Unbalanced!

An old sketch I did while studying during sophomore year. I can't figure out why I can draw backgrounds using pen/pencil+paper, but when it comes to using my wacom tablet I just end up creating a mess. It's not even a matter of applying pressure, since the tablet is pressure sensitive and OC adjusts to that. I think it's a matter of mood and motivation when having a piece of paper in front of you.

So unsymmetrical, I'm surprised he hasn't coughed up blood yet. I started the drawing as a background study, but somehow ended up like this. Kept erasing things over and over again and I just got sick of it. I'll definately try again later on, but as for now....I'll just stick with this.

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Damn, I hope there isn't another typhoon coming around to H.K., otherwise I'll have to delay my flight to the U.K. next week. Not like it'll create an inconvenient setback in terms of attending introductory programmes on campus, but it just means I'll be awfully tired.

As anyone can tell, I'm getting over my reluctance to leave the 852. In fact, I'm rather excited to leave home and see what else is new in a different country; perhaps the idleness of Summer is finally losing it's appeal? Nah, can't be. I'll end up whining for a break again as soon as the assignments, essays and readings crash in.

Still nervous as hell.

Work in Progress: Small Talkings

A tad messy, but I haven't really had the energy to clean up my linework. At least I got the postures to look semi-decent. This is a rough draft of an image I'm going to finalize later (another image in the WIP pile? Alas.) Always though Kidd and Black Star would make an intresting friendship, since they're both crazy but in different ways.

The fall anime season is about to start, and obviously tons of anticipation going around for Gundam 00 (as for myself, my interest only develops after I start watching....can't judge from previews and commercials.) I'm surprised to see several titles on the list...mostly Jigoku Shoujo. I honestly thought that series was over, but it'll be interesting to see how they ressurect the dead/vapourized character.

Polos and Jeans

Image of Nicoli Hatchson (nicknamed 'Mane' because of his hair when untied). Very dedicated towards wearing polos and jeans, and interns in the school infirmary. (The jeans in this image didn't turn out the way I wanted, but this is only a rough draft of the character-- will definitely redraw this image later on with a background.)

To the right is Blithe's brother Monday (also interns as the school medic), and the character on the left is just one of his patient-friends. He's one of those over-protective brothers who unfortunately is deemed 'useless-in-a-fight' by his younger sister. But really, it is the sentiment that counts.

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So I got a haircut this weekend, and there is nothing like making small talk with the hairstylist. He's not a horrible person, but then he brought up the fact that I was so pasty despite the 852 Summer filled with glaring sunshine. (Awkward answer of "....I was born looking this pasty. Sorry.") At least my mum and the hairstylist have good conversations.

Still nervous about flying next week (gaspage!), but my suitcases are mostly packed and surprise-surprise, I don't have that much to bring. Granted, I've already shipped two medium boxes of books and extra clothing-- but books are impossible to carry on plane since they're super heavy (and darn european flights have so many luggage weight limitations.

Banners

Since my blog has been started for over a year, I think it might be time to put out some banners. No need to comment if anyone choses to link, though an email with your own website would be nice (so I could add your website back.) The three choices here cover Furies (original art); DGM (Kanda!) and Soul Eater (Kidd and a skull....how morbid.)

Art Dump

Faces One; face studies, basic

This one I did during my research on the 852...sometimes I draw political images, but this probably isn't one of them.

Faces Two: All about contact

I drew these characters from a series I read a while ago-- don't exactly remember the name. Will find out later. Drew this one in pen back in 2007...

Another pen drawing of Furies characters, featuring the older designs of Blithe.

Mooncakes on Monday (technically Sunday)

Work in progress (again!)....of Kidd. I still need to neaten the outline and etc....I really ought to draw with a specific process instead of flipping back and forth. I just read the RAW for the newest chapter, and I'm amazed how the art style has changed over the past few months. The fight scenes are so much more awesome to read...which makes me wonder whether or not Bones is going to animate that chapter later on (seriously, how are they going to fit everything from the manga into 51 episodes?) But back to the current chapter; it was very interesting to see that Kid's hair isn't permanently like that... wonder what he'll look like in the future?

