yasventures

Multi Color Pen

2012-01-15T04:12:00.000+13:00

Life drawing with 4 color ballpoint pen. I think this'll be my thing for a while

Kung Fu Jas posing infront of the Lantau Buddha, Hong Kong

Katrinity in front of Lantau Buddha, Hong Kong

Paul breakin @ the Buddha

Lindsey waiting with me to get the best spot at Beirut's stage

Tumbles

2012-01-15T04:04:00.003+13:00

Also practiced by drawing stuff in my tumblr feed.

Josh Beech

Tanya Dziahileva

Facebookery

2012-01-15T04:00:00.000+13:00

Did a lot of sketching over vacation, targeted some friends via their facebook photos. Thought I might turn them into christmas cards, but well, sorry guys, nobody got christmas cards....

Brush pen

2011-06-05T00:30:00.000+12:00

Played with my new brush pens (Thanks Salah!) Some light caricaturing for fun :) Penelope Cruz, and Kristin Kreuk

Figure Drawing - Aaron

2011-04-07T01:15:00.000+12:00

So, our model broke his arm... and we made lemonade! We dressed him up like a wounded soldier. It made for a pretty fun drawing session :)

"How To Steal Like An Artist"

2011-04-01T12:08:00.001+13:00

HOW TO STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST (AND 9 OTHER THINGS NOBODY TOLD ME)

This article "How to steal like an artist" by Austin Kleon includes so many things that have been going on in my head. I know I'm not the only one that thinks these things, but it's neat to see someone talking about it. It makes me feel like I'm not crazy.

I was going to talk about the points that were most important to me, but I find they're all pretty important to me and I hope you'll just click the link and read the article.

I'll spare you the sappy self reflective thoughts it conjures up.. but I'll leave you with this note that's been very dear to me, and my search for what the fuck my life means.

make things = know thyself.

WIP CG Model - Tanya Dziahileva

2011-03-24T11:53:00.000+13:00

I haven't posted anything in a while... Lots of things mid progress, and lots of terrible figure drawings I've been to ashamed of to share. I randomly came across an old screencap of a forgotten project of mine, a CG model portrait based on runway model Tanya D. This is a WIP stage, and im sure someday..someday I'll get around to finishing her...Tho lately I've been trying to keep the computer work at work! Maya & Zbrush.

This is Tanya. They call her Elvish. No wonder I adore her!!

Monica

2011-02-06T23:19:00.000+13:00

Thank you, lovely Monica, for sitting patiently for me while I tried over and over again to draw your portrait! I do wish it was reasonable to ask you to smile for 3 hours, your smile is the best :)

deerie

2011-02-02T23:39:00.002+13:00

fun fun

Laetitia

2011-02-02T23:38:00.001+13:00

Saoirse

2011-02-02T23:35:00.001+13:00

Better late than never?

Figure Drawing - Athena

2011-01-19T23:02:00.000+13:00

I'm enjoying focusing on portraits these days. I tend to skip the face in general when I do gesture drawings. I'll try to at least indicate the feel of the face more often.

Figure Drawing -Jamie

2011-01-13T12:51:00.000+13:00

We're back to drawing this year :) The rust has built back up over break, must constantly shake it off.. Jamie was a great model, I wish I had captured him in full!

Tee

2011-01-07T00:32:00.000+13:00

A quickie sketch of Tee playing and singing :)

Jasmine again

2011-01-04T23:33:00.001+13:00

Just went in and filled in her hair and evened out some tones across her face. Made a little bit of use of a pretty poorly taken photo from the end of the session, but it didn't give me much information so maybe this is as far as I'll go with this drawing...

Last drawing of 2010 - Jasmine

2011-01-01T12:34:00.000+13:00

My lovely friend Jasmine kindly sat for a portrait yesterday for a few hours. I was able to do a rough sketch, then begin the portrait. I meant to do some solid measurements first, restraining from jumping into the details, but I think my measurement methods must suck because it was awful and frustrating and I needed skip stages to find her likeness. I think the impatience, most likely, is a bad thing. I think if I were more disciplined, I'd have more successful drawings in the end. This is where David Malan's tracing paper tip would come in handy, though I've never tried it (and maybe it's not meant for) when drawing a live model. Also still need to "find" my shading technique... I should really do this more often.

So here she is, or as far as I was able to get before heading off to New Years Eve celebrations. There are levels of success here with her likeness, but I didn't do her justice. Hopefully I can try again :) or at least fill in the hair and neck

Figure Drawing - Sarah

2010-11-25T00:46:00.000+13:00

Getting used to the colored pencil a bit. The pencil got short and it made me change the way I used it, it felt kind of like using a short charcoal or something. Felt kinda right.

Figure Drawing - Vaune

2010-11-04T14:37:00.001+13:00

Haven't been super stoked with any of my drawings in recent weeks' figure drawing sessions.. Haven't felt "ON". Feels like my hand doesn't know what to do. Oh well.. For you I have some fragments of figures...

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T15:20:00.001+13:00

I had a lot of fun this year for Halloween. My friend Jasmine and I went as Circus Twins (the party theme was "Carnival of Horrors"). The design was highly inspired by one of my favorite artists, Michael Hussar. I have always loved his painting "Morphine", it is so haunting and beautiful, I really enjoyed doing a sort of cosplay on it. And luckily for us, Gino Acevedo was willing to do our makeup!! He's incredibly generous and kind, people were stopping by during the 4 hours we were at his studio (well, he had to paint us both!) to pick up some Halloween help from the special effects master! Thank you thank you thank you Gino, it came out exactly as we had dreamed- cute and creepy as hell at the same time! Thanks Joey for putting the contacts directly in our eyeballs! Thanks Jasmine, it was sooo fun making the costumes with you! Less fun- scrubbing all the makeup off!!

