As I write this, there’s a thunderstorm brewing outside my bedroom window. Lately, the weather’s been a bit bipolar on my side of the world. I think the heavy downpour is really lovely. I don’t know about you, but my whole perception of the world becomes a whole lot different when it rains — magical, almost.

I’ve read somewhere that said something along the lines of solitude being the catalyst for innovation. People cower away from the idea of being alone. I on the other hand, really enjoy it (told you I’m secretly a grandma). That makes me either: a) an independent lady who can manage by herself; or b) an anti-social recluse who lives off a hermit-kind of lifestyle.

Maybe I am a bit of both, haha!

I think some type of solitude is necessary when you’re a “creative.” Narcissistic as it sounds, a huge part of the creative process is self-centric. You have to give yourself time to think. Otherwise, well to put it bluntly, you come up with shit.

Yes, I actually laid down on my bedroom floor. It was past 3 am when I took the picture (the ungodly hour where it’s perfectly okay for people to pour out their feelings on Twitter/Facebook — in relation, making it perfectly okay for me to lay down on the floor for no reason). Okay. Maybe I was bored. Ice breaker! Lay down on your bedroom floor! Bright Ideas 2013. 

Selfie selfie rin.

“Society is afraid of alone though. Like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements. But lonely is a freedom that breathes easy and weightless, and lonely is healing if you make it. Cause if you’re happy in your head, then solitude is blessed, and alone is okay.” - Tanya Davis

So cherish your solitude. Lotsa people are grossed out by the idea of being alone but if you actually start to welcome it — like a lot of things we choose to neglect out of social dogma — it could actually be kind of nice. In the long run, maybe solitude might really pave the way for innovation.

Btw, the quote is an excerpt from a great spoken word poem, “How to Be Alone.” It’s really nice. Check it out: here. Hope you’re all having as great of a week so far!

Hola!

I’ve had a lot of free time lately (by free, I mean having been able to get enough sleep and not relying on energy drinks for life support — ah, summer). In the middle of getting tons and tons and tons of sleep (this isn’t even an exaggeration, believe me) and watching girly~ television series, I finally got around to redesigning my blog!

I wanted a simpler header but wanted to keep the old bright yellow/gold color of the old one and shazam. Voilà! Decided to stick with two colors this time (teal and a particular shade of yellow). I also used a thicker sans font. 

Added these other shenanigans (I am secretly a grandma who still uses terms like “shenanigans”): 

1. Email Button. I’m always up for things to do! May it be a collaboration/commission/random hello/spam. Added a click-able button to make things easier.
2. Search Bar. Returned my search bar from the bottom to the sidebar. I have no idea why I moved it in the first place. 
3. Signature. Haha! This is is totally upping the cheese factor but I really wanted to make my blog look a lot more personal — as opposed to being an art blog with a side of ~feelings~. 
4. Related Posts. Out of impulse, decided to add a related posts bar. Also a way to torture myself of how much of a loser I was in the past (i.e. apparently, I used the word “swag”… last year… a lot…okay).

I’ve also added a slider (heads up to my friend, Gelo for helping me out with the code) and other nifty stuff. Btw, the theme isn’t mine! I just customized it because writing codes is still way out of my league at the moment. Anyway, go check it out if you like and tell me what you think! (x)

Picture from this Rookie article.

“I want to be noticed. I don’t want to be noticed. Having to deal with these two conflicting emotions can be confusing and frustrating. I took a break from blogging but eventually returned.”

I’ve been away from this little internet space of mine for awhile. A huge chunk of this hiatus stems from the feeling that my blog isn’t mine any more. Don’t get me wrong, I am by no means close to being a “blogger.” However, as soon as my follower count hit above the 50 mark and people from my life started mentioning how they read my blog, it started to weird me out. I became overtly cautious with my words. I found myself deleting posts that had too much “feelings.” I only posted art. I started to write less. 

So, I stopped. I took a step back and reassessed things.

My blog is a great platform for my art. Any decent person in the design field would  know that. Make a blog and get your work out there! This piece of advice didn’t stir out for me that well. I’d love to get my work out there but I don’t want people getting into my thoughts – character flaw, I guess (I don’t like strangers picking up on my emotions). It’s all very contradicting. You could say, “gurl, just make a separate blog fo yo art and just write yo stupid feelings in a diary and just get it over with.” That’s the thing, I can’t. My life and my “art” are so largely intertwined that separating them would just feel wrong and… incomplete.

