Back to the grind here at Michigan State! I'm looking forward to this semester for a few reasons: my schedule, teaching drawing a second time, and new work in my studio!
SCHEDULE
Last semester I had a challenge maintaining a productive schedule because of a late Monday class and early teaching time. Riding the bus seems to add an extra hour of travel throughout the day so I would be getting home really late Monday nights and up really early to teach my 8AM drawing course. Therefore the rest of my Tuesdays and Thursdays were lived in a daze following my office hours. This semester I teach Monday and Wednesday from 3:00 to 5:50 PM with my office hour from 2-3. The only other class I have is my Baroque Art History course Tuesday and Thursday from 12:40 to 2:30. I'm very excited to have so much time in between to read, study, and paint in the studio!
TEACHING
I had a wonderful time teaching Drawing 110 last semester and felt blessed by the students I taught. Many of them came to class eager to learn and try their best to understand the methods of drawing we discussed. This semester I'm teaching the same course so it's much easier to predict how to schedule my preparation and how best to answer questions students have regarding upcoming material. We just had our first hands-on class period last Wednesday and it already looks like I'll have another dedicated group! The issue I'm seeing with the time slot I have this semester is that it might be late enough in the day to cause a bit of tiredness for the students. The drawing room sits around 70-75 degrees most days so that adds to the coziness of the very meditative process drawing can have.
STUDIO
Last semester I tried to tackle any studio idea that came to mind. The ideas I didn't touch were usually more time consuming or required materials I couldn't afford or find at the time. Typically I have more ideas than time so I'm used to moving past an idea before I get to try it. This semester I want to slow down the ideas a little bit more, but to dig a little deeper into the conversation within the work. After the semester closed in December I was still on campus for a few days and finished a painting "Teenage Merit" a 30" x 30" oil painting of a shoulder length figure with thick impasto expression.
Watch this video to see the main progression of this painting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH7em3J86GM
Following my winter break, the Spring Semester began on January 8th. One of the methods I still wish to try is Stop Motion animation to accompany the paintings I'm making. The problem I'm having is what to create. In painting it's really easy to change course and move the painting into a new direction, but as far as I can tell stop motion will take much more organization and planning ahead. This turns me off from starting an animation project. Mainly because I have 4 or 5 ideas for a story. I'm afraid I'll put a lot of time into a project I won't use or that won't fit the rest of the work I'm making. I realize the dilemma isn't worth not trying at all. I should really just start something. I think I should just commit to an idea by a certain day and then keep planning things to a calendar where it's much more feasible to check off small goals. OKAY.
So here we go I'll use my blog to host these calendar updates. If you want to keep track of how things are going this is where to find out!
Here's my loose calendar right now:
JAN 20th - Commit to 1 min story with basic story board
JAN 30th - Complete the main parts (set, characters, large props)
FEB 10th - First 15 sec complete
FEB 28h - First 30 sec complete
FEB 30th - First 45 sec complete
MAR 10th - FULL ANIMATION COMPLETE!
Well I think this is definitely feasible, and that's all I have to share with you today. Thanks for your support and interest!
Best,
Hector