If you think of the summer as a performance, it starts off feeling exciting. You might have a case of the butterflies from stage fright, or maybe you're brimming with confidence and anticipation, or maybe you're hiding in the corner from dread. But either way, the whole performance is ahead of you yet. And then eventually you get to intermission (or if not that, you get halfway through the performance) and you're beginning to realize, "Oh, already that much of it is done, we'll be through not long from now." And then now it's almost time to take your bows. But when it comes to summer vacation, there is no encore. You will not get summoned back to the stage for another round of applause (except for the Staff Learning Days and stuff, but that's different).

I am afraid that my summer is draining away before my eyes. I have not made preparations for school and have basically procrastinated and poorly managed my time a whole lot this summer. Also, one of my friends who was visiting for the summer will be going on back to Taiwan not too long from now. Even the school schedules have been put up on our grade viewer (whether on accident or on purpose, I have no idea) and those are all definite signs that summer is coming to its end. I would like to ask you all, how were your summers? Did you put on a spectacular show? Or are you glad to have it over with? Or somewhere in between?

Now, I don't want to spend too much time dishing out sappy lines, so instead I would like you to take a look at some photos and drawings and critique them. You can find more of them on my DeviantArt account, link at the side of the posts. Click on them for full view.





Eek, I know my drawings are kind of messed up (like how I'm so lazy that I made the person in the first drawing put her - because it is a girl, but dressed as a boy?! - hands behind her back, and how I imitated Arina Tanemura's style in the second drawing) but oh well. Practice practice practice!

Labels: accomplishments, critique, drawing, encore, end, performance, photography, practice, summer, time, vacation

Here's a quick run-through of what each term means. Diurnal means active during the day, nocturnal is active during the night, and crepuscular means active at dawn and dusk. So which one would you be? For myself, I'm not really sure. I used to wake up early, and I still can't sleep in much, but I am more awake in the late afternoon and evening. Maybe I would be crepuscular? But that's weird, considering it's mostly animals which are crepuscular. XD Like deer and cougars or something.

Today marked the official end of my classes. I didn't finish my painting of a bird in my class and so I figure I'll have to work on it at home using oil paints (because I don't have acrylic paints). This is a problem since the bird itself has some black areas and I don't have the color black (I've got other oil colors, but not that...Weird, isn't it? That it doesn't come with a set). I guess I'll have to figure out something. If you have an idea, please offer it up. :D

I'd been wondering before why sometimes if you look at a clothing label, it says that the clothes is such-and-such % acrylic. (My mom often looks at those labels when she's considering buying something. She thinks cotton is a good material, and I suppose "Mom knows best"...) I was told by my painting teacher that it was basically plastic, so if acrylic paint dries up, you can peel it off. So I guess that explains why it can be used in both making clothing and paint. o_O;;

Anyhow, it's a little sad that my classes are over. Of course I'm glad to have more free time now, but I will miss the relaxing atmosphere of the classes, and I hope I'll be able to see some of the people who were in my classes next year in school (if they go to the same school, that is).

Yesterday I went to see the animated movie called Up in the movie theater. It has been talked about a lot, probably more so than the average animated movie. Here's the story in short...

A boy called Carl is a big fan of exploration. He wants to be like his hero, Charles F. Muntz, who was a man who claimed to have discovered a rare bird in Paradise Falls, a place in South America. However, it was discovered that he'd put together the skeleton of a bird with existing bones, and so in order to clear his name, he vowed to go to Paradise Falls and not return until he caught the rare bird. Anyhow, the main character, Carl, meets a girl who also is a big fan of Charles F. Muntz, named Ellie. He gets to see her "My Adventure Book", which is a book she put together about adventuring. Eventually Carl and Ellie are married, but in their old age, Ellie dies, and Carl is left on his own. His house is going to be taken away, so Carl blows up a lot of balloons, ties them to his house, and sets off for Paradise Falls. Along the way he meets a boy who tagged along called Russell, a bird which happens to be the rare species that Charles F. Muntz had been looking for, and a dog called Dug. They meet Charles F. Muntz himself at Paradise Falls, but it turns out he is quite evil and so owns many dogs for the purpose of finding the rare bird. He attempts to get rid of Russell and Carl and to take the bird for himself. But there was a good ending, as is necessary for a children's movie.

This was a surprisingly good movie. It was funny, but it was also a little sad as well, and I think you ought to go see it if you want to see a movie. ...Or you could go see Harry Potter, the newest movie...It was so crowded when I left the theater after watching Up because everyone was there to watch Harry Potter. Wow.

Labels: acrylic, animated film, crepuscular, diurnal, end, harry potter, movie, nocturnal, painting, summer school, theater, up

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