Greetings from Paris!

A view of Paris from the plane. See the tiny, vertical structure towards the left? Ah yes, the Eiffel tower! 

Bonjour!

I know that it's about 5.30 pm on everyone else's watch, but it's almost 12.30 am here, and I am absolutely exhausted from running around the city since day one. Of course, I'm not complaining - good food, great culture, and copious amount of art history. It's all drool-worthy.

As I have been a bit lacking on the blogging end, I will only be posting one or two photos tonight. I'm having some serious sensation overloads -- from my taste buds, to my spirituality, to the aching in my feet. No photos -- or drawings, or videos -- will ever truly capture what Paris is. It's been an awakening to every one of my senses.

Not to mention the food... Did I already mention food?

My Croque-Madam (with oeuf!). The first dinner I had in Paris!

Today, we visited Notre Dame. I will have to write a much more detailed blog about this one later. There was so much to take in, and I can't even begin to express how I felt upon entering this building. For now, I'll just add a small teaser.

A view from the side on the outside. This was taken from Six/Huit, a small boat/restaurant that Eric Vogel (one of the instructors on the trip), a few of my classmates and myself decided to have lunch at. I finally got my crepe fix there (jambon a fromage a oeuf!). It will be the first of many, I'm sure. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the view was more than I could ask for. 

And finally, a small teaser of the inside. 

Forget about everything you thought you knew about religion, spirituality and yourself, folks. This church rips all of those ideas a new one. 

Well, it's nearing 1 am here. I think it's time to take my weary body to bed. Tomorrow? Versailles! 

Bonne nuit!  

The home stretch...

So, it's about a week until I walk at graduation.


... I'm going to let that sink in a little more.


Needless to say, I'm having some mixed emotions. Sure, I'm feeling the rush of adrenaline -- I'm waiting on the edge of the plank to take the final plunge into adult life ... But at the same time, I have grown so attached to my graduating class! Not to mention I've been in school for about 14 years. It's time to whip out the individual thoughts and find my direction. I'm definitely excited to get going on my OWN art and projects. It's going to feel really, really good.

Emotional turmoil aside, this is an excuse to post some of my work from Illustration Thesis class. It's not thesis (a post about that will follow shortly), but I had a lot of fun creating the work, so I'm going to throw it up on here, anyway.

Our assignment was to create illustrations for two playing cards. Each card was drawn pretty much at random, but I ended up trading one of mine to get a little more variety. After counting up our entire class (and a few teachers, to boot!) we got a whole deck of cards covered. We're getting them printed to make a little commemorative token of our graduating class. Oh, it's bringing tears to my eyes already! Sob.

Here's the first card -- the Two of Spades. 

Poor little deer girl. At least she seems rather nonchalant about her situation. 

Card number two -- The Four of Hearts.

Had a lot of fun with this one. Successfully combines my love for foxes, hair, and squeezy droplets.

It was a great way to end the year. I loved being able to let loose and have fun making some quick, simple illustrations. 

Now, what's a great way to end this post? Sleep. I think I've given myself a false sense of accomplishment from posting two pieces of art. Ah, well. I think I deserve to go to bed, now. Right? 

... Right? 

Until next time, all. Guten nacht.