I don't have work today, which is actually kind of nice. I can use the time to work on more job applications (mailed out another one yesterday) and it also gives me time to work on art. Yesterday and this past weekend I started experimenting with monoprinting, and I think I want to work on that today. I have a lot of in progress digital pieces that I want to keep working on, too. There was a lot of art I started before grad school or during breaks from school that I want to work on in Photoshop (like this, this, and this). There is also a lot of art that I want to add to my portfolio and my deviantArt gallery, so I have plenty to work on when I'm not working at the store.

Plus, I finally bought season 1 of Pushing Daisies, so I have lots to keep me entertained when I'm working on the computer. On a side note, this dress totally looks like something from the Pushing Daisies costuming department and I am so tempted to get it. I'm not actually going to buy it right now, but I'm definitely going to think about it. Ha, nevermind, it looks like it sold out shortly after I posted this entry this morning. That takes care of that. ;)

I've also started re-reading the Harry Potter series just for fun. I haven't gotten a chance to read a book just for pure enjoyment since last August, before grad school started. I started book 4 last night, and it's been fun re-visiting it all.

Tags: art, books, fashion, harry potter, job search, pushing daisies, work
Current Mood: hopeful
Current Music: Fitz and the Dizzyspells - Andrew Bird

I bought a new dress this week because I wanted a fun new summer dress. I have a heck of a time finding summer dresses that I like (I haaaate empire waist dresses on me), so it was kind of a relief to find this one.



It looks really cute, and it's so comfortable. I didn't get the belt they show it with in the photo because I already have a bunch of cool belts and scarves that I can use with it.

I joined twitter. I had been going back and forth on deciding if twitter is annoying or not, so I finally decided I would take it for a test spin and see if I like it. So far I'm finding it amusing. I only post from my computer, not my phone, and I'm determined not to spam my account with tons of entries. If I have a lot to say, then that's what LJ is for.

Check my sketch blog for some new art (watercolor and acrylic paintings from my sketchbooks). And remember, you can always friend jackieoceanart to stay updated on that stuff.

This morning I got the album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix and I am totally hooked. It's basically all I've been listening to today. I highly recommend checking it out.

Let's see, what else...oh yeah! I changed the colors and stuff on my LJ layout to make it all summery. I figure if I can't be by the ocean this summer then at least my LJ can have ocean colors. I tried doing a CSS layout but couldn't get it to cooperate, so I went back to my old standby, Component.

Lastly, the Coldplay concert last week was really good! You can see photos here.

Tags: art, concert, fashion, lj, music, shopping, twitter
Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: Love Like A Sunset - Phoenix

I was reading bolivarblues's list of concerts that she's been to and realized I was overdue on updating my own list that I keep. And so!

• Ben Folds and Guster with opening guest Hotel Lights - Syracuse University, Syracuse NY - April 26, 2009
  
• Iron and Wine with opening guest Blizten Trapper - Asbury Hall, Buffalo NY - November 14, 2008
  
• Sara Bareilles - Syracuse University, Syracuse NY - March 29, 2008
  
• U2 - Vertigo Tour 2005 with opening guest Institute - HSBC Arena, Buffalo NY - December 7, 2005
  
• Three Dog Night - Epcot, Disney World, Orlando FL - November 11, 2005
  
• Rockin' At the Homestead - Kate Taylor & Ben Taylor, with special guests Carly Simon, Hugh Taylor, Isaac Taylor, and Jim Belushi - Vanderhoop Homestead, Aquinnah MA - July 27, 2005
  
• U2 - Vertigo Tour 2005 with opening guest Kings of Leon - Fleet Center, Boston MA - May 26, 2005
  
• Davy Jones - Epcot, Disney World, Orlando FL - April 18, 2005
  
• Liz Phair with opening guest Merit - Syracuse University, Syracuse NY - February 14, 2004
  