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The aforementioned Mid Autumn image-- Mid Autumn was on Sunday, though we were given Monday as a public holiday. (And a rough image of Maka, because I haven't drawn anything of her for a while). Obviously I had no idea which direction to take the image, hence the electic elements here and there. Ah well.

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And I forgot to mention the Legco election outcome. Everything turned out relatively fine, with the democrats (not the pseudo-ones) winning enough chairs to veto any bad ideas coming from the government. One of my favourite politicians got another term there, so its bound to be another 4 years of amusing government meetings and arguements all over again. Heh.

NANO!

Guess what I got as an early birthday present (a really early birthday present....since its not until January)! My dad decided to buy it because it was cheap, and because he wanted to take it for a test-drive first...so right now he's just browsing through the photos and albums, turning the thing 90 degrees every now and then. But I get to use it when I head over to the UK. Apparently I wasn't the only person on campus who ordered one, since the delivery guy had an entire truck full of ipods that had to be delivered to students in dorms.

And Happy Mid Autumn to everyone! Mooncakes for all. Shall post something related to that soon enough.

Scribble

Look ahead to see what's behind! Just a quick doodle of [young] Kidd before running off for another hotpot session tonight at TaiPo. I don't understand why it's so much fun to have hot foods during summer, but really cold stuff in the winter. Maybe my family has masochistic tendencies when it comes to eating....

Tuesday Blurbs

I have a knack for creating weird looking things. Here is my warped version of Snow White-- it'll be so much fun if I could design these things as an occupation (I know there is a job like that, but they're super competitive and unpredictable....if you don't create something popular all the time, you're dead in the industry.) But if I do happen to be able to contribute a character to the fuzzy-mascot industry, that would really be great.

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Here is a rough draft of Erebos Rose's outfit; the hoodie idea was already in my head, but the gold bangles and necklace only came to be after having dug through my sister's jewelry box (to be fair, I was looking for my sister's USC flash drive, and once she even had it inside a tissue box....so no surprises I'm searching in such random places.)

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I'm so tired after having ran around Hong Kong for the past four days. Meeting relatives, friends and other people I-think-I-know before I leave for the UK. Was worried about meeting people in such hot weather (because I sweat bucketloads under direct sunlight and in high humidity places), but most of the people I met were also from abroad....and were also sweating profusely. So to any local HK person, we just looked like a group of people who went swimming. Delightful. As sad as I will be to leave HK on the 29th, I'm also glad to be out of the horrid weather....and to the rainy gray skies of England.

For crying out loud, it's September already; cool breezes are supposed to have arrived! Why are we still having a heatwave now....don't recall the temperatures ever reaching so high for such an extended period of time. Reaching the 30Cs was a rarity back in the highschool years-- whereas this year everyday was over 30C. Normally by mid-autumn festival we can don on our long-sleeve shirts already. Speaking of mid-autumn, the festival is on Monday and I have every intention of going to the lantern parade on campus. I got a goldfish lantern as a gift this year, except the thing feels too damn flammable and I'm too scared to put a candle inside...so I'm using a torch instead. Not environmentally friendly, but I would like to have my hand remain ...noncrispy. Woot, Mooncakes! Woot, Full moon! Eurgh, and children.

Might go crazy if I see a horde of children carrying plastic lanterns (the electrical kind with the music players included...)

Geez....I must have spent half my summer postings here complaining about the effing weather in HK. I love the city, but would totally relocate the entire thing (infrastructure, people and the land itself) to an area with a colder climate (everyone looks good in winter coats....that's an axiom!)

Lunchtime

I remember when my pre-school teacher would call for us to eat our lunches inside the classroom. Whatever it was that they fed us, I'm surprised I managed to survive on it (I was a picky eater when I was young, with alot of requirements about what foods were 'clean' and which ones just looked too gross to ingest...it got to the point where I would only eat boiled eggs.)

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It's raining today, which really isn't helping me get out the door to head to a group dinner. So unmotivated. Something about rain and thunder that makes you want to stay indoors and just sleep the day away.

