A Breath, At Last!

As evidenced by my lack of blog updates, I've been pretty damn busy lately. Between problem sets and plays to read and being in the pit orchestra for Ragtime the musical, I have had nary a moment for this poor blog.
Which means a huge picture dump!
As usual, sorry for shit cell cam quality. I really should invest in an actual camera.
Since I have no life outside of class, all the following are from or related to my painting class.



A typical palette... I find it ridiculous that this picture came out the clearest.

A "narrative sketch." I don't particularly like this one, but I took a picture of it for posterity as I have since painted another one over it.

Still life; I regret the awkward placement of the head.

This one was intended as a Fauvist exercise.

Yet another hat; this one I knit while on the train to and from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC with the painting class.

Our next project is a transcription of a master work. I chose Ruben's Prometheus Bound. What can I say, I like naked guys and liver.

This is the preliminary charcoal sketch. I realized I actually like charcoal despite the horrible noise of vine charcoal on paper... ugh!

The sketch on the canvas... It's actually quite large; about 35"x38".
This is the progress after one day of painting. I'll probably post more WIPs as I work on this thing.

And here is something ridiculous I found on the interwebs.

Art Dump No. 34252

So instead of studying for midterms and finishing problem sets, I decided it would be a good idea to upload some pictures of my sketches/class assignments from the past week or so.

The following are sketches of random unsuspecting civilians eating or chatting in Frist. I drew these with the Art Club here yesterday.

This is a still life I did with the art club on 10/16, whatever day that was. It was big, so I could only take a lame cell phone picture, as usual.
These are color collages I made in painting class.

And a naked person!! Nude models are awesome. Surprisingly, it's not as weird as I thought it would be.

And this is a hat I stayed up till 3:30 AM knitting... Perhaps my priorities lie in the wrong places.
Haha, I just put the hat in the scanner and the picture quality turned out surprisingly nice.

I think I'm learning to just accept my fate as it comes. Lalalalala hello 3 midterms next week!

BTW, I highly recommend this webcomic to all who like history and humor:
Hark! A Vagrant
You will learn much about Canada, and naval heroes.

Something Cheerier

So for no good reason, I feel happier! And I wanted to bump away that WHAAAMbulance last post.
I guess grades don't even matter that much anymore anyways! Hahaha!
So here's a picture of something unholy I took over the summer when I went to the Orange County Fair. Whoo!

Haha a coloration of a sketch I posted here earlier. I was going to post a photo of a still life I drew with the art club here but my cell phone ate the picture I took of it as I was transferring it to my miniSD card.
I have this great scenario in my head where Rhys is Revan and Lanat is the Exile... ah I amaze myself with my lameness. Despite everything, I still have the mentality of a 13 year old girl.

Some more art stuffs...

Just some more stuff I did in painting class...

Color theory...
The still life set-up...


and the painting I did of it.

My brain is itchin'

I spent almost 7 hours Sunday afternoon working on the following piece of evilness...
Here's a lame bad lighting cell phone picture that inexplicably turned out pink.
For those of you (do you even exist?) who read the previous post, I've been doing value collages in my painting class where I rip up bits of grayscale paper and glue them in a primitive analog for painting. Last week was 3 value collages; this was a 5 value collage. It was a study after the Titian painting Diana and Actaeon (below).
...see any resemblance...? I was quite numb in my brain after the first hour or so (that was pretty much just Actaeon). It's quite a frustrating exercise, but in a way I think it'll help with the painting.

And this is just something I doodled in EGR 191 class today... for some reason my brain was more interested in drawing Lanat as the Jedi Exile from KotOR 2 than paying attention to the velocity of a rail car a passenger is throwing metal balls off of. I like this doodle - maybe because of the blank expression in his eyes that reflects my state of mind in 9:00 class - I might color it sometime.

Speaking of KotOR 2, if you have any interest in the game whatsoever, here is an amazing restoration project! If you know anything about KotOR 2, you know it was rushed onto the market before it was finished, causing the programmers to leave huge chunks of the game out. It was really criminal, considering the half-written code for the unfinished goodies were sold with the game... and even the unused voice files!! Anyway, some insanely dedicated noble and great fans managed to restore this lost content and make the game what it should have been.
I have no time to play it at the moment, but...

