Tifa (collab with ricey)

An art collaboration with ricey on mangarevolution.com. The picture he gave was one of Tifa from FFVII (oh yea, an unforgettable rpg....:D) The lineart was very clean, traced out from illustrator. Influenced by the recent 'World Ends With You' game I'm playing, I decided to make her look a bit Nomura-ish kind of lineart. It looked kinda empty, so I added Cloud in there. Kind of regreted it halfway through the inking, cos he seems to be catching all the attention.

When it comes to coloring, I decided to try out that 'alcohol dripping on copic ink' kind of technique, which I read of a year ago on a book of Japanese comickers. It was messy, and again, I smell like some mad doc and the paper behind the artwork was soon drenched in purple ink (the sky blue ink I used seems to seperate into some magenta color which produced mixed with the blue, became purple). So on and on... the 'destroying' continued and wahla - I got this... Pretty fun, maybe I should try it more next time. XD

My First Booth Setting Experience! :)

(All photos from DORO N HER RANDOM CAMERA!!!)
Yeap, EOY 08 came and went. And as planned, Dor and I got a booth there and sold some prints. It's our very first time joining as sellers and both of us had quite some troubles along the way, but hey, things got settled as the time passed. We got there early to set up our booth, the space was not as small as I thought it would be.

It's pretty early and there aren't much people around, save for the booths at the furthest end which are helping some cosplayers.



A pretty good space where the toilet is just nearby and coffeebean is just within sight (weeee~ cofffeeeee!!! XD) I brought along the 20 yr old briefcase which Dad wanted to get rid of during the previous home cleaning months ago. It looked kinda cool (like those underworld 'hei se hui' black suitcases which can contain bundles of cash) and maybe it might spice up the display a bit with something sticking out instead of a flat surface. We laid out our stuff neatly, Dor's Naruto and Team Fortress prints and my random rojak fanarts and personal artwork prints. So yea, wrote the price tags and organised our stuff a bit, sell!



The first costumer came and bought Dor's Naruto postcard (of Team 7!).


It kind of shocked her, cos she thought it wasn't the best work she produced, but hey, it sold off. Sales went slow, till probably the afternoon when the crowds came. Some looked at our works and went off, some bought a few prints, some got all excited and some just came and chat, sharing some experience. It kind of felt like poly days when people just say hi and talk crap, very DMD-like. As for the selling, I was quite shocked that the most unexpected ones got sold, my personal works. Heck, all of them were actually past works given a touch up in photoshop. I couldn't do new works out, especially when the calender is lined up to be done in digital, along with the Ciel bookmark....

click here to see the pic before the touch up.

Dor told me it would be better if I could touch up my works digitally, and maybe it did come out better. Added in the fairy wings for the sunflower picture (which I missed out during the painting). The one of Houshin Engi (H.E) was also given some digital touch and yea, one was sold when the buyer saw the original. He didn't read the manga before but he seemed impressed with the pencil work, which was kind of comforting to know that people do look out for the craftsmanship too instead of popularity. It also made me wonder if I should just bring out all the originals I have next time.

My Soul Eater calender got sold out. Yea, many told me that it was too cheap... maybe I should amend my pricing for the next calender tee hee.. Anyways, no photos from me, my cam died sometime ago. Saw some really nice cosplays, but could only depend on Dor to get the pictures. Saw one of FUKKI FROM HOUSHIN ENGI! I couldn't believe that I'll see that here, since the fanbase seemed to have quieten down ever since that series ended. And the one cosplaying Dakki was.... pretty hot.. and courageous to go into bikinis in such a place... but hey, that's how Dakki is.


(NYAK NYAK NYAK! FORCED Doro to take this picture of them for meeeeee~! XD)

Someone cosplaying as Hughes gave out a feeling very similar to the character, flashing out his 'daughter's' print everywhere, though I thought the drawing by his 'daughter' could be done out manually instead of a pixelated printout... heh (yea, do it all the way since you are in it!:D)



A lot of cosplayers, and the most memorable one is this:

A whole Naruto gang flooding the area. It was really cool to see this enormous crowd of Naruto characters walking together. When the EOY ended, we saw them parading past the Burger King outlet we were chilling out at.


