Rapscallion Princess Gets a Nosebleed

Lunatics.

2009-07-20T16:20:00.000-07:00

Two great things are happening today.

1) It's the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. You need to have been living in a moon cave to not have heard this, as it's been plastered all over the Earth print and the web and TV for the past few days. A highly fantastic anniversary. Sadly, we still don't travel by jetpack these days, but we do have this book to compensate.

2) In a nutty homage to #1, Google's Street View's typical little yellow man has turned into an astronaut. Also newsworthy is the fact that Street View has now become much more streamlined; I've noticed it's moving faster and more smoothly with the zoom-in feature.

Another Street View Easter egg, for those interested, is the picture of the Google (Street View?) team along the headquarters at Charleston Rd in Mountain View, CA.

View Larger Map

One of my favorites is a Googler dressed up as Link at 1650 Charleston.

View Larger Map
Right next to Link is a homemade astronaut poster in honor of today. But what is up with the Canadian and French flags? 'Xplain yourself, you international lunar kniggit.

View Larger Map

And what would a Google Team pic be without a marriage proposal (at 1644 Charleston)? It just wouldn't be the same, I tell you. Not the same at all. Goofy Googlers.

Current Loves: Janelle Monae's "Many Moons" Official Short Film

2009-07-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a imabrazenhussy, I came across this fabulous "Many Moons" video by Janelle Monae. My ignorance of pop culture has kept me from her music, and my jury is still out on her as a musician. BUT the art & style direction of this video is top notch. Whoever crafted this fine little jewel are mastsers of the craft. I love the crazy retro hairdos the singer is stylin' (reminiscent of Little Richard, IMHO, see below) and the weird plasticky look the androids have, complete with consumerist price tags popping up during the auction. The video is rife with modern cuts of retro fashions, and Monae cops a perfectly kooky Lucille Ball wide-eyed look aimed directly at the viewer. It's fun to watch; check it out for yourself!

Little Richard & James Brown. Payin' some tribute.

Free salon treatment Wed!

2009-05-18T13:41:00.000-07:00

Kerastase is inviting folks to come in for a complimentary treatment and blow dry service this Wed. May 20th, 2009 at participating salons across America. Most require an appointment - for Bay Area-ites, there are many local salons listed. You can find the details here. (scroll down for salons)

Image by keastase-usa.com

Fabulous Finds - Narwhal Co. Wrist Wear

2009-05-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

photo courtesy of Narwhal Co.

Here is a great fashion find, first spotted by the WebUrbanist (thanks): wrist wear made from the skinny end of ties, by Narwhal Co in San Diego, CA. A little bit East Coast and a little West, this playful design turns conservative dress on its ear by transforming the highlight of a good business suit into a colorful accessory any fashionista/hipster would be proud to wear. Sure, it's a little gimmicky, but I totally love it. At $9.97 a pop, these lil' cuffs are totally affordable.

Each cuff is unique, made from a vintage (re-purposed) tie, so they warn that if you like something on the site, you should put it in your cart or risk it selling out. Some of the wrist wear they had for sale reminded me of ties in my father's closet - bold striped patterns from the 1970s, and small conservative rosette patterns from I don't-know-what-decade. I secretly love conservative suits and adore bold patterns, so imagine my delight when I found out this wrist wear existed. You can have both elements in one accessory, yet still be fashionable and not have to deal with the heat of a navy blazer in the hot CA sun. It's definitely an accessory that people will look at twice. Narwhal also offers tie-silk wallets and passport covers, plus organic tees, in their online store.

Last I checked, they had a good range of colors and patterns, ranging from lights to darks and bold to subtle prints. I imagine their stock changes year round, so it'd be wise to check back in a few weeks if nothing strikes your fancy immediately. Also, they do custom orders of any of their offered products, so if none of the coloring seems quite right you can contact them and for a few more bucks have something truly unique. I ordered my two ready-made cuffs yesterday and can't wait for them to come. Check 'em out for yourself at Narwhal Co.

Daylight Savings & Drawing Class

2005-10-30T08:40:00.000-08:00

Hi there,

You will be pleasantly surprised that it's daylight savings time.."Fall - fall back an hour, Spring - spring ahead an hour." I awoke this morning to all the digital clocks in my apt blinking "12:00am, 12:00am" when it clearly was not. Silly clocks! They're so flirty and mysterious.

Ok, so here's last Wed's class drawings.

Alex (the teacher) decided to make things entertaining by having kids from the class model for 10 minute portraits. There was a tiered stage in the center of the room, with a leather chair for a person to sit in. Floor lights we angled in the general direction of the seat, and all the workhorses that we sit on were angled toward it, too. There were mirrors to each side of the sitter, so if anyone got bored, they could pick a new angle of someone's face without moving from their spot. Genius! It was a lot of fun. Alex turned off the lights, called random people up to model, reset the lights for each face, and we all drew in little 10 minute bursts. These are six out of eight that were done - two are missing because I totally hate one that I messed up on and am not confident to share, and the other one is missing because I was the model.

