4/21/18

So...... 

 I have some news...

 I get to go to my first ever concert this summer and I’m so freaking excited!! 

I mean... who wouldn't be ecstatic to see
THIS MAN live and on stage??? 

 mm..mmm.mmmmmmmm.... *drools* 

 My cousin and I wanted to see Panic! in Cleveland at the Grog Shop but that was hopeless... so when we heard about the tour, we started saving money from paychecks for the pre-sale.. and we did it! WE GOT TICKETS!! 

 I'm 32 years old and have never been to a concert... not once.. I am super stoked! 

 Again.... wouldn't you be?? 

 You can't even lie.. you know you'd be just as excited as we are! LOL

I can't even believe it most times! lol  

I’m literally so excited that I tell every person I see all about it lol  for serious   I even have a countdown LOL! 

7-3-15

Week 2: Assignment 3 

Assignment 3: Two-Point Perspective Imaginary Street Scene

This assignment will familiarize you with creating an outdoor scene in two-point perspective with rectangular and triangular prisms. You will also learn how to use horizontal and vertical convergence to create depth in your scene.

By Friday, July 3, 2015, complete the drawing project and post it to this Discussion Area.

Using your pencils, paper, ruler, and your imagination, draw an outdoor street scene in two-point perspective that contains the following elements:

• A building or house with a pitched roof
• A fence, telephone poles, a row of trees, or some other vertical row of objects that uses accurate vertical convergence.
• A road, sidewalk, or some other horizontal element that uses accurate horizontal convergence.

Tips for the drawing process:

1. Create an area measuring about 9x12 inches on your 18x24-inch pad of paper so you have a margin surrounding the drawing area. This will allow you to place your vanishing points outside the edges of the drawing in the margins to create a good composition that effectively uses space.
2. Consider the placement of elements within the drawing to create a well-balanced composition, utilizing foreground, mid-ground, and background.
3. Be sure to correctly overlap the elements in the composition, keeping in mind the placement of their bases/footprints on the ground plane.
4. Even though this drawing needs to be a scene from your imagination, remember that you can use photographs as a reference to add details such as architectural elements or complex objects to your imagined scene.
5. Leave your guidelines lightly sketched in, and then switch to a softer (4B, 6B) pencil to darken the finished shapes to help them stand out against the guidelines. Do not press down hard with your pencil.

My Work:

2-7-15

History and Analysis of Design

Week 3: Assignment 2 Discussion

Assignment 2: Studio Assignment

Deadline and Deliverable

By Friday, February 6, 2015, create a poster promoting a social event, such as a theatrical, political, advertising, or cultural event, based on one of the historical periods covered in the lectures. Develop thumbnails and roughs along with a written rationale for the design. Include the design and supporting materials used to create the design in a PDF and post the PDF to the Discussion Area.

Steps to Success

1. Read the lectures and choose a historical period on which you will base the poster. Research the historical period online and find images and typography that match the style you will use. Cite the sources of your research using MLA style.
2. Decide on the social event you will promote and write a rationale for using the historical style. Validate your rationale by using direct quotes from the lectures, textbook readings, or other valid sources. Cite the sources of your research using MLA style.
3. Complete at least six thumbnail sketches and two rough designs as preliminary work.
4. Complete the final design.
5. Combine the inspirational images and type, thumbnails, roughs, and final design into a single document. Create a PDF and save it as W3_A2_lastname_firstinitial.pdf.
6. Write the rationale and post it to the Discussion Area. Attach the PDF to theDiscussion Area.

My Work:

    Sketches

Final Design

When I first started this out, I had read the lectures over and over and decided that I wanted to stick with the Industrial Revolution theme as in the lectures this week. I didn’t know very much about the Industrial Revolution other than what was in the lectures, so I went online to start searching. I found that there weren’t very many good reasons for having a poster or billboard like I wanted to find, so I decided to go with an advertisement for a hair growth serum. The reason I decided to go with an advertisement is that “While in earlier times, it would be unusual for an individual to travel much beyond the county or state of her birth, with the appearance of new forms of transportation technologies -- railroads, steam ships, automobiles, and airplanes -- whole new vistas of travel, cultural exchange, and commerce appeared.” (The Industrial Revolution) Therefore making it easier to get new products being sold my traveling salesmen. When researching things that traveling salesmen sold, there were a lot of random inventions, potions, and serums. I decided that a hair growth serum would be the most fun to work with.

