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

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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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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....

These days...

OMG, my 2 year old R4 has new life! Gotta love this Wood guy.... >_<

*runs off to game....* (Aye, have yet to finish my homework though, ahahahahaha....)

One Interesting Day

What an interesting day today had been, or maybe... interesting in my own thoughts... haha. It started off with this cute little (how do you say '麻雀' in english....) brown birdie which had just landed on a pile of dirt/ sand nearby the 180 bustop. The bird was like a little blob, resting there, looking around. And then, it started fidgeting, and 'diving' into the dirt, splashing it everywhere. It was enjoying the dirt/ sand? I dunno... but its actions were really cute, I dunno how to describe it well... cartoony in a sense. Drew it down during today's lecture.

During lunch time, I decided to eat a healthy meal, and bought a slice of watermelon. As I took that slice and walk towards the cashier to pay up, I had the urge to say '我的美人一片', and I did say that while passing the coins to her, speaking quite softly though. Not sure if the cashier aunty would start staring at me wierdly for saying that. And gosh, she did hear it, called me back and corrected me '不对不对，是“美人一个!"' In a way, yea, I'm shocked, but walked off with some giggles. She's probably in her forties, rather serious looking and had a rather tired expression when I paid up, but there she was, suddenly bubbling with laughter. Maybe that remark kind of stuck out from the mundane work, haha. All these were just ordinary, nothing fanciful or extreme, but somehow, they do kick off a few ideas. One of the joys of being alone, probably.



Went to the library to do some research for my homework after the lectures, but I end up looking at other stuff... Just right opposite the architecture section were a few books regarding timepieces. Had a thought of looking into the gears of a timepiece for my new paintings, and end up had an idea for a story! Maybe it's an idea used before, but it got me somewhat excited. An angel/ reaper who is interested in timepieces, has a shop and sells his own creations. Thinking about the little objects and how it goes about. Shaping it slowly there, it wouldn't be too much of creating a brand new world like the previous, though the shop idea reminded me of xxxholic....

Burned Out

Was thinking about drawing a modern pirate (rip, burn, crash...), but it slowly changed into a person sick of his work. The pieces of paper at his feet were the resignation letter he prepared, so just backing up everything in his laptop. However, yea, all burned out.

Trying to paint with minimal use of the smudge tool this time. Turns out pretty fine for now, let's see how it'll go.... :) (That's it... I'm giving up coloring on my laptop........... >_< THE COLORS ARE OFF AGAIN!!!!! >_< !!!)



This was the intended colors.......... T_T T_T T_T... why liddat de........ >_< Went to test print the Enma picture yesterday and it turns out that the colors on the desktop were nearer to the print. However... this desktop pc is getting very old and whenever I try to do some digital illustration with it, it keeps popping that 'low memory' warning on the corner of the screen, and the next thing I know, the program starts to lag big time.... T_T Rarrrgggghhhhhhhhhh >_< !!!!!!!!!!

My Dad

Read from screen left to right...



Was cleaning up my table when I found this comic strip again. It was started many months back, when my father kept asking about my sister but never really speaks to her on the phone whenever she calls back. I decided to sit down and complete it, although xiu is gonna be back soon. Maybe something to remember about her 2 years of disappearance from home... haha.

Funny thing about today was to have a cockroach running on the bathroom floor in front of you when you're bathing. Shocked me there a while, the next question being 'what do I do with you...' It's wierd seeing cockroaches running in daylight in my home, and just yesterday, I killed one in the computer room. It's been months since I did that... maybe it's time to clean up? And having nothing around that is flat and hard enough to squash that intruder, I could only splash water around it till it goes down that drainage... sounds a bit cruel, but think that was probably the luckiest cockroach to come my way...? (aye, cockroach killer me am.)

Went back to school for some final project uploads. Eileen wanted the setting photos for the stopmo project we did, so uploaded them to the server. At the mean time, scanned all the big sized pictures I have. Time to do some archiving... :)

Orange Sky - Sunset

Process Log

A series of pictures are bugging me. Must have been that cloud book... Super anatomy problem, slightly covered up by the colors, but still a problem. Tried something new here, using ballpoint pen to outline instead of the technical ink pen. The ballpoint pen is kind of like in between the pencil and the technical pen, capable of producing bold black lines and at the same time, able to create a different tone with the amount of pressure applied to it (something which the technical pen is not really capable of doing). I wasn't sure if it could pull through the watercoloring part... but turns out pretty fine there. Anyways... the backlighting challenge... He looks creepy here, lol. New discovery: Hey, I can mix masking fluid with water for a thinner fluid!!! Maybe I'm slow... but it yea, having fun with that now, nyak nyak nyak~~~~

On the other side of life.... The architecture module so far has been pretty interesting, and tiring. Having to sit for 5 hours of lecture, my brain can't take over 3 hours there... Start getting sleepy even though he's talking some interesting stuff. There has been some crossover to graphic design studies as well as the industry design parts. Homework... ugh. But it's drawing, so nevermind. It's the measurements for the bustop that would be a slight headache in the sun...