And here's the inspiration from Michael Hussar - Morphine, Daddy's Girl:

Studies - Aoi Miyazaki, Rinko Kikuchi, and Jose Renteria

2010-09-20T23:59:00.002+12:00

I decided to do a few asian girl studies, since I realize I actually haven't done that too often.

Here's a simple sketch of Aoi Miyazaki, a Japanese actress who plays one of two girls named Nana in a show called..well "Nana". I haven't really seen any of this show, but Nana was based on a manga by Ai Yazawa, the creator of one of my favorite manga - Paradise Kiss, about students of a fashion school!


Miyazaki Aoi

Here is a sketch of Rinko Kikuchi. I was watching Babel recently, and I had also seen The Brothers Bloom, and well, I really like her look! I'd like to do more studies of her, and better capture her unique mouth.

Kikuchi Rinko

And here's an extra I did the other night, not an asian girl, but a doodle of a girl who has shared her fashion sense with the internets. I'll dedicate it to Jose Renteria, because his inspiration is my inspiration sometimes.

Not-a-hipster girl

Figure Drawing - Matilde

2010-09-16T00:20:00.000+12:00

I tried watercolor again tonight. I think I'm learning a bit. I think I learned that it's sort of a good idea to lay down the shadow/darkest parts first, so that that part is a bit dry by the time you can wash over it with a lighter color. At least..for one type of result...

I put away any pen/pencil for most of the evening, so I wouldn't be tempted to draw lines, but instead pay attention to shapes of light and shadow. I warmed up to the idea a bit more this time I think. But for the final, 30 minute pose, I wasn't yet comfortable to do detail work in watercolor, so I did lines first and had time to wash over with color.

Chiaki Kuriyama Study

2010-09-12T23:33:00.001+12:00

I did a study of Chiaki Kuriyama tonight in pencil. She's the Japanese actress who played Gogo Yubari in Kill Bill vol1, and the track runner in Battle Royale before that. Found a pic of her looking a little bit sweeter than the characters we know her by.

Chiaki Kuriyama (Kill Bill, Battle Royale)

Figure Drawing - Kim & Thania

2010-09-09T00:29:00.000+12:00

Didn't get around to uploading last weeks, so here's 2 weeks worth of figure drawing. I am aiming to try different things each time, though I do fall back on my comfort zone pretty easily when I get frustrated :P Should try harder...

See this is my trying watercolor, then trying watercolor as "lines", then skipping the watercolor and going back to a pen, and faking a splash of watercolor on top :P

Attempting to be watercolory:

And then This week's. I tried with a brush pen, but I didn't like any of em and will show you the one done with a teeny tiny hiTech. These are like 1.5 inch each

Figure Drawing - Kate

2010-08-26T00:12:00.001+12:00

Figure Drawing with Kate tonight. She did excellent work, lovely strong poses and she held them well. Great session. I tried drawing with a prismacolor pencil tonight. I like that you draw a little differently depending on the tools, tho this wasn't a big departure really. The pencil gets dull so quickly I practically sharpened it halfway down tonight...

here are the ones I liked from tonight. Nothing too mindblowing... Wish I could have captured Kate's dynamic poses and structures more fully.

cghub challenge sketch

2010-08-24T02:50:00.000+12:00

This was for cgHub's Character Forge activity 2.5
Basically it's a weekly challenge to draw characters/illustrations based on descriptions from an ongoing story. I got on board too late to finalize my image in time for the deadline, but I'm going to submit it anyhow, and finish it in my own time this week, just for kicks.

"At the center is a small fountain of light. It is there that the crew members are thrown before a young woman garbed in bright fabrics and studded with small gems. She bears resemblance to an exotic bird of prey and her gaze suggests that the crew members are to be judged by her...harshly."

That is the given description. My drawing doesn't veer too far from the expected "sand princess", as the location is described as a desert. And while borrowing elements we've all seen before, I hope I mashed them together somewhat interestingly enough. I've got my own little story behind the design choices, but I hope to make it more clear by the time I've finished it.

And um, let's just consider the blue color, and "all seeing eye" symbol temporary placeholder for now..

Figure Drawing - Darren

2010-08-19T00:11:00.000+12:00

Tonight we had a new model, Darren. He was excellent! Great poses. Didn't feel like sharing my drawings from last week, but this week went alright. Feel like the rust is shaking off. Feels good.

lazy collage work and uneven scans. hm. next time...

sketch experiment

2010-08-09T00:15:00.000+12:00

Just messing around with a pencil sketch and photoshop. I'm really pretty newb at photoshoppery magic ... I'll keep experimenting I guess!

Cuaron, Del Toro, Inarritu - Charlie Rose

2010-08-03T15:05:00.000+12:00

Pretty old, but I just watched this Charlie Rose interview with Mexican film makers, Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Alfonso Cuarón.

It was a beautiful interview, and an entertaining and enlightening conversation. Very inspiring. My favorite quote of the conversation was when Rose asked if the 3 were ever competitive, and among Cuaron's answer was this - "When you can transform envy into admiration, that’s incredibly liberating." I would like to apply this wisdom to my own life.

I just want to be friends with these guys, don't you?

Ghibli Ghibli Ghibli!

2010-06-11T10:59:00.002+12:00

Yesterday a couple of DVDs I ordered arrived!

Joe Hisaishi in Budokan - Miyazaki Anime to Tomo ni Ayunda 25 Nenkan. This is a recording of the live orchestra performance conducted by Joe Hisaishi, celebrating the 25 years of collaboration with Hisaishi and Miyazaki in Ghibli films. They played thru the major songs from each of the films. I nearly died when I found out such an event existed! These Ghibli soundtracks are so dear to my heart, and I listen to them all the time.. If I really could see anything performed live, perhaps this would have been the most meaningful to me... Joe Hisaishi is having another concert in Hong Kong this December. I will just have to keep dreaming, with the help of this DVD!

