Staying strong, and moving on.

Sometimes, something awful happens. A truly terrible thing. You drop to your knees shaking. All you can think is, “No,” because it’s impossible. How could this have happened? Then it settles in that it is possible. You wonder, “Why hasn’t anyone else stopped? Why are people still going about their daily lives? The whole world should have stopped spinning. Life can’t go on.”

But it does. It shouldn’t. It sure as Hell shouldn’t, and it feels so wrong. Yet it does. The clock keeps ticking seconds away without them. You wonder how you could ever do anything the same way again. You cry yourself raw, and soon you can’t even shed a tear properly. You mourn in a frozen, numb life.

But you will heal. Eventually, you find yourself smiling again. You laugh a hollow laugh, and you remember how good it felt. It feels wrong at first, but then it gets loads better. You still have the scars, but they stopped bleeding, and have faded to a mere tattoo on your life. It feels like it shouldn’t be right, but it is.

Time will heal. It is rough, and it is a difficult, long process, that will never make the scars completely go away. But it is inevitable. Time is inevitable. Death is inevitable. But love seeps through the cracks.

The earth will always keep spinning. Time will always pass us by. Life goes on. I hate the fact that it does. It irks me to know that I have to admit it is a good thing. Life goes on, but above all, it is a good thing.

Death may be inevitable, but it is love that conquers all. You may not think so. How can love conquer death? If it did, no one would die. But death, like time, will always happen. No, the true conquering is that love still exists, even as death rips the person from us.

Love isn’t turned off like a faucet. When the person dies, you still love them. They still love you. Now, try to fathom that for a second. The person still loves you, even though they are dead. It doesn’t matter if you practice some sort of religion, lack thereof, or belief in any type of afterlife. You would be foolish to deny love as a beautiful and powerful thing. It took me a long time to realize it, but they still love you, whether they are dead or not. Love is immortal.

Honestly, I used to see, “the meaning of life,” as a mysterious, yet silly question. I still see it as a silly question, but now merely because I see the answer as so obvious now. I’ve said it already. Almost every song in existence has some sort of basis of it. Novels, movies, everything has it. When a death occurs, you are told to remember the good things, and be thankful for the time you had with them to experience it. Think, when are you your happiest? When you’re doing something you love, and when you are with people you love. Love. Love. Love. Love is the answer! Love is why we’re here, why we live, why we are happy, and finally, why we die and keep living.

A lack of love is why people kill themselves.

A lack of love is what causes problems.

So pass on the love. Pass on the new, remember the old, and cherish the love you shared once with a lost one. Know that it is still there, and know that even death and time cannot shatter it, no matter how hard they try.

Getting in the spirit.

Oh no late late late blog posts...my bad. This is one of six that should have been posted by the end of last week. :(

Oh my. It's that time of year. That time of year when chocolate and cookies are suddenly ten times more delicious, and you are expected to buy presents for people you may not particularly know or like all that much.

But don't be a Grinch. I'm sure you would be arrested if you broke into homes to steal Christmas trees. That's a little extreme. Don't be a Scrooge either, no one likes him. What you CAN be however, is a Stooge. Yes, that would certainly get some laughs at the extended family get-togethers. Don't be selfish, and don't let the lack of snow get you down. At least the driving conditions will be decent.

And oh goodness. The buying of the presents. If you are like me, and have a ton of friends you would love to give something to, you could do something like what I did last year. The weekend before break, I went shopping with my mother, and found a shelf at Michaels, filled with gooey snowmen balls. The kind you squeeze and squish, and if you throw it at a wall, and it will stick. I bought about 25 of them, considering they were fifty cents each, and gave them out on the last day of school. It was pretty satisfying, especially when my teachers started asking, "Where are all these snowmen from???"

But maybe you want to give something a little more special. So do that! Go for silly, or meaningful, or purposeful, or whatever, but don't bust your wallet. Pick a couple close friends and give them something. And here comes the cliche: "It's the thought that counts." But honestly, they will be glad that you simply went out of your way to do something for them.

