Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Fashion Love Post

It's been a while. I had a lovely venture to the LA area, staying with a few friends and enjoying my first week of winter vacation. More to report on that later.

To continue with the title of this post...

I am dumping a couple photographs of fashion in Tokyo that I enjoyed.


Her jacket(s? Are there two jackets hanging out over there?) just grabbed my attention straightaway. Her shoes even match and complement the flavor of her colorful jacket.


While the expression on the girl's face is a little odd, there's something I love about her outfit. I never would have thought that you could successfully pair a polka-dotted shirt with more of a striped, curly skirt. Her hair is also nothing short of a Japanese salon wonder.

I also find it fun to notice the guy carrying a pink handbag (presumably her's). How sweet of you, sir.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

And so the quarter ends

With my last final out of the way, school has officially ended for the quarter.
I now have time to realize that my blog is most unfortunately unattended; it seems schoolwork and the like have taken up a great portion of my time.

I have acquired some new toys for my craft kit, however. They include an interesting fabric glue that I am dying to test out (I even have the shirts ready for my attack), a cute pair of pliers, and organizing boxes from Daiso for my various crafting odds and ends. I cleaned out my supplies yesterday and realized that they are getting out of hand; later on they will be sorted into the boxes and I won't have to deal with plastic bags floating everywhere anymore!

In the time that I did manage to scrounge for some craft-viewing pleasure, I discovered that I really enjoy Make's little video episodes. Here is one I really enjoyed (among so many!): It features the work of Reuben Margolin. I'm fascinated by how he combines mechanics with aesthetics - using sine waves as his basis, he creates beautiful moving sculptures.


If you liked this video, you should check out some more at http://www.makezine.tv/. A few others I've seen include "Bicycle Rodeo" and "Fire Sculpture." So much fun!

Monday, November 16, 2009

11.11

I just made a wish at 11.11

For all my non-religious upbringing, I still adhere to several superstitious and "magical" types of habits. Knocking on wood, for instance. Recently, I picked up the "Make a wish at 11.11." I also have for as long I as I remember run after, caught, and made wishes on those floating weed seeds. Dandelions.

I am also extremely averse to the number 4 because of Chinese superstitions. I have a tendency to favor the number 8 because of the same Chinese superstitions.

None of this makes any sense whatsoever, of course, but I do it anyway. I suppose it's often just a fun thing to do and make no sense out of.

With that, I leave you with an infinite loop photograph taken using my low-tech webcam.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Bloodspring, Me101, and Avedon

So, I have just this past Sunday (today is already Tuesday, le gasp!) completed and submitted my submission to the Bloodspring tournament, round one, over on deviantart.com at http://ocbz.deviantart.com. The judging process is now going on, and will be interesting to see how each pairing ends up.

Bloodspring entry for round one, Page two.
carologica.deviantart.com

In the meantime, I am laboring through ME101 Design Project 2, in which we build two machines that move, throw, and catch balls. All with stored energy - in other words, the only time we touch the machine (and we only touch one ever during the entire performance) is to pull a string that starts the reaction. One string. That one string will cause everything else to happen, with timing.

Yes, rather an interesting endeavor.

I also visited the Richard Avedon exhibit currently at the SFMOMA. I ended up with about 7-8 pages of notes, hand-written text that literally covered all parts of these pages. A good thing too, as I will have to write a 7-8 page paper on the exhibit for my art history class.

It was very interesting how the rooms in the exhibit were arranged by basically subject matter. There was a room full of political portrait photos, others with artist, actor, and writer celebrities, and a final room - my favorite one in the exhibit - of ordinary, everyday people.

I found it hard to ignore the plaque next to each photograph describing who the portrait was; everyone in the exhibit seemed to have a compelling urge to know who each person in each portrait was, and even though I consciously tried to pull myself away from looking first at the plaque before looking at the photograph, it was always nagging at me to know. It's interesting how different the impression of the photograph is on you depending on whether you know who the person is; for example, many of the artists he photographed were names I was very familiar with - Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning - but I did not know their faces. I would see the portrait, glance at the plaque, recognize the artist, and turn back to the portrait with a completely different mindset.

My favorite room was by far the second to last room, in which several huge portraits hung, uncovered by glass. It was such a relief to see these portraits without the glass covering; what irritated me about most of the exhibit was how much the glass reflected back to me my own image and the people around me, when I wanted to just see the portrait for what it was. Was that intended by the curators? Who knows. But whatever the case, I preferred the photographs without glass; these exhibited Avedon's concerns with the neglected people suffering from the Oil Bust and the downfall of the mining business. He took photos of vagrants, cowboys, waitresses, clerks... There was a beekeeper, a rattlesnake skinner, and a miner, among many others. The most interesting part was that at the end of these portraits, Richard Avedon's self-portrait also hung in the room:


Richard Avedon, Self-Portrait
(taken from http://enews.art-signal.com)

I spent quite a while in this exhibit and enjoyed it, despite my mild annoyance at the reflective glass. His portraits are very much focused on the individual, and gave me a sense of hyper-realism. While the person was clearly photographed from real life, the photograph itself emphasized so much more detail than you would ever actually notice simply looking at the person. The eyes were so glossy, wrinkles so defined, and every hair or stubble so clearly stood out that it seemed beyond realism.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Fruity Earrings


I made this pair of earrings over the summer and finally wore it into public domain for the first time today. I daresay it was very interesting to see hanging from my ears; they just touch the collar of my jacket and stick out in front of my short hair (which isn't that short by now, it's nearly shoulder-length again).

