Sketch Dump

Blithe (those hats were all the trend during the last winter)

Random drawing, rough sketch

Random drawing, newer version has colour

A DGM image I was going to submit, but time constraints and a whole bunch of other factors got in the way. Will ink this later.

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Two whole months without posting anything on the blog; all thanks to the dissertation and the upcoming exams. Plenty to do, so probably won't be frequenting here until mid-June. Alas...

Updates+Old Rough-Sketch Dump

Kanda and Lavi, drawn 2008

Blithe, Aein, and Phys, drawn 2008

Group shot (Erebos, Aein, Blithe, Hoale and Edel): drawn 2008

Group shot: drawn 2008
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Guess what I found this year when I was home last month? Old sketches, so old and so amateur that my toes started to curl upon first sighting! But I need to document them somewhere, since the originals are disintegrating rapidly (curses, humidity!) Plus, always nice to have a laugh when I refer to these again in the future.

Back in the U.K. (after an eventful month back home; including my birthday, Home Office visa worries, intestinal infections), and the new school term has started. Much readings to do, essays to write. And since my last post, I've decided to move back into college; couldn't stand my anti-social flatmate anymore. Not only did she have this strange deluded opinion that I was making a mess in the kitchen (a miracle, considering I don't cook at all), she also invites strange guests into the flat without prior warning. And when she goes on vacation, she turns off the main fuse without thinking that I would still be living there in her absence.The moment she started hanging her Christmas decorations all over the flat and on my room door, it was time to go bye-bye.

College-living is nice, especially since my friends are around. It does have a bit of a downside; recently went to a folk dance (college event), paired up with one college-mate for two songs, and the next day he messages about wanting to know where in college I live (didn't ask to meet in a cafe or somewhere public, but my room. No thanks, I like my privacy.) I don't even tell my parents where in college I live, much less a stranger who I just met. (I'm sure he is a nice person, and that I am being oversensitive; but I do have a huge personal 'buffer zone'.) Think I'll just wear a hoodie for the next few...weeks. Or months. That is the last time I go to any social events.

Goodness. I've caught the sniffles. Better go remedy that. Will post holiday photos later.

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....

Blue Skies, Grey Skies, Blue Skies

Of course, I have been drawing this Summer. I don't think I'll survive if my head was stuck between the pages of a book for an entire day. Anyways, just a picture of Aein in a really strange, twisted style. I'm sort of liking this psychedelic vibe in illustrations right now, so I think I'll just go with the trend. Probably going to leave this one in its b+w format because it just adds to the confusion of which plane goes where...

Also have been catching up on the Soul Eater series. I must admit that the first time I read the manga I wasn't really a fan of the style, but it grew on me. Plus, it is one of those series that transitions so well into animation (seriously, the fight scenes?)...and it helps that BONES is the studio in charge of all the episodes. (Recalling the Eureka Seven series.....one of the best in the 2000s). I drew Kidd on paper, but I ran out of ink so the outline quality is lower per usual.

And...finally.....the work in progress. Haven't done much DGM stuff nowadays, but will definitely get back to it eventually. Actually drew this image before the other two above, but I didn't want to ink it on paper since the lines are bound to come out ragged and too extreme. So thinking about using my Wacom tablet and drawing this on Open Canvas instead (which is going to be so much more time consuming). Gah.

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More graduate school choices have emerged, but I am pretty dead-set on which one I want to go to. Pleased I will be heading to the U.K. because that is where the majority of my friends are, though it is doubtful how often I can maintain this blog once my Masters course starts in the Fall. So I better make use of the time I have the Summer....it feels like a brief bout of freedom before another prison sentence. (Mind you, I actually like learning and studying so I'm grateful for a graduate school opening; I just dislike how institutions limit your use of time by piling as much work as they can on you at the same time).

Eurgh....I can't type too much, my annoying mother is being indecisive about everything and is talking to me non stop.

Insomnia blues

An image of Aein and Erebos together. Every now and then I get an urge to draw characters in random clothing from my weird imagination. I have yet to come up with a colour scheme for these outfits, but I'll manage to conjure something up sooner or later.
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Not exactly a high resolution or quality image right now, but the original is pretty big so once I finish I'll use that one instead. For now, this thumbnail will have to do. I don't really know what came over me to draw Kanda in such an outfit or pose, but it's cute. But Kanda is cute as a kid, so what can I say? Can't wait for the new chapter this week.
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Nothing much happening still. Was supposed to do some Anthropology reading, but Thursday isn't exactly a great day for me to work. Ever since I've been back to Hong Kong I haven't been sleeping well. I'm not sure if it is still jetlag, the fact that I've heard a ton of Chinese ghost stories recently, the wooden floors in the house making noises, or the Chinese medicine I've been given to get rid of my abdominal pains. Either way I still wake up in the middle of the night for a toilet run, and then I find myself rolling around in bed wide-awake.

