177. When you blog at 3am because you fell asleep before midnight

I've only had one day of work, but if there's one thing I've realised about a full-time day job, it's that it renders you pretty useless after work hours. In the coming days I will endeavour to change that (otherwise I may very well be screwed).

Also, the picture above has nothing to do with my job; it's a photo of my palette for my portraits of Rumi. I didn't feel it quite belonged in the final critique post, so here it is.

176. Here's to summer

Remember the potentially exciting news I mentioned in a previous post? Well, this picture pretty much sums it up.

I have been very fortunate to have been selected to attend this year's SIGGRAPH 2012 as a student volunteer. I had a blast at SIGGRAPH Asia 2011 in Hong Kong, and couldn't be more excited to be going back to one of my favourite places on the planet (yes LA, I'm talking about you), with the boyfriend in tow, no less! Yes, he is going to be a volunteer, too. I couldn't be more psyched!

Tomorrow marks the first day of my 10-week summer internship (wish me luck!), and I can't help but squeal with excitement when I think about all the very exciting things I have lined up for the summer.

175. Yet another first

After having sent out what seemed like a thousand copies of my resume, I'm happy to say that I've finally found a summer internship. I'm excited to start work next week - the kind of work that could very well be what I will be doing for the rest of my life; but even more so, I am excited to have gotten this internship all on my own. It almost feels like nabbing my very first job! God knows how difficult that will prove to be when the time does come.

Why did I put up a picture with my name cards in it, you ask? Well, because: 1. I don't think I've ever put one up here before, ever, and 2. I feel compelled to start every entry with a visual. What can I say? I'm a visual person. And yes, that is a speck on my table.

My internship has given me another reason to feel stoked for the coming weeks. My boss has been ever so kind as to volunteer to cover the fees to allow me to attend this:

Sigh, I wish I knew back then (i.e., when I designed my name card and put 'art/animation' under my name for lack of better things to add in) what I knew now (i.e., what I would like to do for forever). Or at least what I think I know now.

I have another piece of potentially exciting news that I will hopefully be able to share in a future post. 'Potentially' because it may or may not occur, so stay tuned for that one.

What do you know, the photo of my name card did end becoming relevant to this post after all.

174. One more year

This is it, guys: my final piece for my figurative painting class. The piece that marks the end of my third year at university. For this piece, I totally went with my gut, and my gut told me to paint two portraits of renowned fashion blogger Rumi Neely, a.k.a. fashiontoast. I only recently discovered her blog after seeing her name floating somewhere around the vast place that is the internet, and the way she poses for the camera with her eyes so effortlessly and demurely averted pretty much screamed 'paint me'.

Oil on canvas (24x30), 2012.

(I'm sorry for the reflection on the second photo; it could not be helped. I tried. Four times.)

And here are a few photos from our final critique session:

173. Experimental

These are a couple of experimental pieces that I did in my 3-hour long figurative painting classes. We were given a whole lot of acrylic paints and a large canvas, and whatever we did with them was up to us. It was kind of fun experimenting with the medium a little bit and interpreting the models the way I wanted to. That's not to say I'm completely happy with how these turned out, though. Still, it was fun.

Acrylics on canvas, 2012.