New lens coming my way ^___^!!!

In front of me...

I'm really happy right now because I finally was able to afford a new lens :D!! As my love for photography increases, it's about time to move on and get serious. My kit lens is acceptable, occasionally it makes good enough photos (like the one above of my dad, I actually was very please with how the final result came out), but apparently, there're certain things I just can't do with a kit lens. And yes, this time I got myself a lovely Canon EF 50mm f1.4 standard lens. Yes, it's the baby I talked about wanting to acquire last summer, and now my dream came true, I'm sooo happy. I just purchased it this afternoon after weeks of contemplating over whether I should be spending money on a new lens or not. Consider it my new and only walk-around lens, wooohooo!!! I can't wait to be taking more pictures!!!!

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First few dabs at portraiture

There, we have it. I'm usually scared of doing portrait, because I still don't believe in my ability, and secondly, I think my camera is no good. Oh well, these aren't too bad... but she's a good model, so :).

/ rant mode on /

I'm getting frustrated with my kit lens ;_; ... Basically, it does the job (all my photos were taken with the 18-55mm kit lens that came with my Canon Rebel Xti body) but now that I'm getting a little more serious with photography, this lens is truly limited, albeit I'm not that knowledgeable myself, but I'm soooo wanting a different lens, but I'm so broke T^T; Sorry I need to get that out of my system before going back to continue exploring with the kit lens *sighs*... There will be a way, I hope... there will be...

/ rant mode off /

Out to take more pictures...

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On CHÊNH VÊNH (the upcoming series)

CHÊNH VÊNH describes the situation that I've been feeling a lot lately concerning my emotional state, more specifically regarding my working hours. One week I look at a schedule of 20+ hours, the next week back to working 10 hours.
But that in itself is a blessing, as I find myself plenty of time to emerge into photography and graphic designs.
That feeling of tottering carried into the upcoming series I will be introducing. Inspired by a friend's photographs, I decided to experiment with the new technique of tilting the camera, putting the model on a diagonal axis. Immediately, the photos seem to be less static and snapshot-like, at the same time, that technique fits perfectly with the theme of tottering as I was talking about earlier.
This series was the beginning of my exploration of composition, of lines, colors and textures, and of how to use those basic elements to create an interesting mood for the photographs. I used to think that I need to be at an inspiring locale or have an excellent model to capture beautiful pictures, but now I realized that "...the subject of a photograph is far less important than its composition. Absolutely anything can be photographed well - or poorly." (The Photographic Eye)

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Thoughts on Summer's Hybrid

I'd like to talk a little bit about this series.

In many ways, taking these new photos was a pleasure, as it was the very first time I took the initiative to approach downtown area, a total unfamiliar place to me for picture-taking session. The results are quite interesting. There's a mixture of candid, fun-loving moments as the models interacted in carefree mischief with each other, and some angsty moments where I had them posed in the middle of the street full of passer-bys (quite reluctant they were, yes, I know it, they must have hated me then for being so demanding :))

The idea came to my mind when I saw the dynamic between this duo. The two have been friends for almost 10 years, and have been through many things together. The history alone would be worthy of lots of exploration. But with many kinds of relationship in life, there're rhythm and differences between even soulmates. This very existing hybrid is palpable between these two, as I watched them interacting. The comfort level, the understanding, unspoken thoughts, each of them brought something forward. They're very different, but at the same time very much the same. They adjust to meet each other's quirks and oddities, while maintain their very own charms. Ah, the ying and yang of friendship. Don't you just wish everything could be as balance and in perfect harmony? It'd definitely be heaven on earth then, or we just might as well die peacefully as there's nothing to fight for anymore *smiles* (don't take me the wrong way, I can be a rather sadist sometimes, what I meant is the struggles and obstacles are what make living so worthwhile, without them our lives would be so perfect, so it wouldn't matter if we live or die anymore). Anyway, I'm getting off-topic, let me get back on track here. Upon seeing their cobweb of behaviors, I was inspired to add a few shots of them being together but each lost in her own universe. They were in the same plane, but operated on two entirely different wavelengths, yet, when time comes, they're together, smiling at the same old jokes again. They differ synchronically, and match deviantly. Though I realized this a little bit late in the session and couldn't bring myself to express myself clear enough for these two models -sighs-.

Verbalize, Kiana. Verbalize your thoughts. Ah, the difficulty... Ocassionally I wish that at times like this my brain was wired a little bit differently instead of being its complicated long tunnel of thoughts processing. Hopefully, with another opportunity I can further develop this idea and expand on the many more layers of emotions between these two.

And very special thanks to the two lovely ladies of the day: Chichi and be Mam Hu-e -hugs-.

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Ooh la la ^^, busy busy again :)

Woah long time no post but again, I've been so busy that I almost forgot about this blog. I just finished my finals last week and already am working seasonal at a bookstore company full-time. The job is pretty demanding and I found myself so overwhelming and frustrating but I'm trying my best to finish off my work at the end of the day but I still have to rely on others to get me through... Oh well but I will elaborate later on what I'm up to at another time.

