30 Day Drawing Challenge; Day 5

Day 5: Best Friend

There are several people I consider closest to me. And I’m being incredibly lazy and resorting to stick figures.

30 Day Drawing Challenge; Day 4

Day 4: Favorite Place

My bed. I’m sleepy all the time. And that’s a really lazy drawing.

30 Day Drawing Challenge; Day 3

Day 3: Favorite Food

I can’t choose one food, lol, but I realize that I prefer to eat fish for my protein intake. So I opted for sushi and sashimi. While drawing, I remembered dessert and I absolutely LOVE cheesecake, so I stuck it in the top corner just because.

30 Day Drawing Challenge; Day 2

Day 2: Favorite Animal

Butterflies are my logo. I still have to come up with a good brand to use with it and my name…

30 Day Drawing Challenge; Day 1

Day 1: Yourself


I literally just used my profile pic and drew myself. Was too tired to come up with some clever concept so I just opted to simply draw.

I think I ended up making myself look a little mean, lol.

30 Day Drawing Challenge

I've never done this type of thing before, but I figured this would help me get back on track. I have a spare moleskine I received as a gift a few years ago that I could use for this.

So, starting on October 24th, I will have one drawing up a day that will be posted here on my blog, and on my tumblr. We'll see how this goes.

Experimenting

Playing around with tea stained paper. I do like where this is going, so maybe I'll explore this style further and end up somewhere I like. =)

Coming out of hiatus!

Wow, it's been about two months since I updated my blog.

There has been stuff going on here and there, ranging from various dance projects to trying to sketch everyday all while futilely job hunting. Also, I added a header to Butterfli, and my website is at like a 1.5 version. I'm most likely going to redesign the whole thing again without finishing the current layout, but when I finally get that done, I don't know.

During this slow creative pace I'm now going through, I realize that as opposed to just wanting to make really good work for a portfolio, I've been learning about how I work. What styles feel natural to me, what methods best work for me. I tend to overthink during the preproduction phase, just sketching to find out the right composition or concept, and I always end up getting stuck. Always. Or at the least, frustrated and discouraged.

Perhaps the spontaneity is what I need. It's okay to not have a complete final sketch (my old Illustration professors would gasp). Maybe all I really need is just a basic idea of what could end up being a meaningful and striking image, and then use that as a jumping point when I begin the final and let the creativity do its own thing.

This newest illustration of mine is the first one I've managed to complete this year. I did not draw out a final sketch to come up with this final result. Instead, I had a different sketch that was very influenced by one of Audrey Kawasaki's older paintings, a colored pencil reference book that held step by step fruit renderings, and a picture of one of BoA's photoshoots that focused on her gorgeous hands and fingernails. Somehow, it worked.

Some drawings

Some random drawings I did over the last month or so.

Sketchbook Project Complete!

Go to my Facebook fanpage to see some more of the pics!

End of summer illustrations, pokerface, glee, and other random updates

It's the end of summer and kids are settling back at schools and in classes. I'm not one of them this time. =/

Yep, it's finally sinking in; I'm technically an adult transitioning into the real world of working. Fun.

Anyways, I've been able to do some drawing at least. I did some practice painting with oils over the past few weeks to try out applications on different surfaces, such as gessoed panels and illustration board. One thing for sure, I'm not really feeling the textured gessoed surface on illustration board. Maybe I should try sanding it down so it's much smoother but I feel that takes too much effort in preparing surfaces for me.

I've also produced two real illustrations this time. Again, I'm still experimenting with different media and figuring out what works for my style of drawing best.

Neither really have a title. I only had these images in my head and tried to put it down on paper but no title or anything came up while I was working on them.

Also, there is a "Pokerface" illustration I'm working on to go with a rap cover of said song by Lady Gaga. The song itself is almost done recording, just some chorus tweaks to work on. It's going on youtube once it's all done. =D

On a totally unrelated note, my dad randomly decided to get satellite tv again so now I have the computer and the TV to eat my brains out with. Shows I'm looking forward to watching this fall season are "Chuck," "Glee," and "The Amazing Race." The latter two I'm watching for the Asians, to be honest.

My review of BoA's 6th Korean album - HURRICANE VENUS

I posted this over at BoAjjang just now, and decided I might as well bring it over here. As you may or may not know, I am a pretty big BoA fan and have been for quite a long time now, over six or seven years or so. This album marks her return to the Kpop scene in five years and it is also her 10th anniversary since debuting, so the hype around this is a big deal.

Here's the teaser MV for "Game" which is not the title track, but throwing a bone for the fans to expect what's to come.






