A small SCAD update!

I apologize for going silent everywhere. I owe so many people emails, and I swear I'll try to get to them all soon. Why have I gone silent? Simple. SCAD IS KICKING MY BUTT! I'm in Sequential Art boot camp - "intensive" courses meant to bring us outsider grads up to speed - and they aren't kidding around.

Everything I'm doing is stuff I've never really done before, and it's all vital to learn. It's good that I'm getting it, but bad that I'm not *getting* it as fast as I want to. Since this is basically an entire undergrad degree crammed into two months, one little hiccup means I start falling behind. I've let a lot of things fall away while I fight to get back on pace with things.

I meant to use this blog to post coursework and whatnot, to keep updates coming, but the workload has been so overwhelming I keep forgetting to share. Well, I'll share now!

The in-progress piece here - click it to see if full-sized - is project one for the drawing strategies class, and I've completely botched it. The concept is simple enough: An indoor composition with four or more figures. The subtext is where it gets you. This is the introduction piece; the one that defines you. It's mean to show understanding of interiors, lighting, black and white handling, composition, perspective and basic drawing skill. Yeah, I'm WAY out of practice with ALL OF THAT. I'm letting my worries get to me and it's been mental block city.

I've had multiple false starts, and now I'm at the point where I have to run with what I have. What do I have? A composition telling the story of me botching the project. We have cartoon Chrispys representing my various mental states hovering around a pathetically unfurnished room reacting to my failure to hit one of the ballpark with the first assignment. I'm going down with this one, but at least I'll do it with metahumor.

Oh well, this is why I'm boot camp, after all. I *don't* know everything yet, and this composition will give an accurate view into my state of development. I'm not pleased with starting out so low, but that's where I begin. It's only one project, and I'll have the rest of the quarter to right my wrongs.

The apartment tour

Wow, I totally spaced on getting this post up. I apologize. For those who care, enjoy the before and after photos of my new apartment. I'll *try* to do a grad school first impression post either tomorrow or Thursday.

But anyway, enjoy the tour!

I'll start by giving a basic layout, as best as I can explain. (I should have sketched a floor plan, but whatever.) When you enter, you are in the skinny, teeny kitchen, which is the hall the connects everything.



I don't have a "before" shot of this, because how much difference is there really? Do note the brand new fridge, obtained after the first two were duds. I love it muchly! Fridge aside, there's nothing too fancy here.

Moving on! Upon entering my apartment, if you look to the left you will see... the master bedroom! It's the biggest room in the joint:



Oooh. Ahhh. But, yanno what? I don't want it to be my bedroom! It's right next to the hall and you can hear every bit of movement. My goal for having this spiffy place so close to the Sequential Art building is for it to become a bit of a place to hang out. Thus, I declare this room to be the ENTERTAINMENT ROOM!





...and the studio, since I quickly found out that the original studio room was devoid of entertainment. I need something on TV to distract the stupid part of my brain while I work, so in goes the drafting table and lightbox!

These photos are already dated, as I have since hooked up my video games (to never be used!) and installed a futon, WHICH WAS THE HARDEST THING EVER TO DO THAT WASN'T GRAD SCHOOL RELATED.

Anyway, this entertainment room is off on its own, so we walk back to the kitchen and follow the path to the LIVING ROOM!



This was originally the studio, but that window proved less than entertaining. So what was I to do with it?





Welcome to the I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS room! It contains my library, the closet I constructed (as the apartment came closet-free) and the beloved sexagon coffee table. It will still fill its original studio role for when I (finally) get back to painting.

Anyway, once in this room, if you hang a left you reach what was meant to be the second bedroom - but I've bumped it up to number one!


How could I resist the lone shelf in the place? A BED MUST GO BENEATH IT!



Ta-dah! The bedroom has proven nice and cozy. The only downside is if I play music (softly, so as not to disturb anyone upstairs), I might not be able to hear anyone knocking on the front door. Eh, if they need me they'll knock louder. I *like* my bedroom.

And, finally, if you had taken a right in the whatever-it-is room, you would reach my tiny bathroom. It is a bathroom, and I probably shouldn't have ended my tour with it, but HERE WE ARE!

There, you now have experienced my apartment life in pictures. Your life is better for it.