I also hate that students are going back to school now on campus, which means there is more competition over who gets a seat on the university school buses (the buses used to be so spacious during the Summer, but now it's jammed packed with rude-and-loud students, smelly post-basket-ball-game guys, and people with really-large-backpacks-backpacks-like-they're-refugees.)

Week (not over) in Review

I'm finally going to draw DGM stuff again, after a prolonged hiatus on the from the series in general. Here is just a warm-up image testing colours and composition etc. Maybe I should have done this for the Valentine's Day cards I sent out last year....but no matter. Even if I did use this image, Kinko's (only the Kinkos around my old university campus) printing would have messed it up anyhow. Happened twice before....either the staff print the images onto the wrong sort of paper, or they go crazy on the resizing business and mess up the resolution of the images....gr.

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I am still angry on Monday after getting my visa back. I'm angry that I can't get angry at the British Consulate staff members. I mean, those people work 8 hour days, 5 days a week, and it must be stressful for them to sort out documents of hundreds of people. But that doesn't really excuse them for losing my passport when I went to collect it; or the fact that they told me to sit down and wait but then forgot that I existed....until closing time.

Was literally the last person sitting in the office at 5:00pm (closing time). The people at the counter only noticed me when the security guard asked why I was still sitting there by myself. Then the people behind the counter remembered that they were supposed to be looking for my passport....a task they should have been doing [but forgot to do] when I first approached them at 3:30pm. Ended up leaving during Central rush-hour....what a nightmare.

But the upside of the day was seeing some really weird people inside the office area. There was this girl in front of me that dressed like a hooker; a black long sleeves shirt, short leopard print skirt and 4 inch heels. Top all that with at least an inch of foundation and some serious hair dye/perm job. It's a wonder her face didn't melt in the 30C weather-- then again she had brought her minion to carry her purse and fan her (another duty of said minion was to help the girl up the stairs...she couldn't walk up with those heels on.)

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My new bicycle decided to die on me on Tuesday, thanks to a busted front tire. The dude at the shop said it must have been something really sharp that pierced the tire, since the inner tube was damaged but the outer layer was unscathed. It's probably caused by a piece of the rubble left behind by the construction workers, but it doesn't really matter. Bike is back to full health (fixed for only 35HKD....I recommend Chap Shing Bicycle shop for cheap stuff and good service. Located on 39 Yan Hing Street, Tai Po), and I'm flying across the parking lot giving car-owners heart attacks by swerving really close next to their BMWs and Mercedes. (This is why you should only drive a Volvo/Honda/Mazda/Toyota when you're living in a residence filled with active young people and kids.)

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On a more personal note, my friend and I recently realized that we both have some serious guilt issues. We're always guilty about people we've treated poorly in the past (in highschool we were complete a-holes), and we're guilty the way we drain our parent's finances and time every single day. We also guilty about some of the friends we've wronged before, which lead to some broken off ties nowadays-- but we've learned how to suck it up and live with it, since it can't be expected that you're liked by everyone to begin with.

After some discussion at Starbucks, we are left more confused than ever. Living with a sense of guilt is pretty nerve wrecking (and anxiety inducing....and has led to many-a-sleepless-nights), but there also is no point in remedying past wrongs after so many years of non-contact (what are we supposed to say: "hey, remember me? Sorry I was such a b*tch back then. No idea what was running through my head. So anyways, what's up with you"?). If only we could offer an apology to people in the past, we would; but would the apology even hold the same meaning now as it would have then? And then there are the people who don't need apologies, but rather will initiate contact with you again with no conditions whatsoever and still be chummy with you...which makes it even harder, because whatever crap you did to them in the past is always lingering there like some invisible barrier.

'Friendships' and the like are so confusing as a concept; don't get me started on 'relationships-as-a-couple'. Some of my other friends fight with their other-halves all the time, and things always ends with tears and lots of over-the-phone-consolation-at-night...don't really understand why they bother being with another person in the first place. It's an awful lot of trouble, isn't it?

Or maybe we're thinking too much about this entire business? The above rant isn't supposed to make much sense, I'm just rambling whatever was discussed this week combined with what was running through my mind. My thoughts are in such a disjointed state that coherent points aren't being made in those paragraphs anymore....