Now for the Album review:

Too much in my head

I was rereading an old journal from last year the other day, and there is this flap in the back of the book where I had stuffed old letters and random things in. I noticed an envelope that had my mom's handwriting on it and remembered immediately that around this time last year, my family and I were in denial about the true state of her health, mentally and physically. This envelope mom had given me last summer held a single sheet of paper with a bunch of signatures on it, looking all official, stating what she wants us to do with her life if she were ever fall into a state of unconscious where it was unclear if she would ever recover.

Yeah. It's a copy of her will.

I like to think that things are better now and that my hopeful optimistic attitude is not just another fantasy layer of denial that I've trapped myself in.

I know there are always other people out there who have it harder, but sometimes, I wish my family life could be just much more simpler. I have a handful of friends I'm jealous of whose family life is relatively happier and their problems are ordinary. Relationships, school, etc. Typical and simple.

Nothing about accepting the responsibility of putting a younger brother and sister through school so that they could have the same opportunities I did, or working like a second mom to cover for what the real mom couldn't, or foregoing the search for something or someone out there while young and fresh. I'm pretty sure I'll be spending my twenties living like I'm in my forties; doing everything I can to keep a family afloat. I just hope it's worth it.

Maybe I'm complaining too much in defense for my artistic soul, but it seems to be more difficult for me to find a true voice without having some aspect of my family life pay dearly for it. Not fair much?

100th Post

Whoot! Hasn't been a year since this blog's been started, but I have already reached 100 posts. Crazy!

I don't have anything profound to say about it though, so I'll just celebrate with a recent pic of myself. Yay.

21 year olds

For Lauren's party, we spent the day and night in Japantown. Naturally, friends have to take fun pictures to commemorate a special day. And a special friendship.

Normally, I'd just upload these on facebook, but seeing as how I really shouldn't be on it...

 

  

  

  

 

THE B.EST O.F A.SIA IS RETURNING!!! (warning: very long post, lots of pics, videos, and fangirling incoherence.)

Ok.

So I just said that I miss DBSK a lot in the Korean music scene.

But.

There is the one and only music act that I miss even so much more than five hot sexy talented Korean men.



........



The proclaimed Beat of Angel, Best of Asia, BoA!!

(Pic snagged from Verbal of m-flo's blog. Photobooth pics ftw xDDD)




Er, I mean, BoA undistorted!!

And I JUST heard that she will be making her Korean comeback in time for her 10th anniversary this August.

It's been FIVE LONG YEARS.

She currently sports short hair now, though I do miss the awesomeness that is her signature long hair. BoA has just also released her 7th Japanese album "Identity" and is preparing for her Japanese tour. My brain is too sluggish right now to adequately explain the details of why this is such epic BoA news so I'm just gonna copy paste the info:

"BoA will return to Korea after a five year absence from her home country. This year’s August 25th will mark a ten year anniversary for BoA. Yes, it has been ten years since this singer debuted. Surprisingly, it’s been five years since she’s been in Korea. Which means she’s spent half her career in Japan.

"The last Korean song she promoted was Girls On Top and now as a ten year anniversary celebration, she is returning. At the moment, she is on tour for her album Identity, but after the end of this tour, she will start to prepare for her Korean comeback.

"SM Entertainment said on March 1st, “2010 means a lot because it marks BoA’s ten year anniversary. Since Korean fans haven’t gotten the chance to see her since Girls On Top, we will work hard for a very meaningful album for BoA. We will shoot for the album to release on August 25th but depending on how preparations go, it may move around a bit.”

"SM Entertainment also added, “BoA shows a lot of passion for her music so she might be a producer for this album as well. We will decide after a thoughtful discussion.”  
credits: Allkpop


So what this means to a lot of fans right now is that the year 2010 marks the comebacks of the LEGENDS. Not only BoA but also the queen of sexy kpop Lee Hyori, singer/actor Rain, and even Se7en who also attempted to break in the US music scene around the same time as BoA and the Wonder Girls from JYP Entertainment.

What this could mean to BoA is a revival of energy and passion that's been on decline ever since her last Korean album that solidified me as a fan of hers in 2005, "Girls on Top." In order to concentrate on her career in Japan, she had to stop Korean activities for awhile because essentially, it's much harder to make income as a music act in Korea, and also the work of interviews, variety shows, and performances every other day is very demanding and taxing on Korean singers. Plus, she was already juggling careers in Japan and Korea since she was thirteen years old.

Dude. This now twenty-three year old has accomplished so much in ten years, NO ONE in Korea or even Japan have been able to top her success.