Anyways, check out Dor's album for them pictures!! (Since they aren't taken by me.... dun wanna grab so much and put them here...)

Also, Doro invited many people to our booth! Me didn't, cos the thought of that entry fee made me feel it's too ex >_<



Dor with Sean and her Bros!



Dun they siblings look alike when they smile? (she's gonna smash me for saying this.... XD)

She was really into the project, and quite a number came, not just to see us but other friends who are setting up booths as well!



Val and Isaac at their booth just diagonally across from ours! XD Dunno why, it's fun to see people u know setting up booths nearby, I guess. Saw Jacqueline (previously an intern at Scrawls) just beside our booth too!

I had a surprise visit from Miss Sunshine!



And yea, she bought some prints from us, and the sunflower one... Kind of felt bad that I didn't remind her of the event coming and she rushed there in the last hour. I was really tired then and couldn't chat much T_T.... kind of like isolating her there... (very very sorry >_<).... When everything ended, Dor and I, together with Isaac, Shawn and Huizai went for some food at the nearby Burger King. They chatted a lot but I think my brain was really shutting down that I found myself dozing off a few times at my seat. The finance part was hard to settle at Dor's place, cos both of us were shagged.... but we still got through there. We had some more stuff left unsold but yea, there is gonna be a next time, rite? ;)

An Unlucky Week...

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T_T.........
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Haaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.............

I know I have been neglecting you la.... putting you aside in that bag but you cannot do this to me nia..... T_T



T_T ngggggaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....................

It just died suddenly..... After an autopsy done at Dorothy's house, it's confirmed that it's dead...... Maybe by internal 'bleeding'.....



RIP on 03-12-2008

Second Unlucky Day....Went shopping at Daiso and my handphone went missing.... T_T Haiz... dun wanna say about that...maybe I was careless.... Just hope that if it's stolen, that person don't do anything to the people on my contact list....

Preparing for EOY! Have to get down to coloring my calender and finish off that bookmark! Kind of like the calender so far, but I really wonder if people will like it? The illustration is not the typical chibi character which allows one to see the entire face of the character.... But hey, let's just take it as an experience ba... haha...

Maka!

Death the Kid

and Chrona

Yea, it's a calender of Soul Eater characters, trying to make it stylised, which I wonder if there are people out there who would accept it? Anyways, thanks to Dor's bro who lent me an intuos2 to substitute my dead intuos3 for the moment... A trip to her work desk at her house had been very inspiring, watching how she paint digitally. Man does she improved damn lots. Maybe to the point I get fired up to do digital illustrations lol! There's a whole lot of things to learn there, guess if I look on the bright side of this booth thing, I might see myself doing something different from my usual habits. Okies! Time to sleep n get ready for tommorrow's workload! JIA YOU!!!

Meeting Mr Michael

Went back to school today for a review by Mr Michael Tan. It's really nice of him to do that, and brain draining for him too.... By the time it was my turn, he seemed very tired, but his patience is super.... Anyways, he complimented on my works, and told me to brush up on my communication skills, which had always been a big obstacle for me. Something I really liked about him is that he sees things that we students normally aren't aware of. I didn't know that my works revolved around conciousness... or maybe the assignments he gave made me think in that direction? Dunno, I thought I could have done better in my work there, overall, I have felt disappointment for not doing up to my own expectations for this module, especially since the tutor had did a really superb job in his role. Or maybe I'm thinking too much.... ah well.

He pushed me to find out more drawing styles, just like what Ms Amy said last time...And read up more books (i'll need that i guess). Some food for thought there, he also asked me to know myself and stuff... cos ultimately, I'll need to come up with my own animations in these 4 years. I can't possibly be just doing what others want of me, although the industry is different. Or maybe I should think 'it's the only time I can do something for myself, so maybe I should do it well?' That sounds more like it.... lol.

About 30 minutes (?) picture of Shiki from World Ends with You. Man.. the story is starting to drag, but guess I'll just let the pp accumulate while I work on my drawings these days. Have been going on a break the past week, running around with ex-col and friends, and gaming. Time to get some work done... LET'S CHIONG ARRHHH DOR!!! XD

Salt salt and more salt *rub rub*

Have been enclosed in my room for a day, trying to draw something. Haha, with the holidays here, it's easy to go aimless, but I gotta prepare for the booth thing now that it is gonna come true. Wonder if it would have been better if I go out to work and earn some bucks. The kids would be happy about that, since I'll not be around to 'gaurd' the computer from them haha. Anyways, the previous day had been a day of exploration.... considered maybe.

