changes, changes & more changes!

Alrighty, I think my website layout needs an update as well. The previous try seemed a little too cluttered. Will try bigger graphics again. How I wish I get a whole week off from work and I can devote all my time on the site and portfolio. Quite a few doodles to scan in and need to create more cute animal graphics for a friend's app.

Test-printed a few pages of my portfolio and I badly need to buy the Color Index books. :/ I need to hit that exact colour I want for my printed works and it irks me when it's not accurate. Pfft, I know, a student who studied design oughta know all these. Arr, I want them booooks. ;__; But I be low on funding for the month. -weeps-

portfolio in the works!

Bought an A4-sized cream white portfolio case from Kinokuniya yesterday for displaying my works. This will replace the bulky A3-sized black carrier case I had since school days.

The new portfolio design for this year is in the works and here are some of the pages I've been working on these past few days. :> There are still some tweaks here and there I'd like to do (the tags were inspired by the New Super Identity book I recently got). Can't wait to read Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef Muller-Brockmann. I studied him and the grid system in my school days, but it was just a superficial touch. Even did some layouts inspired from his grids for a project. I was most proud of them. Should go dig the scans out!

Mojo coming back?

Found a site called Pinterest, where people share their inspiration boards online with the digital images they see every day on the internet and thought I'd join in the fun. It just seems so convenient to 'pin' up online images for easy reference.

My boards and pins can be found here. Can't wait to doodle out the various shoes to compile into a complete piece great for hanging up on room walls. There's so much inspiration available and I like that I can easily refer to them on this website. Can't wait to use what I've found. :)

By the way, site layout was put on hold while I am busy with work and part-time studies. My pride would not like to admit this, but I fear the majority of brain cells necessary for the understanding of topics like Economics and Finance have passed away and the right-side of the brain is now the only side that's functioning. Oh, but the function of present and past (a left-brain function) works amazingly well for me.

Some information from this Herald Sun (just for fun; the first time I saw the dancer, I was full-on Right-brainer. After tweaking/blinking, I was a left-brainer... It's nuts!):

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS *me!*
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images

present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking

busy busy!

Started working on my new site layout and finally finished planning for one of the pages.

Here's a peek (I haven't finished aligning the arrows all to the right yet)! -

Hmm, looking at the w.i.p. shot up there makes me feel there might be changes to the layout. Oh well, I see things differently every day. Haha... Hopefully, the final layout I put up will be one I'm proud of.

It's going to be quite an ambitious layout. I want to put in more effort in displaying my works, as well as have fun working on my layouting. I've done a study on grids in school a long time ago and loved how it works. Josef Müller-Brockmann's such a genius with it.

Oh, darn, my macbook's O key is conking up. 3: Not now! I've yet to start saving up money for an iMac. It's been on my wishlist for the longest. Hope I can get it this year?

Arr, I'm so tired and sleepy already. Gotta wake up early for work tomorrow.

Can't wait to complete more pages tomorrow! <3

some music to get you going

Just last night, I discovered Korean girl group f(x)'s newest song Danger. The first listen didn't yield much emotion from me, however, after watching the mv and listening to it a couple more times, I was moving to the beat in no time. I like their side-head-bobbing and the zig zag dance moves. Listening to this makes me do chest popping a lot! :>

I also find it intriguing that they have a tomboy in the group. I've heard of Amber some time back when I was watching clips of Key from SHINee. I had thought she was a boy and a cute one too. She's famous for her boyish charm. It's great that Kpop has this genre of artistes too. More people will be able to identify with the various types of people in the entertainment industry. Other than the cutesy, the sexy, the girl next door, we now have the charming tomboy too.

Here are some screenshots from their colourful mtv. The Koreans always spend so much effort creating interesting and artistic backgrounds for their artistes. I'm not a fan of their clothes sometimes, but the overall style and feel works.

Can you see I'm partial towards the blond girl's style? Love the fuzzy hair and sparkly eye makeup.

The following scene had these members standing and with their clothes changing over and over. I wonder if they had to keep changing their clothes and go into the same position to get this done, or whether it was composited?

I hope they can become more popular and earn big bucks. Korean music artistes work so hard in their singing and dancing so they can give audiences the highest quality entertainment they can get. They practised dancing till they're soaked in perspiration, and their stamina would probably be one of the best because they can sound awesome singing AND dancing. It's not just simple gliding around, it's hip hop moves. This makes Kpop groups number #1 on my list of favourite pop groups around the world. No half-hearted slipshod moves and weak vocals from these folks.

I do love it, after all

It's been a while. Went onto DA after many months and found an awesome video of a nude model doing slow motion figures. I sketched so many figures/gestures from it and I am happy to say I still find so much joy catching the lines and figures on paper. For my own selfish purpose, I'd like to feel stress-free drawing, not giving a hoot on whether my proportions were right, or whether I used too many lines, or what the hells. Those things just totally kill my joy, or whatever that's left of it after so many years.

Will post up the gestures once I give myself time to scan them. The female form is so beautiful. <3

okay.

Currently I've sort of deserted my tumblr account. This is my usual bad habit. Inhabiting somewhere online and if I do not use it for long, it gets covered in cobwebs. Sometimes they come back to life, other times they remain dead.

So I'm now working as a temp staff at a statuary board, doing administrative work. Totally nothing to do with art or design. What I need to use most there is my left brain. I borrowed a book from the library, called The Creative License. I finally got around to finding self-help books on picking up art again.

Also, I got inspired and started working out some new characters for an old story. It's bad how I love my villain so much. I don't even have a clear view of my protagonist yet, and my villain already has his storyarcs planned out. I'm fine with it, better than having nothing thought out.

Here're some pages from the sketchbook journal I started in October!

And the below is a sneak on something I'm working on now, after a long, long time. I finally went through 400+ worth of deviations on my DA account (I was so inactive) and I came across Loish's Disney colouring page piece. So I figured, since I can't draw anything to paint, why not try to paint something already available in the style of an old master!
I am happy with my trees and backgrounds... However, I get so intimidated painting human skin. :( I'm stuck painting Snow White. I have no idea how to continue... T__T

Lol, and you don't even get to have a sneak peek on Snow White, whether it be her skin or her clothes. :( That bad....