Figure Drawing

Tonight was interesting... I got the impression that she was highly uncomfortable for some physical pain reason..It made it a bit uncomfortable to draw her as I felt responsible for not allowing her to rest...but i can only respect her for carrying out her commitment and working with us tonight. Hell knows I would say fuck it and stay home.

Anyway, I didn't really get drawings I was happy with, but here are the ones I don't mind showing.
model - laura

Figure Drawing

Maybe I'll try to have something to show for every week that we do figure drawing... Tonight i wasn't in a drawing mood, so most of the time I was thinking something else... but here's one drawing that came of the evening. She was a redhead, and the red ballpoint pen felt appropriate..
model - lynne



and I thought this one was plain cute, felt like posting it too..

Figure drawing last night

Whee look, i still draw :P it's true! Here are some ones I was roughly happy with from last night's drawing session. We've been drawing every wednesday for weeks now, but I only lately I feel like I'm starting to get back into the groove of it. I can tell that going to the drawing sessions is making a difference.

update! : i rescanned the sketches at home, better quality, whoo
model- tanya

日本語 勉強 - かてない！

I'd like to share little bits of Japanese language I learn along the way. I feel it helps to solidify my grasp of it, and helps me to remember as well.

Makiko and I had a good discussion tonight. We bounce back and fourth with questions of how you say this in English, or how you say that in Japanese. We both gain a lot from teaching eachother.

She saw Harry potter last night, and I asked her how it was. Her response was something along the lines of "The movie based on the book didn't win" It took a moment for me to figure out what she was trying to say. It was the direct translation of ：

"本をベースにした映画は本にかてない。”　
"hon wo beesu ni shita eiga wa hon ni katenai."
which is basically：
"the movie based on the book can not win against the book"

so, I taught her "The movie didn't/couldn't compare to the book" or "the movie wasn't as good as the book" etc etc. There are so so many ways to say the same thing in English. I'm often surprised at how simply concepts can be conveyed in a Japanese sentence. It's usually very direct. English is so complicated, I'm so grateful that I'm not studying English as a second language. むりそう！　 seems impossible. (? i never know if i say things correctly when i make things up..)

anyway, the lesson I learned here is a natural way to say "doesn't compare/ isn't as good as" I suppose you could say "~~no hou ga ii" ... or ~~ yori etc... but anyway, to break down what I learned:

かつ　- to win
katsu

(まける　- to lose)
makeru

〜〜は　〜〜に　かてない。
えいがは　本に　かてない。
eiga wa hon ni katenai.
the movie wasn't as good as the book (literally- the movie lost to the book)

(i think here we have the lovely "は” for use in a negative sentence. i mention this simple point because i'm still trying to get used to it)

I love this example of the different ways english and Japanese approach the same concept. I feel i hear "katsu" and "makeru" often. I know I've heard "makenai!" (i won't lose!) before. Thinking in terms of "winning" and "losing" seems to be common/important to the culture.


This reminds me, I'd like to teach Makiko "~~didn't live up to~~"
"the movie didn't live up to the book" "the movie didn't live up to the hype"

oBento!

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Chocolat ~~~

Last night was a magical adventure into my fantasies. Specifically the all you can eat chocolate buffet fantasy :)

I went with a group of my girl friends to the Duxton for their "Choc Shock" event. We had been joking before hand about how monstrous we seemed, a gang of chocolate hungry girls on a mission.. but when we arrived, the Maitre D guy said he had put us down as a table of 2, even though i made a phonecall and spoke with the manager specifically because i needed to seat a large group of 8!! He gave us some trouble, and i felt like tearing his head off. how dare he stand in the way of stuffing our faces with chocolate?!?!? It was mostly annoying because I just expected him to be more courteous and apologetic, and stop making it such a hassle, because in the end it wasn't at all. I firmly believe in "the customer is always right" mind set, as long as the customer isnt being a douchebag about it... but hey, they don't work for tips here.

ANYWAY, about the chocolate...

There was a beautiful and perfect little buffet set up. it really did remind me of the movie "chocolat", which i wish we all watched before coming out to the buffet. We were even served a hot cocoa drink with chille in it, like the movie! We were all very excited, and everyone came ready with their cameras, so instead of capturing candid moments of wonderment, we all got pictures of eachother taking pictures of eachother taking pictures of the chocolate. Yes. exactly like that. Anyhow, the chocolate treats were delicious. I didn't even manage to try them all. and what a shame, i couldn't even finish my plate at the end of my first round. We did order fries though, it helped to balance out all the sugar overload.

One of the desserts (a mini black forest cake, i believe) had this tiny merangue mushroom atop it. It was so adorable i had to take pictures of it. Also it was the last thing I ate that pushed me over into having a sugar headache.