Literally...

Another lame video introduced by my colleague at workstudy.... yea, it's silly, but at times like these when one is so sian of work, anything out of the norm is good.

Checkpoint after checkpoint after checkpoint... Can't believe I did so many things over the past two weeks. First was the Modern Art presentation. We totally overshot the time limit, but the prof didn't stop us from doing so. She felt that it was a great presentation, and we were even awarded with the highest marks of the groups. The question I tackled was about Singapore and propaganda... and like any other apathetic kids, urgh... it was hell thinking about politics and what not. It set quite some pressure there... and I tackled that question because my other team mates were Indonesian... so... baah. But hey, learned some stuff about the nation's history alright... ah well. The other question was quite hard to dig for info, but managed to get them through some camera shots of the out of print book. The past lectures of Mr Sabapathy's were of great help in formulating my own ideas about the subject and yea, managed to hit the spot for that question that day.

Cleared the animation seminar after that, and though the outcome was not as good as I wanted, it was quite well received. Yin Huey did her part well, and I'm glad she pulled through that stormy week. She fell sick right after the submission day... but did a really great job with the editing and I couldn't have thought of a better way out for the op and ed credits myself.

Prof prac too, didn't thought we could crap those pages out in time. Did the proposal with someone from another major, also called Dorothy but this Dorothy calls herself Dot instead of Doro (haha, should have did a screen capture of the two Dorothys msn-ing me at the same time.) Anyways, I was very amazed at how much she can write within such a short time, it would have taken me a few days to get that out. She has a way of getting what she wants without being very persuasive (or maybe I'm too anything), and quite an open mind. Although everything again was last minute, it was a great feeling to work towards something with someone putting in as much as you did (somehow... just felt she did a lot more than I did... haha. Words... I need to read and write more.... >_<).

And between all those was Glory and Chean's 4 day visit to Singapore... It was amazing how things fell into place. Although I couldn't accompany them for two days, they had some good times with Alton, Ed, Shirley and Tao. Maybe I'll publish that in the next post...

Well... looking at those two weeks... can't say I didn't have time for work... haha. Tired, but not that tired. Maybe the best way to explain it all is with a laugh. Nothing explains more than that now... ..Time to move on to the last three checkpoints!

Relaxing...?

Just a random face to keep my skills from rusting...... It's been almost a month since I painted anything and yea, just had the random urge to paint something today.

My animation project has finally entered the clean up phase, probably quite on time? I thought it would be easier for me at this stage, but it was tiring a tiring process... I found myself napping away after 5 hours of animating, never knew it'll be such a strain for the mind and eye. Anyways... aiming to finish my cleaning up part by end of this week. Great that today is a holiday, no Davide's lessons! A nice break, or rather, a chance to catch up with the other stuff.

Stepping Out

Was listening to the song by Dong Li Huo Che a few days back and went digging for the video again. It's one of those songs that is best for times like these.... makes you feel that whatever situation you think you're in deep shit is actually not that bad after all (at least for me...)....yea, not that bad after all, haha.

Ah yea, found the whole 30 ep drama on tudou, something to watch when the sem ends. :)

Start of the ending phase...

The week had been full of animating: papers, flash and maya. Drawing in a sense, haha.. but not a leisure doodle in the sketchbook. Semester's ending in one and half month's time... it's gonna be a rocky way ahead.

3D character animation is gonna be a tough one. At least Davide prepared us by telling us about the assignments to come: a dance, four legged walk and the final: a human plus 4 legged animal and ball interaction. Argh. I'm not done with my baseball.... cry.

Everyone is getting anxious about Animation Seminar... The tutors are panicking as the groups are still in the early stages of production (with some still in pre-production) and all was supposed to be wrapped up by the end of this month. Right now... they are considering of merging groups. Kind of like if you know you can't finish yours in time, consider joining another's group and help finish up their project. Not sure about mine... 30% done, animation rough stage... still manageable, but not gonna be great.

Prof prac assignmet 1 was dued last week. It was a rushed out one, alot of communication breakdown between the group. The project was easy, just putting together a portfolio online with resume and all, and doing some company analysis, but the tough part was that the organisation of one's materials are to be consistent with the rest of the class. Although my previous portfolio and archiving of projects saved me from having to search for artworks, it was quite a reality check on my current progress. I don't have much professional works, mostly are my own personal paintings and fanarts. Even though in my first job interview, the recruiter said they were looking out for these personal works, it was the professional works which would make the employer look seriously at one's stuff before turning to look at these hobby paintings... It was a good thing that I took up this module this year. One more year of building up. Haha...