Yeah, she may not have the best vocals or the best music all around but just look at her history. At the age of thirteen, the baby BoA captured the hearts of Koreans everywhere. At fourteen she flew to Japan and began her career as one of the earliest most successful crossover artists in Asia. With the crazy success of her second Japanese album, she was able to bridge the cultural social gap between Korea and Japan through her performances and music, a pair of countries with so much conflict in history.

I'm just gonna go crazy with the biggest hits she's responsible for, and why she was pretty much the evolution of Asian pop back in the day, from the beginning to now.


2000 ID; Peace B - Debut song.



2002 No.1 - One of her first biggest early hits in Korea



2002 Every Heart - One of Inuyasha's ending theme songs. This is how I discovered her music, back in the good ol' junior high/high school days.



2003 Valenti - Japan. Girl went platinum with this.



2003 Atlantis Princess - This song is how I found out she's actually KOREAN not Japanese :O. It was also the song that started my interest in dancing =D. The first Kpop dance I ever learned! Such a happy song, one of my old favorites.



2004 Rock With You - The beginnings of the mature BoA. Edgy, personality, character.



2004 My Name - She went from bubbly cute Atlantis Princess to this. o_o Fierce and sexy~



2005 Quincy - I would say this is the last of her "addictive" songs of her early Japan days before the decline.



2005 Girls On Top - Almost every fan out there would say this is her most epic Korean work to date. Solid concept, great dancing, amazing live performances. Everything was near perfect with this album. The highlight of her career.



Since "Girls On Top," BoA has released four more albums in Japan and one in America, continuing to be influential but the spark that was usually there in her music was gradually getting lost somewhere. Overworked much? Most definitely. Three countries and all those albums and she's not even in her mid-twenties yet.


Her US Music Videos:








BoA is a household name, you cannot be an Asian pop fan without knowing that name. With that said, during her decline, negativity was just everywhere. People wanted the amazing BoA back, people wanted her to return to her homeland and stop releasing subpar material in other countries, etc etc.

Even celebrities go through identity crises, you know? Her most recent Japanese album is the first album to not reach the #1 spot on the charts in her career. It reached #2, but goes to show what's going on with her life as an artist right now. Ironically, this album is also the one that's mostly self-produced, so there's a lot of "real" BoA in "Identity." So what's the deal?

There was negativity everywhere, in the forums, in news blogs, wherever, that rubbed me off too. Hearing all this criticism for venturing into the American scene, for abandoning Korea, for mediocre singles in Japan, just ugh. People didn't want to see her in a shlump that is necessary and inevitable for everyone. They want to see her always in her prime.

They want to see this kinda thing again:

Watch BoA_Over_the_Top_Girls_On_Top_Remix_Live_MNet_Awards_27.11.2005_ in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com



As opposed to this:



What does this mean to me, and why do I look up to BoA so much?

Well, if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have been into music and art as much as I am now. I wouldn't have learned how it was possible to be so hard working, so dedicated, so passionate about her work as much as this girl two years older than me had been. I wouldn't have had the guts to admit to myself and to my parents that I wanted to draw and perform for people and me, not treat sick people in hospitals for the money. I wouldn't have discovered the potluck of refreshing Asian pop when I needed an outlet so much as a teenager, would not have experienced how cool it is to be a part of a dance team, the thrill of being on stage in front of people with music beats pounding in my blood, would not have appreciated the complexity and art of dancing and expressing with your body, with your hands. (Yeah, I miss dancing a lot. Like, REAL choreo dancing with other dancers.)

I would not have appreciated my Asian blood as much, would not have pushed myself to keep a hold of my Vietnamese, and encouraged myself to learn Korean and Japanese. I would not have been fascinated by the concept of language barriers and the power of music being a universal language, would not have looked up lyrics to understand and appreciated the poetry behind it, and who knew that I'd eventually venture into an area of writing myself? I would not have wanted to make an impact on something somewhere somehow as bad as I do now had I not seen what a petite Asian girl on the other side of the world who had the wonderful opportunity to influence so many and so much. BoA's not just an idol, she's an artist. She's in that very difficult stage of transitioning right now, just like most of us are at this time of our lives, and more so for her as a public figure in the entertainment business

To hear that she's returning to her birthplace to remind the overcrowded music industry there and remind fans of the legend that she is, it's just really exciting. What if this comeback reminds HER even of the fire she had once before, before the stresses of work and adulthood brought her down? That's what I'm really hoping for. Her successes at home factor in to her successes abroad, I find that really plausible. And maybe, just maybe, I would get that awe-inspiration watching her come back to life, and maybe that can really lead me somewhere. Not that I don't appreciate her Japanese stuff at all, quite the contrary. It's just that I am guilty of missing the bright BoA as well, and I'd rather have her take a real break from the music biz altogether and disappear for a year or two instead of spreading herself too thin for too long.

