Actually, I was back on Sunday. Not only was my brother's birthday then, but my dad insisted I be in on Monday for life-drawing. Going through a University night without having to write up a blog entry feels nice, though! I actually got to bed by 10pm! Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep comfortably; paranoia of an oven being left on or sink running kept me awake. The thought of the fire-alarm going off (despite last instances being merely a drill) churns my stomach. Most nights, I have to literally stare at the oven/sink turned off for five minutes just to force my neurotic mind into validating the evidence.
The lesson was at 10am today. I went to bed at 10pm, so...I got up at 9am! That's not right at all. Granted, again, I had little in the way of comfortable sleeping so I felt pretty drowsy. Couldn't wash my teeth - I forgot to bring my toothpaste (and, well, washing bag). Not even a mouth-rinse was possible.
Whilst preparing the morning tea, Jamie appeared in his pyjamas. Did he have a lesson this morning? No, not until 2:30pm, in fact. Even then, it's apparently a half an hour session based on handing in the essay. He was chuffed with this written result, ticking the word-count in at about 1004. The minimum is 1000.
On the way out I stupidly dropped one of my toast onto the floor.
Made my way to B123 - the life drawing studio conveniently next door to Animation's usual room. One of the guys in my class followed my lead - and started doing so as he came out of his house at the student village. No talk? :( There, everyone was waiting. For who? For Sue. She's one of the teachers we haven't seen since our induction week - and she works closely with the 3rd year students. 10 past 10, she burst into the scene with coffee/tea in hand. Gracing us with her high-cultured accent, the first of her words was telling us to prepare our easels with a board in a ring around the subject.
And so we did. I tried to aim for a spot next to Oscar but people (despite my haste) already settled. Instead, I stood into position north-west, next to a student with long flowing hair (and often glasses?). Sue trotted around to check everyone's easels, seeing if they were in position and nagging to go in closer. I was having difficulties figuring out how to heighten my easel. I didn't think you'd twist the bottom screw at first since it was so tightly fixed, but after Oscar demonstrated, apparently so. I asked Sue for advise as well. Her answer was to move in closer to the model. (...)
Forgot to get some newsprint/A3-A2 paper and thus had to borrow Oscar's (abundant) supply.
The session started, and for the most part of life drawing we drew the model in quick poses - from 30 seconds to 10 seconds. Essentially, Sue wanted us to draw the figure with singular, confident lines. Scratchy/hairy mark making (forgot the specific term she used a lot) was a large no-no, and it was something that a lot of students, judging by Sue's consistent critics, had a hard time to overcome. Who can blame them? The energy and passion to do detailed and precise work is an instinctive goal in terms of illustration - and with animation, drawings need to be precise and accurate, at least that's why Richard Williams loves his job. Going off track there, scratchy lines is often the result of the mind unsure of what is wants to process on paper. I...think.
I just barely held up my paper up with left over masking tape (Again, forgot) and the poor guy next to me was having it worse with his work frequently loosing grip and falling off. What's more, I quickly ran out of news print and since Oscar was on the other side of the room I didn't have balls to march over there in front of everyone's view for more.
We had a few breaks - two small ones and a lunch. After the first break, Sue was fairly late getting back and we were all pretty much there. The model herself got things going and just stripped naked into a pose - all of us instinctively belted up and started sketching. Sue arrived and noticed our head-start, asking the model to change pose. We just started, mind you.
During the lunch, I headed over to the Workshop store in Farnham for some masking tape (that I owe the guy next to me) and Subway. Before doing so, I headed back home to get my wallet. On the way there, I met with Sophie and we passed by Kit. Sophie asked if Kit had done his essay - he was on the way to drop his in, in fact. He had done 500 words so far and Sophie gave Kit some encouraging words. After getting back, met Sophie up in the kitchen. She was really relieved to of gotten her essay done and dusted.
Munched my sandwich and headed back to B123 - late by about five or so minutes with Oscar already there to remind me. Sue was about an extra 10 minutes before she got back. On the last break, Oscar popped over to his place to grab the rest of the newsprint - and I showed TMwAH where the University shop was. He needed a display board for his exhibition in Brighton - hopefully selling some work in the process. Put off slightly by the price, he (and I) dropped the plan on last-minute shopping and moseyed on back.
