and one of the few i've ever drawn outside of a class is finally done. the first attempt was icky, but it kind of helped me get a feel for the face and what i was dealing with. the second attempt i'm really proud of. i hope carolyn's mom likes it.
while working on it, i could feel myself exercising
some rusty qualities. i had to reteach myself to have patience, to work
on something for long periods of time, not to be afraid of the blank
page, not be afraid of mistakes (they're erasable), to look for detail
and focus on that detail without worrying too much about how it affects
the larger picture, to realize that there are many different ways the
final drawing could look, many different approaches to making that
drawing, some better or some worse then mine, but that the only result
that matters to me is mine.
the second and third weeks of september (conveniently enough, when i'll be (fingers crossed) in china), the fam i nanny for (a fam which is moving to the uk in the fall), would like one of their nannies from here to go there for two weeks while the mom is away so the nanny can get the youngest son off to school. and then, presumably, the nanny can run around having fun in london. the flight is (undoubtedly) paid for, and because the dad is on the board of a big ole airline, the nanny might even get a first class spot while crossing the atlantic, and room is provided at the family's flat. in short, you get paid to go to london for two weeks. and because the dad is nice and loves to dine out, he'll probably take you and his son to some fancy, fancy-ass restaurants. you just have to get the kid up in the morning and nanny him after school like you did when he was back here in minneapolis. AND I CAN'T GO!!!!!!!
edit (unrelated): obama totally dissed my congressman. BOO. i know why you did it, barack, and it was totally lame on your part.
a.) the chorus of this song has been my mantra for the past few weeks. it's really good at getting me motivated! "whatcha gonna spend your free life on?"
b.) the album this song is from is probably at the top of the list of albums i should really get around to buying because i'm probably guaranteed to really enjoy it. i've hearted dan wilson ever since semisonic, and once i listened to his previous band, trip shakespeare, i loved that too. not just a one-hit wonder, peeps! they actually consistently write good, catchy pop music!
c.) also on that list of albums i should get around to buying because i'm undoubtedly gonna enjoy them? this one. (i REALLY do love that "underdog" song.) it's so funny how i hated spoon for so long, and then all of a sudden i magically loved them! i must have just finally looked past whatever irked me about them and seen them for the pop wondrousness they embody. dance-tastic!
d.) also, can't wait for that new hold steady album!
e.) also, not sure i'm gonna buy the album, but whenever i hear the new coldplay songs on the radio, i totally listen to them the whole way through, even leaving the car on in the driveway until they end. i might d/l that one.
2.) i haven't read gawker.com in like two days. progress, people! except, i always read their blind item posts, because i'm totally a sucker for blind items even though i'm kind of morally opposed to them on principle because people are people, and blind items kind of sensationalize aspects of basic humanity that shouldn't be sensationalized because they're not sensational - they're just human nature.
3.) i'm drawing for the first time since high school. my mom does daycare, and a couple of my drawings are hanging in the living room. one of the parents asked me to draw her kids! so i am. i'm a little rusty, but i think it's like riding a bike. you just have to relearn the skills of b.) looking for details, and a.) patience, patience, patience. also, $$!
4.) semi-related to the above and to number 1: i think i'm finally developing a functional work ethic. being a nanny for extremely privileged 14-yr-old smart, lazy boys has also factored into this, as do the zoloft and wellbutrin. that said, i'm too lazy to elaborate on how this fits together. maybe later.
5.) this china thing is totally coming together! at first i wanted to be in beijing, but now i'm really hoping for shanghai the more i think about it. gots to make more money this summer though.
6.) am currently reading this book and this book. they're both from the lawrence family library, because i'll have access to my parents' library for a long time, so i might as well focus on the lawrences' because i'll only have access to that for a few more months.
7.) i started another blog for god-knows-what reason. i now have two abandoned blogs on blogspot, a placeholder blog on livejournal, another abandoned blog on the u of mn blog system, and this one, which i'm hoping to keep up, at wordpress.
have you ever tried to draw something in word (2007)?
if so, and if you check this out, maybe you'll realize how desperate i am right now. (also, p.s., join that group and sign the petition)
on the plus side, i taught myself how to draw stuff in word. if i ever need to do that, i know how to.
on the minus side, i now can procrastinate by drawing stuff in word (which takes about 3 hours longer than it would to just draw something by hand) all the time when i don't need to.