And mum came back with Ann with a rather black face this evening... Apparently, the kid's form teacher had a serious chat with mum regarding Ann's grades. She failed her maths and english tests (and I thought there weren't any more tests... turns out it's just no major exams.) and the teacher hoped mum could arrange some tuition for her. Makes me wonder what school teachers are for these days... or maybe my sis is really too 'li hai' le? Considering she's having trouble identifying with the 'he, she, they' words.... haiz.... Really wonder what one can really do about it... the worst thing is, even the tuition centres these days are choosing students. We were pretty fed up with that tuition centre when the administrators were just giving that 'no chance' look at the kid upon seeing her grades. Mum even had to bring Yang's straight As report book to convince them to take the girl. There's no such thing as 'tuition' anymore....

Kites

Brought my sis down for some ice cream treat this afternoon and on our way to the shops, saw kites stuck to trees. Not just one tree... But a quite a few. There is a huge field right outside my house, and just sometime earlier, the winds were pretty strong and somehow, people started gathering there for some random layang activity. But yea, some were unlucky and their kites got stuck to the trees nearby. Ann was pretty excited about that mickey mouse kite at the motorcycles area (though I can't see the mickey mouse picture on it....). Anyways, this was the cutest thing that happened today. Itching to paint, so did a quick illustration of it. (Yeap, the kid just got a tooth plucked out a few days ago.)

A supposed 4 months holiday, one of the most dangerous things to happen to a student.... However, signed up for special semester this time and the class is starting tomorrow. 4 weeks of school and one exam for me again. Mondays and Tuesdays are gone. 5 more days in the week... should be able to find something constructive to do.

Ele-mental

Ripped off DA... for the fun of it.

FIRE:
[ ] You have a short temper
[x] You often act on your emotions without thinking first. (Cos I think slow...)
[ ] You are very competitive.
[ ] You like to play with fire.
[ ] You are not a strong swimmer or you can't swim at all.
[x] You prefer warm weather over cold weather. (Super yea.)
[ ] You often lose control over yourself
[x] You can be quite reckless. (Haha... almost get banged by car yesterday? hahaha~)
[ ] You sometimes hurt people without realizing it.
[x] People have often called you insane. (My sis did...)
Total: 4

WATER:
[x] You have a calm, laid-back personality. (i think...?)
[ ] You like to go to the beach.
[x] You rarely get angry.
[x] When you do get angry, you know how to control it.
[ ] You think before you act.
[ ] You are good at breaking up fights.
[ ] You are a great swimmer.
[X] You like the rain.
[ ] You can stay calm in stressful situations.
[ ] You are very generous.
Total: 4

EARTH:
[ ] You are physically strong.
[ ] You have a close connection with nature.
[x] You don't mind getting dirty.
[x] You form strong opinions on issues that concern you. (come to think of it...)
[ ] You could easily survive in the wild. (definitely not.)
[x] You care about the environment.
[x] You can easily focus on your work without getting distracted.
[ ] You rarely get depressed.
[ ] You aren't afraid of anything.
[ ] You prefer to have a strict set of rules. (I wonder..)
Total: 4

AIR:
[ ] You have a free spirit.
[ ] You hate rules.
[x] You prefer to be out in the open rather than in small, enclosed spaces.
[x] You hate to be restrained.
[ ] You are independent.
[ ] You are quite intelligent. (I dun understand the meaning of intelligence anymore...)
[ ] You tend to be impatient.
[x] You are easily distracted.
[ ] You can sometimes be hyperactive and/or annoying.
[x] You wish you could fly. (Why not?)
Total: 4

DARKNESS:
[X] You spend most of your time alone.
[ ] You prefer night-time over daytime.
[ ] You like creepy things.
[ ] You like to play tricks on people.
[ ] Black is your favourite colour
[ ] You prefer the villains over the heroes
[x] You don't talk much.
[ ] You are an atheist.
[ ] You don't mind watching scary movies.
[ ] You love to break the rules.
Total: 2

