Glee!
So I have become obsessed with Glee. I wasn't gonna watch it since the commercials made it look like High School Musical the series, which it pretty much is, but I heard a piece about it on NPR and gave it a shot. This show is adorable. Singing and dancing and teen angst. Groups of teenagers performing elaborate musical numbers with what is clearly a much larger chorus than you see on screen. The guidance counselor is so cute you could eat her with a spoon and the other characters are hilarious.
Also, gay characters. Well ok, the one guy is a creepy stereotype and every episode without him is better than ones with, but he's a minor character. Little Kurt (possibly Kirk, I might be mishearing) is pretty flaming but also a character with character developement and whatnot. Also, adorable. Every episode is like an after school special about tolerance and making good choices but it's also funny and wacky, and musical, so you don't care. I am amazed that this is on Fox. Of course since it's pretty good, it stands a good chance of being prematurely canceled so let's not get too attached (of course shows that take place in high school are already handicapped since all the characters will theoretically graduate eventually).
In job news, I get my first paycheck tomorrow. Huzzah! Today was entertaining. This last week of training has been tedious since our trainer (we were supposed to have one for the full four weeks, instead we've had a rotating roster of about 5 which has sucked a lot) has basically run out of stuff for us to do. Also she is not a real trainer having been demoted from that position and she is bitter. And she has no classroom management skills and there are some assholes in the group who never shut up, and she has been really pissed off. But tomorrow is our last day with her. Anyway, today we were kicked out of our training room and sent to a conference room without computers, so we mostly listened to calls all day.
This sucked because without computers we can't log any practice on the software (that we will be using live on Monday with customers). Without computers I also had no screen to hide behind while I doodled, so half the class was complimenting me on my (to be fair, really awesome) doodles this morning. You know me. Flattery will get you everywhere. Anyway, I was intensely bored and I drew a girl in an unintentional sort of Mountie outfit riding a giant kangaroo. The guy next to me (pretty funny and not an asshole) really liked it and suggested that I "make her boobs bigger and put her in a bikini." I pointed out that that would be quite an uncomfortable ensemble in which to ride a giant kangaroo, what with the hopping. Ow. But boys don't think of things like that.
During this whole discussion Jimmy mistook the brass buttons down the front of this girl's dress as some sort of chain/leash (to be fair, the leather and assorted hardware on the kangaroo was kind of bondagey). So for mostly my own amusement on the next drawing I put together a dominatrix with a riding crop. Jimmy liked that one quite a bit and kept whispering suggestions in my ear which would have been less weird if he hadn't been wearing a sombrero (it was hat day today). He thought she should have short hair. Not too short, but short. It became clear throughout this conversation that Jimmy wants a woman in shiny boots to whip him senseless. When I gave my Dom a female sub he asked (rather loudly) if I was a lesbian. Then he tried to hush it up like seriously half the table hadn't overheard the exchange (fortunately the assholes were all at the other end).
I felt like it was an Erica moment what with the other lesbian in the class on the other side of Jimmy critiquing my not really porn since there aren't really any naughty bits but still way kinkier than run of the mill pin up art, and my coming out in the middle of a conversation with a nice young man who is pretty open with relative strangers about his desire to be beaten. Also my drawing and a discussion about game design during lunch sparked the guy across from me to start doodling too, but he can apparently only draw Disney style lion heads (not the rest of the lion, just the head) and I felt a little bad.
I want to write, but I don't resent people who are better at it than me. I resent the hell out of people who are better at art than me. Not brilliant people, or long dead people, or strangers, but people I know, who are just a little (or sometimes a lot) better than me. I hate them. And I don't think that that's particularly uncommon or that there's anything wrong with that, but I've never been on the other side of that before. Not that I think this guy hates me, but I definitely recognized some despondent 'why aren't I better vibes.' Life drawing dude. That's all I can say. That and master copies, which I need to do more of.
But lately, perhaps fueled by mind numbing boredom, I have produced some very nice sketches. If I had my scanner (which I don't since all my shit is still in storage) I would scan some of them and paint them in photoshop. I've been floating for a while. At The Art Institute every talks about their "style" all the time. Usually as an excuse for why they didn't do a master copy or why they don't practice exercises are necessary. I never really felt like I had one. My drawings have never looked like anyone else's really (though I've never tried to make them except in exercises) but I never felt like there was anything concrete there. Recently I've been approaching my sketches more volumetrically (starting with shapes instead of lines) and it has really helped things coalesce. Several people today commented that I should "do something" with my art or, 'why do you work here.' I replied that I needed a job that paid money. But it was still, like I said, flattering.
