Still tomato red. Don't know what to say after that picture. mmmm...well, I spent most of today working on my second concentration piece. it's an acrylic, smaller than what I've done in the past. the smaller size is really quite nice. 11 by 14 inches. Going to go look for some more canvases that size. Still tomato red. I'd post pictures except that I'm using my grandma's computer. The other concentration piece is very different than what I'm used to doing. It's a pen and ink drawing with pastel over the top, and much more imaginative. Personally, I think it's a bit more interesting than many of my previous pieces. it might turn out a mess. we'll see. Someone's watching Merlin in the other room. My brother, if you can believe it. I can hear the theme music from all the way across the house. Who would have thought? Somewhat less tomato red. Recovering. Harry Potter comes out in three months! I'm about halfway through the third book right now. Rereading in preparation for the last movie. Harry and pals are all so sweet and innocent. HP is definately my comfort series. Face returned to completely normal color. Heart still beating somewhat faster than normal. Mortification mitigated.

Today I have a piano recital, which I'm not particularly excited about. The piece I have to play is both the fastest and longest piece I've ever played in my life, and my hands always start shaking whenever I get up on stage. In fact they're shaking now. I've got an hour and a half left before I have to go. Maybe I'll go do some art. I don't know. Or practice breathing exercises.

Stickwork

I was volunteering at the library yesterday, unloading bins and such, when this book called Stickwork by Patrick Dougherty came through. This guy makes sculptures and other structures out of sticks on a very large scale. The book had some pretty cool pictures. Anyways, I got really excited and started flipping madly through the pages. Well, then I thought the library ladies might start shooting me evil looks for not doing what I was supposed to be doing, so I put it down and sent it through check-in. Except then the lady at check-in picked it up and started flipping through the pages. Anyways, here are some images:


I gaze at my computer screen in awe.

And so ends spring break (suppress your disappointment)

ah, yes. brace yourselves for another grueling two and a half months of school. honestly, I don't think I've ever been so relieved with the arrival of spring break. so, as usual, at the beginning I had an entire mental list of things I was going to do to get myself organized. and, as usual, I completed about a twelth of them. that would be vacuuming, and completing homework. foremost, I wanted to clean out my room and my backpack,  which unfortunately gets quite heavy as it is weighed down by the accumulated weight of last semester's papers. when my room gets too messy, I can't think. anyways, I did just finish both my concentration pieces for this month, which is a great relief. I love our art class. I'll miss it come summer. Okay, here are the concentration pieces: (feedback would be greatly appreciated)

I struggled quite a bit with this top piece. Well, actually, I had quite a bit of fun. The rocks were all done with a palette knife, which gives nice texture--I just had a hard time making them look like rocks. I haven't done much palette knife work in the past. Maybe just a few spots here and there in some of my past paintings. It's a really different style than what I'm used to, but I absolutely love using the palette knife.

This was the first piece I finished, and throughout the entire time I worked on it, I felt like something just wasn't right. It wasn't until I was cleaning off my palette that I realized that I had put that one bush right smack in the center of the painting, vertically speaking. Maybe sometime I'll crop it. But right now, I'm sort of sick of looking at it.

HP coming up

Hmmm. What to write, what to write. Four months and two days until Harry Potter 7 comes out! Yeah!

Well, this week hasn't been all too exciting. Eat, sleep, do homework. Eat, sleep, do homework. Last night (Friday) my family and I watched this rather bad King Arthur movie. There were all these sappy falling-in-love scenes that were great for snickering at. Well, actually, I pretty much snicker at any falling-in-love scene. In general, I don't watch romantic comedies. They all seem the same.

Last concentration pieces

Hey everyone. Here are my last two February concentration pieces; I'd appreciate it if you could give me a little bit of feedback on them. As a reminder, my incredibly profound concentration is "people at the mercy of nature." Yeah, the plant type (don't snicker).



Does this look like me, out of curiosity? Everyone always says that my self-portraits don't look like me. Before I die, I'd like to create one that does. Anyways, first time I ever did a person in watercolor. It was nerve-wracking.

Oh, one last thing. This weekend, on Saturday night, I saw Castle in the Sky. Really sweet movie. Love Miyazaki's work. Well, it just so happens that the guy who played Luke Skywalker had a voice role in it. My dad can't stand Luke or any of the old Star Wars films because, in his words, Luke is too much of a "goody goody two-shoes." Now, in my humble opinion, no one knows the true meaning of "goody goody two-shoes" until one's read Oliver Twist. Oliver was enough to make even me nauseous. Honestly, no one is that good. NO ONE. Anyways, turns out that Luke Skywalker voices the role of Muska (best-guess spelling), who is like the ultimate evil guy. He does a good job of sounding evil, too. I just found that amusing, especially since I thought muska meant fly in Spanish. Though, according to my dad, it doesn't.

snow day

Yeah! Snow day! Now I'm off to do my math homework....

And I'm going to get a lot of art done! Except, I left my second concentration piece for this month at school yesterday, which I probably should of thought ahead about and brought it home. But I really didn't think we'd get a snow day. If someone sued the weatherman every time he was wrong about snow, the career wouldn't even exist. I saw the snow out my window at 5 this morning, and I thought, "Yeah! I bet we have a snow day!" But then I couldn't go back to sleep before my alarm went off at 6. I was too busy thinking about what I'd do with my snow day. Then, at 6 I went up and checked the school district website to see if school was closed, and the emergency weather alert page said "no information posted. operating as normal," and I maybe muttered a few curses beneath my breath (imperius ones, of course). So then, I naturally got ready to go to school, all the while wondering why school wasn't cancelled when their was more snow on the front lawn than there was that day off we had in November, and it was still snowing. Still is. Anyways, I finished my breakfast and then my mom came down and told me to go double check. Well, the internet said it couldn't display the webpage, so she checked her email and it had the announcement. Yeah! Snow day! Now I really am off to do my math homework.