LIGHT:
[x] You are very polite.
[x] You are spiritual. (Not in the christian sense though.)
[ ] When someone is in trouble, you never hesitate to help them.
[ ] You believe everything you see or hear.
[x] You are afraid of the dark.
[ ] You hate violence.
[ ] You hope for world peace.
[ ] Everyone loves to be around you.
[x] You always follow the rules. (Typical Singaporean.)
[ ] You laugh/smile a lot
Total: 4

Looks as though everything equals out there, but the descriptions themselves don't quite do justice to the elements themselves, I feel. Thought about such classifications before, quite an interesting way of building up characters in a story... but in the end... everything feels quite similar given the same energy charge. Haha, random.

My latest attention has been given to clouds, reading up a bit more about these fluffy buggers. So happens when your mother invites you to lunch at the coffeeshop downstairs, and upon stepping into the street and seeing the clouds, she ran back up to keep the clothes. The next moment when she's back downstairs, it started drizzling with the sun shining on you. -_-... Aunties with lotsa time on their hands probably watch tv more than clouds, but my mum is one of the older ones who watch the sky in the morning, tv in the afternoon and listen to crickets at night. Must be the kampung upbringing... She started telling me about the different clouds and what they could possibly mean. She anticipated a quake a few weeks back, when on her way to the hospital, she saw two distinct blobs of clouds in the sky and it happened the day next. Guess that's what she benefited from the Starhub Cable TV signup.

Ah well, that got me interested. Borrowed a few books about them and realised that clouds also affect the shadows casted; lighting from the sun diffused... Never really thought about that before, the natural phenomena. The sky has 'constipated' for about two days already.... wonder if it'll rain tonight? Haha...

Gift art for HY who is supposed to fly off today.... but changed to wed. Gave her the three primary colors from Winsor & Newton, since she's still using Holbein. WN's red doesn't dull when it dries up, something that the Holbein paint didn't manage to produce. Wonder how will these colors transform under her hands... maybe in three months time, we'll see... :)

Disappointed

Just disappointed in the few friends around me these days. Or maybe I'm just pms-ing. Haha... felt better crying out. Feel bad for my family sometimes, lol.... have to put up with my sudden storms.... Have to find a better way of handling them.

My Laptop

It's threatening to hang these days, I wonder why... Am I abusing it these days..? Or maybe it's just not used to the everyday work work work lifestyle... Two major deadlines coming, and after that, it's down to one animation and 3 exams. Haiz... please dun throw tantrums during this period....

Random rant and the Pixar Exhibition

Rant: Skip it cos it's just a personal whining to ease my frustration of the day.


After the tough week I had... it's saturday again and I went along with my mum and the kids to art school again. In between, I went seperate ways from my mum and aunt, and since time was up, I went to fetch the kids first. Knowing that the elders were probably in the market, the kids and I just waited at the foot of the staircase, the kids kind of interacting among themselves, ann monkeying around the railings while Yang and Xiong were discussing about some 'noob' issue. Then came an old woman with a walking stick, who saw the kids and the bags I was carrying and asked if there was a tuition centre in this building. Yea, there was one, as far as I know, the one at the top most floor where I fetched the kids from. She nodded, said some stuff and told me that her grandson was having tuition and she had come to fetch him since the parents couldn't make it for some reason. And started climbing the stairs.

For some reason, I was just horrified to see that. Almost a minute had passed and she was not even up that flight of stairs. Who wouldn't feel bad about it?? Even I was panting when I got up there, I couldn't imagine how she would be like when she got all the way up. Offered to help her get her grandson down and asked for hte kid's name, but maybe for safety reason, she insisted to go up herself and fetch the kid, though she told me I have three kids to look after and didn't want to bother me about it. I regreted not bringing out my handphone... at least a call would be able to confirm if the kid was even up there. I was told later by my mum that there was a tuition centre at the second level. Felt very bad about that... the kid might have been there, save the old woman some torment. Wonder if that was jsut too much self-righteousness, I remembered my friends mocking the young hoggers of the MRT seats and didn't comment about that. Personally felt that everyone has that selfish heart and even if one gives up a seat for the elderly on the train but don't extend that compassion to others whether they like them or not, what's all that righteous talk about? Maybe I'm slapping myself in the face, just sad to be in the position to help but not knowing how to. Aye, just wanted to get that out of my head and did this pastel painting of what I remembered of that old woman.

