Below are the 17 most recent journal entries recorded in ravent61's LiveJournal:

Sunday, October 21st, 2007
5:08 pm	Starting on the candycard series Let's see, the coloring practice project's now in this format: candycard series: paint style disc: soft shading chibi: vector+ cell shading The 1st in the card series, night mage: 2nd in the series, daisy, which I discovered later to look much better without frame :P I think I should start working on pics with warm color soon, the blue's getting boring Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 29th, 2007
9:28 pm	Art update Done with moving and unpacking, and some time spent with art. Hopefully I won't get art block anytime soon... Done during pre-boarding and flight transit. I kinda overdid the "arriving at least so and so hours before the flight" thing. Getting to the airport at 9pm when the flight was at 1am is a bit too much. So to keep myself awake, what to do but draw. Finally finished this practice piece. The order of painting: the horrible green maple at top left, going clockwise. I'm quite proud of the holly and a bit pleased that I actually improved a bit:D Still, a long way to go before I get to where I want to be:P Current Mood: artistic (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007
10:01 pm	Absence... Well, I've heard about World of Warcraft and how addicting it is for a while, but never thought much of it. Anyway, I signed up for free trial, downloaded the game and started playing.... And yeah, that all happened a month ago. It's only yesterday that I finally yanked myself out of WoW and went back to my usual stuff. Blizzard, I have underestimated thee.... Still, at least it kinda inspired me to do some art of my WoW character:P (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 11th, 2007
2:36 pm	Trouble, trouble While watering plants on the porch, I noticed a few unwanted visitors i.e. wasps flying around. Further inspection, however, showed that they're not visitors at all, seeing that they've already made their home on my porch's roof. Usually I'm kind to animals but on this occasion it suddenly flared up in me: DIE! KILL AND ANNIHILATE THOSE BASTARDS!!!! So yeah, I'm researching how to kill wasps. I don't hate them in general but damnit I want to go out on my porch without having to worry about getting stung D: (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 8th, 2007
12:33 pm	Update So the middle-earth poster fell down and covered me. In an effort to pull it from the wall I tore the rim:( It's now rolled and stored away in the wardrobe, and in its place is Monet's. the candycard project turns out to be more difficult than I orignially thought, though this could be largely attributed to my failure at sketching. It's currently fixed, but I'm still not certain about title. Anyway, tuna puffs.*yum* Don't know yet what it'll taste like, but I'll find out soon! (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 1st, 2007
11:43 pm	Jane Eyre Mr. Rochester sure talks a lot. (Comment on this)
Monday, February 26th, 2007
5:33 pm	Update & some musing So yeah, finally put some of designs on paper. For the last few years I have all these stuffs in my head but never got around to put it in physical form. Kinda a vicious cycle I guess; I know I don't have enough skill to draw it and so got discouraged. But unless I draw then I'll never improve. Well, at least now I have a starting point to work from. Today power went out for a few hours, so I used that time to read. Rather funny how strange I feel without internet. I still remember back when internet connection is very limited and slow and broadband was unheard of, and yet I got on fine. Now, if a web site take more than a minute to load I get very annoyed. How time changes. During the last few days there were these 2 nights in a row that I dreamed horror dreams and woke up thinking "that was sick." The 2nd dream however is a bit amusing as it involves a pair of crime-fighting zombies. They are fighting a serial killer who, apparently, is also a zombie. There's some zombie-on-zombie kungfu and it all take place in a hospital or mortuary or some place where dead bodies are stored. Come to think of it, it looks kinda like the hospital where Dr. House works. Hmm, now I wonder what zombie!House or House vs. zombie scene will be like. In other news, there's a bar of chocolate green tea on my desk which I'm still undecided whether to eat or not. I like chocolate and I like green tea, but there're also many things that sound better as ideas than taste. It's also kinda strange how our perception of mass works. This bar of chocolate weighs 1.6 oz, and yet a few days ago I sent an envelope with 10 pages of paper in there and it weighed 2.4 oz. Without knowing this, I'd have said that the chocolate is heavier. funny how it works. (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007
9:38 pm	banner design Finally. The first design that I like for this particular banner, after many a futile sketches. Still, a bit crowded, so maybe thinner rim and lengthen the banner? (Comment on this)
Friday, February 16th, 2007
6:37 pm	WIP progress Still a long long way. Again, I had to redraw hands, so in the meanwhile I just color the upper part while figuring out the anatomy. Meh. (Comment on this)
Saturday, February 10th, 2007