Life at EOS was a bliss, for me I think. 20 hours per week as said, doing animation. But without any work assigned to me, I would leave for home and do my own stuff. Bad habit maybe, but if one is employed on an hourly basis, I don't wish to take money for doing nothing. And yea, it's been sometime since I work with a team of more than 4. It's been an enjoyable experience. Despite being in adm for almost 3 years, I haven't talk to the rest so much as I did now.

As for the other two lecture based modules... modern art was full of philosophies and human resource management was full of being human in business. I wonder how many companies practice that well. Ack, haven't touch the textbook at all. Haiz.

AFA is coming. Harry Potter is coming. And then deadlines are coming. Aiyah...

I'm loving it!

Cliche title, but I'm really loving NLB.



From Bukit Batok NLB.

Supposed to be doing work... but the rainy weather was just too nice for studying.



Wanted to paint a portrait of Jack Doe, a character created by a fellow schoolmate. It started with a random chat though, he was never good at colors and threw up a random idea of getting his character painted. I wanted to do it in digital that time (a year ago), but never really enjoyed digital art till now. Feels as though I'm painting in oil.

OMG...

Man, they're gonna put Layton and Phoenix Wright together O_O?! Somehow, they seem to be on loggerheads though. Still prefer Edgeworth if that's the case... Wait... how did Phoenix and Maya end up in that era? A game of logic, yet doesn't sound logical. Argh, this is gonna be awesome!!!! (And another great soundtrack coming, I hope! :D)

Another one hour practice:

Jump again

Another old work reworked. Since it's late, I challenged myself to do as much as possible in an hour. Worked this picture another way. Instead of putting a multiplied layer on top for lines, I buried the original drawing at the botttom and painted on it with another layer, like working a gouache painting.

I'm starting to like this stuff. :3

Lunch Over colored

Taking the past pictures and coloring them in corel for a practice. Saves the time for having to think up new colors and pictures when I just want to get used the software... Somehow, managed to find a way out with the Artist Oils tool, but I see a potential blending problem... It will be hard for me to use it to paint without a layer of lineart in that case. But depending on linearts to have a brilliant cg is not what I'm looking for ultimately. Maybe for now, I'll focus on getting used to this thing before moving on to that level.

And surprise surprise, 'Dive to World' got featured as a DD. That's the first time though, and ironically, it's a picture I didn't enjoy painting... Haha. It's wierd, but come to think about it, quite happened many times throughout history; the works that the artist personally disliked but gets the most attention out of the rest of their works. Maybe I should start putting up all the past works that I rejected. Lols.

Corel Painting

A fellow schoolmatey introduced a few painting tools to me,and I decided to give it a try. The first was a jap paint tool, but somehow, it lagged on my computer and I lost all patience for it, despite how great it was said to be. Went to get a copy of corel painter after that, and there goes another Sunday.

Spent the entire afternoon trying to get it working the way I want. The brushes surprised me, and they mixed just like real paints. However... I couldn't figure out how to blend the paints and 'clean' my brush. Sat there for 4 hours throwing in my basic knowledge of painting but just couldn't get it to blend nicely. The help manual introduced the tools and their functions, but didn't give any tips about handling them. Tutorials weren't of much help. Most that I came across talked about 'how to paint this and that' instead of 'how to operate this painting tool'. And I laughed at the statement of one of it, saying how Da Vinci would be doing miracles with the software if he were alive in this time. Try throwing Michealangelo a copy of Maya then.... It's frustrating... yet digital is something one of this era has to get the hang of in this field. Eek.

Went to the library for helpbooks, but didn't churn out much in the BB library. Came back and decided to continue on that Ariel picture again.



I hate my laptop's colors....



...Cry. It's a brand new way of painting... complex way.... Urgh. Have to find a way suitable for me.

Ariel

Bought 'The Little Mermaid' and 'Beauty and the Beast' DVDs yesterday. Ahh.... childhood... I remember watching them during Christmas at my aunt's place. Back then, it was all on video tapes.



Doodled this while watching the Little Mermaid. Nose problem again, heh. Ann heard the music 'Under the Sea' playing, and she sat down beside me to watch the show. At first, I thought she would not stay on for long cos of the dialogue and lengthy showtime (she has a very short attention span). But hey, I was really wrong. She stayed on to the very end, and even wanted to watch the other DVD with me. Disney magic, maybe, haha.

