Leticia Kao

Environment Design with Aaron Limonick

2012-01-29T12:39:00.000-08:00

Character Design with Brett Bean

2012-01-29T00:19:00.000-08:00

We're drawing about 40 pages per week in our sketchbooks, and these are my favorite pages so far :)

#1 :

#2:

#3:

Anatomy drawings

2011-12-18T14:01:00.000-08:00

Glaucus Atlanticus - 3D character concept

2011-12-18T13:49:00.000-08:00

I will say I'm not 100% happy with this, I ended up dedicating most of my time on the traveller project , although I do not regret it! haha The traveller desk is now one of my best works so far, which also became my first daily deviation ever on deviantart. Hopefully it could also be one of my next Best of Terms, it won't hurt to try. :)

But anyways, here is how the merman came out.

The traveller- Hard Surface modelling and Texture Painting finals

2011-12-05T16:47:00.000-08:00

Once you enter the program you will have about 6-7 classes, most with huge finals to do. What do we do? We combine them in a single one! :)

Most of us combined hard surface modelling with texture painting this term, it also very convenient that this time, the modelling class would finish before texture painting class.

Hard Surface Modelling 1 teacher is Rodrigo Carrasco from Gentle Giant
Introduction to Texture Painting teacher is Eric Miller , managing director of the Gnomon Workshop

My classmates found the modelling class to be very helpful for those who didn't have enough 3D experience before coming to the school, many of them were feeling completely lost before that. You don'r need to have 3D skills before coming here. But as some already know, I started as a generalist before, so I already had the basic knowledge, but the tips the teacher gave us were still indispensable for me. What I liked the most about this class was when we learned easy to use commands that would make a huge difference in the final work, like for example, adding rivets, modelling on top a an irregular surface or an sphere (for example) , how to model a dice in a few seconds and stuff like that, that will help us speeding up our final work at the same time we get much better results. We also learned about NEX which is super useful and easy specially for a poly by poly model and retopology.

For the final we were asked to model whatever we wanted to as long as it was complex enough with a fair amount of detail, if just a prop it should be a hero prop. I chose to do many props, the goggles and camera are the ones with the highest amount of detail. We handed in 3 shots of the wireframes and the scene file (or .OBJ) without textures and UV's.

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Now the texture mapping class , which was also super fun! (well at least for me, I want to be a texturing artist :P) I noticed that even those who aren't really into texturing learned a lot from his class. Eric Miller talks a lot! hahaha Which is awesome of course, he clearly has a lot more to teach than the 10 weeks would ever allow him to, and not only this, it seems *to me* that he enjoys teaching. This idea wouldn't surprise me since he's the director of Gnomon Workshop, after all.
Be prepared to learn other softwares and maybe getting disappointed with them at the beginning though. We didn't just use Maya and Photoshop, we also used Bodypaint from Cinema 4D and Headus, and although it isn't really required that you use them for the final, those are very good to know. I used Headus before so it wasn't a big problem, and it is already easy to use, but bodypaint still looks like a little monster for me even though if you know photoshop you will have a better idea of how it works.
But the best part of this class isn't the fact that you get to learn these new softwares, what i liked the most is that you will learn things you'd never think you'd have to learn, Eric knows a LOT even about those things you use everyday and sometimes don't even know why it has to be this way. He explained about 1k/2k/4k/8k resolution textures , what exactly they are and why they should be used, he showed us how gain/offset (or multiply/add) work and what is the math behind it, what formats is better for textures and why (yes, he convinced us to use windows .bmp , with a very good reason), he showed us a a simple equation for the amount of reflectivity/diffuse/reflection blur that materials should have to look realistic, how to use Maya as Photoshop (yes, we actually painted a texture, procedurally!) and so many other things that I wasn't expecting I would learn, but was super happy to have learned it. I don't think a regular school or teacher would even know about these things either.