And as for the weather, just DEAL WITH IT. Where I'm at, we have no snow, when we typically do. So many complaints are flying around. Yes, snow is fun, and yes, snow is absolutely necessary for Christmas to happen or Santa Claus won't come to your house (words from the mouth of my 6 year old cousin). But that doesn't mean you can't still get into the spirit. For goodness' sake, look on the bright side.  No snow means no awful driving conditions, most likely no flight cancellations, and you probably won't be snowed in for the holiday. What do I see as the bad side to this? It probably means a late starting Spring, which no sensible person would want.

Classic Disney.

The Disney movies from my childhood, are my favorites, forever and always. I love these movies. I love the storylines, the romances (even if they're cliche), the comedy, and the song bits. My absolute favorites include Hercules, Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Mulan. Emphasis on the last one.

Mulan may be my favorite heroine ever. She is such a boss. Entering a war, pretending to be a dude, then saving China. Realistic? Maybe not, but I always found her the most admirable. Along with her, I like Meg from Hercules, and Jasmine from Aladdin for their down-to-earth, non-classical princess qualities.

This is one of my favorite songs from these movies. It's so anti-cliche. Maybe I'm just a fan of breaking the tradition. The dude's head-over-heels for the girl, and she is denying him.

Women at it, being bad@$$ always wins my heart. Toughing it out, and being a man instead of waiting around to be rescued.

A playful number that was also a favorite of mine. Two friends, just being silly and singing about growing up and being the boss of everything. Silly, but it also encourages you to stay hopeful and look to the future.

How to navigate your crowded high school hallway.

Here at my high school, we have roughly 2000 humans in the building. You could say it's overpopulated, but I like to think of it as cozy. The real challenge is getting to class in the middle of passing time.

Freshman year, it's overwhelming. You are shorter than nearly everyone, and you are the one who will most likely be shoved to the side. Getting smacked in the face by someone's backpack is a common occurrence. Unfortunately, seniority figures into this situation a lot. Some seniors think it's their duty to push around lower-classmen. Well it's not. But as freshmen, you also have to tough it out. Also, whatever you do, DON'T tell an upper-classmen to shut up. It does not end well. *Shudders*

Sophomore year, it's significantly better. You are no longer at the bottom of the food chain, and you know that 25% of the population is beneath you. It's a good feeling. But you are still considered an under-classmen. You have to yield to the large intimidating crowd of seniors that barricade in front of the senior bench. They will most likely not move for you out of pure kindness.

Junior year, it's even better. Now you are officially an upper-classmen, even if you still feel like a freshman. The only people above you are the seniors, and for the most part, you could blend in as one if you needed to. But you also have to realize you are NOT on top of the foodchain, no matter how many connections you have. Step down from your high horse, oh arrogant one.

Senior year, I'm sure it's amazing. Being a junior, I cannot say for sure. However, I can speculate that you are more confident pushing aside under-classmen who are under the impression that barricading a narrow hallway is okay.

Now for actual navigation tips.

1) When you're trying to make it across the foyer, the best way to go is with the flow. Cheesy, but much easier than fighting the oncoming crowd. Sometimes you have to go slightly past your hallway, then turn around in order to not be trampled. Fighting the crowd is the worst way to go, especially for under-classmen. Upper-classmen will attempt, merely because they know they can.

2) Now, there's not always clear flows of where the crowds are going. In these cases, it'd be wise to spot someone who looks like they're going the same way you are. It's more helpful if they are larger or more intimidating than you. Grab their backpack without their noticing, and just follow them through the crowd. This has been dubbed as tagging.

3) Some people do believe it's okay to barricade the hall. No, it's not okay. Yes, I realize you may not have seen your best friends since 2 class periods ago, but that doesn't give you the right to rush over for a 15 person group hug. Have some respect for those actually making an effort to not be marked tardy. In these cases, you are justified to tell them to move, or shove a little. You are more likely to get away with this as an upper-classmen, so be careful if you aren't.

Overall, everyone should be respectful of everyone. However, seniority exists, and it will play out, even if you don't like it. The hallways can be dangerous for everyone, just remember we are all one big school, and we are all in this together. For the record, I did not intend to just quote High School Musical.

Sculptures that speak.

From studying art history, I am learning more and more about the development of styles and influences on art. One of my favorite eras so far is the Greek times.

