Holiday Heatwave

Ah, it's so hot here. It's practically stifling. Can't even work much due to the flies and blazing temperatures. It's Christmas and all, but it's BOILING. To commemorate the blazing heat, I've done picture 4 depicting me, in all my sweaty glory, trying to do something but generally settling into a pool of unproductivity. Ladies, calm down. I'm still single :P.

So, Christmas came and went. I hope you all got presents that you liked, or barring that, had a good religious experience or somewhat. Certainly there were a number of movies just released so I'm guessing you all had a good enough time watching those. Well, for Christmas present I got Nintendogs for my DS (which already has MarioKart, both excellent games). Certainly no person cannot warm up to the li'l puppiiieeees. Sis, if you're reading this, the puppies I got are in picture 3. Cute aren't they? They can do AAALLLLLL kinds of tricks, too! Too bad, they're MINE! MUAHAHA. Ah, to make you not-so-envious, I've done that fairy picture you 'requested'. Flowers and all. That's picture 2.

It may be swetlering hot, but there's good out of it. Ladies dressed up in refreshing summer-wear. Picture 1 depicted one particular bit of fashion I saw while on the tram (that goes to the beach, but I wasn't heading there). Unfortunately, I didn't take much effort in memorising and sketching her out (the shirt is all wrong. It wasn't a netting, it was more like a very porous floral-shirt). Single guys like me enjoy the sights but we know that that's about all we're gonna get. Summer can be so sad.

In case you haven't gotten the message, it's bloody hot so typing this is sapping my energy rapidly. I'll leave you now to go melt some more. Toodles.

Feverish... and late

Ah, my apologies to all, so sorry! I was going to post sometime last week, but got really carried away with work and life. Depression was really gripping me tight as I struggled to complete whatever I'm writing and problems kept propping up. But the above more or less summarises what's been happening.

First of all, I attended a ballet performance of my housemate. Now, before you nay-sayers taunt me to death, I'll say this: although these guys are young, they are GOOD. Seriously, if you appreciate classical music, it's worth seeing at least one ballet performance in your life. These kids embodied the music itself. Props have to be given to the choreographer. It's a very serious business. Unfortunately, my poor memory and chronic lateness allow me only to put up a very general idea picture but the last acy, Don Quixote, had fantastic costumes and brilliant dancing. How I envy these people.

The first picture was this cute little girl I saw while shopping today. Well, she's actually cuter (and much smaller) in real life but I was impressed with the 'gothic' style she had so I just couldn't resist. I just couldn't do justice, though, which is a pity. Ah, well... gothic really looks good for those who can pull it off.

And finally, another 'I like this and that' honorable mention: Megatokyo, which can be found at: http://www.megatokyo.com . I've only recently been delving into this webartist's work but he's really impressive. Sort of favours a bishoujo style of art, but can get edgy when he wants to. Loves bishoujo, though, and really excels in beautiful artwork. Try to find his art site somewhere within that page as well. It's well worth it.

Anywayz, I got to get back to rest... er I mean work. I swear, though, that my scanner is really the pits. It has horrible contrast and my work tends to get 'smudgy' after the scan. Paint is also a crappy program to edit the pictures (mostly just resizing them... can't even begin to clean the images up). Ah, well... when you spend your money unwisely, this is what you get. Anyway, you all take care.

More things I like...

Hey hey again. Just a quick addition to my previous post. I couldn't contain my love for these things so I have to just spell it out for you guys.

First things first. The first pic you see should be the beautiful mecha shown in the anime Eureka 7. I only wish my skills could match the true beauty of the anime. You... must... watch... this... series. The animation is tops although if there's one thing I have to complain about is that the fight sequences aren't as long as I'd like them to be. They are beautifully graceful nonetheless. The story, although slow to some people, is relatively well paced and shows the development of the protagonist well. You can't go wrong with the music as well... it's pulsating and can be tender at times. All in all, it definitely builds the atmosphere. I... love... this... series. Go watch it.