And the final for this class was to texture the props or environment of choice, but having a photo references, it has to be realistic. My final's concept is mine, but I based it's idea on photos that i found on the internet. I requested Eric to teach us how to do dust, so I came with two versions of the same model, one is dusty (for technique show off purposes), other is clean (for story purposes, since I doubt a traveller would leave his important things sitting on the same place for such a long time! ;P):

More pictures! (please read post too)

2011-12-04T03:24:00.000-08:00

Well I haven't been so active with this blog lately, as explained before I am waiting a bit more to post my works and WIP's and this term we were more focused on the finals right from the beginning. I want to thank everyone who follows me here, even if you don't comment, although it makes me happy to know how useful this is or not. I know this blog even encouraged some people to actually come to Gnomon, one of them even applied for the 3 years course right away, but even though I don't earn anything from that I'm happy to know this as well. It just feels good to know that whatever you are doing is being noticed somehow. :)

You are absolutely free to message me with questions any time, I might take a while to answer but I will do my best to do it (even if you have to send it again lol). Just keep in mind that basic questions like tuition/ how to apply/ what courses are better for you /etc should be checked at the school's website first before coming to me. I don't work for Gnomon , and I am not necessarily up-to-date to what is going on with their policies and stuff like that, and if you really are interested about the school you should have at least made the effort to visit and carefully browse /read their website more than once, at least, that's what I myself had to do. I am saying this because many people are coming to me and only make questions that they can easily find the answer not only on their website but also by directly e-mailing/calling the school, so sparing my time to give my answer to basic questions like these, that might not even be correct would be highly appreciated, I do have more unanswered messages than I have free time. One funny thing that was also happening is that some were sending me their portfolios and even demo-reels. That's totally fine if you want a student critique but I'm not necessarily gonna take you anywhere with that. I just wanna make this all clear before someone make wrong assumptions of me specially if I don't give you the answer you want to hear or if I say something that might not be true. :) What I have to say is based on personal experience only.

sorry for making you read the long post, thank you if you did!

So here you go, some pictures of me and my friends at school! We all have to work a lot, almost every day at least 10 hours a day. But making friends like these is one of the main things that make us keep going, as long as we are together, there won't be a day without the right amount of fun! If you are planning to join one of the programs you will hopefully have the same luck :D

Drawing/ writing in the board on Friday's LAB

with Charles Hu ! ;)

All Fall-2011second termers of Digital Production - Chase, Deanna, Meiling, Alberto, Shintaro, Larissa, Chris, Reinaldo, Christina, Me and Brent (yes, from every portfolio received this basically is the number of people that are accepted to this program every term, all tracks together. So work hard, always!)

and the last one is me with my Intro to Maya work being exposed at the student gallery party on 12/03/2011! :) The hand holding the cup of wine is Alberto's hahaha

Anatomy - self portrait and facial muscles

2011-11-14T17:42:00.000-08:00

One of our assignments for the anatomy class with Charles Hu

I will be taking pictures of the other drawings later

Term Two

2011-11-12T22:49:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't been posting for a big while hehe
this term we were focusing in the finals right from the beginning so there isn't much homework that is worth sharing. Also, I'm not having sculpture classes since I already took them before starting the program. So I also had some time to play around, and this is why I drew some manga arts (and fanarts), using it to train a bit of composition and/or putting characters on backgrounds, I also experimented a lot with painting styles. Kinda trying to apply the things I learned at school. THESE ARE NOT GNOMON EXERCISES.

Examples:

the character in the right isn't my design, I drew her for a friend of mine. The one in the left is my own

character though :)

All of the other characters are from Yu Yu Hakusho, by Yoshihiro Togashi. I believe they are older than me hehe

And for Gnomon, I will show you the Digital Sculpting final, which is almost finished. This character is not going to be sent to Maya even though I like the character a lot, at least not right now. I'm going to add some accesories, adjust some mistakes, hair and other things. I was using projection master to texture him, but then decided to just poly paint (at least to me it's a lot easier hahahah). I want to earn more time to the finals that interest me the most which are texture painting/ hard surface modelling.

Hope you like it!

He was based on a Glaucus atlanticus.

Candyland - Making of

2011-09-21T02:31:00.000-07:00

I got asked to do a making of for Effects Zone, I chose to do it for Candyland, because it's my favorite work done 100% by me so far!

Here is the link for it, and I hope you like it! :) http://www.effectszone.com/maya/making-of-candy-land-by-leticia-kao/

Candyland - final!

2011-09-08T21:57:00.000-07:00

I am finally posting the final version of Candyland!

