Present Joys

This a drawing of Bob in colored pencils on toned paper. That gold color really is a gold-colored Prismacolor. Crazy awesome Boryana and her crazy awesome techniques. I really enjoyed this one.

• Learned the hard way that pretty much nobody in town can do a coil bind longer than 11”.
• Was told that my drawings look like Ingres’, which is something teachers keep saying to me.
• Took my last anthropology test, which I felt really unprepared for but ended up doing well on anyway.
• Locked my keys in my car and had to have CCAD security break into my car (and they did an excellent job!)
• Turned in my final project for the Worst Class of the Week, ended up getting 100% on it! What a relief!
• Turned in my photo portfolio and said goodbye to Barb.
• Took my fourth and final science test, which seemed to go really well.
• Presented the final of my team’s seven-week-long signage redesign project, which also went shockingly well.
• Ate Christmas cookies and chocolate milk brought into class by Mrs. Tabler.
• Finished my illustration class with a short 90-minute crit.
• Visited Ian’s ceramic studio space where he gave me two amazing teacups.
• Had one last on-site friendship lunch where Dana also gave me an amazing teacup. (My friends are the best!)
• Re-printed, mounted, and wrapped all my work for Burleigh so I could turn it in for extra points. Ended up using the cheapskate mounting technique™ for several boards—don’t tell!
• Brought homemade gingerbread cookies into Burleigh’s class, which ended up getting kinda upstaged by Audrey’s Panera leftovers-in-a-trashbag. But that was ok.
• Didn’t have to go into class on thursday until 12:30; had an extremely short knit-n-crit.
• Said goodbye to absolutely everybody.
• Gave Mr. Burleigh a hug (not as awkward as you might think).
• In summary: WHAT AN AMAZING SEMESTER.

Me with Barb, my photo teacher.

• Participated in one last crit for my figure drawing class; could have used greater self-control.
• Had a mini-meltdown in my Worst Class of the Week, mostly because my inept teacher reprimanded me for using a gradient fill instead of two shapes, a blend, and a clipping mask. I am still justly furious.
• Kept my photo class at bay while we waited a half hour for teacher to show up. Not really. But seriously, yes.
• Got 100% on my photo final by completely honest means, exempting me from a bunch of extra work.
• Had a portrait photography crit, during which we hilariously cut Jason short by prematurely applauding.
• Started painting a portrait in acrylics that actually looks good, which was a huge surprise.
• Did very well on my last science quiz. (Thank goodness!)
• Had my photo taken.
• Got my team’s boards printed, mounted, and wrapped on thursday afternoon, which is a new personal record.

• Finished up my last long-pose drawing of the semester.
• Got a piece of dark chocolate from Bob, which made my day.
• Realized an inconsequential-yet-valuable anthropology project was due; skipped lunch to get it done.
• Printed out those portraits I took and gave them to my neighbors, who loved them.
• Began studying the physics of light in my science class; had to do an actual math equation. What is this I don’t even.
• Did a 2.5-hour crit of Crayola magazine ad concepts in my illustration class. Has everyone but me completely forgotten that it’s an illustration class, not a come up with silly avant-garde ads class?
• Got cheated out of having a photo crit because “not enough people showed up to class”; instead we did basically nothing and got dismissed two hours early.
• Had one of those ad classes where we just mill around and chat with each other for three hours. It was a grand old time spent with my peers, but I never did get to talk to Burleigh about my work.
• Got an 8.5/10 presentation grade on my aforementioned cheapskate mounting technique, which I consider fair punishment for how it ended up looking.
• Accomplished an unusually large amount of knitting this week.