Hmm. A New Direction?

Okay. So crit didn't exactly go as I'd hoped or planned. I was told some (very little) helpful things and then a lot of things that made no sense. One guy complained that my narrative was hard to follow even though the first bit (the bit I expected him to follow; the 2nd bit is hardly a narrative yet) is simply exposition and fairly clear. He mixed up which character had the baby (if it was the main character, Waverly, or her mother) even though I clearly wrote that it was the mother who had the baby. It was overall just really frustrating because we only had 15 minutes and the graphic novel, even at only 16 pages so far, is a fairly complex thing to look at. And then there was the complaint the style was very different than the normal graphic novel, which I had actually thought was one of its strengths. Not everyone agreed on this, but ultimately because of the way the crit happened I felt a bit like I was being attacked and that nothing I had done was working or was right and that it never would be right because I'm just not capable. It's a horrible horrible feeling to have, especially after you've worked so hard on something. I think there were some legitimate comments but we didn't even end up getting into the content of the work and it was just overwhelming. So what did I learn? Not to put a graphic novel in a crit. It's too complicated. I think I need to step back, start a whole new project, and not even ink another page until I have the storyboard for the whole thing drawn out. Right now I just kind of feel like crap.

Anyway, I have another project in the works. I'm going to start a more abstract painting series where I take this technique that Christine invented where you thin down the paint and and just plop it onto the canvas in drops and then do all these layers . . . anyway, when I start I'll upload photos of the process because its a bit hard to explain to non oil painters. The process creates these odd landscapes and my idea was to take a place I've never seen like Yellow Mountain in China (my brother was just there) and paint an abstract landscape based on what I think it looks like because of the name. So no one send me pictures of Yellow Mountain!! I'm doing this because it will be more relaxing and fun and it will allow me to explore and it's really what I need right now after this morning.

I have to be at class by 8:00 am on Friday. We've had to be in an hour early for a 9-11:40 am class all week. I hate crit week.