Painting with more progress on it

02-24-07_1152, originally uploaded by alicen.

This is the painting about halfway done. It's actually finished, and I think the composition is really boring. We had a pretty mind-numbing critique tonight. A final picture will probably show up soonish.

Very old thing

12-21-06_1139, originally uploaded by alicen.

Handwarmers knit for dash over christmas break. (I finally pulled a bunch of pictures off of my phone.)

I've been sick

brutus diorama, originally uploaded by alicen.

Here's the actual still life I'm painting (sort of). I don't have a newer picture of the painting yet, unfortunately. This is the paint I'm supposed to be echoing the composition from.

Finished my dress

First the bodice:


Then the whole front:


The skirt's a lot fuller than it looks in that shot, as you can see from the back:


Quick, easy. Utterly unwearable until it warms up some. I do hope the ruffley bit at the hem calms down a bit once it's been hung/washed.

another thing in progress

dress bodice, originally uploaded by alicen.

Here's the beginnings of the bodice for a dress that I started sewing last night. I'm sort of on a crusade to use up as much of my fabric stash as possible before I move again.

Older thing

Here are some wristwarmers I made from a lovely silk/alpaca blend that Laura kindly got me as a present many moons ago. They are boringly knit, but seriously comfy and useful.



And another shot.


I'm not sure either really gets the color right.

Beginnings of a painting

brutus reconstruction in progress, originally uploaded by alicen.

Expect more pictures of this. It's my assignment for the next 3ish weeks. I'll explain the concept at some point. Not now.

Thoughts

Getting into grad school (at the University of Washington in Computer Science) has made me think about the fact that I'm not going to be here forever. I may actually be in a position where I'm the one who is dressed strangely again. So I sort of want to clothe myself from now 'til graduation in nothing but reconstructed t-shirts and skirts hacked together from old bedsheets. With big stompy boots, violently striped socks, and electric blue tights when it's cold.

Here is a poorly photographed concept sketch:



It would be comfy.

At least I remembered to post.

composition study, originally uploaded by alicen.

Actually it's De Chirico. And now I go to bed.

bread

bread, originally uploaded by alicen.

The bread was really fantastic.

Lazy lately

Picasso color study, originally uploaded by alicen.

Forgot to post some last week. Lame. Here's my copy of some Picasso painting in oils pastels. Like almost everything else I've posted here, this was for class.

I'm baking bread now. Maybe pictures of that later.

Nietzsche

Nietzsche, originally uploaded by alicen.

Not too much art going on lately - I've been feeling under the weather. So here is a drawing of Nietzsche and the amazing moustache his sister cultivated after he went insane from syphilis. Pretty much everyone we've read this semester so far died of syphilis. Things apparently started getting more interesting around 1870, since this was not apparent in the course (Modern European Humanities) last semester.

The boot is the wrong color

still life, originally uploaded by alicen.

Painting from last week.


PMS sucks. It makes it harder to deal with the incontravertable fact that boys are dumb.

(Really, people are dumb, but the people that have been dumb in my general direction of late are all boys. So.)

The Red Wheelbarrow

The Red Wheelbarrow, originally uploaded by alicen.

The Red Wheelbarrow
William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.




In my final year of high school I took a creative writing class. I signed up for it primarily because I needed an extra semester of English to graduate that year. I didn't end up writing much I'm terribly attached to, but the things we read for the class include some of my favorite poems and stories. I've been carrying around a stack of photocopies for about four years now, so I decided to put them together into a book. It's just an old yard sale book with photocopies glued or taped in, but it's something I think I'll be glad to have for a long time.

Silly Pictures

Here is an arty picture of my paint brushes this afternoon.



I think that it is rather more exciting than the homework assignment I was using the brushes for,



though it's a useful exercise even if all I learn from it is that the reds in pictures taken by my camera are SERIOUSLY off.

I'm debating a bit on what the scope of this blog will be. I'll probably post knitting and sewing stuff at some point. I at least want it to not be all classwork stuff. And we're going to switch over to a longer project soon, so I won't have new stuff from class anyway. But where to draw the line? A garment in progress, okay. A picture of the terrifying orange striped fabric I bought? I don't know.

Someday there will be a picture of my thesis. I will probably be sad when that day comes.

Belatedly...

first oil painting, originally uploaded by alicen.

I forgot to post yesterday. It comes of the going to Pan's Labyrinth on Friday and being out 'til 1am, then getting up at 7 to help collate a fake qualifying exam for the physics juniors. The prank was well done, but I spent the reset of the day stumbling about and giggling tiredly.

It didn't help that I went to the mall. This was successful - I now have clothes to work out in, a sweatshirt with wonderfully long sleeves, and an INCREDIBLY pink bra. I sort of blame the tired for the bra, but I'm still rather enamored of it even now that I've slept, so perhaps not.

Kind of cheating, still

Warm:


And cold:


These were part of an in class assignment. We had to do them with fairly gigantic brushes, which was fairly frustrating. Accidentally paint-flinging type frustrating. I'm not accustomed to oil paints.

Today was, in general, good, even though I spent rather a lot of it in line at the DMV. My thesis meeting was not a disaster. Moreover, I've managed two weeks of the semester without becoming very sleep deprived or dramatically ill, which is a serious improvement over last time. I ought to have some time this weekend for sewing, which is good as I'm rather sick of my wardrobe.

Day 2

master painting acrylic study, originally uploaded by alicen.

This was the first painting I did for my painting class. Maybe that's cheating, but it's really the only way I'm going to have enough content.

It's supposed to be upside down. We were copying master paintings (though I didn't think to write down what exactly I was copying) to find distribution of light and dark.