pictoday

 

UBERTIRED. Did four laps of china town with sara. what a day. we were hunting for a chicken feather duster, i sort of flexed my bit of poorly pronounced canto and had a pleasant chat with the shop owner lady acting as a translator. turns out they’re no longer sold.. they were all thrown out due to health and hygiene scares; not really an overreaction with china’s health scares over the last 5 years or so. Building up quite a ‘reputation’ i’d say. on our epic travels we also talked to a younger girl.. trying to explain what we were looking for. after using a theasurus’s worth of alternatives to explain to no avail it was hand actions of cleaning that got the msg across. ‘OH you mean beat up’, * pair it with swinging arm motions, et voila, something that any real asian kid understands.. ‘yes beat up tool, feather duster’. ahh the memories. now about the picceroos.

no. 3 .. i have a bit of a partial obsessions with cranes. made of awesome.

[1 and 2 don't really get a mention.. not so snazztastic..]

4 and 5 look crazy.. almost a little commercially even though the colours there were pretty much what they were in the restaurant.. an nice little malay place which serves rice  helpings in mini mountain portions. i was a bit suprised by 5, first and only attempt rather than taking XXX versions.. chrissmassy deco can look a little non tacky on occassions.. hoorah.

6 and 7 are a little odd. i had to pull out all the yellows and reds out of them and they were taken in low lighting so theres a lot of noise, the motorcycle in 7 is what dandan rides, same model although not this particuler two wheeler.

And lastly 8 and 9 are two little discoveries i made.. while hunting for a chicken feather duster with sara we went to an awesome caligraphy shop. me with my obsessive hoarding.. and paper hoarding had to buy buy buy. those are a few of the bargains i nabbed. in the same shop i found that charming little brush. 1.75 i had to buy it.. although i’d never seen it before i knew it was the famed lice picking brush yesh. the teeth are so close that they can sieve through hair collecting the nastly little buggers. nice.. friends you have been warned! im coming for inspection!

mucho love to you all!

humbug and bummer…

(..would make an awesome superhero duo. admit it.)

urgh.. its official.. i think i’ll leave webdesign to the likes of shin and sara. i’ve spent the last few days wrestling with dreamweaver.. which mind you is supposed to be the easy/gentleintro to webdesign if youre not hardcore enough to take on html, xhtml, java and css.. (i was tempted to insert n00b, which would only really add to my respect for good webdesigners..)  ….. um yeh.. so all i had was a grey page and a white box. after trying several back up plans of diluted versions of what i did initially want my website to look like i have now got some snazzy spry thing that dreamweaver pooped out for me. i wasn’t even aiming for anything complicated! all i wanted a white box with rounded edges on a grey background with some text that was limited by margins in the white box.. or something.. very clean and simple.. hmm not to make it wasn’t. it makes me think back to the moment when our tutor showed us some predesigned layouts that dreamweaver concocted. someone asked if we could use them for the brief. ‘of course! by all means! you’d be a fool not to!’. at this point i was wondering if this was sarcasm or just our tutors slightly bizarre but awesome sense of humour. every five minutes i come up against a brick wall due to technicalities.. and i don’t really know what im looking for dispite paying attention in class, understanding what was going on .. and writing down almost every word.. sometimes things just get a bit fuggled…

hmm ive realised.. ive become a bit of an unreliable wreck.. missing appointments with friends.. for various reasons.. even something as ridiculous as forgetting.. Ive also lived on a diet of butter, tea, cheese, peanuts and water biscuits.. a bit carb and fat intensive. naturally all my favouritest foods are dieters worst nightmare.. thankfully i never diet.. which also accounts for my epic journey of finding trousers that fit in topshop. finding trousers for short sausage legs is just about as hard as im finding dreamweaver right now.. thankfully shin came to my rescue.. hmm.. well at least i can grow another layer of fat to protect me from the harsh cold.. inside my flat.. last night i was sitting next to the heater in a coat and two pairs of socks. also rather randomly.. i have accumulated three lemon halves and one lime half.. terrible.. i am an irresponsible citrus consumer. anyway… time to continue the uphill battle.. and i haven’t even decided what im actually going to do for my project… so.. website.. concept and execution.. 2000 word essay..  won’t this be a merrry week!

just a few things…

honda design some really wacky things.. like leg gear to help you lift heavy things

i have a sudden desire to write poetry.

i haven’t drawn anything for three weeks.

what is tutti frutti?

will i live long enough for my clothes to come back in fashion?

ive found the perfect job. resident comic book illustrator at the V&A.

im totally underqualified.

nor do i have the time.

bugger.

why do eggs come in sixes and dozens?

im starting to see the horizon. sort of.

what will i do after uni..

crap.

does anyone want to go watch monkey with me?

don’t worry i dont understand a word either.