It was finished a while ago, but I wanted to wait for the teacher's critiques.
The original concept was done by Toni Sul (thank you for letting me model it, and for giving me the poster texture!) :

please go check her work! It's really amazing :) :http://www.tonisuldesign.com/

No it is not 100% accurate I know. I chose to make this model work at any camera angles in case I want to put this on a demo reel later on, so this is not just a 3D illustration, it is useful! ;) hehe

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Because of some issues I'm having, I decided not to post my works before I present it to the teachers. Although, I am posting them a bit earlier + some preview pictures on my Facebook page if you really want to see it! : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Leticia-Kao-CG-artist/214744551916410 thank you!

Water Truck

2011-09-07T04:55:00.000-07:00

This is the last final I had to do this term... phew! I did this in one day, I was focusing on the finals that were harder to do first (in my opinion) hehe so here it is! I hope you like it! The teacher gave us the model, and Alberto Casu helped with the UV's, thanks a lot!

And for those waiting for the Candyland model, It's basically finished. But the teacher gave me some critiques and I really want to fix most of what he told me to before I post it here and then submit it to BoT as Max suggested!

I don't know if you have to like it to see it, but I posted the first version of Candyland on my page here in case you're curious: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Leticia-Kao-CG-artist/214744551916410

Thank you for those who suggested me to create this page. It's still small but I love it that so many people are supporting me this way!

Playing with camera projections! - Nissan Figaro

2011-08-30T01:58:00.000-07:00

I got a picture from this car on the internet, made a very simple model of it and projected this texture on my model. It's just color on a lambert shader :)

Vizcom final - part 1 (creating a product)

2011-08-28T21:13:00.000-07:00

Ideation sketches:

I think creating cool looking robots is not my one of best specialties even though I can do it lol I'm best with the cute stuff! So I chose one of the cute concepts. :)

Development of the octopus robot:

Details and usage shots:

Candyland -WIP

2011-08-26T01:56:00.000-07:00

Concept:

Model:

First textures:

This is the new model for Intro to Maya class, we have to finish this in about one week from now. Today I UV mapped and textured some things, I think this one will be so much better than the Alice in Wonderland room! :D

I got this concept from Toni Sul, she has some really nice concepts and this one was perfect for my final because it has simple shapes but it's still very interesting. I had some trouble modelling that little windows in perspective, but the rest worked fine, and it works at all camera angles.

This is not the final lighting! And I think my rendered camera is getting some distortion, I will correct it with the teacher later on, I don't understand how this works in Maya...

I was asked to make a little making of of one of my works for a digital magazine, so I'm probably doing it for this model here!

Old mail box

2011-08-24T02:57:00.000-07:00

I did everything in this one, from design to compositing.

the texture I painted for the outside part of the mailbox:

yes, i cheated a lot :D

Interview with a Vampire - Sequence 1

2011-08-19T01:13:00.000-07:00

The first shot is the craning down from the entrance to the interior of the ballroom. Now I'm ready for the second sequence! :) I'll think about painting it or not when I have it all done together with other final assignments, the most important part is being finished first. I rewrote the shot list, so it's not the exact shots you'll see in the movie.

Wine Bottles

2011-08-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

This time I modeled and textured everything, the only thing provided by the teacher was the bigger label and I reused the grapes from the last assignment.

Alice Room - final!

2011-08-14T19:42:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, so this is the final image of the room. I can't say I'm 100% happy with it, but it's the best I could do in one week of texturing/ lighting/rendering together with all other assignments. I hope you like it!

I was having lots and lots of trouble on how to approach the lights and shadows , specially the shadow that hits the clock and the frames on the wall, because the door was blocking the light. So I created a negative light to cast shadows in those elements and associated a point light on the clock to give more sense and focus for it instead of just the door area.

Alice Room - lighting

2011-08-11T01:37:00.000-07:00

I started the lighting all over again I think it's looking better now! I used many spot lights and a couple of point lights for this.I don't really like how the mia material of the glass on the right looks, but I'll fix this after I finish all the painting (at least the ones being refracted/ reflected) to see how it will look in the end. One more thing that I'll fix for sure is the little gap under the door and the floor, you can see the light leaking through it.

