Waaaa

October's coming faster than I thought possbile @.@.

Good news everyone! Apparently Miss Pang won't have the chance to eat my brains because FRIDAY'S A HOLIDAAAAAAYYYY!!!!!

I'm actually really pissed off. I wanted to finish the whole dang thing and then enjoy what little bit of holiday I had. Now I have to moulder away at home hunched over my commerce books T.T

I went to Jusco again today =D. Bought...uhm...ribbons...and...wrapping paper. The latter for my stock account in dA as well as for my personal use. It was really pretty!!! DX. I get attracted to pwetty things more often than I care to be. Haha. It's a great shame that most of the pretty things are really really expensive (or just expensive to someone who is damn-well-near-broke like I am D=). But sometimes, if you know how and where to look, you can find some really inexpensive pretty thingies =3. But anyways, this whole loadda stuff's boring the crap outta the dear (probably nonexistent) readers so yeah. What the heck. Haha.

I had cold soba for lunch today! Yum yum. Nah, don't worry, I'm not gonna attempt to make my own buckwheat noodles (XD XD XD), though I am pretty tempted to try making Peach Melba...or Turkish Delight. Oh lols. Unfortunately the former requires fresh peaches and raspberries that Malaysia is sure as hell never stocked up on, and the latter I have no idea how to make. Haha.

Speaking of which, I totally forgot to ramble on about the ginger beer I attempted to make!!! Haha. Well, for starters, it was a complete waste of money because of all the work involved. And that the price of the different ingredients just add up to a ridiculous amount when you can get yourself an honest can of ginger beer for RM1.20 in Jusco =_=. But it was a fun experience, so yeah. Taste-wise, however. Lol. Have any of you actually tried ginger beer? It's a really enjoyable drink. Fizzy and peachy-coloured, with a faint, prickly sensation down your throat. For my home-made ginger beer, haha. I got the fizzy and peachy-coloured part right, but the liquid literally BURNED the throat XD XD XD. Too much ginger, I suppose. It tastes alright, really. Just the aftertaste/sensation when the heat of the ginger very appropriately heated your throat to unbelievable proportions. I'm quite surprised nothing unfortunate happened to me. But one thing's for sure, my ginger beer did NOT agree with my mother XD XD XD.

Nothing else to say now. I'll update some other time! Goodbye for now~~

*ACEOs*

First set of 25 ACEOs, #2-#26



...Miss Pang's gonna eat my brains if I phail Friday's paper (though that's not very possible as commerce is probably one of my stronger subjects lol)

Anyway, hello everybody! Watermark done after a fiddle here and a muddle there in Photoshop. It was pretty simple after a few helpful tips from a couple of online tutorials I found. Haha. So, yeah, I've decided to hang all the doubt and just put up my happy set of 25 ACEOs up for the world to see and admire XD XD XD.

I'm sure plenty of you are going about wondering "What the hell is this ACEO shit?". Well, it ain't shit. Lol. It all started off as ATC, the acronym for Artist Trading Cards. Like baseball cards (or them Digimon/Pokemon cards that kids love flinging into other people's faces and screaming "I CHOOSE YOU PIKACHUUU" and expecting the real yellow puffball to poke its head outta the card...I'm digressing. Haha.), ATCs were created by artists, then traded and collected. When non-artists came to know about this, they were interested to begin their own collection of ATCs, but haven't their own cards to start with. So a couple of artists got round to making ACEOs (short for Art Cards, Editions, and Originals) to be sold to the non-artists. Yeap. It's a really fun way to explore your creative imagination and at the same time, collect inspirational cards from other artists and make new friends.

Each card measures 2.5"x3.5". That's about all the rules there is to this. The medium, material of card, anything else is entirely up to the artist. I've seen cards made out of glass, wood, and felt to name a few out of the ordinary materials, besides the popular paper/cardstock ones. The difference between ATCs and ACEOs is that ATCs are meant to be traded, whereelse ACEOs are meant to be sold.

So...about my very own set of ACEOs! Haha. I made the first five back in January, then busied myself with all sorts of other shit and forgot all about it. Then, during trials, inspiration came to me and I started making cards close-to-daily, sometimes 2 or 3 cards a day during study breaks XD. It's a fun and addictive process once you get into it, seriously. I wanted to make 25 to display on an empty canvas I had, but I have yet to stick them on with blutack. Haha.

Most of my ACEOs are made with markers as the primary medium, but there are also a lot of collage involved, like #17, #19, #21, #23-#27. Used my secret stash of pretty wrapping paper for most, as well as other random materials like gel pens, paper flowers, lace, ribbons, plastic gems and spangles. Oh, oh, and let's not forget #24!!! I used glass paper for the background. I remember playing with lots of that colourful translucent paper when I was a kid XD. I don't really see many people using it anymore...it's like...the forgotten paper. Lol. Whatever it is, you can achieve some pretty vivid effects with it, and I'm glad I had the chance to be re-acquainted with it =3.

