Brand New Days & Playlists

old picture is old haha. I even had my highlights back then. （　´_ゝ`）

Hey guys!! How are my little daisies today? （´∀｀）ノ

Okay so most of you who are on my facebook and twitter would already know about this and this would probably serve as extra spamage but......................

I GOT INTO NANYANG ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS HOLYYYYYYYYYYYYYY CRUMBCAKESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (屮ﾟДﾟ)屮

YEAP!! I was SUPPPER surprised when one of the ladies in Nanyang called my cellphone and told me to check my email or the documents and on top of that, I GOT THE GOVERNMENT GRANT!!! (ﾟДﾟ;≡;ﾟДﾟ) what that means is that, by cutting my fees in half (which is a HUGE help for my parents), I'll get to work in Singapore for 3 years. HOW COOL IS THAT? Σ(ﾟДﾟ) Not only I get my fees discounted but I get a guranteed job the moment I leave University!! ★ I'm feeling ultra blessed right now, THANK YOU GOD!!

To tell you the truth, I was more surprised about the grant than me getting accepted into Nanyang. (((( ；ﾟДﾟ))) I mean, I'm like 10000% shocked for sure at my acceptance but getting the grant was such a far-fetched idea for me, I almost cried when I heard the news. I actually even asked Ms Hiedi (the one that called us and helped us alot with our preparations and all), "Are you sure?!" LAWL!!

But all in all thank you so much for all the numerous support I received for preparing for the exam and all. (´ಥωಥ`) Especially in my moments of self doubt, I managed to pull myself together at the exam thanks to the support of those around me ★

Which means, I'll be in Singapore by July so preparations for logistics, Student Passes starts now. ( ﾟヮﾟ) So from July on, blog posts will be coming straight from the land of the Merlion!!! Do anticipate them!!

On the other hand, I've been slowly getting back into groove of drawing illustrations frequently. （´∀｀）At one time, it seems drawing too much manga has distorted my illustration flow for some reason and I can't seem to whip out illustrations like my friends or how I used to. (´；ω；`) But thankfully as of late, it's slowly coming back. I think it might be thanks to the increase of new music into my iTunes lately.

For this picture, I simply got the urge to draw a "sexy" themed couple picture. I really do appreciate pictures that can emphasize sensuality without showing off more than needed. It's like beautifully written love story without unneeded scenes of you-know-what haha. And plus since I always draw milder couple pictures, I thought why not give one a go. It just so happens that I felt like drawing Nadjwa and Ethan again. They seem to be my favourite duo whenever I feel like drawing couples haha. ┐('～`；)┌

Though I often elate any doodle or illustration I draw of my OCs to the actual story I wrote them in, this picture has no place in 「INTOXICATED」's storyline whatsoever haha. So don't worry, no raging hormone scenes will be entering my mangas anytime soon.

Anyways, speaking of new music, whenever I draw I often have a playlist in my iTunes to match whatever I aimed to draw. ( ﾟヮﾟ) Like for example, whenever I'm writing or drawing Le Noir materials, I'll loop my Le Noir playlists where I have picked music I felt was suited for Le Noir's scenes and moods. SO of course, while drawing this picture, I put on my "too sexy for anythin' yo" playlist (haha YES that's what it's called). I've shared names of a few songs that are in that playlist below.



What about you? Do you have those mood based playlists? ( ﾟヮﾟ) If you do, what are they and what kind of songs you have in them?

That's all for today! バイバイビイー★

Hello Again, this place I Used to Know

The Zhang Brothers and Nadjwa having fun on new years days. Happy New Years guys! :D

Hey guys!

slight rant entry so long words and no pics sorry :X do turn away if it annoys you yeah?

been piped up and busy so barely managed to have much time to myself. :D things didn't stop getting busy from weeks before AFA X ; with the prints and preparations. Not to mention had a slight dilemma with having less than RM50 travelling to Singapore haha. Anyways, with the excitement over the weekend of AFA X, the moment we touched down in Malaysia, I found myself with a 3 day fever haha.