The big studio

As you can see, I gave in. The drafting table has been moved to the entertaining room, so now I can work to the joys of HD sports and whatnot.

I can make this work! When I get my futon, there is enough space for it behind the table - plus, I can sit on it while AT the table! So long tiny mini studio chair! When I have guests over, or when I want to get my video game on, I can always fold up the table and move it to the side.

I tried to break in the new studio setup today, but results were mixed. I'm still out of practice with comic making and it shows. I also keep wanting to break away to check the Internet - which A) I don't have yet, and B) means trekking across the entirety of my apartment if I did have it. That's inconvinient. As for comics themselves, my accomplishment of the day was scripting the next three weeks of strips and starting on the lettering. I was hoping to get to some sketching, but the muse wasn't with me. Tomorrow then?

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The mini studio

I went through all the trouble of bringing my drafting table down to Savannah, and now I ignore it in favor of ad hock mini studio! Why? Because mini studio can be placed in front of the tv! Drafting table (which is stuck facing the windows in the "art" room) you are demoted to potential dinner table!

In other news, after all this upheavel, I am finally sitting down to cartoon again. This is good timing, as my buffer is all but gone!

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The waiting game

First off, I'd like to thank the iPhone blog ap for deleting everything I had written because I got a call mid-typing. The other aps remember their stuff, dammit! (I told you blogging on the phone was a pain!)

Anyway, I'm blogging because I am waiting on the final pieces of my apartment to arrive and it is BORING. Yes, I could fill the time being creative, in theory, but I'm still a little sick and my energy level is low - especially after two nights of uneven floor sleeping.

So instead I whine! Idiot bro has still not arrived, but he's closing in. (So he says.) I can only hope a parking space is available when he gets here.

But that's not all I'm waiting on! If you were wondering what the picture is of, that would be the interior of my freezer. My broken freezer. Attached to my broken fridge. So I must wait for a replacement fridge to arrive! With any luck, the fridge and my bro will arrive at the same time and cause chaos on the road! I'm actually quite impressed at how quickly this situation has been handled.

And there's one more vital wait on: I still don't have my key to the outside door! I was told it was coming with the fridge. I was also told I would get it first thing this morning, so yeah. Since I have the key to the other side of the building, it's not too terrible, just a bit inconvinient.

Once I get all that stuff, I should finally be free to go explore the downtown! Maybe I will take my laptop in hopes of borrowing some wifi! That's all I really want right now.

Anyway, this post adds nothing to the universe, and may even detract from it. I'm just blathering about my day to kill an hour before the fun begins. I'm still thrilled with being down here and still smiling! (And I'll be smiling when I beat my bro senseless for making me wait a extra 24 hours to get my stuff.)

Edit: the new fridge arrived before this entry finished posting! Sweet! And I'm told the key is on the way. They treat you right down here!

I'm in Savannah!

Pictured: my bed and desk. Oh wait.

This move started out with such promise. I got up early and had as smooth a drive down as could be expected. Once in Savannah, I managed to snag a (metered) parking spot right next to my apartment. The door was open and my new home was waiting for me!

Day two (today) has not been as smooth, thanks to the comic stylings of my idiot brother. We trusted him with getting the uhaul truck full of my things down to Savannah. As you can tell by the picture, he failed miserably. Long story short: He did everything wrong and I'm stuck sleeping on the floor again.

Today has been a day of false starts, and crossed wires. It has played out like a Frasier episode crossed with Waiting for Godot. Except it's not entertaining - unless me constantly looking out the window to check for meter maids is hilarious to you.

I have a lot of adjustment to do down here. For one, I have no internet! All wifi signals here are protected! (Only the iPhone's 3G keeps me alive.) This means that, until I get connected, I'll have to hike to a coffee shop or something if I want to upload a strip or update the website. That likely means Precocious will update *sometime* during the day instead of at midnight. Sorry about that. Another casualty of limited connectivity? Blogging. It's a pain in the rear to type this all out on this tiny screen!

But it's still Savannah! This has been my dream forever! I look forward to tomorrow with bright shiny eyes!

My idiot brother *should* arrive tomorrow. (We'll see.) I may yet find a convinient and non-metered place to park! (Good luck with that.) I may even get to leave the apartment and explore the maze that is my building! (And maybe even step out and explore the city!)

Dare to dream!

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