Yeah! And with a sunburn and other such unfortunate events like getting sick… I went to Anime Expo and I brought home an internal souvenir. Almost better now, I had to concede and drink medicine because my fever got out of control. Anyway, I had a blast at Anime Expo. I met Mana from Moi dix Mois, and was the main reason for my sunburn because frackin’ autograph session was canceled to the next day, the 5th on sunday. So I sat in the sun, with no sunblock, and totally exposed myself to ugly UV radiation… I will not jinx myself anymore and keep the bad away and hope my “new” mole isnt new, but an overlooked old mole. >_> Well, Mana seems like a sweetie, but I am smiteful and bitter, so I won’t be listening to any of his music. I’ll upload the autograph later… And my shoulder is so itchy now because the skin is beginning to dry up… t_t And not to mention I was so fatiqued from waiting outside that my sickness got worse, and I had this terrible fever by the end of the day. Gawd! Was the signature worth it!? I DON’T KNOW! Although the concert was pretty fun….

Well, other than that, I am so unstable in my digital illustration class. Sometimes I do really good, I get A- and then other days I get like a C or B- …. It’s so… like a roller coaster! This class is so hard…. My instructor sometimes seems friendly, and then other times, I don’t really know what he means. >< And like… I’m doing work later for my writing for comics class, which I feel bad about because I can’t seem to do everything at once. Oh… I dunno.

Slowly working on my android girls. This is Android #2, and I saved myself some time and did it for a class assignment.

I don’t play metal gear, but the parodies are awesome!

…no problem. Just go to Dr. Wicked’s writing website Write or Die. It’s really interesting. When you type in the text box, you need to keep typing, but when you stop there is a countdown until it starts to do something…. *cue the dramatic music* The first option is “gentle” which is nags from a pop up dialogue. Normal mode will start to put on some annoying music. And kamikaze will start to delete your words one by one until there is nothing left. I think for me… the last one is most effective. Because the other two you can bypass them easily. If I had to try nanowrimo again, I would totally use this website. Or like… for an essay due the next day. But … of course I don’t do that. *shifty eyes*

http://lab.drwicked.com/writeordie.html

Writing for Comics has been kind of fun. But I get lazy. We’ve been writing warmups like fictionalizing a story out of a person we meet on the streets and also a character profile. Honestly, I am very self-conscious about my characters. I kind of realize its because I put so much of myself in my writing that I don’t really want other people to see… in case they decide to say it sucks. My fear is really trivial because I always realize its not a big deal after I do a presentation or post something up. Right now, nothing is stopping me from procrastinating on my classwork reading.

Today was pretty sucky… Why? Well.. I didn’t do one of my assignments right. Blargh! And it is because I didn’t read the directions that carefully, and also, I wish there were some examples in the module. I will have to remember to input this later for feedback. So now I have a great set of thumbnails, I just won’t be able to touch them until later… and I’m usually lazy about that.

The theme I thought up for this was “distant worlds.” I thought it was quite witty of me for the last thumbnail: “Cyberpunk Alice in Wonderland.” It’s probably hard to see because they are thumbs. I feel like my art takes on a generic form because most digital art I see, its usually something very strange and faraway, but then the concept or idea is all the same. I kind of feel like I can’t bypass that because what they say is true, if you have thought of a new amazing idea, someone else faraway or in the past has too. Originality seems rare nowadays, until there is a new innovator coming along.

And here are the correct ones:

Ideas from Yasusushi Suzuki’s artwork.

