Why hello there~

Boom. Yeah, back again, babeh.

To tell you the truth, I'm not actually bouncy happy now, but I decided that May's done in enough of its days already, and this blog is in need of some updating.

So, yeah, two days after the previous post (XD), I went off to the comic store up on Aeon's 2nd floor during my break. Originally I intended to buy the set of Saiyuki Reload (but I didn't in the end- it was only up to the eighth volume) but ended up spending many minutes debating on whether I should purchase the Saiyuki Reload Original Reproduction Picture Collection instead. It must've looked pretty odd, me walking round the store deep in thought XD.

Didn't ponder for long, not after the salesgirl told me they only had one in stock.

=D

I'd actually expected it to be a graphic book like the Salty-dog series and Sugar Coat, but man was I deluded. It turned out to be this awesome awesome awesome set of 24 37cmX25.7cm glossy pictures *insert fangirl squeal here*

The 24 sides of Saiyuki awesomeness~

And the great part is that I've only seen a couple of them, so it turned out as a nice surprise. Man, Minekura-sensei's $k!Llz are just gawd-awesome, haha. And dang! Goku is totally showing signs of growth; in earlier pictures he looked all happy kiddy- now he's supaaa yummeh XD XD XD. I realize Minekura-sensei tends to give him the more dynamic poses, perhaps it's because he's just hawt. Lol.

(Holy crap when was the last time I fell for a nonexistent character again?! Was it Dante/Nero? Or Iori Yagami? Oo;;)

Anyway, a couple of days later after that, I went ahead and practiced my anatomy/Copic $k!Llz after long last. Haha, no, the real reason I went a-drawing was that I found some new human models to draw. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Ah Choy- the servant the Loo family wished they had =D.

Sibling love~

That's Ah Choy on the right. No, that's not his girlfriend, it's his younger sister. It all started when my dad and I started ordering around this (imaginary) servant to the jobs we were supposed to be doing, i.e sweeping, mopping, the dishes. I'd actually imagined Ah Choy to be one of them old-fashioned Chinamen with the braid and cap and brown samfu and little round glasses. Then one night (while doing the dishes, I'd like to add) I couldn't help but let my imagination wander and I thought, "What if Ah Choy wasn't the old-fashioned Chinaman we thought he was?...". Sketch-hour later produced a handsome young man with six-pack and sexy hair and I could only grin and think "Yup, that's Ah Choy, all right." Between my dad and I, we got Ah Choy's story all planned out and sounding like some awesome action-packed manga XD. Technically the plot's classified (Loo family members only, sorry XD) but we've agreed that Ah Choy's a handsome dood with kickass kung fu up his brown sleeves disguising as a common house lizar- I mean, servant (XD) in order to escape his 'dark past'. He's also in search of his younger sister whom he was separated from, and he found her eventually. Yeap yeap.

Riight...after doodling Ah Choy out, I went and made myself some lemon curd! Traditionally lemon curd is meant to be eaten with scones, hence the need to purchase scones from Coffee Bean the next day after work.

I made the curd at 12am...round there. Lol. I did it on the spur of the moment, really. The recipe's easy-peasy; eggs, lemons and sugar. It's the process that took absolute ages- stirring the mixture non-stop over the fire (to prevent the egg from cooking and you end up with a lemon omelette). The results, however, were very satisfying, when you pour out this wonderfully thick, custardy lump of golden lemony goodness. Man, it was as if the sun was shining at one in the morning when I was finally done with it XD. And it tasted awesome too- all sour-lemony though I think it was a bit eggy, must remember to put one egg less the next time I make it.

Afternoon tea, anyone?

Went up to KL on the 7th to get my sister back and and and~~~~~~

*holy music*
(Ignore the cluttered background by the way)

Bwahahahahaha. Yes yes, it's salty-dog VI, babes XD. I haven't spent at all this May; making up for the crazy load I splurged on this (and Reload volumes 3 and 4- English version, mind you. The Kinokuniya guys must've thought me a mad fan). But anyhow I'm glad I did because the book's AWESOMEEE~~~~~!!!! There're a couple of images from Bus Gamer, more on Saiyuki Reload, and a pretty decent amount from Gaiden. Though I don't quite approve of Minekura-sensei relying on CG more compared to older drawings. It's not that I don't support CG and technology, but...let's just say I'm old-school, yeah?