11:20 pm	Update Chinese quiz went well, much easier than expect though I wrote 容易 wrong.*sniff* Decided to scrap the previous lighting&shading for candycard#1. It finally dawned on me that if the background is a night sky, then, pray tell, why is she lit up like it's afternoon? Half way through doing the dishes I had an EPIPHANY! And so the main light source now is the glowy staff, which, you know, is totally not ripping off gandalf's staff. *shifty eyes* Plus, it now looks much better and more dramatic. And if I color it dark enough then I don't have to deal with the lower body. I'm a dedicated person like that:P Current Mood: satisfied (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 8th, 2007
5:55 pm	Fun With Chinese! Currently working on Chinese essay homework, which I kinda cheated a bit. The format is the usual 'use at least [insert number] words/phrases/grammar structures from the provided list', and the topic is either environment/pollution or travel experience. Considering that last year I had to do this oral report thing about my winter vacation, well, you can pretty much guess which one I chose:P Hey, it's recycling! The conserved time will be channeled to a highly worthwhile thing, like surfing the internet. Still, I'll need to adapt and edit, as well as correct a big mistake. Man, I can't believe nobody caught that embarrassing error when I did the oral report. Somehow I ended up saying that Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico are 美国四个东南州- America's four SOUTHEASTERN states. Yup, I ish shtupid. Current Mood: busy (Comment on this)
Friday, February 2nd, 2007
11:37 am	February Art List Just so I'll keep making art. The first project list I made has like 30 stuffs on there and as a result discouraged me instead. Hopefully by breaking it into a small, manageable list I'll feel more in control and less overwhelmed. February: - rough sketch of wolf - color redone version of candycard1 - lineart of old sketch - oak leaf digital painting - basics shading on wolf drawing - fanart practice: start on lineart (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 1st, 2007
1:27 pm	Done With the Commodore! Despite going to bed at 1 am last night, a result of sketching on new pic, I woke up today at 4:30. Rather curious, seeing that it's well before any alarm clock, and it's not the kind of waking up that you promptly go back to bed (or hit the snooze button). This one, however, is of the type "I'm up and I have to find something to do". That something turned out to be reading Patrick O'Brian's The Commodore. And so yeah, I now finished the 17th, only 4 more to go. And while waiting for there to be enough light before getting breakfast, I started Poirot short stories and got sidetracked awhile with looking up butler on wikipedia. Who would have guess that the Butler Guild website will have a very comprehensive guide on stain removal?:D Oh yes, and I plan to make raspberry bar today. Hopefully it'll come out OK. Today's No.1 to-do item: Finishing lineart for Candy Card #1. And here's what it looks like at the moment.. (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 28th, 2007
6:38 pm	Art Update: Plant Practice No.1 Stuff I done during the past few weeks, on and off, as a way to learn 1) digital painting, 2)how to paint realistically and 3)to get used to using tablet. This, actually, is the 2nd object I paint; the first is a maple leaf which suck:( And yeah, I did the left one first, which account for abnormal shape:P and took twice as long as the other. January 2007 Photoshop, from photo reference. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
10:47 am	Art finished in 2006 Well, only the passable stuffs anyway... ( Artssssss ) Hopefully I'll have more time to do art soon... (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 31st, 2006
6:24 pm	2007 resolution:D In 2007, ravent61 resolves to... Apply for a new norrington. Volunteer to spend time with dachshunds. Find a better aubreyad. Keep my aubrey-maturin clean. Drink four glasses of deviantart every day. Get your own New Year's Resolutions: (Comment on this)
12:40 pm	2006 in reading and art in 2006 I've finished reading: -Treason’s Harbour -Mansfield Park -Some short stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe -The Far Side of the World -All Creatures Great and Small -Michael Palin's Around the World in 80 Days -The Reverse of the Medal -The Letter of Marque -The Golden Ocean -Michael Palin's Pole to Pole -The Thirteen-gun Salute -Egypt, Greece and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean -The Sittaford Mystery -Some works included in The Malcontents: Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, some writings of Mark Twain, Flann O'Brien, Saki, and Ambrose Bierce. -The Unknown Shore -Peril at End House -Lord Edgware Dies -Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion -Edith Hamilton's Mythology -Hercule Poirot Short Stories -The Nutmeg of Consolation -Clarissa Oakes/The Truelove -Emma In short, lot's of Patrick O'Brian's and Agatha Christie's. Currently on my reading desk are also POB's the Wine-dark Sea and Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. I notice that I haven't read much non-fiction, so probably that's what I'm going to amend next year. On the art front, managed to do a little thing here and there. Learned to use markers and nib pen, and also digital coloring. There's a general lack of practice and life drawing, so that'll probably goes on the list of new year's resolution. Let's see how long I can keep that up:D Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)