You know, I had spent about half the day trying to find a new theme, because we’re suppose to do a collage and not an illustration. That’s why the first set didn’t work because I don’t have solid reference for them — they’re mostly modified versions of references. And since we are doing a poster collage, we needd high resolution sizes for the references. Sigh…

On other news, I stumbled across an article that stated there was a online dating website called richsoulmate.com. Excuse me while I go burst into a fit of giggle once more. You know what they advertise? Well, you can go check it out, but meet the rich mate of your life! I mean, like.. seriously? How sad. By that I mean like… it’s superficial. But there is a distinction that only rich people can mingle with rich people. I am a layman, and I think this is quite shallow of them. But you don’t see rich people out on the streets because… they do something with their money — and you just don’t see it. I don’t know, the website speaks for itself. On the one hand, I think the webmaster is a genius. What an amazing niche group he thought up. Reaping money from rich people – entrepreneurs, athletes, celebrities, etc etc. Okay, subscriptions are something like $177 a year or something like that, or you can pay monthly. And they’ve got money, so of course they can pay for it. This is how you web market, is all I can say. I was going to go on an on about morality and all that, but in reality, I just don’t give a piece of poo what people do with their lives unless it affects me as a whole. People can be stupid and ridiculous all they want, but its a benefit to someone else whether they know it or not. And then one day, maybe people will wake up.

Okay… I need to finish my writing hw. Eeek… It shoulda been easy, ne… but I’m just too distracted by my laptop. Yesterday, I had spent 4 hours reorganizing my itunes, and I’m still not done. It was such a pain because I had reformatted on my old Sony, I had everything organized, the Asian text wasn’t ugly, and when I didn’t want them, I changed them to english, so I could read it better. But its messy again. Fack… I think music organization is important! I hate trying to look for songs and its not in the order that I want. Technically, I should be really good with organization via shapes and colors because I pwn at Tetris. Sigh again.

All right, so I had long  sinced figured out what was wrong with the uploading thing. It was because of new updates for google gears, so I uninstalled that. But it’s not like that thing was important since I don’t rememeber what it does.

Well, I had reformated my computer too, so I will not be installing things haphazardly anymore. Laggy computer was because I had dead junk in my hard drive so I had to clean it up. I think every year, I have had to reformat, so its like… moving. You get used to it. Packing up boxing, unpacking boxes. I hate it, I always keep boxes, maybe that is an incentive, but I know for sure that I won’t be staying in one spot for too long. But having an external hard drive just makes the job much much easier than it did 4 years ago. But back then, all I had was games. Well, I’m not too sorry for all the pictures I’ve lost, except for the original file of my old claymation project. So all I have is a link on youtube. Oh well! But I had done some crap ass drawings I don’t really want to look at anymore. They’re saved onto some floppies but floppies are so old… I don’t know if they last. Hmm.. which reminds me, I never look at old pictures again. One of my summer projects was to scan in and compare all my old pictures, but now that summer school is happening, I don’t think I have time.

I’m a little scared, I have digital illustration. D: I realize I am not very good with digital as everyone else. I’ve always felt somewhat inferior in skill even though there’s people who are 17 years old and they’re all ready so kickin’. It makes one go, “Fock! What am I doing?!”

Writing for comic books is fun, or seemingly so. We started out with Watchmen. Phew… I had ordered books, but I didn’t know if they would make it in time after the 15th, but they did, so I have nothing to fear right now. I need to write thing down, a schedule…. It’s very hard, I’ve been distracted and busy at the same time with reformating, getting a new computer, so that is twice the installation for two computers. I’m not done yet either, need to install the adobe onto my desktop. I didn’t know that you can only install adobe software into only 2 computers. I think these people are a little stingy with their protective rights, but who am I to speak? I’m not the maker, I suppose they are scared, greedy, and unsure at the same time. I feel that Americans in general worry too much about money, but that’s why we’re in a capitalist economy. I really don’t see a depression. People may be spending less, but they’re still alive, they’ve still got food, they’re not starving. What they don’t want to happen to lessen leisure time, but now that they have they don’t know what to do with it. When people feel like they get blown off track, it must mean that they sky is falling? I could just name a bunch of crappy things that have happened to me and I’m still okay….

And some illustrations… I still need to install photoshop so, I haven’t got time right now… still need to read for class. I am still working on my 52 android girls for a personal project, for a card deck. Whee. These are just character designs to spruce up my portfolio for now… I guess 53 for the backside. Oh, 55 for additional joker cards… gah.. I can imagine working on this for 5 years… hahaha… or longer.

