Just to follow suit...

Here are my classes! :D Believe me, lol, the descriptions are quite different.

Anatomy for Illustrators

Looks like a brilliant course...I've always meant to do the anatomy thing on my own, but you know how well those "on your own" goals go! With this forced on me and in a professional manner with an instructor that knows just a tad too much about the human body (although, I think he's too serious and should lighten up a little), I think I'm going to learn a lot, and it'll likely improve my work concerning figures greatly. :)

Not the hardest of my courses, and by that, I mean the course is hard. >_> First day, he asked us all to draw a skeleton "from memory," with absolutely no reference. Oh, the hilarity...then we promptly got started on our first project (due Monday), a perfect, large, inked image of the human skeleton, with an interesting pose that does not hide essential parts, labelled of course. All I can say is, I'm behind.

Beautiful "textbook" though--full of every conceivable part of the human body (yes, Starwing, EVERYTHING :P), with gorgeous overlays of bone and muscle structure. Great photography, great poses...actually, the only flaw as pointed out by an instructor I had last year, was that it lacked old or plus sized people. But, the course deals with the ideal figure, so I suppose it helps here with pages and pages of the slim and / or ripped.

Visualization Processess

Love the instructor--really comes off as sympathetic to his students, and he has a wealth of worldly knowledge, wisdom, and experience that he just loves to share. And he gave an inspirational pep talk, the only instructor to directly deal with our insecurities...I admit I needed that! ^^; Everything he said was just true..."you're all wondering what you got yourself into, that maybe you're not good enough, and everyone around you is way ahead and you think you suck," etc. Of course, he took the previous and turned it around to our capabilities, and how it certainly means something we've been let into the program. It was nice. :)

But I still sort of dread this class...it's a course entirely dealing with perspective drawing. x_x How I abhor perspective. But it may be for the best that I have to take it--I'll no doubt improve here, as I never do much perspective on my own, so it's sorta not the greatest.

Typography

So far, my favourite class! :) Yes, it's everything to do with fonts, and I must admit, I have a huge interest here. They're more than just letters, and I've always known of the importance in finding the perfect type for something, and had an intuitive sense with just what is totally evil (COMIC SANS!! I curse your existence!).

It's actually pretty tough though, because we have to draft everything by hand--so either cutting the letters out perfectly from paper, or using various tools to ink and fill in the forms. We'll be learning about type history, stroke, kerning, italics, bold, etc., and judging by the astounding proficiency of Design students ahead of me when I talk to them, we'll get to know type very intimately, to the point of identifying them on sight. It may sound like a whole bunch of silliness, but I honestly can't wait!

Communication Design I

Already, we're attempting to do what the ppl beyond 2nd year call "the most frustrating Comm Design 1 project." x_x And boy are they right.

But first, the course...it's all about derivative design, making things based on something else, retaining the essence while perhaps abstracting the form. Having been introduced to all the projects, I can't wait to do some of them--for example, designing a Jack, Queen, and King cards, their dress being based on any culture. There must visually exist the heirarchy that King > Queen > Jack, and accurately reflect cultural dress and patterning. Something I'm not looking forward to is the 3-D paper animal, where we literally construct an animal with paper and glue only. No origami allowed, of course...

Anyhow, my project this week...ARGH! Worked over 6 bloody hours, mostly in class, on my composition for my mechanical form, and it was STILL not ok'ed!!! 6+ hours (and going) of thumbnails and Sharpie (dizziness!), and everything by everyone is getting shot down. Without my composition finalized, I can't start the final project, which will probably take at least 20 hours to do!!! >_<

Art History 210

Standard stuff...it's at last moving into modernism from the age of early photography and impressionists, where 120 left off. The lecture theater is always deathly cold, and it's boring, so I nodded off now and again while freezing my extremities off.

But my teacher is interesting enough (it's not her fault the course material is not), she's enthusiastic, and she's apparently very, very easy. All good in my book! :) Mark based on mid-term, essay, and final.

~

That's it. It may sound like little, but recall one day at school = one course only for the whole day, and believe me, I'm working my ass off and already staying up far too late than is healthy on a regular basis. T_T

Oh, and what's depressing is that I swear, time working on roughs is more than the final projects themselves. >_> We see examples of student work, and their roughs consist of 7 pages each (18 x 24 inches pad of paper), and are described as "okay" by the teachers (friggin' detailed to me). THEN they execute the project. Ugh.

People tell us 2nd year is hardest, and one girl I met told me we'll all think of dying as the ultimate release some time along the way. I'm not kidding.

~

One final thing, way unrelated to school. Just for you general amusement / knowledge for those who don't know, I'm (trying) to learn a 2nd language (when I have any time to myself, that is). My sister is intending for a big trip for the family to Europe in a year or two (something like Kris did this summer).

In her last year towards her Masters, she has no classes, but is mainly working as part of a research group that studies brain related things in mice. Having so much free time, she does a lot to keep herself occupied in boring ol' Saskatoon--she attends bellydance class (as some of you may have known), is working toward a rare fluency certificate in ASL (American Sign Language; rare, because she's not mute / deaf), and is also studying Spanish ("for the trip"). Having looked some stuff up for her, Spanish is one of easiest languages to learn (1 of 5 star difficulty; French, if you're curious, is 3/5, English 2/5). She figures each sibling should try to learn a language--what great travelling buds we'd be, eh? ;)

So what am I learning? I'm attempting German! XD It would make more sense if I did French, as I have such a firm basis in it through much of public school, but forgive me, Nyx, Twill, and ESPECIALLY Rubin--I'm bloody sick of the language! I think it's because it was partly forced on us in elementary (though very simplistically), and became the "only choice" later on in Junior High and Senior (though Churchill later on brought in German, and Spanish).

That, and I shake my head at the inefficiency of the language. Do you ever notice how much thicker the French side of the manual is in electronic manuals??

German pros:

-if you can read it (and know how Germans pronounce their letters), you can say it. As in, no damned silent letters. Reading and pronouncing German is, I think, very easy, and so far, the language is coming to me fairly well.

-I know far more people that speak German than French (as in, friends that speak German--and, I'm not friends with these French speakers, but know of them from high school days, and only from French class, so they're not entirely fluent, though immersion people were impressive). When I get much better, I'm sure I can kidnap one of them friends to mangle the language with. :D

-by all accounts, rules make more sense here than in French, and some knowledge of French helps in learning German (for example, cup in German is "tasse," and to research is "recherchieren").

-Germans have a rich design history, and houses an internationally reknown school for it, the Bauhaus.

-I've picked up a bunch from my movies! XD

-I rather like how w's are pronounced as v, s as z, and v as f, and I'm particularly fond of the ß letter, the double s. XD

-it sounds interesting, in an angry, "I-only-want-tea-but-it-sounds-like-I-want-to-kill-you"
sort of way. (Ich möchte eine Tasse Tee, bitte)

German cons:

-Kris tells me Germans speaks pretty decent English. So is there truly a point? Not really.

-There are THREE genders for nouns. Yes, that's right, masculine, feminine, and NEUTER. >_>

-I haven't encountered much yet, but while I mentioned the grammar is supposedly easier than French, it's supposed to be pretty strange as well.

~

But my break has gone on long enough....back to work! Or maybe it's time to call it a day...Ich sehr müde, also ich wolle schlafen jetzt.