oh man

too much has happened to really write a full update. 
also, nobody reads this blog, so it'd be pointless!
uhm, well, i did have four paintings in the show "Art Heist", and they were all claimed in the first night-(they were free), in the upcoming art auction "Art in the Time of Plagiarism" i'll have a few more paintings available for purchase, and then in the month of July the Pick Me Up Cafe will be displaying some of my paintings on its kitschy walls. so exciting. uhm, here's the stuff i've been up to:

-marissa

*f*artin' around

i'm trying to avoid loafing around [drinking] in my apartment all day, and it turns out that that's difficult, since i haven't been able to find a job just yet and the vast majority of my friends have returned to their respective cities for the summer... but oh well.

here's some of the things i've been doing with my spare time.
you know. besides jobhunting and unpacking and assembling furniture and painting the walls. 

barnacle love.

india ink portrait of my sibling for our mother

india ink portrait of my me for my mother

here's a gouache squid that i sketched, painted, and inked entirely while under the influence of many many many rum and cokes. i am shocked at how well this came out.

rockin' and rollin'.
alone.
in my apartment.
just me, sissy spacek, and shelley duvall.
-marissa

One More Try

tomorrow i flee my beloved dorm and begin the transfer into my shiny new apartment. 
gosh, the new experiences just keep on stacking up. it's madness.

you know what? my stop-motion final is never going to upload here. i don't know why, but i'm just gonna go ahead and accept that. so, i guess, if anyone cares/reads this stupid thing, here's a link to it on my vimeo.

 

also, here is this slightly offensive-looking painting that i did:

here's a painting that i did right after finishing my very last animation project of sophomore year:

 

oh, and here's a painting that i've been working on for ages that i will probably never finish:

 

i'm a scatterebrained mess right now, but at least i'm a scatterbrained mess with an address. 
-marissa

oh, hey there

long time no see!

it's starting to wind down over here, [thank blargh], and all of my animations are... DONE. 
so... here they are! the fruit of my labors:

this one's for my digital animation techniques class, it wasn't so difficult, but the late assignment date was a bit stressful.

this one i've been working on for literally all semester. ga-a-ah.

stop-motion. dear god. it won't even load. 
 
it really DID almost kill me. kill me dead.

moving into the new apartment on sa-a-a-aturday, i cannot wait for my sister to see it. 
actually, i can't wait to start putting up posters and art and things... our place is gonna be awesomepossum!

keep it real
- marissa

mayhem

i'm in panic mode and it is absolute pandemonium over here. 
also, they changed the blogger page. dang.

anyway, here's a quick gouache thingie that i made in between finals, apartment hunting, and being curled in the fetal position:

wish me luck, 
i really need it right now.
-marissa

an odyssey

today was an odd day.

my friend and her girlfriend and i were late to a performance this afternoon because we had to find a sandwich shop for this homeless fellow, and the-e-en we got lost.

it was totally awesome.

now it is positively pouring outside and i love it. 
also, mad men is on in two hours- ooooooh!
 
-marissa

"i," said the owl "with my spade and trowel, i'll dig his grave"

went to a concert this weekend.

came home and painted this:

-marissa

kind of pushed, kind of bent

i've been listening to some hardcore Yeah Yeah Yeahs for the past couple of days. Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Regina Spektor. 

anyway, STILL stressing about everything. whatever. 

here's some of the things that i've been working on:

this little Keith Haring kind of guy is a quick animation that i whipped up for my digital class. he's gonna be fully shaded and colored and about a second longer. i'm debating what he should do after he shouts his heart out.

and then i've been sketching. here's a page of drawings i did about the past couple of days.

-marissa

so overwhelmed. i feel like just sitting on the floor and staring at the walls.

these are the fruits of... what, 6 weeks of labor? golly i am so boffed for this class. 
[the finished thing is supposed to be about 45 seconds, the required minimum is 20 seconds.]

and, of course, the finished version will have more than just the dialogue.


kinda just gotta throw the spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks, you know?


-marissa

spring break

... and i'm spending it being absolutely useless.

don't get me wrong, it's lovely not to feel guilty about not being at the lab from 8-10, but i also... miss the city. 
i haven't been a complete lump all break, though. i've gotten my stop-motion puppet's body completely built and felted: 

 ...sketching and painting like a madman:

experimenting with india ink:

and saw The Hunger Games three times. i am in love with peeta mellark. 

don't judge me.


-marissa

_______

spent yesterday morning in the lab making this:

i think that's about as good as he's gonna get.

-marissa

oh god, it hurts

i am constitutionally incapable of having a nice relationship with a young man.
 
but apparently i am pretty good at getting teachers and recruiters to like me, so i guess that's a good thing since i'd rather have a job than a boyfriend... bahahaha

oh well.

here's a painting i did.
it's watercolor, of course.