I also picked up Oga Kazuo Exhibition: Ghibli No Eshokunin - The One Who Painted Totoro's Forest . It's a video documentation - and slideshow I think, of an exhibition of hundreds of Ghibli background images. You know, I'm kinda wishing I jumped on the Blu Ray bandwagon already. Maybe a PS3 is in order...

I'm so excited for this next Ghibli film! It looks so gorgeous. Screenplay written by Miyazaki, and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi- Looking forward to seeing how this new director does!

(why do my youtubes get cutoff :( somebody fix it!)

And in other Ghibli related news, I may as well use this opportunity to show off the Movie Moguls team - Studio Ghubblies!

Lindsay, Haejin and I support the team as the "Ghublettes". Here's a better look at the Tshirt Jance designed. Very very mature, guys...

sketch

2010-05-30T23:55:00.003+12:00

sketch from a magazine image i've always liked. maybe i'll try again for a better result, but i guess i'll learn from any attempt

Figure Drawing, portrait session

2010-02-24T02:12:00.003+13:00

We had Renee in for an extra drawing session tonight, and had her dedicate to 2 1hr poses so that we could focus on her portrait and get some more serious drawings out of it. Well.. i felt like i needed about 5 more hrs to be able to do something right. The drawings were HORRIBLE. so. I took pictures, and went home and drew from the photo :P

Figure Drawing

2010-02-18T00:45:00.005+13:00

Here's some stuff from tonight's figure drawing session. We had the lovely Renee dressed up as a pirate slash gypsy!

Perhaps at some point I will catch you up on the rest of my life..maybeee..
Meanwhile, listen to THIS!!!

Drawing and moving, moving and drawing

2009-10-23T00:53:00.006+13:00

Thank you Jance and Regina for helping me move stuff tonight. I can't believe how much we got done! This would have been a nightmare without you.
-
Also, Here's a sketch from last night's figure drawing session. It's the only one I was happy with, although there were many lovely poses. I really feel the rust from that break we took from having the drawing sessions (just as I was getting back into the groove). Gotta try not to let it slip away...

model- tanya

Figure Drawing

2009-08-26T22:15:00.007+12:00

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

2009-08-19T23:19:00.005+12:00

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

2009-08-13T14:06:00.006+12:00

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！

2009-08-04T22:42:00.007+12:00

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!

2009-08-04T22:28:00.004+12:00

Yesterday, I had a picnic with Makiko and Kaori. Makiko and I had made bento foods, and we brought it up to eat on top of the hill nearby. It was such a gorgeous sunny day, and the view from atop the hill was lovely. I hadn't been up there before. We had a nice conversation, and we were able to have it partly in japanese :)

I made onigiri for the first time. I made chicken adobo to put inside. It worked out pretty well, because of course you need rice with your adobo anyway! I managed to wake up nice and early to prepare these 6 for us. I made furikake rice for half of it, just for presentation. I really enjoyed making these onigiri, and I hope to make proper bento in the future. Especially CUTE bento. but i will need to go shopping for cute bento boxes, charaben rice molds, cute picks, sauce holders etc etc. endless possibilities with kawaii bento! :)

http://justbento.com/
lots of information about bento, and of course recipes!

http://www.jlist.com/BENTO/
bento accesories!!! I want it all!

Chocolat ~~~

2009-08-02T11:22:00.003+12:00

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.

Sil Van Der Woerd - White Swan

2009-07-22T13:32:00.004+12:00

Moragot shared this really cool video with me, by Sil Van Der Woerd. I like his vision, gritty and pretty. The video goes well with this haunting song. I love it when music videos take advantage of the medium and make pieces of art. Click the image to check out the video at his website.

NZ Film Fest - Moon

2009-07-22T10:19:00.004+12:00

Saw Moon last night. We had all been quite excited to see this one, and it was definitely a good film. I enjoyed it, but I dont want to comment anymore than that. Just go see it for yourself, if you're into the idea of a space drama. And try to avoid the trailer, it's better going in not knowing what to expect, in my opinion.

NZ Film fest - Ponyo and Thirst

2009-07-20T13:51:00.004+12:00

I had a fun and very full weekend. Spending so much time out is sort of new for me, usually I am out only once or twice a week. But now that I am alone at home, I decided I must keep occupied, for my sanity, and I booked up my schedule, with something going on each night. The New Zealand Film Festival is helping a great deal, with a movie I'm excited about showing every other night this week.

Before all that though, on Saturday I went out with friends to see Slava's Snowshow. It is a clown performance from Russia, that I had heard was wonderful. It was indeed, especially the audience interaction parts. At some points, I wasn't sure what exactly everyone was clapping about.....but.. yeah I'm glad I went. Afterwards we all got Kaffe Eis, stracciatella in a cone, yum! Then we came back to my place to watch Old Boy, in preparation for Sunday's screening of Park Chan Wook's "Thirst". Damn what a good movie that is. I'm so so so glad that the idea of a Western Remake, with Will Smith, and (fucking) tacos instead of dumplings. How horrible would that have been?!!?!?!?!?

Sunday I had 2 screenings. We saw Ponyo early in the afternoon. I had already seen it a couple times from download....... But seeing it in the theater made a big difference, with the full quality and more correct translations. This time I was incredibly touched, and teared up with joy and awe of cuteness throughout the whole thing. It was cool too to hear the whole audience laugh at sweet moments that I hadn't thought to laugh at while watching by myself at home. We all left the theater beaming, hearts warmed and full of happiness!

