it's mid november...and i am going to sicily in the spring!

hey all. so on the 4th of this month i went on a field trip with the illustration department to the society of illustrator's show in NYC. it was of children's book art, so it was right up my alley. there were so many different techniques and styles used, from digital collage to pen and ink with digital color to ripped paper collage to hyper-realistic pieces (one of which was from our teacher Bill Thomson for his children's book "Chalk"). Seeing all the different techniques up close is really interesting...no two artists' pieces were done in the EXACT same style. that's one thing i've come to learn and love about illustrating. we as illustrators look at the world and paint it through our OWN eyes, not the eyes of everyone else. basically, we have our own ways of perceiving things. my style is falling between realistic and cartoony, and i'm pretty happy with that because a lot of that cartoony-ness comes from my drawings when i was younger. i never really drew what i saw, i just drew what came out of my head: ladies with extravagant dresses, cross-sections of houses and buildings with lots of teeny tiny details, and my own takes on storybook characters. i have books and notebooks full of drawings from when i was little. i used to always take a notebook and pen with me when i was younger....drawing was my entertainment without anyone having to force me to do it.

well that was quite a ramble. after we went to the society of illustrators show we got back on the bus and went to the new britain museum of art, where they were having an m.c. escher show. i was blown away...seeing his stuff in person was incredible. some of my favorites were woodcuts from 1931 for a book called "The Terrible Adventures of Scholastica," which were about a witch named Scholastica. i really love the way woodcuts and scratchboard look, just the black and white. i really hope i can take relief printing next year. i'm pretty sure i will be able to fit it into my schedule since i have signed up for four studios next semester. dun dun dunnn...which i haven't done before. a lot of my friends have taken four studios and survived, so i think i will be ok. i have to take acrylic and oil illustration, which are required. then i am taking two special topics painting classes. one of which is called "art in healthcare," which is like an art therapy class. SO excited. then my second is SICILY PAINTING!!!! i am ecstatic!!! i applied a couple weeks ago and got accepted this week! i think this course consists of studying different sketching/art techniques all semester, as well as learning about the Sicilian culture. then we actually GO to Sicily over spring break! what a good opportunity...i personally don't really love the idea of going abroad for an ENTIRE semester, because as an illustrator i don't really want to miss the classes i need to take to graduate. but this opportunity of only going for a week is amazing! we will be painting and sketching the whole time, and there will be a show of our art in the fall! i hear there are only about 8-11 people going, which is cool. i only know a couple people actually going....no one has really said anything about the definites yet. oh well, guess i'll just wait and see who is in my class in the spring. :)

everyone's already talking christmas. oh boy...