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.