The weird design thing near her head is actually a close up of a half goggle eyepiece, steampunk inspired. I made a mistake when I inked her face, so I didn’t draw it in. It’s a rough… will still need to work on features.

I am a little reluctant to use my mac laptop. I bought a 15″ screen instead of 17″ because it’s probably hella big and supremely heavy. Perhaps if I didn’t flimsy biceps and triceps it would be all right to carry, but 6.6 pounds is a lot, so 5.5 seems a little better. I’ve used macs at school, but the transition is difficult. Even for the intro to mac class, I did things on my PC. This is comparable to learning how to use your left hand for moving around. Well, my excitement seems to have weared down after the day was through. Hmm…

So I’m just going to temporarily use some other sources to post up my pictures. This is stupid? Why isn’t it getting fixed???

(update: I have all ready found a solution and that was to remove google gears from the extensions in the browser.)

^ for the eyeko competition

Also scanned in a better copy of this old picture:

From my old color and design assignment. Almost a year old and I still like it. Although, I’m not sure if the story I had in mind will fit the scene anymore. Actually, the you can see markings on the picture because gouache is unforgiving about scratches and fingerprints….

And… my sock puppets?! I am thinking about setting up an account on etsy soon, but I don’t know how much I should sell them for. I didn’t realize puppets go up to $20. That is pretty crazy.

I have officially decided to buy a mac laptop, 17″ by the middle of June. I just don’t know when I should buy it, just know that I should soon before summer school hits, or really, before I leave home for 2 weeks. They’re putting up the promo, get a free ipod touch w/ a new laptop for college. I don’t need it, so maybe I can give it as a present. But I don’t know who I would give it to. Or I can sell it for $200 online… I can keep it to replace my old ipod, but it’s sentimental, because my sister bought that ipod for me. Summer school starts around the 14th. I only have 2 weeks of lazing around left. I have completed 5 sock puppets, so I’ll take pictures of them soon. I am aiming for 3 more, since I have knee high socks I just bought. I’m going to try really hard to enter scholarships and contests again. I kind of put them off because I get lazy, and if I’m not lazy, I really am busy with work. I read a nice little article about having faith in the universe. Here I go with my crazy mumbo jumbo, right? If the universe is really how we perceive it then I think there is a God because this is my vision of the universe. And I think it abundant. So I made a big wishlist. If I post it up, I might seem superficial, so I’m just going to put up 5.

1. Macbook pro 17″ with 7200 rpm hd and 2 or 4 gb. Fast laptop ftw.

2. Bigger Wacom tablet (the pen I have now is wearing away)

3. New glasses

4. An internet router

5. The t.v.’s usb drive.

All the usb drives that comes to me for some reason disappear without a trace. I have reason to believe that gnomes exist and they take stuff… like my socks. Anyway! The reason why I never by usb. My seagate external hard drive’s been useful. I named it ‘Akira Shock!’

I entered a contest for eyeko beauty cosmetics. The prize was $500 and some cosmetics. The only thing is that the art would be used for promotion and advertising.  — Unfortunately, I made this post 2 days ago and firefox is being really fussy with wordpress right now. I don’t know what’s up?? D: So I can’t post any pictures because the browser keeps shutting down whenever I try to upload anything. Bah!! So that’s probably all I can say for now. My summer isn’t really consisted of much else… ^_^;;

I downloaded open canvas some time ago, and I didn’t use it until now. So I am trying to get used to the new shortcuts. It’s actually a lot more limited than photoshop is, but it’s a really good program for painting.

I made this for my volunteer badge for AX. I am going to be staying all 4 days, but I hope not the entire time. Summer school should start soon.

And I”m experimenting some more with oC. I couldn’t think of a name, but he’s kind of pale and dark, so… zombie hunter… haha.. why not? Hacks zombiez with his mega blade.

On a side note, I have begun my sock puppet making project. When I make a lot, I will take a group pic.