• Pete Yorn with opening guests Minibar and Jesse Malfin - Syracuse University, Syracuse NY - October 28, 2003
  
• Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone - Epcot, Disney World, Orlando FL - May 23, 2003
  
• Syracuse Symphony Orchestra - Syracuse University, Syracuse NY - February 6, 2003
  
• Earl's Garage, Hijack Jupiter, and Gym Class Heroes - Planet 505, Syracuse NY - November 1, 2002
  
• Granian - "Living Room Concert" at Flint Hall - Syracuse University, Syracuse NY - December 4, 2001
  
• U2 - Elevation Tour 2001 with opening guest P.J. Harvey - HSBC Arena, Buffalo NY - May 31, 2001
  
• Sting, with opening guest Jill Scott - Brand New Day Tour 2001 - Blue Cross Arena, Rochester NY - May 20, 2001
  
• Billy Joel and Elton John - Face to Face Tour 2001 - Syracuse University, Syracuse NY - May 5, 2001
  
• Fuel - Syracuse University, Syracuse NY - April 28, 2001
  
• Tim Reynolds - Syracuse University, Syracuse NY - October 25, 2000
  
• Guster with Special Guest Ben Lee - Syracuse University, Syracuse NY - September 4, 2000
  
• James Taylor and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Open Rehearsal - Eastman Theatre, Rochester NY - September 24, 1999
  

Next Monday I'm going to see Coldplay, and Pete Yorn is opening for them, so that should be a lot of fun. I've never seen Coldplay before, and I haven't seen Pete Yorn since 2003. There's also the possibility of seeing Crosby, Stills, and Nash next month, but that's a big maybe because it might be too late to get tickets at this point.

Speaking of, you can hear Crosby, Stills, and Nash's Demos album right now on NPR's website. I've never been actively into them, but that album just hit the spot yesterday. I did four plus hours of online workshops for state certification stuff yesterday and that album made it much more tolerable.

Tags: concert, music
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Follow Through - Hotel Lights

Who just finished their last grad school assignment?

I THINK THAT WOULD BE ME!!

YESSSS!!!



Just a class meeting in an hour, the gallery show opening tonight, a class meeting tomorrow, and then graduation on Saturday. WIN!!!

Tags: school
Current Mood: ecstatic
Current Music: Goodnight Goodnight - Hot Hot Heat

21 days until graduation! I'm so looking forward to that day.

Tags: school
Current Mood: tired

( If you haven't seen last night's episode, this could possibly be considered spoiler-ish... )

Cross posted to lost_tv

Tags: lost
Current Mood: curious
Current Music: Jetstream - Doves

I always loved that Stewart Copeland acts like he's playing drums on the space shuttle in this video.

Which reminds me, shortly after I had posted The Police illustration that I did as a classroom example, I got an e-mail from a very nice woman who wanted to buy it. I wound up re-doing a new version of it for her as a private commission, which was awesome.

As such, if I made prints of my original version available, would anyone be interested in buying them?

Tags: art, music, prints, the police, video
Current Mood: bouncy

I should have been doing homework, but I did this instead. It's been waaaaay too long since I had time to just play with art that wasn't related to school. I'd gotten an idea in my head after watching the the recent Lost episode "Dead Is Dead" and had scribbled out some thumbnail sketches in my notebook during class in the evening. This week off from school seemed like the perfect opportunity to do some art for fun, and I had some digital painting techniques I wanted to mess around with, so Ben got to be my test subject.

This originally started out as a dark brown and white colored pencil drawing on gray Canson paper and gradually morphed into this as I started painting it in Photoshop. The textures used in this digital painting are a combination of ones I made on my own (by painting and scanning ink washes on watercolor paper) and textures from CG Textures. The final picture measures 9" x 12".

Cross posted to my sketch blog / jackieoceanart.

EDIT: Holy crap, I got a Daily Deviation on deviantArt for this! WHOO!

