD

1) For drawings, using an opaque media on a black paper.
This gives the effect of "neon", and emphasizes line work and areas of bright value.
Drawing teachers squeal when you use toned paper in the first place, so using it to this extreme degree is always fun for them. EVERYTHING looks more interesting if you're using bold colors on black, because everything pops. You could draw a half-assed penis with mauve on a black paper, and I can almost guarantee we would spend more time critiquing it than a similar work that took twice as long on white paper.


2) Using overly wide mats to accentuate small pieces.
This gives a small piece more presence on the wall, perhaps letting it compete with larger ones although it is much smaller. And if the mat is black, this is even more true.
This one happened a lot in my Illustration class. People don't like drawing large formats, or upconverting images to be larger formats. It just takes them too long. So they draw it smaller than 8 x 10 inches and then put a 5-7 inch (often black) mat on it. This gives it presence equal to other, larger works because it's at least as big as they are. In one instance I remember, someone did a very simple cartoon and then put a huge mat on it, and we talked about it longer than some of the ones that had much more complex work with little to no mat. I just feel that putting big mats on things to make them appear larger is kind of a cheap trick if a smaller mat could have been more effective. Which leads me to...

3) Making a work REALLY LARGE, for no reason.
This makes any work monumental because it's larger than life, or larger than we are. Even if the content is small and simply placed at an edge or proportion, the work is effective because of the large space.
BLARGH! I hate when people make a really big painting and then we critique it for 15 minutes on how "monumental" and "larger than life" it is. And I'm like "DUH. It's fucking 4 feet tall!" There are a lot of possibilities for large format works, but it should not be a cheap way to get an effective work. Painting one object at the top third of a tall, narrow canvas does not make a good painting. And for the record, I am so tired of GIANT FACES. It's like "LOOK! An expressive face the size of a giant! I FEEL SO TINY, SO THIS MUST BE GOOD!"
Giant faces outshined many at regional art shows when I was in high school. Recently someone did one for an assignment and I was so bored with it. It wasn't really original content or an original approach to the content. It was just big and dirty looking.

There are other "tricks" but they're less tricks than things you learn in college and should use at some point, because they make for more interesting artwork most of the time. Like arbitrary color/unusual color palettes, adding "shine" to drawings (small bit of light to balance lots of varying mid-tone and a little bit of dark in the same fashion, and there is a similar approach to color), using varying types of marks, etc. These are just decisions you would have to make anyway, and don't usually result in what I'm talking about here.

It can be really frustrating to have to critique works that aren't necessarily interesting, they just did one of the things above to make it SEEM like it's interesting. I'm not saying that there is no place for these "tricks", just that they can be abused and I hate critiquing them!
There is a place for giant paintings and black paper and big mats. Bu... ]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/27813245/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/27813245/ Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:56:26 PDT
Illustration is killer. In a bad way and a good way.
I'm really interested in most of the assignments, which is good. And I have Mark as my prof, so I know I'll get good feedback that isn't brutal as hell and he cares about us as artists AND people.
But each time we have a critique, I can't help but think like "Why am I doing this, there are so many more awesome ideas and mine is just not that awesome."
Like there are these guys in my class that kick FACE at illustrating, and I can't compete with them. I just can't draw the same way they do (which looks really good.) Mine ends up looking childish by comparison.
It's really discouraging.

And then there's this Drawing class. Ugh.
The prof is like...SO proud of her Native/Spanish/whatever heritage. So we end up looking up these Hispanic poets for no reason. And she gives all these shitty outside assignments that no one does well on because we have other shit to do, and they take too long to do well. And she makes us draw LANDSCAPES, uggghghhgh. Get out of my face.
And she's all like "You need to take more risks." but I've already tried out two media that are entirely new to me, plus I never draw landscapes, plus I never worked in color with drawing media before! What else do you want?!

Bleh. And Art History is shitty as usual, and she's making our final exam cumulative. Whatever.


Overall, I just feel like a shitty artist some days. I'm good at a certain type of thing, and it's really hard to expand sometimes, and other people seem like they're awesome at everything. -__-; Sounds mopey but I don't care. I think lots of artists feel that way.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/27185976/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/27185976/ Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:34:54 PDT
I don't want to be part of the cupcake boom, but I doubt I would be, because that bubble is due to burst soon, and I don't like cupcakes as much as I like cookies.

