Happy New Year!

Happy new year everyone!

I've been here and there (mostly here) drawing lately. In fact, I haven't stopped drawing one bit during my winter break. I would stay up really, really late drawing stuff like this:

...That is, until I got this...

I just got it a few days ago and I'm all over it! I've been playing so much. Also, I've been dancing my butt off with Dance Central 2 in the basement. It's really fun! Haha~ Anyway, I still suck at UMVC3 but then again I've only had around 7-8 hours of playtime. I really do hope I'll improve haha~! It also has an awesome and inspiring cinematic (and the music does remind me of Inception a bit).

All I can say is... THOSE CHARACTER MODELS. OMG. Not sure if I can express the level of inspiration I get from watching this cinematic haha~ the problem is every time I start the game I really want to draw something but once I get my pencil on the paper (or my stylus on the tablet) I get this massive art block.

Anyway, this is a very fast-paced game and I enjoy it very much. If you have the game, let's play together! I'm sure I'll get my butt kicked but hey~ it'll be fun to play with you. C:

To finalize this blog post, I'll post a picture of Mocha being crushed by Domo-kun...

And a Mocha closeup.

Happy new year!

Survived the First Semester [Image Heavy]

It seems as if I've survived the first semester at art school. I won't lie, it was hard work. Commuting for an hour and a half didn't help hahaha~ Fortunately, I've yet to fall asleep on the train/bus and miss my stop.

I'm doing well in school, I'm passing all my classes. I can't wait until next semester. We're starting water-based media and prop designing. We've also been assigned to do a Rubens master copy during our winter break so that will be fun... I hope. I still have to go over a few Perspective I assignments and finish my Design & Composition final project but I'm procrastinating... Not good.

I really feel like art has become a huge part of my life now. I feel like I see the world differently now and appreciate the beauty of things more. Heck, I take breaks from doing art to doodle or draw other things... then I take a break from side projects to make even more doodles. Hahaha~ Life is great.

I'm also thinking about finding a way to fund my trip back to Ecuador during the summer. I really do miss my friends and I would really like to see them again during my summer vacation (a few months). I've started taking commissions to help fund my trip. If you would like to know more, I've posted the information on my DeviantArt journal.

As promised to Tina, I'm going to post a few pictures of my adventures in Canada. Some pictures are a few months old, hope you don't mind.

One of the things I like the most about Toronto is the architecture ~ there's a mixture between old and new and it's just inspiring to walk around Downtown Toronto and just look at the buildings and shops and stuff.

Work, Work, Work

Time does fly when you're having fun. I'm having so much fun at school it isn't even funny heh. Every day, I wake up looking forward to just sit down and draw. I am drawing so much lately and I'm glad. I work long hours too, but it doesn't bother me until after I get home... and stop drawing.

I've been quite busy lately. We are supposed to turn in our portfolios for reviews this week and the next so I've been working on polishing my stuff, penciling over my constructional lines, and redoing mediocre work. It's hard work but it's so worth it! Next week, we'll have work week so we'll be able to make up for the classes we missed.

What I'm really looking forward to next week is the 24-Hour Comic Extravaganza event that my school is holding next week. I know I'll be no contest to the other people (especially the Sequential Arts students) but I'll still do it for fun. I can't wait!

I'll try to get some of my work on my blog soon so I can show you what I'm up to. It'll have to wait until after work week though - I have so much to scan in. :D

Three Weeks Later

I always knew I'd have fun taking art classes but I never imagined it would be as fun as it is right now. Three weeks have passed and I feel that First-Year Concept Art has become a tight knit family already. We even had inside jokes already before orientation week was over! Things have been great lately even though I have a busy schedule (Tuesdays for example, I have class from 9:30AM to 9:00PM with breaks in between - it's not so bad as it sounds).

The worst part would be commuting. I do not like being rushed and I certainly do not enjoy being in big crowds because it makes me nervous. I'm getting used to it though. I'm not particularly rushed in the morning since I usually take an early train and get there one hour early. That way, even if I miss my train I can take the next train and still be on time. Clever me. Hehehe...

I'll be posting more work later on -- right now, I'm just too tired so I'll just dump my work here. :)


Design & Composition homework; asymmetry and symmetry.

Life Drawing gestures (LD is mostly based on Nicolaides' "The Natural Way to Draw" book..)

Representational Painting -- classwork (classes based on "Hawthorne on Painting"). Mine is not such a great example though. Hopefully it'll look better later on hehehe...

First Day

Today was my first day at art school. Woo! The weather started to change too. Yesterday, the temperature dropped to around 17°C. That's not so great. I'm not used to cold mornings ... yet.

