Friday, July 29, 2005

Unusual shyness

Once I was flying economy class out of the country... and a japanese person sat next to me... now I adored japanese people for some reason... and I sat there thinking, felt really weird. He sat down and opened a small book in japanese writing. Of course I ,being quite curious, wanted to talk to him and lead a conversation... but unfortunately my first attempt to talk to strangers didn't go swiftly and I kept contemplating when would be the right time to talk since he was reading. Imagine I sat there for almost an hour! And only one hour was left for us to reach our destination. So I decided to give it a go and planned to start with saying "Are you japanese?" ... yes... that's what I wanted to say... HOWEVER... as I leaned forward to say that... the only thing that came out was... "Japanese?" ... realizing what I said I sat straight again almost bursting. Without doubt I got my answer straight away since the guy looked up from his book and gave me a wide smile. I thought " ok, you are then." He said "how did you guess". In my mind I said "well it's quite obvious" but I just went like "it was a guess". The real reason was his eyes... Japanese have eyes that go down and chinese have ones that go up... but knowing that wouldn't have been a polite answer, I converted. :p ...
To me that was really funny... but our conversation went well... learnt a lot about their culture... to me japanese are great.

Mother and Child


My first time drawing a baby... lol... I thought the little child was adorable. Felt like I wanted to.... aarrrr :D

Heard a story once about a woman who lifted a whole truck in order to save her son who was stuck under. Tsk tsk
Believe it? Looks like women could be strong sometimes...
she must've been a huge one though.
Gets you thinking never to go between a mother and her child :p :p

The Wilderness!


A lion cub.... looks a bit old though eh?....
still fierce-looking....
well... I know I wouldn't wanna come face to face with something like that in the jungle :os *shivers*

Unfortunately I'm far away from any colors at the moment... but I think the shadings would do it for now...

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Dark Side

Looks like I had a drawing blast today... well... here's another random one... not too friendly :p...


Pick it up

yeah... some weird thing I had... just decided to draw whatever came to my mind not knowing where it would take me.... hmm... well, I think you can tel... a winning player :)
No story behind it... just a bit of luck and a go with the flow attitude.

On the dance floor


hum hum... this woman!!! THIS WOMAN!!!!!!...........................is a woman... who was hard to color at first :p... not because the shadings or the streaks were difficult.... just simply cuz I had a stupid brush that kept coloring areas I didn't want... I know what you'll say... why don't you go buy a new one?.... well............ I was too lazy
but this was the outcome anyway...

Monday, July 25, 2005

Eyes on you

A watercolor drawing... was quite a mess...

luckily it wasn't that bad in the end... well... actually... this is only one of a dozen drawings that gave out the desirable result... didn't read the label "oil colors"...

then wondered why the paint wouldn't get off my hands... sadly...

Saturday, July 23, 2005

How it developed...*carelessness?*

Boredom creates wonders... so it's boredom? Nope.... But boredom is a big factor nevertheless.
It started with a drawing. How it developed was a tricky part. Halt!!! It's no secret... just mere imagination... or should I say.. wild? crazy?
Confused yet?? ... then let me make you wise:
That day, school bored me out by all means... teachers wouldn't stop blabbing, and when they did, they replaced it with writing... which was not any better! The only thing that entertained me then was daydreaming... ofcourse I was seperated from my close friend, Jay, who was almost in the other corner of the classroom. Bother!
What lesson was it I wonder... islamic? history?... what? no...not arabic...simply cuz the teacher has wide eyes and a voice that could awaken you from your tomb no matter how deep you've been barried. One would have guts to say a joke under her nose... but either way... I was fortunate enough to sit behind Jay once... the same lesson bored us out... so as usual, I took out my sketchbook and started drawing, hoping the lesson would end soon...
My drawing was a boy wearing clothes one usually sees in games. The sketch raised my interest and showing it to my friend she asked me to draw another one... the second was a red-haired girl... since the lesson was about 45 mins long... it was enough for me to fill the paper with about 9 characters... later on, the numbers increased into several papers back home, going upto 30 characters. They were a variety of ages, genders, creatures, sizes... There I stopped!!
Indeed I spent time hanging and staring at these pages on the wall.
So my dear friend and I started planning... we passed a paper round the class asking them to write their favourite names of both genders. Having passed the paper, it came back to us with whole lists of various names. Seeing each character's features we chose the names that suited them best out of the list. Having done that, Jay asked me to write the main part of the story.
Accomplishing that, I've then given her the sketches to figure out how each character would fit in. Fitting 30 characters into a story was quite challenging, yet amazing since each one had a certain background and history. After having done that, I needed another detail which helped me tremendously... namely a map!!... we've then created two maps showing where the story took place. Using all this information I started writing, and along the line I introduced every character in a simple way which wouldn't confuse the reader...developing the story slightly and adding last effects...after a few months of creating it, step by step, I finished it! Expressing my joy and sharing the news with my friend, giving it the title of "The Exes" ... and setting out to publish it. The help I got from Jay was remarkable. I've done all I could to write it in the simplest form. And there it was... it is a fantasy world I'm quite proud of...
As a writer, joining the information I had into a book was the most interesting part... ofcourse the time in class was most useful as well.. sorry? careless? was it? hehe... It probably was... but luckily since I don't depend on memorising in my studies I managed to pass without paying much attention in class...
what I said was: "If you try to remember what you learn, you will forget. But if you try to understand what you learn, you will remember!"
Over all, this is what happened... yes I've used the boring lessons to practice my interests... yet fear not, it is but a once in a lifetime thing... for I will not risk wasting other lessons again... hehe... careless indeed! :D

