SCAD president's chat

Today, I believe Savannah College of Art and Design did something that had the potential of being HUGE! They had an open forum for students, faculty and staff to ask questions directly in front(or in the online presense) of President Paula Wallace. I was at work in Montgomery Hall cage and my friend Vijay Prabhakar who works at SCAD in Keys Hall reminded me that this was going on. And I decided to participate. I am copy pasting my question and answers I got.
Yash Gupta: The SCAD site is very information heavy, but still does not provide me with an idea of what other students are creating and doing. I would love for scad to provide a forum/gallery where students can put up their work and interact with peers. I am sure this is something that would also appeal to prospective students. What are your views about such an offering?
Paula Wallace: I am encouraging each chair to present lively, relevant information on each department's Web site.  I believe recent past projects, guest speakers, awards, and facilities should be highlighted. We are very proud of our esteemed faculty, alumni, and students.  I would like to see each department's Web site more effectively communicate its life and essence.

This, to me was a very unsatisfying answer. I really suggested something more open. Even if they were to come down to a level where each professor was displaying their students' works on a section of the SCAD website, it would mean more student works get exposure.

Then Jason Parker responded with the following:

Hi Yash, I'm SCAD's social media manager. We have a number of program-specific groups and pages on Facebook where students are encouraged to interact with each other. You can find a comprehensive list on SCAD's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/scad.edu under the ''Connect'' tab.

I feel this doesn't get us anywhere either. There are already better forums like conceptart.org and deviantart and blogger blogs where people can display their work. But the problem is exposure. When put under an umbrella of SCAD, the students are bound to get more focussed traffic and response and appreciation. I have a facebook fan page of my work that only has 17 fans at the moment.

Anyways, the fun didn't stop there. More after the jump break.

Sheridan Portfolio Submission

Portfolio submission finally done! I'm so relieved! I feel like blogging the whole incident. I was pretty zoned out in the beginning, because I was still sleepy, but then Oliver just comes up to me and he's really hyper because he's high on energy drinks. "HEY! Where are the Instructor guys?" And it was only 8:15 or something back then, so they were in the classroom talking/discussing. I pointed him to it, and he walks, really fast, like roadrunner, to the door, and looks in, then comes back out and says "This one girl saw me and pointed (doing action). I was like, UH, OK!" And just does the roadrunner walk again. It was SO HILARIOUS! That thing woke me up good. Even after a couple seconds, I was still thinking about it and going, "what just happened?"

Mickey was with me there. He was with me throughout the night. He helped me put together my portfolio. He said He'd wake me up in the morning, make sure I didn't sleep through the portfolio submission. But I had set alarms and so I actually woke up before him. I didn't even have anything to eat, I have this thing on my tongue since the last couple of days that just burns whenever it touches any other surface. So I just had a glass of water, and we walked to the college at around 7:50 am. This was the earliest I've been outside in a LONG LONG TIME. Anyways, it was beautiful to see the morning sun. The sun close to and during spring and summer is really beautiful. Anyways, because I was talking with Mik, time really flew by. We weren't the first ones there, but the number of people quickly grew after we arrived.

As they started collecting the photos, we went to the back of the queue. I saw Ben after a really long time.

We didn't talk for long, because I noticed Alex Zimmer. It was really exciting to see him after such a long time. Because in my head, there had always been a curiosity whether I had gotten better than him. And as he showed his portfolio to us, I realized that my portfolio does show more clearly the skills that the portfolio review people are looking for. And I was feeling a little more confident. I think I need to thank alex for this. LOL. He had put in a LOT of personal pieces. He thinks, the portfolio requirement sheet says minimum 5 personal pieces. I doubt that. Also, He put in the giant foot drawing we did in life drawing class in second semester art fundamentals. I remember Brenda had specifically told us the animation portfolio review guys don't like this drawing. So I want to wish him good luck because he'll need it.