I like to play video games in what little free time I do have, and one of my favorite games to play on my fiancé’s Xbox360 is Fable III. This game is based in a British town and in the game it is during the heart of the Industrial Revolution. I realized this after reading the lectures for this week’s lesson. So, I paid closer attention to the posters on the game and saw that there were quite a few and for many different reasons.

I found a few advertising posters from the Industrial Revolution while looking for inspiration on Google Scholar and decided to make my poster look something like the ones I found online. I used an advertisement from the Industrialization, Urbanization, and Immigration in the Gilded Age article for cocaine toothache drops as my guide for style and authenticity.

I used a parchment type texture for the background because with this being the age of industrialization, the paper would have been rough textured and not uniform in color for the most part. I went to dafont.com and was looking for a wood type font for the poster and ended up finding Woodcut and was quite pleased with the way it stood out and was very legible on the poster. I also used Baskerville Old Face that was a stock font already in my computer for the body of the poster. I put a picture of a man that is clean shaven on the left above a “before” ribbon, and on the right, an “after” picture of the same man but with a beard grown that I found in an old newspaper clipart image. The name of my salesman is a name from the video game I mentioned earlier because I couldn’t think of anything else at the time of designing. Overall, I am happy with the outcome and I believe it is generally true to the time period.



Works Cited:
"Industrialization, Urbanization, and Immigration in the Gilded Age."Hist111/industrialization. Web. 15 Dec. 2014.

Olson, James. Revolution in America. Ed. Robert Shadle. Vol. 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood Group, 2002. 313. Print.

Video Game Screenshot. Fable III. 2010. Lionhead Studios.

"The Industrial Revolution." 1. NCSU.com. North Carolina State University. Web.

"Woodcut." Dafont.com. 29 June 2012. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.

2-2-15

OMG, he's asleep!! 



Bryan hasn't slept in over 3 days for longer than an hour without waking up with the worst tooth pain he says he's ever experienced. He's tried amoxicillan, which worked but only for a few hours at a time, and only if he used the kids pink kind, not the grown up pill form. He tried clove oil and it didn't touch it, peppermint oil, that worked for one night, but only when it was one tooth. Now it's three... We have tried everything I have for pain, motrin, acetaminophen, naproxen(his script), and nothing was helping. Orajel made it worse, his coworker told him to try menthol cough drops, and they didn't do much he said... and then... after looking online and researching and more looking and nearly 4 days.... I found something that smells like spiced jellybeans from my grandma's house. The stuff is called Eugenol... and apparently it tastes like shit (Says Bryan) and the application hurt him some.... but after 5 minutes his pain went from 13(on a scale of 1-10) to 6, and then after 5 more minutes, the pain had died down to where he said it was just a 2(scale of 1-10) and he laid down and fell asleep!! ^_^ 

I'm awake and doing homework so I can't go to bed, but I feel so much better now that I know that my research has paid off and he's feeling better enough to sleep.... he'd been up for 40 hours straight and needed sleep badly. Luckily hes got today and tomorrow off too, and we are supposed to be going to David's Bridal to look at wedding dresses today sometime ^_^ . So hopefully the eugenol helps him through all of that and more! Making him an appointment with a sliding scale dentist tomorrow and hopefully having those teeth removed soon. I can't bear to see him in so much pain. I'm just glad I was able to help. Even if it doesn't help for an extended period of time, a little at a time is better than nothing but waking up hearing him puking his guts our from the pain he's in and having to drink cold water every 30 seconds to try keeping it numb-ish. 

1-28-15

Observational Drawing

Week 2: Assignment 1 Practice Exam

Assignment 1: Exam

Grading Summary

These are the automatically computed results of your exam. Grades for essay questions, and comments from your instructor, are in the "Details" section below. Date and Time Started: 1/28/2015 12:57:12 AM Time Spent: 01 min , 25 secs Points Received: 30 / 30  (100%) Question Type: # Of Questions: # Correct: True/False     5         5     Multiple Choice     5         5