Random again

Started a new sketchbook with this picture... Haha. Simplify simplify. Aiming to draw more environments in this one.

Kawaranai Mono

Process Log. Haven't done this in a long time.

Expansion on the previous sketch in my sketchbook. Tried to make it look worn out but think tea still does it better. Tried out the watercolor pencil on damp paper combi for this one, and the texture quite gave the overall 'old times' look. Well... there goes another week. Recess week coming soon!! Eager maybe, time to start on those things that have been left in the dark.

Sketchbook Pages Dumping Time

Bored during Modern Art history lecture... Tried to do some random sketch-n-patch by taking the more striking features of the artworks screened during lecture and mixing them up along the way. Churned out some wierd stuff.



Random Creed and Sera sketch with a pencil Huiying gave me. It acts like some watercolor pencil, but it's graphite and dissolves better than the derwent watercolor pencils I've gotten earlier on.



Playing with the pencil... Just wanted to do some lines.



3 minute portrait of a schoolmate. She saw me trying to caricature the others and asked me to draw her. Think the portrait sessions at red dot does help thicken my skin to draw in public... haha. Then again... none of my schoolmates could identify the person drawn here so.... lalala.



Brainstorming about the front part of the 'Canvas' video. Still not there yet.



Right behind is this picture of the primos... Feels like the entire KHR story now is being kept alive by these two. Ah well... Watercolored on messy pencil lines, and inked later and erased.... haiz. Just didn't know what to do about it.



Animation work in school was starting to drain my brain. This one started with just paints. I was challenging myself to paint a face without any guiding pencil lines, but the paper was starting to tear off with too much water. Stopped painting, and seeing the graphite pencil sticking out of my bag, took it and drew a face on the wet paper. It produced a subtley blurred line, which retained that soft feel of the watercoloring. Maybe I can work on that combo...



Inspired by fellow schoolmate's animation idea about a girl in a cafe thinking of her broken relationships. Took the cafe setup and insert the angel-observer character (who has yet to be named) in there.

This weekend is like the calm before a war... gulp. At least there's a short break in between. Hahaha....

Canvas and Impressions

Supposed to do my homework, but spent yesterday on this thing. It's an idea that has been bugging me for a week or so, and I just can't focus with that in my mind, so decided to get it down. Used Flash, since I have to get used to this software, why not start with something that I'm interested to do? Crappy drawings, but at least one thing off my head.

Went to Fance's mosaic shop opening ceremony(the one that I helped design the logo for) on Sunday. It was a simple celebration in a small shop at a rather secluded area in Bt Timah Plaza, one that is not super happening to gather crowds. While I was standing around looking at the little things in the shop, I chanced upon the guestbook and was shocked at a particular name in it.

3. Ms Amy Soon. (Yes, lightning effect plus thunder sfx and Symphony No. 5.)

I thought I connected the name to the wrong person (she's the tutor who intro-ed and taught me graphic designing), but after seeing the email and a chat with Fance, it was really her. She told me that Ms Amy and her son were her first customers who did a mosaic in the shop. They came by about two hours before I got there. Not sure why they were there, probably her son had some tuition nearby? Or they were shopping in BT? On top of everything, I was really curious if she said anything about the logo. And nope, she didn't. Quite sad-ed, but maybe that's a good thing; she might end up shooting me for not doing enough before releasing the design to the client. Haha... or I'm thinking too far... Happy coincidences really, I'm glad to know she saw my work even though she didn't know about it.

Snow White and the 7 Dwarves

Apart from my library trip yesterday, I came across a DVD sale in West Mall. Since I'm now doing 2D animations for 20 hours per week, I might as well get into the habit of watching more animations. After a lunch discussion over animations with my 'colleagues', I realised there is a lot that I have yet to watch. Indeed, anime is not for the animation, but its ideas and poses. One will have to look to the west for basics, and life for the logic of it. Anyways, back to West mall.... there wasn't a large collection of animation dvds there, maybe cos it's the last two days of the sale. The animations were going at a price of $20 for two, relatively cheap, I think, for the original english version. So naturally, Snow White comes first on my list of 'to watch and study' animation. I haven't watch 'Finding Nemo' (not kidding there), but having seen the pastel color layouts for the show in the recent Pixar exhibition, I thought it'll be good for me to see how that was translated to the screen.

