:D
Just a quick note, and again no images this time.
I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas (to those who celebrate, and to those that don't) I hope and pray that the Lord will show you much of his love during this season and I hope you find time to rest and be merry. Sing songs! Drink Eggnog! etc!
Also:
The Muppet Christmas Carol: Best Christmas Movie of All Time?
discuss.
Cheers and thanks for reading!
-Nick
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
In which a great deal is said, and little is seen.
Just for fun, and because I can: A post!
I am home for the Holidays, and I am lagging like online Stratego circa 2001! So, it's something like 3am in the morning here, but of course I haven't bothered to set my clock back yet so I know full well that it is 9:18pm in America. I have found one of the two spots in the house where the wireless signal is functioning, and have settled in the narrow space between the couch and the TV to write a little note to the wide open web for any who care to read. Weirdly enough, I don't have any art to post or anything professionally significant to announce...I just figured, since I have a blog, I may as well post since I seem to be too tightly wedged here next to the TV to do anything else.
Actually, I've written an essay or two this semester that I thought might be worth sharing with y'all (henceforth, any reference to "you" "you guys" or "y'all" will assume I am talking to those who are actually interested in reading so far down this graphically unadorned posting. If you're one of those still reading: shame on you! don't encourage me.) This semester I took a class with an amazing professor named Dan Cavicci. The class, "Audience", was a study of the concept and idea of audiences throughout history. Sounds strange at first, but it's really rich and fascinating stuff when you get down to it. It's brought to mind a conversation I've been having a lot recently and I began to skew my essays and general focus in the way of the Internet. I actually just went out to eat with the parents of a friend at school and we had a very long and animated talk over dinner about parenting and the responsibilities of the media-maker in the post-Internet world. Fascinating stuff, almost knocked over the water.
The latest essay was meant to run in a more autobiographical bent, and so I've decided to take advantage of one of those things that the Internet is so famous for providing: putting my crap out there to see if there are likeminded people out there crossing my digital path. Hopefully someone out there might even be amused:
I edited it down and added a few things for this version, but it's most of the original essay.
There's TONS more to say, and I know I talk a lot, but given the subject matter I couldn't resist attempting to post it and see what people thought.
That's that, then. I've been spending my newfound free time surfing youtube with friends who are likewise adjusting poorly to having no immediate work to do. While doing so, I was trying to explain Europe, the Eurovision Song Contest, and why "Lordi" was such a revelation...so I subjected several friends to the following two videos:
(beware: LAME!)
Also: I know my website is not properly working on Internet Explorer. I'll be getting to work fixing that in the next few weeks (allow Christmas lag :p)
I'll be working on a number of projects soon enough...I can't stay away from making artwork for very long, after all. I won't make many more of these imageless posts, so don't give up on me just yet!
I hope you are all well and continue to wish you a very Merry Christmas!
Much love,
-Nick
I am home for the Holidays, and I am lagging like online Stratego circa 2001! So, it's something like 3am in the morning here, but of course I haven't bothered to set my clock back yet so I know full well that it is 9:18pm in America. I have found one of the two spots in the house where the wireless signal is functioning, and have settled in the narrow space between the couch and the TV to write a little note to the wide open web for any who care to read. Weirdly enough, I don't have any art to post or anything professionally significant to announce...I just figured, since I have a blog, I may as well post since I seem to be too tightly wedged here next to the TV to do anything else.
Actually, I've written an essay or two this semester that I thought might be worth sharing with y'all (henceforth, any reference to "you" "you guys" or "y'all" will assume I am talking to those who are actually interested in reading so far down this graphically unadorned posting. If you're one of those still reading: shame on you! don't encourage me.) This semester I took a class with an amazing professor named Dan Cavicci. The class, "Audience", was a study of the concept and idea of audiences throughout history. Sounds strange at first, but it's really rich and fascinating stuff when you get down to it. It's brought to mind a conversation I've been having a lot recently and I began to skew my essays and general focus in the way of the Internet. I actually just went out to eat with the parents of a friend at school and we had a very long and animated talk over dinner about parenting and the responsibilities of the media-maker in the post-Internet world. Fascinating stuff, almost knocked over the water.
The latest essay was meant to run in a more autobiographical bent, and so I've decided to take advantage of one of those things that the Internet is so famous for providing: putting my crap out there to see if there are likeminded people out there crossing my digital path. Hopefully someone out there might even be amused:
I edited it down and added a few things for this version, but it's most of the original essay.
There's TONS more to say, and I know I talk a lot, but given the subject matter I couldn't resist attempting to post it and see what people thought.
That's that, then. I've been spending my newfound free time surfing youtube with friends who are likewise adjusting poorly to having no immediate work to do. While doing so, I was trying to explain Europe, the Eurovision Song Contest, and why "Lordi" was such a revelation...so I subjected several friends to the following two videos:
(beware: LAME!)
Also: I know my website is not properly working on Internet Explorer. I'll be getting to work fixing that in the next few weeks (allow Christmas lag :p)
I'll be working on a number of projects soon enough...I can't stay away from making artwork for very long, after all. I won't make many more of these imageless posts, so don't give up on me just yet!
I hope you are all well and continue to wish you a very Merry Christmas!
Much love,
-Nick
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
www.nicholaskole.com!
That's it, as of today: finals are over! I am done and officially one semester closer to graduating from RISD in the Spring! Weird.
Also: as of right now, http://www.nicholaskole.com is live!