And, on top of that, the SUN was shining brightly! Which is rare for Wellington's winter. We went on a mission to buy sunglasses. I ended up buying an expensive sweater................ But, i did get 2 pairs of fun sunglasses for 5 bucks each :) I'll look at it which ever way i need to justify it to myself... We came back to my place again, Lindsay and I did our nalies like girlies, and Derrick and Jance played Wii, although we all desperately needed a nap. Dinner at Lone Star with "semi" mexican quesadillas. And on to Thirst. What do I say about Thirst? It was............ strange, cool, gorey, crazy... I walked out of the theater not even knowing how I felt about it. To my right, Jalil loved it and thought it was awesome. To my left, Flo and Christine hated it and nearly walked out before it was over. I must be somewhere in the middle. I think I want to like it, and see merit in its potential greatness. There were really badass moments and interesting characters...... But this might be one of those that I need to watch a 2nd time to allow it to sink in and process correctly. You'll have to see it for yourself.

It was a lovely weekend and now i need to rest.

The Current Jam

2009-07-20T12:16:00.003+12:00

Animal Colective- Daily Routine (Phase One Remix)
This song is helping me escape this morning. Thanks to Alex at www.leftasrain.com for sharing this one. Hope to keep hearing more like this.

Wong Kar Wai

2009-06-19T18:17:00.002+12:00

This is a beautiful short film by Wong Kar Wai. A commercial for Philips, with convenient, but well done product placement. This colorful world intrigues me. I want more.

DON'T MESS WITH ME!!!!

2009-06-18T22:32:00.003+12:00

...or do :) Challenge my bad self, if you dare!
http://minksy.mybrute.com/

We're gonna keep an eye on this

2009-05-29T09:48:00.002+12:00

The rate was .81 when I signed my contract a year ago, meaning for every NZ dollar I earned, it was worth .81 US cents. The rate has since plummetted to .42 at its worst I believe...... But it's climbing again. Let's hope it keeps on going!

The Current Jam

2009-05-21T13:25:00.002+12:00

It's thursday, i'm going on vacation tomorrow, but until then i'm stressseeddd. Gotta finish a couple things at work before then etc etc... Anyway, this song came up and made me a little happier, so I wanted to share.

The strokes- Under Control. I fucking love this song right now.

Ratatat

2009-05-15T13:37:00.004+12:00

Hullo out there. Last night Joe and I went to see Ratatat right here in Wellington at Bodega bar. I was very very excited to go see a band that I am actually familiar with come through here! I hadn't been to Bodega before, it was a pretty cool venue inside. BUT everybody was like 20 and under. I just turned 25, and Joe will be 27 soon, and well... I felt old. It was sort of okay, I accepted that fact. It was just interesting to witness it, and feel it for nearly the first time. At work most everybody is in my age range or older. I'm rarely surrounded by "kids"...except of course if I happen to be out on Courtenay at night.

Perhaps I'm at my quarter life crisis. And perhaps that's why I chopped all of my hair off. I haven't taken any pictures and I know people don't read they just look at images, but too bad. You can just imagine me with really short hair for now. I like the cut though, I don't have to worry too much about what my hair's doing.

Here's some media to accompany this post, it's Ratatat's "SHEMPI", incredibly weird video, but this is a taste of my evening last night.

What's going on?

2009-05-05T15:43:00.004+12:00

Lots, and Nothing :P Haven't done anything crazy really... Joe and I went to the south island back in February, with Brandon visiting us. It was a lovely time, but it was probably well enough documented on their facebook albums... That and I'm lazy.

Currently I'm very into two things- sculpting that wolf girl project I talked about a year ago, and I'm back into studying Japanese. I'm attempting to save my language study for any time that I am -not- able to sculpt... But.. I haven't been the best at sitting down and sculpting, hence why I am not finished after pretty much one year of being on the project. I don't really feel that the images are worth sharing just yet, and I have a lot of changes in mind... Soon, though... Soon I should at least have the skull done, as I'm borrowing a replica skull as reference and I said I'd return it soon..

I got myself a Nintendo DS Lite. I hadn't rushed to get a handheld system for years since I realized I never really use them except for maybe an hours worth on the rare plane flight.. But while studying Japanese, I came across this super nifty gadget

It's a device that scans text and translates it for you! Better than the average denshi-jisho, because if you come across a Kanji you don't know, you can simply scan it and find out. Otherwise it's a much longer process trying to look up an unfamiliar kanji since you don't know the phonetics of it to base a search on...
ANYWAY I didn't end up getting one of those because it was like $500... but I found out that with a Nintendo DS, you can get a dictionary program that allows you to write in the kanji and have it looked up in the dictionary! Not as instant...but pretty good, and cheap! (That, and I can now waste time solving puzzles with Professor Layton too...)

So now I have a NintendoDS lite, ice blue, with pink crystal hearts dangling from it. It matches Sammy, my poor bicycle, quite nicely. I will have to update this post with pictures, because my DS is super cute :)

Quick nihongo lesson:

"Saikin, nani ni hamatteru?" What are you into recently?

"ikerukadouka wakaranai" I don't know if I can go or not.
"~~kadouka" whether or not

I learned these phrases from "Learnjapanesepod". It's a podcast run by Alex, a fun British guy and his native Japanese friends. It's very enjoyable to listen to because of their sense of humor, and I come away with useful little phrases. They also do "Fun Friday" in which they talk about Japanese culture for the session instead of language lessons. Highly recommend it!

http://japanese.libsyn.com/ (the archive of podcasts and shownotes)
http://learnjapanesepod.com/ (the new website)

Anyway, I'm doing just fine, but I miss my dear friends back home <3
looking forward to my brother's visit this month!

Tragic missed flight!

2009-02-18T11:55:00.002+13:00

Hey check me out, i'm blogging about a youtube video! This lady has every right to be upset. You're all missing out!