And then I'll probably have to adjust intensities after I'm finished with texturing . I myself am really curious to see how this is going to end up looking like lol

My first drawings for my storyboarding final

2011-08-10T02:08:00.000-07:00

I'm storyboarding 3 sequences from the movie "Interview with a Vampire", written by Anne Rice.
My first sequence is when Lestat is teaching Louis how to "hunt", they go to a big party and Lestat chooses their preys.

The ballroom:

Louis and Lestat's features concepts:

Third page of storyboard:

PS.: Twilight fails.

Fruit platter

2011-08-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

I took about 8 hours to finish this... and now i still have a lot of works to do! Vizcom compositions, 84 shot storyboard, texture/light/render my alice room and pick another room to finish in 3 weeks... I love doing this, but wish me luck to be alive til monday! hehe

This is a nurbs model provided by the teacher, I didn't model anything in this scene. I was responsible for the UV mapping, lighting, texture painting and rendering. This is not the original image size.

Alice in Wonderland room - concept/ wireframe and UV map

2011-08-08T11:18:00.000-07:00

I also did a lighting sketch, but I think the teacher will want us to use only spotlights...
And I want to thank Raj that taught me many tricks and other stuff for modeling in Maya!

This is the original concept that I took from Animation Backgrounds:

My first UV map using Maya!

2011-07-31T19:41:00.000-07:00

All textures were painted in Photoshop CS5

It's looking a little bit like the Wall-E I was texturing a while ago hahaha but I had some trouble making a good transparency map for the glass in Maya...

Coop work - update

2011-07-22T02:37:00.000-07:00

We made some adjustments, decided to leave her cloak the way it was, and he gave me some references of the style/ makeup he wanted and right now he started modelling her hair on the actual 3D version. This can probably be changed again, but we are getting nearer to what he wants. :) I sent him references for noses & mouths, so he will probably be fixing some things on the model as well.

This is my first time doing a work of that level together with someone else I know and I'm getting really happy with every new results we get. Raj is a great person to work with.

One more time, I'll post his website for you to see his works : http://www.4sidepixel.com/

[DP Program] Storyboarding with Andrea Adams

2011-07-22T02:26:00.000-07:00

Some pages of "The Pale Blue Eye " storyboard I did

Coop work!

2011-07-19T01:07:00.000-07:00

Rajbir Dhalla finished the 2 year program and is now working to Lucasfilm in Singapore. He asked me to give him a little help with his new work. :)

He did the body model, skin texture, lighting and cloth, I painted it over on photoshop, designing her hair, eye color, makeup and feather accessory, and those will be modeled (and probably changed a little bit) by him. We are not using the version with makeup anymore though, but i'll post both versions for you to see!

The fabric was a hood, but I designed the entire hair over it so he could change it the way he liked... i think he liked the fact that she kinda looks like a pirate now though hahaha

visit his website to see more of his works: http://www.4sidepixel.com/

[DP Program] Intro to Compositing with Ariel Martian

2011-07-13T23:05:00.000-07:00

I also have it on Vimeo, but with no sound: http://vimeo.com/26394837

I posted with Youtube since I noticed some people can't watch vimeo videos on IPhones/ IPods and probably IPads... but some people just seem to like vimeo better. Anyway, I just put a little sound on the youtube video to make it a bit more interesting, but you are not supposed to put sound for the assignment. The animation is very simple, it doesn't need to be the best animation.

Vizcom 1 - some journal pages

2011-07-10T17:03:00.000-07:00

[DP Program] Texture Mapping 1 with Bryan Thombs

2011-07-10T15:12:00.000-07:00

This nectarine was 100% textured with Maya's procedural textures.

A visit to Charles Hu and the 3 Kicks Studio

2011-07-05T18:51:00.000-07:00

I went to visit Charles Hu in his Studio in Pasadena and he allowed me to take some pictures to post here! :)

Charles Hu teaches Anatomy at Gnomon and 3 kicks, (and yes, he is the owner of 3 kicks!). I still didn't have classes with him but I'll probably do next term, and I'm very excited for that! My mom was his student before so she introduced me to him. hehe
I hear teachers from Gnomon recommending his classes all the time, Jack Bossom from Figure Drawing and John Brown were some of them. You will also see many ads of the studio at Gnomon, so I guess it's a place you should know of when you come here.