My last final was Web Design and the result of it is out and about on the world wide web for all to see...that's right, I now have my own official website! I'm really excited...I dunno why it seems like a big deal, but the "dot com" helps to make it feel all neat and official (so does the favicon, which is so silly as to be preposterous, but it doesn't stop me geeking out about it).
Please go and check it out and drop me a comment. Definitely update your links and bookmarks if you have em and spread the word! :D If people are interested in having a banner to link me with, then let me know and I'll make a few.
It's very new and there are doubtless some bugs to work out, so let me know how it works for you. I'm pretty pleased with the design myself, but I'd really like to hear what everyone thinks!
A large portion of the credit is due to Peter Lefferts (programmer and co-designer of Selah, incidentally) for walking me through the trickiest bits and telling me when I was being stupid. By the end now I really actually feel like I kind of understand how to do it, which is neat...especially when I decide I want to redesign it/design a new page (webcomic, anyone?)
In other news: I'm going Home on Sunday. Which is an unspeakably relieving idea at the moment...I'm really looking forward to what my be my last Christmas in Austria. And I love Christmas so much that generally I'm just looking forward to the break. I fully intend to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol until the tape breaks and I have to buy a new copy.
I'll be working a bit over the break as well...I'm actually going to be doing a 6-ish page story for an upcoming comics Anthology called Seasons. More on that, I cannot say, but it ought to be pretty exciting. It's looking to be my first published comics work, so I'm going to be kicking my butt to get it looking nice :D
Otherwise, thanks for reading and if I don't post before the bless-ed day: Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good...site.
awwwwww....pun-cramp.
-Nick
Saturday, December 6, 2008
A Good Day.
-text-
-no text-
Hey Guys!
Here it is: the last assignment for Shanth Enjeti's 'Character Creation' class. The prompt was simple: take two characters that you've designed and rework them. Then, illustrate a scene with both characters. This is the result of all those color studies and a long battle with the idea over the week. I just couldn't bring myself to pull out the purple, being that Kojo was so engrained in my head as this misty green/blue palette. The whole idea is kind of based out of dream-imagery for me and so I've been very attached to the concept from the get-go...and it can be hard to subject those kinds of things to a classroom critique situation.
One of the things to tackle was that this illustration, just by the nature of having this big nasty monster in it, had to have that ominous feeling...had to scream "RUN!", so it couldn't get too "pretty". And overall I was realy just pursuing the vision I had for the project in the beginning.
Anyways...this felt SO GOOD to do, I can't even tell you! It's been such a long semester of single-shot character designs against plain-backgrounds that getting to sink my teeth into something with a composition and story was just so nice. Like coming home :)
I'm quite pleased with the outcome, and it went over really well in class! It's such a bittersweet thing, finishing up this class. I feel like I've learned a LOT about character design and how to approach my work in general and I love the people and the dynamic so much that I really don't want to leave, but on the other hand I can hardly wait to get home for the holidays.
In fact, I am very excited to come home to Vienna for Christmas this year! It's going to be great to go home, and I have some exciting work to be playing with over the break that will show itself around here soon enough, I'm sure! I've got a few ideas that I'm sorting through and hopefully I'll get a chance to do come comic-book work soon. I've got some killer classes coming up next semester...two with Jon Foster (I'm bracing myself for a significant workload). I'm also starting to work through the first stages of a project I'm sure I'll be talking about more here later...myself and a friend will be endeavoring to create an anthology of RISD comic work by the end of Spring semester and independently publish...could be really cool!
I just got back in from Caroling with my friends, which was an entirely pleasant experience. Any opportunity to sing in public, really. And I REALLY love Christmas :)
Here it is: the last assignment for Shanth Enjeti's 'Character Creation' class. The prompt was simple: take two characters that you've designed and rework them. Then, illustrate a scene with both characters. This is the result of all those color studies and a long battle with the idea over the week. I just couldn't bring myself to pull out the purple, being that Kojo was so engrained in my head as this misty green/blue palette. The whole idea is kind of based out of dream-imagery for me and so I've been very attached to the concept from the get-go...and it can be hard to subject those kinds of things to a classroom critique situation.
One of the things to tackle was that this illustration, just by the nature of having this big nasty monster in it, had to have that ominous feeling...had to scream "RUN!", so it couldn't get too "pretty". And overall I was realy just pursuing the vision I had for the project in the beginning.
Anyways...this felt SO GOOD to do, I can't even tell you! It's been such a long semester of single-shot character designs against plain-backgrounds that getting to sink my teeth into something with a composition and story was just so nice. Like coming home :)
I'm quite pleased with the outcome, and it went over really well in class! It's such a bittersweet thing, finishing up this class. I feel like I've learned a LOT about character design and how to approach my work in general and I love the people and the dynamic so much that I really don't want to leave, but on the other hand I can hardly wait to get home for the holidays.
In fact, I am very excited to come home to Vienna for Christmas this year! It's going to be great to go home, and I have some exciting work to be playing with over the break that will show itself around here soon enough, I'm sure! I've got a few ideas that I'm sorting through and hopefully I'll get a chance to do come comic-book work soon. I've got some killer classes coming up next semester...two with Jon Foster (I'm bracing myself for a significant workload). I'm also starting to work through the first stages of a project I'm sure I'll be talking about more here later...myself and a friend will be endeavoring to create an anthology of RISD comic work by the end of Spring semester and independently publish...could be really cool!
I just got back in from Caroling with my friends, which was an entirely pleasant experience. Any opportunity to sing in public, really. And I REALLY love Christmas :)
It is extremely late here in Providence and I think I'll head to bed. Thanks for reading and enjoy!
-Nick
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