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Pixar exhibition

Yea, it got me into the pastel mode again. It's very very inspiring to see their works up in the science centre, thought I thought the art musuem would have been a greater place for them. Went for the three talks yesterday (aye, didn't go for Good Friday's mass this year, I'm such a bad girl...) I was shocked that not many year 2s came, and not even a familiar soul from nyp.

The Talks
The first talk by Mr Warren Trezevant, (as copied from the email sent from school:

Warren Trezevant joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1995 and has animated on seven of Pixar's feature films, including Finding Nemo, Incredibles and Ratatouille. Taking advantage of his strong technical background, Warren has been exploring ways to take characters off the screen and bring them to life in our world with the Toy Story Zoetrope and the animatronic WALL*E. Warren is currently working with Pixar's software team to improve their animation production software.)

He talked about how he started off, got to know what he wanted to do in his life and how he ended up in pixar. He brought us through the animation production, from the storyboards all the way to the final rendered movie. It was amazing. The storyboards were simple drawings, fixed with dialogue that the makers dubbed themselves. The reel that he showed us was one from UP, the part when Russel discovered the birdie and presented it to the old man. It was hilarious to see images of Russel fixed to a manly voice that tried to 'act kiddy'. Yea, the images, as compared to Ting Zhao's reel I've saw couple years back in NYP was not that detailed, but the shots were pretty much what we see at the end of the movie. Next, the story moved to a very rough animation in 3D. The characters were just there, not doing any detailed movements other than moving from point A to B. It's almost like setting the camera angles and blocking out the major actions. The facial expressions were not done at that stage, but the voices were the final dialogue that was in the movie. After that, it moved to a more detailed phase where all the actions were done. There weren't any shading on the them, all concentration seemed to be on the animation itself. After that, the lighting, shading, rendering; the final outlook. It's pretty amazing. Although I myself didn't had the oppurtunity to go through a proper production in school, I could catch what he said, it was almost like painting a picture, the rough first, get the important form in there (in this case, the animation) and then make it look beautiful and finished.

Throughout the making, the animators do act out the actions of the characters they were animating. He showed us some clips of that, and it was funny watching the animators acting there. Super expressive. During the QnA, it was known that when the voices of the actors were dubbed for the show, their faces were also recorded for the animators to reference to.

[Off: Which reminded me or this video: hahahahahah~ great reference it would be!]


There were many other things he said, the working environment of pixar... but I couldn't remember them all. Oh, and he showed us the toystory zoetrope made of sculptures! (Aye, check up the wiki if you have no idea what it is) It was very amazing, and it's up in the exhibition!



The exhibition

As there was a 2 hour break in between, Shengyi and I went into the exhibition and had a look. She had gotten a ticket to the exhibit that day, which wasn't a very good choice. However, what's done is done and she hoped i could accompany her for the trip. I tried to ask for a change to my tix that was fixed for today and thankfully, they allowed. There wasn't much time for us to see everything, but enough to take a browse at the pictures (!! A browse.... T_T I intend to return another day actually.) Man... it was information overload.... Halfway through, I couldn't take it. Just too much to see and absorb!!!!! I was very inspired by the acrylics and pastel paintings exhibited, especially the ones from Finding nemo and Monsters Inc. My descriptions wouldn't give them justice >_< A definite see for traditional medium and concept art lovers. The character sculptures of the different movies were on exhibit too! It seems like they would build a model for the character and draw out contour lines as a visual aid for modelling. Also, there were a number of concept arts which were done using collage, and that opened a new door to me about the technique too. As long as it can communicate the idea and be done in the fastest speed of the artist, guess anything goes! To hell with the 'only digital for digital media' crap!!!

Didn't really read the descriptions, neither did I settle down to see the videos cos the next talk was starting. Info overload!!!! Info overload!!! Time to grab some woman down to see it!!! XD

Talks continued...

The second talk by Ms DeAnn Cobb:
(Shamelessly copied from the email I got from school again!: DeAnn is an instructor at Pixar University and a Designer for the Exhibitions program within Pixar and abroad. She specializes in color theory and painting and technical art classes such as Photoshop and Illustrator. DeAnn grew up in Marlow Oklahoma and went to Baylor University in Texas where she received her BFA in graphic design. She then went to San Francisco Art Institute for her Masters in painting.)