I was starting out trying to do a picture of Hiroyuki Asada's Letter Bee character Rag, and wondered how to go about coloring the way he did it. I remembered reading his comic from a book that I've borrowed from a friend, showing a bit of his coloring process. It was all purple and magical looking, though the story was kinda dark... and yeap, it's cg... Did a scan of the picture before splattering some paint over it, guess I'll try my hand on cging again.



During the painting process, I thought of getting down some white spotted effect with salt, but my previous attempts with it had been total failures... Even for the intended picture above, it didn't turn up, so I end up erasing colors from the painted surface to give the spots.

Before that, I did a small testing with the salt effect, but I didn't want to waste the (test) paper completely, so I did a quick sketch of a girl in a field and did the magic salt thingy. Man, it worked out, though the control was weak, it definitely turned out better than the pic of Rag I did.



Of course, that wasn't the only experimented piece... the other one failed too (a picture of Cloud that I sketched out earlier on but never get down to paint)
The paint I used for this one was more concentrated... making me wonder if that's the problem? Or maybe it's the paper? (Yea, this pic was drawn on a different type of watercolor paper and I didn't wet the paper earlier on) Coming back to it this morning, I thought maybe I should detail it with another medium other than the usual color pencils. Scanning my messy table, I grabbed that last few pieces of charcoal (leftovers of the semester's drawing lessons) and tried to see what I could make out of it.



Come to think about it, this sounds like a problem solving practice... lol (spirit of a visual com-mer!).

And while experimenting with salt, the bottle of methylated spirit disinfectant caught my eye and yea, it became an experiment too. I looked like some crazy surgeon yesterday, hands full of the smell of disinfectant...very much like this. It gave a kind of 'acid splattered on' effect that looked pretty cool.



Haha, can't resist drawing something on it, but it's fun XD Err... That's Neku from the World Ends with You. Finally got down to playing the game... reminded me of Waiting for Godot when the same game happened again... argh.

Hmm...Wonder what to do tomorrow? Hehe...

AFA 2008!

Yeap, me went for Anime Festival Asia (http://www.afa08.com/), both days.... Currently quite tired... haha XD It's been a pretty cool experience, though on the first day, it seemed to be another comics convention kind of thing where you people and sellers, cosplayers and stage stuff. However... I was quite wrong. After seeing the schedule yesterday, I decided to come back again for the screening of Studio 4°C's animation. I didn't know much about this company, but after watching the animation, seems like it's one hell of a studio that had really inspired many. Although I couldn't really understand what the animation screened was about, it looked pretty cool. Very surreal.... that part of a floating, corpse-like figure kind of creeps me, but it stays in the mind for sometime.... And went for the 5pm seminar, which discussed about how the company goes on in the industry.

Man, it was then that I realised that the events in the seminar room were free for all.... I thought some pre-registration was needed after looking through the webbie... T_T so much I've missed!!!!!!!!! >_< That was exactly what the event is really good for (besides the May'n concert)..... ARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH >_< Anyways, lesson learnt... I know what to look out for now........ sob...

And yea, the concert of May'n's (wonder how to put that 's...). SUPER CROWDED nia..... While in the walled up seminar area, I notice people gathering at the cafeteria area high up at around 5+. By 6pm or so, the area in front of the stage was already packed. >_< We tried to find a nice viewing area at the cafeteria too, but there too was pretty packed. In the end, we settled with the area behind the audio system operations (dunno how to put that...)



Hehe, no video-ing and shooting of pics allowed, and it's even stricter when u are just right behind the event staff... so sorry Xiu....-_- U might have to youtube ur way to May'n's concert....(if there is one) And yea... her voice was power nia... but it kind of gets a bit sharp at the high notes. Ada told me the way she project her voice might harm her vocal cords one day, but to be able to get to that level this way, it's really super of her... Halfway through, I kind of regret not getting a ticket to the concert cos I can't see much of the stage (arrrrrggghh... the av people are blocking >_<) Heh, see fanboys at max! (yea, I'll shuddup... XD)

Whew... so that concludes the day for me... Didn't shoot much pictures...



