Sueno Yamamoto: March 3, 1920 - October 15, 2012; Grandma extraordinaire.

My grandma passed away quietly and peacefully last night at the age of 92.  I guess I just want to share a little about what made her so special to me.

Probably one of her most wonderful and at the same time quite maddening qualities was her ability to talk.  Grams could strike up a conversation with literally anyone at any time and continue that conversation until the sun went down if we let her.  This coupled with her love of giving to people or helping out those that looked lost or confused... well, she was just a really good neighbor.

One of my favorite memories is when we were at a grocery store and there was a lady that was picking through some watermelons with a slightly befuddled look on her face.  Grams walked right up to her and not only assisted her in finding a nice ripe one but also continued to talk about how to assess all fruit, which continued onto the woman's garden, etc. etc.  We practically had to drag Grams out of there but not w/o the two of them exchanging numbers for future correspondence.

Of the many wisdoms that Grams imparted on me, one that always stuck out was her view on street lights or more specifically the yellow light.  She'd always turn around from the front when Gramps was driving and tell me that "Yellow means go like hell!"  I almost feel like this was a euphemism for her life.  Even when her body started to slow, every day she'd be up at the crack of dawn, fixing a king's feast for breakfast.  I'd always gain 10lbs just from staying at Grandma and Grandpa's place every vacation just from the breakfasts alone.  Then after breakfast she'd be out in the garden, tending to her fruit trees and flowers.  Then it was back in for lunch, and then dinner; always cooking up wonderful dishes and desserts.

Grams never forgot our birthdays and holidays...  We'd always, always have a card from her, year after year... lovingly covered with stickers she's collected for us.

I love you Grams, and miss you terribly.  Say hi to Gramps for us and I know you'll be looking over us from above.  I promise when life tries to slow me down, I'll go like hell. ^_^

The more you know....

School's started and wow... we just jumped right into it.  After my first sessions last week, I had 25 trees to draw, pine cones to collect, and a completed animation to do... and that didn't count the reading and paper I had to write for my GEs.  =)

The animation was just to gauge where we were; a walk cycle where anything goes.  I wanted mine to loop and keep it simple yet throw in a tiny bit of perspective, so I went with a cube with legs, which morphed into a Wally'esque type robot.  Haha, I love him, he's really cute. ^_^

Animation is below:

Was a busy weekend filled with trees and building my own little animation downshooter.  Still had the program Flipbook from Art28 but I was really unhappy with how the macbook's little webcam handled capturing each page so I ordered a new HD webcam from Amazon and fashioned a mount for it with some scrap wood, screws/brackets and some plexiglass which I could attach the suction cup arm to.  Came out looking kinda snazzy. ^_^

Page from my tree sketchbook (Owen said it was alright for the first pass. I need more detail!):

Tuesday we brought our pine cones (Special thanks to Missy for finding these awesome ones for me).  Mine are apparently from an Austrian Black Pine and are smallish (2-3"), light exterior, black interior, with a small prickle.  We dismantled one of the two and started a graphite drawing of the second.  Tonight I found out 20 factoids of pine cones which was actually kinda interesting.  I never realized that there were a male and female pine cone (the ones we're familiar with are the mature females).  

They say knowledge is power but one has to ask how learning about pine cones beyond what you simply see can help you draw?  Honestly, anything more you know about an object will help you draw it better and more accurately.  Owen used the word "authentic".  You want to make your drawings believable.  For example, learning anatomy will just make your figure drawings that much better, that much more believable.  And once you know how things work, you can start bending, even breaking the rules because you know how you can push it.  

Oh and pines cones (specifically from the family Pinaceae); their scales grow in the fibonacci number sequence, or the golden ratio. It's one of the biological examples of this perfect design.  Other examples found in nature are artichokes (go figure, they look like pine cones), ferns, and the shell of a nautilus.  

Pictures of my awesome pine cone, both dismantled and lit up for a still life:

Seeing w/o Limits

“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding. Find out what you already know and you will see the way to fly.” 

― Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull

It's interesting, the path of learning to draw.  Drawing after all is really learning how to see.  

We start off, doodling the care-free whimsy that is a child's mind.  The ability to create as a child is magnificent; kids see the world in such a myriad of ways and colors, but are unfocused.  When we start taking direction through art classes, we're taught how to draw what we see.  Utilizing reference as a powerful tool to better know what we want to draw.  First it's reference in the manner of photographs, translating 2d images into 2d images.  When we grow some more, we start drawing from life.  Seeing the world in 3d and reproducing them into flat form.  We grow again and that's when we learn that our eyes can only tell us so much.  A deeper understanding of the form and physiology of our subjects and its environs allows us to push what we draw beyond what we merely can see, into a realm touched only by our imagination and dreams.  

Only one more week til the BFA sketchbook is due.  Got my new sketchbook all picked out and ready to go. ^_^

Spent the day in SF today along the Embarcadero with a bunch of A/I buddies.  Enjoyed possibly the best milkshake I've had ever, a vanilla shake with chocolate syrup swirled in.  Delish!  Was a gorgeous day, think I got a little sunburned though. :-D

Sketches:

The Collision of Dreams w/Reality

My friend posted this pic she found and being an aspiring animator/illustrator, it really spoke to me.

I wonder about the creator of this image; whether they never experienced a dream coming true or seeing a vision fulfilled.  I feel blessed to be an artist, where daily I take my pen to paper and touch my dreams to reality.  It's the one place where I can live the fairytale, and when I return to real life, I'll have brought a small memento with me.

Sketching has taken on a new life recently; now that the first 80 pages are done and over with, I finally feel free.  Having more fun with it and pushing myself further; I really should've been doing that in the beginning I think.  But looking at my progress over the last 90 pages, there definitely has been!

I spent a page with my 13 year old niece who is looking to get into an art centered high school in SF.   Spoke to her about perspective and shadow shapes and the three rules that I put into practice in ever piece I do.  Squint, Contrast is the meaning of life, and REFERENCE.   I hope I wasn't too real with her about the work it takes to become successful in the art field; she's just a kid and should enjoy being one still.

Spent a Monday at the Winchester Mystery House and Santana Row.  That was an awesome day to say the least. I need to go back.  The house is just absolutely massive and a joy to draw in perspective. =)  And as a place to draw people... it's hard to beat Santana Row.  Sat outside Pinkberry and just stared and sketched for a good 3 hours.  Oh and ate yogurt.  Can't forget that.