Zettai Muteki!!

Zettai Muteki Raijin Ou (Matchless Raijin-Oh)


Reminiscing the old times.... nah. Was uploading a new video on youtube featuring a pretty old game's opening (since I hardly see any videos of it there), when I suddenly wanted to look up on this anime I've watched back in Pri 3. It's pretty old, 18 years since it's production now... probably one of the very first anime songs that caught me other than Doraemon's theme, hahaha~ It was a Mecha anime (obviously), and probably caught on the young ones due to the school setting and young protaganists. Till now when I watch it again, I'm still quite amazed at how they managed to fit three robots and a command centre into a primary school. That'll be fun... XD Although it didn't made me wanna pick up a pencil and start drawing, it got me hooked on anime, and eventually drawing in this style. So just a little tribute to it. :D



Wonder if anyone remembers this anime... was pretty excited when Alison back in nyp got pretty hyped up when we started discussing the animes we watched when we're young (man, guess the both of us only had channel 8 back then). Couldn't believe my ears when I heard Ben's handphone ringing with that music back in Scrawls too. >:-O Maybe I should try putting those old anime songs as a ringtone... XD

Figurative Paintings 2 and 3

Hmm... guess I should start uploading my pics to picasa first before putting them here. Better organization of picutres...



The finished look of the previous shoe painting. Kind of like it, maybe it's the browns?



The third set up. Challenged myself to the old glass vs metal topic. Kind of hard this time, cos the colors are so similar.



Work in progress....



Finished work... It still looks unfinished, but heck, didn't feel like doing it anymore. The bg appears flat, couldn't get that value and color at the back, and it ends up quite similar to the foreground tones... Not very satisfied with the glass in the middle too. The green kind of disappeared there... I'm pretty happy that the metal looks metal, unlike my previous charcoal sketches of metal cans that appear soft.

Guess it's time to concentrate on the rest of the work on my pending list of homework.... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! >_<

Ann's (bad) Birthday...

The day started with me (not the little kid) waking up pretty early in the morning.... to study for exam. Come to think back about it, it didn't work... so I guess consistency is still the best when it comes to studying for me.... Anyways, while I took a break (actually I gave up), the orange lighting of the morning kind of got my attention. I felt the room getting very dark, and the sun is supposed to be up (nearing 8am then I think) Taking a peek out of the window, I realised it's the gray clouds that are causing the orange lighting...



I thought it looked beautiful, and quickly went to ready my camera. By then, the orange light was becoming more grayish. It happened pretty fast, about a minute or two, the orange color was gone.



Wonder if this was a sign of a bad day ahead... It was Ann's birthday that day and pretty unfortunate incident happened. As usual, our family had a tradition of celebrating the young ones' birthdays in the kindergarden they are enrolled in. This year is Ann's last year at St Joseph's and she's pretty excited about it. She even went around telling her classmates about the birthday cake having the 'Animal Mechanical' picture that she chose. Everything was settled by then, but when Mum and Aunty Peck went to collect the cake, they were told none was aware of it.

So.. there was quite a delay there; the lady boss called up the factory workers and had some hidden talk, before she came out and told Mum that the 2 kg cake was accidentally toppled over. Of course, Mum was furious since she had asked for the cake to be readied by 10am and it was already 1pm when she went to get it, allowing a lot of time for a new cake to be baked... but there was little that could be done then, since they were left with little time before the celebration commence. As a compensation, the owner gave them a small cake, together with 25 pieces of seperate slices of cakes that were available in the cooler. She asked them to return for the cake again at night too. Ah well... Mum was totally unhappy, and yea, nobody knows what to do then, since the birthday celebration was more important. It was very embarassing for all, and even more for the kid... Aunt showed me the pictures she took there, and they were filled with forceful smiles from the three. Hopefully the presents kind of cheered Ann up... but Mum was definitely not.

Went with mum to collect the cake that night. The lady boss was gone, leaving just the worker. Good thing mum didn't vent her frustrations on her (er... she did phone up my cookie manager and vent there....-_-). When asked how the boss was going to settle that afternoon's issue, the worker shrugged; the boss didn't mention anything about it, so we left after collecting the cake. Ah well...



It turns out that the cake wasn't in a good condition... there were cracks on the surface of the cream. We realised it a bit too late, but still went on with the celebrations.



Ann appeared happy, though I really wonder if she's really so... The candles were arranged by her though... haha, she do loved the cartoon drawing there despite the cracks.



Yang readying the candles....



...while Papa lighted them.



Mum and Ting watching 'Tang Xing Feng Bao'... Guess the incident that afternoon kind of exhausted Mum. As for Ting... maybe she felt very disgusted by the way things were handled when she heard the two ladies' testimony....



