Practice makes perfect

CG practice. Lineart NOT mine. MACCO (c) respectively.

after my long abandoned hope for CG style of coloring determination these past years, I decided to give it another shot. Partly inspired by my fellow peers after signing up at Pixiv, I downloaded the program SAI and decided to dig up for some linearts in my reference folders (since I do everything traditionally and I don't photostat them anymore, I don't have linearts of my own to kill) and stumbled upon the awesome MACCO's lineart of Hatsune Miku and Rin. Check out MACCO's awesome gallery at Pixiv here.

So far it's hardly progress and was experimenting with more of a cellshading thing but...... I dunno :"/ I find my color selection to be too dull for the skin.... it's not "popping" enough for me. And I'm kinda having trouble with maintaining a paint style for the eyes. But I guess nothing is achieved overnight or with just one try so I'll do my best to increase practice time. (￣ε￣ ;)

Anyways hope you guys are spending your Eid celebration happily and safetly!! :D Can't wait to see my girls when I get back to KL. <3

Collecting Life's pieces of puzzles

"Life is a jigsaw puzzle. You don't know whats going to go where, you don't know where the pieces are but you do know that you need to keep looking for the pieces and figure out where they go. All events that happen to you is a piece of your puzzle. if you are stuck in a rut at school or work and keep asking yourself the "what if" question then its a sign telling you that there are no more pieces of the puzzle to be found where you are."

-Danny Choo

Those were the words that I read on one of Danny Choo's post regarding Living Life to pursue a Passion on his utter famous blog. I now have new found respect for Danny Choo (not that I didn't before) but more so as he's proven to be more than a pop icon in the Otaku Community.

In his post "Pursue Your Passion", Danny talks about living more than today fulfilling the puzzle that Life has given each of us, some sort of what we were born to do; our destiny, so per say. How when you hit a brick wall of repetition and void-ness in our lives that we must reach beyond what we feel is comfortable for us so we can reach out and be more than we are today.

It's funny... the things that I read in that post were things that I know consciously and subconsciously. But it suddenly I see them in a whole new light.

うん！なんか今・・・ドンドンがんばれなくちゃ！

Piling Up

It seems that hampers are all that are occupying my days that it's sending my drawing works to take a back seat (￣ε￣ ;)

Well, usually every year when hamper season comes along, I and my sister would gain at least RM500+ per person. We get paid RM5 for each hamper we do. We were overjoyed this year when our father agreed to raise our pay to RM8 each but it seems that this year we're getting less orders of the hampers than we usually do (￣Д￣ ;)

But I guess I can't really complain. As of now I'm a few dollars richer than I was before I came back to Ipoh. I just hope I can get enough for the printing of the Fanbook by October is all. (.___.;;) I guess I'd have to count on my part time job... which will pay less than 50% .. darn lawl.

But on the bright side, I'm getting great ideas for the Fanbook illustration and also for my submission for Otacool 4. ヾ(●⌒∇⌒●)ﾉ So I just have to work it out so I have enough time to put it all down on paper~! よおおおおおし！がんばります！

Hopefully I get to do an entry for Raya, but until then, Selamat Berpuasa to all my Muslim friends and Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all~! (*≧▽≦)~♪

19際

Yes.. I can feel my youth slipping away from me as I type... (ﾉ￣∀￣*)ﾉ

Anyways, yesterday my 19th birthday came and passed without a hitch. I actually forgot about it to tell you the truth until my mother wished me at 12:10 AM. It was basically a very normal day for me since it was a weekday and I told my mum that a birthday party wasn't necessary, though that didn't stop her from organizing a small get together this Saturday with my granduncles. （￣ー￣） Oh well, I guess I can't complain since I haven't seen my granduncles in a while and I kinda miss them.

Well mostly I don't have much to report to tell you the truth. After showering and whatnot, I came down to do some hampers (it's festive season and festive season means hamper making time for our family.) but my sister and my mum went out to the bank so after copicing till 3PM or so, I napped on the floor until 6PM or so.

I was mostly online tough on my Facebook account and it was fun, receiving all the birthday wishes. And I was really touched by the number of wishes I get... well it's mainly because of the Birthday Notification that they did I believe but I was really touched nonetheless. In fact it kind of made me tear up at the fact of being remembered. I guess everyone wants to know that they exist somewhere in the minds of those they know huh...