Children are trouble

A picture of Kanda and Lavi as children (because they're too cut in recent chapters), with a [long-hair!] Allen. Kanda and Lavi are totally manipulating Allen with their pouts and glossy eyes. I always think children cry not because they need to, but because they want to. Certainly was the case when I was young, you can get a lot of angry adults to back off just by working those tear ducts. Fine, maybe not all children are evil; just that I was a conniving child.

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Eurgh, family drama tonight. To be fair, it isn't exactly a 'family' drama as it involves some random git. The bastard ran into my sister's car, and she's trying to get him to pay for damages whereas he just decided to play "missing jackass" with her on the insurance claim. She calls him, he hangs up on her and then pretends that nothing happened. So my sister is going civil lawsuit on his ass.

And my mum just let out another slew of old-fashion 'conservativism' thinking. Apparently something to do with 'internet being evil with those suicide sites' and all, and how 'suicide is a sin and everyone is going to go to hell'. The latter statement I have no empirical data to prove or disprove (or do I even care, since I'm atheist?); the former I can only say two words- first amendment.

Starting to wonder how a conservative mother managed to spring two liberals out of her womb...actually, the bigger question is: does my mother even know what the hell she is saying half the time?

Days Lull By

Nothing new happening as of late, just sitting idly by awaiting news from the graduate programmes I applied to. Turned down two offers today, and I'm not sure if it was a such a good idea to do so...hopefully I'll just plod on ahead and believe that I've made the right decision (I mean, there is no alternative, is there?).

Can't stand living with my parents this Summer, but it can't be helped. I hate the lack of privacy and how my parents assume they know what I'm like (despite popular belief, parents do not know everything). And their way of thinking is so close-minded and "old-school" [mixed in with some persistent racism that still exists in some Asian cultures] that I'm inches away from whacking their heads whenever they express their opinions on current issues. Not saying that my own opinions are any better than theirs; but at the very least I'm willing to listen to others.....my parents are old and stubborn. And treats me like I'm still in effing grade school. No mother, you can't dictate a bedtime for a twenty-something about-to-be-grad-student.

And I hate the fact that they pick on my weight issues. I know I'm not a size 0, and probably not even a 4, but not everyone's skeletal frame is meant to be that skinny. Not every girl wants to look like a washboard/twig/12-year-old-boy. I'll be healthy and exercise, but I'll be damned if I have to starve myself to achieve a decent weight.

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The new DGM volume 15 cover is gorgeous! Would totally buy it if I could venture to Causeway Bay where all the manga shops are. (I like reading manga in its original Japanese text....you lose something with translations).

Countdown to Graduation: 8 days

A week of no DGM.....and now it's back! Nothing like waiting for new chapter of DGM to make you realize how quickly time flies by.
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Alright, I'm officially unemployed right now. Today was my last day of work (I could have continued working on Friday and Tuesday; but I have an exam on Monday and my parents are arriving on Wednesday, so it isn't a good idea for me to spend too much time at the library making 9USD/hour). I don't think I'll ever find another job where I can take hour-long coffee breaks and still get some money out of it. I'll miss the library; a few supervisors came and said goodbye, but I didn't want to get too mopey and sentimental so I just casually breezed out the doors after exchanging a few words. Sort of regret not being more verbal, but its not as though all of us had daily conversations to begin with.

I seriously doubt I'll be missed though. I was always that creepy girl who never spoke much and made awkward small talk when forced to. Plus, they will have a new batch of workers coming in the fall, and I'll be quickly replaced...

Life Goes Round

An image of Kanda, just because he is just that awesome. (Nah, I actually just watched episode 78 again). Simple outlines and posture.
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Every single year, around mid-April, I worry. I worry about everything ranging from housing to classes to life in general. But this year, I super worry. Because graduation is less than a month away. Well, exactly a month away. 30 days. And then I'm gone from undergraduate life.

I'm not sure if I put my undergraduate years to the best use. I didn't do much extra-curricular stuff (asides from the semester helping out at the school paper), nor did I go to any of the networking parties. My involvement remained only on the academic side, which isn't a bad thing-- but it's not the healthiest way to spend my time either. Nonetheless, it is too late for me to do anything about the last four years so I will have to accept the fact that I'm leaving, and that I will have no regrets. I don't know if I really believe this, or whether I'm just making myself believe it. Or is there even a difference between the two?

I've met so many friends over in L.A. that I'm sad to leave them behind. It'll be a strange feeling knowing that I won't be seeing them on campus everyday after May. But then there is also no use in me staying behind by myself because they're all leaving too. It would really suck to be the only person to remain constant in the world.