As we finished our session, Sue mentioned liking my drawings and how I was "sticking to the brief". EW, not that old-walnut again. I swear it is the teachers versed more into Fine Art (as is the case with Sue) that push more towards keeping to the rule. Still, I was fairly appreciative of Sue's taking to my life drawing despite their messy, unclean look in my opinion. When checking my work throughout the duration of Life Drawing, her responses were almost always "good" - this surprised me considering the majority of the time she's pointing out something with everyone else's work. I look forward to the next lesson in Life Drawing.
Tottered on home with Oscar and TMwAH. When I got back, Sophie, Georgia and Yannis were hanging out in the communal hall. Sophie nearly close to literally - she was quirkily sitting on the banister. I asked if she was coming over to Street Dance, and she shook the head. At 5pm, Sophie was heading back to Brighton in order to shoot her documentary based there. Asked Yannis was coming and...I don't think he heard me? In any case, ate a doughnut, and whipped on the duffel coat. Headed on out to Street Dance.
There, I was about a minute or so late but...no one was there. Dan and Katerina, the two instructors, welcomed me. Dan casually asked how I was doing and such, and my responses were stuttered all over the place. I thought, what's going to happen if I'm the only one? Do I have to learn all this alone? Luckily however, Becky and her friend arrived telling Dan about Sophie and Ben's absence. Then, the fellow from animation (and last week) turned up shortly thereafter - with two other girls following him momentarily. Dan did a warm up with me and the other guy - namely, the routine taught last week. I did it with him at first, and...UGH, sucked at it. Then the other person tried it, did a bit of a better job at it.
Cracked on with the exercises. Amongst the obligatory stretches and pull-ups, we did dance exercises with Katerina! Of the dance exercises, some were easy to pick up and follow as she did it, whilst others were more apparently there to take the piss. My ego deflated before even starting to learn the routine proper. The actual dance routine this week was actually fairly straight-forward which was great, as I associated her's with being tricky (from first impression, I guess) In juxtaposition from last week's rather effeminate choreography (too bad Becky wasn't there), this was a rather butch serving on manoeuvres with fists covering the face, stamping, chest thrusting and the like. The chest-thrusting, despite practicing, I am still yet to get even get somewhat right. When we practiced with music, the build-up threw me off a little bit.
The dance routine was pretty much complete, but how to demonstrate it? Once again in groups - but fortunately it wasn't solo this time, we had the instructors once again backing us up. The catch? It's street dance so to drive the point home, we did a simulated STREET DANCE OFF. Each group of 3 with the instructor in front. If this was for real, my ass would of been busted big time. I fucked up partway through, but kept going. We had a round of applause, and watched the others. They faired alright as well, but the margin of experience was still pretty jarring against the instructor.
Finishing up, we headed back home. Popped by Sainsburys, although I didn't get anything, instead just waiting for the others. I went departed from the others near home to go to Waitrrose although Becky and her friend came along to wait for me. I think I took too long for them, about 15 minutes, as when I finished the duo had disappeared outside. Oh well! Scanned up and down, looking through the window into Waitrose to see if they were anywhere there. Guess not, so carried on home.
There, I rested for about half an hour and got on with cooking. (I waited for Rory to finish upstairs, as well) Bought some diced steak that came with a section of kidney too - but no kidney for me! (despite Yannis's approval) Waitrose was out of stock on purely diced steak packages, but for what I wanted it still worked out cheaper to get the combo instead of a full-on cut. Whilst frying the steak, I experimented a little bit in mixing the process of Niku-jaga into the Stir-fry. So, in went a little bit of the dashi broth, along with mirin and sugar. After trying to be patient with simmering away the broth, I poured as much of it into the bin as possible. Fried up the rest of the vegetables and noodles.
Tasted yummy! In fact, I could taste the essence of Niku-jaga all around the stir fry. Even with the black bean sauce mixed in, the flavours all resonated pretty well. I was surprised.
Headed to sleep at about 11:40. There was more that happened in-between, I'm sure, but eh. I actually finished up writing this blog on Tuesday the following day, as I was too tired/lazy to finish the rest.
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