Can you guess what it is made of? Take a look at the back of one of them: it's white, with text running through it.


The quality of the images may be a little small to see the images on the earring, but here is the answer:


I made these earrings from a plastic fruit box. A cherry box, to be precise. I remember my mom warning me about being careful of the sharp edges I created by cutting the box. A little care and attention is all you need, I say.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Surprise Visit

Yes, two posts in one hour, because this was a big surprise.

Vienna Teng and Alex Wong showed up at my school today, in the lounge of one of our dorms. I was pleasantly surprised and happy to hear the question and answer session; it wasn't supposed to be a concert, but instead a sharing session. Apparently it was part of some program going on on campus, and the affair was very laid back and casual. I finally was able to see the fabled Alex Wong (just ask Sim and you'll know why I've been wanting to see what he actually looks like) and hear the two sing Antebellum together.

They also talked a lot about their song writing process, mostly because this program was a music program (with dance thrown in there somehow). Students asked questions, they answered, laughter trickled somewhere in between. It was nice to see them as the normal humans that they are, and also to hear that often songs could take a year - typically 6 to 8 months for Vienna - to complete.

Definitely a treat to have sat through this conversation. Thank you Vienna and Alex for being so honest and sweet about talking to us lost little college folk.

Into the light

I'm ridiculously proud of this photograph I took in Tokyo.

Taken while on the train to Mount Fuji. I believe this was the earlier part of the long haul; this was probably still on the Tokyo metro lines before we transferred to actual trains.

It was very interesting how people spent their time on the public transport lines. Everyone - full-on, suited business people included - could be playing DS, reading manga, or completely asleep. Yet I only saw one person the entire trip miss their stop, and that was because she had a huge suitcase with her and the subway car was very full.

Back on college campus again, life seems dull in comparison. Such is vacation, I suppose... I can't believe school has only been in session for four weeks, it feels like it has already been so long.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Fashion Love Post One

Well, after my trip to Tokyo, I am having Tokyo fashion withdrawal. So I started prowling blogs and photos people have taken of fashion on the streets, and have fallen in love with a few on this page:

http://style-arena.jp/street/shibuya/0909/w2.html
In particular, top left, bottom left, and bottom right.

Absolutely love this one as well.


As it's past my bed time and classes begin on Monday so I need to be in top health after getting over that fever, it's time to settle in for the night.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Return from Tokyo


How strange it feels to be back. I've technically been back for a few days by now, but it's still a little bit of a culture shock to be back, especially with all the new freshmen running around campus.


My body also seems to have gone into post-travel shock, as I experienced a nasty fever today and am still feeling whoozy. I managed to sleep twelve hours straight last night, and on top of that slept some five or more hours during the day today.


Everything seems a little harsher here than back in Japan, especially the mannerisms of people. Even their cops seem nicer over there, especially in the airport. Making purchases at the cash registers here also felt jarring in comparison; no more bowing, profuse thanking, or even words that you can't understand.


Some day I'll go back again and climb Mt. Fuji for real this time; all the way up, and all the way down. Hopefully I'll be able to make a detour trip over to Kyoto next time as well, and that I will know more Japanese than this trip!


Head a little throbbing, I'm going to bed. Hopefully I'll feel well enough to clean up my stuff and pack for the dorm tomorrow...

Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Color Wheel Opposites


These were a lot of fun to make. I found this gorgeous photo of a lilac and yellow flower in a magazine. My only problem with the photo was that it was too small to be made into something large and substantial, and I was feeling vaguely in an abstract sort of mood that day.

So, of course, I started cutting it into little rectangles and squares, after which I fiddled with them on my desk, trying to figure out what would look best.

I ended up creating the necklace pendant first. I think I meant for it to be an earring, but unfortunately I didn't have enough of the photo to make the same size arrangement and settled for using it as a necklace pendant. I decided to complete the set, so I used the other scraps to make the earrings.

I think the actual date of this set was last summer, probably August sometime (2008), while I was waiting for college to begin. All my friends were on the semester system, and here I was, waiting for my quarter system school to begin a good month after they'd all departed. This year's even longer; without freshman orientation, the wait is nearly a week longer! Ah, quarter system.