I don't get the idea behind cupcake-eries. Well, I do sort of.
People don't have a lot of money to spend on big luxuries so they buy little ones, like cupcakes, right?
They don't want to buy a lot of cupcakes because then they'll get fat, so they buy one really nice one. And then promptly start discussing how bad it is for them and how they're trying to be on a diet but it's been hard since blah blah blah.
That's where cupcake boutiques come in, and sell you $4 or $5 cupcakes with beautiful designs and exotic flavors.

Now, the problem comes when more and more people get the idea that they could start a cupcake boutique/specialty bakery, too. So they do, and they make some money, enough to get by or even make a profit. And the cupcake bubble inflates.

What I don't understand is why people like cupcakes so much. Too much icing, and I don't like paying much for a 9th of a sheet cake.
Cupcakes are kind of like tiny, more mobile cakes, but messier because you eat them with your hands.
What I like about cookies is that although you eat them with your hands, you can often just wipe the crumbs off, unless they're covered in powdered sugar, in which case you're SOL because you'll inevitably get it on your clothes even if you're careful.
And cookies don't REQUIRE milk to keep from getting that cakey-chokey feeling in your mouth.


Moral of the Story: Cookies > Cupcakes

Anyway, on an art-related note, I made my own Oreos the other day and I was going to take a nice macro shot, but I ate them all.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/26470789/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/26470789/ Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:13:55 PDT
I'm getting ready to go back to college again so I won't submit anything for like 6 months and then I'll put up like 2 things I'm okay with.

I guess I'm just not enjoying the work I'm doing in school. I'm not going to whine and say that I'm not learning ANYTHING and it's all stupid and pointless (even though it feels that way sometimes.) But I feel like I'm not allowed to even go back to that happy art-making place I was in before I went to college. That kind of art is something they've all "seen before" apparently, thereby making it instantly non-unique and therefore worthless to the "art community" that we're all a part of. I don't feel like I've seen it before. I can't say that there aren't artists that are similar in the world but that's okay. If there weren't, we wouldn't be able to expand our interest in art. There would be probably 30 artists ever. Nothing would ever evolve.
Right now the typical artist in my classes at school does weird indie art that looks like a mix of creepy caricature and shitty Adult Swim cartoons. I feel very separate from that crowd at least, which is something I'm proud of. There's nothing unique about that art scene, and it's become disgustingly popular to make "weird cartoons" that make everyone feel uncomfortable (and therefore you should like them, phht.) The buck stops at Flapjack, okay. Flapjack is uncomfortable animation at it's best. Next to Ren and Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life.

I like to make people laugh.
And think.
And feel good.

I like for people to think about things like the kids they played with when they were little and the weird games you played. I like for people to think about their stuffed animals and action figures.

It's not as if my childhood was this great, glorious thing to me. I just envy the ability to carry around a blanket or a stuffed animal. I wish we could all dress how we wanted without people thinking "Well how strange is that. I wouldn't be caught dead in that! That's out of season! That isn't appropriate!"

Things that make us feel safe or good are called "dependency issues" all too often these days.
Of course, there are boundaries. Just as with everything else, you must have it in moderation. Anyone who NEEDS something to feel alright may have a problem. But snuggling a stuffed animal or the corner of your blanket at night is simple comfort. It feels good to have something soft and snuggly because it's natural to feel comforted by it. Some people become violently embarrassed by that kind of thing.

If I could carry a stuffed animal into the doctor's office every time I need a booster shot or tetanus or whatever, I would feel a lot better about the whole thing. But we have this social expectation to show no fear of being stuck with things and poked and prodded and have essential fluids taken out of our bodies!

It's all just so ridiculous. I'd rather keep my blood INSIDE my body, thanks.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/26077783/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/26077783/ Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:18:13 PDT
This song has gotten me through some rough times, and counts as one of my top 10 favorite Pillows songs.