Oreo Truffles!!!!

2009-02-16T18:55:00.002+13:00

Yesterday Joe and I made Oreo Truffles! There are only 3 ingredients in this- oreos, cream cheese, and chocolate. And they're crazy good. Here is the recipe i found online
http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2008/01/grocery-item-turns-gourmet.html

and here is a youtube video that teaches how to temper chocolate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_evlqvYZOM

Isn't the internet amazing?! Anyway, we mashed up 6 tubes of oreos until it was powdered, mixed it with 2 bars of cream cheese, rolled them into balls and put them in the fridge to solidify. We got big bars of Whittaker's classic dark chocolate (i was highly contemplating getting white chocolate just for the color contrast...but i think the dark chocolate was a better call on the taste, they looked damn good anyhow.) chopped up the chocolate into even sized bits, the thinner the better i think, but apparently it's important that they be even, and melted it according to the importantly precise temperature requirements. Whatever, read the recipes etc if you wanna know how to do it right, don't listen to me :P

It was pretty easy, but quite messy. We got oreo powder and chocolate all over the kitchen... and I just cleaned up some chocolate off of a light switch even... Point is, THEY'RE AWESOME! We made them for Cari's birthday party, where we knew practically no-one.. and you know, they pretty much all had kids and Joe and I were sort of odd ones out.. Geez, why'd we forget our kid at home this time, i don't know. Well the oreo truffles became a total ice breaker because throughout the party people came up to me to say how much they loved the truffles and asked how to make them :) I took most of the credit, although Joe did half the work.

I didn't stop to take pics, but we have a second batch needing to get dipped in chocolate, we'll do them up for when Brandon comes to visit. I think it's a surprise but I also think he doesn't read my blog anyway :D Perhaps I'll take pics then. For now, this is pretty much what they look like, except ours are messier-

Too much wine

2008-12-01T15:52:00.002+13:00

I forgot to point out my second favorite moment at Toast- We got to witness a Winery shuttle bus speed ahead and crash into a sign post on the same block we were walking on. The driver jumped out of the bus and sprinted down the street like Forrest Gump. Turns out it was some drunkard who'd hijacked the bus and attempted to drive it, but decided after the crash that running to the next vinyard might get him there faster. hillarious! yet, i wouldn't have found it funny if that signpost hacked into me and cleaved me in two, which could have happened.

Don't Drink and drive! Don't drink and steal and drive other people's vehicles! Don't drink and get on your bike and ride into traffic!

Let's talk about wine

2008-12-01T15:29:00.003+13:00

So, to catch up on previous events. Nov 16th I went to "Toast Martinborough"! It's a wine tasting event held in Martinborough vineyards, nearly two hrs drive away. I didn't know too much about the event before buying tickets, but it was highly recommended that I not miss it. I sniped some tickets once they went on sale, and they had promtly sold out within about 10 minutes. I must say this heightened my expectations of this event. Anyhow Joe and Pelle and I went by shuttle, driving away from Wellington's overcast sky, to find it clear, warm, and sunny in Martinborough. Wonderful! It's similar to driving out of SF and going up to Napa. Except on this particular day, there were droves and droves of girls in sundresses. Good thing I too was wearing a sun dress. You could tell that everyone was very thankful to get some sun, for once. It felt like I was at a country club, except everyone eventually got drunk and it was something like a frat party. My favorite part was at one winery, where we were allowed in to the aisles of grape vines! We had met up with the rest of the crew and relaxed in our very own aisle on a picnic blanket. It was so laid back, so warm, so..winey....... I coulda stayed there all day. But of course we had to check out all the other wineries. The next place we went to, and yes, i forget the names of these wineries but you won't care, anyway the next place had a cover band playing. Imagine a bunch of 40-somethings drunkenly dancing around to weezer. It was quite amusing. We picked out our favorites among the crowd- mine was the hussie in the black and gold metallic tiger striped dress, complete with a tiger face on her tummy, and black hooker boots. Can you say Cougar? i donno, but i just typed it. Anywhoo, it was fun, and a great chance to get out of the daily city life. Though, I won't be trying to go to this event next year- i didn't know that the wine tasting prices weren't included in the price of the event ticket!!!!!!!! (Pictures thanks to the talented James Ogle)

What is your favorite wine? I know what wine I like least- I think it's called Port. I don't like my wine too thick and desserty. Check out my lack of wine describing skills there. Awesome.

holy fuck. new post!

2008-11-30T09:56:00.002+13:00

Should I cut down on my use of curse words? the word "Fuck" is so ingrained in my vocabulary I use it about every 5th word. I use it instead of other possible adjectives and adverbs..I have probably limited myself and forgotten a large chunk of useful descriptives I once knew.. Is descriptives even a word I can use in this case? I don't fucking know, i can't think of anything else. See what I mean?

I would think people are used to hearing curse words and aren't so surprised by it anymore. When it comes from me, i have noticed that some people are amused by it and perhaps feel invited to be casual around me (which is probably what I intended by it). I have been introduced to new people more than once as "that girl who swears a lot in the emails" "Oohhh her".

But perhaps I should be holding back. What if the image I am portraying is that I am vulgar, immature, and stupid? On friday, a girl at work had a video camera and was filming "Beer o'clock", where everyone gathers in the lounge and drinks and mingles. I was playing pong with Caj, and well, pretty much every time I hit the ball was a time that I missed and a time that i uttered a curse word. Just for fun, and perhaps the shock factor that such words are coming from such a tiny girl, I am like I have Tourette's, and I say gems like "bitch-whore", and in Friday's case i said "Fucking whore" on camera. I regret that now. What if that video is shown to coworkers that don't know me, how would they see me if that's their first impression. There are a lot of women at Weta, and perhaps some of them would take offense to such a curse...

