This is the last of the saved test entries. Not that it really matters, but it's pretty sad that it took almost a year for me to write 6 real entries. I had high hopes for this place, way back when. Maybe I am just the type who starts things and then moves on once it's able to stand. But that's a cheap cop-out excuse isn't it? Maybe I haven't made as much personal progress as I thought I had. Suppose that means I'll have to actually try working on it this time around, instead of just hoping I'll eventually become better. :|
I suppose there's a lot I could talk about, but I think I'll spend this entry talking about the nature surrounding my house. Mostly because it inspired today's doodle? Well, preview of said doodle anyway. I drew it in OpenCanvas and since I have a new trial and can actually save my drawings, I'm gonna keep working on it for a while. I kind of like how it's coming out, so I want to polish it up more so I can confidently post it on my art page. Drawing in OpenCanvas is pretty nice, although I am definitely missing the Smudge/Retouch tool from Paint Shop Pro 7. OC has a similar tool called Spread but it's not nearly as effective. Plus it makes the colors darker and I haven't figured out how to stop that yet.
Anyway, on to nature. There are a ton of gold dust day geckos (yeah, like the Geico gecko) living around my house, and they're pretty cool. There's one gecko that's almost like a pet so my family named him Rex (actually the gecko's probably a girl but we refer to her as a him anyway.) We feed him little cockroaches when we find 'em and he always comes up to us when we go outside. He's even ridden on my hand a couple of times, and is just the most adorable thing. ^^ I really should take some photos some time. A couple of months ago there started to be a lot of these dinosaur-like lizards hanging around, but so far it seems like them and the geckos are co-existing well enough. They're kinda scary looking though, especially since some of them are almost twice the size of the geckos. But there's this one greenish-yellow lizard that I often see and I'm pretty sure it's the same one. I usually see it climbing up the latis and sitting on the top rail(?) in the same area -- just looking up at the sky or down at me and the other geckos. Haha, it's kind of weird but cool too. It reminds me of the pokemon Bagon, except this lizard doesn't leap off trying to fly. Well, maybe not yet anyway. ^^;
....
Things have been moving so much lately, and I just wanted to write here. The light blue in this layout reminds me of Pitas' lavender color, and whenever I was feeling down and wanted to type I went there and it helped me feel better. This song is wonderfully helpful as well, I wish I discovered Death Cab For Cutie sooner. I'm sure I would have loved listening to it back in high school. The only problem with writing here, though, is that this is suppose to be a sketch blog. Which means I'm suppose to sketch or color something before writing here. That kind of sucks. I think I'll change that rule, and just make it a part-time doodle blog or something. I hate it when I make rules only to later dislike them because it's too constraining. And yet I seem to do it all the time. -_-;
I don't actually have too much to say right now though. I could be spending this time working on updates for DH, or at least watching the Avatar season 3 premiere episode again. But.... I just can't seem to concentrate on it. I guess I'm worried that I don't have a place there like I used to. I would like to watch a movie though, but by the time it finished it would be quite late and I'm trying to go to sleep earlier now. So I guess I just have time to waste until I'm ready to shut the computer down. =| Maybe I'll go take a walk.
Saturday, September 22, 2007 - 10:31 pm
Music: Transatlanticism - Death Cab For Cutie
ID: 5 Tag: musings
Music: Transatlanticism - Death Cab For Cutie
ID: 5 Tag: musings
it's no surprise
Seems I've let this place gather dust again as well. The downside of having too many sites and not enough motivation to work on any of them I suppose. That's nothing new though -- most of my motivation is spent wanting to do stuff that I have no obligation to do. *sighs* I may be 21, but I am far from acting like an adult. Even scarier, I'm only four months away from being another year older. I try giving myself pep talks to be more responsible, but it's a hurdle I just can't seem to get past. Maybe that's why I have Distant Horizon... to drill responsibility and obligation into my head even if it kills me. How lovely.
But this entry isn't about that. This entry is about my new manga coloring, and the awesome new tricks I learned. The first trick being how to separate the lineart from the white background (use a mask!), and the second trick being how you can lock the transparency on the different layers so that you can just color one section (or the lineart) and not have the colors run off the designated area. It's AWESOME. I can't wait to color more scans. Uh... I mean, after I finish some updates or something. >_>
Anyway, the whole panel can be seen at Jade*Island, or at my post on Manga_Colors @ LJ. My favorite part about the coloring is the colored lineart and the shading on the smoke and back wall. :)
I think it looks like a bird
I wonder, how effective having a blog is when I don't want to write what others will read. Would it be easier if I wrote it in another language? Or took the time to make it password protected? That would require more coding though. And how would it affect the non-protected entries? Would be as if it was not there, or would it make the whole page unaccessible to those not me? Perhaps it is better to just be vague.
When I was younger I used to draw a lot. When I was upset I would draw the shapes I was feeling, then slowly keep adding details until it became something recognizable. Lemons became elephants, scribbles became wolves, and smudges became birds. It was cathartic, I guess, because eventually I forgot what was upsetting me and became more interested in what my drawing had become. I don't do that too much anymore, though. I focus too much on my mistakes when drawing; it's no longer about drawing but how perfect I need to get every little detail. Which is futile since there will always be something wrong or misshaped. But maybe I just need more patience.
Tonight's pic is an example of that. Sorta. Or at least practice with the smudge tool. :/ Looks better on a dark screen though. But whatever.
of pixel shadings and layout blues
:D I fixed some of the coding here so it's more user-friendly for me, and I gotta say it's really nice. Makes me want to post more often, lol. Today's pic is just of the little pokemon, Hoppip. I like 'em, they're cute. ^^ I've been trying to catch a shiny one in Pearl so I can have a pink Jumpluff, but no luck so far. Anyway, yesterday I saw this Amazing oekaki of Kratos done with pixel shading, and it's just insane how amazing it looks. (see here) I've seen other art done in pixel shading, but this one is by far the best. I really wanted to try it out, and figured I should do something simple since it looks really time consuming. I like how it turned out, but I still need more practice with it. Trying to find the right hues so the colors blend better was also a bit frustrating. Watercolor shading is much easier, but I think I'll keep trying with this style for a while.
In other news, there was a bunch of stuff I needed to work on this weekend, but I don't think I accomplished