From what I understood, different from most classes at Gnomon, 3 Kicks is more focused on traditional art and teaches all the basics you need to develop your best artistic skills while Gnomon usually picks the students who supposedly already have that knowledge to teach CG. So I guess the students who have been the right amount of time taking classes at 3Kicks would increase their chances to be accepted at Gnomon for example. They basically teach you what every good artist should know.

This is their website, please take a look at it if you're interested and contact the school of you have any doubts: http://3kickstudio.com/default.aspx

As you can see, Edgar Silva is also a teacher there! :) According to Charles he's the best teacher if you want to learn more about color theory - not meaning he's a better artist than Sean Cheetan of course. If you notice, Cheetan's skin colors are very similar to each other as opposed to Edgar's, while he can still paint amazingly well with his palette. So your choice have to be based on what you need to learn, and of course you can ask the Charles or any other teacher to guide you with that.

So here is the studio's entrance. It's a building with many kinds of businesses inside, so if you see the hair salon, you are in the right place - you just need to enter the little door on your right and follow the signs for the studio:

The pictures I took inside the 3 kicks classroom:

Inside Charles' room (most of the works here are his) :

There's a Steve Huston's painting there, he was Charles' teacher and amazing as well.

And Amy Yung's room with some different artist works (most are hers as well):

I hope you enjoy it ! (and I that I can take some classes there in the future hahaha)

[DP Program] Visual Communication 1 with Mark Hannah

2011-07-03T15:28:00.000-07:00

BoT (Best of Term Competition)!

2011-06-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

One day, I was ramdomly browsing stuff on the Internet and got a message on Facebook from a Brazilian friend who is also at Gnomon, congratulating me about my sculpture. I took a while to realize what was she really talking about, because I knew she saw my sculpture long ago hahaha
I entered Gnomon's website and the newest Best of Term students were finally announced, and for my surprise, my sculpture was in between them!

I should admit wasn't expecting for that anymore, because other sculptures competing were so great (congratulations to all of you!). This proved me that if you do the best you can do, and have no fear to expose your work against others, you will always have some good feedback from it. Even if you don't win, you will have people from the industry analyzing your work, which is great, because they might need YOU instead. Who knows, right? The sculptures in the competition are all very different, they can be realist, a creature, a fantasy character, etc - which I think it's awesome since you have the opportunity to show who you are and what do you want to work with without even saying anything.

If you want to compete for Best of Term, you have follow the steps in that same page of Gnomon's website, on the right :http://www.gnomonschool.com/student_work/BoT/ or e-mail Bob Ward for more info (bob@gnomonschool.com). By the way, I wanna thank my friend Ken Chiang, for submitting the pictures of my sculpture at the BoT folder... thank you Ken ! :D It was really nice of you ! hahaha

-You HAVE to submit your work to participate. - Maybe this sounds obvious to some of you, but I'm saying this because many people including me, at the beginning, thought that only by participating in the classes, your work would be automatically competing when it's finished.
-IT'S NOT the teacher of that category that will choose who the BoT is. - many people think that too.
-And from what I heard and that makes sense to me, they choose BoT's based on how technically challenging your work was, and if you were successful showing that you can actually apply what you know in your artworks. Not necessarily the most beautiful/full of sparkles works.
-Enjoy your prize wisely. :) You can use that to buy materials for your classes, for example. hehe
-Good luck!

Some pictures!

2011-04-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

It's funny that many people imagine Gnomon as one single giant and wonderful building but it's not really like that haha :)
I took some pictures, mostly from the outside though, because it's hard to get in and not bother students or people on a meeting... I also don't know if it's okay to take pictures of certain places (I hope my pics are okay by the way) but this should be enough for you to have an idea if you are curious. :)
Gnomon is inside Hollywood's Television Center so it might be a little bit hard to find it unless you know how does it look like. There's no signs saying that Gnomon is there, so if you ask someone they probably won't even know and be able to give you directions. I know people living around for years and they never knew about the school.
But when you get inside, you find yourself inside a maze of corridors and stairs, you won't really know what part of the building is part of Gnomon or not, although you will probably get used to this after some time.... (but I, for example, still get lost inside this place sometimes hahaha). But anyway, these are the places I frequent the most.