I also am keeping myself busy making hand-made gifts for friends... Too bad I can't find much time to do these like I did last year. However, I am coming up with some images for a simple calendar/scheduler :D. I'm really really proud of them ^^. Here's a few thumbnails of what I've been working on, I have more but these are just samples until I print them off and bind them together.

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Walking in the winter wonderland :)

I felt very comfortable drawing this one. Possibly because I'm a very detailed drawer who is not used to express my ideas so openly, and the new drawing allows me to be just myself drawing the way I want to. The last one was more of a drawing to 'please' my professor. As much as I hate to admit it, the previous drawing failed short, and all the marks I made weren't genuine. To me, it's so important to be genuine in everything that I do... if I don't, I feel quite a big discomfort. I love textures and patterns and chaos... and this time, I did the same thing but in a much more order manner... and it pleases me so :). The whole drawing is just that: lines, and lots of repeating patterns. It's therapeutic to do that. I got in a trance working on this drawing 4 hrs straight this morning, and didn't feel tired at all! I guess the environment helped too. I was working in a quiet room with the snow drifting outside listening to thunderstorm sound on my Ipod (repeatedly, I only have this one track XD, it relaxes and soothes me so well, plus, it helps me so much to concentrate).

Some close-ups (click for bigger view):

Anyhoo, I'll go back to study now. Ja!

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Hello December!!!

Woah, truly I only had one blog post for November? What had I done all last month?
Well, the truth is that really I had been lacking quite a bit as of late, more on the matter of keeping track of this blog. Plus, there was just so much going on last month, with the holiday and parties and such, lol.

I was only able to complete one more drawing for Printmaking. This drawing was done on a much bigger stone (~ 24x30 in) and it took a while to get my ideas settled. Though I'm not sure how much I like this one, it seems like just a poor imitation of my previous one... We will see... I just lost my enjoyment half way through drawing this one, unlike the last one.

Progress shots again:

And this is my wood sculpture for the second project. I had just completed the third sculpture like two weeks ago, which was a metal project but I was just too lazy to take picture of it. And yes, I know the background behind this sculpture is totally distracting, but again, laziness got in the way XD. I'll see if I could have better pictures taken for my metal sculpture.

Another close friend of mine had her birthday just last week and I thought making an amigurumi would be an ideal gift for her. And guess what, she really liked it, which made it all worthy. I'm getting better at crocheting these little animals as well. I guess the longer you're doing them, the better you will be.

Okay, it could be because I haven't been practicing writing at all for a whole month, but today I feel like every sentence I made sound half-assed. Seriously! I'm not in the mood to talk anyways, so yea... at least, I put some works up finally -__-, I'm happy :).

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Lithography nightmare -__-;;

... as in how time consuming it could be.

I finally got my 2 drawings for Printmaking printed. And yesterday has got to be one of the most exhausting school days for me ever for I spent freakin' 19 hours in school, working nonstop. Guess how many hours were spent on printing these babies? 13 hours all together :D (though I was printing with another friend, so we did together 20+ prints, and not 10, so that's why it took so long). Uh-huh... talk about the aftermath of procrastination, lol XD. Though to be honest, I didn't procrastinate all that much for Printmaking which is a class I love... but more like lithography is just so time-consuming. I'm glad my instructor really likes the prints, and he proposed that I continue on with lithography in which he thinks I have the potential to go farther, and have mezzotint as a side project. However, I'm just so grateful I got these done. The feeling of accomplishing and completing something is one of the most rewarding feelings ever. I came home at 3:30 am this morning in the cold rain after standing and working for freaking 18 hours straight and my feet just wanted to collapse but I felt totally peaceful. It was just wonderful, wonderful I tell yah.

I call this piece Flow. This is the final print, but I'm not happy with how it turned out... too dark and lots of details were lost T_T.

Now this is the drawing on the stone... See, this is how I want my prints to look like, but my lack of experience really ruined it.

Progress shots.

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Stress reliever

A place where I belong...

Bigger view

I learned how to make patterns as above in Illustrator and tried it right away and came up with this little digital drawing ^^. To view a larger version, just click on the text below. I'm sorry for the ugly watermark, but we are living in a time where stealing virtually has gotten so much easier, and even though this drawing is not a pretty one by any mean, I still want to protect what little I have, so yea.

My mind is so troubled, and doing this drawing took away the stress until I could think straight again. I'm about to make some important decision, and I don't want to be rash or immature in this matter *sighs*...

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Say hello to Emolie!!!

Weird name, I know... :D

That sculpture was a real bitch >___<, a true and sound pain in the ass. Sorry for the foul language, but that one gave me a lot of frustration and took so much of my time. When I first started making it, I guess I wasn't thinking 'sculpture' enough and that must be why I put myself into so many troubles. If I have gone the usual route of making the entire thing out of foam board, that would have made my life so much...easier, you know. But here I have head, arms, and legs all done separately out of foam board, and chicken wire for the middle section, and strings to attach them together, and little eye hooks all around for securing purpose, and plaster and paints and just a whole bunch of stuff. However, I wanted to make this one for myself, so despite all, I must make it the way I wanted it to be... and the final result came really close. So the bottom line is, I'm happy with it, even when I was so frustrated with assembling it :D. The critique is today, and I kind of anticipated that my instructor won't like it as much as I do, because after all, it looks less like a formal sculpture piece, but more like a big vinyl toy... (that was what I was aiming for though, lol, so yay, success!).