And it has a fun little electro version of Advice on the end, which was my favorite song for a long time.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/25526502/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/25526502/ Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:43:01 PDT
It's really hot in Kentucky.
I forgot how hot it was here. It's humid as hell, too. x.x;

It's my first "real" job because I'm not particularly close to my stepmom, and she's a businesswoman first and foremost (at least I think so.) So she can play the game, so to speak. I'm only working for a week on the record, but she'll probably keep me busy every now and then for the rest of the summer, at least.

Anyway, I take my jobs ("real" or not) very seriously, and I don't like to settle for less than the highest caliber of work I can deliver. Today was my first day, and I only had two hiccups, which were fixed quickly.

But it's SO hot.

I was jumping in and out of these Ford F-150s for about an hour (not to mention the other three cars I shot today. That's at least 18 pictures per car. In and out, back and front.)
If nothing else, I'll sweat some weight off in a week.


I haven't done any real art in a long time.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/24854067/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/24854067/ Wed, 20 May 2009 10:13:00 PDT
I started a blog, too! And I enabled Google Adsense on it too, because I need the extra money, so please feel free to click on some of the Google-sponsored links!
Check it out Here!

I've been posting about things that I've found and thought about or think needs to be addressed. I've covered Steampunk recently, so if you are a fellow steampunk, you might want to take a read. :3

Really I haven't done much art lately, although I did enter the Ad-It-Up Contest on WarcraftPets. .__.;

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/24705100/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/24705100/ Mon, 11 May 2009 14:50:47 PDT
My final review didn't go really well. I was called "self-censoring" for bringing in and displaying the work I thought was the best, instead of EVERYTHING piled on a table with the ones I like displayed on the walls.

It's largely due to my Art History teacher that it was so shitty. She had never been on a review team, and I was the first review of the day, so I was her first review ever I think. I think someone told her "You have to be brutally honest, because these kids need the criticism!" So she didn't have a lot of nice things to say in the end. And she was snippy when I tried to explain why I had omitted works that I felt weren't successful. WHY WOULD I BRING IN WORK I THOUGHT WAS SHITTY!?

My Creative Processes teacher had me a lot over the year, so he had mostly constructive things to say about how I should look into developing my own aesthetic and keep trying out mediums and think about printmaking. And I will.

NO ONE told us that we should bring in so much work or that we COULD, even. If someone had told me that they wanted to see all the work we got bad critiques on and thought weren't very good, I would have brought it. If someone said they wanted us to bring in things that had influenced us, I would have. All they gave us was a paper that said we needed to have 18 specified works from certain classes and could bring in extra studio pieces from class if we wanted to.

I got pretty mediocre, middle-ground, 4-7 scores on a lot of the things they were scoring from 1-10. They didn't even meet me halfway on how no one told us we could or should bring in all the crap they wanted. And I thought I was one of the pretty good freshmen. =.=;

I can't imagine how the crappy art student's reviews went. .__.;


For a few hours after the review I was thinking that I didn't have to take shit from anyone about these things that I'd worked so hard on over the year. And I worked hard. I struggled a lot with coming up with ideas, because I didn't want to do something I'd already done and I couldn't do anything anyone else was doing and I didn't want to do something that would be too obvious.
Looking back on it, all I was doing all year was trying to 1-up the professors so they wouldn't have much negative criticism when the critique came around. If I had a bad review, I tried even harder on the next one just to show them up. Bad critiques are really painful, because they're not just talking about a picture, they're talking about something you poured yourself into. And all that shit about not taking criticism personally is crap. You can't sit there and take anything they say into consideration without taking it personally or it doesn't mean anything. It's pointless if you don't take it personally, because who else is doing the artwork but you?

I got angry because it wasn't fair. It still isn't fair. That the personal opinion of a teacher is your grade, in the long run. It may be a professional opinion, but it's no less biased because of their personal preferences. It just puts an opinion into terms that sound educated.

I'm angry because art students go through a lot of shit with very little payoff. We work hours and hours on all this work so that other people can look at it and tell us what we already know like we didn't try our best, and we're supposed to encourage and enjoy it. I worked myself to the point of exhaustion, creatively and physically. And it's not even enough to merit numbers above 6 or 7 out of 10 for a freshman. Even when you graduate, you might not even get a good job for all your hard work.