I do intend to sell these off, but that'll be somewhere in the future (probably after the gawd-forsaken SPaM), when I've made a PayPal account or something. And got to grips with shipping prices. And further develop my artistic $k!lLz. So, for now, you may look at them pretty cards and smile at 'em XD.

Oh, and now for a brief update on today's Art paper. Haha. It was pretty enjoyable, I must say. I'm glad to announce that I managed to complete my artwork within the given 3 hours =D =D =D. I had to paint a seaside scene with kids making a sandcastle, giving attention to the children and the design of the sandcastle. For starters, the sandcastle could most definitely not be made by children (unless they were Japanese kid-inventors...or something XD), but it's pretty okay, I suppose. I painted most of it with happy old watercolours, then minor details I used my magical **COPICs**. It's probably...80% watercolours 20% Copics? Yeah, around there. Heck, they said 'media bebas' so I should not have marks deducted from it. I should only have marks deducted from shitty drawing/neatness (probably)/ dll. But I had fun, so yeah. Lol. Theory was okay as well. Finished it in...15 minutes? Round there. The questions were pretty straightforward- and thank Akito-sama what I actually bothered to read came out. I did tembak a couple of questions that I seriously had no idea about. Haha. Yeah XD. Overall...uhm, I don't know about getting A1, because now that I think about it my drawing was quite simple, so maybe...a B? XD. Let's just wait and see, yeah? X)

That's all for now. Peace out =D

I'M INDESTRUCTIBLE~~~~ 8D

Due to the fact that I was/am not in school today, I had plenty of time to upload my ACEOs into the computer. I spent the morning happily scanning as if I'd never scanned before XD. Just completed editing them and trying to get them to look as close to the original as possible, and now I'm stuck for whether I should upload them now or later. For one thing I haven't a watermark on any of them, so that's rather difficult. I can throw one on easy but I'm too lazy to do it now =P. So..yeah. Maybe I'll go ahead and do them later, so you can maybe expect another post later.

Seeing as I'm not going to post up my ACEOs just yet, I'll do a happy happy album review!

I'm an indestructible master of war~

I watched the music video of the song Indestructible on Hitz.tv, and wow, was I impressed. For once I actually came across an American rock band that actually came somewhere close to d'espairsray/Girugamesh/similar JRock bands. Disturbed's awesome!!! 8D. I love David's voice. He can't scream too much (due to some throat surgery I believe), but he can certainly belt out very interesting tunes. The songs are really catchy, with very abstract, surreal lyrics. Though I personally found it rather difficult to decipher much of what David was singing before I read the lyrics, I think that overall the album's great. I love songs like Indestructible, Divide, Enough, Inside The Fire, and The Night Without. The song Inside the Fire is particularly interesting, the lyrics as well as the tune. David wrote it from his previous experience of a suicide of a girlfriend, if I'm not wrong. The lyrics paint out the scene of hell pretty well, I must say. Think in terms of Dante's Inferno and you'll get what I mean. General rock fans, this should be an excellent album for you =D.

For lunch today I came up trumps with another platter of bangers and mash XD. It was pretty swell, if I must say! Not quite as good as the first time (I always do better at first-shots than the subsequent tries. Not sure why. Beginner's luck I suppose =P) but it was entirely edible and it still tasted great. My eyes absolutely stung when I had sliced the onions. Damn, it smarted like hell. Anyone that walked in on me at that moment would've thought that Gackt just died and that I was sobbing in grief. LOL. *Touches wood*. The mash was still incredibly yummeh; nice and soft and buttery smooth. Delish. I saved half of it (I only used two teeny potatoes, but they sure made a lot of mash =_=;;;) for tomorrow. Perhaps I shall bring it to school and get fat-ter. Haha. Waiting for my parents to come back from their mini-grocery shopping at Jusco. They're suppose to get me ginger because I want to try making ginger beer XD XD XD. Is there anything else I could possibly not want to do? XD. I watched it on The Naked Chef a couple of days ago and being the huuuge ginger beer fan that I am, it really tempted me to try it out for myself. It looked simple enough. Hopefully I'll remember how to do it. Maybe I should go Google the recipe just to make sure I don't screw up. Hahaha.


Hmm...so I might not want to put up my ACEOs just yet, but I suppose I'll settle for a little sneaky peek:

On display: #1, #2, #8, #21, #22, #24, and #26 =D

Have a great day everyone =D.