I mentioned previously that I was also very keen on webcomics and webmanga. Well, among my searching around I found this brilliant doujinshi (kinda like fan comics based on a popular anime series or manga) written by an anonymous artist that once again, I... really... love. Well, those who know me know I'm a Cartoon Network fan. This dude (I think) used a lot of CN characters (and others as well) and weaved them into a deep and dark story which tickles my fancy to no end. Please check it out: http://bleedman.snafu-comics.com/ . You won't regret it. Thank you, bleedman, whoever you are. Your art stylings and mecha put me to shame.

Macabre stylings of a madman

Hello there boys and girls. We return once again to the macbre stylings of a madman. I apologise for the sombre post last week and the fact that asides from that I haven't added anything much. Well, there's a drawing bonanza as I flex my pencil and throw out a few more pictures. I'm sad to say that at this rate I can only be churning out pics like these. I doubt I'll be ready to do a comic anytime soon. Anyway hope these and my commentary will keep you entertained.

The first few sketches are inspired by the webcomic Applegeeks. These guys are freaking brilliant artists and you should honestly (if you haven't already) check them out: http://applegeeks.com/ . They do very good work and I'm so far out of their league I'm ashamed to admit it. Thing is, one of the guys has this character that's rather like Beanie Man, my alter ego! So much difference!

There are a few more other webcomics but I'd rather post them out one by one noting which I really love and what I love about them (mostly I'll just rave about their art styles and so on) but let Applegeeks be the first. Makes me wish I could do whatever they do. Anyway, to end I shall pop off 2 more pieces. One is a pic that struck me while I was walking home in the rain. I wondered with the current medium I'm using (whooo... sounds like a real artist, eh?) wether or not I'm able to do a 'rain' scene. Not that fantastic but it'll do. Might try to figure out a better way later. The second one is an idea I had: hobo girl! (Not Dr. Hobo of VG Cats!) I was just curious wether I could create a rather pretty but scruffy looking girl. There you go.

A sombre post for a sombre day

Hello peoples. It's a somber day in Australia following the death penalty being meted out on one of her Citizens. You don't have to be an Australian to feel their pain though. Even coming from a country that enforces this punishment (and thus relatively desensatised to it), it still tears me up to see a mother weep so for her lost child. In that spirit today's post will be introspective and toned down.

Certainly one cannot blame the guy for carrying the drugs. It's easy to believe that he intended well and just made a really bad decision. A lot of people can relate to that as young people are naturally stupid (and a number of old people as well). Yet at the same time we cannot hold the decision by the Singapore government as a bad one because that's the law. The law was clearly known by all parties, and the consequences understood. We should instead ponder why he made this decision knowing the risks. Why were circumstances set so that someone would be pushed into this situation?

Perhaps we need to wonder if God is as benevolent as we make Him out to be.

Seminar today! What a faker!

Hello once again peoples. 3 updates in a week? What's going on? Procrastination is what... didn't the title of this blog clue you in? I'm so sorry if it didnt. Let me make it up to you by telling you what happened today.

Today I had to attend a seminar for the company that produces the software I'm using for my research. Usual stuff, really... go in and see what new products they have, provide some user feedback and get some free food. If this sounds familiar to you then you're probably thinking of the 'Timeshare' stories you see on telly. Aaaanyway, part of the deal was that users are encouraged to provide some feedback on their usage of the software. Since I did, my supervisor advised me to give one. The result is shown above. God, it's frightening to present in front of so many people with a cannibalised version of a crappy presentation. Thing is, it's even scarier when those researchers hound YOU with difficult questions. Very spooky.

The second is a design I have for an axe. It's decidedly bat-themed and very strucutrally unsound. In other words... it'll break. However, Guild Wars (I play that game) has currently announced a competition for weapon designs and I thought that mine was rather original and unique. Bat-axe! I vill zuck yor blud! BLEH! Feedback is appreciated as I might work more on the design prior to submission.

Double Post! OMG! WTF?!

Heh, a quick addition to the previous one... Like I said, I just had to get something up. The first is an attempt at my battle-scarred hero. Beaten up by some nasty! Who could it be? Curious!