I wish I had the balls to just say "Fuck college, I can make it on my own." But I don't and I couldn't, and I'm probably going to stay at this college until I graduate just to prove to myself and everyone else, especially these professors who act like all students suck at art, that I could do it with or without their support.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/24036958/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/24036958/ Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:29:04 PDT
And then my first year review, but I'm not too worried about that, surprisingly.

The most surreal part is that I've been so busy, and working from one project and paper to the next, that I didn't even realize that the end was near.
Everything seems really relative to each other thing. Like it seems like Molly dropped out a long time ago, but last semester didn't seem so long ago at all.

The bad part is that I've been so busy with school, I haven't had time to do any REAL artwork. LOL.

I drew a skull with a mohawk yesterday for a friend, though, so I'll put that up in scraps just for you. It was weird to draw something for myself after nearly 6 months of nothing but sketches for projects, naked people, and writing notes in my sketchbook.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/23267426/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/23267426/ Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:19:28 PST
You know when people come back from college and they say "Oh, it's just like high school." Well they're wrong. It's worse than high school. Art college is this whole different animal. Not only are there elite little groups of artists who know everyone, but the division between dorm kids and commuting kids is stupid. Sure, they know each other, but they don't talk. There's always drama at parties, too. At least in high school, no one gave a shit. :\ You ALL commuted. You all partied together, and even if you never talked to someone before, you could always be like "Oh yeah awesome, I like that too." And carry on a conversation for longer than 3 seconds. Not allowed in the college world for some reason.

But that will all have to end next year. Dorm kids aren't really supposed to stay in there more than a year. Then NO ONE will talk because they're weird and awkward.

You know those art kids in your class who are always too quiet and no one talks to them but you know they're secretly doing some pretty good artwork? Well imagine an entire school of them, with some of them more talkative than others. Everyone is weird, everyone is awkward, and they're all mentally unstable in some way. xD

Camic was right, college is a surreal place.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/22066362/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/22066362/ Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:21:51 PST
It's not new anymore.

It's not original anymore.

It's not even cute anymore.

It all started with Jeff Thomas, really. That's when it became popular. And I hate to say that because he has a DA account and there is an excruciatingly slim chance that he should see this. But he is not to blame. He had a good idea and ran with it. And they are cute. He took the time to make them quality, even if they are stereotypical, but that's part of the joke. I get it.

But now people are essentially ripping off the same thing. I think there were too many Pon & Zi comic things to begin with. Too much of a "good" thing, you know...

Now people are just drawing stick figures doing cute, sad things. And it's the same thing over and over. I see people drawing them as if that was a substitute for real artwork. I understand art blocks. I understand that you need inspiration. But stick blobs taping their heart back together because some mysterious off-screen person broke it is just worn out.

And they're all like this: "Oh woe is me, I'm expressing myself through a stick/blob, but everyone knows it's really how I feel but they feel that way too so it's ok and we're all lonely and sad."

Give it a break.

Draw something new. Draw something original (or at least something we haven't all seen a million times before in the same way.) Draw something that isn't so sickeningly heart-spilling and obvious.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/21040003/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/21040003/ Fri, 17 Oct 2008 23:21:10 PDT
Stop. adding. Panda. Peeps. to. your. favorites.

Stop it. Stop it right now.

If I could disable favorites on that I would. People aren't even adding it because it's good, they're adding it because it has pandas in it, and it's "SO KAWAII ^W^ OMG!!!" So everyone favorites it and adds it to their "Panda" collections. I don't want to delete it because it's a good way to attract people to my work. Maybe that's selling out or something. I don't know. Is it terrible to want people to look at my other work? No, I think not. But I get near to 5 favorites per week sometimes on that shit. Near to 200 people have favorited ONLY that one scrap. I wonder sometimes if they even look at the rest of my gallery.

If I ever redo it, you all better favorite the crap out of that one. >__>

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/20767986/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/20767986/ Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:10:32 PDT

We have this 1" x 3" project going on now in Core, and today I finally cut up all my pieces in the woodshop. They're sitting there in the dark now because they didn't dry in time. I figured out too late that my pieces angles don't match up perfectly, so I'll end up with this fucked up piece of shit. x.x But it's ok. Because they'll understand that I've never worked with wood before. Hopefully.