This is an unnecessarily long post, isn't it? =P You must be bored by the load of crap I'm rambling. Okay, let me just finish it off with my latest drawing, completed just today:

Blue Horse

Has anyone heard of SaDingding? She's this awesome fusion-folk singer of Chinese-Mongolian descent. She has an amazing vocal range and an even more amazing music-style. She seamlessly blends traditional instruments, Buddhist scriptures and mantras together with dance-electro beats and electric guitar. I was inspired to draw this picture after listening to her song of the same name from her 2nd album, Harmony. I'm not quite sure how Dingding imagined her blue horse, but, well, this is how I imagined mine =D.

To those totally unfamiliar (and perhaps many of you would be), the pattern on the horse is called willow-pattern! It's actually from Chinese ceramic-ware, where the design is painted on vases/pots/crockery with cobalt dye, if I'm not mistaken. These blue pieces were very popular with the Dutch, so much so that the Dutch actually came to produce their own sets of 'delft blue' ware, greatly inspired by the original Chinese pieces.

Personally speaking I never actually had an overly-obsessed liking to the willow-patterned ware, simply because I found the blue and white a bit too boring (hence the reason why I prefer the more bright colour combinations of traditional Nyonya-ware) but somehow when I tried to visualize the 'Blue Horse', I couldn't think of anything better-suited than this. I suppose, having grown up living and breathing together with antiques, the patterns have been set deeper into my mind than I thought they would =D.

Anyway, I've typed far too much, therefore I shall stop now. Oh, news! I'm going to stop working in Papa John's end of the month, so if you want to catch a last glimpse of me running madly in a green shirt, hands laden with pizza paddles, plan your trip to these last weeks =3.

Off I go nao~

Next graphic book (this is a Saiyuki ramble post)----->

Minekura-sensei's Salty-dog VI =D.

Gah, what on earth have I been doing with my life away from the Saiyuki world eh? XD I remember how I got totally bowled over by the awesomeness of Gensomaden when it first came out on AXN back in 2000/01. Gosh, is it ever easy to forget your first love? Saiyuki was the first anime that drew me into a whole new (then very under-populated) world. It also drew me into the deep dark netherworld of yaoi *coughcough* but let's not go further than that. Haha.

Anyway, completed the reading of Gaiden yesterday, and DANG was it stupidly sad. Should've expected it but my little mind with half a brain actually thought that there would be a happy ending. Crap, I should've known Minekura-sensei will never shy away from dramatic-climatical scenes. Bah.

Dang.

Oh, rumours have it that Gaiden's going to be made into an OVA or something. Holy cows, Saiyuki fans rejoice! For now we shall have the sun-gold (pun wholely intended) opportunity to view the sad scenes all over again, now in 100% technicolour animated pixels!!! XD. Though sad or not, I am sure as hell not going to miss out on this one. I've missed out enough, dangit. Next up: I shall leap up onto Hakuryuu's back and fly to Kinokuniya and get Saiyuki Reload 9. When's the 10th coming out I wonder? =_= Hurry up, dangit.

...By the way, I hear that Form 6's starting up soon, huh? May 10th or something? Hehe. Have fun, Form 6-ers! I myself have uncertainties of when I'll be going off. All I know vaguely is that it'll be somewhere in June. I think. Oh lols, my future suddenly seems all black and misty.

Anyways, working at 4 today so I shall now go amuse myself by watching Saiyuki Burial on YouTube. I LOVE how the animation turned out for this latest installment; the drawing is amazing and everyone looks consistently hot. Haha. Right, I'll stop rambling. Off I go now.

P.S: Happy Labour Day everybody! Labour Day, May Day, whatever you call it. Anyone read Howl's Moving Castle? May Day being the day where all the young ladies get courted by young men or something. Lol. Ja~