The entrance:

If you see this from the outside, you are in the right place:

After the entrance, to the right. The first thing you'll find are the reception, which is near Brian's and Shannon's office at the first door right below the "G" sign and the second door will be the Gnomon Store. The next thing you'll see are the stairs for the second floor (where the figure painting and figure drawing classes are) together with the Patio and the Gnomon Lounge if you want to have a snack :) :

Then, a little bit ahead will be a little corridor on your left, where you can park your bicycle in case you are using one. After this you can turn to the next right and ahead, OR if you didn't turn to the left where the bicycles are but go ahead and then turn to the next left, you'll end up in the same place, where Pixologic, the Gnomon Gallery and the sculpting classroom are. And there's also another place to relax :)

Character sculpture with John Brown

2011-03-17T21:17:00.000-07:00

(Concept/ Blueprint)

Some simple silhouette shots:

I hope you like it!

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I submitted my work to compete for the best of term in sculpture and see what happens :)
by the way, it's not the teacher who choses the best of term, and you have to submit your work to Bob Ward (bob@gnomonschool.com) if you don't have access to the BoT folder at Gnomon computers.

That's what they say on their website:

"Winners Recieve:

Grand Prize - $500 Gnomon store shopping spree
Runner-up Prizes - $100 Gnomon store shopping spree

Submission Guidelines

Work must have been created as homework for a class. Student must specify the class that they created the image/animation for. Images must be submitted at a minimumresolution of 2k. Animation and videos must be submitted in .MOV format at24 FPS, 1280x720 resolution (or it will not be accepted). Students are allowed to submit for multiple categories. Submissions must be delivered on CD/DVD-R to Bob Ward or saved into the BOT_CONTEST folder on the Gnomon server. First prize overall BEST of TERM image in any category wins $500 shopping spree in the Gnomon Store. All other category winners receive $100 shopping spree in the Gnomon Store. Make sure the following items appear in the file name:

Your name
Class created for
Competition category

DISCLAIMER: Gnomon has the right to use any submitted materials for use in marketing or promotional purposes. *Prizes must be redeemed in the same term they are awarded. NO EXCEPTIONS.*All prizes are limited to DVD’s, books, supplies and clothing currently available in the Gnomon Store. NO SPECIAL ORDERS.*Prizes must be redeemed in person at the Gnomon Store. NO SHIPPING.*All prizes must be redeemed for merchandise only. NO CASH PRIZES. "

Figure Painting with Edgar Silva final!

2011-03-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

We were supposed to paint a portrait, a self portrait or a master's copy... I did a portrait of my brother in Brazil, with reference from a photo I've taken at the Brand Library & Art Center's parking lot. Here are the step-by step pictures of this painting:

1) The drawing:

2) Preparing the palette & color wheel (this is my mom helping me! haha) :

3) painting the darkest dark and the brightest bright:

4) Marking the shadow shapes and covering the canvas with the medium tones of skin and and the sky color on the background

5) Rendering and details:

6) Final:

Sad news...

2011-03-09T19:55:00.000-08:00

Today I went 3 times to Gnomon, asking about the process to get my student visa... we were all very confused about what to do, because we couldn't contact the Brazilian Embassy, their website wouldn't help while their telephone number had a (stupid) recording telling us to visit their website, and we couldn't just show up at the embassy, because they just don't accept anyone that didn't make a previous appointment. Even though, later, we discovered that this was not really a problem because there was nothing that the Brazilian embassy would be able to do anyway.

One thing I learned today was: try to avoid the most to come to the US with a visitor visa first, to then change it to student visa here. You will probably have to go back to your home country or to any other country with an US embassy, but OUT of the US!

I came here with a visitor visa because I wanted to stay with my mother as soon as I could, so that is also why I wanted to take some 10 week courses, so I wouldn't be here doing absolutely nothing. And as you can see, that was a bad idea. I will have to go back to Brazil this week so I can get my visa at an US embassy there (it could also be done at any other country like Canada or Mexico as long as I visited an Brazilian embassy too, and let my country know about my studies here. I am only going to Brazil because it was a wiser choice for my case)

But now, the really bad news it that I will have to miss the last two classes from each class I was writing about... I am really sad about that, and I apologize for not being able to finish the little class-to-class descriptions. The good new is that I will be able to take sculpture classes again on the second term of the Digital Production program, although I will probably miss the last Figure Painting classes, unless the teacher allows me to take the last two again on the next term, if I have time to.