Since I have to commute, I wake up really early - around 6AM and walk to the train station (which takes around 20-30 minutes - that is, if I don't get a ride). After a 20 minute train ride, I go through the subway, take a streetcar, and get to school. Not so fun, but hey, I'm doing it for the art! 

Today I got there early and didn't get lost (luckily). I got there around 8:11AM, so I visited a coffee shop nearby and treated myself to some coffee. It wasn't that cheap, but it was good and it kept me warm. I walked into their bathroom and to my surprise, the walls were basically a ginormous chalkboard. It was too awesome, so I took a picture - heh.

I met a lot of people today. Mostly people who come from many different places. In first-year Concept Art, nearly everyone was from a different place. They were all really nice. Afterwards, we had a long lecture about time management and habits. I guess it was the longest part of the day since a lot of people were waiting for the BBQ.

I had a huge hamburger. It was as big as my face. Didn't know where to start. I'm surprised I even nibbled my way through most of it. Heh. I was lucky on my way home too~ didn't have to ride the streetcar to the subway alone. I got home at about 8PM and now I'm just chilling and getting ready for tomorrow. I can't wait!

There was also a book sale today at the school. Very convenient. The books had a discount too so I bought all my required books plus a recommended one on site. These are the books I purchased today for my classes.

Cops in Ecuador

I thought I would share this here on my blog to avoid explaining the situation over and over. Every time my mind goes back to this just makes me angry.

I basically got robbed by cops in Ecuador. I felt helpless, there was no one to go to. Now I'm just blaming myself for not fighting back (not literally though). As I was going through the airport, they had me checked in a separate room for no reason at all - maybe it was because I was Chinese, I've been told that they mostly check Chinese people in separate rooms, but I'm not sure so I won't assume that. I was willing to cooperate of course. They checked my bags and asked me how much money I was carrying with me. I was carrying a big wad of money because my family had given it to me to open a bank account here in Canada and pay for my supplies and tuition. I didn't want to take so much money but they insisted that I should.

I had counted the night before, I was carrying exactly $7801.20 USD plus $100 CAD. I answered their questions truthfully but they insisted that they should count. I wasn't very worried though. They "counted" and came up with  $8200 USD. Why do I say "counted"? It's because the woman, whose name is Diana (I remember clearly and I will not protect her ID because it's an outrageous thing she did to me), started to converse with me while she was counting the money. With so many bills in hand, I would assume you'd need to concentrate to get the amount right. She told me I had passed the limit by $200. LAST TIME I CHECKED, the limit was $10000 USD but she told me that the law had changed and they lowered it to $8000 USD. In any case, I did not pass the limit even with the CAD.

She told me that maybe her boss could help me. She called her partner, the "boss" and they talked outside for a minute and he came in to talk to me. He told me I had passed the limit and I told him that it was impossible since I counted the night before. He told me that I would lose the flight if I didn't declare the amount I had with me. I offered to count again, but he said there wasn't time. Then I asked him HOW I could declare the amount I had with me and he said "Oh but you would lose the flight anyway since it's a lengthy process." I asked him HOW I could solve this then if he didn't want to do anything. He said "I don't know but you passed the limit. I mean if you want to, you could leave the excess with us, but it's up to you."

Tell me, readers, should I have run for it? Should I have complained more? Should I have just punched him in the frickin' face? SHOULD I HAVE DESTROYED THE MONEY IN THEIR FACE?

In the end they wouldn't let me go unless I left the money. At first I wanted to leave the CAD, but they said I couldn't leave that. How blatantly obvious are they!?

I left $200 USD with those idiots and they continued with the scanning and let me go.

So corrupt. Ugh. You can't even trust authorities in Ecuador.

Next time, I will NOT be traveling with large amounts of money.

Time for Adventure? [Whining Included]

I just got to Canada yesterday after a long and painful flight. I don't enjoy flying. I'm still tired from flying and my arm is sore because I had to carry my laptop around for hours and hours. I'm not sure if I'm glad to be here or not but I can't judge so soon because I just got here and I'm feeling the homesickness already. I don't know anybody outside my family and I have no idea how to get around so I'm basically stuck here.

I find it hard to work here too. I'm just not used to the environment yet.

I miss having everything at a walking distance from my house (I used to live downtown) and I miss being able to meet my friends just at a few blocks from my house to have coffee and talk about art. I miss the food, the traffic noises, and the bad driving. I miss my friends, the boyfriend, and my family. This really sucks. I hate being homesick... and my arm is sore.

Hopefully things will change once I start to go to school. The days are so long when you have nothing to do and no one to talk to but the cat.

They have a cat... and I love her. :C