The show was probably too good...? The candles were melting! Everyone was kind of like just standing (or sitting) there, with some kind of solemn atmosphere.... Heck, I just started singing the first few words of the birthday song and everyone else joined in. Feels as though some kind of curse was released there....


The cake...either it was a let down (very dry) or our tastebuds were spoiled by the previous cakes we had. Mum choked on it, and was coughing so badly her face flushed red. With that, she made her mind up to deliver a slice to the lady boss to sample today. Heard the boss was more shocked to know about the cracks, since the cake was made only a few hours before the collection. Jaryn told me cracks on cream form if the cake was put in the fridge for too long... Guess it had to do with the ingredients here? Or had they placed it in a freezer??

Ah well... quite a long day there... apart from the bad, I was kind of proud that my sister didn't put on a sad face or even cry that day. She was smiling though she probably didn't feel very happy... If it was my bro, he would have put on a face as though the world owed him something. I wonder is it that happy-go-lucky attitude which made Madam He say that this kid "有气质" (although she never taught the kid before....It was the first time she saw her I guess). I wonder of her definition of '气质'...

Tried to snap a picture of the kid that day, but all came out blur.... so sad... This random picture kind of strike me as this painting by Leonardo... '有气质' ar...


As for the bakery shop... Mum and Ting are set to boycott the shop... but I don't think I can....(Oh God, my daily bread how...)

Lunching with Dor

Got Dor out for lunch at NYP today, another of our little catching up after months. It's our usual place to hang out for some cheap food and chat and sketching (missed the food there actually...). Seems like she's waiting for the scholarship application to open, her plans of going to Kyoto to study and draw her own manga; a five years thing. Meanwhile, she's working on freelance work for some money and get by the time.

Somehow, I didn't feel very comfortable about the entire idea, kind of like a dream surrounded with many 'what ifs?'. We chatted long, get into depressed mode with the reality checks, jumped back to the mangaka talks, jump back to depression and again and again. It's like... the previous meet we had in nyp months ago, we were chatting the same stuff, and now, we're still standing in the same place as we had talked about the last time. One thing for sure, is that she is still hoping to fulfill her dream of drawing comics. She hopes to get to a uni in Japan and know how manga is done, and draw her own comics and publishing them.

I told her about the people in school, a few of them had already taken their first step to being a comic artist. One preparing her doujin for convention, Beryl is well on her way to publish her own comic, Shawn has already been there done that, is on mobTV and well working on his next. All have similar goals as her, but I wonder why is she still stuck at dreaming? Could it have been she was thinking too much, or she rot too much at home, or just some bad experiences with the art industry that she just don't dare to make the first move in the local comic scene? True enough that probably Singapore isn't the best place to cultivate all these manga stuff, but dunno, I just felt that she's not making a move to be heard totally. Thought the comic competition might help in gaining some connections, seeing how my fellow ntu friend is doing, but it just went by despite her knowing it. Somehow, I wonder if I was pretty de-motivating saying 'we have nothing'... not a single comic or book published, no background, and to think of gathering some fame in a place that is already saturated with manga artists and all, it's just... still a dream (accounts, oh accounts.... what have you done...).

Anyways, jumping away from this depressing topic, we thought maybe this year's EOY, we might give it a miss. I thought it would be good for her too, maybe just rest this once and check out what others are doing. Somehow, I wonder should we start thinking about doing doujin first? Just a couple of pages, for the fun of it. I'd better start thinking about the 'Flower' calender there... having settled the style I want. Hopefully, we might go for SOY. Haha, one question that kinda hit me from her, why did people buy such stuff? Somehow, if one wants to be critical, there are several good artists whose stuff just doesn't sell, yet there are half-hearted pieces that are just selling so fast that one wonders what so good about it? Audience and trend, I guess... but it came to a point where I asked myself if I'm killing too much trees... Lol?

That's about the important stuff we talked about... the usual 'show your artworks!' session there, and we say what we feel about them. I kind of just shoot what I thought and saw, no good no bad, just what is consistent in the works. Guess the art history classes kind of helped? Haha. I wonder why Wendy would say that she has no color sense back at scrawls? Pretty harsh, and doesn't fit very well for her case... or am I too lenient...? Coming to my own stuff, it feels like it's all pretty experimental. I realised I had an easily bored mind these times, needing something new in terms of style or techniques in my works to keep me going. Is that why I shun digital... or just too 'in my comfort zone'? One thing for sure, they aren't for portfolio....................... oh shit.

Looking at her thinking too much kind of reminds me of myself... What ifs and what ifs. Thinking of step 4 when I'm not even at step 1 yet. Probably the chat became a slap in the face for both of us as I began to wonder why did I stop thinking about becoming a mangaka. Was it the SPH thing that i realised manga isn't really what I thought of? I'm empty when it comes to stories... the thought of collaborations crossed my mind. Shawn wanted to rope me into his group of colorists for his upcoming book, but I had been wondering if I was up to the job. Think after this chat, maybe I just check out what he's up to...