Wish me luck! I need to have my visa before the classes start haha

I-20 and acceptance letter

2011-03-08T19:47:00.000-08:00

Soo... :)

today I finally received my I-20, on an envelope together with a letter from Brian, congratulating me and telling me to come to the (obligatory) Orientation which will be on the last Friday before the classes of the DP program starts, and a confirmation of acceptance which I'm supposed to sign, date and return to the school.

And this is how this letter looks like:

-Front and back view

-What is inside

I hope I'm not so late, Shannon called me today to pick up this letter at the school since the mail was returned to them, and she sounded like I had to hurry up hahaha I already payed and submitted the I-901 Form, now I need to make an appointment with an US embassy to apply to an M-1 student visa... I'll try to give you more information about that as all this process goes on.

Figure Drawing

2011-01-30T22:50:00.000-08:00

I took this course in 2010 summer term

Jack is an awesome teacher! haha He's friendly, sincere and very patient. I don't know much about the other teacher (or teachers) of the different sections of that time, but if I had a chance to choose him as a teacher again, I would not hesitate! :)

You shouldn't expect to end up drawing just like the drawings on their website though, they are great, because they are the teacher's drawings. You don't need to know how to draw before you take these classes, but don't think you'll be drawing that good in 10 weeks, even though you'll still get better, and of course, everything you learn depends mostly on you, not the school or the teacher.

You will start drawing from the very first class, and there will be a different nude model each day you come, so you probably must be over 18 to be there.

Other schools, workshops and conventions to go!

2011-01-27T21:56:00.000-08:00

As I told you on my last post, you don't need to go only to Gnomon when you com to Los Angeles, there are plenty of other interesting places you can go and learn something. There are many teachers from Gnomon who also teaches in other places, such as the 3 Kicks Studio, in Pasadena. You can easily get there by subway, even though it is a little bit far from Hollywood, maybe about 1 hour or so, but if you are taking Figure Drawing classes or anything similar, use it as a good thing, and draw the people on the subway to show it to your teacher as the homework he asks. There are also interesting classes at The Getty Museum. This museum is awesome! Unfortunately the only time I went there I stayed most of the time outside the museum studying a little bit of photography and when I got inside the museum was closing already. It's beautiful, and if you appreciate architecture I'm sure you will want stay outside just like I did, it is just as good as the art pieces on the inside. haha But here are some pictures I took of the museum so maybe this blog will look more pleasant for you to see! haha

If you like photography there is the Lomography Gallery Store at the Santa Monica Blvd., and they give very cheap one day workshop. They cost $10 if you don't have the camera, and $7 if you do. I really wanted to take that one but I will have to wait... so I'm just sharing. hehe

There is also a good blog that Alex Oliver, my teacher in Brazil sent me the link and I am also very curious to take some classes as soon as I can, the Concept Design Academy.All of their posts are about new workshops being released, more than once a month.

If you love sculpture, specially the traditional kind, you can try taking classes with Jordu Schell, at his studio. I think there's not so much to say, since you will be taking classes with Jordu Schell himself, right? haha He sure is a great sculptor.

Another workshop for sculptors that seems to be great, is the one with Richard Macdonald. This site is in flash and I couldn't just put the direct link for the workshops, so just go to "The Artist">"Workshops". :) I just came back from the Dawson Cole gallery in Laguna Beach, featuring his works, and I am still amazed with them, it sure was the best gallery I have been there so far.

Finally, and specially if you come on summer, between June and August, there are many conventions happening, just like Siggraph and IMATS. Siggraph is all about CG, technology, you can even be on a interview for a job to a great studio, right there. Gnomon uses to give the students a break of one week when Siggraph is happenning at the Los Angeles Convention Center. This year it is going to be in Vancouver, but in case you have a chance to go or if it happens here again, you'll love it! There are many lectures from people who worked om the best and newest movies, every day, all day. About IMATS, I couldn't be there last time, but it is a big make-up convention, and it is mostly make-up for movies, so there is another very good place for a sculptor to be! With many lectures and make-up stores... and I hope I can be there this year :)