Craft Commencement

So, I launched this blog with the initial goal of using it to chronicle my crafts and other artistic endeavors, which included such shindigs as comics, paintings, and doodles.

Alas for my mild case of self-diagnosed AHD, I have so far not had such luck in updating this properly with my artwork.

Therefore, I now pronounce the commencement of my arts and crafts blog at last with my first craft entry!

Today: The Royal Jelly Earrings


If you've never heard of Royal Jelly, take a moment to familiarize yourself through this Wikipedia article. I'll add a few photos of the actual boxes and bottles I had myself when I get a chance to take them.

I was given about four bottles of these royal jelly capsules, and each bottle came in a dainty, shiny gold box. I was planning on throwing the cardboard boxes into the recycling (yes, recycling) when I thought, I really like these boxes; do I really have to throw them out?

Well, I didn't end up throwing them out. Instead, I started cutting them, watching the design of the writing and images along the boxes and working on the fly. It was very improvised work; I didn't have an end-design in mind, but I liked the way straight lines seemed to make themselves easily likeable with the writing on the box.

Instead of dangling them off those fish-hook earrings, I pulled out a pair of black studs I'd been keeping in my little box of studs. I ended up using a jump ring to attach the smaller square to the bigger, and because it seemed lonely I added the other two rings on top, more for decoration than any architectural support.

I've actually had a lot of fun wearing these a few times; because I bike around my school campus all the time, it's fun to feel your earrings flap around (though I have to admit, it gets a little worrisome when you don't think you've made your earrings structurally sound).


Sunday, August 16, 2009

Yoshitaka Amano and New People

And after my excitement about Vienna, I slipped away to San Francisco and woke up the next morning to wander the JPop Festival and the grand opening of New People. Courtesy of Quinkee. (August 15, 2009)

I'd planned on leaving the house anyway because my sister had invited a throng of maybe twenty students she worked with at her community service group and I wanted out.

Going to bed at 1am and then waking up at 6am was slightly disgruntling. I have to admit though, it was rather exhilarating. Including the part where we had to sneak in and out of Wilson's house.

Quink, Amy, Wilson and I eventually made our way to Japantown at around 7am to discover the street blocked off and mini tents standing around. No sign of any long standing crowd of people waiting to get in; in fact, the store had barely unpacked its boxes! I suppose they did have five hours ahead of them before the doors officially opened, but you'd think they would have been a little further ahead in their schedule.

While Wilson parked the car in a more convenient location, the three of us decided to sit up high on a ledge overlooking the street and watch for any signs of a line. Amy immersed herself in her book and I happily sang along to "Hotel California," for the twenty times they played it.

Suddenly Andrew boy came walking past, recognized us, and informed us that he and his troupe were also looking for a line, only they'd heard more about the event than we did - there was apparently a line for getting tickets to get into the building somewhere, and we had to find her. A lady who worked at the store overheard our conversation as she walked past and pointed us in the right direction. Our tickets ended up being around the 107, 108, and 109 mark, slightly disappointing considering how early we had arrived. If only they'd put a sign somewhere explaining the process.

We wandered for a good few hours, stalking the vendors that were popping up and setting their items out. There was a stage at one end of the street and little white tents lining down the opposite direction. I don't think I'd ever been to a festival so early that the vendors hadn't even finished setting up their tents yet; I even managed to help a couple of women set up their tent because they had no idea how to use the tent. It was a much nicer and newer version of the ones we'd been using at archery camp, so I knew the basic idea of the tents.

We finally decided to wait outside the store with other people who had meandered over to wait and stake out a spot in line. Not that there really was much of a line; it consisted of a huge crowd of people squashing outside the store window, including some whose odors did not sweeten the deal.

At around 11am (mind you, by then we'd been on our feet for nearly four hours, on approximately four hours' sleep) they began lining us up in order of our ticket numbers. Damn, we thought. That means we're really going to be missing out on the Amano signatures, since only the first 50 customers who buy his books and tshirts will receive a ticket.

With the last hour before the opening, activity on the stage began. Some representatives of Japantown SF spoke about their enthusiasm and excitement at the success of this project, actors from the movie 20th Century Boys (movie 1) went onstage, and a few people from the city read Mayor Newsom's proclamation that August 15 be made into official JPop day. They broke the sake barrel (which nobody beyond the first row of people could really see, since the average height of the crowd was likely around the 5ft mark), cut the ribbon, and announced the doors open.

I think the prospects were pretty good, and despite not having heard about this event until Quinkee mentioned it to me, I had a lot of fun and excitement. For some reason I really anticipated the opening, and going inside among the first "VIPs," as they called people with tickets 1-150. Apparently they'd only given out 300 tickets, so that everyone else had to wait in line afterward. What an entrance for this store.