Yep. I’m done with school. Oh, man, I was so happy when finals were over. It was like a big burden had lifted off my shoulders.  Although, the last few were fun to do. Particularly, my editorials, and that painting of the girl w/ purple hair. But then it just kind of got too much at the end. My brain fizzlesssss…. It’s important to like what you do, yes, but I can’t work non-stop for more than than 40 hours a week. Too tiring. I really admire hard-working people.

The signatures are obtrusive and I added them, but the originals don’t have it. I think… it is fair that I take protective rights to my illustrations. Although, I don’t seem to do that with my fine art stuff… There’s just too many and tedious for everything.

^This could have been handled better, but I ran out of time. The lighting was somewhat overcast, so it was really difficult with the values and subtleness of how the light catches.

^The feet is cropped off from the canvas, but it w as too hard to do… cast shadow needs to be fixed. Well, he liked how I painted the legs. I got an A- for this and the other painting. My first one! I am happy. Teacher is a hard grader but getting an A is awesome. ^_^

There was also that dragon picture/book cover assignment I did, it wasn’t very good because I colored it too dark, so I will not post such failures on my bloggy. The colors just weren’t working. I tried though… Man, I wish I did the Golden Compass instead, I think I would have been more happy.

1. Illustration 1: editorial for video game addiction
2. Illustsration 1: editorial for liv tyler
3. Illustration 1: Eragon picture redo
4. Head and Hands 1: Exercise 14 open media
5. Head and hands 1: Self-portrait, charcoal
6. Intro to Painting, figure: Final 1
7. Intro to Painting, figure: Final 2

And then some discussions for History of illustration. I’m suppose to be done with all essays for that. Phew… thank god. My instructor was smart to do it a week earlier.

The self portrait won’t be due till the 12th, the second part of my figure painting final is due the 14th, and  everything else is due on the 11th.

Some girl, I tried to do exaggerated color. Her body is a good example of an S shape, very curvy. I like it, and also the fact that it seemed really easy to paint her for some reason. Her face, needs work though. It was weird because you’re looking up, so its this weird angle… need to fix. I forgot to add credit that this model can be found on characterdesigns.com.

I don’t know this model’s name even though I draw him so often. I tried my hands at watercolor. I did a drawing in watercolor pencils and then I painted over it. Need to work on some edges though. I always though I sucked with watercolor, but if you actually buy it from the real tubes and not the crappy palette ones they sell to kids, it is possible to add layer. I found that incredibly amazing. I always thought you should work fast because when watercolor goes on, its hard to take off on paper. Could be a different for canvas, haven’t tried, but maybe I should. Most mediums, there should be thought and care put into your picture. I’m always finding this. With this medium it’s watery, you kind of lose some colors, or brilliance. I don’t think that it is possible to make incredibly saturated colors.

Not feeling very talky about the usual games and other non-related geeky things I like, but I just visted my old xanga. I think, I sense my self-conscious and insecure self in the way I wrote. It’s …uh… very pessimistic sometimes, and very sad-sounding. I was such a melancholy person in high school. I’m debating whether I should delete it completely. I changed my real name and everything. So employers shouldn’t find me. I also felt very bored while reading it too. For some entries, it was funny, then others, it’s like, I’m just talking about my day to day and some self-bashing, and some random garble. God, I’m sorry to myself and to my old readers. Haha….

I’m not feeling well at the moment because in my desperation to munch on something today, I made tea….. with milk. Why do I do that even though I’m intolerant? I was bored I guess… needed a break. I’ve been painting for 2 days anyways. Yes, the painting up there exceeds 6 hours, its more like… 10 – 12 hours? I could have imagined one more hour to fix her face though.

But I’m so proud of myself! I feel like I have so much time even though it’s finals. I’ve been a good girl and doing work and it feels good to not scramble to get something done for once. I have 5 projects left, but 3 aren’t too bad and are due in 2 days, and the others are a little after. Should be plenty of time. Pheww……….