REDISCOVERED

one of my favourite songs ever. BRILLIANT stuff!!

Is it just me or..

.. is it funny (and concerning) that people get into university not knowing how to use a library. Maybe im having yet another judgmental moment ..there were people who managed to get though secondary school and then uni without ever having to use a library. Really I don’t think its that difficult to figure that 1_ books have numbers and letters  2_ shelves have labels and subject area labels. its not particularly hard to figure it out.. really? maybe im wrong..

not quite sure if this is the right moment to say.. you really do see everything in london.. that and a man in a suit, peeing against a wall in broad daylight.. with pedestrians and traffic passing within a three metre radius…

‘nothing ever smells of roses that rises out of mud’

(taken today.. strolling with dad.. a quiet corner of london..)

- garbage/why do you love me

alrighty.. im drowning in work.. and i know everyone else is too.. i need to give myself a slap.. nothing other than corperate.. slick graphic ideas keep coming to me.. i just can’t do work that is from myself and i guess work that fascinates me.. atm im really enthusiastic about writing an essay, just as a comparison of how things have changed.. i think its a bit of.. lack of drawing frustration thats clogging up my creative synapsis, not going to give any reasons why, but if you read the posts three weeks ago. you know why.

i have to do a project on money.. great.. something that is very deeply connected with consumerism and the corperate world.. the examples our tutor showed us were deep and very conceptual about the world of consumerism.. so not helped by this compulsive desire to prove to the rest of the class that i am better than the shit they’ve seen me churn out over the past six weeks.

tomorrow will be crazy.. wake up early.. research like mad.. leave house at 8.10.. arrive at uni at 9 (crikey moses..) for the web tools workshop.. (which will be great ) and then.. a group crit from 2-4… wasting time in the center till 6-8 for a ECCA talk about copywriting and work on the internet. ive figured.. really if i can’t do what i want .. then really what is the point in anything.. so.. even if i collapse from fatigue.. i will still make time for my dad who comes to visit now and then.. go to talks and things that interest me (ECCA). i want to survive in uni too.. i don’t really care about this whole socializing right now.. i have a handful of people i can rely on to give me a good slap and hug here and there.. lets just focus on getting what i want out of my time.. work.. and that handful of people.

on a last note how depressing. i finally get a teacher that i like.. that teaches stuff im genuinely interested in.. he’s reasonable.. not a total asshole.. i really want to learn more from this teacher and boo… we don’t really get any lesson time with him anymore.. i did a mad bit of cram research for my elective… i got a measly 5 mins.. seriously wtf.. do they even think its enough to say anything other than a ‘hello, you okay okay? yeah.. good. bye. next.’ our tutor complety understood.. which i why i milked my minutes.. by rambling.. but we ended up just chatting about our view on comics more than the essay..  hahaahaha gosh im just a little child whoes discovered a crack in the ground.. peering into the huge world of comics.. end of elective… boooooo

turning over a new leaf?

 

(pun intended.. )

hallow! what a week. i good week i guess, but crazy as ever.  second year is tough.. i mean really.. and me trying to explain this to third year friends studying more ‘academic’ subjects only really try to offer their useful advice, yes well ‘of course its supposed to be hard’. ‘life isn’t all rainbows and flowers’. why do i even bother? go read shin’s latest blog. discribes the whole thing perfectly.

Anyways… its been a crazy week.. three sort of deadlines in one week and work only being done the night before for each and everyone, working up till the point till i have to leave for uni.. really the last two days i’ve had less than four hours sleep.. im not trying to brag.. my point is that.. ive really really got to stop doing this to myself.. and my health really. lets work it out.. every two weeks there is a deadline.. that really means.. pretty much one allnighter or near allnighter every two weeks.. i never really thought about it this way till yesterday.. and lets see this has been happening all through first year.. and i’ve been doing late nights.. say sleeping at 3-4 ish.. for no less than three years now. unfortunately parents have a slight idea of how bad it really is.. they’re the only ones who really tell me off about it.. my friends. sort of suffer with me for such causes or have no idea whatsoever. dad has said.. my body really shouldn’t be able to last this long doing this.. and really i hate the last minute panic.. but a touch of : this is the last 18 hours before the deadline.. you have a solid 18 hours to work your heart out on this project, really gets me fired up.. and how you can just calculate how much youve actually worked on a project, and really really make the most of the time. i like the rush. I don’t really get worn out from them that much.. i guess it must be because im still quite young. but the last few allnighters i feel my eyes really tiring, which was a bit of a wake up call. so i’m going to stop the late nights.. or at least try. according to my friend i need to pick up a hobby, probably something not active.. and definately not art related. ‘ i mean when you walk into a room, you just look at everything, and start analysing everything, everything you do in your spare time is to do with art. you never stop thinking about art.’ < hmm there is some truth to this i guess.. then i thought of reading.. but then i only read art books, or i read novels and think of how they could be turned into graphic novels… okay.. i need something different..  on the day of the deadline i saw a guy who i knew went to csm. and he looked worse than me who hadn’t slept.. god what are we doing to ourselves… i need to find my stop button..

