Scribble I

Scribble II

Don't really know if I'll ink and colour this one later, but we'll see what happens. Stupid weather is making me feel bipolar (sun, rain, sun, rain, sun, rain!)

Scribble

Darn, the summer started ages ago but all I can do is muster up the strength to scribble. Just a picture of Aein when he was younger, alongside some of his ramblings. Now to work on the dissertation...

Potluck Eve

The title of this post has little to do with the image itself; I'm just going to a potluck in a hour or so. Anyways, a rough scribble of random characters...I really need to practice drawing more often this summer. Not really sure who the caption belongs to in the image, but I'll leave that open for interpretation.

Despite the exams and work from the previous term, I have been watching several anime series. I actually quite like Chrome Shelled Regios for the animation quality (and the illustrations used by the RPG itself are lovely), except some of the characters are annoying (and seems to effectively work against the progress of the plot)...and then there was Sengoku Basra, which ended up being hilarious (and I have my suspicions that it wasn't meant to be that way)....other than that, I haven't been watching much. Fullmetal Alchemist by BONES would be an interesting watch, but have been reluctant to watch the series again since they left it off pretty well in the previous season.

Scribbles III

Hoale Te Reunion; the cloud-shepard and self-cutter. Actually know a few cutters in the past, and when they're incredibly intelligent and rational (the cutting makes sense in their perspective.)

Happy St. Paddies, everyone! Slept at 2am yesterday, and now I need more naps.

Scribbles II

Scribbles

A rough sketch of Blithe with a scar (normally covered by her fringe). The shape and design of the scar might change later, but for now it should reach from the right side of the forehead towards the right ear. She normally keeps it hidden to avoid having questions asked about it (can't remember how she got it, but if asked she'll say it came from a fistfight with a local gang.....despite there being no gangs in her hometown), but otherwise she wouldn't hide it during off-school hours.

Random sketch of an unnamed character; the purple shading are the body markings. I wanted to create and draw a male mythical figure at first, he ended up looking fairly androgynous. Ah, but then they say transgressing gender boundaries is the ultimate form of power....so maybe this works best.

An image I drew for Lunar New Year, except I forgot to post it (or finish and colour it, for a matter of fact). A tad late to do anything about it now. Got a red pocket from the club I joined, except inside was one chocolate coin. Would have preferred some usable currency here...I'm a tad short on money.

Oh wait, my friends still owe me money from the Italy trip. A little miffed that it's taken over a month to get it sorted, though it's understandable since everyone is super busy nowadays. Or maybe I'm more miffed that no one brought the topic up again until someone else was nice enough to give a little reminder to all....

Am feeling a little better today. Managed to get some work done, though I'll still have to go back to the library tomorrow to continue with my reading. The endless reading. Hopefully the weather would have settled a bit by then and the road condition wouldn't be too slippery....otherwise we'll have a repeat of Thursday (toppling over onto my side when biking on snow).

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In random news, I'm glad DGM is making a return soon to Jump, but sad to see Meister go so soon. I normally don't like shounen sport series (especially of the football variety), but this one seems to be promising, and the cast is pretty good. Alas, maybe next time the author will have better luck with the rankings. Other series I've recently adopted again would be Gintama. The series never fails to make people laugh...goes to show that super-art skills (not that the one in Gintama is bad) isn't always needed for something enjoyable.

As for anime....now that Xam'd is over (I must confess that the ending wasn't anything like Eureka Seven, but given the 26 episode span it would be impossible to wrap up everything in the storyline so neatly. Still, I enjoyed the last episode), I'm probably going to try watching Shikabane Hime, or maybe Chromed Shelled Regios (the light novels were pretty good). Soul Eater is still the weekly highlight though...how will that end? Only another few episodes to go!

Illust and Scribbles

Kidd with long hair....I think it'll suit him! Anyways, just another skin-toning exercise using Open Canvas. Can't wait until the new chapter comes out in Feburary....

'Niu' year...terrible pun, but won't damper the New Year festivities (which were virtually missing from where I am right now). Of course, just for superstition's sake I went out and bought some clementines (pronounced 'gum' in Chinese, which is the same sound for 'gold'...hence associated with wealth). I asked my family for my New Year predictions, and basically they said anything could happen. Which is what happens every single year anyways, so what they said wasn't very helpful at all.

