For good and bad...

I'm flying home for two weeks.
I've already packed the presents, I'm also taking the laptop, as the apartment will be empty for a week and you could easily break in here... And I'm paranoid. And masochist.
No, I really feel bad about leaving it behind for some reason...
(AND if something is wrong with the reservation I can show them the electronic invoice, huhu, I am so geek smart!)

My backpack is suspiciously heavy (maybe because I'm taking over 1,5kg of different sweets home...). Uh, I haven't counted the the laptop charger in _-_

Today I used one of the most unusual scales made of:
hardcover sketchbook
a pen
Chocolate bars (each is 100g).

(I think this is also some kind of geekyness XD)
Well, time to turn my laptop off and cool it before putting it into the backpack. I hope I'll make it tomorrow...

I think I’m going to switch from the “Fairfield” (which is apparently Strathmore 300 Series in disguise) 2 ply plate to Strathmore 4 ply plate. The 2 ply actually worked great for brush, but nibs and it do NOT get along. I’m constantly pulling up fibers in the tips of my nibs. The Strathmore 4 ply plate, however, seems to take a real beating from my nib; I can scratch over a wet line with a nib over and over again and its smooth surface persists. It also takes thin, delicate lines well; I can scratch the nib up and still get an even, tiny line as easily as I can drawing the nib down.

I’m also still partial to Rising 3 ply plate, even though it doesn’t work with nibs as well and it’s an off-white color. But there’s something about using brush on it that tactilely, is a real pleasure.

Also: a quick review on Dr. Ph Martin’s Terra Cotta India ink:

I mentioned this ink in my previous post. First, I love the color. It’s a warm, rich, clay color. The red kind of clay you played with in sixth grade pottery class. I know a lot of artists whom prefer Sepia over black ink because of it’s warmth. Personally, I find Sepia still too towards the cool range. Terra Cotta offers a warmth I’d use in whimsical children’s illustration.

This ink is opaque straight from the bottle, I have yet to see it bleed, and it hardens tough as a ROCK. It was utterly impervious to my frenetic erasing; even the thinnest of lines stayed intact. Quite possibly the most eraser-resistant ink I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with!

There are a few unfortunates to this ink, however. It uses large sediment particles, so it has to be periodically closed and shaken, or stirred, or you’ll start getting runny, translucent ink. It also takes forever to dry (several minutes!). For someone like me who tends to start in the middle of the page and work outwards, this isn’t too difficult to work around; I just have to be careful to avoid resting my hand on any lines. If you are, however, like my boyfriend who makes random lines all across the page with no logic whatsoever :P you would probably have a little more frustrations with this ink.

Two Rivkah-ey thumbs-up for Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bombay Terra Cotta India Ink!

------ Guh. Too bad I can’t tell if this paper is 400 series or 500. The samples I got only marked down the thickness, not the grade, and I can’t remember which I ended up getting. ;_; Going to see if New York Central Art Supply has any Canson bristol papers. I didn’t like them with brush, but I’ve heard good things about how they work with nibs, and that they’re a more consistent company. The Strathmore papers I keep trying are just all over the board. Sometimes the quality is phenomenal, and sometimes it’s just cr*p.

Here I am with piles and piles of homework.

I’ve mostly been mulling over bad things (broke up with some old friends, travelling 5-6 hours a day for school) and good things (doing well in school, career starting to appear, confidence rising). But with the two combined I’ve finally been getting ready to “go for pro” as the narrator for Marvel vs. Capcom would say--or was that “Go for broke?” Whatever, “beat ‘em up guys!”

I need to do my laundry, work on and complete as much as I can and then I’m still working on some artwork and layouts for my Mobile Learning Object but =-=;;;;
...

=-=;;

...Sorry, I’m just very burnt out.

Also, I made a batcave in 3D. Pretty impressive considering I was sick for a long time and had to catch up... The sad thing is that because I got so skilled so fast, I can do this much faster now. ;-; Goodbye timeeee!!

( Dananananana-Batcave! )

I’m attending City of Craft on Sunday and then I have to rush everything... I may die. I’m joking.

Been having a difficult time finding good coffee to home brew in New York. I was in Manhattan yesterday running errands and happened to drop by Puerto Rico Importing Co. and picked up several varieties of beans, but so far I’ve been disappointed by their mix. Their beans, though having unique flavors I haven’t stumbled across before, have the savor of having sat out for too long. It’s that sort of burnt cigarette ash taste that I find so unpleasant in every single preground coffee I’ve ever tried. Except these were whole beans I bought and ground at home, so they shouldn’t have tasted this way.

So far:

Ethiopian: Incredibly bitter flavor that is greatly mellowed by sugar and cream. Actually, this coffee is almost sour tasting, and after a few sips it started to grow on me simply for being different. But it also has the unpleasant aftertaste of ash. Not a coffee I would drink more than half a cup in a day. Also very oily with little crema. I usually like the coffee oils, but in this case, it just prolonged the sourness of the coffee afterwards. However, if you like your coffees to punch you in the face and leave a puckered lip afterwards, this is a perfect blend.