We hurried inside as the man ripped our tickets (I'm sure we went in way before our actual number - so many ticket numbers were missing before ours!) and found a huge crowd of cameras pointing at us. I laughed, a little shocked, but scrambled after Quinkee up the stairs. A line already formed at the cashier and I offered to wait in line as she looked for the right merchandise. Finally settled, we felt a little more calm, because now there really was nothing to do but wait.

I looked around and settled on "The Book of Genji." When the Final Fantasy art book came out, I took a look at it. I really did enjoy the book, but I felt much more drawn toward his Genji work and went with that, throwing a little packet of stickers into the mix to bring my total up to 30 dollars to receive my free tote bag and goodies. All that was left was to wait, and as we checked out each one by one we felt so relieved. I was a little sad that my book cover had a little nick in the corner, but they had none left even in the storage so I decided to just roll with it.

At last! Nothing more to push and complain about. At more of a leisurely pace we went upstairs, guffawed at the ridiculous pricing on some items in the clothing department, conceded that some of the prices were reasonable, admired Amano's work in his gallery on the third floor, and went down to the basement to find something dubbed playing on the screen. A commercial, I think, for the evening's premier of 20th Century Boys. I think it was funny that there were already technically three movies, but the first was only having its premier in the States.

LUNCH. I don't know what happened, but the lady serving us seemed to have a grudge against us; she skipped us for water, and apparently never gave our order to the kitchen, resulting in nearly an hour's wait for food. Really, lady, seriously? Was it what we were wearing? Because that is god honest discrimination. If we had worn our evening best, hair done up and in flowing dress, would you have kissed our toes then? Sigh.

We ended up lining up for the signing at around 3:30pm, a good half hour before the start. Quinkee was written up as number 15, two off from her favorite number 13. I was 16 and Wilson 17. Heehee~

As we rounded the corner and he came into view, I somehow became suddenly nervous. Probably because there were cameras and Amano didn't speak English and it was all very serious lining up business since he had to go through so many, many people...

I took photos for Quinkee as she went and hurriedly passed the camera on to Wilson, flipping open my book and finding myself in front of him. I think I was nervous at first because it looked like he was not in the best mood and I had heard he wasn't feeling his best, but he and the lady standing by his side smiled at me. He didn't begin drawing until he had a quick look at me, and proceeded to draw what I'm pretty sure was - well, me. The hair was exactly the way mine was. The lady beside him started speaking to me in Japanese; I had a little guess at what she was saying, because she was gesturing toward her shirt, but when I sort of showed that I wasn't quite understanding, I think she may have switched vaguely to English and I realized she was asking if I'd made my shirt myself. I sort of laughed inwardly as I said yes that it was probably pretty obvious I'd cobbled it together, as my ribbons were trailing threads and the shirt was cut somewhat haphazardly. Mr. Amano finished his signing and I thanked him and took my leave.

I think I somehow picked up this bowing thing from someone in high school. I want to say it was Jo, but I can't really remember. I was just reminded of it strongly when I stepped up to Amano and gave a little bow and left with a little bow. It really has become habit for me to dip my head and such in hello and thanks.

Thanks Quink, Amy, and Wilson!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Vienna Teng


Last night, I went to Vienna Teng's concert in her hometown of Palo Alto. Finally, after hearing Sameera tell me of the previous concerts she had been to, and after listening to one of them live through my cell phone while Sameera sat on the other end in the concert in LA, I went to her concert at one of the best locations possible.

It was a wonderful gift from Sim for my birthday. Not to mention excellent seats; second row, center skewed to the left, the perfect angle to see her sing.

The concert was special to me, and I think Vienna had a very interesting platform and audience to work with this time. We all were locals and knew the various places she spoke of, especially Stanford and the Red Rock Cafe out in Mountain View. Her stories about her upbringing in an immigrant Chinese family were equally familiar to me, and I just found so much of last night so relevant to my own life. Having Chinese immigrant parents, feeling compelled to do something "techie" but knowing that wasn't quite right, wanting to go far away for college but ending up blocks from your own house, artificially setting up the feeling of being far away in college... There was a lot in there that I just laughed and poked Sim about, with reciprocated gestures from her.

She had her new toy with her this time as well, an interesting gadget that allowed her to play something or sing life, have it recorded, and replayed over the sound system, so that she managed to sing with herself in harmony and as her own background instruments. I was so happy to see that I was so familiar with every song she sang, except for the new ones for her upcoming musical.

Meeting her in person was actually somehow a surprise. Her presence on stage and off were, well, different in some ways, though of course Vienna was Vienna. A picture, a joking conversation, and then Sim and I were off back home.

The audience was so lively, and I loved it. A few memorable moments...

For Antebellum, Alex Wong wasn't present, so at the moment when he was to sing she suddenly spoke into the microphone, "Those of you who know Alex Wong's part can sing along..."
This is what a concert can give you, so much more than what listening to a recording can. The audience picked up Alex Wong's lines and we softly as Vienna sang her part above us.