Greek sculpture is famous for its breakthroughs in developing realistic figural sculptures. In the beginning, figures were depicted in unnaturally frontal, and formal stances, such as this:

One foot is placed slightly in front of the other, yet the hips are still aligned. Proportions of the head are ever-so-slightly off. The shoulders are unnaturally broad compared to the slim hips.

But these sculptural characteristics soon began to change. What you see in the following picture is a change in stance, which shows incredible change in the realistic aspect of the sculpture.

What you see here, is a shift in weight to one leg, which is a much more realistic stance for human figures. In turn, the hips are at an angle, and one shoulder is slightly lowered. Sculptures started to make this more dramatic turn to realism in Greek art.

As the era progressed, Greek gods and goddesses were depicted in more dramatic positions. No longer restricted to the frontality, the gods were put in different positions, sometimes doing an activity. Nike, the goddess of victory, is shown here. Her wings are thrown back, and she poses on a sort of pedestal, proclaiming victory amongst battle.

Personally, this sculpture makes me feel epic. I look at this picture, and I feel like I could climb Mount Everest.

In late Greek times, there came about what is referred to the Hellenistic era. In this era, the subjects of sculpture began to show intense emotion, pain, and anguish. They were detailed, exaggerated, and sometimes frightening to look at.

This sculpture is of an elderly lady in a market. Details of the sculpture suggest that she is living in poverty. The emotion is anger, but you can't tell what is making her mad.

This sculpture shows a scene, rather than just a single figure. It depicts a father and his sons being attacked by serpents. The sculptor is skilled in showing details in the body, realism in the face, and the expression of anguish and pain.

The sculptures of Greece are truly remarkable, with how they progress. The gradual move to realism is wowing. The later sculptures begin to express emotion, which is truly a huge step in the history of art.

Drawing portraits.

Lately I've been working on drawing people. What I find to be the most difficult part is the details of the face, and their orientation. On Youtube, there are time lapse videos of drawings/paintings of portraits taken from photographs. here is a video of someone painting Johnney Depp, using the dry brush technique.

This is an incredible example, and obviously took much more time to complete. The artist said their works from photographs usually take 4-5 hours.
The dry brush technique is wiping paint off the brush until it is nearly dry, then applying to the paper, giving it an airbrushed look. This allows for much more detail in portraits and other subjects.
When doing the parts of the face, I personally like doing the eyes the best. I've had much more practice with them over the years, and I think of other facial features, my eyes turn out the best. I typically draw, but I also plan on experimenting with painting portraits.

Here is another time-lapse video, but of an eye exclusively. I really like this video, because the artist tells you what he's doing, and gives you pointers along the way. The piece was done in water color and colored pencil.

There is incredible, yet subtle detail. What the artist says is true: the more you put into fine-tuning, the better it will look.
The mouth is always the one that throws me off. If you at all screwed up the placement of the eyes or nose of the face, then the mouth will be even more skewed. The face is made of near-perfect proportions, that is applied to everyone.

A common mistake in drawing is putting the eyes too high up on the face. What many people don't know, is that the eyes are in the exact middle of the head. From the top of the head to the eyebrows, from the eyebrows to the bottom of the nose, then from the nose to the chin are each one-third of the head.
As for the lips, I've been told different things. I've heard it's halfway between the nose and the chin, and I've heard it's one-third of the way to the chin. However, I have had it confirmed that it is indeed one-third. I still have trouble placing it. Too big, too small, to wide, etc. I'm always erasing the mouth.
Once you have the general features of the face, I move into the shading of the skin. Above your eyes, below your mouth, along your jawline and just below the cheekbone is where I see most of the darker spots. It's hardly distinctive when you look at someone casually, but when you search for it, you can typically pinpoint the lights and darks. They are generally very subtle, depending on the lighting, but are exaggerated on paper.













In this drawn-from-photograph portrait of Hugh Laurie as House, the artist exaggerated the darkness in his hair, and above his eyes, while intentionally leaving the lights lighter, such as in the whites of his eyes, along the inner cheekbone, and his forehead. The lights and darks of a piece are called values, and the artist emphasizes them to make the whole piece pop. It's subtle, but highly effective.

I've done this in a number of my pieces, to also try and get the whole piece to stand out. It does a lot, as long as you exaggerate within reason. More often than not, however, I find myself looking back and wishing I had exaggerated more.