This guy was doing a live demo of airbrushing a gundam model to the public. Pretty cool... I began wondering how cool it'll be if Mr Calvin Tan would ever do a live demo like that too.....



The parts are like clipped to a stick and he just go over it with an airbrush? The spray is so fine that I can't see it coming out from that airbrush... Yea, I dunno much about this art form.



This picture on the graffiti wall got me to take out my cam for the first time in the convention. The lines are just so beautiful.... Upon closer inspection, the person who did it had plotted out the basic structure before doing inking on it, planned out very nicely.... (yea, click for a larger view. Just love it... sorry, the picture isn't taken at a very good angle...)



The only clearest picture of Ichirou Mizuki (ANIKI!) I've got. Probably my hands weren't steady... or maybe I got knocked by many squeezing in the crowd while trying to steady my cam.



Big big gundam u'll see when you step into the place...









The usual cosplaying going on... didn't take much (super didn't), gonna kapok from Ada someday....nyak nyak..

Western Art History Examination....

Oh yea, ONE DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XD
Whew... it was a last minute work... researching for one and half days for info on the painting that was of interest to me. The very first one that came to mind was Hans Holbein the Younger's 'The Ambassadors', but knowing that someone had previously done a super intensive research on that piece for presentation earlier, I decided to do something else...

Taa daaah!



Yeap, the Arnolfini Marriage (or Double Portrait or wedding or bethrothal etc..). Dunno why I chose this one, probably due to the Desperate Housewives Opening sequence, this picture kind of got into my head years ago when I first saw it. Didn't know it was so full of mysteries until I went to search up some information about it. So... here are some useful links which I stumbled upon while gathering info, for those who are also doing some research for assignments on this picture!

On the picture, with some pictures for comparisons


On Jan Van Eyck


An image resource webbie that has some background information on the images


Following from Wikipedia, this site provides views from Craig Harbison, who is a deep researcher of the painting


Following from Wikipedia, The Arnolfini double portrait: a simple solution - Critical Essay, proposing that the painting is partly a memorial portrait


An online book about the Double Portrait


Excerpt from Gombrich's Story of Art on the Arnolfini Double Portrait

That's about it from me... And something to 'commemorate' the end of this hectic day...

Yea, messed up my signature there. The crumpled up paper there is actually tissue paper, next to some yellow flu pills... I had been suffering from flu for the past one week. Nasty flu.. keep coming on and off... And heck, gonna go sleep now and carry on with my literature studies tomorrow.....T_T

Meeting an online friend!

Weeeeeee! XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD
Yeap, just like the title stated, I've finally met up with Glory, someone I've met in Maplestory for quite sometime. It's a nervous day too, but more of a happy occasion than and nervous one. Before that, I was pretty worried that I'll miss her arrival (never been to the harbor of star cruises before) and double checked with her many times on that. Got gale to accompany me there, who asked idiot along and as expected didn't came.

So we got there and wahlah! Recieved a phone call from her, and I tried to scan my surroundings for her, my eyes stopping at a long haired lady, slightly taller than me (>_<), dressed in black tee and blue jeans, speaking to the handphone, looking lost too (talk about a woman's sixth sense XD). My... she look more matured than I am.... T_T, joyful and giggly, unlike how she was usually in game. I wanted to bring her to Bens and Jerrys for some ice cream, but it was just too crowded....T_T So we headed off to hagan daaz instead. We chatted for quite a while, and somehow, I was glad that gale was there too (I'm no good at keeping converstations going...T_T).

Game and reality is definitely a different thing. We exchanged thoughts altogether, and I found her a frank lady, not afraid of speaking up face to face. Her honest opinions is something that I can never give directly unless I really know that person super well... Kind of admire her courage for stepping into a relationship when she's at a really insecure state and able to maintain that relationship till now for a year. Hope that gleam in her eyes forever stays there :)

Time was short for us, after grabbing some biscuits and chocs off cocoa trees and candy empire, we settled down in Mcdonalds for a while to chat again, before finally sending her off at the check-in station. Yeap, we took some photos there, but I guess I won't put them up, cos someone hates to see his photo up on the internet -_-.

