Scanned some old work. This is actually from entrance exams, last spring. Probably my favourite work then.
At school next week, we have a workshop held by some people from the Anteeksi collective. Should be interesting! All the info we got was to bring a big bunch of stuff: newspaper clippings, thread, buttons etc. Nice change from all the drawing!
Unlike I imagined it, Graphic design school has been less about sitting on the computer and more about pen and paper. Drawing. Illustration course, drawing human figure and drawing from life. (See some of the work, scanned here)
And it’s very different in other ways too. Much less about history and theory and more about just doing stuff. No books to read or papers to write. But maybe there is a hidden agenda, something seeding in our minds, making us go and learn by ourselves… which is surely the best way. I have to admit it was a shock at first, me calling the school a daycare centre, constantly wondering when “the real work” was going to start… But it’s been fun, and challenging and tiring and exciting.
Lately I’ve been busy packing stuff to officially move in with the boy. We are settling in, little by little, soothing all glitches as they come along. Important things, copic markers, shoes and computer, have lived here for a while already and I have started to call it home.
P.S. Oh look, one day the crazy hubby-to-be made this! No toasters, but design books, naturally!
(of course I had to scan it)
I got in!
The results were supposed to come on 21st day, at the latest, but they already came yesterday! I am so incredible happy it is hard to describe. Socks rolling on your feet, like Eero, the friend I got to know in the exams said (he also got in, yay!). Although I feel so weirdly calm, that the whole thing probably hasn’t really sunk in yet.
My total score was 48 (out of 55), and 40 was the lowest score to get in. What makes me most happy is that I got full points for the interview. And for the comic book as well.
What more can I say? Life is changing again…
sketching at the exams
Long time no see…
I made the cut. With the shared highest score of 19 points. The initial goal was to make it to the third stage, but obviously, now, the bar is much higher.
I have really been enjoying the exams, which I guess is a weird thing to say, since most people hate that kind of stress. But me… I just didn’t remember how much I love drawing, since I rarely get to sit down and just do it and nothing else for hours. It’s kind of relaxing too. Very Zen.
Obviously it’s exhausting as well. After eight hour days, I come home shattered. Emotional stress is pretty hard to determine at this point. This kind of stress makes so much of you shut down. I will have to write more about the whole thing later. Only tomorrow to go!
And then I got an invitation to take part in entrance examination to TAIK’s graphic design and illustration program. Yay!
I never thought I’d do this again.
During the years I have applied to six different schools, to nine different programs, made seven sets of preliminary assignments, sat in five entrance exams, got shortlisted two times and accepted into three schools.
Oh what fun, applying again.
It’s strange, I feel much more confident about my work and yet more vulnerable at the same time. I don’t so much believe in talent anymore, but aptitude and hard work and TIME. Which you are willing to put in if you really love what you do. Little by little you will find your own voice.
Maybe I am ready…
I fall asleep on the couch. Dream bad dreams all night (wrong train and my ex boyfriend). My flatmate tells me to “go out or something”. I am two days behind schedule (An apartment building in five days, yeah right.) I want to fast forward to next week, to next year if it’s possible. Everyone else loves the course I most hate, which should tell you something. All this makes me stressed out, angry and unhappy. No matter what way I twist it. And really, it’s all my own fault.
Ten days and two big courses to finish. A course portfolio to write. A history test to read to. (and then Christmas)
Stress weaves knots in my chest. Ones that don’t shift no matter how deep I try to breathe. I decided to work less and ended up doing more, because it’s not so horrible anymore. Result: better work, good grades.
“I think you should be a children’s book illustrator,” Kaisa says. “You are crazy like that.” We deem she should have been the architect, not me. I start to relax in the chaos of my life, not see the slight disorganization as a flaw to fight anymore. I think about art school. And I think about bad paying summer jobs that have nothing to do with architecture. Ten days and half a year to go.
The lecture today was about the psychology of living; how we make our homes the image of ourselves, to strengthen our identity. We try to make them filled with as many good things as possible, to make us happy, or just to survive.
Our home is chaotic. We have trouble with territories and space. Yet it is the best place I’ve lived in. Maybe we make this home work or it changes us so we fit.
I don’t like it when I have a whole dayplan of Stuff To Do in my head for at least five days ahead. Not when my motivation is: to get out of here.
…If I wake up at six(thirty) and take the dog out and eat breakfast, and look through the suburb photos, and write some of the text. Start doing sketches. Take long overdue books to library. Go to school. Lecture? maybe not. Food. Make terrain model. Draw. Ballet class at seven. (Oh remember the repair sewing to pointe shoes!) Make list for foodthings for the party. Look for recipes for the punch. (and then there will be two of my friends and two of K’s and we’ve done all this food and that’s because i have no friends and no one in the world wants to come…) I wish I don’t have to go to school on Sunday to do the urban planning stuff. I want to go to yoga…
I come home from school and it’s so dark outside and I’m too tired to draw or paint. Today like yesterday. I’d forgotten how this is.