When I got to the desk to hand in my portfolio, Harsh said he couldn't find my name. I thought he was kidding. But in a few seconds, I realized that he was actually searching for my name on the list and was unable to find it. I panicked! This could not be happening! I tried staying cool by laughing it off... yeah, like Boman Irani in munnabhai mbbs. ;) Eventually, he found my name, but he said that I hadn't registered. OMG! this would mean that I could even come back tomorrow and drop off my portfolio! But I didn't want to take a chance with that and I just wanted it to get over with. So I handed it in. My  portfolio number was 333. Well, someone had to get three threes, but I was really excited that it was me. I talked to lisa I think and she was telling me in china, 444 is considered an unlucky number, as it stands for death!

Sheridan Animation portfolio

Ok, a quick quick update, before I get back to work. Oliver just drove me back to my place. I really appreciate that. I hate walking in the cold. I wish all the snow would just go away already! Spring break is not much fun without the 'spring.' hehe

I am really close to finishing my room drawings, I did a clean version of the view of the person, and showed it to oliver, and he pointed out a glitch with the laptop. I don't know how I didn't see it. I don't know what I'd do without him. I am done with my hand drawings and my expression sheet. I already have one action pose drawn out, and I am pretty confident about the other one too.

And I just realized, I hadn't mentioned this before, but I'm handing in my portfolio on monday, about 54 or so hours from now. wish me luck!

Kinkos bad. Digital camera good.

I told my dad that it would have been so much better if I had a digital camera to take pictures of my drawings... Because scanning these large format 18x24 drawings isn't easy. There aren't a lot of places that have the right kind of hardware for this task. And even when you find a place that has the equipment, it doesn't always work right. Then there's dealing with arrogant people and shelling out a bucketload of money. And I am about to tell you guys about my sad experience at Kinkos this morning. 

First, The place is in missisauga, a pretty long drive away from home. But it took me a good 2 hours to get there, because vironica had some other tasks on her to-do list. As we got there, I was in for a shock, because the prices were way, WAY higher than the 50 cents per sheet that people at the workshop had mentioned. Even then, I said, might as well do it since I came all the way. Thinking that the cost for color scanning would be even more, I just went for the black and white one. But before scanning could begin, I had to sign a waiver, saying that if anything happens to my drawings in the scanner, it's not their responsibility. I was REALLY scared for a moment there. But as they assured me that the likeliness of that happening was very low, I relaxed and signed the thing.

I proceeded to scan all the 'picked' drawings. I didn't do the other extra ones, because the total was already going to be around 50 dollars. at 5.99 for first one, and 1.99 for each one after that! But when I went to check all my scans, a lot of them were totally washed out. The brightness/exposure of the scanner was too much! Plus, they were being saved in pdf format instead of an image format like jpeg or tiff. On the plus side, the file size was considerably smaller. After going through all the 19 scans, I found only 9 of them to be usable. I figured I might as well scan some other drawings while I'm here. So I scanned some of the rejects... the ones that Gerard asked me to trash. And I actually trashed two of the life drawings right there because I saw that the leg in one was giant and the other one had some weird stuff going on with the hands. 

But this time, the scans didn't go through to their computer! WTF! I just wasted so much time feeding each document to the scanner while my heart was pounding against my ribs scared that the scanner will eat my drawings. I asked her to take a look at it and she said she will have to turn off the computer and turn it back on again. I waited for the whole process to complete on their ancient computer. And waited... and waited... and waited. Finally, she asked me to try one document and see if it was working. Hurray! The document showed up in their computer! So I rescanned the rejects, and as she transferred the last document into my usb key, I heaved a sigh of relief that its FINALLY DONE!