Seriously, I have issues with change and separation. I also have issues with growing up and accepting the fact that I need to be responsible with the direction of my life from now on. And that there is no longer going to be a safety net to help me rebound if I make a mistake. I'm not even going to bother Freuding the origins of these problems.

At least one of my friends understand what I'm going through, which is really helpful; but I just wish my parents would understand too. Gosh, I don't even feel like I belong anywhere anymore after travelling around so much.

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Hm, loud party near the Frat houses tonight. Every year there is some moron who steps too close to the stage and results in the performer threatening to shut down the party.
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Body Worlds is AWESOME. I loved the displays. Fat chance seeing things like that in Hong Kong, since they're all such a bunch of prudes there.

It's the fourth month already?

Work in progress; DGM art (finally it returns!) of Kanda. I liked the way his tattoo has been expanding as of late. I'll just have to wait until I finish the line art until I start colouring....then maybe it won't look so shoddy.

Who knows what was running through my head when I drew this? I just figured it would be cute to put the four meisters together as a family unit (Alle= papa; Lockon=mama; Tieria= daughter; Setsuna= son)...and here I drew the girls together. I'll eventually work my way to drawing a "family portrait".
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Oh damn, how did it get to be April already? So much work to do, and now graduation is only a month away. I'm starting to tire of my undergraduate thesis, and I'm getting worn out by the four years of college education. I think once I start my graduate studies (I got into one graduate school so far, hurrah!) I'll feel better. At least I'll be studying something I enjoy and is interested in.

Eugh, roommate is staying in the apartment tonight. She keeps asking her boyfriend is she is a horrible conversationalist (she is), and I guess he said something she didn't want to hear and a shouting match ensues. Alright, I'll be fair, it was less of a 'shouting match' than it was a 'one sided shouting spree'. I know I'm being harsh to my roommate, and it isn't as though she is a bad person and whatnot, but she's just so oblivious to her current inconsiderate behaviour and she's super emotionally immature that I tend to steer clear of her.

Great, roommate number two returned to the apartment just now and already she is making a mess in the bathroom. I don't understand how you can just leave foundation and crap everywhere on the counter and not wipe it off with a tissue. I always get a migraine whens he is around....though it may have more to do with the super loud music she plays and the fact that she slams any door she passes through. Bloody hell, why can't she respect the idea of peace and quiet?

Scribbles V

Mini comic of the DGM series; showing the domestic life of Kanda and Lavi. Lavi tries to cook, but what on earth does he use? Heh, I'll definately ink this one and then colour it. Might take a while, but I'll get to it.

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Left to right: Levante's aunt, Ue and Aein (younger). Ue in uniform, which I will post detailed designs of later.

Aein, Blithe and Edel again. With scary doll-looking eyes in the foreground! I know it sucks to see b+w pictures (and poorly scanned ones at that) on the blog all the time, so I'm trying to see if there is an alternative to this situation. A scanner perhaps, and no more photograph+upload? Or I could ink these images, but I already have a huge backlog of stuff to be completed.

Scribbles III

Image of Lavi and Kanda as children, and wearing strangely designed outfits.I don't know if I want to finish this, since I started it in 2007 Oct and never had the motivation to continue. Drawn and coloured completely on Open Canvas.

Just a draft copy of an image in intend to draw of Aein (left) and Rue (right). It'll have a white background, with minimal colour and emphasis on red. Aein and Rue look so similar to each other (and I have a reason for that). Aein has light brown hair, is possibly an unintentional sociopath; whereas Rue has white hair and is openly and conciously viscious with his actions. Both of them are constantly confused about other people.

Scribbles II

Left to Right: Phys Bauhinia and Aein. Phys is Blithe's cousin, and is the same age as her. They actually resemble each other alot (heh), and their mothers were twins. Phys, Blithe and Monday (Blithe's elder brother) currently live with Phys' mother.

Left to Right: Clementine Edel May, Blithe Bauhinia and Aein (OLD drawing, with character designs from 2006).
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"Rainboots". Kanda and Lavi as children...to be inked and coloured soon.

V+DAY=...?

My main V:Day illustration...go and check out the full version at my DA site. I don't submit much stuff there anymore, but I do like to share with the community once in a while. I was supposed to have a V:Day card tradeoff this year, but unfortunately I ran out of time and resources (in other words, I am too poor and I am an undergrad student with a very full course load).
And here is the counterpart to the Allen V:Day drawing, but I decided against submitting/finishing this off. The design of his (yes, HIS!) outfit doesn't match Allen's as much as I thought it would. Ahh...I love designing little dresses like these. Totally unwearable in the real world, but I can be a dreamer on paper, can't I?