Bockingford Rocks Big Time

Expanding on the previous concept of <<如煙>>.
The most tortured piece of work to date:



The sketch on watercolor paper. Pretty fired up after seeing a picture done beautifully with salt technique. The texture was pretty much of the same feel as I wanted for the sketch, so I tried it out... I was unsure of the color that I want though... Wanted some moody feel, so...



Ack. Regret. Gave the surface a wash after that, and didn't know the pencil lines can still be seen. Somehow, I couldn't get rid of the bottom textures, but it looks pretty nice. Way too much salt there... and I wonder if the amount of water mattered to give the effect I want...?



Tried again... And it turned out ok. Back to the old palette.. I guess.



Added the lines with the water soluble ink (on purpose... Took me sometime to decide, cos I wonder if it'll come out too dark for the picture.) And it did... so I sprayed water on the picture, dried it, do it again... and decided to try the salt again. Dunno a good or bad thing, but I wanted to test how far the paper can go with that. And this time, the effect was minimal. Ah well... not good, destroy.



Couldn't think of any better way.



So shuang.



Gotta admit, this paper is amazing... the introductory paragraph on the watercolor pad was not kidding about 'extremely forgiving watercolor paper'.... Think it was ran under the tap many times, crushed and squeezed 5 or 6 times, washed with soap twice and it's still in one piece. O_o... During the process, I thought of smearing some prussian blue goauche on it, hoping maybe it get into the paper or something... Got a bit carried away with the washing, didn't realise how much water I've wasted there... and decided to stop and leave it to dry.



The ink lines then looked kind of faded, quite what I was hoping to get when I inked the picture. The texture on the back page looks even nicer....



Left it to dry while I tried to concentrate on working out the scenes for the collaborated animation.... Due to the wet weather, the paper didn't dry, and it was already night... So I just went ahead with the coloring. Watercolors won't work anymore on this one... since the translucence will just drown in the blues... my next immediate option was gouache, though I have no idea how to go about with it as the opacity will definitely cover up the lines...



Turned out pretty fine.



Yay! Feels like I ran one big round... heck.

Convocation Speech...?

A small part of this was shown during a lecture about writing. The hilarity..... omg, can't believe it's during gradaution. Hope my graduation (if it happens... that is) is as happening as this. Hahahahhaa...

A Lion, some Bunny-Hoodie, Plushie, Anonymously...

Went back to concetrate on accounts once more, but as usual.... Had these characters in my head while having some random sms chat. Don't really know how to define my own personality, so maybe just draw aspects of it down ba! Maybe can get something through that... End up getting a couple of characters down, four of them in that picture above, while the other 3 are just omitted due to lack of space. (haha) Kind of felt my head working again. Wonder if this is what they meant by enjoying what you do and not....

So that's a super showy lion who runs around with a mike, a hood-ied person who can turn into a lady or a Mori-sempa-ish (think Ouran) gentleman depending on the surrounding, some plushie looking movable that can't seem to stop crying and a super tall person who will always fit into the frame of the picture with the head unseen. (And he/she wears a white robe and has super hairy legs.) Ookie, I'll go work on it... after the accounts part.

Slack slack

Trying a more graphical style, after being inspired again by Nate Wragg's blog... I haven't touched gouache for sometime. The character's one created during Year 3 in NYP for a drawing assignment, which I remember putting in a lot of effort in the research part. Both that and the concept arts are binded into one book, which I would at times go back to look at for the japanese reference in there. XD

Arggh...Have been slacking the past two days, reading comics (and wow, newspapers...), painting, watching videos... Haiz. I just can't seem to concentrate on my work. Consulted Aunty Soon about financial accounting yesterday, and she told me to 'scratch the surface'... the textbook is very in depth, lots of theories, and I find myself struggling to catch up with every lesson. Maybe I'm truly over-reading....

Went to West mall to discuss the San Lun Che Project with Huiying and settled some stuff, after that, just a random shop around the comics store and Popular... I wondered how long has it been since I last roamed around westmall. Ngaaaahhh... I dun wanna end up being a workaholic.... T_T...Randomly clicked on Mr Calvin's blog (since I'm bored...), and realised that he and Ms Lee are now parents!! Hoho, wonder if she'll grow up looking more like Ms Lee or Mr Calvin....

Haiz... there goes the weekend... soon.

Little Christian Humor

Just a month or so ago, I recieved an email from my sis, and my aunt, with the same joke. Upon seeing the title, it wasn't very appealing to me. Many christian mails sent to my mailbox were mostly left unread, due to the high-preaching content... but this is one light-hearted joke that really gets into my head... Haha. To those who never got it in their emails, just take some time to read it. It'll probably save your life one day. XDXDXD At least now, it did for me... (hey, this can be the storyline for a 1 minute animation short!)