"why does everything have to suck?"

-marissa

lots of things

my life is... exploding a bit right now. lots of things are happening and... and changing. ugh. 
i'll be pretty pleased when spring break rolls around-[i'll finally get a much-needed haircut.]

i  have managed to get a lot of work done, so... here's what i've been occupying myself with!

i'm having a drama of the heart, and it is literally affecting my stomach. so... it inspired me to make this.

also, next week my stop-motion class begins pre-production on our final projects. i'm teaming up with my friend conor-here is the sort of work that we do when we're together:

 beautiful, no?

keep calm and kill zombies, guys
 -marissa

an evening with don hertzfeldt

oooh golly, i am crushing big time on mister hertzfeldt! 

what an incredible guy. and i got to meet him tonight at the music box. ooh golly.
he's very soft-spoken, [he's the narrator of the "everything will be okay" trilogy, which is beautiful and makes me cry every time i watch it without fail], funny, and, if you don't mind me saying, he's a very good hugger. hahaha, of course i asked for a hug, of course i did!

see! honestly! i couldn't contain the excitement.

 

 

he told me that he doesn't actually use exposure sheets. awesome-possum, right? also, he says that he just... locks himself away for years and works on a project. apparently that's why all of his films're so good. 


bu-u-u-ut... speaking of animation and locking yourself away, i spent... uhm... an embarrassing amount of time working on... THIS:

it's part of the beginning of my 30-second animation "swamp-monster in love." it's not perfect, i will definitely have to go back and fix it, but... well, i'm proud. swamp-monster steve lives!


everything will be okay.
i'm so proud of you.
it's such a beautiful day.
-marissa

[three beautiful phrases.]

MICHAEL, GET IN THE TELEPORTER!

so.
my roommate got an Xbox.

next week, Dino Stamatopoulos is coming to my school, [apparently he's an alumnus? i had no clue!] but anyway, i'm pretty excited to hear him talk. i adore Moral Orel, so... big deal for me.

here's the "character walk" i worked on this morning. god, stop-motion walks are hard. i had no idea. suffered a minor breakdown in class yesterday while my saintly teacher was trying to show me how to do it properly.

things are piling up now... this semester's getting exciting!

-marissa

oogh

yep, that's the sound i make.
i've been having a weird time trying to sleep lately. i swear, i can't actually drift off until after 3am. for the past few days, i've occupied myself with "quirky indie films" and sketching. 
and i mean, that's all well and good on days when i have late classes, but nowadays i try to wake up early to get over to the lab and work on assignments and animation and the like. and now it's even more important that i get things in on time because the workload is slowly but surely getting more intense... oh well. at least i'm not bored.

ivan, my graphic novel teacher, chose one of my assignments for the Columbia "'zine." i'm just a bit thrilled about that, though to be honest i'd be a whole lot happier if my teachers would just get back to me about my letters of recommendation. i can't really blame them, though, i mean, it's nearly midterm season. *shudder*

anyway.

playing around with my tablet again. i hate wearing bras after 9pm.

i call him "simon the cyclops." just a new thing to freshen up the moldy ol' portfolio!

alex bohs: undoubtedly the most talented young man i will ever meet.

stay beautiful, 
-marissa

if i can't go to heaven, let me go to LA

or the far-west Texas desert or an Oregon summer day!

it's been a slightly overwhelming week. things are gettin' weirdly professional over here. i've got a website on the burner: all i have to do is buy a proper domain name; something that for some reason, i'm putting off doing. i'm volunteering for actual events at my school, including our "industry night," which is a day when all of the professionals and alumni from Columbia return to the school to exchange information with students. and then on friday i went to a dance and shimmied the night away. also, a handsome boy gave me his number. HAH.
and my work is getting noticed by teachers? joe said i had "potential." what? i do? and also thurop van orman. he said my sketches were "rad." my feet will never touch the ground again. 

but yeah, so, that's why i haven't been posting. but here's a few sketches i did between animating and running around.

i'm thinking of using this one for an experiment with photoshop. we'll see.

stay beautiful! i'll post my website soon, i swear.
 -marissa

ugh

nothing is going right today.

here's a snail i made.