I have heard Passage many times before, but for some reason last night when she sang it live, though I'd heard the song before, I teared up for the first time.

The Grandmother Song brought about a great opportunity for audience participation and hilarity. We provided the stamp clap! stamp clap! along to Vienna's singing, and she encouraged us to yell and howl just as the song had but that she couldn't provide herself as she sang. A great "AIYA!" came from some man behind and to the left, and the audience burst out in laughter.

I was pleasantly surprised - though I really knew this and shoudn't have been surprised - to see that the audience was made mostly of older people, adult and older. Many Caucasians, too, though Asians had their presence.

She's so mellow when she talks, but she surprises me with her outbursts on stage. Kind of like Erica, actually. I liked it.

It was a great concert, and finally the one I had been really wanting to go to. I couldn't think of a better place to see her in concert than this hometown.

I think Sim and I were also the most vocal during this concert; we kept yelling approval when we heard a familiar reference.

For her autograph, I brought my sketchbook to have her sign it. It was so plain, but I couldn't think of something else I would have rather her sign. As I was sitting waiting for the concert to begin, however, I noticed how cool the stage looked... and drew it. During the concert, I recorded each song name in a little column down the left, and managed to squeeze in a few drawings of Vienna in the dark. She signed in the blank I left, and it sealed my day.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Work: open houses, secretary-related, and websites

Work.

I got a job randomly on weekends as an open house hostess. I am also starting a temporary job tomorrow, which I have mixed feelings about. I want to work, because I need the extra funds, but I had originally planned to spend the whole day with Quinkee (and co, I suspect) because, well, it's her birthday :( Maybe I can get off work early?

Progress is also coming along with the website I am writing. I finally put my frustration on hold and started teaching myself HTML and CSS, while also reading about how XML is taking over the world.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

The Ship

Now includes the sky. I'm pretty happy with the result; it's been a while since I did such a complete piece, background and all.

This is a small version of the image; to see the bigger image, you'll have to visit my deviantART.


Again, lineart is by Momo-mole on deviantART, coloring by carologica.
This is for OCBZ's contest, The Ship (also on deviantART).

Oh, and a note about Photoshop

If you notice in my previous post... I'm using Photoshop 6.0. Six. Point. Oh.
Lol.
Basically, somehow our home computer got a hold of CS2 or CS3 (don't remember which), and this computer (my laptop) had some form of CS3 before that died and is forcing me to revert to 6.0. For some reason this computer just can't get a hold of a drawing program...
... Mostly because I rely on my dad, who doesn't really know about drawing programs, haha~

The Ship: Work in Progress

Well, to tell the truth, I've pretty much finished it - in the sense that I've spent a great amount of time today coloring this, and am leaving it to tomorrow to see what I think of it in the morning.

On deviantART, there is a group "OCBZ", or Original Character Battle Zone, that I am a part of. Another member and I have teamed up to make a collaboration entry for one of the group's competitions, called "The Ship." We take one character from each of us and put the two characters together, a "shipping." Momo-mole did the lineart, and I am doing the coloring.

The man is Eirik, Momo's character. He's a forty-year-old Viking, and he loves children. Ariya, the girl on his back, is my character; she's a sixteen-year-old teenager who has already seen battle in "Decimation," an original character tournament I took part in last summer.

In any case, this upload is not complete - I made the sky invisible for this screenshot because I thought it looked cool without the sky :P I'll be uploading the full image later anyway once I've completely decided it's finished.


Let's see how this entry ends up! :D

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Accomplishments... Questionmark

Question mark because I don't really know if I should call these accomplishments.

I've been reading "The Little Lady Agency," a chick-flick type of book. I haven't read a chick-flick or watched a chick-flick in a long while, so I have to say it's been quite entertaining. I'm having good laughs with this one :)

I'm also getting more active on my DeviantART account again, which is good news to me. I'm planning on doing more comic strips and jewelry crafts, and hopefully making this the central blog to explain thoughts about them as I see fit.

House dance has been MARVELOUS. The class is over; Monday's was the last day. But boy was it a great last day; we got into a circle and danced one by one in the middle, then groups of four or so to get comfortable with dancing and grooving to the beat. The teacher was great, the vibe was great, the people were phenomenal. I'm loving the dance.

I also went to the breakdance session last night, and that place is PACKED. So many people go there, especially now that it's the summer - and not just so many people, but so many good people go. They're really amazing. I managed to whip out my sketchbook and do quite a bunch of gestural sketches to jot down moves and body positions, but was sadly intimidated myself to practice for long. I did go out there and bust some moves, but I was also just fascinated by watching everyone else's styles and power moves.