-----------------------------------
Little Christian Humor

Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was

better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and

frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering.

Finally fed up, God said, 'THAT'S IT! I have had enough. I am

going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from

those results, I will judge who does the better job.'

So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away.

They moused.

They faxed.

They e-mailed.

They e-mailed with attachments.

They downloaded.

They did spreadsheets!

They wrote reports.

They created labels and cards.

They created charts and graphs.

They did some genealogy reports.

They did every job known to man.

Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell.

Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed

across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power

went off.

Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in

the underworld.

Jesus just sighed.

Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their

computers. Satan started searching frantically, screaming:

'It's gone! It's all GONE! 'I lost everything when the power went out!'

Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the

past two hours of work.

Satan observed this and became irate.

'Wait!' he screamed. 'That's not fair! He cheated! How come he has all

his work and I don't have any?'

God just shrugged and said,


JESUS SAVES!...
-----------------------------------

Remember Jesus... remember Ctrl+s! XD

Sian....

Wednesday.... self study day.... sian day... Ngaaaaaahhhhh..... Stare at the book, can't get anything in... So end up painting instead.

Borrowed a book on the making of Pirates of Caribbean... Had intentions of caricaturing the people in there, but didn't really get down to do it. Flip flip flip... saw the picture of Tia Dalma and decided to paint it as it was. Tired of thinking... and wanted to get it done fast to go back to studying asap... argh...



Sigh... not at the quality of an hour of painting... just tired, haha.

Goal?

Yea, finally tuned it back! Previously, it was pretty out of shape, (totally no shape nia...), but managed to focus today and get it done nicely. Hmm... the left sandal is too bright though... And the spotty background wasn't on purpose... I dun remember doing any spots there, and when I took the board out to continue on my painting today, it was there already... makes me wonder what happened..? It isn't mold which I thought it was, and there are little black spots within the whites and they seem to be embedded in the board... >_<

Had a chat with Sheng Yi yesterday. It was pretty interesting to see another side of her while we talked about goals and stuff. For someone who had been doing science and business stuff the past years of her life, to go for art now is after a lot of thinking there, and she shared with me how she got to that decision. She hoped to get into pixar one day and create an animated movie that people will remember for at least 7 years. Hard one... but that's one goal to move on with. Ngaah.... dunno about mine nia, even after so long, I even wonder if this arty way is my way. Doubtful all the time despite the assurances... all I do know is that I keep going back to drawing and painting no matter how many times I stop, and I don't get tired while doing that, but forcing it out at an everyday-rate is what makes me withdraw, making me wonder which art job doesn't do that......... hmmm... just do what I can now ba.

Yay, I'm sick! XD

Wednesday was an official break weekday for me, and today is a sick day. Lol... So... another day at home. I've already prepared what I wanna do for the day and this is what happens... :-/

Had intentions of waking up early to study accounts... but I didn't have a good night sleep. Kept waking up, feeling my throat sore and dry, and at the same time, feeling something stuck in the nostrils kind of sensation. Urgh... Green mucus. Eek. Haha, that means a two days mc... and I tio! Dunno if it's a happy thing or just sian... Wanted to go back and continue working on my new oil painting...





It's at a pretty raw stage, and the lighting on Tuesday wasn't very satisfactory. I didn't like that super dark (almost black) and contrasting lighting. Couldn't catch much colors there, and Ms Joan Kelly had to correct many problems with my small rough. Haha, I guess I didn't have the patience to paint on a small, palm-sized board, which was why she had to add on a lot to that painting. Something about 'catching the shapes' in painting, which I had yet to get it. I guess I was just making lotsa blobs here and there, too spontaneous? Or maybe just ignorance of the rules... dunno, gotta discipline myself there. Oil painting can really get you carried away!!!

Accounting.... still slow. Went to Aunty Soon's house yesterday to study that. It's really great to have her around when you are doing accounting stuff, any questions in the book, just raise and you get a professor's answer, both UK and USA style. Wow... Hahahaha~~Ahhhh.... I spent an hour on just one question! Can calculate how many I did in 3 hours... Snailing nia... and she's also snailing in her presentation preparations too, haha. That's the spirit of our family, I guess... slog and slack, last minute-ers....

Realised that I'm really facing all the stuff I didn't enjoy previously this semester. 3D arr.... Haven't touch it much, but the book tutorials did help. I find myself catching up with what Mr Chavez was talking about, and yea, learned something about deformations yesterday... Two days mc, time to work a bit harder...

But argh, the medication is working hard too...!! T_T



Tired of studying, did some doodle of the story behind Ru Yan that I've been thinking about to get it off my mind a while. Kind of losing touch with colors...