These are all soft vine charcoal or compressed charcoal on sketchpaper (18"x24" originally, but I cropped for asthetics/brevity). Names are left out because I'm horrible at names, and I don't want to offend anyone if I get it wrong, and they see this. However, most of the kids in this class are pretty nice, and I wish there was more time to talk in class while you draw.

Charcoal Portrait, Classmate 1

Charcoal Portrait, Classmate 2

Charcoal Portrait, Classmate 3

Charcoal Portrait, Classmate 4

Charcoal Portrait, Classmate 5

Charcoal Portrait, Classmate 6

Drawing Class

2005-10-28T22:53:00.000-07:00

If you have a b&w, or even color photo you'd like me to do a charcoal of please email me. I need the practice!*

Thanks for playing!
*******
*Participants acknowledge that the drawing may look nothing like the submitted photo, and release Diana of all responsibility to the contrary.

*******
With a year's worth of drawing classes from the Academy of Art College, a woman might believe that she qualified for upper division classes at San Francisco State University. Having taken Intro to Drawing, Figure Drawing One and Two, Anatomy, Intro to Animation, Figure Sculpture One and Two, plus a slew of graphic design classes, she may even think she had skills beyond doodling, which anyone could plainly see.

Ah, Foolish woman! How could she not know the Academy of Art College's credits were non-transferrable to anywhere but up a yahoo's butt-crack?! Oh, the folly-the misinterpretation!

And where is our woman now? Plugging away faithfully at a San Francisco State University introductory drawing class Monday and Tuesday nights from 5:10 - 7:50. Nevermind that she works from 8-5. She flies to class from across town at a rate that is unbelievable. Latent years of non-drawing are slowly melting away like a popsicle in July. Or, more specifically, like a popsicle in Hell during July. If that makes sense.

*******

Anyway. Here's a sketch I did on Monday.

Charcoal of Hillary Clinton, surprised.

Drawn from a black and white photocopy roughly 3"x4", this took two hours. It took so long mainly because I was piddling around and could get away with it. If pushed, I could do this drawing in twenty-five minutes or less. Two hours, there could've been five of these. There are issues with this pic. I could've pushed the check/eye bag area more to make it look more like HilIary. Also, I shouldn't tell you this, but I started with proportions slightly off on purpose, to see if my teacher would notice. He didn't.

I often find myself wasting time in class, because I'm lazy, I'm tired, and there aren't many people I can compete with skill-wise. I don't mean this arrogantly - it's just that having people better skilled than me is sort of motivating. In my class, there are a lot of non-art-majors, and beginning sketchers who don't know how to draw. So, the teacher is in beginners' mode when he's giving advice, which means he skips me altogether. "You don't need me!" he said to me last class.

But this is wrong. I do need help! I need to push my skills higher, but don't know how! My drawing almost as good as it once was, so this class is really helping warm me up. For some reason faces are much easier this time around. However, something is missing. Were I in an upper level class, there would be plenty of people who are better skilled than I.

We were supposed use the entire class to do one drawing. That's two hours and forty minutes.

The last twenty minutes of class, I got frustrated at doing nothing, so I started over with a photo of Donald Rumsfeld:

This sketch is five minutes away from being Hillary, and I was still being lazy. The shadow forms at the bottom of his jowls were more pronounced, and as you can see I was purposefully cutting into his jawbone at the bottom, playing with the weird shadows formed by skin. I may rework this, or do it over.

My first post.

2005-05-24T16:42:00.000-07:00

Oh, lovely first post of my blogging career, how I loathe you, with your thick words and nasty prose, spawned out of boredom from sitting at my desk, at work, with nothing to do but write about.. nothing. Why couldn't you be more forthcoming? Why is it so difficult. Perhaps you are right. Perhaps I am overhthinking it. Thank you, foolhardy blog. You enrapture me.

Seriously the last time I wrote anything worth anything was years and years ago, so I've some catching up to do, if you know what I mean. (Yeah, YOU, there, you know who I'm talking to. Don't get cheeky, unless you want them SPANKED.) So, the idea is, I guess, since we're talking into keyboard air here, no one around to read this.. is to get back into writing, or venting, or both at the same time, which is the most likely scenario out of all of them, what are these blogs really but people shouting "Me! Me! Look at me! Look at that! Isn't that cool? Isn't this wrong? Shouldn't we do something about this? What do you think of this thing, that I, me, am interested in?"

Whatever. If I had more friends, I would call them.

Love,
Dee