Just finished watching Snow White. And yea, fairy tale indeed.... One can get away with a house intrusion crime if you clean up the place for them. Lightning doesn't always strike the highest places too. (Maybe 'evil' alone is a lightning rod itself.) The most realistic thing was probably: Never say 'don't' if one is wishing against something from happening. (which is quite true cos your mind with concentrate on the words after 'don't'.)

While watching the show, I came to realised how much it had affected the shows after it.

Check out the behaviour of the witch:



And then take a look at this guy:
Video of Gollum talking to himself.

I was amazed at how similar the 'speaking to yourself into the camera' worked for villians, even after 60+ years. And yea, the one character that stood out the most was Grumpy. Keeping the stubborn front but the body says otherwise (another formula that worked). The prince was quite an extra, but he is needed to give the story a happily ever after.

The one thing I was quite disappointed in was the turtle. A lot of cameos was given to this little guy, most probably to show its slow pace and mind to everything that's happening around it. I was hoping he'll do some awesome job for the gang maybe towards the end, but it never happened. Other than it's efforts always going down the drain, it didn't do anything else significant. The building up of it's slow character and the attention that went into it somehow just vanished, unjustified, with the ending of the film. Maybe I'm asking too much out of something made so long ago, but even the deers that got less individual camera time had an important role in the plot. Why can't this turtle be more than a gag?

Aye, I went quite off-track. Hehe, hopefully there will be more dvd sales. XD

Papers, Maya, Paints

Ever since school started, the new stuff quite distant me from my paints... And then, that wheel of copying - creating - copying - creating will start turning again... (shucks, I'm thinking of Sabapathy's words when I'm no longer attending his lectures!) After a lot of inspiration, everything goes blank and the copying starts. Lol...



A picture of an osprey. The photo reference was from a book and it caught my eye immediately. I was trying to play with acrylic. Painted white acrylic on the base, and when dried, paint over with watercolors. Some paint will catch onto the surface, but it wouldn't appear as dark as when painted directly onto paper. It has some 'lightening' effect, but maybe I've laid the paint without building up thin layers of it? Or maybe I should try another approach and use it for another purpose? Knowing that the trial didn't go very well, I just created a wet on wet painting instead.

Went to the library today to return my books and borrow some new ones... and I realised how noob I am.... I've always thought that the neighborhood library in BB was devoid of art books. Art books as in those about painting, graphic design etc. All I saw was craft books... and it only struck me that it 'might' have (no, it should have!) those books when I saw a loan-list of some random person who borrowed 'an idiot's guide to manga drawing' from that very library. (Complete WTF face.) So I went searching for that shelf I've missed out for 12 years; eversince the library opened. And there it was, at the far end after the tamil books, where a kid was shaking away playing DS. I dunno why is he shaking there but anyways, there was one entire shelf dedicated to art books, comparable to what I saw at CCK's. No, maybe bigger, cos I had to raise my arm for the books. Aye, jaw dropped... It was a 'cornered' shelf, without a plate stating what it was, behind the tamil section, and beside the chinese section. Indeed, what the hell is it doing there.

That aside... the first book that caught my eye was 'a course on Storyboarding'. After that was that book by James Gurney about imaginative drawing. Even the book about watercolors I've got from school was there, and the book about the making of 2009 'The Princess and the Frog'! Graphic design, check, photography, check, mosaic, woo, and I was surprised to see a book on Ikats. The collection was decent... and why is it so far off? >_< RRRAaaaaaaaahhhh! I feel like a complete idiot!!! All these while, I've thought the hobbies section was the one and only art section! -_- At least I know it now... ... Grrrrrr.

Be Water

Ruifan showed this to me today...



There's a lot of meaning to what he said, but somehow, we were giggling away at the video. Something in it just got us laughing, the way the message was brought forward with so much enthusiasm and expression (and accent...). Didn't know he was so expressive. (Aye, didn't watch his movie before.)

After that, Ruifan showed me another clip about that again.



Simple and cool animation, but when the words are taken literally... it just gets amusing >_<.

Final Answer!

I dropped Business Finance. Yay. Over the past few days, it's a search for help in bookstores and from people. Tried looking for books and info about that equation and the mysterious 'E'-with-hook sign. No idea what those maths guides in Popular were teaching about. The book mum borrowed from her friend's daughter (who had just graduated from University) looks informative, but I dunno where to start reading from. Showed Aunty Soon the lecture notes, hoping that she would know a thing or two. She understood the first few, but when it comes to the maths part, she didn't know what's going on... The wrong field... Met Xiu's friend Ruoz and she confirmed that it's Statistics. Yes, question mark again.

