o0Antares0o

Drew this a long time back, but worked very slowly. Not much motivation to carry on... Maybe it's because of the "I'm just filling in the colors" feel of the coloring process. Added in the logos and everything to make it look like an official game art, which was the intention of creating this picture.

Logos from Maple Wikia.

ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

Just... can't...resist posting this.

ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)!!!

Don't ask me Y....

Keeping for future use. (If there's any... :D)

Toad's Nightmare: What's This?

Not drawn by me though, just colored it.

Realised I'm quite attracted to purples and yellows. Maybe should try something new.

....Finance quiz tomorrow. T_T Die.

The Last Year

Yeap, it's final year now... lalala. Pretty much on my own now, working on my final year project. The progress blog is up, trying out wordpress this time after an invitation to use it by a schoolmate early this year. When i look at it again, it felt good, that I'm doing something so big, and that it's mine. Quite grateful to Davide for that. Previous animation projects had been a built on of others' ideas, come to think of it. Hope I will update it at least once every two weeks.

Haha, it's not all nice sailing I think. Took up two more business modules this semester, Business Finance and Fundamentals of Management. I'm quite weary of the first one ever since the first lecture I had many months back. It scared me off after seeing so many mathematical equations, but truthfully, it is a very useful subject. I've never thought so much about interest rates and savings till now, though it does bug me why people like to talk about investments and stocks and bonds. It seemed like gambling to me sometimes; money growing money just meant someone else on the other end of the world is gonna get less. But that's just my narrow perception maybe...

As for management... the tutorials are once in two weeks, despite the seemingly tough assignment of interviewing a manager of a company and writing an essay, it's demand for time and effort is ok, compared to what I imagined. And lastly... forensic science. An eye opener literally... gruesome pictures (not yet) and learning the ways of a murderer... quite fascinating, the auditorium's seating is great too. Just... need... to... get...used... to... bloody things. Haha.

New sketchbook

Whew. A long time eh? Haven't been drawing much as I was quite caught up with the things happening around and to me these times that just stopped me from progressing much in this area. The unproductive days... makes me wonder have I been taking my education for granted?



Anyways, got a new sketchbook filled with watercolor papers (from popular) a few weeks back, and was quite excited to start it off.



The first page... that is. Let it fly...



A random doodle along the thought of creating the universe.



Pictures of some cows from a natgeo magazine caught my eye and I tried to get it down. Sketched a man in there along the way.



Another picture from the same natgeo magazine of a harpy eagle. Wanted to do a realistic rendering, but got bored of it very quickly, turning the details into abstract shapes instead. Added a lot of details during the painting part, and felt it might have been overdone. Yea, it no longer looks like the eagle from the magazine...



While slaving away for Davide's 3D homework.



This started from a life sketch of some plants growing around the pioneer bus stand in Northspine. Decided to put in a fairy. And what is the fairy doing? Collecting dew perhaps, for some reason that I have no thoughts of yet.

That's all for now ba. Unproductive again... need to concentrate on my pre-pro and 3D... Managed to scribble some stuff for symbolism, finishing some analysis for the first 4 movies. Didn't read much of the notes though <:p. Totally disregarded Marketing and Biz Law, but they are quite an eye-opener this semester. Hehe, I don't feel like an art student, come to think about it. Or maybe that's what one gets when asking not to be clueless about life?

Rose

Haven't paint in a long while... just a translation of a postcard that I found in the library last week.



Kind of like the idea of the dress being a rose and decided to draw it, changing and adding a few things along the way. As a prof has pointed out that I need to draw more, I realised that I have been outlining more than constructing. It's a discipline I lack while in pursuit of a freedom in my drawings (or possibly, that's a sign of the slacky 'can't be bothered' personality trait). Get caught up a lot in just drawing down what I see and leaving 'errors' as they are. Well... Time to find the midpoint!

01 Introduction!

Finally done with it... the first theme of the 100 themes challenge floating around DA! Although it's not really the exact way I wanted it to be. (Thought more of painting on the skin for that.) Not so sure of the colors either, so just slapped in a random pink. Tried the brush tool in Illustrator this time. Took a while to understand how it can work to my advantage.

