Watching the world go by

I packed my bags for college the previous evening to avoid forgetting anything else important this morning. Like my head. It was another day of presentations/crits, this time for the portrait unit. Although I had enjoyed it, I wasn't super happy with my final work. The 5x4 was technically ok, but it wasn't great. The individual shots for the character portrait, I liked, but I had a real hard time choosing which two to use. As usual I over thought things.

The crit for the portraits was a bit more in-depth than the other units had been, which I really enjoyed. One of the main things I want from college is some proper critique. Blippers are a lovely bunch and invariably leave comments when they like things, rather than the other way around. Which works well for the site, but I'm at the stage were I feel I really need someone to start poking holes in things. I can see plenty holes in my own work! It was really helpful. With the crit in mind I'm going to go back and have another look at my contacts. I didn't really manage to get over the character that I wanted and the discussion helped me get some perspective on why.

I had to leave for work at lunchtime, so I didn't get to see all of my classmates work (which I feel guilty about, particularly cause it was a day when quite a lot of people had to run off elsewhere, leaving the afternoon session a bit depleted, genuinely sorry guys). The work that I did see was excellent. Some people excelled on the technical side, some nailed the character element. it's really inspiring to feel you're in a class full of talented people.

Work was ok. I got to do a graphic that was a little bit more involved than usual, which helps speed things up a bit. When I got in, The Weatherman was around for dinner (it was his birthday). Although I think The Weatherman might have to be the Running Man from now on, as he's got right into that. We watched the New Vic and Bob series, which was superb, vintage Reeves and Mortimer style surrealism.

Wednesday is final hand in day. Due to the shambolic weekend of darkrooming, I still had a fair bit of workbook stuff to stick down and some prints to frame (I had pre-cut the mounts on Sunday). It was twenty past four by the time I went to bed. To be honest though, I find the early hours can be some of the best for working in. There's no distractions and I found my self in a weird state of Zen calm.