Got back home and Ting asked me what's bothering me. That's when I remember she had a taste of Business studies back in NYP. She told me that she had a semester worth of Maths C and Statistics lessons before going into the Finance module. That's what I missed out. I can't imagine cramming three things in one semester. Accounts was much more easier to handle. Ack, it didn't even need a 'how to use your calculator' guide.

In replacement.... I chose a module about Human Resource Management (an introduction). It is purely lecture based, no tutorials. Dunno if that was a wise choice... After adjusting my timetable again, Marketing became a valid choice, but I promised Huiying a few days back to take it together next sem. The geography lesson I wanted clashed with another module and the other modules were taken up... See how things unfold ba... Hopefully it won't be a hard time ahead.

Sigh and sigh...

Haven't been drawing much these days, just too caught up with school... Have been thinking about how to resolve this sketch and decided to cg it. Dun quite like the way it turned out. Hmmm.... time to do my homework. T_T

I (can't) Smell Catastrophe...

Sn = a (r^n-1)/(r-1) what nots....

"If you have no idea what that equation is, you might have chosen the wrong module."

Aye, a very blunt statement from the lecturer during the first Business Finance lecture. A very truthful one indeed... T_T I have no idea what that equation is about. Ack, I wonder if I wrote it correctly there too. During the 2 hour lecture, I tried to keep up with what the lecturer was saying. It's a tough process, cos it does get boring halfway, but the Fishermans mints kind of kept me awake. (Wonder why is it called Fisherman's Friend?) On the whole, the content itself is very practical and useful. Mortgage and interests and stuff, it's something that I'll definitely face unless I decide to retreat to the monastaries in the future. It's just the calculations that totally confuse me, but I get the feeling that it will take up a huge part of the entire module. -_-... take or not take, it think I need to sort out those maths first if I really want to continue. 3 more days to the end of add/drop, better think it through.



Ruifan told me about the on-going animation projects which required 2D animators, so I tried to put together the 2D animations I have so far and try my luck. The interviews were already over, but thankfully the prof gave me a chance and asked for my work. Looking back at the reel, I have nothing but student stuff (haha, even added DMD stuff). Ah well... getting more detached somehow.

No art, just a sharing :) Quite long, but worth to see to the end.

Week One Over!

Yeap, week one over! (Honeymoon week over!! T_T) Anyways, I found myself frequenting hte library these days. One reason being the lift upgrading works going on in my area, which made staying at home unbearable... Sought refuge in the nation library, and I found myself hunting for self-help books in preparation for the YET started Business Finance module... (Yea, the lecture notes scared me away). Chanced upon a book by some guy about some famous person in the business management world. Though it didn't have much link to what the lecture notes were talking about, it kind of caught my attention more than the 3D animation books I had in my hands. Despite the connection to business topics, it talked sense more than business ideas. It applied to what I'm doing as an art student too, heck, maybe one can say it applied to living. Feels like another random wake up call, but hopefully I don't go hibernate again.

Went for photo imaging class today and yea, it's another 'better organize yourself or else you're gonna give yourself hell' module. T_T Although friends who went through it told me that it was a very tedious module to take, none actually said they hated it, so I dropped the idea of de-registering it. (Err... I didn't really thought of registering this in the first place. It was registered for HY actually... but since she managed to get the module she wanted, I wanted to drop this module too. However, I didn't had any other module options in mind, so decided to keep it.)

The first lesson was very enlightening (as always), and since I hope to do something about picture composition, probably this photo taking module would be some pushing factor for lazy me... And interestingly, while looking through the folios of past students (uncollected and left in the classroom), I came across a handwriting that piqued my interest as much as my poly friend's did. It was quite calligraphic looking, words all slanting to the right, with twists and turns on the letters. The one that caught me was the 'y'. It was written with an extra twist before the lower loop, and yea, why would people do that? Most would normally do a curve and go straight down, uninterrupted, to the loop and for some, maybe twist it up, but this flow was interrupted in the middle. It's as thought the letter 'y' had a knee jerk. This sign carried on until the last 'y', which was clearly different (and started on a new paragraph); like a very normal cursive 'y'. Maybe I'm just over thinking it, but it just fascinates me to see such script. I should have taken a picture of it....