Anyway, I've done a lot of sketches that you should see. Soon, I'll be submitting part of them as finished works. Yay! And they're awesome. So don't neglect to see them when your message bar says "1D", that's me.

I also plan on making cheesecake sometime soon, so keep an eye out for pictures, maybe. :B

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/20660958/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/20660958/ Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:59:02 PDT
I know all the names and what general time period and WHERE, but the official dates are all fuckin' out the window. Dan tried to help by telling me to figure out a visual clue and that sort of worked but now I can only remember like one number out of the sequence. >__>; I can't put the numbers in order.

I'll at least get a B though, and I think I can be ok with that considering how much other shit I have to do every day.

Lucid Magazine is collabing with me on designing their website. He confused me a little because I think he wants me to just do the graphics, or something. I'm just going to mock it up and code it into a nice, neat little CSS package. He says he's had 10 years of coding experience, so I hope he knows what to do with it when I give him everything. :\ Their website was awfully awkward to have 10 years experience.

Anyway, I'm really tired and need sleep. Wish me luck. <3

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/20598361/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/20598361/ Sun, 21 Sep 2008 08:56:06 PDT
So I'm really tired and I'm really bored and I've been writing nonstop since I got up this morning.

Yesterday, something weird happened. I had been getting the Moon card yesterday; I was asking how to change parts of my situation. I thought it simply meant that things would change naturally, and it does, but then this happened.
I left my dorm at about 4pm, because my roommate was playing music way too loud while I was TRYING to play video games, so I left and went to my house. I stayed there until about 8:30pm, reading The Gunslinger and the Motorcycle Diaries (which is not bad but the translation makes it a little too formal.) When I left, I hadn't gone ten feet when someone behind me shouts "HEY! Are you an artist!?" I thought he was talking to someone else, so I kept going, but he shouted again. I turned around and said "Yeah?" He ran up to me and said his name was Virgil from Lucid Magazine, and he covers galleries and community events and projects and stuff, and asked me what kind of artist I was, if I'd had any galleries, etc. So we carried on for a few minutes about that and then he said "This is my last card, but I'm going to give it to you." and he gave me this worn, black and foil card with the words "Lucid Magazine" and a moon on it. I said "Are you sure you want me to take your last card? I mean I can remember you and everything." He said something to the effect of "I trust you." So I said I would spread the word, and then he hurried off.

I looked it up later, and their website is a little messed up but they're like...art activists for Cincinnati, trying to bring people together through art. I sent them an email. They gave George Clooney a copy of a trailer for a movie one of them is making when he visited Maysville, Ky. Maysville is where you catch a train if you live in Central Kentucky. I took a train from there to New York Thanksgiving before last. Small world. The train was 4 or 5 hours late and the station had broken windows so it was freezing, and all the seats were like pews. But it's all part of the adventure.

Regardless, that is one of many instances telling me that this is where I'm supposed to be right now. More than coincidence. If I had left much later or earlier, he wouldn't have been able to catch me. If he hadn't decided to give me his last card, I wouldn't have seen the moon on it. If it had been any other time, I would have disregarded it as blatant advertising, never looked at their site, never sent them an email.

But maybe it's all in my head.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/20419455/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/20419455/ Wed, 10 Sep 2008 08:25:57 PDT __>, her class isn't really that bad. I wish she wouldn't hover, but at least she puts on Daft Punk while we're working. And I don't have to talk much, so that's a plus.

Core is still stupid though. I found out that one of the teachers is actually new, so that explains her overarching ridiculousness. She also has a tattoo that grosses me out. It's a weird black shape thing. It looks like a fat bug with two loops for a head and a bunch of weird, wiggly little black wormy legs. It's probably some kind of tribal type symbolism but it freaks me out. Makes me think of intestinal parasites.

Just fuckin' weird.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/20227911/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/20227911/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:20:42 PDT
My digital media class is the only one worth my time. And my English class doesn't seem so bad. And my art history textbook is written well, so it's not all bad. Even though my Art History teacher says "umm" and "uhh" more than anyone I've ever seen.

