I am not yet dead!

WooHoo! I've been out of school for almost three weeks now and haven't updated my blog even once! That, my friends, is sloth. Admittedly, two of those three weeks had me out in California, on tour with the BYU Singers (Have I mentioned how mind blowing that is by-the-way?) and the other week at my new job, but still, you would think that I could squeeze in a few minutes to write a little bit about what's going on.
So, like I said, I've just started a paid (yes really) internship at the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls as a part of the graphic design team! It's fantastic! I'm always trying new things and they usually keep me pretty busy. I had a few spare minutes yesterday and spent a little extra time practicing with Adobe Illustrator.
Hence the picture. Back in high school, Nick (The artist formerly known as) Flatland and I came up with an idea for a comic strip about the incarnation of death moving in with a college student. We originally just called it Death & Dan, but I've decided that I like Dante's heights better. It's catchier. The little guy in the corner is Death...I know...you expected him to be taller, didn't you...

Finals! Blegh.

Check this out! This was my final project for my intro to drawing class. It's colored pencil on dah-dah-dah! paper! I'm fairly pleased with it. It's so nice to be finally finished with finals for the year. I hate finals week. Somehow they manage to pack an entire year's worth of stress into three days. My adrenaline gland is still going nuts! But it's finally over! I'm going to go do absolutely nothing for the next three days before life throws me another curve ball.

Nick is a panda!

Alright, so you know that game that everyone plays at some point in their lives where you ask each other stupid questions with no real relation to life as me know it? Don't lie, we've all played it. Just some of us play it more often than others.
I play it more often than I care to admit. What can I say? I'm easily entertained. One of the most common questions asked is the old standby, If you were an animal, what would you be?
Most people either know their answer immediately, or hem and haw and refuse to say and expect you to pick something for them. I usually pick naked mole-rat for them. Just out of spite. But this one was for a friend. We took a few randomized polls and the results came back that he was a panda bear. I whipped out a little doodle in my sketchbook about it, then forgot all about the whole thing until he started pestering me about two weeks ago about, and I quote, "the old bear." So I sketched something, scanned and colored it, and here it is.
Now for some panda facts:

1. Scientists originally thought that the Giant Panda belonged to the family Procyonidae, which is Latin for "Animals who wear masks and dig through garbage cans." Then, because of its overwhelming resemblance to a bear, the scientists decided that it might be more like said bear than a raccoon.
2. The main reason that the scientists were confused is that the panda is obviously shunned by other bears because of certain embarrassing lifestyle choices. I mean, what self respecting bear would be caught dead munching on bamboo? Healthy - maybe, socially acceptable - not for bears.
3. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was the first non-Chinese person (wow, that was a masterful use of the English language) to shoot a panda. I imagine he also enjoyed clubbing baby seals.
4. They, like human children are required to watch those nasty health videos about "Reproduction." No really. They do. In zoos and stuff. It was on wikipedia, it must be true right?

Whew! I haven't done that much research at one time in, like, three hours! I'm exhausted! Peace. Out.

The Theatre, The Theatre

What has happened to the theatre? You might have noticed that I even spelled it the snobby British way.
So, in my theater 101 class (they don't spell it the snobby British way) I was required to get together with a group of bizarre theater misfits, which worked for me, and basically produce a show written by one of said misfits. I was just going to do the lighting design for the show, until I found out that the girl that we were going to have direct was in a main stage production at BYU and would have approximately three minutes in any given twenty-four hour period to do anything with this show. I offered to do the job and she melted into a sobbing puddle of hysterical laughter. Not an easy thing to do. I think it meant that she was glad to lose some excess stress.
Next on this delightful little list of events was the mysterious disappearance of our costume designer. No one knows where she went or what happened, she just stopped coming and we found ourselves short one member of the creative team. So I did it. It was more fun than the directing stuff. A lot easier too. And here it is in all its glory. Wheee photoshop! Bet you can't guess which one I play.

I did this!!

You know, I get just a little tired of these people who keep asking me to submit "My Portfolio." What? Do they think that I just keep all of the stuff I draw filed away somewhere convenient? And best of all, they want it filed electronically or on a CD. So I have to find a way to scan, photograph or wonkavision everything from sketchbook pages to massive 18 x 24 pages into my computer that possesses the storage capacity of a potato. Not an iPotato. Just a regular one. REEEHEEDiculous. Anyway, here is my favorite drawing of a hand. Which I put in my portfolio.

More animation fun!

Hmm...that last one isn't too impressive unless you loop it around to play over and over again. Try this one on for size.

Animation is my anti-drug

So, I just finished my Animation 160 class and this was the end result. Cosmo rocks!