I'm really learning to love Shakespeare. And not just because Rufus Sewell was Fortinbras in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet.

Is it a bad thing that the classes I enjoy most are Shakespeare and painting? I think I fail as an engineer...

Bits and Pieces

This image was an assignment for my painting class. Our first homework assignment was to make a collage of a scene using a piece of cardboad, a 9x12 border, white, gray, and black construction paper, and a gluestick. The idea is that since we can only crudely rip up the paper with our fingers, we are forced to abandon detail and so must learn to simplify light and shadow. It sounds frustrating, and it is at times, but it's also insanely fun.
This was a collage of the statue of John Witherspoon, some clergyman that had something to do with something for Princeton. Incidentally, I live in the dorm named after him.


Here is a photo of the actual statue from a different angle.

And this is my usual animu fanart! Drawn in mourning for the Primera Espada... cross-posted to my deviantart.

If there ever comes a day when I have lost the capacity to weep over characters drawn of line and ink...
Well, I don't want to think about it. Meanwhile, I flail in melodramatic grief over the whims of a cruel and sadistic yet brilliant manga-ka. Curse you, Kubo Tite...

Some More Thoughts on Squirrels

I love watching the squirrels run around campus. They're such precious little creatures. Eyes that push the limits of beadiness to unbearable limits, that bore into the depths of your soul until you unleash an irresistible... squee. And a very very thin ring of white fur surrounding those beadular eyes, while the nose twitches and the mouth frantically stuffs itself on acorns below... Acorns are really cute too, come to think of it. The way the top shell fits around the bottom nut... that would be a great pencil box design for some Asian stationery store.
I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing a squirrel's tail oscillate in a wave with its body lines, acting as a counterweight. I like how the silvery sheen on the bushiness of the tail settles on the very edges like a halo or a cloud. And the little paws that effectively function as hands...
I do think the squirrels have been getting fatter. They do fatten up for the winter, right?
And now it's time for a picture of the scariest man in the world. The world of Parallax, I mean.
Is this a not-so-subtle and ego-gratifying way of saying that I'm working on Parallax again? You bet it is.

An Assemblage of Random Thoughts

I'm going to record some recurring thoughts that occur to me as I walk around campus, in order that I do not forget them only to think them again.

Are there any mammals with fur that's not some variation of brown? Yellowish and reddish count as brown, as do white and black. I know some primates have brightly colored butts, but those are on skin and not fur. Why are feathers on birds so brightly colored and fur on mammals so drab?

How come I never see squirrel poop on campus? For that matter, why have I never seen a squirrel in the act of pooping on campus? What does squirrel poop even look like?

Where do all the dead squirrels and birds go? If most of their deaths resulted from predation, then it would make sense not to see their bodies. But I don't think any squirrel/bird eating predators live on campus. So where are the carcasses of the squirrels and birds who died of old age/sickness/starvation (although the last option is highly unlikely on a college campus)? I wonder about the lack of bird carcasses in Cerritos as well.
Or am I just extremely unperceptive?

That's all I can remember for now. Perhaps I'll append to this list later.

Great, another picture dump

Yup, I have finally moved in to college! I returned from an equal parts harrowing and fun Outdoor Action (Princeton's preorientation program of camping/backpacking through the woods).

First, some lame cell phone pictures of my dorm. I'm kind of miffed at my mom for taking my camera with her back to Cerritos...

My bed! Fitted completely with linens from the Target in Nassau Park Blvd. My God, we spent like ten hours in there.
The view outside my window. That building is Alexander Hall or something.
This creepy plaque is on the wall. It is huge. The worst part is, it's on a protruding part of the wall, as if it was the marker of a grave and the body is stashed inside...