on the happy side of things, ive had quite a nice week. i really like our electives tutor.. i think he’s a pretty well know historian of comics and phaidon published a book of his, which i owned before meeting him in class! Its such refreshing that he’s nice about what he talks about.. welcoming and not in the slights condesending because you have no knowledge about comics. back at school i never used to like nice nice types for teachers, because you’d never learn.. right now.. its something second year is really short of.. bumped into him after class.. and had a short chat about comics and graphic novels.. ahh how i miss talking with like minded people about such things! ive also discovered just how awesome daniel clowes is!! really … i picked up ghost world a few years ago because of the great reviews but never gotten really far in it because it was so damn depressing.. and then i read eightball!! its amazing.. its like mock the week cynicsm.. in little punchy packages… nothing like laughing out loud on the tube knowing youre not the only one wallowing in shit.. and criticizing others about it.

typography went well.. i think i want to take it next year.. i also went to look at cds to do some research for my cd booklet.. and i realised how much shit their was out there.. even when the layouts are nice.. the type can be too small, with not enough leading so that the ys and gs hang over the lines following after it.. type .. is sometimes badly chosen.. as if they just had some sort of serifed typeface like times new roman.. because it was the first that was pooped out to them.. oh well… some one in our class who was critized for using typefaces too small said in his defense, that cd booklets often use this size typeface.. ‘thats because they’re shit. just because they did something shit doesn’t mean you have to’. so true. and on a final note.. its up to you to consider the text, rather than just creating a document, pasting text and formatting it.. consider whats in the text.. thats whats going to make you stand out and be different. yes pearls of wisdom. typography was actually one of the fun classes where I felt most of us had actually learnt something rather than being attacted by the tutor for something as unspecific as hair colour. he crit us more or les purely on layout and type.. so even if we had a questionable or no concept what so ever we would be judged on what we did do.. rather than what we haven’t. everyone got a good deal of useful feedback.. my work was ‘crisp’  – ‘ as in it looks like she has considered everything thats on the page’ (or something like that.. my work here has been done, and with luck i’ll actually get a decent mark too.)

i was originally dreading my electives essay.. im somewhat stunned that most arty farty degrees don’t force you to write an essay.. but actually im really looking forward to it now.. thanks to my new found appreciation in underground comix, robert crumb (whose work i originally came across while wondering around in borders and then in OZ magazine last year) as well as my anticipation to design my essay in indesign.. its sort of taking over everything i do now. researching this is crazy. so many comics so little time :’( and i don’t want to write the same essay three times.. my foundation piece was pretty much a concise re hash of my A-level piece. Electives this year has really got me thinking about comics in a new light, im starting to turn away from all this mainstream superhero hype and look at the more ‘indie’ work .. which is breathtaking.. the range of genres, styles and ways of storytelling.. (swoon~) lots to read.. i went mad on amazon a few weeks ago, the books above are what ive brought since coming back to london/older buys that i just haven’t gotten around to reading.. at least £120s worth of good printed matter there… anywho.. off to do some reading…

time for something a little more light now well..

Most people have a list of things they want to do in life.. i do too.. but this shall be a list of food that i want to eat, have eaten.. and love eating.. it will grow and change in time…. and hopefully later pictures will come too:

tried:

pigs tripe (one piece is enough to put me off… foul smell..)

dragon fruit .. really not that special other than the way it looks. tastes if pretty much nothing.. starchy texture.. a hassel to eat in my opinion.

spider crab.. most people don’t like it.. since its very watery.. but i find the taste very sweet, its also very pretty to look at.

chicken feet

turtle

salty licorice (you swedes! )

quails.. not just the egg.. the actually birdy

pheasant

a very large egg.. mum told me it was a dinosaur egg.. which even i knew wasn’t true.. they were extinct surely. i must have been around 7 ish..it was the size of a mug in height.

korean grapes

snails

veal

swallow’s nest

frog spawn

frog legs

pomelo

durian

sheesha

(i think ive had snake.. can’t remember.)

want to try:

gourd (according to dad.. no one eats this stuff.. just finding seeds will be a mission.. but the story of the monkey king makes me want to try these things.. not that he actually ate them)

pigeon

magic fruit (not sure if thats the right name.. it makes food that taste sour, taste sweet)

swedish rotten fish?