Puerto Rico Importer’s House Blend: A sweeter, almost floral but still somewhat ashey tasting coffee. The flavor doesn’t change much with sugar and cream, so adding them does little for its taste. It did however make an excellent crema when I brewed it (always french press) and made a nice, rich coffee with very little oil. This is a coffee made for people who’ve had their taste buds killed by French roasts their whole life and don’t know that better exists. Flavorful, but burnt to hell.

Brazil Santos: Best one so far. Light and sweet but not overly slow. Slightly bitter without the ashy taste I’ve been getting in the other blends. Should improve with a peculator instead of a French Press, I hope.

Guatemalan Mandheling: Haven’t tried yet, but it’s a light roast, and I like light roasts. They’re usually more acidic but less ashy tasting.

My favorite coffee ever, however, is still the Lola Savannah Peruvian Fair Trade. Quite possibly the most delicious cup of coffee I’ve ever had, it’s spoiled by cream and sugar. If I can’t find comparable, I’m just gonna have to have it shipped. I need my coffee, dangit!

Yesterday, I also dropped by New York Central Art Supply and bought a paint palette for the Dr. Ph. Martin’s Concentrated Watercolors I’ve been experimenting with, more pencil leads for my lead holder (so I don’t have pencil shavings all over my floor anymore), and several shades of Dr. Ph. Martin’s India Inks. I needed some vibrant inks that are also waterproof, and I’ve had good experiences so far with Ph Martin products and already have the teal india ink, so I thought I’d give it a go.

Slightly inconvenient but not unexpected so far is that the degree of opacity varies drastically from color to color. My favorite so far is the Terra Cotta; it’s a gorgeous red-brown that’s beautifully matte and opaque straight from the bottle. I’ve been using my nibs again, and it works beautifully. I’m actually beginning to prefer this color for inking with a nib line over black. It’s gorgeous.

I also bought yellow, grass green, violet, sepia, and red. The sepia is also opaque straight out of the bottle, but it’s practically black. the other colors will require letting them evaporate to get more consistent, denser color, but they’re still beautiful vibrant colors, and I’m looking forward to experimenting and seeing if they’ll actually mix as well. There’s a few colors I would like to tone down.

I wish I could show the larger illustration I’m working on, but it’s a secret right now, so I’m taking photos and will hopefully show the process later. I’ve never worked with real watercolors before, but the effects I’m going for are simple. Mostly, though, I’m enjoying experimenting. I’ve been influenced by Eleanor Davis lately and her ability to draw so much expression and to exaggerate. I’ve focused too much on realism in my art in the past, and I’d like to move away from that and focus more on expression. Knowing the body and how it works is important, but I’ve realized the more I confine myself to the rules, the stiffer my people become. The sole premise I started with in this illustration was this: I have to draw an expression and body language, but the character can’t have any bones.

We’ll see how it turns out. -_-; I’m embarrassed as it is to show it to anybody. Grr. However, I did just finish inking these two other experimental illustrations. They’re inked with a nib using the terra cotta ink. I seriously <3 this ink! Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have time to experiment with watercoloring them. I’ve only used nib maybe two or three times before (thought I have all the supplies, I just wasn’t comfortable with the results), but that was at least three or four years ago, so I’m pretty happy with how these turned out. I’ve no wacom at the moment, so they haven’t been cleaned up yet, unfortunately. And since I’ll be laying down watercolor, I can’t just white out the line or it’ll bleed into the watercolors (being not waterproof).

First, the fat lady sings. I’ve been having a weird obsession with drawing fat, happy people lately:

Second, a little magician girl:

Mornings are made of the “Jane’s S.O.S” rewrite and evenings consumed with art. It’s a good work flow for me. :)

Saturday, however, I’ll be going out and applying for a part-time job with the U.S. census. It’s mostly weekends and evenings, and that’s perfect to me. I would like to get actual illustration work, but I’m building my portfolio now and diversifying so that I’m not limited to just a few styles. And I recognize the amount of time it takes to get that kind of work: it takes word of mouth and a lot of experience. I’ll get there eventually. :)

Back to work!

:|.... WHEN is it going to start feeling like the holidays? It's the 11th (in a few hours) and I don't have that Christmas JOY feeling yet. Pissing me off. It really is. I love the holidays though I'll admit I'm worked up to my pores. So behind on stuff. Playing catch up sucks hard marbles and I want to drown myself in sleep and moments of rage against unsuspecting beasts in FF12. But then I'd get nothing done.

And it's damn cold. Like, I know it gets cold but it's usually gradual. MN went from 40 to -4 in 24 hours and I was caught outside that shit. There is nothing more jarring than walking through a parking lot one day and it's free and clear of snow then a day later there's snow piled at least 6 feet tall O___O;;;. Thankfully all of my coworkers love me and see me shivering and shaking on my half a mile walk to the bus stop each day and take pity and give me a ride to the transit center to catch my NEXT bus. Oh yeah, I need some new boots. Tennis shoes ain't working anymore. Today I got a whole ride home too :D! I love random acts of kindnesss. It keeps me from turning into a complete cold hearted bitch. Also too, reasons like this, make me keep this job. My co-workers and supervisor are SO damn awesome and despite not getting the new schedule I wanted *to compensate for the cold* I will trudge on because the paycheck and people are worth it :D!

