sketches - October 1608

The beginning to the middle of last week totally sucked. I did not get a decent nights rest for over half the week and was tired and unfocused at work because of it. Well, I was also not really into work, I just feel like some thing's missing, but at least there is one thing at work that's starting to get me excited.

I am starting to get a little excited about all the positive reviews of Dead Space. Since I've been buried under the stress of making this game for the past year, I feel that this project has taken a lot out of me, and now that it's out in stores, It's good to see the fruits of that hard work finally paying off. It is just too bad that I was not able to create any extensive content on this project due to the constant supervision of the content team in Shanghai, but I am very proud of the work that they have done, and so have everyone else on the team.

Last weekend was full of physical activities. I was planning on a bike ride with some co-workers on Saturday, but that didn't happen due to other commitments that they had forgotten, and so I went riding by myself. Started from the abode and headed down Delaware towards Twenty Fifth Avenue. From Twenty Fifth Avenue, I then turned North on Palm Avenue, went through Central Park and then up Fifth Avenue to connect up with Crystal Springs Road. Crystal Springs Road meanders through a long valley and connects to Highway 35. From there, I took San Andrea Valley Road (Sawyer Camp trail) all the way North and exited at the top Hillcrest Boulevard, at which point I turned down Highway 35 to Millbrae Avenue, and coasted all the way down to almost reaching El Camino - that was totally awesome, I hit a top speed of about forty five miles an hour. From the bottom of Millbrae Avenue, I turned South, meandered through parallel streets all the way home. My ride was indicated by a GPS distance reading of twenty miles.

Sunday was a planned jog with another co-worker. In the morning I went through my usual routine in preparation for all my jogs, which is the consumption of at least two liters of water, and maybe an energy drink of some kind. After a few hours, I was totally hydrated. I find that if I do not hydrate, I will get cramps, and that totally ruins the jog. The co-worker dropped by a little after noon, and we headed back up to the start of Sawyer Camp Road. By the half way point, a little over three and a half miles, I had to take a break - my shins were tight and sore. After a quick restroom break, we headed back to the beginning. I told the co-worker to go on ahead because he was a much stronger jogger than me, I am a totally slow jogger, and I was totally dying by the time I had reached the beginning of the trail. I think I would have done better if it were not for the previous days ride.

sketches - October 1408

Middle of last week I got an email call-out for landscape painting for that Saturday. The plan was for a two o'clock meeting around the southern tip of Lake Merced, south-west of the City. I was a bit apprehensive about the time because it is Fall and the sunlight starts changing drastically by late afternoon. I tried to get them to go out earlier in the day, but to no avail. By the time we had met at the designated location, it was already past two. The location that was specified was not all that great in terms of "scenery", and so we all decided to go to another location on the North-East side of the lake, by SF State.

The new location seemed OK. By the time we had all set up, it was near three o'clock. The place that I had set up to paint was a little out in the open with no protection from the massive winds that were starting to pick up as the day wore on. At one point, a gust was so strong that it toppled my easel over along with my open palette of paint. It was quite annoying to have to scrape off a bunch of sand covered paint and squeeze out a new set. Two hours into the painting, I was cold, and my fingers were totally numb from the wind chill. Frustration also came on as the light kept changing faster than I could mix and lay down the colors, but no matter, I had brought my camera and took reference photos so I can complete the painting at home, where it will be nice and warm.

sketches - October 0808

Went to the drawing workshop at work last night, but that was not that great. The instructor was lecturing on facial expressions and so there were not a lot of figurative poses. Any figurative poses were only five minutes long, I decided to check out the walk-in drawing shop down at the Palo Alto Art Center, thinking that there would be hour long poses.

What I found out was that the longest poses were twenty minutes, way too short for me to really get a good drawing out or do a painting. There were quite a few people there, too, at least twenty five! I believe there's always two models working together on any given pose. What's good is that the sessions were only five bucks for the three hours that it goes on for - good if you want more practice. So, Supergoober, if you are up for that, let me know.

sketches - October 0608

Had a nice weekend. Went to a rave with the Raveboy and his other half and had a great time Saturday night. The music was fantastic and the sound setup was totally awesome. Have to go to more of these when the chance arises. Normally, I would indulge myself with some fire water, but did not due to the objections of the Wife - she does not like the smell of alcohol on me when I arrive home from a night of drinking. I can't really blame her, for I don't car for the smell or the after affects of alcohol on me either.

Sunday was a bar-b-q with the GM, his other half half, at a mutual friends' house. We grilled Salmon, oysters, spare ribs, and veges, mmmm, mmmmm. It was good. Beer and wine were also provided and of course, I have to partake in the liquid refreshments, heh, heh. Sunday night was good as well. Went sketching with the sketch friend at the local book store. We haven't sketch with one another for quite sometime, and it was good to catch up. There's a drawing workshop tomorrow night at work, as well as one in Palo Alto. I have made reminders in my calender every week and will try and follow up with either sketching or painting, but I'll need to do some recon to see if it's feasible to do painting in Palo Alto. As for painting at work, I'm quite positive that the people would not appreciate me stinking up the conference room with paint fumes, what little of it there is.

As for today, went to the art store during lunch and picked up a few more blank canvases. I have a nice collection of eight or ten of them that's been sitting on the printer, reminding me that they need to be used! At the end of the day, I had to make sure everything in my cube was packed up and ready to be moved - yes, I'm being moved, yet again, so tomorrow will be a half day at best. I'm also quite sure that I will move, again, in another six or ten months when the team gets larger, again, in preparation for full production - I'm not even going to bother with unpacking...

sketches - October 0308

Wow, this week went fast! I was barely ready to work and now it's over. But I'm starting to get back into the game. I have to because there's actually work to be done, and it involves complete concentration or else I will not be able to get it done on time. I'm going to miss being lazy:(

Monday marked the completion of a painting that I have procrastinated on for over a year! Wow, now that's laziness. What's worst is that the painting was supposed to have been given to someone...over a year ago. No more promising and not delivering