As for idea... traced my hand there (right handed!!), tools that I work with more frequently, and random icons of where I'm coming from (I think). Received art education at 2 1/2 years old due to my mum finding me annoying and clingy and hence, decided to throw me into the neighborhood art school where my sister was at. (I wondered if she ever regretted that decision...?) Maybe because of that, it became more of a mode of expression than something I'll use to maintain my 'rice bowl'. Heh, still drifting about where I wish to head to after graduation... it's still quite vague what I really want out of this artistic path I've been walking. I know what I can strive for, but somehow, I'm not really satisfied by it all. It is a pretty short termed sense of achievement, one that makes me question "what good really comes out of what I just did"? Aye, maybe the art created really says it all.

Sketches

Haven't been drawing or painting a full picture lately, but trying to get back into the habit of sketching in the book again. Funny, but when I look back at what I've been doing in my sketchbooks so far, it seems to be drift from one phase to another phase, sometimes full of conceptual drawing, and at times full of life sketches. It just goes on-off. The only thing that never change is the amount of words in a page... It is most often a scrawny scribble of a few sentences, sometimes unrelated to the picture.



Random sketch of an old courtroom inspired scene, with some drama going on... and on the other side is just a random play of pose.



And this was when I brought Ann and Yang for a McDonald's breakfast one day after their art class. Done with a marker. Aye, it happened last year.



The lecturer of the Human Resource Management module...



And a random "I'm shorter than a flower" piece. The 'Aang' looking guy was a quick sketch of a shaolin monk featured in a kungfu video that I was referencing for my animation project. Just nice paused the video there and thought that the pose was quite interesting.





Two pieces drawn during Chean and Glory's trip to Singapore. I could still remember the scene clearly. Chean was kind of in a "I don't want to go anywhere but stay in my bed" mode while Glory was arranging the stuff in her luggage. It's weird, but it seems like my memory of an event is intensified after drawing them down. Maybe it's one way to burn things into my head as I'll need to look at the scene longer and in more detail.



An 'Avatar' (Zuko) inspired sketch. Really loved the way they melt 'magic' and kungfu into that animation. It's just beautiful for a weekly cartoon series.



No big idea behind this, just a random doodle that was done just for stress relieving...



Monsters...



Life sketching, composition practice...



Some re-collection practice... Trying to remember what I've seen on my long walk home from Lot 1. Seems like the clearest thing is still words.



And a quiet day at home... :) Think this shall be my last sketchy entry. Somehow,I have been wanting to keep this blog away from my personal life babbles and musings and make it a base for my completed works and thoughts about them. In a way, helps me keep track of the serious work I've did as compared to the 'ritual-ish' drawings/ paintings I do to keep myself sane.

Weak 1...

So school started... again. It's the first week and the first thing I knew after checking my email on the first day before lessons started was Isaac asking for the previous animation I did to be tweaked for presentation in the coming week. It's something that I tried my best to finish within the imaginary deadline I set for myself, but during that last week of working on it, I felt it being more draining than an opportunity to learn... It didn't turn out good in my opinion, but as usual, if he asked for it to be refined, I'll go back and get it done. Which I am doing now... No regrets on that though. He advised me on how to improve it, but still, that feeling of draggin myself to finish it was there, so yea, guess that will be the last work I'll be giving him.

Anyways, first week! I've given up on enrolling into the Psychology module this sem. No one wants to give up their placement, so lalala... Business law was quite ok (for now...). Marketing... the prof seemed to have brought over traits of his working days in the tourism/ hospitality sector... He's has this smile on his face all the time and his hands would always fall back together down, clasped in front of his body like the receptionist at the customer service counter in a hotel. (His 'default setting' nia). Seldom see that in the other lecturers I've encountered so far. Most would just sit down and talk, or their hands would be regularly be on the keyboard or desk or something.