But yeah, I really don't have anything to talk about. I was having some serious deep inbedded art lack of confidence moments a few weeks back and my friends can attest to this. AIM sessions via my cell phone that are probably books long are the nastey evidence. I'm telling you I have no EGO. I need to develope one. I think I'm good now though >o>. Well... I googled my comic and it kinda made me want to panic puke. FG has a bit of a following and I can't update it for a while. THAT kinda breaks me a bit... *sobs*. But I don't do self-loathing too well but this time it kinda lingered and now I'm like, "Wtf was wrong with me?". I'm doing some of my best work ever. I hate to admit how long it took me, 'cause it HAS taken a long ass time, but I'm glad kinda sat on these commissions like I did. I'm TRUELY happy with the work and these commissions will definately make it into my portfolio. *is proud* So yeah :D! Back into my hobbit hole of silence now ^^!

OK, I know this is a lazy way of doing it, but if you want to see some photos of my life here you can find them here: pics.livejournal.com/w_szklarni/

I also did some artsy photos and those are now gathered here:
passer-by.deviantart.com/gallery/#Photography

Now excuse me, I need to eat supper, claw my eyes out and do homework. And then maybe work a bit *faints*.

Sometimes I really suspect I am a masochist. Why do I bring this much work on myself? I need to write something on w_szklarni , I need to draw, I need to prepare for classes.

Today I had a funny moment. The publisher have send me the translated dialogs with the note, that they don't fit the pages.
I was like WTF am I that stupid, I revieved the final file 5 times before sending?

Then, after checking the files and my e-mail archieve it turnet out.. THEY did a mistake of taking the eariler file.

Stress for nothing (Though I had to correct it anyway).

Uhh< i am so tired, Ive been "finishing" the comic for a few weeks now and this week was somehow busy (yesterday it was crazy, with classes - lunch - choir concerts for graduates - Christmas party for International Students). Well, this is mostly the positive version of busy, but I'd like to get more ahead of things. I miss painting, but I won't touch it before I finish the comic. (apart from the painting for class, but that is a DIFFERENT thing). I should write but I had a huge writers block (the only decent passage I've written for last two weekends was during the brake before the concerts yesterday and consists of FOUR sentences XD).

OK, I should actually go to sleep... My body is starting to take revenge on me; and I know it's not for the lack of excercise, because surprisingly I had enough of it that week. I should rest (not as in: sleep, but as in:have a free day). But I have no tiiiiiiiiiiiime.
The only good thing is that I can watch things while working. It keeps me sane (yeeeaaah, Azumanga Daioh and Paranoia Agent, huh? Sane?)

I'd give you a sketch but it's unfinished. Some other day.

>:| so OKAY Tokyopop wtf?! Do you want people to read your damn previews? I could have gone to the damn bookstore and bought the book in the time it's taken for this bullshit website to load. :\ RE:Play vol 3 is up and I can't LOOOOOOOOOOK DAMN IT!

So yeah... majorly upset about that. I'm going to go read vol. 1-2 again while be moody.

And there’s videos too, the rest of the photos are on youtube.



Also, I went to Smoke’s Poutinerie and had a Vegan(!!) Gravy (that’s why) poutine, it was really good. The gravy had a LOT of character and was strong in flavour, although “gummy” like a poutine at New York Fries (but I like dat). The portion sizes are MUCH larger, for 7.89(-ish) I got a large and barely finished it.

Burrito Boyz is RIGHT below and I’ve heard good things so that is next.

I have a lot of assignments to do as well as an extra class, but that extra class has MY FAV teacher and my fav subject so who cares! <=Doing EXTRA work @_@;; I have a class that is LITTERALLY 10AM to 5pm and it's OPTIONAL! orz But I like the schooool.

I’ll just list them to terrify you
Monday 14th
Flash Assignment with actionscripts
PD Project: (obtw we’re the only group that has two people nao)
- Flowchart
- Moodboard
- Website in Wireframes
PD Presentation to client

Tuesday 15th
MLO Project in FLASH
MLO Presentation to the client
Multimedia Assignment (that I haven’t filmed yet because I have no time)

Thursday 17th
CSS/Javascript assignment

Friday 18th
3D animation assignment

I’ll talk about the MLO project because that is the English Language Learning project I’m working on for cell phones.

...

Basically it’s a Sentai game, LOL where you assist a time traveler from the future who is trying to preserve the past. It’s say more but I don’t want my idea to be stooolen. If we can get GPS to function (this is an extra), you can run around Toronto closing “gates” and prevent enemies from coming into the present.

How is this supposed to teach people English? There is a learning comprehension component in where you understand and unscramble information, as well as other things. Broken Time Game is copyright 2009 Litda Sonida Tuy ANYWAY!!!! HAHHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAH, although I’m handing this over to a teacher later.... orz

Edit:
Well basically it's like if Kamen Rider Den-O was a like a Persona 2 game you run around like discovering clues Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Toronto Version.