I went and watched the Vagina Monologues the day after V:Day. I would highly recommend people to watch it, no matter which theatre troop is performing. I watched the one my roommate and other college people were in. Whilst acting at the college student level isn't exactly steller, the strength of the writing and the vulnerabilty of the interviewees made the entire production very powerful. I proudly admit that the Comfort Women segment almost made me cry. Other touching stuff include the women in South Asia who lost their faces due to acid attacks... I can't believe that such things are going on around the world (I knew about them, but to hear other people act it out and to know that these stories are from real people...a completely different experience).

Scribbles I

An image of a younger Kanda and Lavi together: I never intended for it to look like this in the end, but it somehow did. Unpredictability in drawings is a good thing...but only in the realm of fine arts. For anime/manga illustrations, it just means you don't have the skill level to control the direction your images go.
A 2008 remake of the Alice in Wonderland image I did (it's on my DA account....at the risk of adding a plug-in, go and check it out). So the composition has changed, and I used a different perspective this time around. Hurrah! Now let us see if I have the will power and motivation to actually get around to outlining this on Open Canvas and actually colouring it.

Not a Giving Person

Here is the draft version of the DGM image I'm drawing this V-Day. It's Allen in a girly costume.

My good mood today was destroyed when I got a letter from the local Mission Centre asking for me to donate money. I don't mind giving a little (I do have part-time jobs for a reason), but last time I donated they:

-sent me a letter of thanks with a ton of stuff praising god (god has nothing to do with me donating money to your charity. I didn't hear any voice in my head telling me to open my cheque book, grab my pen and start writing. I am an atheist, but I also think I am a decent enough person to help those in need without some divine entity prompting me to do so). The letter was so filled with the word god I couldn't read it after the first two paragraphs.

-sent me another letter within a week asking me to donate again; this time for a different event. I'm happy to do the occasional good deed, but I'm a student and I need to eat and pay rent too! After that, the letters just kept pouring in. I felt as though I've opened some sort of floodgate. Don't make me regret having donated in the first place.

The cupids fear me.

Don't worry, this isn't the image I plan to submit for V-day this year. I have something completely new, but just needs to be uploaded and coloured. Should take less than a month (hehehe, I'm joking). The image needs to be penned on Open Canvas.

But yes, I am indeed one of those curmudgeons who depises V-day. Not because I am never on the receiving end for roses and candies (save for one high school year, where I was so cynical I started suspecting that someone left me a box of chocs as a joke and subsequently recycled the accompnying card), but because I find the idea of 'super' loving someone for one day to be so ...superficial.

Some people seem to stress over what to buy their other (and probably better) halves. (Other people I know are worrying over what to buy their better....thirds...get the hint?). Just the other day I was watching G4, which is technically a male-orientated television channel, and they were running adverts for a website that allows people to buy flowers for someone in under 2 minutes. They feature 'real men' who were prior customers, and their drive-at-home point is that "it takes one thing off your mind". Seriously? If you find buying flowers for someone to be such a hassle, wouldn't it be better to....not buy flowers at all? Or not married/dating at all? Plus, flowers are such a generic gift that screams "no mental capacity was wasted on the choosing of this gift".

As for me, this year I am going to spend my V-Day alone. Though granted, I have to spend it alone since I have work, meetings and class from 8:00am until 8:45pm. People might give me sympathetic looks as I walk in solitude (ooh, such dramatic langauge!) on campus that day, but they can just go and shove it.

To be coloured...

Kanda and Lavi in a whimsical childlike setting. I still need to edit and colour this, so it's still considered a work in progress. I was debating whether or not to submit this as a b+w image, but then whose childhood is b+w? (Maybe except Allen, since he was all emo and angst in his earlier years).

I love DGM, and the recent chapters are very exciting and all, but that level 4 akuma has me cracking up instead of feeling creeped out. It's the half-man-half-woman torso part.

Time Capsule!

One of my older drawings from eons past. Fine, that might be a slight exaggeration. It was done about a year or two ago, when I actually had less work to do and less readings to...er....read. Wow, my vocab impresses even myself. (But this means I'm one step clopser to my hermit/caveman-ish dreams).

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I had to go and buy plywood from Culver City today. I made the stupid assumption that the U.S. is just like Hong Kong. Never assume. Lesson learned. Shops in Hong Kong are opened all seven days of the week; so thinking it was Saturday, and that those hefty folks in Los Angeles would feel up to sawing through some wooden boards in their spare time, would mean that the store would be opened today.

No. I took two buses, walked over a mile, and found the 'closed' sign being shoved in my face. Or I shoved my face to it. Eithert way, there was an invasion of personal space between the sign and my visage. So seeking another plywood store, I walked all around Culver...and when I finally found another store, it was also closed. What, do they assume that people not need wood on weekends (once again, proving that the power of assumption is a very dangerous thing)?

So not only did I lose money for the bus fare, I lost a bit of self-respect and a ton of calories. It's a LOSER day.