Then came symbolism in film. My God, that guy is 80 years old... He has a very different approach to handling the module, and surprisingly, he managed to get rid of examinations for the module. Capuzzo had told us last year that it was not possible to do so, as it was the rules of ntu itself for a lecture based module to be evaluated by an examination. Wonder how he did that? But it is true. The topic is not possible to be graded as there is totally no right or wrong interpretations to a symbol as long as one can explain one's answer. And yea, after one lesson of it, his detailed analysis of the various elements in the movie he shown, my gosh. I'm so sitting in his class every week!

And the cores... well, come to think of it, it's both Davide!! >_< Double hell in a way, but it's for sure one will learn something from such tutors. Anyways, he showed us some animation which I thought are very worth sharing:

Charade


This was a graduating work of an undergraduate of Sheridan of the the '84 batch. Long before I was born.... but it's sheer greatness >_< OMG.... the standard! >_<

salvador dali and walt disney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzzZa5o1q5k

Cannot embed.... can understand why. According to Davide, it was a work left unfinished in the conceptual stage by Salvador Dali (a famous surrealist artist) during his short term in the Walt Disney company. It was later picked up by the people in the company and made into an animation. Real interesting stuff, though I'm not so sure what it really is talking about.

Thought of you


This is art.... a really artistic, emotional piece that drew many different responses and interpretations from viewers. Browsing through the comments, one can maybe appreciate the animation even more by reading about the subtle details added into the animation (that probably slipped most viewers' eyes). Nice song too.... T_T

One by One


...Childhood innocence >_< Well, it's Disney. XD

Random day

"...there is one thing for which human beings seem willing to give up everything. They will give up love, they will give up peace, they will give up health, harmony, and happiness, they will give up safety, security, and even their sanity, for this one thing.

Being right."

Just something that I came across today and wanted to keep a note on... partly cos it reminded me of the many times I find myself being too self-righteous? Haha, one human being, after all.

School..... Nooooooooooooooooo.... T_T

-----------------

Then came by the afternoon when Ting was telling me about the pen she loved to use to sign her name with. I tried out the pen and it was really smooth. And then she told me that my signature looks like the chinese character for love.



Not the first one who told me that, but it was really my attempt to write the the last character of my Chinese name 'Wen' (the one in blue) in a calligraphic manner. Possibly I was very influenced by my mum to take a chinese character as a signature. (She signs hers in a very calligraphic manner which none of us could really imitate.) However, no matter how much I try, I could never produce the same form like a stamp, which makes me wanna push that all away and use the chinese stamp I had. Super laziness yea... or maybe super not confident? After that, Ting played with the pen and signed her name (initials, to be exact).



I was quite stunned that she would simply strike off her name that way. It looks confusing, and for a while, I was seeing an 'A' instead of her initials G.C. An identity crisis? My sister?? No ways nia! After asking that, she told me it was actually an 'F' in the middle (her confirmation name 'Frances') and she only used this shortform to sign things off at her workplace. It used to be this though:



Simple, clearcut.... and looks a bit innoncent. Yea, she had a hard time back then, and somehow, it evolved to the g.f.c up there. Funny how signatures change eh?

Intro WIP

Expanding on another old sketch. It was part of the 100 themes challenge which had been around on DA for quite sometime and I haven't really go about finishing it, partly due to the lack of motivation. Looking back at the list again, I've got some new ideas, but somehow, I'll really hope to get this one done before moving on to others.

The hols are coming to an end soon, argh... if it was any chance to rot, haha. But hey, not bad, managed to chiong 3 exhibitions (and the animation...), clean up my area, back up all my works, clear up my laptop and be a part time 'baby sitter'. Visited the library, went out with my uni friends, caught up with Sunshine and Windy (lol at the 'weathery' nicknames), 'lost' my keys, walked home from Lot 1 and swim and get tanned. At least it wasn't an empty 2 weeks (sacrificed 1 week of hols to finish up my animation job... kind of felt lifeless, going back 6 days a week to animate; but hey, at least I didn't need to feel guilty about the 2 weeks of fun that was to follow).