But you can't go wrong if you work hard and head towards your goal! Ahh, I wish I had some good old Turnip cake right now....

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Blithe Bauhinia, random study.

A study of (longhair!) Kid, part of another image I am drawing of him right now.

Maka and Soul (the first time I drew him! Took forever). Sorry if the quality of the last two scribbles were a tad fuzzy, but I drew them in super-light colours on Open Canvas and getting them into JPG format (and adjusting the contrast) meant degrading the quality quite a bit.

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Another unproductive weekend. Spent 4 hours staring at two chapters, and I'm not even sure if I absorbed everything I read in those. I suppose my day didn't start off great; I did all the grogecy shopping I needed to do, but then I ran into a bunch of Asian student tourists at the Chinese Supermarket. I don't mind tourists under most circumstances, but when you're in a queue carrying a bag of rice (yes, an entire bag, a very heavy bag), you don't really have the patience to appreciate 6 Asian girls cutting in front of you just because one of their friends had a spot in front of you. There were no apologies, nothing (not even a smile-- those girls stared at me like I was a monster or something). After they were all outside the store, I finally paid for the rice and left to get my bike (back at the city centre graveyard), when the entire bloody road in front of me was blocked by the same group of tourists. Taking. Photos. Gr.

I actually had to walk around the entire tourist group by stepping onto the traffic road, and hoped I wouldn't get run over by angry drivers. I was a fool to go to the Chinese supermarket on Saturday....

Eurgh, I've been making a fool out of myself during tutorials nowadays. Because I no longer have a tutorial partner, it means I have to actually talk to the supervisor now; not that there is any problem with that (since the man is very nice), but I could never articulate my answers properly. I write an essay, but then I forget what I wrote a day after I hand it in.....that is appalling. My supervisor would say that I made a good point in the essay, and I'll be sitting there saying "what did I write again? Did I write that?"

And as for the research proposal, I'm having to revise it right now (causing me endless woes, believe me). But then I'm very confused with the process; not with the bureaucratic aspect of the application itself, but what my (potential) supervisor meant the last time we met. Was it a 'yes' or 'no' with the supervising business? I feel like there is some miscommunication going on....not a great start. I'm very worried...

...which resulted in me losing sleep a couple of nights this week. And since I wake up at 7am daily, it means by 4pm I'm a sinking ship. Felt terrible about showing up to the pub-meet looking like I got ran over by a bus, and not being energetic enough to sustain a conversation with anybody. Why is it so easy for me to create awkward situations in social gatherings? It's like I have a knack for it....of all the 'skills' in the world to have....

24 hour Review (image heavy!)

Waking up in the morning to see the frost-covered ground...apparently it has never gotten this bad during this time of the year before. The Big Chill really is here!

Tragically, my birthday present for myself is a pair of shoes to wear for the exams in June....yes, I bought myself a pair of exam shoes for my birthday. Because I'm the epitome of positive thinking during all festive occasions. Do excuse the crazy socks, I would have taken them off for the photo except my feet were bloody cold.

The canal was frozen; we could even see the rubbish at the bottom of the river bed. You wouldn't have guessed that people threw their bicycles in there...and there is no way to lift that out of the water since it was encased in solid ice.

The Meadows, with a thin layer of frost. It made the entire landscape that much more difficult to walk on....it was like wearing hiking boots and being made to walk of concrete. For over 40 minutes.

The pub we went to from the walking trail; took 40 minutes to get here and another 40 to get back, but it was worth it. I can't imagine another pub where the environment was so tranquil and the scenery so nice. Probably would have been better in sunnier weather, but drinking hot chocolate under gray skies made the entire day an walk seem worthwhile.

All in all, my birthday was great. Though I'm still not happy about growing up and getting older.
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Edel and Blithe

Kidd, in a drawing I did during the Summer 2008. It's half-inked, but I don't know if I really want to finish it off. Probably will, since I started it already, but I'll make some minor adjustments for the parts in pencil. This is one of the rare moments I still use traditional media to draw with; it's open canvas all the way now!

Was listening to the song as I was drawing, hence a semi-crazed-looking Kidd (with long hair!). The song was 'My Delirium', and it's damn catchy.

This is the image I most likely will ink on Open Canvas and colour. Started off as a simple doodle of Aein, but then I decided it might look nice if I added some extra stuff here and there..the reason behind the phrase on the bottom will be explained later.