buffalo.. this isn’t me wanting to kill everything and eat it.. gourmet burger kitchen offer a buffalo burger.

love:

chinese pickled cabbage, shredded carrot and chiles in sweet vinegar – wonderfully crisp.. and appetising

waterchestnut paste/cake. – a really delicious jelly like substance that has chunks of really crisp waterchestnut.. its transparent.. sweet and can be fried.. according to my dad.. granddad’s was the best of all the ones hes tried… theres no point in me going anywhere else for it!)

mah dou go – a type of firm jelly white and coconutty in creamyness with little yellow beans that need a bit of a chew..

leung fun, other wise know as grass jelly. a jelly made of herbs.. its translucent black/brown.. eaten with a sugar syrup.

various chinese broths .. i need to start researching and harrassing mum to teach me to make.

kimchi.. and other korean.. side dishes tend to be very good. combos of crisp crunchy greens with that red red chilliness

dim sum

this is very much a work in progress, feel free to come in with your suggestions and dares! I’ll add then to the list and eventually i’ll get round to trying them.

well … well..

you thought it was all over didn’t you? no more multiple daily postage.. well.. rather regretably.. actually i don’t care that much anymore.. its getting a little old.. and im becoming some what numb to this being let down feeling.. i’d rather take you for the ride too.

well.. i got my two files geared and ready… saved different formats.. just incase.. oh .. and really really just incase. i even had it in a pdf. all the changes i could have made.. i made.. it was pretty much ‘perfected’ (in terms of ive saturated all the work on this..) .. popped down to the hub .. i had a good two hours to get this thing sorted.. plenty of time right? er no. printer didn’t like me that was to be expected.. i grabbed the tech guy and things were sorted.. by the time it coughed up the whole document.. OH FUCK.. guidelines.. you’ve got to be fucking kidding me..it doesn’t even have the edge of the page.. and it gives me the fucking guidelines…mind you this is a pdf.. im thinking er.. if its already saved like this theres not much i can do right.. went to the tech guy again.. ‘yeah sorry .. indesigns not really my thing.’ cheers. luckily i had the originals.. luckily the girl next to me left.. leaving me with an empty socket to plug in the harddisk.. editing .. finally managing to scrape away.. most of the pages.. apart from two.. from… for various reasons.. urgh.. and the original concept.. still remains unprinted.. due to the same problem on the day of the deadline.. the exported version thats supposidly compatable with CS2 died on me..  so there’s still lots to do tomorrow..

this is just grumbling now.. not even nice to read.. um … yes.. on the up side. i found a way to retrieve a slightly better quality version of the file i lost.. its still shit.. but involves a print screen button. hurrah.. also .. peoples.. get your work done early and print it at the hub, they use nice paper.. and damn it looks good.. yes indeed.. had i printed out the whole thing it would have looked even better.

i also have to meet with my group to discuss daniel clowes ghostworld.. its the most depressing thing ive ever read. really. as in dipshit american teenage girls.. unfortunately it paints rather a real picture of life.. so its more depressing.. boohoo.. off to work again.

hahahahaha .. and again…

erm.. it seems im a walking disaster.. my memory cards are saying no to everything so even though ive finished all my work.. im going no where anytime soon.. so much for ‘by 4 oclock monday for a good impression’. ive  lost my only cd rw.. so .. fine.. i will use my external harddrive.. which is sort of clunky.. it needs an extra power supply.. yeah. its a beast.. therefore i avoid dragging its heavy ass around.. im so happy with my work this time… although the illustrations looked really crappy last night.. by the time i added a dash of colour it all sort of looked a bit.. mm not bad. the one thing i don’t like is the cover… so i might redo that.. since im not going to hand this in today anyhow..( i also checked on blackboard.. amanda is in on tues and thurs.. which is pretty good for me… phew.. )

(oh and btw.. one of my images magically dissappeared.. and i’ll never get it back since it was digitally coloured..oh well.. im starting to learn that if i want to go with in a 100 yard radius, i must first detatch my emotions.. because something will go wrong.. and i will have yet another mental breakdown.)

so here are some of the picceroos.. which im quite pleased with.. my first time doing any sorf of colouring on the computer.. definately going to do this more often now big thumbs up indeede.

didn’t post the cover.. it would just make your eyes bleed..

(originally i wanted to do 8 or 10 illustrations.. if i have time maybe.. i still have to read up for my elective tomorrow.. don’t want to let down the group sigh..) i’ll try my luck with cs2 at the hub later .. fingers crossed i’ll finally get this printed.