This is my armoire. Inside of it I taped my posters I bought from AX.
This is my desk. It's rather small, and my wires are getting in my hair. Ahhhh! Check out my cool wave keyboard though.
I got a amazingly cheap $40 scanner/printer/copier from Walmart here in Princeton, so I finally got the chance to scan all my crap!

This watercolor is from summer. I went to Rancho Los Alamitos with my mom. It's a tiny little historic site in Bixby Hills, a nice gated community next to CSULB. You can get in past the guard if you say you're going to the ranch.


This is a sketch I made on the trail in the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut. It was really, really, really pretty. But alas, mosquitoes and daddy long legs were abundant. My legs are pockmarked with wounds...
This was the first rock climbing site we went to! I navigated my way up that crack formation in the middle using my bare hands and these funky rubber soled climbing shoes. There was a safety rope, of course.

This was a picture I drew on the plane ride from LAX to Philadelphia. It's the Jedi Exile from Kotor 2, haha. Placement is kind of random here but moving pictures around in Blogger posts is such a pain.
This is a Photoshop painting I did on my Cintiq (which I managed to smuggle here, hurrah!) of the view of Alexander Hall from my window.
Another sketch from OA. That little blob on the left on the hill is our climbing support guy, who was some insane wilderness EMT/Ranger. He cleaned up our veggie chili when it fell on the ground... by eating it. That's part of Leave No Trace (LNT), which means basically you can't leave any sign that you've visited a campsite. This entails holding on to your used toilet paper or just using random leaves in the forest, eating food that falls to the floor, digging little holes for your shit, etc.
The sketch on the right is of one of the funky climbing shoes. They were surprisingly comfy! I might want a pair for normal wear, just so my feet can stick to steep surfaces...
I feel like my blog is increasingly centered around only pictures.

Anyway, I'm only in the second day of orientation week, so outside of Outdoor Action, not much has been going on. That is, besides the obligatory welcoming lectures and speeches. That said, I realized it annoys the hell out of me to see people chewing gum and texting during the interfaith "Opening Exercises" in the chapel. I think I am a stodgy old coot after all...

Embark!!

I type this from my hotel room at the Wyndham Princeton Forrestral Hotel. I've spent the past few days shopping like a maniac. The New Jersey 7% sales tax is so much kinder than LA county... and no sales tax on clothes!
It is 12:30 EST at the moment and tomorrow I check in to school. The day after that, I embark on a week long backpacking trip, possibly with some canoeing and rock-climbing. Then..
. school...

That was a surprisingly boring update on my life. I shall spice it up with an excerpt from the Parallax novelization.

PARALLAX

Chapter One-The Old Maid, and the Young Male One

Lanat Atis looked into the gently shifting water and gazed at his own reflection. He saw a young face, burdened with the weight of hardship and misfortune, pale and heavy-eyed from lack of sleep. Above this face, nestled in a wreath of auburn hair, was the symbol of his servitude – a dainty lace headband.

The water clouded and his reflection dissipated as Lanat poured the toilet cleanser into the bowl and began scrubbing away. Cleaning the toilet was a demeaning task, but at least he didn’t have to be seen by other people.

Lanat Atis had endured nineteen years of humiliation, subjugation, and compromise. A sampling of his résumé in degradation included shoveling camel dung, crawling through endless tunnels of filth in the mines, and collecting snake corpses. In retrospect, cleaning an already spotless toilet didn’t seem so bad.

If Lanat were the complaining type, he would have objected to his employer about the maid dress he had been forced to wear during work hours. What bothered him about the dress wasn’t the high hemline that kept hiking up his thighs every time he climbed one of the many flights of stairs in the Fitzwilliam mansion, nor the lace edging, nor the ridiculously large satin ribbon tied in a bow behind his back, not even the collar necklace (with lace edging on it).

It was the fishnet stockings.

When Lanat was a child, he had once gone to the monthly village market with his mother. She spent most of the trip complaining to Lanat about a pair of stockings.

“Fishnet, of all things!” Miranda had muttered, shielding the young Lanat’s eyes. “Absolutely no shame at all, these young creatures nowadays…”

Lanat had never seen a fish in his life, as he had never left the high peaks of Khios. But he was sure that even if he did see a fish he wouldn’t want to eat it.