Everything you make shows something about you

Lol... What else to say ne..? Handwriting is a remarkable thing... something that people would see without much thought of the craft other than it's legibility and the words they carry. The first time I was fascinated with handwriting was upon reading a friend's notes. Her writing was very very very different (can't help but stress that 'very', hahaha), something I've never seen before. It look as though it was some arab script but it was english, written in probably a 0.05 size black pen. I stared at it wondering... It is artistic (feels floaty too), but why is it like that? Why is the 'f' so exaggerated, the top extends to the neighboring letters of the word in a straight line. In a way, the extensions kind of made the reading rather difficult, despite the neatness and straight lined sentences across a blank page. It didn't occur to me that handwriting could bring some insights to the writer's psyche until I came across a book about it sometime later. Kind of regret not getting a sample of her writing.

As for mine... still as jumpy as before, but I do realise it getting thready in the recent years, sometimes even missing out some letters along the way or even writing extra letters. And I realised I stopped reading fiction. Lol...



Random doodle that started with the O_O face. Slowly, it turned into a man who got blasted away by the 'Beep of Death'. Computer problems have been surrounding me these days. After Sunshine's computer problem was settled, it came down to Xiu's. Hers is now in that gray area whereby it's neither in good condition, nor dying... Temperamental to be exact... Reformatted, checked, brought it to the service centre and nothing much done since it ran well there. Haiz... Just dunno what's the problem anymore.

Music

Ideas I have while listening to music. Trying to find what really sparks off my ideas, and also hoping to buck up on compositions this sem. (I've been using similar angles and compositions for some time. Ack.) Kishimoto's Naruto has brought some new perceptions for that, and maybe time to be a movie junkie, hahaha...

Music: CLOSER (Inoue Jo)


Music: Best Friend (Kana Nishino)


Music: Sign (FLOW)


School started finally, and the first lesson commands discipline. An animation to be done in 13 weeks. Concept by next week. Thinking of doing something happy and heart warming....

Printed out the first set of Business Finance lecture notes. I don't understand anything..... Haiz...... -_-.

Countdown...?

T_T............

Restless..........

Oh noooooo..........

Stepping aside, it's wierd that one is feeling dreadful yet still able to draw happy people. The same energy charge but a different output. Maybe my head is chanting 'nonono' but another part of me just screams 'bring it on!'.

A very random person in a random pose, digital this time. Wanted to stop after an hour of painting, but dragged to 3. Still not complete too.

Narutard-ed

Haha... wanted to do a fanart of Naruto and at the same time, do something about the portraiture practice I've set to do. 4 hours with color pencils... and though it was fast, I was not aware of the angle I was drawing at and it caused the entire portrait to appear elongated..... Adjusted it in photoshop, looked better.

Have been reading Naruto Shippuden these days. Slow yea. Although it feels as though it ain't got an ending, it's a nice manga to pick up, not just for the illustration quality. Storyline is the usual shonen stuff, but the growth of the characters quite keep it apart from the other shonen comics I've read so far (not many titles really, lol). People change and people pass on (ain't any big thing for gundam yea), just makes me wonder how long I'll be staying in my own world. Portfolio has been left forgotten... whatever I've done so far is more of a theraphy for restlessness than anything for the professional level. Thinking back, I wonder if I've given up on it when I said no to WSC... But yea, still young and alive, tomorrow is still there and I'm hungry. Haven't eat dinner yet... maybe just stuff some food in and emo next time, heheh. :P



(>_<)!!!

Eye of Beholder

Beauty in the eye of the beholder? A random sketch that started from a random rectangular pattern seen on a TV commercial. Then the girl. Then it looks empty. Then the old man and the (insert random gender) shorty. Might CG it, might not... it's just so random!

Have been reading Naruto recently. Dor told me Shippuden was nicer and that I should watch it. Awing at the art though, haha.

Elimona again...

Aye, colored it finally. Halfway through inking it, realised I made a big mistake... her boobs are supposed to be bigger, each almost as big as her face (or even bigger...). And considering gravity, it should look inhumanly big here, but ack... just can't get that kind of anatomy right. Maybe cos I can't look at mine to reference for that... ahaha. Anyways, edited the lines in photoshop... if not it'll look as though the jacket was transparent.