Well other than that, my uncle dropped by and hang around for a bit later that night. He gave me RM30 for my birthday gift! YAY! ♪(ﾉ´∀｀*)ﾉMy mum bought me the Glee soundtrack which I wanted. Though she wasn't suppose to give me a present since I got my present in advance this year when she bought the second hand mint green PSP for me. Thats my mum. Always the giving person. Oh and my dad treated me to a late night street stall burger (my favourite :9 ) and free ice-cream~

So overall, I'd say that it was a breezy birthday for me. I kinda liked it being slow and steady like that. Well I guess party's over and it's back to work. Hampers are starting to pour in (so is the money) and I'm busier than ever preparing alot of things for this year's Anime Festival Asia 2010. Not to mention I'm already late in the season for scouting colleges for next year and so on. Overall, a special thanks to those who wished, called and hugged me on my birthday. I loved every single one of it. Thanks from the bottom of my heart! Love you guys! (*≧▽≦)~♪

All pumped up! (photo heavy)

hey guys! ♪(ﾉ´∀｀*)ﾉ

A few weeks back, I decided to do a mini Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Fanbook to dedicate to my favourite series of all time and this past week, I've been busy drafting them all up! (*≧▽≦)ノ♪

There's a high chance the book will be available in AFA2010 so keep you eyes peeled as i'll announce them here when it's done!

I was planning on showing the drafts to my friend, Germaine who is also working on her drawings for the Fanbook so I took photos of them using my handphone and camera so pardon the slight blurryness. I'd scan them but I drew them all on a B4 manga paper and my scanner is A4. I guess time to buy a bigger one D: ANYWAYS! The previews:

The draft for the cover featuring Nia

close-ups

Nia's skirt. Was pretty proud of the way it turned out

an illustration featuring Kinon and Yoko in the Goverment Uniforms

close-up of Kinon

close-up of Yoko

A piece inspired by Episode 27 and the Song "Futari" by Yuya Matsushita. Nia and Simon

Had fun doing the roses, her hair and the hairpins

Viral with Sunflowers

Close-up. Wanted to recapture his expression in episode 26.

Sunflowers

pish posh talk

Have you ever got the feeling of when a series of peaceful days hits you, you can't help but feel something big is going to happen soon? Haha or maybe it's just me ;;;

Well anyways, it's been a month since I started my new part time job at a close by Juice Shop and things are pretty much going well (too well that one might say that it leaves you rather gray), though not that I'm complaining. I tend to enjoy slower or lazier days since I'm not into hectic ones. And I think things are about to get slightly more rushed right after Ramadhan month is over.

Well as of right now, I'm in my hometown of Ipoh for the Ramadhan month and Aidilfitri. And not to mention, I took a week of early since my dad is participating in the Foreign Student Exchange Program as a Host Family so we're housing one of the Japanese Students for their one week stay. We just had the pleasure of meeting the girl who is staying with us, Yamamoto Mizuki-san today and she seems friendly enough. It's refreshing to have someone to converse in Japanese with. It sure puts all that Intensive Japanese Classes to good use.

Other than the usual humdrums or life, I'm currently also focusing on improving my skills in CG and increasing my work pace for Le Noir and a small personal project for AFA2010. I wish I can scan some WIPs, but since they're all on B4 paper and my scanner is A4........ mmheh lawl. maybe its time I start drawing in my PC straight...? or not. haha we'll see.

I'm also considering full time courses for my Japanese to speed up the process of me studying in Japan.... but so far intakes are for next year so that leaves me another 4 months or so to collect some extra cash and finish my manga projects. Yikes! Lets just hope I make it!

bbbaahh~! Ishould really try and go back to sleep again. Its actually 2 AM already and I need to get up by 6 AM tomorrow lawl ;;; I bid you all good night!

self motivation

Reprograming yourself to not say "I wish.." or "if only..." is so darn hard. Even if it's a "I wish I'd improve faster". *slapself* Sometimes I wish my brain stop thinking and focus more on the doing :P Oh well. Puasa month coming = money making time and less sleep time. Can't wait.