Tags: art, lost
Current Mood: working
Current Music: Freedom Hangs Like Heaven - Iron and Wine

In honor of Earth Day, deviantART will donate 10% of ALL prints sales from April 22nd - 25th, 2009 to The Nature Conservancy. You can support independent artists while helping to support the planet! If you've been thinking about purchasing anything from my print shop, now would be a great time to take advantage of this special.

Cross posted to my sketch blog / jackieoceanart.

Tags: art, prints
Current Mood: working
Current Music: Sunset Soon Forgotten - Iron and Wine

I'm doing some spring cleaning, and I just weeded some DVDs out of my collection that I don't want anymore. I thought I'd try offering them for sale on here in case anyone is interested.

( DVDs behind the cut! )

I'm selling each DVD for $5. If you want to buy more than one, then they will be $4 each. Shipping is $2 no matter how many DVDs you buy. I will only accept payment through PayPal, and I will only ship within the USA. If you're interested in any of them, just say so in the comments and we'll work out the payment and shipping. This is going to be a first come, first serve basis.

Tags: movies, shopping, tv
Current Music: Cello Song - The Books Feat. Jose Gonzalez

If you haven't seen this yet, watch it now. Hilarious!

Tags: humor, lost, video
Current Mood: silly
Current Music: Old White Lincoln - The Gaslight Anthem

I wrote up a big "to do" list for break and I'm slowly working on getting through it. I'm trying to mix up doing school stuff with doing things that I've been wanting to get done since the fall, like organizing books and photos and everything else that keeps piling up around here.

As such, here are some photos from when I went apple and pumpkin picking way back in October.


More photos this-a-way!

Also, I've been doing a lot of music listening over the past couple of months and I officially give two thumbs up to:
-Death Cab for Cutie - Open Door EP
-Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
-Andrew Bird - Noble Beast
-Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line
-M. Ward - Hold Time
-Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
-Dark Was the Night - two disc various artists compilation
-The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
-Elvis Perkins - Elvis Perkins in Dearland

I need to get back into the habit of sharing mp3s on here.

Tags: autumn, music, photos
Current Mood: good
Current Music: Little Bribes - Death Cab for Cutie

I'm so glad that it is finally time for a break from school. During the next week I plan to:
-get lots of homework done
-sleep
-clean my room
-sleep
-finally watch the last half of the season of Battlestar Galactica, including the finale
-maybe get caught up on Supernatural, too (soooo far behind)
-work on art
-get my lesson plans for the upcoming weeks fully organized
-clean out my closet and get rid of clothes I don't want/need anymore

I haven't had a break since Christmas, so I've been looking forward to this week for a really long time. Also, bonus! Guster and Ben Folds concert on April 26th!

I can't believe that graduation is basically in a month. 4 weeks of student teaching left, the show at the college festival, the end of the year gallery show, the end of the year review, graduation, plus any job interviews I can wrangle in the meantime. The next few weeks are going to be craaaazy.

Tags: school
Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: Kids - MGMT

Here's another musician themed illustration, using pen and watercolor on Bristol Board. The final illustration measures 9" x 12".

From left to right that's Sting, Stewart Copeland, and Andy Summers. Yeah, I know that it kind of looks like Stewart is the lead singer in this picture, but I really liked the photo I found to use as reference. Plus, he's awesome anyhow, so front and center he stayed.



Cross posted from my sketch blog / jackieoceanart.

Tags: art, music, school, the police
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Magnificent - U2

I made this illustration of the musical duo She & Him for a high school lesson plan that I designed based around the work of illustrator Joe Ciardiello. This is meant to be an example to show to the class, so it's exhibiting certain requirements the students have to meet, like incorporating lyrics into their drawing. It was a fun illustration to make, but I think I'd actually like to try re-doing it at some point and try out a few different things with it, maybe with some digital painting.




Cross posted from my sketch blog / jackieoceanart.

Tags: art, music, school
Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music: Sky - Joshua Radin feat. Meiko