I didn't like it in there one bit! The girl who was helping me out wasn't really a people person. Even though she was trying to be nice, she wasn't trying hard enough. At one point, she said 'try to sketch harder next time.' And I just snickered pretending she was trying to be funny. She was so disrespectful! One of my scans showed the other side of the page which happened to be one of my warm up pages. And she says "that's one of those scribbly pages" WTF?!!! Then while I was paying, she asked to see my SPC card, and as I was trying to find it, she reached into my wallet and pulled out a card. I was so furious! I was gonna yell out, "Get outta my wallet you do that fugly bitch!" 

Some good news, and some back news.

My back can't take it anymore! I've been doing more drawing than I've ever done in my life! Every day, by the time I finish life drawing, I have this severe pain at the bottom of my neck and back. Its not really a muscle pain I think... it's the joints. (And now because I used the word joints, this page will be flooded with drug addicts and junkies soon as it starts to show up in google search results for 'buy cheap joints' or something..) So I've been taking Ibuprofen. Yeah, the same thing that is said in the beginning of the song 'Zinda Hoon Main'.

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I remember back when I was in akola, Tauji would always insist sleeping on the floor if he had back troubles. I kinda have had the same experience lately, as I have been sleeping on the floor too. I cuddle up inside a sleeping bag and its like going camping. LOL... joking. Its not NEARLY anything like going camping..But after the nights that I sleep on the floor, my back doesn't get that tired so easily. On the plus side, the room is cleaner because I vacuum the carpet more often. hehe.

I made bhindi again today, but not the kind I always made. I made what mom called 'pyaaz waali bhindi.' Its cut in flower shapped pieces and cooked with onions to give a different flavour. While I was cooking it, Jon came and asked, what is that? I said 'Okra' He said, "Isn't it like, stringy?" I said, Oh, I cut it differently this time. Its a different preparation. I was so stuffed after the dinner that I was getting really sleepy. I didn't even clean up.

As I was sleeping in my nice, cozy, warm bag, I woke up at around 4 in the morning. Damn!! I was feeling kinda thirsty; luckily, I had a jug of cold water in my room . I had some water and tried going back to sleep, but I couldn't. My body was totally weary, but my brain was not. My feet and back were still recovering and my eyes were burning! After waiting for a couple more minutes for the sandman to come my way, I got up, and got to work!

I worked on my second hand drawing and ended up with a pretty good one. The proportions of a couple fingers looked off but I fixed that. If more modifications need to be made, I will just trace over the drawing. Then I started to work on storyboard... And I just want to say, "Drawing storyboard 'large' SUCKS!" Its just not something I'm into. Another good news, my hand sculpture on DA got 6 faves in just one day! yippe!

Perspective room drawing- help me!

(my question is in the last paragraph)
Yesterday, As I was going for life drawing, I got a little late. And the bookstore closed, right before I got there. So I asked oliver if he had extra newsprint that he could let me use. We walked to res and he gave me a pad. While I was there, I was reading jokes from reader's digest. I always loved those columns... laughter the best medicine, all in a day's work, Life's like that. I would laugh my ass off! They have the best jokes.

In life drawing, I saw a kid who was drawing exactly like I used to when I first started. I really thought I should tell him the first thing gerard told me not to do - 'stop drawing little heads'. When gesture drawing, the action as a whole is more important than drawing a circle or oval for a head. I have come a long way since last year, and I have proof of that. I realized a couple of days ago that I still have some pages from my first ever life drawing session. It was hilarious.

I left life drawing early because this model was really annoying. The one who keeps touching his penis again and again. heh.. Anyways, I went back to the pit and oliver was still hanging around. So I sat there with him, I was working on my hand drawing and he was working on a funny drawing with his squirrel character. The problem with me is that I spend as much time thinking what to do as I spend on doing that thing. Or let me rephrase that.. the amount of time i spend thinking about what to do is equal to the time it will take me to actually do that thing. I need to find a way to make decisions quick, and act on them.