My drawing teacher hovers. I HATE that. I feel like she'll pop up any minute with some useless advice I didn't even ask for. "You're drawing the bottle like THIS *exaggerated as fuck example* it's really like THIS *great, now it's fucked up because you MOVED IT, so yes, it's wrong now*." She also gives an assignment she expects us to finish without the real life reference every day we have class. I get trying to draw from your mind instead of a reference, but we've only been looking at it for about an hour, it's not like we've been drawing bottles and shoes and suitcases for a long time. And every shoe is different, every bottle has different reflections, so unless you know them REALLY well, they'll end up oversimplified pieces of crap.

But Core. Holy shit. "How does the square make you FEEL?" Fuck you. How does my fist in your face make you feel?
Our first assignment was to glue different sized squares to paper and make a non-representational set of works. And then they asked us to critique them, as if there was much to critique. They're making WAY more of it than they should. Not everything has a meaning. I get that they're trying to make us understand WHY we use the shapes and colors and lines and all that fundamental crap that we do. But honestly. They're making it into something that it's not. They're trying to invent meaning and it just can't be done. We fucking use the color red because most things that are hot are red and when we're angry we're red, and when we're passionate we think red because of red lips and red faces and red lights and lava and FIRE. These things NATURALLY evoke these emotions, so we use them to evoke emotion in artwork. Squares are geometric and stable and equal and non-organic, so when we think square we think geometric stability, normality, support and equality even. Not anything overarching like tension or luck or nervousness unless they're fucking USED that way. And they're asking us NOT to use them to do anything like that, then they ask us to find a fucking description for what we just did. I actually did slight representations because I couldn't describe a pattern without reference to a real thing by comparison, so fuck them. Now we're already moving on to 3-D, which makes no sense.
It's so illogical and the two fucking teachers that teach my class are like those hokey day camp counselors who are so concerned with everyone all the damn time and we're not DOING ANYTHING USEFUL. I'm just getting more pissed every damn day I'm in that class, and they have a participation grade that I'm sure I won't get many points in. I just can't think of anything to say about anything. I draw a blank when they ask us to pick something that stands out. Everyone does everything in such variety that nothing stands out. And I know if I said that they would act like I'm not taking it seriously. They take art way too seriously. I want to shoot myself in the foot to distract myself from the pain this class causes.

So yeah, so far art school kinda sucks. It's expensive as shit, you have to carry shit around all the time and hope no one mugs you (not that anyone wants to fuck with someone with an X-acto knife, but it's THAT part of town), it has the same social hierarchy as high school but with different sets of "losers", and to top it all off, one of my Russian roommates (yes, I have TWO) doesn't clean her shit up.

Fuck, I mean, aren't we PAYING these teachers for this? Shouldn't we get some customer satisfaction here? Shouldn't they give a little more of a shit? We're the ones with the money. We don't pick our teachers, we just pick our passion. They should understand this better than most normal teachers because they're artists themselves. Why do I feel like they feel entitled to being a dick? I don't pay them to be dicks. I pay them to teach me, not waste my time and piss me off.

College is a business to way too many people. Of all colleges, an art college should be the one MOST concerned with their own students, especially in such a small college (about 200 people). Because without them, there IS no school. My core teachers act like everyone has infinite time, infinite resources, and infinite money to spend on their shit assignments. College is a fucked up place. And everything Camic said about it is true.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/19715216/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/19715216/ Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:16:43 PDT
Do you ever have days that you just don't feel like taking a shower? Like no one is going to see you and you don't mind being dirty so you're like "phht, no shower for me "

Yeah, I'm having one of those days. xD

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/19613958/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/19613958/ Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:12:00 PDT
I want to make something but I don't know what. I made a website last week at least. Starting on ideas for a steampunk tarot seems fun, but I only have a couple ideas. The Wheel and the Prince of Swords. And the prince is iffy. I don't know whether or not to make him more Da Vinci-esque or more deiselpunk like...old canvas-covered airplanes. I considered a dirigible too. I should put the page in a Bumblebee type plane, stupid tiny and stupid fast and tricky to fly. XD

I dunno, I'll have to see. I really want to get some ideas down for Steampunk themed tarot though.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/19423698/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/19423698/ Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:04:06 PDT
That may bring up a question: "Why are you subscribed to that deviant if you're not even looking at their work?"