Thanks to my good friend, Germaine and "changing shifts in having fever" with my sister, I recovered soon but dived again into work when I heard about a certain publishing companies' Audition announced just 1 month before the deadline. It was an audtion made for manga and opened for international artists. I didn't think twice and dove right in. I didn't even hesitated in the short time period given.

But a chat with a good friend of mine did make me questions my methods in diving into work so fast. He did mention that I was "taking the world on my shoulders" by doing this and frankly, I didn't think that it was that big a deal. If I get it, I get it. If I don't better luck next time...right?

Well as weeks rolled over, I speed up the production process. With the help of my sister cum manga assistant, we were doubling our work pace but the window of opportunity is closing fast. We even had a local convention that weekend so we shifted our work place to our KL apartment. It was treacherous, draining and very taxing on our physical and mental state.

Everytime I feel like throwing in the towel, I'd remember what many told me about my current state in work and I'd burn with a feeling to succeed. To prove them wrong. They'd always mention how when I plan something big, it'll always fall short before coming to light. Well I was determined to prove that, that isn't the case. After all no matter how much effort I put into something, if the result doesn't show, there isn't much to be proud off right?

With these thoughts in mind, I tolled myself to finish the 42 page manga, with the undying support of many of my gar membered friends like Germaine, Iwashi and my sister. Even with my family granting us to stay in KL for an extra week and more to get it done, chances of finishing it slowed down more and more. And as the days passed by, so did the pressure built with the manga.

I had to get everything done in KL before heading back to Ipoh to courier the finishing product since I don't have a scanner big enough to scan my manga papers because of the size. The only place I knew that didn't charge so much was the printers we visit everytime we print stuff for conventions.

And plus, since the deadline was so tight, I was left with only a strict amount of days to ink and scan then return home to ipoh to do minor editing and toning then ship it off to New York in time for the deadline. Apparently the courier needs maximum of 5 days in case of delay to get it there in time. Which means if I don't get the manga done by the 27th or 28th then I won't have enough time to get it there. Even though we had more than half to go, I and my sister refused to give in. The thought of defeat was far to bitter for us to taste even though it seemed all to likely.

On the morning of the 27th December 2010, I and my sister tirelessly inked all night long. Our hands hurt from applying pressure onto our inking pens. The pain shot up all the way to our elbows and without a wink of sleep from the night before, our heads start to scream in pain and our eyes feel heavy. 27th December by the way was the birthday of my youngest sister. And for those who knows me well, I do adore her very much.

As the clock in our living room tolled onto 8 AM, I turned to my sister who was tirelessly inking a page on a carton box on the living room floor. her hands were moving vigorously despite the obvious tire on her face.

"I think.. it's enough" I finally croaked. My sister looked at me with a solemn look on her face. I was thinking she was probably far to tired to show any range of emotions at that point. "It's Iffah's birthday. I think, we should go home." I could see that she was going to object, but she stopped at the sight of tears streaming down my face. She simply hugged me and say "It's ok. let's go home"

I'm not too sure why I cried much myself but I'm not the sort of person to easily tear up when it comes to things like these. All I knew was that I set out a goal for something I really wanted and I failed. It's not so much the contract of the publishing company I wanted so much but rather the fact that I've completed something that I've put my heart and soul into. But I guess somethings are not meant to be.

So we returned home to Ipoh where we enjoyed my sister's birthdays but currently I still haven't drawn anything worthwhile let alone touch the manga since then. I'm not sure if it's the post battle worn blues or just the fact that I drew too much in such a short period of time but for now it's getting harder and harder to draw things. Its as if I'm being hit with an artist block but not quite. like.. a half block.. if that makes any sense haha.

And by not being able to draw, I discover I'm pretty much useless everywhere else. I don't have any other skill I can seem to use to benefit others other than drawing. Made me think though, if I can't achieve my dreams in drawing, would I be as loved and reliable to others as I am now? I mean, I'm no Mother Theresa to be sure. But even to the handful of people who depend on me, would I be dependable to them as little as I do now?