Most of my guy friends find it funny, but I think I have met one person who isn't used to me and perhaps thinks that I am bitching him out when I speak the way I do to him, and I can see he reacts with annoyance. I'm simply trying to offer my friendship in this way, showing that I treat him like I treat any of my friends, you know, "rough-housing" verbally, just like all the guys do with eachother already. But when I do it, I'm a bitch?? (fucking double standards)

I probably shouldn't try too hard to be anything but myself...but at the same time, is it lame? Am I the ass-backwards girl that pushes the boys on the playground and insults them, but really only does it because it's a chance to interact and really wishes for friendship? Am I trying to prove something by being so crude, trying to show I'm cool and I don't give a damn? When really I probably care too much......

What am I gonna do when I have kids? How am I going to stop myself from cursing around them? How am I going to explain that it's bad and that you shouldn't, when I use it so freely and with joy if not even more so than in anger? My kid's gonna get in trouble in school for swearing, and the other parents will advise against their kids hanging out with mine, and my kid's gonna develop a weird complex and not understand why she doesn't have friends. My kids'll probably be fucked up for more reasons than that, but I digress.

What do you think about the use of the word "fuck"? Do you swear as often as I do? Are you going to let your kids curse like you do?

kitty? :(

2008-08-24T10:41:00.004+12:00

I had a dream last night that I found a kitten in my apartment.. it was a teeny tiny orange stripped kitten the size of a mouse, just wandering around the carpet in my living room. I picked it up and it was no bigger than my hand, and it was fluffy and plump. I was soo happy! Some "friend", who would now be unwelcome in my home, told me i should get rid of it cause i'm not allowed to have pets in my apartment complex. I whispered to mini kitty that he would stay with me and no one would ever know. I just had a building inspection two days ago and the manager wouldn't be by again anytime soon!
and then i woke up :(
Since I cannot take images from my brain and show them to you, I give you: vampire kitties.

In other news. friday we saw Tropic Thunder, which was pretty funny, and went out for drinks afterwards. Last night was Arnie night at Matt's, we had pizza and beer and watched ten minutes of the best parts of Arnold's first movie "Hercules in New York" and then "Commando", pure gold. It makes me really want a projector & theater setup like Matt has, and it also makes me miss Arnocorps pretty badly. In Commando, Arnold had the black camo paint streaked across his face...like a goddamn hero.

Prepare for audio assault by The Greatest Band of All Time.

bowling

2008-08-16T20:42:00.003+12:00

Last night was the bowling tournament, models vs textures vs creatures. I arrived too late to get a spot on the lanes, which was probably for the best for my team's score, but i wore my models dept tshirt and supported with cheers and the drinking of beer. It was also Shannon's birthday and we continued onto a few bars afterwards. His girlfriend got him 30 beers, which he was expected to drink on his own... i think he got pretty close, cause he got decently drunk! evidence!

real classy, guys. real classy.

Work-Shop, Fuck Yeah.

2008-08-16T20:32:00.003+12:00

On wednesday I got a tour of the Weta Workshop! Fuuuuuuck. yeah. It was pretty damn cool to see where all of the props and armors and maquettes were made by the work of peoples hands. It's a much more inspiring environment than rooms and rooms full of computers. Oh well, not to say I don't enjoy my job. I'm actually having quite a bit of fun with my work right now :) Anyway, at the workshop I got to hold an Oscar (it was heavy), wear an elven helmet from LOTR, and ride the halo warthog! pretty fucking cool for geeks like me.

DNB

2008-08-16T20:13:00.002+12:00

Last friday was Wiki's birthday. It was the first time I got to hang out with my group of girlfriends in a non-work function. Wiki wanted people to dress up in prom theme, and well, I didn't bring my collection of prom/horrible 80s dresses with me... so I did my best to glam up with what I had. Turns out nobody dressed up in prom attire anyway, unless their proms look very different from ours! We went to this place called Duke Carvell's Swan Lane Emporium. It was run by Wiki's boyfriend I think. It had a pretty cool interior design going on, and a nice laid back, posh if you wanna, sneakers & hoodie if you wanna, sort of vibe. I love places like that. I felt a tad awkward at first, since I didn't know anybody. But it got better as the night went on, and of course a little bit of alcohol helped smooth the transition. By the end of the night I had had some decent conversations and got to know the girls a little better, and I even got hugs and kisses on the way out, which made me feel warm and fuzzy :) I'm doing ok here on my own, but I'm certainly looking forward to seeing my friendships develop.

robert, AGAIN

2008-07-27T02:02:00.005+12:00

yesterday was rob's last day at work. we had a nice lunch for him, a bunch of people showed up to say bye, and fuck you at the same time, apparently.

The best part about rob, is that he's leaving his stuff behind. i got this! mmm...media player..
So, i saw batman tonight. A very satisfying movie experience. don't need to say much more than that, you already know. I had intentions to do lots of productive things today, but my body still needed rest and i slept away a lot of the day.. Jen had organized a get together before the movie and people hung out afterwards, but i was still too sicky to be able to go out and enjoy that, which was a bummer.. But rob and I had a nice dinner and tea instead. I gotta find someone else cool to hang out with. bah. I think that's all the writing i'm gonna do for tonight. such a skimpy post. oh well.

sicky

2008-07-24T00:13:00.001+12:00

I've been at home sick for the past three days :( which sucks an extra lot cause there's no sick pay as a contractor :'( The first couple of days I was mostly bedridden..drugged up on the remainder of my supply of nyquil..Must ask my mom to send me more.. no doubt i'll need it. OH, except for the fact that the cold meds here are supposed to be really potent and awesome, containing codeine? i think? And they grill you pretty hard at the pharmacy before they give it to you, cause apparently you can turn this stuff into worse drugs...