Well, the point I see now is that BoA will always be busy year round, and so will I. So will everyone. She's been stuck in the down slides for awhile, and I've had my ups and downs since I sort of figured out who I am and who I want to be and what kind of work I want to do, aka college.

I wrote in a comment on BoAjjang that this year seems brighter for me already because of this news. I mean,, despite the good stuff of going to Korea and graduating soon, it was a real rough start to 2010 for me. Plus, I am so over winter weather now. It's easy to blame the weather for my moodiness but I swear, I live on sunlight. Thrive in it.

So for the first half of 2010 is the anticipation of the comeback album, hearing news in bits and pieces of track listings, album covers, promo plans. Then the actual release of the album mid year to the explosion of epicness, and THEN performances and interviews and shows and awards ceremonies that will be available to download in high quality all the way towards the end of 2010. Well, that's definitely gonna keep my spirits up for this year, God willing.

Okay, so I think I threw up dished out a pretty long post, so I"ll end it at that. Next one will be about illustration work, promise!

Redone, Redux Reception

Tried not to look tired for the reception but fail. Just not possible with all those all nighters ^^;;

So after some days of crazy hassling and drama and random bullcrap Sunday, show was finally set up completely by the end of Monday, and the reception went pretty well today. =D

I'm pretty content. I felt nervous and really worried at first because I was super paranoid the work was too last minute/wasn't good/competing right next to Dean's/thesis etc etc, BUT.

Everything went ok. ^^;; Several people really loved my digital work, which I had initially planned to do for the whole show, but I only had time to do three, which I felt wasn't enough, so I put together the whole redoing illustrations from classes 1-5. Ended up missing a piece from Illustration 1 due to time restraints and printing issues, but no one questioned the concept behind the show. All's well that end's well.

I'm so glad it's done. I talked to several teachers about my thesis today too, and got some really positive feedback about it as well as some "this might be too ambitious here, be realistic." I'm already getting that feeling of some people underestimating me, but hey, I've probably overestimated myself several times in the past.

Not this time, though.

I know this challenge is gonna be a lot of work, but this future portfolio combines illustrations, writing, and music; three parts that make up my art.

I'll go into more detail about my thesis in the next post. Until then, enjoy these pics of some of the work up in the Bruce Galleries at this moment. =)

Senior Show Poster

And still waiting for those damn postcards. Fedex supposedly will have them here by tomorrow afternoon....

Postcards are on the way, and my senior show draws nearer.

*Freaking out*

And I'm feeling more competitive when I heard that a fellow Illustration student who has his show the same week as mine, is presenting twice as much work as I am.

Making last minute changes to the plan here....

Whew, what a week!

This week has been the craziest first week back to school I've ever had in my whole life >.<. So it started quite horribly but things got better as each day progressed.

Today, I did manage to get my friend's wacom tablet back, ohhh thank goodness.

So what happened was that the one girl who supposedly knows me (I have yet to figure out who that is) offered to take the bag from the bus driver to public safety at Webster on Wednesday, but FORGOT. So, she ended up giving the bag BACK to the bus driver who in turn handed it in to the public safety desk in  SAN FRAN.

While I on the other hand, have been calling from the lost and found, to public safety in oakland, to the residential staff at webster, emailing people, EVERYWHERE, hunting that motherfreaking thing down like a madwoman. Spent everyday since Tuesday, freaking out about it.

Whew. You can only manage my relief when public safety black guy came back to me at the desk earlier today carrying that yellow forever 21 bag towards me. I almost cried from relief. Almost, haha.

Anyways. In terms of thesis, I got the go ahead from Bob Ciano, my thesis teacher. He really likes my idea, which is great. Before I can go hardcore on it, I gotta make sure this exhibition is successful. Still have lots of work to do about it, though. Postcards to print out, mat boards to cut out.

It's just gonna get more intense from here on out. FIGHTING!!

Oh yeah and apartment!

No more homeless worries, I'm officially moving in with bnguh by the end of the month. At her old place. The freaking suing thing scares her enough to stay, but would still leave me hanging, so the other girls compromised and are willing to have me stay there for four more months.

It'll be a little cramped with five girls in one apartment, but there are three rooms, and I don't have much to begin with having sent most back to Utah before going to Korea. Plus, I'll be working a lot at school. We'll make it work.

Things are getting better, see? ^^