Maybe cos I had some food earlier on, i started feeling a bit sleepy in the auditorium, but her talk about the art making was as interesting as the previous talk. After a walk through the exhibition, it was even easier to relate to the pieces she showed on screen. What really caught me was the making of 'Bugs Life' concepts. They actually took a video camera and took videos from the ant's point of view. Many things seen in that home made video then became inspiration to the settings and tiny details in the movie. She talked about the pixar culture of 'plussing', an idea about building on ideas. Thought that was a really great way of making ideas instead of just casting things away and saying 'No'. The third speaker, Kim Donovan,

(Kim came to Pixar in 2007 from The Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Her role as a project manager at MoMA spanned six years where she worked on projects ranging from art installations to the building of the new Education Center. In the winter of 2005 Kim was involved in the installation of "Pixar: 20 Years of Animation." She eventually stepped into the role of project manager of the traveling exhibition and has been amazed by not only the film making process at Pixar but at the support and fans of Pixar she's met around the world. While in New York, Kim also worked extensively as an actor and is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre. She grew up in Sarasota, Florida on Siesta Key and received her degree from Rollins College in Winter Park, FL.)

expanded much more on that topic, saying that the people had a culture of saying 'Yes, and...' instead of 'No, but...'. It's a respect for the idea that someone comes up with, but instead of disregarding it, one adds on to it, and maybe the original idea will slowly morph into the grand idea. Seems like something I can try doing next time when it comes to brainstorming. Another I learnt was... 'story is king'.... (some mantra chanted throughout the entire pixar company). Since almost three quarter of the production would revolve around the story, yea, story is king. But the welfare of the workers are higher than that, she said. So yea, maybe that's where we suck when it comes to working. Drowning in the pile of work and not getting out of the seat for some sports or even food. No wonder so many people hoped to work in the Pixar company.

Yeap, not gonna go further on that anymore. I'm thinking of my next visit to the science centre again, most probably catching a movie too. They are actually screening Up, Toystory 1 and 2 on April, May and June respectively. In 3D at the price of $3 (dun think you need to buy the exhibition tix for that, the screening is in another venue near the exhibition). Aye. I watched it for $10. Why not?

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Side thing: I scored B+ for my astro quiz without preparation, reading notes and attending lecture. Yes, I'm laughing. Things I study like siao ends up as failures while things I don't give a damn about gets passes. Just don't understand how this world works sometimes... S/U astro liao. Heck. Couldn't be this heng in exam next time.

2 Movies in a Week

Aye. Good movies seems to be screening on busy days... Not say good, but movies that i wanted to watch. The first one was on Friday. It was a last minute thing and I promised to bring my bro to the cinema for it. Yeap, Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva. The kid was very engrossed in the game, and loved to watch the animation whenever it was screened at a particular point of the games. I thought he would like to watch a whole movie of it, but warned that it was dubbed in Japanese and he must rely on the subtitles to understand what was spoken. He didn't like that idea at first, but after showing him the trailer, his eyes kind of lit up and decided to go along. Haha, took him about 10 minutes to get ready, cos we were rushing for the morning show. (yea, planned for homework after that, but as usual....)

It was the kid's first movie trip and he was a bit noisy at first. Yea, the enthusiasm of seeing your favourite characters on a big screen and naming each and every one that appear. Thankfully, there aren't many people there (less than 10 including us). I was glad he enjoyed it, though plot wise, it was pretty clear who was the 'behind-it-all'. Animation was pretty smooth and neat. I've always loved the stylistic design of Professor Layton games, and the nostalgic color palette. Somehow, Layton's and Luke's hats were kinda glued to their heads. Even in the sword fight, Layton still remembers to keep his hat intact. Haiz.

Second movie... Alice in Wonderland. Went with Alton this time round for that, knowing he might be interested in the show after his recent revisions on the story again. I never really finished reading the story before, it was pretty haywire for me when I first read it at a young age. Couldn't comprehend it and after a couple of pages, my mind shut down... It's kind of a forgotten story for me, and after reading a review about the show from 'F***' (oh, it's a magazine created by the ones who made the 'FIRST' magazine), I decided to take a look at it. A whole new story with mad people eh... Tim Burton... Since I'm doing something depressing these days, might as well give it a go.

Aye... it wasn't a movie that will make one go wow immediately, but one that would leave you with some thoughts about madness, the 'in-between' and existence. Lots of symbolism going on, Alton revealed about the subtleties in thhe movie. The personifications of wisdom and wonder following Alice around in her real world. Hmm... wasn't the blue caterpillar there in the first place? Somehow, the Mad Hatter reminded me of myself getting lost in what I'm currently doing and forgetting the real agendas... haha. Even as I type these words, I haven't done much work.



Quick sketch on the photoshop. Doing storyboards these days made me realise how little about composition I know. Inspired by the movie Alice in Wonderland!