And the results for the allocation of modules are out. Tio Marketing and Business Law this sem.... and I still need to appeal for one more module. As the other business modules clashed with my current timetable, I've been thinking about taking Intro to Psychology... Yea, a part of me have been thinking about taking a different route once I feel that I had enough of this industry, but I'll need to do something about my 'intellectual capacity' and confidence... haha. Art wouldn't be wasted in any case. It's more than a tool to make a living for me, so hopefully... I dun go blind one day, hehe.

Für Elise

Found this old sketch two days ago when I was cleaning up my cluttered area in the study room. It was an old idea inspired by an mtv during a KTV trip quite a few years ago. The image of a lady lying on a grand piano caught my attention. Tried to draw that down, but it was just that, a lady on a piano. It didn't mean much and I decided to shelf it away. Sometime later, the familiar melody of Beethoven's Fur Elise found a way into my head again. I used to listen to Xiu practising that piece for her grade 3 (I think?) exam. Then came the urge to find out what the music was about, since the word 'Elise' strikes as a name instead of some fancy foreign language like 'Für'.

An internet search in 2009 led me to a couple of forum posts about speculations of it. (Lazy to find the forum again, but this would suffice as an introduction: http://www.forelise.com/about) Sounds like some secret love story or something; there was even one speculating 'Elise' as Beethoven's sister named Elizabeth (or something like that)... who died before he was born? Anyways, it seems like a mystery that just died with the composer, maybe a secret that will just sleep in history... But yea, the melody lives on; with young kids hating it everyday cos of the examinations.

Despite having an idea for this, I quite hesitated with painting the picture as my mental image of it was still quite vague. Wanted to portray a wooden flooring but when picturing the colors, it just feel too uniform (The initial coloring idea was all yellow and brown, kind of bathed in sunset light). Then came the idea of a watery ground, with some roses instead of just papers on it. From then, the yellows were substituted by blues. It was a slow process for this painting, but hey, kind of liked the way it turned out. Dug out the 'Für Elise' score for the details and realised it was just a couple of pages long. -_- Heck, no one's gonna care about such accuracies...

Holidaeeeeee

Yay! Haha... Although it started two weeks ago, that feeling of looking at the computer, table, paper etc and asking oneself "now what?" only kicked in today. That's holiday, I think... a day to rot... and time for myself!! :P



Carried on with the pastel stuff, and realised that things still look flat... And black kind of killed it. Can't seem to get that natural look with it yet, and I tend to go abstract with the strokes there. Wonder if I should get a bigger piece of paper for such pictures... Would work better for the details.



Random, unfinished painting of the rabbit zodiac. The colors are not quite unified, the characters are still not relating to each other. Trying to add more layers of pastel this time round. Leaving it as that for now... just need to let my brain work on it while I go do other stuff, haha~



A painting inspired by a rather blue Saturday... Lost my keys, or so I thought. Ah Yee was waiting for someone to open the door to my home, but yea, realised my keys were not with me. Panic panic panic... It's very very rare of me to lose something so important. And to think that my aunt wanted to use the toilet... argh. Though she said it wasn't urgent, I felt really bad ("You heng, or I suay?" she said. Lols...). As it was raining with the wind blowing the raindrops into the pathway, she suggested that we take shelter in her car.

Shortly after, we ended up in Lot 1, searching for my lost keys. It was a futile attempt, and I had to return cos she need to head off for an event. Thought I'll have to sit outside and wait for a saviour... but lucky for me, Dad had returned and I was able to get into the house. Searched the house and the keys were not to be found too. Dad tried to console me that it's just a bunch of replaceable housekeys, nothing to fret about. But yea, when a thing is with you for more than five years, there's some attachment naturally... and it was so far the best set among the others that could open the locks smoothly. (Sadly, the initial set of housekeys had been badly damaged, and the newly made keys were not that good.)

And then Mum returned. She looked at me and asked how did I get into the house. Well Dad's there, so yea I got in. And how did she know that I wouldn't be able to get into the house?

"You left your keys hanging on the padlock." And tossed it into my hands.

Alamak...........

At least it taught me something, and some inspiration. Haha...