I leave this message with a little video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjkAq3LWwOs

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Seiyuu Revelation

Well, while I was watching FMA: The Brotherhood, I kept wondering why Ling Yao's voice sounded so familiar. At first I thought it was probably just because seiyuu voices sound similar. But for some reason, I had the hunch that Ling's voice was extremely characteristic.

I forgot about it for a bit, until on a whim I decided to check it out today and see who it actually was.

It's freaking Mamoru Miyano, the dude who voiced Tamaki Suou, Yagami Light, and Death the Kid, among many others.




Man, this is a little unfair: the guy has looks, a great voice, and amazing acting skills.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Starless Fright

There were no stars tonight.

I came back home from my house dance class (excellent fun, by the way) and walked in the dark back to my front driveway when I decided to look up at the stars. Whenever I walk home in the dark, for some reason the long, empty driveway always prompts me to look up and into the sky.

Tonight, there was not a single star.

And I admit, it freaked me out just a little bit.


It's like trying to see the stars in this mist. (The photo is of dad and sister, walking the cobbled streets of Erice on the island of Sicily to dinner.)

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Woah there, Google

I went on Google today to search for something, and look what popped up:

Yes, that's right. Google's page was illustrated for Comic-Con San Diego. I am actually shocked; I've only seen Google change its page for holidays, never for something such as a comic convention! Quite a revelation. I admit I'm somewhat amused and happy about it, actually.

I guess when you think about it, the event IS pretty big - for one thing, the tickets always sell out way beforehand, and big names probably attend each year. I hear Hayao Miyazaki's going to be there this year... (sense my underlying tones of jealousy for anyone who sees him.)

Also, maybe Google has some sort of mechanism for getting your own advertising on that page... wonder how much effort it would take to get some sort of "Caroline" day on there...

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

When life gets you down...

Well, what do you do?

Personally, it depends. It varied today from drawing to watching anime to singing and playing piano to feeling utterly unmotivated to do anything. I'm sure on a different day the activities would have been different.









It's felt like a misty day I had a year ago in Sicily.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Train WIP

I already posted it on my deviantART, but hey, we love repetition don't we?

I'm trying out cell-shading. I have a habit of not mentally being able to stand doing cell-shading type of coloring, much as I like to look at other people's renditions of it. I just couldn't do it myself; my instinct was to blend and shape through the shading.


Ahem well. This piece is probably going to take a while to complete fully, but I'll be working on it intermittently. In the in between time, I'm working on other things - I made three pairs and a half of earrings this morning, as well as watching Return of the King for the first time in a very long time. I still can't believe that movie came out five or six years ago... I still remember the day I went to watch it in the theater. I'd also finally turned thirteen and made the cutoff for PG13 according to my mother (which is why I didn't get to see Two Towers in theaters, and Fellowship was just that I watched it at my cousin's house).

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Life: A Fruitful Couple of Days

Well, two days ago I finished my comic and submitted it to the competition. I'm still feeling quite accomplished because of the amount of effort I dished into that project, and now I'm raring to work on the rest of my projects that have accumulated.

The past couple of days has been productive on some levels in terms of work. I've been around people for most of the time, but my artsy friends allow me plenty of time to doodle as we chat, Quinkee with her drawings and Sim with her knitting. I have a couple of sketches waiting to be colored, one to be digitally inked and colored (and that I'm quite excited to finish). Perhaps I will post the sketch here in this post... ?

Last night was definitely a tops - me and Sameera got to go and see Erica for the first time in a long, long while. I was joking earlier with Erica about how we saw each other more often during the hectic college freshman school year and that once school was over, for some reason we didn't see each other afterward. I blame it on her school being semester system and mine being on quarter system; I think by the time I got out of school, she was already back doing summer school...

Whatever the case, a grand stroll in the dark through the not-so dangerous streets this time (unlike the night before, on my freaky though fun escapade with Quinkee through a definitely more shady part of town), and I felt some sense of accomplishment for finally having seen her again. I really missed that girl.

Oh, and did I mention, I saw some hilarious photographs that Sameera brought over of her parents in their younger years? Of course, she had to use my scanner because they didn't have one, but it was definitely worth it for me.

As projects come along and go, I'll for sure keep up with project updates. I just don't have any scanned sketches of the ones I'm definitely working on right now, and a few things still are being kept under wraps ;D That's called a surprise.

And actually, instead of a sketch that I can't seem to find, you are getting an oekaki I drew ages ago that I believe is already on one of my deviantART accounts:

Friday, July 17, 2009

Congratulations - to myself!

Omedetou, Carol!

Translation: I have finished my twelve-page manga contest entry! Hurray!

In celebration, take a look at a shrunken version of the GRAYSCALE scan, which I went through some trouble to accomplish because I had to stitch three images together (as usual, click to see a bigger, better view):

I may eventually decide to upload the entire comic somewhere on the internet (probably my deviantART account or my mangabullet account), but for now this will remain a mystery, likely until the contest is over.