I guess what I’m saying is, I don’t blog to get pats-on-the-back. Call me narcissistic, but I blog for myself (and just hope that my words and illustrations somehow resonate with other people). I miss blogging-blogging (aka just writing my feelings out) and I realize that my fear of letting people get to know me shouldn’t stop that. Even if people follow me for my art, it’s practically inevitable for them to leave with just that. I’d still post my art but maybe with how bad my Monday turned out or how suckish my day turned out. I’d like my blog to return to it’s old diary-state.

Neil Gaiman (fave person 5ever) once said:

“The moment that you feel, just possibly, you are walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind, and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself…That is the moment, you might be starting to get it right.”

Maybe he’s right. This is me stripping off my barriers. They say that the fears you don’t face become your limits. Well, this is me facing mine. Expect a change of pace on this little old space of mine. 

Long story short, I AM BACK (for good)!

Do you use live trace in coloring your works? :)

Hola! What a strange thing to ask, anon (strange is good)! FYI for anyone who has no clue what-the-hay live trace is: click here. 

It usually depends on the situation since Illustrator can only give you so much when it comes to blending options. A lot of people use it for quick vector works. As for moi, I use it for line art! Live trace can be such a wonder in cleaning traditionally drawn line art (it fixes lines that comes from bad scanning — sometimes, Photoshop Levels just won’t do the trick).

There are illustrators that prefer coloring in Illustrator, though! I attended this design conference and the speaker said he liked using Illustrator because it limits his color palette — and limitation is sometimes synonymous to innovation~ 

Just don’t close your options. Try color rendering in all sort of ways! :) 

In my part of the world, I am at a dreadful time called Finals week. Hence, the occasional passing of final requirements. In one of my classes (i.e. NSTP), we were asked to write an essay on “Why do you need to pass this subject?”

I was so enraged by the question, you don’t even know! Well, mostlybecause: a) it was rude; b.) It belittles all the time/hard work we’ve poured into the subject; and c.) it was rude. Felt like I was in that special portion of game shows and you get to answer a trick question… except this wasn’t. Anyway, it took all of my self-control to not make the paper sound disrespectful and to contain myself from adding a “R U SRS WITH THE QUESTION. RLLY!!!”.

Sharing it because this basically sums up my view on the topic of education and what are blogs for but for insights, amirite? Yep.

p.s. I know, I know, why aren’t you posting mildly dumb stuff and drawingz~~ See, this is where the this-is-my-blog-I-post-whatever-I-want excuse comes in. HAH. All under the cut~

Read More

I’ve talked about this project before: here~ Since the school’s art folio has already been published, I guess I could finally share this with all of you! InKnots is a short story (about ten pages) that I drew/wrote for the school publication. It’s hugely inspired by the movie, Ruby Sparks.

The whole art folio is a compilation of illustrations that revolve around the theme of daydreams. It was pretty fun to do — despite me cramming it in a week harhar~ I felt immensely fulfilled after finishing it. This is my first largely-digital work since I’ve only started using a tablet a few months back. Don’t get me wrong, I felt all kinds of miserable and frustrated along the process but I guess It’s always nice to challenge one’s self. :)

Read/Download the whole comic: here. 

Send this to the people who inspires you as a blogger <3 hi yhel

HIIII D: Thank you so much for thinking that! I hope you take into account your choices in life (haha, kidding)! Thank you :C 

Let’s Have A Productive Summer 2013 list:

1. Make a portfolio site. The closest thing I have to one is my Deviant Art account. I created one out of impulse and haven’t touched it since months. This stems from an article I read this morning. I could do so much work but if nobody sees it, it’s as good as non-existent. 

2. Get into film photography. I found my father’s old film camera and haven’t had the time nor moolah to fix it. Hopefully, I would this summer. It’s always nice to take up new hobbies, no?

3. Get started with a top secret personal project. I’m planning to start a mildly large-scale personal project soon — one I’ve been wanting to do since I got the idea last year. I’m not telling anyone just to make sure I don’t jinx it hihi /suchatease

4. Finish all the movies I have in my hard drive. 

5. Do five more personal illustrations (at most). I miss doing personal stuff so I’m pushing myself to do more. I haven’t gone traditional in awhile so I might get back to that. Why do I sound formal all of a sudden? GIRAFFE!

The photos (of this lady) were taken a few weeks back when I had a shoot for my Photography finals… which I’ll post when I find the time (aka when I feel like it ~best blogger award~). Honestly, I haven’t been writing in this little space of mine for awhile, the work I have to show has made itself to be this messy please-show-us-to-the-internet pile. Ah well. 

Hoping you’re all having (mine’s just starting, okay) a productive summer as well! :) 

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