Art-related Ramble~

Thought I forgot all about him, dincha? 8D

Some random thoughts led me to wonder about the entire philosophy she-whizz-bang-thing about art.

Just what the hell is art?

Indeed, art is in everything and anything one can think of. In maths, science, nature, politics, cognition, history, just about everything is artistic to a certain extent.

Visual arts make up simply a fraction of all these wondrous things that make up the world we know and live in.

So what makes a good artwork, well, good? Colours? Perspective? The Golden Ratio (which, if you simply must know is equivalent to 1.618)? It's so subjective that really, when it comes to judging a piece of artwork, beauty really does lie in the eyes of the beholder.

But, no matter how organic and abstract art is, I honestly think that there are still rules to the game that one should know of. The rules I mean are not the concrete laws of sorts, but really skills and things that an artist should master before and artist can be called an artist.

Not fancy degrees or lengthy courses (though of course that helps to further develop your $k!lLz), but rather simple little things that an artist should master, either through coaching, observation, or just bucketloads of practice. Things like colour-coordination and combination, perspective, light and shadow, anatomy, followed by mastering the different mediums- watercolours, oils, colour pencils, pastels, markers. By mastering all of these, or the ones that relate to you most, you as an artist will be able to do the most important thing, probably the reason for your imaginative creation- to express yourself, your personal ideas, inspirations, thoughts and feelings.

Think about it, as a kid, your mind is filled with all sorts of imaginative ideas and thoughts. You'd like to express them through an outlet, but without the skill, the idea you have in your head is unable to appear just as you want it to in reality. It can be frustrating, even if you do have the skills, when at times your hand just won't connect with the idea, and poof.

So, no matter what people say, I believe that it is a neccessity to master all the different skills in order to really release the pent-up idea from within.

And, most importantly, you've got to know the rules before you can break them. That's the whole difference between a complete amatuer and a professional. It's no excuse to draw stick-men (no offense meant- stick-men should be worshipped as they are inevitably the basic foundation of all things artistic) and call it art simply because you have not one atom of idea about anatomy. I know plenty out there would disagree with me on this, but like I said. Art is subjective. And this is what I think. Don't hide behind your weaknesses and give use this whole 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' as a pathetic excuse.

So, yeah. My view on the subject. Deal with it.

YO!!!

Hello again everybodeh ^^


Routine life can be pretty boring sometimes. It suppresses your imagination, paring it to the barest minimum.

Anyways, no paper tomorrow (GOOD LUCK TO YOU PHYSIC-PAPER-TAKERS!!! 8D) but I'll be having Art on Wednesday. The questions are as suppressing as routine life, if not worse. I mean, everything is dictated to you, even the number of buckets you're suppose to put into your drawing. It's somewhat irritating. Though I believe that, in a good way, it forces you to use your imagination and twist it however way you want. To those who'd like to twist it that is. To those who find that they work best with a very specific question, then joy. They're being dictated to, even to the last detail of how many buckets you're suppose to put into the drawing.

On the bright side, they very well said that the medium is free, so, yeah. COPICS TO THE RESCUEEE~~~ 8D 8D 8D. No doubt I'd be using watercolours for the larger areas (no way can I afford to use Copics on large areas now anyway- I'm so stinking poor I can't see myself being able to purchase much needed refills anytime soon XP), I'll probably be using my beloved Copics for smaller areas and detail work. I'll definitely have to ask the teachers beforehand, but I doubt they'd mind much. So long that watercolours take up probably 80% and that the finished outcome doesn't look shitteh. And to be frank I can't quite care about what everyone else wants to think or say. If Copics can help me achieve the desired effect and make my completed artwork a success, hell, I'm willing to take any risk, small or insanely huge =D.

So...what else have I to say? Raya holidays are coming!!! If it wasn't for the fact that most of my friends will be balik-kampung-ing, I'd have happily hopped from one house to the other. Unfortunately the truth prevents me from doing so, therefore I shall content myself by perhaps considering to set up a PayPal account of sorts and begin sales on my ACEOs. The first 25 of them, that is. I'm really really really happy with every one of the ACEO, because...why, exactly? XD. I'm not sure, but it's just that I've really got the chance to go absolutely crazy with them and experimenting with all sorts of different materials. There's still plenty of ways to try out to come up with different effects, and I think I'll be happily amusing myself with this during the holidays. Haha.

Hm, I think that's about all there is to ramble about for now. I'll attempt to upload the completed ACEOs onto my dA account by this weekend. Farewell everybody! ^^

Hello everybody ^^

Wadder-lileh~

Hello again~


Just wanted to say that Accounts is up tomorrow and I'm going to effing DIE because it's Accounts tomorrow X.X.