Wish me and Quinkee luck! She's also entering the contest :)

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Trouble trouble

Nothing much happened yesterday except that I cooked, washed, and drove my sister around to her various activities. In between, I finished erasing stray pencil lines on my comic and shading in what I wanted shaded.

At some point I was waiting for my mom to come home so she could take me to her office to finally scan these large comic pages in her scanner since ours was too small, and my dad calls into the window from outside, "Caroline! Come out and help me a second." Apparently our watering system suffered an injury and so part of our backyard was dying from thirst. We hoisted buckets and went around manually watering the poor things, several roses and a beautiful but dejected-looking maple.

My mom took me to her office sometime in the evening, and the chaos began. She'd left her work laptop at home, so we couldn't access the scanner, and she went back home to get it. In the meantime, I was trying to see if I could somehow hook my own computer into the system, but clearly failed.

When my mom got back with the laptop, it was time for excitement. I kept worrying along the way - a scanner on a copying machine?? It scans into PDF files?? Does it go t 300 dpi??

Eventually the scanning started.

Unfortunately, while I could convert the PDF files into images, and the scanner scanned at 300 dpi, and the process went quickly, the one snag was that it only scanned "black and white" and had no "grayscale" option.

There goes all my shading effort into huge masses of black and white...

I am now in the process of scanning them a piece at a time into my small scanner at home, after which I'll have to stitch the images together.




To the right is a preview of the terrible disaster that is "black and white":







"No one's gonna take me alive..."

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The Half Blood Prince

An old drawing of Harry I did once upon a time.

I went to the premier of The Half Blood Prince last night, and boy was the theater PACKED. We arrived a little over an hour early and already had a little difficulty finding seats. We did end up finding some nice ones in the third row. Can't say the same for the bigger groups of people who arrived after us, though.

Anyone who's read the actual book will already know what happens, so I don't expect I will spoil anything for anyone. Those who haven't read the book will likely be confused.

Because I'd watched the Order of the Pheonix earlier in the day and the Half Blood Prince picks up exactly after the Dumbledore and Voldemort duel, it was great to feel the continuation between the fifth and sixth movies.

My first favorite line came when McGonagall told Harry to hurry up to potions class, and to "Bring Mr. Weasley with you; he looks far too happy there." The two were idling in the hallway watching the other students go to class because originally they were not going to take Potions at the NEWT level and subsequently had a free period; McGonagall soon reversed that situation for the both of them.

The other memorable moment was definitely not on the part of the film, but on the theater goers. As I'm sure many people are aware, a great number of people in the fandom are shipping the couple of Snape and Draco, and they certainly had their moment in our theater when Snape forcefully told Draco to leave Slughorn's party with him. A massive array of wolf calls followed the two as they left, and when Snape pinned Draco against a wall it began again. My humor was definitely tickled but it wasn't over until Draco angrily said, "I don't need protection!" The final straw for the audience who burst out laughing and cat calling.

I always thought Draco was rather dashing in the sixth book in terms of his character, and he still is rather dashing on the screen.

Ron's expression after eating Romilda Vane's chocolates laced with love potion was also quite hilarious; that sequence was probably the most amusing I'd seen Ron's face get.

Ron and Harry's conversation about Ginny and Hermione is also a memorable dialogue. I'm not sure where they came up with "Harry should talk about how nice girls' skin can be an asset in attractiveness," but well they did.

I didn't realize that the Felix Felicis scene where Harry finally actually consumes the liquid luck would be so funny; Harry's personality was great during that sequence.
"How do you feel?"
*Beaming smile* "... EXcellent!"
"Good, now remember - blah blah blah-"
"Yes, well, I think I'll go to Hagrid's now!"
"Wait Harry, remember our plan?!"
"Yes but... I've got a good feeling about Hagrid's." He exits the portrait and gives a cheery "Hello!" to some random students coming in.
Slughorn meanwhile is sneaking around the precious plants when Harry cheerily saunters over and gives him a shock. He talks for a little with the professor, still in his hilarious cheery manner, before turning to leave the grounds to Hagrid's.
"Harry!"
"Professor!" --> Probably the best expression and voice he's ever had behind this line, win to Harry
"How did you get out of the castle??"
"Through the front door!"
Then final line of Harry's during his Felix Felicis induced humor that amused me a great deal is definitely, "They also got those pincers..." after which he proceeds to mime some said pincers.

Well that was a lot. I'm sure there are a ton more I'm forgetting - like how irritating but amusing Lavender was in the film. I didn't realize they were going to make her such a ditz, but well, they succeeded in making her rather annoying.

They did spend a while building up the Ron x Hermione deal, and they added a lot of what I like to call fan-service scenes with Harry and Ginny, which I thought were a little too much but the cat calls in the theater were probably worth the suffering. Even Dumbledore kept remarking to Harry about girls, as one of the first scenes with Dumbledore picking up Harry from Little Winging clearly showed.