Lanat bent over the toilet, putting the finishing touches on his cleaning job. He couldn’t help but take a small amount of personal pride that he managed to keep the frilly sleeves from getting wet.

“LANAAAT!” The voice of his employer, Clara Fitzwilliam, broke through Lanat’s silent reverie, followed by the furious ringing of a miniscule crystal bell. Involuntarily, he twitched at the sound. Ms. Fitzwilliam had trained all of her servants to respond to a uniquely pitched bell. As luck would have it, Lanat had been assigned the bell with the highest timbre. It was a monstrous little thing, about half the size of Lanat’s thumb and engraved with horrid dainty butterflies.

Ms. Fitzwilliam had given the bell three short shakes, followed by one longer roll, which Lanat had been trained to interpret as an order to go to her boudoir.

He washed his hands, being careful to keep the sleeves dry, and left the shining porcelain of the bathroom.

“Lanat Atis,” began Ms. Fitzwilliam haughtily as he entered her boudoir. She had not bothered to rise or even turn her head from the armchair in which she was lounging. “Come here at once. I have a matter of utmost urgency to discuss with you.”

Art Dump and Etc.

This blog is basically becoming a second DeviantArt for me...

I've been making so much KotOR fanart it's ridiculous.
I do feel guilty whenever I draw something that isn't the next page of Parallax... but hey! I get tired of only doing lineart. I need to paint sometimes too.

Atton Rand from Knights of the Old Republic II. He's full of angst.

Phoenix Wright fanart, for a change in pace. Usual Phoenix/Edgeworth fluff.

Hahaha. The male crew members of the Ebon Hawk in KotOR 1. The idea here was pin-up. I guess it was a good anatomy practice.

Bao-Dur the Zabrak, lounging about on Telos.

Juhani the catgirl Cathar contemplating a Selkath snack...
Anyways, I've been on such a painting spree because I might not be able to take my Cintiq with me to college! Oh the inhumanity... my parents insist that I will fail all my classes if I bring it. But how can I live without digital painting?! Arghh. Perhaps I will smuggle it into my suitcase somehow...
Tomorrow I fly to the East! Good timing considering how CA has been consumed by flames. And soon I will start school... goodbye, aimless days filled with drawing and videogaming. Hello, engineering problem sets...

Update of My Life; i.e., A Huge Dump of Fanart

Yes, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (I & II) has eaten my soul for the past month or so. So many nights staying up till 3 in the morning... and now I have finished both games. The only path left open to me now is fanart!

Uh, spoilers for KotOR abound, obviously.



This watercolor is of light side female Revan and her Carthy! I love this Revan character model because it's fun to imagine the great Sith Lord as a scrawny Asian girl. Who wears cute hair ties.

This is another watercolor of the Jedi Exile and her bitches manwhores uh I mean loyal companions and friends. They're chilling/angsting out on the ruins of Malachor V.

The following is something I whipped up in Photoshop earlier tonight. It's Mical the Disciple worshipping the Exile in his own quiet way... lol! This picture is momentous for me because I actually drew a background! Took much longer than the characters... fail.


This is a portrait of my first Revan player character. Now that I look at it, she has a vague resemblance to Mulan's man disguise from the Disney movie.

And this weird buff old man is Canderous Ordo, who I am not in love with.
Ah who am I kidding, I am in love with his character. He makes me wish I could draw blaster cannons that don't look like garbage cans or giant Thermoses.

Oh, and since I was tutoring all last week, I drew my student some Harry Potter fanart! While watching her do math problems and grammar exercises...

She requested a Harry + Ginny...

And a Harry + a bunch of people. Notice how Lupin is very subtly holding Sirius' arm/hand.
From left to right: Lupin, Sirius, Hermione, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Hedwig, George, Fred.
My student pointed out later that Harry looked happier with his friends than with his girlfriend/wife... oops!

And in other news, I think I've succeded in becoming a total recluse! Hooray?