Anyway, so yeah, i started to feel better today. And while I wish I could have used all the free time in a more productive way, I just wasnt up to it. I managed to print out a bunch of images, though, and arrange them on a bulletin board I'd sprayed black a few days ago. I got 7 of them, actually, and plan to fill my study with these boards and post up pictures of things i love, including people, artworks and inspirations, and directly in front of my work desk i want to post reference and relevant images to whatever project I happen to be working on. This sort of thing excites me :) It's a fairly cheap and quick way to make this empty room more personal. Go me. So the pic above is full of a bunch of images i've collected over time, and It makes me incredibly happy to see them printed out and displayed. They're no longer just files in my computer that i have to look at one at a time, once in a while. :) :) ah..simple pleasures...

welling-ton, well-ing-ton

2008-07-20T22:22:00.000+12:00

ok ok ok pictures first. I know nobody reads this shit anyway. These were taken with Rob's phat canon camera. It's heavy, and it's pretty hot. Almost makes me want to pick up photography as a hobby.. but i have a few other things i should be spending time on. Rob took the pic of the Asuka and Rei figurines on my desk. What a sweet camera. I took the pics of Rob, Adam and James. We were at Rob's house having a laptop party, while watching knocked up and superbad. Good times. James Willingturkey, you have some crazy fucking stories, bruu. You're heaps lucky.

So... for most of my time here, i've been just.. working, and dealing with settling into my new apartment here in Wellington. Haven't explored anything outside of the route between home and work. Haven't done much in the way of nightlife.
I saw Kung Fu Panda with a bunch of guys at work a few weeks ago. We got tickets in the theater's "Gold Lounge", which is a vip area that has plush recliner seats and service to your table. You can schedule to have beers brought to you during the film. I had an ice cream sunday delivered. fucking awesome. Costed quite a bit, but it was a fun experience. After the movie, I got a taste of what it's like on a friday night here. The streets were kinda busy, the crowd felt very young, and we watched a troupe of 16 year old girls dancing to Michael Jackson hits for a while. Very spirited. After that, we went to a bar called... who knows what, i dont know anything here... It was pretty cool tho. The bartenders wore vests and ties and stuff and it looked very classy, even tho the place itself was pretty chill. Got to see a bunch of new coworkers drunk for the first time. I myself didn't have much more than a beer. Pacin myself..
Last night was my first clubbing experience. It was a going away thing for a girl at work, at a club that had just opened this week. I was doin housey things all day and took my sweet time, and rolled out of the house at close to 1am. The streets were paaacked tight with pretty much everyone under 3o in one district. There aren't many places for Wellingtonians to go, apparently. Just 2 streets. Courtenay, and Cuba. Courtenay is more..Ruby Skye/Market. Cuba is more..Zeitgeist. Also, the drinking age here is 18 i think. So many young kids, most of them drunk off their asses. Most girls wearing mini skirts, cocktail dresses, prom dresses, in fucking winter. Most boys sporting euro-trash-mullets. The sidewalks were so packed that it made me walk on the roads sometimes. Anyway i made my way over to the club they were at for the girl's going away. Place called Temperance. There was a line outside the place, just like there was a line outside every other place. The bouncer stood in front of people just a few places ahead of me and said we all had to move on, the club is too full and they're not letting anyone else in. Everyone around me left, but i just kinda stayed there and looked busy on my mobile while i texted my friend Adam who was inside, asking him to come pull me in. There was already another line forming in the other direction. Fuck getting in back of that line, i stayed put in front. Adam came down and asked the bouncers to let me, his "girlfriend" in. It took about 5-10 minutes of waiting and light pleading, and finally one of the bouncers was like, can we just let the guy's girlfriend in?! And they let me in and i left all those fuckers chill out in that line outside. Adam gets an award for his acting skillz. So anyway. Crazy line, crazy cut off.. High expectations for this place. 3 stories, VIP levels up top etc. So i come in, it's sorta bright in here, for a club... get in to the bar/dancefloor.. doesn't get any dimmer. Odd. OK ok ok, so here's the scene. It's SORTA like Ruby Skye kind of feel, except hardly dim, kids are like, 18, they're projecting Rugby matches on the wall, and get this, the DJ's spinning Fucking SPICE girls.. not even one of their "good" songs. Next comes that mamma mia pop song.. whatever, those are my two examples of what the music was like at this club. I needed a drink pretty bad, was not drunk enough for this and was not really intending on getting that drunk. I did dance a bit. It was fun to chill out with some work people and see them cut loose a bit. All tho most people including myself didn't really know what do do with what the dj was spinning. The people i met up with had already been there for a few hrs, so thankfully I didn't have to stay very long by the time they were ready to leave that joint.

Adam and I tried to meet up with some friends at some house party, but nobody was answering their phones. We were so hungry that we snacked on some Burger King.. everyone else had the same idea.. I'd never seen a burger king that crowded. Seriously, it was like everyone planned on meeting up at BK after prom. It smelled kind of like vomit in there. Then we got a hold of Dan from work, and we met up and went to a bar/joint called The San Francisco Bathhouse. Cooool, huh? It sort of did feel like san francisco in there. This place was definitely dark, thank god. The crowd was less meat-market asshole. the DJ was still stuck a few decades back, but at least it was the fun punk/pop stuff. We danced our asses off for a while. It felt pretty good. Well, my feet did not feel good at all afterwards. I was wearing some heeled boots. I'm wearing fucking sneakers next time. Tho they had warned me i had to dress sorta nice for the first club so i tried that. I probably won't be trying to get into clubs that you need to dress nice for anymore. That shit was fucking weak.

