happy birthday!

Working on the tentacle for printmaking. This is my second cut. I'm happy with how it's coming. Been really busy but I am going to post more soon! I promise!

P.S. I have made 20 intertitles for my a silent scene in my friend's movie. I made them small and put them all together. You can see them below.

"my bag!"

I used this piece of paper as a backing in the printmaking studio today...I ended up liking it a lot!

excited for this movie

I can't wait for February. This movie will be (regardless of quality of plot) super amazing to watch...It is everything I love! The animation of everyday objects...IN 3D! Also, apparently Jan Svankmajer's newest film includes lots of animated meat. I will have to investigate this, as I already love "Meat Love" (1988).

the beatles

This is the drawing I'm going to use for my reduction cut print in printmaking. It's supposed to be a tentacle - I'm pretty sure it looks like one. I edited the drawing from my sketchbook with the highly sophisticated HP Scanner Studio Program! Oh Wow!

stamps

In printmaking today, we made rubber stamp self portraits. Mine looks like it was made by a 5th grader - but I almost like it.

I am going to make some woodcuts for this intertitle project I'm doing and my instructor gave me some pieces of wood for it today - I'm excited for that.

confession collection

My cheeks are stuck in a blush, and the heat is getting to me.

I'm beginning to compile a list of stories that I might use for my honors project next year. It's difficult to remember the embarrassing stories I know people have told me in the past. I'll probably have to include some of my own, too. I need to be better about writing things down right when I think of them, because I have probably overheard a lot of things that would've been good material.

One of my favorite overhears was recently in a cafe when a girl with short dyed-black hair in a rainbow scarf (a la Hot Topic) explained her relationship to a creepy guy with greasy hair wearing a trench coat. She said that even though she is 15 and her boyfriend is 30, it works for them, because her boyfriend underwent "an emotional thing" when he was 19, and is thus stuck at the maturity level of a 19 year-old, "but society doesn't recognize that."

Oh, Society. You are too cruel.

I'm hoping to not only draw that scene, but also include a flashback to whatever I decide that "emotional thing" must have been. Could be good!

between classes

Just fooling around in photoshop before my last class. I'm using this stuff (I hope) for intertitles for silent parts in my friend's movie. I like how versatile printmaking is!

stumped

My first ever woodblock prints. It's supposed to be an aerial view of a tree stump.

brain scan

Top third of a head for printmaking! Linoleum cut. On the bright side, there is a lot of room for improvement.

email exchange with my advisor

From me:

Warren,

Even though I won't officially begin working on my project until next
year, I figure it's a good idea to get a head start. Since I would like
to create a full-length comic book for the project, I need an
overarching theme or idea before I can even begin. I have one, and I
wanted to see what you think of it.

I recently read an article in the New York Times about "confessional"
graphic novels - an extremely popular genre. From R. Crumb to David
Healtey (who just released a book, "My Brain is Hanging Upside Down"),
the "confessional" graphic novel has proven extremely successful.
Personally, though, I'm not sure how comfortable I feel with the
confessional style comic, not because I'd feel embarrassed to give all
the juicy details, but rather, because I feel like it's presumptuous to
believe that people would be interested in the specifics of my life. I
don't feel like I've really earned it yet to be that self- indulgent.
When thinking about the comics I've already drawn, I realized that many
of them come from stories that other people have told me about their
lives that have affected me in one way or another. This got me thinking.

Instead of writing a confessional graphic novel about myself, I thought
perhaps I could compile lots and lots of stories from everyone I know
about both insignificant and significant moments in their lives and
re-enact them through a single invented character. In a way, then, I
could compose a collective confession.

Please let me know what you think. I don't want to begin the research
and work for this if you think it's a bad idea.

Thank you very much. I look forward to hearing back from you.
Molly

From him:

Go for it, but make it truly confessional. Warren