Nina's University Sketchbook, Vol 6

2008 was an interesting year for me. I had just gotten sorta serious with a guy in Toronto, just in time for me to be shipped away for a semester abroad in Germany, and had also made the decision to start refocusing on music. My time in Germany was the perfect place for that - I brought my laptop, a mic, and a sound card with me for writing, and I enrolled in audio production/engineering at the school I was going to. I even got involved with the school's radio station, and was the official English-speaking interviewer/segment producer for when bands came to town. So I got to see a lot of free concerts, interview a lot of interesting bands, and focus on my music writing.

I also ended up doing quite a bit of travelling and walked everywhere in an attempt to try to lose a few pounds.

Consequently, I didn't do a whole lot of drawing that year. What I did draw, were presents for my then boyfriend back home in Toronto, and stuff related to the demo album that I was trying to make. I did get one other finished piece in there, too, which I've also included here.

Us As X-Men

Photoshop
As I mentioned, Terrence was back home in Toronto whilst I was in Germany - we skyped every day, and it was tough for both of us. We were still a fairly new couple, and having to do a 6 month long distance stint was something neither of us were sure we could make through. But we made our best effort and I sent him lots of pictures. Here's one of us both as X-Men - he legit looks like a real life Wolverine. Kids comment on it all the time (seriously). So I thought it'd be fun to make me Jean Gray, of course! Back then I had red hair, but I still had braids! (that's kinda my thing)

Missing You

Photoshop
As the months went on it did get harder. I had photos from our Christmas road trip to the Keys handy to help me not miss him as much, and I decided to draw my favourite one. So this is referenced from a specific photo:

Wow I looked so different 10 years ago... the good news is, that we survived. And how! We're still together!

Puma Tattoo

Pen, Photoshop
This is kinda random in this collection, but if you know me then you'll know that I basically have my entire body planned out when it comes to tattoos. So every once in a while I'll find some time to draw one that I plan to get. Last week I shared my snake one (which I did actually get), but here's one that I still have yet to get! It will go on my right lower leg, sort of on the outside near the calf. I'll basically be a walking zoo when I'm 90.

Justicssus

Photoshop
Ok back to my German adventure. I did a LOT of songwriting in Germany. There was a big forest right next to the university where I was living in Stuttgart, and I went running almost every day along the trails in an attempt to really take my weight loss journey seriously. That was actually the first time that I lost more than 5 pounds in my life - when got back to Toronto I was 20 lbs lighter! I was still overweight for my size, but it was great progress.

But I digress - Those walks and runs in the woods really got my musical brain working. I can't explain it, but that's when I realized that I do my best work when I'm walking. Even to this day, when I want to write a song, I plan a long walk!

I had enough material to make a demo, so I recorded what I was able to record and program on my laptop and started putting together all the stuff for releasing the album. This would be my first full-length demo since high school, and the first one that actually had a heavy electronic sound that I wanted to pursue. I decided to call it "Justicssus" - a merge of Justice and Narcissus - as a leo I'm naturally narcissistic and superficial, but the album for me was more than that. It was an attempt to justify all my emotions surrounding everything that I was singing about on the release.

Anyway, for the album cover, I thought it made sense to paint myself as Lady Justice, with my eyes being stuck in the weight of mirrors. I still love the idea, and though I've taken down access to this demo album publicly, I would love to do a photo shoot of this concept and try to recreate it in real life one of these days just for fun. I wish I knew how to sew!

Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope that you found this post entertaining!