I am looking at their work, and they've done things that I like. But not everything is really that interesting. It may be good, but it's not good enough for me to click on it and leave a comment or something.

Granted, I know others probably do the same to me. This is unfortunate for everyone, because not only are they getting less views on their work, but because people do what I do and just look at the thumbnail, they're less likely to get favorites and comments too...

I wish DA had never provided the thumbnails. As much as it makes it way easier to decide if I want to leave a comment, it takes away views.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/19243983/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/19243983/ Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:59:27 PDT

I dunno, I think I'm tired so I'll see how I feel about it tomorrow I guess. xD

God, I can't change my mood! It just keeps saying it's loading forever. I'm not gloomy!

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/19085018/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/19085018/ Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:28:28 PDT It's three hours 4 times a week. At the worst time of day. It's like 3pm-6pm. College schedules are all eff'd, or at least mine is. They don't make it easy to get a job. The neighborhood that the Art Academy is in rules out a night job anyway. As unrealistic as it may sound, I might consider starting an online shop or freelance site. But online shops take a whole lot of work if you're the only one doing it, and freelancing is a lot more demanding on my artistic abilities.

It's going to be really weird to say the least.

College is weird anyway.

And what's kind of funny is that most of the people I saw registering with me and Molly looked like these people we know from high school that are significantly less skilled at art and significantly less interesting people.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/18455726/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/18455726/ Thu, 22 May 2008 22:38:50 PDT
The same process in painting or drawing could take hours, days even. Adjusting color is a very time-consuming process in acrylic/oils. Taking out something you don't like can be it's own challenge. How easy is it to just paint over something and get the same colors you had before? Not easy at all.

But I'm not really upset about that.

I'm upset because this is no world for art.

With the American economy how it is, traditional art isn't exactly high as a national priority. I don't want to be one of those "luxuries for the super-rich" type artists. Ew. I also don't want to take advantage of myself and be a plain old graphic designer in an already HEAVILY over-saturated market. Web design even comes easily to me, but I'd have to learn a bunch of actual coding type shit for things like the different ways to add content (especially because most people just want you to code their whole site and set it up for them in addition to designing it). Web DESIGN and web CONSTRUCTION are different things. I can design a website in under half an hour, and have it look decent or better. Building a website's internal crap and constructing things like comment boxes and mouseovers and javascript and shit is a lot harder if you're starting from next to nothing. I've spent hours looking up how to center webpages and create mouseover effects. That's the part that I really, REALLY don't want to do as a living. Part of that is because researching on a school network is next to impossible. EVERY discussion forum is blocked. For no reason.

Granted I wouldn't be on a school network later in life. But researching sucks. Especially if you already have to research your client. I'm shit at remembering code I don't use nearly every day.

What is there for an artist to do if no one will buy their paintings/drawings and there are already way too many web designers and graphic artists?

I have a love-hate relationship with the so-called Digital Age. I love technology. I love the simplicity that ensued. The quickness. The ease. But I also hate how it's made a lot of people think that they're an instant photographer, an instant graphic designer, an instant web designer. You know what I'm talking about? Don't compliment these people. Tell them not to quit their day job. Just keep crappy work out of the design field. There are a lot of out-of-work artists and designers who could do it better.

Times like these I wonder why I didn't decide to be a scientist.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/18219240/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/18219240/ Wed, 07 May 2008 21:34:00 PDT
Maybe I'm wrong in saying this, but in a way, I consider NIN to be producing a sort of posthumous, modern, industrial blues, if that makes any sense. The anti-thesis to Bob Dylan.

I used to think Bob Dylan was overrated. Until I heard The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, which is now my favorite. Thank you, Camic.

Bob Dylan now HAS to be playing in the background when I read Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. I like to think Roland of Gilead would listen to Bob Dylan.
I also HAVE to listen to Bob Dylan in order to make any artwork worth looking at. Brian's Fu Dog is the product of Bob Dylan. My Nautilus is the product of Bob Dylan. Pretty much all my good work.

