New beginnings
The fall semester has begun and I'm taking three classes this time around, all of them art. Two-Dimensional Design, Drawing II and Introduction to Photography--they're all required for the Graphic Design degree, and I'm fairly excited about most of them. I'm not too keen on the photography class, not in the least because I had to shell out nearly $300 for a digital SLR camera for the privilege of taking it. A *used* digital SLR camera. I'm feeling very irritated that a required course is taking such a deep dig into my bank account--$300 for the damned camera, another $100 for the textbook. At least the same textbook is used for the later photography courses, so I'll get triple duty out of it, but right now it's annoying. I'm afraid my annoyance is going to color my attitude about the entire class, so I'm trying to see the bright side of it all. Once I figure out what that is, I'll pass it along to everyone else.
Design is easy so far, with its only drawback being that it's held in the morning. I swear, I felt like I was back in kindergarten today when she had us get out the scissors, glue and construction paper--I am NOT making this up! The assignment was to create an asymmetrical design and use color appropriately to make the composition balanced across the page. Our colors were black, grey and white. I should cut the class some slack, as a technically freshman-level course it's open to non-art majors and at least half the class are in other disciplines. The teacher's letting these guys dip their toe in the water, so to speak, and quite a few people were struggling. I still felt like a pre-schooler with the glue and scissors, though--the only thing missing was colored glitter, and it would have been perfect.
Drawing II is the best of the three classes. There's a far greater majority of art majors here than there was in Drawing I, and there's going to be an emphasis on doing your own research and choosing your own projects to work on. It's assumed you know how to do the basics, and we're being encouraged to take risks and develop our own style this semester. I'm extremely excited about this class, and I can guarantee it's going to be my favorite this time around.
Apart from that, it continues to be oppressively hot here. I've watered as much as we could afford, but still most everything is brown and dead. At least the crepe myrtles have done fairly well; not much in the way of flowers this year, but they're still green and hanging in there. The drought has not done wonders for our foundation, however. The addition seems to have drifted away from the main part of the house rather dramatically, and we've called in several foundation companies to give us their opinions and estimates on the matter. The first one comes in about a week, the others don't have an available day to see us until near the end of the month. Apparently quite a lot of people have had trouble due to the hot and dry summer, and these guys are booked solid with appointments. Ergh.
Will try to post more after we get some information from the first of the companies.
Design is easy so far, with its only drawback being that it's held in the morning. I swear, I felt like I was back in kindergarten today when she had us get out the scissors, glue and construction paper--I am NOT making this up! The assignment was to create an asymmetrical design and use color appropriately to make the composition balanced across the page. Our colors were black, grey and white. I should cut the class some slack, as a technically freshman-level course it's open to non-art majors and at least half the class are in other disciplines. The teacher's letting these guys dip their toe in the water, so to speak, and quite a few people were struggling. I still felt like a pre-schooler with the glue and scissors, though--the only thing missing was colored glitter, and it would have been perfect.
Drawing II is the best of the three classes. There's a far greater majority of art majors here than there was in Drawing I, and there's going to be an emphasis on doing your own research and choosing your own projects to work on. It's assumed you know how to do the basics, and we're being encouraged to take risks and develop our own style this semester. I'm extremely excited about this class, and I can guarantee it's going to be my favorite this time around.
Apart from that, it continues to be oppressively hot here. I've watered as much as we could afford, but still most everything is brown and dead. At least the crepe myrtles have done fairly well; not much in the way of flowers this year, but they're still green and hanging in there. The drought has not done wonders for our foundation, however. The addition seems to have drifted away from the main part of the house rather dramatically, and we've called in several foundation companies to give us their opinions and estimates on the matter. The first one comes in about a week, the others don't have an available day to see us until near the end of the month. Apparently quite a lot of people have had trouble due to the hot and dry summer, and these guys are booked solid with appointments. Ergh.
Will try to post more after we get some information from the first of the companies.