Finished the Edgeworth game finally. Kind of liked it, though the last chapter was very draggy. Unlike the previous ace attorney games, this has been the only one that never became a bedtime story for me. The script was great, but I heard it might have been the last the scriptwriter will ever do for the series. Looking forward to his new work Ghost Trick there, hope it'll be fun. :)

Caricature

Have been thinking about what I'm lacking in drawing people and looking at what other artists are doing. Thought of a few ways that might solve the problem... but haven't been taking any actions. :p When it comes to faces and expressions, caricaturing would probably be a fun and good way to learn. Think I'll start there, but wonder how long can I keep up with that...

Turnabout Ablaze is draggy.... but I smell the end of this detective game coming... sob sob.

Thank you Gummy!!

Nyak nyak... Went to hunt a new file for the game and managed to get past that error. Just wanted to finish up the whole game and see what's the story going to. Glad I did... cos chapter 4 revealed the reason why Gumshoe was so loyal to Edgeworth and more info about the Yatagarasu. And one funny scene concerning Edgeworth too, hehe.



After reading of Gumshoe and Kay's meet, I was tempted to draw it down. It was one of the heartwarming parts of the story, and it quite changed the idea of Gumshoe in my mind. Maybe he's just too nice to be a detective...

Simple stuff

Found a previous sketch that I wanted to color sometime back in illustrator, but didn't really start on it. Wanted to color something, so did a watercolor of it instead. Think I'd better go back and review the basics of color again. Feels like the more simple the linework is, the more important the color choice too...

After that logo, I found myself playing the ds again. Ace Attorney Investigations this time... Have that in the r4 for sometime, but didn't really get down to playing it. It's amusing watching Edgeworth get slammed over and over again with my wrong decisions, cos he'll try to cover it up, unlike Phoenix Wright. It's nice that the cases were out of the court, one gets to see different backgrounds rather than the courtroom (but that would mean no table banging scenes and clueless judges). The 'logic' system was an interesting addition, but there could have been much more to it, like processing 'wrong' ideas instead of everything being absolutely correct. It could have let players think more about the situation than simply 'trial and error'. The game hanged at the start of the 4th case, but guess it's a pause for me now. 14 days to the end of the hols! Omg.... everything's gonna end someday, guess it's good that it starts?

Beeeeeee Fun

Have been working on a logo the entire day today, sending emails and correcting the previous. It's something for my aunt's fren, so not asking for anything there but a namecard at the end of it. Good thing is they weren't demanding, so kind of nailed it in the first round with the random concept we came up with over a meal.

Started with this:


And now it's this:


Might have to do some test prints for the colors... I can't trust this laptop screen anymore.

Popcorn was a failure :( Didn't went so well, though we managed to pop a bit. Went to mum's fren's house for the microwave and made a small mess... things went a bit haywire and the second bag of half- popped popcorn spilled on the floor. >_< Ah well... Those that managed to pop and in good condition were eaten by Ann, and she said they tasted great. Wondered if that's for real or she's just trying to comfort me... T_T Next time, I'll just pop by the cinema and buy some for her instead... -_-

Never too sick for...

...chocolate. This flu has made me realise what is a torture... The whole family went down to Marche few days ago to celebrate Aunty Peck's b-dae and all I could taste was purely sweet, salty and lotsa bitterness.... I couldn't smell anything (other than mucus). T_T Probably not that bad, but still tormenting.

Just wanna draw something and the thought of that cough syrup came by. Modeled after my sis who recovered from a fever a couple of days ago. (There seemed to be a disease going around the house these days...)Realised that when I doodle, it gets very sketchy. Style? If so, maybe I should try discipline my hand a bit. Used copics this time. Bought a few new colors (Art fren having a 15% off these markers, and the Orchard one seems to be clearing off the old Trias at $1 each), but I seemed to lose touch with this medium now.

As promised, I brought my bro out for 'The Last Airbender'. ($6 tix for students! :D) The cg and fighting scenes were pretty awesome, but other than that, nothing else really lasted in my mind. Ah yea, Aang's tatto was cool. Brought back some popcorn, as Ann wanted, but I figured they wouldn't be as good when cold. Soooo.... popped by shop n save for some unpopped popcorn. We're gonna pop some tonite! XD Wonder how those two kids will react? Just hope it'll taste good....

Coloring others stuff

Have been coloring other people's stuff these days, in a way, hoping to keep my coloring sense intact while suffering a block mentally and physically. Down with cough and flu that got my mum busy again... but in a way, good maybe. She said it's good if I sweat... so I started cleaning the house. Yea, sweating!