Grade Details - All Questions

Question 1. Question : The structure of an object can be thought of as the framework that supports the surface planes of the form. Student Answer:  True  (Virtually everything in life can be visually interpreted as its closest basic geometric shape or a combination of basic shapes that define the structure of an object. These shapes are used as “building blocks,” and they allow us to simplify subject matter for the purpose of establishing perspective and spatial relationships in the overall composition. This structure can be thought of as the framework that supports the surface planes of the form.)  False Points Received: 3 of 3 Comments: Question 2. Question : Foreshortening is the illusion of an object or subject coming toward the picture plane or the viewer. Student Answer:  True  (Foreshortening is the illusion of an object or subject coming toward the picture plane or the viewer. For instance, a drawing of a person pointing toward the artist would result in a foreshortened point of view of their hand and arm.)  False Points Received: 3 of 3 Comments: Question 3. Question : What is the first step in the 4-step drawing process? Student Answer:  Geometric shapes and platonic form  The “stick still life” or gesture (Step 1 in the 4-Step Drawing Process is: The “Stick Still Life” or Gesture, shown here. The “stick still life,” is a gestural sketch used to spontaneously capture and describe the basic structure and balance of your drawing. This is approached by quickly mapping out the relative position, direction, and proportion of your subject matter using “stick” lines that define the center axis of each object.)  Big lights and big darks  Transitional values and detail Points Received: 3 of 3 Comments: Question 4. Question : What is Proportion? Student Answer:  The relative scale and relationships of the parts of a single object  The comparison in size of multiple objects to one other  a only  Both a) and b) (Proportion refers to the relative scale and relationships of the parts of a single object or the comparison in size of multiple objects.) Points Received: 3 of 3 Comments: Question 5. Question : Object Relationship is also referred to as spatial relationships. Student Answer:  True  False Points Received: 3 of 3 Comments: Question 6. Question : In steps 1–3 of the 4-step drawing process, your goal is to sketch in all parts of the drawing as quickly as possible using a very tight and controlled approach. Student Answer:  True  False  (In steps 1-3 of the 4-step drawing process, you goal is to sketch in all parts of the drawing as quickly as possible, but the approach is to make sure to sketch lightly with very loose and gestural strokes. Using a very tight and controlled approach is counter-productive to the process.) Points Received: 3 of 3 Comments: Question 7. Question : Sighting does not use object or spatial relationships to define the scale and/or placement of objects within a composition. Student Answer:  True  False  (Sighting is a method of determining visual measurements and object relationships by starting out with a basic unit of measurement and comparing it to other areas of a scene to define scale and placement. Sighting helps to record object relationships, such as where the top line of one object falls in relation to an object behind it. Object relationships are also referred to as the spatial relationships within a composition.) Points Received: 3 of 3 Comments: Question 8. Question : What is the Horizon Line? Student Answer:  The eye level of the artist (The horizon line refers to the eye level of the artist. This line establishes the perspective of the rest of the piece, so it is important that the artist maintains a consistent eye level or view of the subject they are drawing throughout the drawing process.)  The illusion of an object coming toward the viewer  The relative scale of a single object  An imaginary line that runs down the center or middle of an object Points Received: 3 of 3 Comments: Question 9. Question : What does the key objective for breaking objects down into basic geometric shapes require? Student Answer:  Grounding your objects convincingly to the surface plane  Planning the necessary volume or space that each object needs to exist in space  Answer a)  Both answers a) and b) (The key objective for breaking objects down into basic geometric shapes is to ground your objects convincingly to the surface plane and to plan the necessary volume or space that each object needs to exist in space.) Points Received: 3 of 3 Comments: Question 10. Question : What is the second step in the 4-step drawing process? Student Answer:  Big lights and big darks  The “stick still life” or gesture  Geometric shapes and platonic form (Step 2 in the 4-Step Drawing Process is: Geometric Shapes and Platonic Form, shown here. At this stage, begin to think about your stick still life as simple. Three-dimensional forms that have depth and are defined in illusory space. This should be approached as a method of searching out the basic shapes and forms of your scene. The background and the surface plane that your arrangement is sitting on should be included to avoid the impression that your objects are floating in space. Consider each element of your scene, and lightly sketch in its closest geometric shape, or break it down into more than one geometric shape.)  Transitional values and detail Points Received: 3 of 3

1-25-15

Alright, new year, new apartment, new life, new start.... I'm a student at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh and I've decided that I'm going to start showing off my work. This is MY Journal and as the title states, my Escape.. so I'm going to do whatever I want... I'm going to be sharing assignments as I complete them. Not for any specific reason... just because I feel like it.. But first, the course descriptions::


The classes I'm taking right now are: 

and 

:-) Assignments will follow as the ones I've already completed, and then the rest will be in succession. 