Pray that I don't forget all the formats and screw up big time.

Though I have a sinking feeling that it just might be so.


The Internet's boring as hell nowadays, isn't it? There doesn't seem to be anything interesting to do. How funny- just a couple of months ago I'd have been able to spend effing hours playing trying to earn pixels to spend on other larger chunks of pixels and shit. Right now I can hardly last 10 minutes in front of the com without wanting to turn it off and go do something else.

If only *some* people felt the same way =_=.

I'm somewhat addicted to making ACEOs though =D. They're a fun, relaxing way to kick out the exam stress, though I don't think I'd be able to make any today due to tomorrow's papers. Gah. Then again, inspiration kicks in at the worst time possible, so yeah. Self-discipline, Joanne! That is most important if you don't intend to phail like you've never phailed before tomorrow! Haha. I had all the time in the world to make one during English yesterday. Was cutting up bits of paper while everyone around me scratched their heads and stared at their papers.

Don't even get me started on the essay paper. I did alright, I suppose, but as usual shit ideas just pop out of my head. At least I didn't have one of those soppy androgynous manuscripts I seem to be able to pen down only during exams XD.

I'll post up pictures of my completed ACEO collection sometime soon. This weekend, hopefully. I've got...*counts* 18 now! I intend to make 25 then display them on a canvas. Yes.

Well, rambling over for now. Back to accounting. Farewell, everybody~


P.S: To Cletie and your other friend=> Yeah, I'll list you guys down later. When I've got more
time on my hands =D.

CON-ed

Hello friends and family!

Yeah, I'm pretty much alive and kicking. First week of trials' over! It was pretty alright, I must say. I know I could've probably done a lot better if I studied harder, but unfortunately what's done's done so I can't do much about it except to focus on the next paper (Accounts! Accounts! *dies*) and propel ahead.

Didn't quite do that today though, cause I went to Jusco XD. It's the first time in two weeks since I'd last left my house. Most of the time I was too busy 'berwawasan'-ing XD. I played the DDR in Jusco! They have a new machine so I tried it out. It was pretty spiffy, but the second round my sister chose a crazy-fast track in the first dance and I phailed. Haha. I shall try it again. Soon. Muahaha.

Anyways, this post is simply to put up some long-awaited (and probably forgotten) Gakuen Convention pics! Yeah, I found the pics mouldering in my dad's Olympus. I'd totally forgotten that I'd taken that camera along that day. Haha. There aren't many piccies cause I was too busy running round doing gawd-noes-what, but...yeah. Enjoy it anyways~

So here we have one of the many Victorian-princessy
people that were bobbing round that day...

Serene and Amanda in their spiffy Oriental get-up

Butler Wen Yu, Viccy Princess Rosalyn and Jap-girl Amanda

Lianne!
At one point she started running in that gown...
it was pretty scary. Lol.

Me looking absolutely retarded in cat ears and tail.

Me and cat-ear-tail maker, Kay Ai!

Group photo~

Assassin/ninja/sexy girl in black, Shevonne, with her (I think it is)
white Power Rangers katana thing.

Why is it that most of the pictures of Rachel I have are just
her looking plain retarded??!! XD

Mieko-chan as Kaito

Kay Li as gawd-noes-who (sorry man, you gotta enlighten me again DX)

The Raveena busily sketching during the drawing competition. Unfortunately...

...inspiration wasn't on her side.

Hm, so, yes. That's about all I managed to come up with.

So, what have I been doing if I haven't been wasting my life away in front of the computer like *some* people, eh? Uhm, well...haha. Nothing particularly interesting. Studying is for one. Messing around with anything and everything I can get my hands on is another. In the span of 4 days I've already made myself 6 ACEOs for the sake of using my brand new Prismacolors. I got them from the art shop near The One Academy when I was there. They didn't have a few of the colors I'd wanted, but at least I managed to get a couple of the Deco colours. The shades are love. Haha. I've also been wasting my time honing my photography $k!lLz for the sake of it. Not really. I just wanted to get the sharp focus on the object and leaving everything else blurred out. With some words of enlightenment from my self-taught-pro dad and a photography magazine he bought me a couple of weeks back, I found out that it was the aperture that played a big role in achieving that effect. Dad's spiffy Canon digital couldn't seem to switch to manual mode (or maybe we just couldn't work it), but the Olympus did the job quite well. Did a few practice shots and I'm quite happy with what turned out =D.

Copics. Naturally the first thing I'd point a camera to.


Took the camera out into the garden for the heck of
it. This one's taken at the pond (waterfall in the background)

Water-lily~

That's all for now everybody. Tune in to the next post for more completely random rants and rambles.