I thought that NIN's secondish-newest album, Year Zero, was the worst album yet and that it sounded too much like Marilyn Manson. Then I listened again, and again, and again. And suddenly I found myself loving some of the songs. "The Beginning of the End" is consuming. "Survivalism" is supercharged. Not to mention some of NIN's older albums that I ended up loving in the long run (Hello, With Teeth thankyou).

So, in a very perception-oriented, absurd way...NIN is like Bob Dylan. <3

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/18094075/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/18094075/ Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:51:45 PDT
What I want to do is take two of the dials and attach headphone-speakers to them. I want to make the dials respond to the music. I also considered adding little amber-colored lights to "frontlight" the dials and respond to music. So I want to sync the needle and lights to music. I also have some little toggle switches to turn the effect on and off if that's possible


But I barely know a thing about wiring or electronics. I've looked it up extensively, but I'm still confused. I understand syncing the lights for the most part, although I haven't a clue how to get ahold of the right transistor. I assume it's not possible for the components to be powered by whatever is sending the audio signal, correct?

If anyone could help, I'd really appreciate it.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/18033596/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/18033596/ Sat, 26 Apr 2008 05:52:34 PDT
Yay charity!

Also, I've gotten pretty good at web design, but I'm hesitant to post them on DeviantArt because they're not particularly visually complex, most of them. I try to be really minimalistic when I design a site, because I figure it's easier on the eyes. But I don't know if it's TOO minimalistic. Then again, the browsers at school don't support pngs properly, so they end up with a bluish background. :\ It's really ugly looking. I have to open them in my portable firefox for them to display properly. I can do a lot with pngs if they work right.
I don't think our school has updated IE for like...2 or 3 years.

P.S. I did the design and construction for a site called One Duck Farm. Check it out. Another girl helped a bit too. The man I worked for didn't have a lot of content on some of the pages, so I had to improvise with the texts. He liked it though, so he donated some ridiculous amount of money to the school's tech department, and bought a copy of the newest Dreamweaver for myself and the other girl. He was a really nice guy.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/17380803/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/17380803/ Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:29:28 PDT
It's like every stock photo of a guy is some random-ass geek with a weapon or way too much black on or in SUCH a dramatic pose (or all three) that no one but anime-artists would use it. And even then, there are about 60 billion screenshots of animes who make it look even better.

Why do you want to take a picture looking bad-ass?
Why do you want to take a picture of yourself with one of your many, many weapons?

x.x I just want to draw the Gunslinger!

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/16968155/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/16968155/ Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:31:07 PST
I went to WV for a family trip and when I got back my letter was here.

I got accepted!
o:
To the Art Academy of Cincinnati!
o:
Yay!

Now that that's over with, I still have a ton of stuff to do to get READY for college, then I have a bunch of stuff to DO in college. x.x; Boo. Don't get me wrong, I'm super pumped, but what the admissions guy talked about made me think that they are in an almost dangerously self-absorbed mindset.

"Draw more from life! Trust yourself!"
I'm all for using real-life subjects and imagining up what you can't get perfect. But what was I supposed to be doing up until now if references and still-life "studies" aren't it? I "zoomed in" more than most people do, and he was telling us to zoom in closer (like "a thumbtack and particle board are the only thing on the page" closer) and go BIGGER.

Do they not realize how limited a high school classroom is? How the hell do you draw or paint a freaking nautilus from real life? How do I "trust" myself to paint something I've never painted before, let alone really know the details of?

I think I'll be an illustration major. Fine art seems more like "the art of art" as opposed to "art itself" but I'll really have to see the schedule stuff and everything. The illustration instructor seemed like a nice guy, anyway. xD

Eh who knows what I'll be doing in the end. Is it really important? I'll end up getting an ok job and just doing whatever I want anyway. People are generally happy with the things I make for them (like websites and graphics, etc.) and so I figure I'll be ok. And in the end, OK is way better than bad, and halfway there to good.

]]> ~coerul http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/16859996/ http://coerul.deviantart.com/journal/16859996/ Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:29:03 PST
Yay.

Will update when I return. >w>

]]> ~coerul