Friday, July 22, 2005

Practice sketches!

To complete what I've set out to do... which was add more action and expressions on my characters' faces, after practising drawing them in general... I guess I'm quite done with drawing normal portraits and decided to go a step further... those are just sketches of my first attempts... Scenes from "The Exes" ... I was somehow satisfied with the appearance... I admit however... not being used to drawing action I had to take life examples... the outcome was this:

Just my imagination!

... well I guess I was bored the moment this was drawn... but later for some reason I had fun with it :p.... simply cuz it was something new...
first drawn with pencil, then outlined with a black pen and lastly colored with watercolors... which would've been a mistake, kinda complicated things...

and last of all... as a notice:

rule # 1: don't ask me what the creature is

rule # 2: the rule above

rule # 3: same!

The Da Vinci code (Dan Brown)


How many of you read this book? What do you think of it? ... So far everyone I asked found it fascinating... Robert Langdon's the main character Dan Brown always uses... strangely enough the character himself is not described in every book... what I liked most about it was the clues that were left behind and how they were decoded... quite enjoyable.




another good story was (angels and demons)... satan seems to be speaking arabic here...

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Maya 5

Some time ago I've been searching for an animation graphic designing software that'd meet my expectations in creating 3D graphics... I was keen on mastering that more than anything else and I searched for a program in Oman... truly I had no information or experience in this field, yet thought that despite all the machines they used to make graphics in movies and what not, there had to be a software that could do all that.
So I went into the shop and asked the shopkeeper for a software where I could create my own 3D graphics... surely he didn't take me seriously at first and gave me a blank look. After realizing I was for real he gave me a list of programs I never heard of... and none seemed to give the results I wanted until finally I came across Maya. So far the only software I found which has the exact 3D modeling I was looking for, moreover, the new version consists of water and fur effects. Ofcourse the software itself I assume is quite expensive, nevertheless I took the learning edition... Maya 5... the newest the librarian could give me.



The functions are quite amazing... there's almost nothing you can't do... but also amazingly difficult when you go deeper into it. It is however something future 3D graphic designers would find useful. Even the basics are intense, yet something I was happy to find after a long search.

What I found quite intriguing were the different tools and the unique way of being able to do one thing in more than one way , in addition to actually adjusting the tools in a way you're most comfortable with. Even though I've been through the first few pages... I realized I would need more, since the learning edition software doesn't offer all the tools listed in the book. Nevertheless, this is one software that has quite the results I need. For more information visit the links bellow:

http://www.alias.com

http://www.sybex.com


Survival

A story of survival... some kinda poem I wrote some time ago... right at the spot! ... sometimes I wonder how I come up with them... but I realized that telling a story through a poem turned out to be quite enjoyable... words flow like a river :p....pff... somethin I picture shakespeare saying... *despite the fact that I don't know what he looked like*... but never the less, this story has a moral and a final conclusion which came to me by chance... quite intriguing when you get a stormbrrrr....... aahhh... You know!?... that thing!!! whatever you call it... oh nevermind, enough talk... read it!!... I mean... enjoy! :p

Silence grew among the stones
Waterdrops stood out
Sounds that came in different tones
And hardly caused a sprout
Silence that did not show peace
Nor harmony I doubt
Something eerie was unleashed
I start to roam about

Ways were spread one here one there
The channels did not join
I paused to think and flip a dare
through one side of my coin

My luck was heads, it's only fair
And so I crossed the way
I hurried on, my feet were bare
But nothing stops my day

It's only hope, it's only strength
That only counts today
The days I spent have reached a length
No more than I can say

So on I ran with beaming eyes
I thought I saw a ray
Coming through where endless tries
Were made to break the clay
So on I broke with endless sighs
Nothing stops my way
There's naught a value money buys
More worth than lives can pay


Tripletee