Did some bookmarks for her, chean and ruby:


This was for her,

chean,

and ruby!

But after an encounter with her, I would do it differently if there is a chance to. Let's see if she'll come again next time! XDXDXDXD

My Life Update 1 (Dedicated to my sis.....-_-)

Yea yea yea... paiseh, didn't put up any pictures for you to see... Ting's bdae you can check it out on her bloggie, didn't take much nice pictures.... T_T The nicest probably would be this one...



And... recently, me got a slight sprain on my ankle during badminton lesson... And I'm not alone really.

To be truthful, hers was worse.

And with mum running around these days, aunty Peck volunteered to look after the kids a while...


And your bro's result slip is pretty amazing....



... to the point that I'm wondering how great milk formulas have become despite the melamine situation...



Yea, he got first in class, got some performance award there.

That's it for now, I guess... gotta prepare for my exams. I'm quite proud of myself...or disappointed to the point of decieving oneself that it's pride: I've successfully slacked for three days (not two), reading comics, sleeping, doing nothing at granny's home, reading how-to-draw books other than studying.

.....I'm screwed. Symphony number 5 please..... T_T

Zeira

Yea~~~ Unofficial holiday for two days!!!! YEAAAAAA!!!!! -_-.... Ah well, I have to do some serious study during these two days... but I just wanna laze around.... T_T Argghh...

Did a little drawing during my free time in school today, kind of liked it, so did a quick cg for it with photoshop. Guess I'm still accustomed to the illustrator way of doing computer graphics...

The sketch...

and the one hour + cg... Didn't wanna do a too detailed piece, so smack some texture in. Still feels pretty incomplete... maybe some text might help... Somehow, the energetic feel of the sketch is lost during the cg.... T_T

Friends?

Today's class was pretty fast with Ms Bridget. Gosh, she's the BEST drawing teacher I've met so far, her classes are almost as fun as Mr Calvin's sulpting classes. It's just one of those classes that you really look forward to going! And I confessed to her that I accidentally filled in the online feedback form with lotsa disagrees.... T_T Haha....

'you see? You can't do EVERYTHING ONLINE, this is what happens! Someone gotta do somethign about that',

man, just love her. XDXDXD

Some sketches from the latest drawing homework, kind of enjoy this work:

Done on the 180 bus, a 15 minutes sketch... The people are drawn at different times.


The living room on a saturday morning! Yea, my mum sleeps there with the two little fellows in the living room. Much cooler there.



After bringing the kids for art classes, mum and I went to have some breakfast at a nearby coffeeshop with my uncle and aunt. These two are done there.



Haiz... during lunch a fellow classmate just popped me a stupid question about the issue of friendship being degraded to manipulation and such. -_- Dunno, it's a wierd thing maybe, and I just told him about things people said to me regarding that before, that friends are just for convience? Haha, maybe at some point of a time, people need help from their friends and they will just gladly help. But to build friendships on a chess set basis sounds a bit too.... It's creepy when I hear people say 'make friends with those that has of use to you'. He replied that it is very real, which made me wonder perhaps it's just a shift of perception between helping and being used...?

On my way home, I recieved an sms from a long distant friend I've known for several years, saying she just broke up with her boy. I was quite shocked to see it again, cos the previous message regarding that from her was about 3 months ago. Although she's in China, I still made a call to her, checking if she's fine. Still the same voice, just a bit choked from the crying, I guess... There had been 4 years of silence since she left Singapore for studies overseas, but still, she told me about her love story and we chatted for quite a while.

It's wierd how friendships are, even if it's someone who was close and had not talked to for a long time, the sudden chats just feel good. It's quite like a door that is always open to welcome the other, and the other just pops in and make him/herself at home. Maybe that's just how friendships are...?

Yea, I've always been having an issue with friendships, but heck, the more I think of that topic, the more I ruminate and all... making no conclusions at all. What is there to conclude anyway... lol, I'm just glad that those who had walked the roads closely with me before are still somewhere on the road. Maybe we'll meet again...heh.