I'm sure we were all just waiting for the dead things in the water to come up and attack Harry while he was in the cave, and we all in the theater knew when the exact moment was about to come. You could feel everyone curling up in their seats and when the hand finally shot out of the water and grabbed him, some woman or girl screamed incredibly fiercely, so loudly I thought for a second it was part of the film until I realized there shouldn't be a woman's voice screaming in that scene.

Alan Rickman also wins. His subtle facial expressions as Snape were phenomenal, from when he makes the unbreakable vow to when he finally does the deed.

Young Tom Riddle was also great, especially when he was asking Slughorn about the Horcruxes.

I suspect I should end this now, before I go ahead an post the entire movie down.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Celebrations

My friend Sim and I have officially become a year older. I'm still amazed that our birthdays are only five days apart :)



Needless to say, we had a celebration, and I'm sure we both felt rather full after the affair.

I'm hoping she'll make good use of the Glamour Knit patterns I gave her, and my astonishment at how the earrings I made matched her dress perfectly will not go undone. As she said, "It was like divine intervention!", with like being the key word.

A noisy reminder of the party's festivities accompanied me all the way home as I drove back from her house in the hills; Quink had given us each a little egg animal that mewed every time it was jolted, and I could swear as I was driving that it was mewing along to the beat of the music. The bass would bang and then the cat would sang.

Thanks everyone :)

Departure

Yesterday morning I went with my mom to the airport to send off my grandmother, Abu, who was leaving to go back home to Shanghai. I'd been kind of down about it, and actually getting to the airport was surreal.

Airports are associated with many different things. The airport here, when I enter the Departure zone, always brings some sort of excitement but also dread for the exhausting plane haul ahead. So it was strange to walk through the aisles to the airline where Abu would be taking off.

I also found out something new about airports. They tell you you can't go past the security area if you're not a passenger, and ask that you present a boarding pass before letting you go in. My mom was worried about Abu, who didn't speak English, and asked to go through and into the gates. I thought the answer would be a flat out no, but through a little-known airport protocol we were able to lead Abu straight to her departure gate.

The house is very strange without Abu in it now; even though I was in college for the majority of the time she was here, her presence became a part of the space. I guess that is some sort of semblance to the way the house must have felt after I moved into my dorm and began college, only this time I'm on the side with the empty space.

I'm glad though that she can go back to the more lively city of Shanghai; I think life here was a little too quiet and slow for her. She's still a kicking old lady, and she loves her strolls through the streets and shops.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Life: Project and Image Update

My twelve page comic is coming along nicely. It has been great practice for me; I've never drawn comic on this size paper before, so it's been new getting used to the proportions of the page and the large size.

I'm currently finishing the sketching on the last two pages, after which I will need to also draw up the cover. The daunting part that still lies ahead is, of course, the inking and shading (or as most call it, toning) portions of the entire process. Should be fun, though~

In the meantime, a little update on my sentiments and imagery. I think this photo I took in Napoli sums up what I would love right now; a good sale on the brightly colored aspects of life that require money, which unfortunately I currently am lacking. As unfortunate as it may be, money does make things possible, like the dance classes I am taking and the art supplies I am seeking.

The world is still good though, today, in the land of Carologica. Worrying really doesn't do too much.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Anime: Code Geass Finale

I hate to spoil anything for those who want to enjoy the series for themselves, so I won't say any details.

After a marathon of Code Geass episodes, I finally made it through both seasons and finished the finale today. Much as I think the ending was very fitting, it still makes me sad that it had to end that way. It's been a great series and hooked me very tightly to the characters and to the plot. I haven't been so on edge for a series in a long time, nor so attached to any fictional characters in a while.

Most definitely worth the time to watch this series and being picky about finding it in Japanese, subtitled rather than dubbed.

Discover

I most definitely never would have thought that my first post (aside from the tiny opening post from before) would spawn from a letter I received from Discover.

I'd had a lot of fun making collages all year, and was rather amused when I opened this enticing orange letter to find advertising from Discover Card. The thought hit me then that making a quick, compulsive collage would make a nice debut for my blog.

Some cuts, tape, and a smashed favorite mug later, I finished.

I think the only thing I really regret is that my pastel green mug smashed as I was making this.
One of the various things I bought at the beginning of freshman year has joined another in the broken pile. At the beginning of the year, while I was settling into my dorm and into being a college freshman, I bought a cute green mug and a small lucky bamboo. Both survived my first year and marked the end of it by dying one way or another. RIP.

(Oh, and as a note, you can enlarge the image by clicking on it. Then you can actually read the amusing letter they sent me.)

Friday, June 26, 2009

Day One

In an inspired move, Caroline decided to create a blog.
The inspiration? Friends Sim and Quink, of course.

This is the tale of Carologica.