I worked on my room drawing late at night, and I kinda ran into some 

problems. I made some diagrams explaining what my dilemma is. I'll also try to explain that verbally. In case someone can understand it and find a solution, please reply. The room I am trying to draw doesn't have 4 walls. it has 6. its a elongated hexagonal shape room. so the walls next to the one I am facing directly, won't confine to the one vanishing point but instead, have two

 different vanishing points... right? take a look

Character rotation(x3) day is today!

I was so pumped up and determined to finish my character rotation today. I worked on the following this morning at home.

These are in order of rotation. from 3/4(yeah I decided to call it 3/4 because if I were to put a 3/4 between this and the side, they'd be too similar) to side to back 3/4 I don't have the back yet, because I don't have a good front yet.
This is a drawing I scrapped because the curve of the body wasn't emphasized as much. I would love to receive any feedback or comments on this.

Then, I felt stuck. I decided to call up oliver for help, and he readily agreed to help me out. We met up in the pit, and he showed me some really fundamental steps about drawing a character. Once I 'kinda' had those down, we moved on to 'how to start drawing a rotation'. Just then, Danny comes and looks at the character rotation I had from home, and says I don't need to have him doing anything fancy in the rotation pose. I could just have him standing like a lifeless puppet. Which I totally disagree with. I know it worked for h

im, it got him into animation. I also agree with the statement that I'm making it harder upon myself by having him do something. But the thing is, I have someone to help me with getting all of this right. And, this is my last chance to get into animation, and I will do anything it takes to take my portfolio one step further. I have seen some very good rotations, lisa's, Xiao you's And they both are girls doing something with their bodies. (Their characters, not themselves..LOL) And a static figure is just boring!

But then, he took my character design, and did his version of it, in the typical walk like an egyptian pose, which I think is SO VERY CLICHEd! But the legs he put on it were thicker at the top, like big fat thighs as if he still has a lot of 

his baby fat. And near the feet, they got skinny as the legs on my drawing.
I absolutely LOVE those legs! I'm so dumbfounded! "why didn't I think of that before!" Actually the reason why, is because I was referencing 'prince of egypt' and "the Emperor's new groove" movies for this. And I wanted 'kuzco legs' ...because I didn't know better!

But these legs will also help me get more of the structure down. Vince, in all these weeks, hardly ever mentions about the structure of my character. The point which Oliver kept stressing over. And I guess it finally got through when I realized that I could change my character design a little, (yet again) and actually have it look better. Vince has helped me make my character look better too, but he never said anything about the volume of the torso except for when he told me to put a sphere where his hips/belly is. I remember way way back, when I showed him initial drawings of the headgear, he had told it looks flat, and I can't quite figure out how it sits on his head. To which I responded by drawing from the prince of Egypt and figuring out a headgear design that worked. I'm so happy with whatever I accomplished in a couple hours today.

Portfolio progress report

Ok, the room drawing is REALLY COMING ALONG. I've done those kind of drawings so many times now that I just feel the whole process is getting speedier each time, and I am grasping new concepts that are helping me work things out. I am really sorry I didn't sit down and talk to mom, but I also thank her for that. Because then I went straight to work and spent a good amount of time on my room drawing. I also talked to dad about the extended warranty for my macbook pro and he said that's not happenin. So I am gonna get serious about documenting my computer bugs/problems and getting stuff fixed ASAP. I just don't want small problems to lead to something major because I neglected it.

I did a bunch of character expression drawings after seeing the amazing drawings on oliver's blog. I would say, I 'fixed' the face and headgear design. Through the months, I had deviated from my original design because I kept looking at how vince drew the head, but his method was just a quick gesture/idea of the head and not what the final should look like. So I'm happy to say that my character design looks as egyptian as ever!

I've been skipping life drawing for my drawing for animation part. And tomorrow there is no lie drawing. So at the moment, I am planning to go to see a movie with jon. But I'd really have to get a lot of stuff done if I want to not feel guilty about going for a movie. I asked mickey, but unfortunately, he can't make it. Well, there's always next time! Now I really should get some sleep. My eyes are burning!