And then we move to what I promised... my teppanyaki experience. Let me give you a recommendation: seafood teppanyaki is DELICIOUS! If you can blow some cash, go do it. In fact, go do it now. NOW! Seriously though... I just heart it literally translates to 'Hot plate - fried'. They cook it in front of you and usually the cook engages in conversation with you. It just happens that ours was probably the master-chef (No, not Master Chief, you Halo-philes!) and he did serve us a good treat. Thank you, Yamane-sama! Okay that's enough for now. Double posting! OMG, WTF?!

Some funnies...

Hello all again! Just a quick update with some non-pretty pictures (just couldn't decide on what this week). Besides, it's been a not-pretty week and I'm feeling I'm more and more behind on my work. I've had 2 birthdays over the past week for the people I'm living with. Happy birthdays to them! May the coming year be happier and bring more joy and all that kinda jazz. On another positive note, I had teppanyaki sometimes this week too. I had an illustration but it's not inked yet. Will follow shortly.

The first as promised is something that hit me about Charlie Brown (a character that I relate to almost soulfully... except when he gets popular). The following sketches, well... the old grumpy man was an experiment. Everytime it's pretty people and whatnots. Just thought I'd try old and frumpy for once. Also included is an old-cliche'd comic. The dangers of nature. To all of you who haven't been in Australia in the summer, I warn you: BEWARE THE FLIES! and that's no joke. That's it for now... signing off for a short while.

Calming scenes...

Ahh, my apologies for this long wait. You should be used to it by now I suppose. I am, as the name suggests a terrible procrastinator. Also, my scanner went on a slight fritz! Frighetning...
Anyway, good friends, the theme for this week's sketchings seem to be more relaxed. I'll admit the pier-girl seems a bit skewed and off, but I realised I made mistakes too late and had an unsteady board. Therefore, I beg your forgiveness.

The next two are things that I really wanted to sketch. Sadly, my versions are no where near the images I've had in mind... but I try my best. A couple under a tree, hair blowing gently in the wind... ah, it's springtime (going on summertime) in Australia.

Anyway, that should do it for this week. Thank you and good luck for those still stuck in exams and the such. We are all bound by the chains of fate.

Hot means LAZY!

And a very hot, hot greetings to you all. In Melbourne, the temperature just hit Salsa and humid and moving around makes me feel like a corpse. Not a rigor mortis kinda corpse, but rather the bloated rotting kind. As gross as that description is, I hope it'll allow you to pardon me for my lateness as usual.

Work's been swamping. End of year approaches and I need to get lots of things done. Fortunately things are getting slightly better. But I'm digressing. I need to say first a big THANKS to a supporter and dear friend from Malaysia for the gift featured in the first sketch. I wish you good fortune in your upcoming exams and results. As most anime characters featured in Shonen Jump will say 'Don't worry about it. You'll do fine.' I've popped in some of your 'favourite' anime characters. I hope I got at least one of the right.

The rest are for the benefit of the male audiences that happen by every so often. I've tried some 'alluring' poses as best as I can and even put in a Neko-gal! Anyway hope they're not too disappointing. Enjoy, peoples.

Well here I am late again and once again it's for the same reason! Life just won't give up on me and laziness never lets go. However, in the spirit of the upcoming spooky American-holiday (that's Halloween, people) I've experimented on a few other sketches. Some normal and bleh stuff. I know they're not fantastic but forgive me since it's been a busy week.

Starting off is the continued theme of the sword-master I've been sketching for the past few weeks. Arm's a bit shoddy but getting there. Need to work on more dynamic poses and attack forms but short of time. Forever short of time.

The next happy little fellow is my favourite. Madness.... agony and all those little nasties bursting out of this chap. Ever since I got into this I've always been trying to sketch this sort of madness in my characters.

The last 2 are random sketches thrown in. It's Halloween soon, as I said and I've been reworking on my Necromancer costume again although it's much more shoddy than the previous one. Anyway, it's chucked on for your enjoyment. The final dude is the devil. I think that's enough said, really. His shirt is partially inspired by one of the characters from Guild Wars. That's about it.

Hello, again, peoples! It's been a while and I apologise. Some of you were probably (very presumptious of me!) expecting an update some time this week. Unfortunately, I had a very busy schedule both with work and play and not to mention that the weather is good here. Anyway, I hope you'll forgive me.