-marissa

happy valentimes!

yep, somehow i always manage to be single on valentine's day, but... ah, it's cool. i have awesome people and a movie to go to tonight, so it's all good.

i spent last night workin' on a valentines picture to post on my social networking sites, and according to my sibling it's "too flat." heavens above, i liked it that way, but i guess i'll have to spend this weekend messing with photoshop. 

here's, ah, here's the pencil sketch...

and he-e-ere is the final bedecked version!

all-in-all the whole thing took me nearly five hours to do. lots of layers. 
 
now get out there and fall in love,
-marissa

two bad walters

mornin' blog!

tomorrow's valentines day. oogh. 
i've got classes today, and then a galentines day party later tonight. i'm excited to sip wine with some ladies and watch bad television. i imagine that's what we'll be doing, but... well, i'm not exactly sure. 

anyway, last night i had an adventure. i used my tablet! so yeah, i was going to do another watercolor, but, well, i was just a bit too lazy for that.

i did some sketches of one of my heroes-[walt disney]- and picked one that i liked. 

a-a-a-and the-e-e-en, i colored it. haha. not too terribly exciting, i'm sorry.


anyway, hopefully you're all having wonderful weeks of love. or whatever you call valentines week. [i call it the valentimes.]

stay beautiful
-marissa

bleep bloop blop

what even is a "mood piece"? 

i'm working on drafting and inking my graphic novel page for this week, and it's so... difficult. i don't normally do really artsy things, i mean... well, last time i tried to create a real, ahem, "emotional" piece, i actually ended up freaking out before i could present it. 

anyway, this isn't an "emotional" project i'm working on right now. it's just an artistic represetation of what i do when i'm up late at night. and that's why it's titled "what i do when i'm awake at night." i always was a fan of self-explanatory titles. 

uhm, but, yeah. so, here's draft one. i was pretty late last night writing out what it is that i do and then sketching the things i'd written. it's gonna change completely by the time i finish, but like, you know. might as well post the first draft for like, idunno, posterity. 

---------------------

UGH! what? WHAT. we had a fire drill before i could actually post my image. WHAT? here's the score:
college dorm: 1
marissa: 0.3


anyway, here's the friggin' image.

have a wonderful rest of wednesday!
-marissa

sketchy as fa-a-a-ah...

hey hey hey,

i'm starting to feel a little drained. spent all weekend doing college things, including spending time with a wonderful boy, going to midnight diners, and watching the puppy bowl. and then this morning, after being up late last night doing... what was i doing? i don't even remember. probably reading. anyway. i woke up early this morning. what the hell? i'm officially running at like, 32% efficiency. tomorrow i gotta get my butt up at like 8 so that i can go and animate, [which i love, but still. c'mon.]


anyway, so, here's some things i made over the weekend. there's a fella and a monster and a slightly phallic eew-y deschanel. bluh.

i've got a party this weekend, but dammit, i am also going to get some sleepy time!


stay beautiful,
-marissa

every day is self-portrait day

... in my heart.

yep. that's what i did last night. in honor of crushes and february-ness in general, i spent last night lovingly crafting this beautiful little blue watercolor rendering of what i look like when i see something wonderful. [like... cartoons, boys, french bulldogs, cute clothes, food, comic books...]

i wish i had that outfit like you wouldn't believe. also: yes. i am blue. constantly.

i love love, man. it just doesn't love me. but, you know, there's eleven days til valentimes. let's see if anything happens! 

so, yeah! uhm, i'm happy with this. the little heart-guys were drawn on with pen, and i like the look a lot. i was considering watercoloring them in, but... you know. whatever. cartoon me would obviously still want to be surrounded by cartoony-looking things. 


uhm... have a fabulous friday!
love,
-marissa

my work is a tattoo

he-ey.

yep, it's true! my friend loved my work enough to get it embedded in her skin. i think it's awfully flattering. it looks fantastic. so here, for my own selfish reasons, i will post all of the evolutions of this tattoo from start to finish. enjoy.

yep. it's on her thigh-butt. and, as i said before, i think it's fantastic. 
a lot of things happened today.

anyway, today was a gold-star day. 
i felt like Edward Bloom!

blah blah blah.

stay beautiful, 
-marissa

keepin' on

this weekend, a very nice boy asked me to get coffee with him. i turned him down. what? WHAT?

anyway. been working away on my projects. i managed to hammer out a painting, some observational sketches, rough story boards, re-watched 50/50, Captain America, and a Series of Unfortunate events, [all of which are amazing films, and all of which managed to make me cry. what?] and a 4-page rant on why zooey deschanel drives me bonkers. swell! 

 here's my "observational sketches," which actually means i just went to a coffee shop and caricatured everybody there.

here's a 'progress shot' of me painting. idunno. indulge me. it was very late/early. also, it was taken on photobooth, so of course it looks bad.

and here is the finished painting i did of barfing girl, ['cause she made me laugh. don't worry, she didn't actually barf in front of me.]


yep. tonight i get to go back to stop-motion I and get critiqued on my first solo project... ugh, fingers crossed. my stomach is flip-flopping. i really want to impress my professor.

happy monday, 
-marissa