I feel like I've produced some work (on printer paper with a company pen) that I wouldn't mind making prints of and selling. I need more scratchboard.
Also, gay characters. Well ok, the one guy is a creepy stereotype and every episode without him is better than ones with, but he's a minor character. Little Kurt (possibly Kirk, I might be mishearing) is pretty flaming but also a character with character developement and whatnot. Also, adorable. Every episode is like an after school special about tolerance and making good choices but it's also funny and wacky, and musical, so you don't care. I am amazed that this is on Fox. Of course since it's pretty good, it stands a good chance of being prematurely canceled so let's not get too attached (of course shows that take place in high school are already handicapped since all the characters will theoretically graduate eventually).
In job news, I get my first paycheck tomorrow. Huzzah! Today was entertaining. This last week of training has been tedious since our trainer (we were supposed to have one for the full four weeks, instead we've had a rotating roster of about 5 which has sucked a lot) has basically run out of stuff for us to do. Also she is not a real trainer having been demoted from that position and she is bitter. And she has no classroom management skills and there are some assholes in the group who never shut up, and she has been really pissed off. But tomorrow is our last day with her. Anyway, today we were kicked out of our training room and sent to a conference room without computers, so we mostly listened to calls all day.
This sucked because without computers we can't log any practice on the software (that we will be using live on Monday with customers). Without computers I also had no screen to hide behind while I doodled, so half the class was complimenting me on my (to be fair, really awesome) doodles this morning. You know me. Flattery will get you everywhere. Anyway, I was intensely bored and I drew a girl in an unintentional sort of Mountie outfit riding a giant kangaroo. The guy next to me (pretty funny and not an asshole) really liked it and suggested that I "make her boobs bigger and put her in a bikini." I pointed out that that would be quite an uncomfortable ensemble in which to ride a giant kangaroo, what with the hopping. Ow. But boys don't think of things like that.
During this whole discussion Jimmy mistook the brass buttons down the front of this girl's dress as some sort of chain/leash (to be fair, the leather and assorted hardware on the kangaroo was kind of bondagey). So for mostly my own amusement on the next drawing I put together a dominatrix with a riding crop. Jimmy liked that one quite a bit and kept whispering suggestions in my ear which would have been less weird if he hadn't been wearing a sombrero (it was hat day today). He thought she should have short hair. Not too short, but short. It became clear throughout this conversation that Jimmy wants a woman in shiny boots to whip him senseless. When I gave my Dom a female sub he asked (rather loudly) if I was a lesbian. Then he tried to hush it up like seriously half the table hadn't overheard the exchange (fortunately the assholes were all at the other end).
I felt like it was an Erica moment what with the other lesbian in the class on the other side of Jimmy critiquing my not really porn since there aren't really any naughty bits but still way kinkier than run of the mill pin up art, and my coming out in the middle of a conversation with a nice young man who is pretty open with relative strangers about his desire to be beaten. Also my drawing and a discussion about game design during lunch sparked the guy across from me to start doodling too, but he can apparently only draw Disney style lion heads (not the rest of the lion, just the head) and I felt a little bad.
I want to write, but I don't resent people who are better at it than me. I resent the hell out of people who are better at art than me. Not brilliant people, or long dead people, or strangers, but people I know, who are just a little (or sometimes a lot) better than me. I hate them. And I don't think that that's particularly uncommon or that there's anything wrong with that, but I've never been on the other side of that before. Not that I think this guy hates me, but I definitely recognized some despondent 'why aren't I better vibes.' Life drawing dude. That's all I can say. That and master copies, which I need to do more of.
But lately, perhaps fueled by mind numbing boredom, I have produced some very nice sketches. If I had my scanner (which I don't since all my shit is still in storage) I would scan some of them and paint them in photoshop. I've been floating for a while. At The Art Institute every talks about their "style" all the time. Usually as an excuse for why they didn't do a master copy or why they don't practice exercises are necessary. I never really felt like I had one. My drawings have never looked like anyone else's really (though I've never tried to make them except in exercises) but I never felt like there was anything concrete there. Recently I've been approaching my sketches more volumetrically (starting with shapes instead of lines) and it has really helped things coalesce. Several people today commented that I should "do something" with my art or, 'why do you work here.' I replied that I needed a job that paid money. But it was still, like I said, flattering.
I feel like I've produced some work (on printer paper with a company pen) that I wouldn't mind making prints of and selling. I need more scratchboard.