The first upload is one of the attempts at a comic I've attempted recently. This time I tried to incorporate some dynamic boxes and effects into it. I must apologise because I couldn't read up on how to do this and rather screwed up the panels and some of the effects are just plain weird. Nevertheless, practice makes perfect, I hope. Most of the manga I read tend to be action oriented so I feel that that is the medium I'm most comfortable with, which leads me to the next picture:

I rather liked the chap I used as the protagonist in the above comic (some of you might already have deduced which character heavily influenced his design) and while walking about this week I was wondering how I could extend it into a comic.

Out of this came your average trio: sword fighter, martial arts expert and marksman. I haven't had much time to delve into this further but I feel like using this three to practice a bit first. Hope it works out in the end.

Ah, some hurried additions today. I don't think I really have time to make much adjustment to the alignment of the pictures either so forgive the sloppiness. Anyway as long as they're all here it's all good I suppose. The first thing that has to be said is a big 'Thanks!' to the many friends who have given warm words of encouragement towards my efforts and those who have spurred me onwards. I hope I can meet up to your cruel and gruelling standards.

So let's describe what I've attempted to do for these past few days. The first one you should see, depicting the femme in the blotched sketch with the huge weapon (insipired by Sech's from Battle Angel Alita: Last Order) was my experiment on wether having pencil shading would work with the current technique. Well... in a way it didn't as the original work had a crisper look to it. However, this scanned version does have some sort of visual appeal, appearing slightly more 'scarred' in a way.

The second picture with the big fight going on seems to be one of my attempts at perhaps one day moving into a fight-oriented comic. The perspective is again slightly skewed (I'm learning! I'm learning!) and I know the 2 pictures should be separated with more dramatising (e.g. eyes, blade movement) but I tried to capture the feel of facing and hitting multiple opponents.

The last was an attempt at creating a costume for the Necromancer featured in Guild Wars. As the players might know already, there is a Halloween competition coming up. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with something good by the deadline for submission.

Okay that's it, boys and girls. Thank you for your attention. You may return to your daily lives now.

First attempt at a comic!

Ah, the joys of having a laser pointer. I recently got one for a conference presentation and I have not regretted it since. Sniping colleagues from across rooms, lighting unmentionables that I might have stepped on in the dark, creating dancing lights to amuse the bored mind... There's no end to it. Give a male engineer such a dangerous toy (mine is a Class IIIA laser!) and he'll start dreaming nice things. The above is my first attempt at a real 'comic' and depicts some of the fantasies I have waving my pointer about. Henceforth, 'Beanie-Man' will be my personal avatar on this blog, I believe.


Once again I've tried working on perspective but failing rather miserably. I had no idea what Agent Smith looks like since I had no references in front of me (I prefer to draw straight from the mind) and hold the critiques on Neo and Trinity. Still, Dynamic posing seems rather fun although the Agent looks like rigor mortis has set in. And I screwed up on his jacket a bit. I wanted to have neo give a driving punch but just plumb forgot.

This drawing of General Greivous was made to fulfil a promise to a very good friend over the recent years. He's been encouraging me to flex my sketching muscles and create one of his most favourite Star Wars characters but I couldn't find the inspiration nor time in the past. Well, this is the final result and I will apoligise for the relative crudeness again (especially the cape, which was added in as an afterthought!).

This is the first attempt I did on creating a sketch using blue pencil and pigment liners after. Perspective is kinda screwed as I started with 1 character and started working on the others. There's no deeper meaning asides from male tendencies.

This is the second one I created, again concerning the male need for action and attractive women. Swords and guns too. Mmmmm.... bullets and blades.

The last one was drawn because I like this kinda pose when fighting of late. I saw this on Midori Days and Gun X Sword. Damn if it isn't cool. Come on... it's cool! Anyway... yeah that's some pictures that I managed to draw to test out the technique.

A hurried start

Perhaps this isn't the best way to start of a blog but I've never been one for rational thought as long as it aids procrastination. To anyone who is reading this I have to ask 'Why are you doing this? It's like... the one and only post so far!' For those who will join later, please look forward to some sketches that I may upload every so often.