Scribbles II

Kidd and Black Star together, another pose study. I couldn't think of another set of characters to put in their stead here....maybe Maka and Soul? But I started drawing Kid already, and I didn't want to change the character halfway through an image because it makes the end product look sort of weird...

Kidd; go snowboarding!

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So tired; I've been having trouble getting up in the mornings. Something about the cold weather that makes you want to cocoon inside your blankets for half a day. The weather here has improved a tad, though there is still not enough sunshine....one can tell when one's sunjar refuses to light up at night despite being placed next to the window the entire day. I've actually managed to start my proposal, but the more I read the more confused I get over the research question and I I feel as though everything is one big mess.

Hopefully I'll sort that out before term starts in a week....I wish I could work at night, but I tend to get sidetracked by alot of things....like drawing and catching up with BBC news. Must spend my friday reading and in the library cleaning up the proposal, since Saturday is the dreaded day and I won't have time to do anything academic then...curses.

Scribbles

An image of Aein, drawn in a realistic style. A relatively realistic style, since I can never manage it in the end. I have finally decided that Aein really has no gender; he goes with 'male', but nothing really defines him as such. (The more I read anthropological texts, the more I realise that gender makes no sense at all!) Aein also doesn't have any concept of gender differences-- he often gives hugs and is friendly to almost everyone, and Blithe and Ue are normally the ones to drag him away from people.

A small version of Edel's design in regular clothing; he seems to prefer neck scarves. And indeed that is he usual expression...smiling takes too much effort. I originally intended for him to be from a well-to-do family, except he dresses as though he only receives hand-me-downs. He acts indifferent and mature most of the time, but in front of Blithe and Aein he reverts back to having a sense-of-humour.

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Eurgh, the heater still doesn't work. They tried fixing all the heaters inside the building (since non of them seems to work), but it is now the evening, the workers are gone, and it is still freezing. I'm starting to enter my depressive rut again. Haven't had that feeling for several months now, thought it wasn't going to come back anytime soon. Hopefully meeting people again tomorrow will drag me out of thinking crazy lonely thoughts...

HAPPY 2009!

First image to kick start the year! Just a rough doodle of Blithe, Edel and Aein. Spent my countdown inside the college pub, and no one knew when the countdown actually was, but we did it anyways and sang Auld Lang Syne nonetheless (except the person leading the song vanished half-way through, and we all got lost eventually....)

But I was delightfully surprised to wake up in the morning, seeing how I slept at 3am. But waking up and getting out of bed are two different things, and since it was minus 2 outside (I could see the frost on my bike from my room window...and every leaf covered with a layer of ice) and the heating doesn't work inside (nor does the corridor lights....or my room lights....or the toilet closest to my room....or one of the kitchen cookers.....), what else was I supposed to do? Brave the cold? Mind you, I just got better from my flu, so do excuse if I'm reluctant to chance illness again....

I don't really have any New Year's Resolutions, but I suppose I could motivate myself to finish my proposal, make a few more friends, play nice in college....or not. I suppose I could drop a pound or two, but in this cold weather I feel like having an extra inch of blubber might actually save my life. Bah, no point in being so ambitious; plus, no one really sees their resolutions through for more than a week or so. So for now, I'll just say....I'll do some work, and get things done. Once again, two very different things.

Happy New Year everyone!

(Now I'm off to puzzle out why there is salt on my Sainsbury Bourbons.....it's making my tea taste funny)
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Aein; pose experiment

Random character, random pose with dress

Kidd, in what was supposed to be balloon trousers but turned out looking more like a skirt... see the recurring poses? I'm trying to test their contexts and weight :D

Scribbles II

Kidd from Soul Eater (I left the three stripes off from his hair because I wanted to add those on computer instead)

Katsura from Gintama (Zura or Zurako?)