My feet still hurt. I brought my TV home today, with Robert's help. He's been so awesome, helping me move and all sorts of stuff. It's pretty shitty that he's leaving just as I got here, cause I think he woulda ended up one of the people I hung out with a lot..But He's got a better life waiting for him in Cali. Dude I'm so jealous. I miss california. I miss san francisco. I miss internet without bandwidth limits. I miss netflix delivery. I miss amazon delivery for that matter. I miss shopping in 2008 instead of 1989, not that SF wasn't in an 80's kick as well.. but yeah. I miss japan town, and chocolate mushroom cookies. Bah, oh well, enough complaining for now.

There's lots of cool stuff about wellington.. but I don't know about it yet cause i've just been building furniture and shuffling it around and seeing what arrangement i feel like..

ok brain is tired. will rant again another time.

take THIS, Luke!

2008-07-14T00:52:00.000+12:00

this blog's not dead! Actual content coming ..soon..

Bike ridins, and bay to breakers

2008-05-21T06:26:00.001+12:00

So... haven't drawn recently.. been keeping busy, plans everyday to see my friends before I leave the country.. I feel sort of like I'm acting like I'm dying in 3 weeks.. I put in my 2 weeks notice at work yesterday, so now it's official and I can talk about it out loud. My heart and head are swirling with so many emotions that I can't even tell you what I'm feeling right now, but I guess I could try- I'm nervous that I won't get my work visa in time.. I'm sad to be leaving all of the people that I know and love. I'm sad to be leaving San Francisco, especially now that I'm taking advantage of it. I'm crazy excited to be going to New Zealand, and excited to find my new home and settle in on my own for the very first time.. I could scream. I just did!

anyway, I went on an excellent bike ride this past saturday. After some tasty blue bottle iced coffee, Luke, Ross and I met up with Jordan and Ross' friends Percy, Norm, and Seth, who are all super cool, by the way. We started at the Embarcadero, and rode thru hunter's point, yay, and all the way down to Millbrae! We got to the fucking airport! it was ridiculous! It was nice and warm, and I surprised myself by being able to keep going with the guys and not pass out after the first 2 hrs. I could have kept going, really, i fell in love with bike riding that day, more than I knew I had loved it before. (I love you sammy..). We did a great deal of drinking and laughing after that. Really, I need to be smarter about my intake...

On sunday I dressed up as the White Rabbit for Bay to Breakers. I would have enjoyed it more if it wasn't so fucking cold. ..I'm so pleased that I got to play the white rabbit, though, that character has been in my head for a long while now....

more sketches

2008-05-03T07:15:00.000+12:00

here are more sketches exploring that animal girl theme. i'm leaning more towards the first image of this post, not so much the 3rd but i experimented. i've always liked the idea of (a character) wearing a skull as a helmet of sorts... i know wendling did this in iguana bay and im pretty sure that inspiration is direct. i fucking love claire wendling and im done being conscious of whether i'm copying or not. this is what i like! so there! check her out.

sketches for new project

2008-04-30T19:13:00.000+12:00

So i am trying to brainstorm my next sculpture project... I keep going back to this animal theme.. for over a year now i think it's been in my head, and i've had several versions of how to turn it into something.. but right now i just want to keep it really simple, so i've stripped it down to naked chicks with animal elements involved.. it will be difficult to explain what i'm trying to do here, but i want there to be some sort of strange waifish and somewhat morbid thing going on in a way that i want to come across as a little more raw than taxidermy.. but i won't get too far into it now, don't need to jinx it. this is something i intend to finish. there, i said it, now i have to finish it. i have a goal and destination in mind...

cherry

2008-04-29T17:35:00.001+12:00

mothafuckas love the blogging

yasventures

Multi Color Pen

Tumbles

Tanya Dziahileva

Facebookery

Brush pen

Figure Drawing - Aaron

"How To Steal Like An Artist"

HOW TO STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST (AND 9 OTHER THINGS NOBODY TOLD ME)

This article "How to steal like an artist" by Austin Kleon includes so many things that have been going on in my head. I know I'm not the only one that thinks these things, but it's neat to see someone talking about it. It makes me feel like I'm not crazy.

WIP CG Model - Tanya Dziahileva

Monica

deerie

Laetitia

Saoirse

Figure Drawing - Athena

Figure Drawing -Jamie

Tee

Jasmine again

Last drawing of 2010 - Jasmine

Figure Drawing - Sarah

Figure Drawing - Vaune

Happy Halloween!

Studies - Aoi Miyazaki, Rinko Kikuchi, and Jose Renteria

Figure Drawing - Matilde

Chiaki Kuriyama Study

Figure Drawing - Kim & Thania

Figure Drawing - Kate

cghub challenge sketch

Figure Drawing - Darren

sketch experiment

Cuaron, Del Toro, Inarritu - Charlie Rose

Ghibli Ghibli Ghibli!

sketch

Figure Drawing, portrait session

Figure Drawing

Drawing and moving, moving and drawing

Figure Drawing

Figure Drawing

Figure drawing last night

日本語 勉強 - かてない！

oBento!

Chocolat ~~~

Sil Van Der Woerd - White Swan

NZ Film Fest - Moon

NZ Film fest - Ponyo and Thirst

The Current Jam

Wong Kar Wai

DON'T MESS WITH ME!!!!

We're gonna keep an eye on this

The Current Jam

Ratatat

What's going on?

Tragic missed flight!

Oreo Truffles!!!!

Too much wine

Let's talk about wine

holy fuck. new post!

kitty? :(

bowling

Work-Shop, Fuck Yeah.

DNB

robert, AGAIN

sicky

welling-ton, well-ing-ton

take THIS, Luke!

Bike ridins, and bay to breakers

more sketches

sketches for new project

cherry

日本語　勉強 -　かてない！