The topic is multiples, so I went the literal way: multiple expressions; and if you looked closely you will see there is a little 'ginger-man' like figurine on the inside of the chicken wire, so in another sense, this is about the physical self on the outside, and the ego inside... If that's just too much random ideas together, I might succeed at having 'multiple ideas' for this project, haha XD.

\

Some other views of the sculpture without the head. I loooooove putting on the texture, it was soo much fun ^^!! The fun thing with this one is that it's totally customizable. The head can be taken off and changed to whatever expression you like. It can be put in a way that it looks like the head is looking up, or straightforward, or down, hihi :). And if you walk around it, you see the changes on the face. I know this is not the most original idea ever, but I had a lot of fun making it so it's all good. I didn't expect it to be a masterpiece, but just something I can be proud of for having it in my room, so yeah, I'm happy with it.

Two other expressions :D. My favorite is the angry one, and least favorite is the happy. For some reason, I think the happy face looks retarded; it looks more like a perverted face to me, lol.

That's all folks. I'm so busy with school now that it's a real miracle I can still write blog XD. I miss this blog a lot though. Wait until I'm done with my two prints for printmaking -_____-; Man, it means I will be working my ass off for this whole week cranking out prints of the highest quality for my talented instructor. His expectations are high I tell you. After all, he's a great and very opinionated printmaker so he won't allow for sloppy stuff. He had made people cry in the past so I'm all prepared for the worst, lol. And the project I'm working in Graphic Design really makes me want to cry here as well. It's hard, it's dry, it's just so...directionless and I have totally no idea what to do T^T. But yea, it's that usual stuff graphic designers are suppose to do: discussing with clients, brainstorming, putting together designer briefs, designing and re-designing and some more re-designing, making sure the designs are innovative and awesome, having more meetings, more presentations, it goes on and on and on and on...... you know the drill. Man, I just have to get that out of my system.

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It's time to part...

Created this two-page comics (sort-of) for Illustration class... I wish I had more time to work on it. Doing comics took longer than I thought, or perhaps I'm just a slow-worker. This one took me approximately 7 hrs to complete, including sketching and panel-planning time in my sketch book. I hesitated a lot during the first 3 panels, but after I finished the first page, the following page was done pretty quickly.

Uhm, lol, the title of this post can be quite misleading... I was preferring to the actual story of the comic, not like I'll be abandoning this blog or anything ^^. I've been having a tough time to go through recently (duh, as if it's surprising XD, I say that in almost every blog post, lol). But no one cares if I keep on rambling about my life so I'll just keep it at that for now.

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||_____ Les Amis _____||

The last two/three days I crocheted like crazy, in hope to complete these as gifts before I pack for my trip to Missouri this coming Thursday. So far I'm pretty much done, save for one more, but that one will not be given until 2, 3 months later so I'm not so worried yet ^^.
I'm so glad that the more I crochet, the better I am at it, and now I understood which side I should use as the outside and what should be the inside. I thought they were all the same, but they obviously weren't, hehe. One thing I don't really like about this is that it is just sooo time-consuming, lol. One project could take up the 4, 5 hours or more depending on the difficulty level. Or perhaps I'm just slow, hihi.

A few pictures to showcase what I had done so far ^^:

This is a picture to show all the parts of this Woofie before I assembled them. Hopefully you can read that it says -My crochet- *winks*.

A complete family with Woofie as the Dad, Moi as the Mom, and their veggie kids Ai and Pe-ar.

So this is the black version of the Monokuro Boo white piggie I crocheted before. They usually come as a pair, but I was just too busy and lazy to make them all at once.

... and Woofie, oh how I love him, he's chooo kawaii
"Woof woof!!!"

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A blessing arrived...

I crocheted another coffee cup again. This time it's for a certain kid, lol :P. It reminded me of this morning when I waited for my mom at the airport, I drank quite a lot of coffee since I had to stay up late last night helping her pack some last items and dyed her hair and beautify her, hehe...


Below is a random poster I made... I even had a little of the story written but got lazy a little after that so I quitted. Writing fanfiction is not an easy task, plus I'm just not that into writing. Designing/drawing is fun enough for me ^^v.

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__.. A walk down memory lane ..__

Such __|| nostalgia ||__
_____Graphics galore



One thing about graphics is that they hold memories just
as well as old photographs. You are able to look back and
pinpoint your progress, and laugh at yourself through all
your silly obsessions. I certainly did laugh looking back at
these forum avatars/banners. It really brought back
memories of a carefree time. Oooh nostalgia!

Besides the photos, all the other vector graphics were made
by yours truly ^^. Feel free to use them if you like, but I
would be very happy if you credited me when used. Enjoy!

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