I have my entrance exam to the Nanyang Academy in a couple of weeks and in my current state I'm not sure if I can score, let alone pass. I've never tested my skills is one and I doubt my level of art is equivalent even to the normal standard there.

So I'm slowly letting my head cool for now and figure things out. I don't know anyway else to handle it other than that now haha. Would appreciate some suggestions tho m(_ _)m

For now it seems, reading motivational books and keeping myself calm with new songs and positive messaged shows and videoclips tend to do the trick. I'm slowly pep talking myself into finishing the manga. now with 10 pages to go and plenty to beta, I hope it comes soon.

Hopefully I can finish the manga before my exam though I'm not too sure what I'm going to do with it now that the deadline is way passed. My parents and several friends suggested that I send it in anyways but I'm rethinking about that. We'll see. I mean, I know it'll be a 0.0000006% chance that they'll consider or even take a look at it if I send it this late but who knows. We'll see.

I do miss my friends though. Dearly. It seems that as I got to see them once for the past 2 months has only served to make me miss them more haha. It seems I depend too much on the little time we spend together in motivating me in my daily life haha. But I guess that's how much I love them (;´ρ`)

Well over all in all, I'll be doing my best to get back on the bandwagon and improve further for 2011!! がんばります！ファイトオオオオオオ！！( ﾟ▽ﾟ)/

here's a little reward for you who stuck through my post today haha. here's the list of songs I use to relax myself lately <3 Hope you guys enjoy it ;DDD

"Hello, Again - 昔からある芭蕉 - JUJU"



"ぬくもり - HOME MADE KAZOKU"



"君が暮らす町　－Shouta Shimizu"

Captured Moments

The Zhang brothers, from oldest to youngest; Purdie Zhang (bottom Center), Michael Zhang (Left Center), Nobunaga Zhang (Right Center), and Ethan Zhang (Top Center).

Yeap~! Once again a brand new look for the blog ヽ(･∀･ )ﾉ I apologize if it's making the loading of my page lag, but I think this layout will b sticking for a while haha. So don't worry, this will be the last time in a long time it'll lag haha (hopefully).

As you all might notice, a new art from, yours truly, has donned the header space, replacing the Ranka banner （;;´ 3｀）Yesh, my artblock has been broken!! The sketch was done last year but I never got around to color it so to break my artblock I decided to do something not work related, so I copiced it.

Overall, there are alot of mistakes I can see that could be improved (anatomy mistakes, composition etc) but I decided to not focus on those points since I wanted to just thoroughly enjoy doing this one, which I did ヽ(o￣∇￣o)ﾉ so yeah~

The characters are my own originals from the "INTOXICATED" Project about 4 brothers that runs an old bookstore but does side dealings as Information Brokers where they trade in, and sell information about anything in the world with anything that's of equivalent value. The inserted pages are the tester pages for "INTOXICATED" that I did for a local comic competition. I didn't win but I did get a special mention as "Best Original Concept" with it. (; ￣Д￣) mmheh... oh well.

It's an old project of mine but these boys hold a special place in my heart as Original Characters. They're some of the few that I never grow tired drawing or writing about. The illustration simply came as an idea of a scene I had in my head, where Purdie (or fondly called Dai by his brothers), came home from a haircut for New Year's and as commemoration, wanted a photo to go along with it so he pulled the rest of the gang in for a shot which shows all of their personalities.

I'll post up more stuff of them in the future but for now I'm just gonna end it here while I can haha. I can talk about them forever (￣ε￣ ;)

Oh and the new gorgeous background was something I found on HOT bliggity BLOG's free backgrounds corner. Have a look if you guys are interested. They're easy to install and use. Give it a little peek ( ´/// 3 ///`)

Well till next time~! ( ﾟ ▽ﾟ)/ ♥