Pastel 20110112

And comes one of those days when I look at my shelf of old art materials and wonder what I should do with them... The box of Saintograph soft pastels caught my eye. It was bought a few years ago for foundation drawing class, when we were told to get some cheap pastels for a couple of lessons. I got myself this simple box of it, but used only certain colors throughout the semester then. Most of it were still in good condition, so I thought maybe it's time I did something about them.

The thing about pastels (dry medium) is that the colors are fixed and one just simply have to apply it without messy mixing like watery paints. Due to the lack of color and tonal variations (and knowledge of the medium...), my palette was somewhat limited to certain colors. This also opened new possibilities of color choices and application to me... so maybe I'll be playing with it a while. And yea, it's some messy, dirty business too, hahaa~



Have been thinking of painting this picture in a different way, so tried pastels with it this time. Tried it on pastel paper, which created this rough, line texture all over the painting. Wonder what next?

New Year...... over, haha.

Haiz... still late in the end. But it was nice looking through the old photos in my external hard disk, although there aren't many as I don't really have the habit of taking a camera around with me anywhere I go unless it's overseas. Realised how short termed my memory can be.



Forgot about this one... but it was the earliest event of the year. Went to the zoo with Dor in Jan for some 'data collection'. I remembered we tried to settle on a day to go sketch in the zoo, but didn't manage to until then. And even when we were at the zoo, we didn't draw anything but went snapping photos. Learned that one should always grab the opportunity for a group photo when a person with an SLR pass by. Lalala.... XD



A painting to remember. -_-... although I still think it wasn't exactly what I wanted, somehow, I'm starting to appreciate it as an artpiece of its own.



Most memorable project ever in 2010. I got home one night and cried at how dysfunctional the team had become (although there's just two of us...). But hey, at least I learned something... just have to stand in the third-person view, be frank and speak up sometimes, even if the person you're speaking to appears to be aggressive. Maybe that clarity saved a friendship that I thought would have died along with the end of this project. Kind of surprised that this set even ended up as a showcase. Ah well.



And yes! Sydney! :D



There's still a lot of photos I haven't placed up.




Or maybe I won't be putting them up anywhere.... When I have the money to spare.... gonna get them printed out nicely. -_-



Can't believe that I still kind of miss that place. It was the first time I've ever stayed in a four seasons country. No snow though, but the feeling of having a cup of hot mocha in your hands while the cold dry winds blow around you.... I've never appreciated the warm sunshine so much till then. It was truly an amazing experience for me. :)



And one of the most memorable events: Glory and Chean's visit to Singapore. It was a hectic phase then, but hey, pulled through it. And glad that they had a wonderful time here too!



And the guild would have looked a little more complete if Tom and GY were around. Feels as though the blank space behind me was meant to be for them to fill in.



And the greatest self-reflection project was Ruifan's animation project. It's time to do something about my mindless whining. Most of the time... my situation ain't as bad as I thought. What hell the mind can produce. Felt totally guilty when I saw RF all jaded, oily, messy hair, lifeless voice, seemingly floaty existence... I won't forget her silence on the phone when I complained. That's it.... no more grumbles from me.



And yea! The crystal's growing pretty well. Bought the science kit off the shelves of the Harris bookstore as it piqued my interest the moment I saw it.



I do remember the science textbooks teaching about crystalisation, but never really tried it. It's been about a week since it was made, kind of reaching the maximum soon.

Anyways, 2011 started with me trying to shit in the toilet. It sounds crude, but it's the truth. Nature calls, nothing can stop, yea? XD Been having constipation problems previously... lalala. The day quite dawned with new ideas and mindsets, and even though it rained pretty heavily the entire day after that, I felt very energised instead of the usual 'rainy days are best for sleeping' feeling. New year resolutions.... pretty much the same as the last, in addition... just hope that the two kids would stop thinking of me as a monster. Oh ya, and hope I will start bringing my camera out more often. Haha...



Taken with Xiu's iPhone... It was truly a chance photo. I happen to look up at the sky when a thick stormy looking cloud was passing by quickly, slightly covering the sun. A spectrum was formed on the clouds in the higher altitudes behind. Xiu just whipped out her iPhone and took two photos of it before it disappeared in less than a minute. For once, I felt that the iPhone was something worth buying... lol.