Painted this picture for the bi-monthly contest held by the color me club. I realised making color sketches aided my coloring process. Didn't feel so lost there.



The sketch for this one caught my eye and I decided to give it some color. A lot of details and it asked for a lot of discipline and focus... Straining, but the result was worth the pain.

Elimona

Picking up 'Defense Devil' again, after seeing it in tankoubon published by Chuangyi (finally). Not that I don't like scanslations... it's fast, but having to wait for one chapter every week and being hanged in the middle of the story such as this just makes it painful to read. Somehow, the story seemed to have trailed off the initial lawyer idea, but it's still nice to read on and discover what's in it. Although the cases seemed obvious and you know who is behind it all, there have been a few surprises here and there.



Elimona from the story (errr... the one below was a random failed shojou-ish doodle of Baka-dera). She's one enigma, a sexy, naughty... not really bitchy character who is there to guide the protagonist towards his goal. Judging from how one powerful demon treated her, she must have been a powerful and old demon... but not sure what is her motive for helping an exile back to the throne. And yea, quite agree that the main male and female characters should just come off the stage and let Shugarl and Jupiter take over. (That would become a shojou manga though... lol. So sweet...)

.... just realised how hard it is to draw seductive women... The angle plays an important role too I guess. Might give it some color, tee hee.

Last Song

Random pic to test out the new block of Arches paper. Quite a nice surface to play with.

Mirajane

Trying to draw without thinking too much... Not good to think too much before drawing, end up not drawing anything. Sent the cpu for repairs. The fan has finally died. It was replaced a few years ago... wonder if this replacement would be needed anymore since we have tots of getting a new cpu?

Dragons... in a mess.

Wanted to distort some faces there after reading the latest fairytail chapters of the Edoras arc, and there you have it.... Accidentally spilled some black ink... T_T

Life going by each day, becoming a nanny in a way to those kids, since mum is getting busy with some issues these days. Strikes me that she's getting old everytime I see her napping on the sofa. With Xiu around, I realised I'm not that strict on the kids as before anymore. Still impatient though, heh. Should be out there doing some work, yet ain't. Maybe I need some whacking...

Lalala...

Lazy days... Time to think what next....

Down Under 1

Seems like there will always be a month in every year where I'll virtually vanish from this blog. Ah well... Anyways, it's been a week since I'm back from my Australia trip. A lot of pictures here, but don't think I'll post them up. But yea, now that my sis is back, the house is finally getting more lively than before. More trash than before too. It's a miracle that we managed to get past the customs with 70kg of stuff... and 90kg came back a few days later via post. Well.... two years worth of stuff, so can't say it's bad.


Drown, Ophelia by ~Ephirel on deviantART

(wooo.. didn't know this function is this useful...)

Anyways, the only anime painting I did during the three week. It's been a long time since I painted on the floor... carpeted some more... There wasn't a table for me to use then, cos they were all sold. Xiu had to move out of the house by early July, so we were in a frantic rush to sell all the furniture off. It was the first time I ever had a feeling of satisfaction for cleaning up a house (since it won't be filled up anymore). Haha, and also the first time I feel what it is like to be without a fixed home. For the first few nights, we were in Canberra living with one of Xiu's friend, and after that, with Tabby and Candice back at Sydney. The last two days were at a hotel in the city, since the previous home had to be returned to it's owner and everyone had to move out.

Anyways, just some pictures here:



Xiu at the front porch... She was saying how warm the sun is... It's winter there, so having the sun to shine was a blessing, although I wonder how deadly the UV rays would be..?



From the backyard of the home.



Being a HDB kid, I was quite excited about it. There aren't much flowers blooming in the cold season, but there are still few flowering.







Wanted to draw them down but, yea, too cold to stay for long >_<





Xiu while she slaved away on her final thesis. That was when we still had a table.



The room that was emptied first. Xiu stayed with two other housemates, but they had to leave the place early so their rooms were cleared first.

Anyways, the first thing that strike me when I got to Sydney was this:



If one grows up seeing MRTs, this is definitely something new >_< With the service people standing at the open door of the cabin, peering out to see if there was anybody rushing into the train at the last second. Weeeeeee........ yes, I'm easily fascinated.





The map of the train services.



Quick sketch of a man sleeping on the train. His hat caught my attention, but end up drawing the full person.

That's all for now, cos most photos are in Xiu's camera. Mine became useless cos in my rush to prepare for the trip, I forgot about the charger for my camera... so there aren't much pictures taken with it.