More Kidd from Soul Eater....might actually get around to inking and colouring this one later

Scribbles

Ue and Aein, rough draft of a larger image

Blithe, Edel and Aein

Aein, rough draft on line paper in pen

Ue in sketched poses (the right is his usual expression)

Ue and Aein (ten years ago)

Levante Lalune outfits (rough draft of design)

Edel and Blithe, testing out perspectives

Scribbles II

Just another scribble, a break in between finishing my stash of WIPs from last year. Yes, last year. I'm so bad with time management and motivation when it comes to finishing off something related to art. It's a good thing I don't intend to become a professional artist since one of the key ingredients--patience-- is lacking in me. Don't know how I managed to draw a winter image when the aim was to draw a summer one; maybe I long for the cold days to return.
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Oh yes, the official 'hot days' [from the ancient agricultural calender, pronounced 'dai shu'] has settled into the 852. Temperatures are soaring to the 30s, and already this past weekend a dozen people fell ill from the heat. (Of course, some people were just asking for trouble when to decide to hike up a mountain in the middle of summer). Don't reckon the days will cool off anytime soon, but as long as we all stay indoors and hydrated, everything should be okay. Now if only it was considered fashionable to sweat bucketloads (there is such a stigma against sweating in Hong Kong. It's such a bother; afterall, sweating is a natural human process to cool down the body! If people continue idolizing the image of pale skinny girls prancing in the sun without a bead of sweat...hell, lost my point) life would be much more enjoyable.
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Random news: I fell ill again. Some sort of intestinal infection, nothing serious-- just means I'll be having a rendezvous with the toilet more often than I'll like to. The pain is not as bad as the time I got food poisoning (though pretty damn close); and I ended up with cold sweats, itchy skin, abdominal cramps, and general sense of fatigue. The cramps normally subside after I sleep for a while, and only reoccurs during the night. Maybe I should keep the lights on and fool my intestines into thinking that night doesn't exist....

Scribbles (and WIP!)

The WIP: This image just just a rough draft....and I'm actually inking it as I'm typing this entry. It's such a pain, since I accidentally whacked my hand against the MTR railing yesterday and now putting pressure on the third and fourth fingers is proving to be a difficult feat. But yes, an image of a younger Maka, Black Star and Kidd together! I know the storyline has Kidd being the last to join the group and only meeting the other two after the prologue, but its fun to imagine what would have happened had they all met earlier (bloodshed, most likely). Tried to draw them in character.

The scribble: Chichi to Ko. I love the fact that while the son is so uptight and worried, the father has such a whimsical way of doing things. It's surprising to see the Maka and Black Star teams getting so much character development in the manga, yet the Kidd segments aren't progressing much...not counting the rift that could happen between him and his father since the Reunion Express fiasco.

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And I must be the last person to hear about this, but an Eureka Seven movie? I can't believe they're actually making one! It's bound to be a good watch-- studio Bones can do no wrong. Sort of worried what the movie would do to the entire series itself, since they ended it with everything wrapped up neatly together (such a bittersweet last scene)...then again, it could potentially make the entire series even better and add more depth to the plot.

And I'm wondering when the Gurren Lagann movie is going to be finished (was there even a movie? I was trying to keep track of too many things and some news slipped from my mind).

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And the most random thing of all; I need a pair of board shorts. I'm not kidding. I just realized that I have to go to the beach soon and right now my entire closet consists of denim jeans. Oh, wicked college years, why have you converted me into a permanent denim-jeans wearer? You have blinded me from the range of other articles of clothing.....;___;

Scribbles+Semi-Spoilers

Whilst I like the composition of this image, I am rather miffed that the colour quality came out duller than I wanted (some things must be sacrificed when changing the image format). Thought about properly outlining this image for a more polished and refined look, but ultimately decided that 'freehand' suited the image and colour scheme more.

Ooh, I read the new chapter of Soul Eater today! Even though I wasn't overly eager to read the Ox and Kim subplot, it was still fun to see how the entire situation resolved itself. Never thought it would have ended that way. And Kidd is still his neurotic self, even in such an important moment....HAHAHAHAHHA!! I can't wait until the next issue in August...sounds like there'll be an interesting fight coming up.

It's almost Super CHOOSE-day.

Aein and Blithe

Random illustration

Random illustration 2

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I finally received my voter's guide through the post. (A month after I sent the application-- if I was in Hong Kong, whoeevr it was in charge of this business would have been fired. FIRED!). I was hoping to use a mail-in ballot instead, but the documents arrived after the deadline for that passed, so I guess I have to take time off on Tuesday just to head to the voting booth. Apparently, the voting booth closest to me with be at the elderly home down the street, so I'm going to assume the entire process will take 4 hours or more. (When I voted on campus in 2004, the queue was so long and the students so numerous that it took me 3 hours to get where I needed to be).

Wait, today was the superbowl?