10-21-14

Okay so I was reading a cute little article and at the end was a "Top Ten Ways To Know You've Found The One". So naturally I decided to have a peek... And while reading them HE popped into my head for every one. He does each and every one of these...! I think he's the real deal. I have found my twin flame. And I can't wait to be free from this chained prison where I feel I have to hide who I am from everyone but him. In case you're wondering... These are the ten signs I read. ^_^ 

1. Not everyone is sexually compatible, so when you find someone who shares your sexual interests, it's something to keep in mind. He's right there with you. He shares your idea of romance and makes sure it happens for you both, regardless of how silly it may sound to someone else.

2. One thing you've probably already realized is that you don't have to fake anything around him. It doesn't matter if you're at a good place in life or at your lowest point. The fact is, he knows who you truly are and doesn't expect you to be anything else. You could have quite a few bad traits you're still trying to improve, but he'll still think the sun shines out of your... well, you get it.

3. A lot of couples who've had a long, happy marriage will tell you; what is their partner's happiness is their happiness. True love doesn't get jealous for the other succeeding or deem it as insignificant. If you truly love each other, you are genuinely happy about the things that make your partner happy and he's genuinely happy about the things that please you too.

4. You could have had the best day in the world, but it just doesn't feel complete if you haven't shared some of it with him. You could have been thought the absolute worst day you've had in recent memory, and even with a million things running through your head, all you want is him.

5. Have you ever seen those couples where one person is way better looking than the other and yet, they're both just as into each other? It doesn't matter who finds either of you attractive, what matters is that you're so into each other. You mutually find each other physically, mentally and spiritually attractive!

6. Of course you're already sharing life with him, but when he's "the one" you will want to share everything with him. You want to have experiences with him, you want to plan your future with him, when you picture your life five years down the road, it's him by your side.

7. Love is not selfish. A truly loving relationship is not one-sided for either party and neither of you are simply focused on getting your own way. Instead of fighting all the time about the dumbest things, you learn to work together to make both parties happy.

8. You want a guy who listens to you, but you want him to also actually HEAR what you're saying. This is the guy who has truly taken note of the things you're saying and learned all about what you like, dislike and feel about any given situation.

9. It is so important that you're with a guy who loves you for who you are. True love is without condition, so even if you feel like you're too talkative, not talented enough or aren't the exact dress size you want to be, he doesn't care and he loves you for you.

10. Not only does he love you for you, he tells his loved ones about you. You are the person he is proud to be in a relationship with and he wants to make sure all of the other important people in his life know about it.

9-22-14

She was released on a Personal Recognizance Bond! The judge says that since she has no previous criminal history, that she is going to let her out and she has a Public Defender... She's getting out! They said it can take up to 4 hours, so Bryan and I are going to go home and feed the kids, get them all ready and stuff for bed and then wait for her call.... ^_^


Birdie Lou'

5-12-12

Dylan is going to be 7 tomorrow... 

It's also Mother's Day.... but my mom won't let me see him :( 

It's just not fair....

But I do have good news....

 I have a job!!! 

I start Monday (day after tomorrow)

I have no way TO... or FROM work... and I also need to move Eryn into a different Daycare... 

I have 36 hours approximately, to get all this figured out.

Wish me luck. I'm in this alone... or at least it feels like I am... But I'm hoping that something works out.. soon. 

I need a break. 

Love
Always

Birdie Lou'

4-25-12

Rob and I went on a date!! 
We went to Mr Hero's.... not big or fancy.... 

but then again... I'm NOT big and fancy.. lol

he remembered exactly what I liked and everything!! ^_^

I'm going to go lay down and get rest... goodnight


Love
Always,
Birdie Lou' 

4-21-12

HE SAID HE LOVES ME! 

I might not have lost my family after all! 

I was talking to Candi and I realized Rob was crying... 

I hung up on my sister and rushed over to him.. 

He told me the truth, that he doesn't really love Tracy, and that he still loves me.  I let him know that I want HIM to be happy. I made him give me his word that whichever path he chooses, that it'll be for HIM not me... not the kids... not Tracy... HIM ... his happiness alone.... He says that he wants me back... I am excited , nervous, scared.... I really miss him... and I don't want to mess up my being able to see my kids.. I really miss my kids. I don't want to ruin the chance to be in their lives. But also... I want my family that we... Rob and I planned.... I guess only time will tell. 

I am still planning on going to Family Promise (shelter)... getting a job... and a place to live.
But I will not give up on my family. My entire existence now is based on me following this plan... 

1. my kids
2. my love(Robert)
3. myself

I will do everything I can to make them happy and proud of me. Time for bed.. 

Love
Always
Birdie Lou'

P.S. I'm thinking about going back to church!