Santa's Theatre is Now Open!

Lesson planning is difficult when you are trying to think of ways to both educate and entertain a large group of fussy first graders. They're still trying to grasp basic concepts, learning how to communicate, and decipher words on paper. They even struggle to read their own writing! Which makes writing assignments extremely difficult and time consuming. A mixture of poor teaching skills by their day-school teacher and no pressure at home to practice reading and writing makes for some bad news for these little guys. They are so behind in their reading and writing skills that I have to do something to get them excited about writing and story telling. I mean, they ALWAYS want to tell me stories...So why not give them their very own theatre!

For the theatre lesson, I taught the kids about story elements (character, setting, problem, solution). They are then to create their own Story map in prep for their very own story telling assignment that will end in them telling their story via puppet show. After creating their story map, the students must write 4 sentence about what happens in their story. The kids, so far, have done alright. They still struggle with a lot of spelling, grammar, and coherency...buuuut I'm getting them to write and think about how their story progresses. So, that makes me happy. 

For this task I used a large cardboard box, made a few cut outs and added some color. Thus became Santa's Theatre. I'm excited to see their reactions to their theatre. I'm hoping the kids will be more excited about writing!

...From what I hear, there will be some ninja elves. hehe

updates: The kids LOOOOOOVED their little theatre! :)

Research & ReConfigure

This is a model of the Landscape Architecture building for my LDA model making class. I failed to take any pictures of the front and sides before I took it apart. I had a lot of fun constructing the model and doing the research. Unfortunately, the fun ended when presentation time came and the teacher began to critique. She was one hard ball. I guess you have to be when you're in a male dominated career that is HIGHLY competitive in itself.

Some cool notes about this project:

-Researching the different bike racks was mind-blowing. The one I used here was the coolest and most efficient for the small space in between the building's two longer sides. The building in the middle is some kind of test lab..for what? I do not know. I think plants maybe. The Geology department and I think another department shares the building. Next store is the Plants Sciences building..I don't know. Bad department situating planning?

-I found some really interesting porch swings and waterfall-like porch covers. One inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright himself. Seriously...ARCHITECTURE IS WAAAAY COOL! Maybe I should have posted this in my other blog..merps. Ohswells! :)

-I spent a lot of time designing what I thought were pretty awesome planters. F.Y.I. professor didn't like my ideas or project all that much. gah! Talk about heart breaking. I guess my awesome research didn't quite show that well through my model. Though she kept telling us "abstract! abstract!" In my head that translates as "glarbitty gloobin, glarbitty gloobin"...in otherwords, I dun know whatcha talkin bout sista!
Momentary digression...
So like I said, spent lots of time coming up with cool ideas for the planter and being proud of what I had thought up. Good times, good times. :)

Yeah, so I don't have much to comment on this project. I promise I'll update with something more interesting on my next post. I'm slowly recovering my artistic tendencies. I've spent too long away from my pencil and pad :(

Midnight Encounters

6"x4" foam board cut out w/trace paper backing, prismacolor marker

Hrm...haven't posted anything for a while...Suppose my nearly non-existent audience deserves a few new posts for a new year.

I made this for my mom's birthday. My mom is a difficult lady to find a gift for..not to mention having to send whatever I got her via mail would probably be pricey. Being hundreds of miles North and with little to no budget (yeah, college!) I opted for a more affordable gift idea.

Now, who doesn't love homemade gifts, made with love, sweat, and tears...Hey, don't judge. Gift making can get emotional when you're running out of time, ideas, and patience..lol. Luckily, I took my mom's interest in wolves and put it into a light weight card.

Of course, this was going to take a little bit of research. First, I needed an image of a wolf in some kind of pose to draw from. I found an image of a wolf howling and used it as help to create my scene. Did the same with the landscape. I found a few images of a desert and meshed ideas. The research and drawing was the easy part. Carving the image out was more difficult, because I wanted that crisp cut. Yes, I used an exacto knife. However, This foam board was giving me some difficulty. Especially when it came to cutting out the cactus. Hrm...I suppose the fuzzy edges add character :).

Cut and pasted the trace paper onto the back, added some color and blending AND vuola, Magnifico! Packed it, sent it (with a b-day card), stamped it and off it went.

She called me a few days later to tell me she got it and loved it. Of course, she may have just said that she loved it because she's my mom and loves me ;p.

Axio-View

Ok, this is a piece from my Landscape Architecture class. Was the longest and most tedious assignment for that course. I enjoyed playing with the axionometric view though. This is when drawing becomes exciting! Imagine making a model for this. I miss the Shield's Library courtyard. I spent many hours reading, studying, observing, thinking there. It was most beautiful during fall and spring. The best views are on the third floor-sitting in the window ledges looking down at the courtyard. That library is has the best niches...especially to sleep ;)

I miss you Davis and all the wonderful memories you provided me <3

Sketch n Etch

Another page of my portfolio. These are some sketches I included that were ...decent enough to present. I'm really proud of my trees and the coloring! The watercolor painting of Lake Berryessa is pretty awesome for being done in 15 min. :)

Top: watercolor on paint paper

Bottom (left): pencil

Bottom (right): prismacolor marker