This recently arrived in the mail! It’s a steampunk necklace from Simply Willow. It looks sooooo nice (as you can see :D) and I finally gave in and bought it even though it was so expensive LOL. I saved the image from an ad I saw from it MANY MANY years ago online because I liked it. Then I came across the file in the last few weeks and decided to google and check it out, and omg it has so much cool stuff ): Sucks I can only oogle at the rest of it because of their prices.

I’m leaving for Baltimore tomorrow for Otakon this weekend (: BY CAR (:!!!! for a 9 hour drive YAYYYY……… I’d put on my headphones and listen to music for 9 hours but that’s kinda cruel to my dad who will be driving ): I’ll be seeing a lot of old faces since I haven’t been to a con outside of Toronto for a few years, and I haven’t talked to these people much recently because we’re all busy. It shall be a MOST INTRIGUING EXPERIENCE.

I am pretty happy with my work progress in the few weeks leading up to today; I’ve managed to finish everything I wanted to finish before the con so none of my clients are kept waiting unexpectedly. I’ve got a lot of crap to do after I get back, but having lots of work is good! It means I can keep doing what I’m doing, at least for the near future. It’s just unfortunate that I have to push a lot of personal stuff out of the way to make time for work, like that website revamp that went on hiatus after the draft, and the 3 character portraits I have yet to do, and the abysmally slow Blackbird updates I’ve been pulling off ]: But sacrifices must be made for a good (?) cause!

edit: oh and have a villain! she’s not supposed to be this young (just a few years older) but I find chibis easier to deal with when designing outfits. I’d colour it for easier comprehension but I don’t have any colour scheme in mind ): she reminds me of chibiusa LOL so now my mental image of this pic is like all pink

See you when I get back :D

One of the people suggested on my journal to draw a fight scene, I don’t know if this is what I want to continue/finish though

This is totally the result of me being unable to get over the part in Dead Fantasy where they fall and fight, except this would logically last maybe like 3 seconds instead of 3 minutes, and this is not epically choreographed like DF LOL

as I drew this I also realized the irony of this picture, that even though Veloce is supposed to be the magic user, Blackbird is the one being fancy

looks like all my recent blog entries are like this for some reason

and here’s one of the few pieces I really indulge in from the slow-and-peaceful collective!

Going to Otakon next week :D Then to NYC outlets as per my mom’s request afterward.

I’m trying to make Blackbird more detailed and professional, and the first step is to not slack off on anything, including backgrounds right? I REGRET IT SLIGHTLY NOW because I spent forever drawing these boxes of houses and they still don’t look good because the paper is not big enough, and I gave up using ruler for every single house. In the end the shades covered up most of everything ): BETTER LUCK NEXT TOWN

Also a random scrap inspired by a commercial

and the song for the commercial! the title is “Por Una Cabeza”; it’s a song with singing but I am more attracted to this chamber version. It’s so stylish, I want to play it fff

Lastly I’m in LOVE with Shin Angyo Onshi. I first read it a few months back when my friend introduced it to me, and I enjoyed it very much back then, but recently I went back to read it again and I’m now obsessed over it. There are some things about it that I wish was better but they don’t change how much GENIUS this story is. The art and story telling is phenomenal and I wonder why it’s not famous. I want to buy the books cus I love it soooo much but I don’t think it’s published in English WHAT IS THIS BLASPHEMY. there’s no artbooks or anything AND THE ANIMATED FILM VERSION IS CRAP ]: sad panda

I love work

And I love play

well obviously this is not my play but it’s the most hilarious RO video in history imo

And here’s something from an album that I recently listened to again. Chopin’s opus 10 #12, followed by Godowsky’s 1-hand arrangement, played by Berezovsky! more guilty pleasure yayayayayay

Sometimes I get jealous of record producers; think of all the greatest artists they get to listen to for every work day ):

But first! Two random scraps that I did while taking breaks from work so you don’t have to scroll past the wall of text to see them! Yes, I take breaks from drawing by drawing.

…

sepia: no shit it’s your last smoke THE PARTY IS 2 HIGH PRIESTS, NO KILLER

Carrying on… I came back from Europe like 10 days ago, organized my photos but forgot to post about it, so here they are: http://europe.ashen-ray.com. Most of them are obligatory non-spectacular scenic photos though ): but I promise some elements of beauty and hilarity? Europe was a nice place though; it made North America look like a boring wasteland–granted I don’t go anywhere so I don’t really have any grounds to speak on, but still ]:

We were incredibly lucky on this trip in my opinion; gorgeous weather and general good luck dealing with problematic situations were had in exchange for some minor unfortunate events. Nothing is worse than terribad weather on a long trip, and knowing Europe MOTHER NATURE DID ITS ABSOLUTE BEST.

Europe is exactly as I expected, except exponentially more breathtaking. I love to be impressed, and I truly was, by its history and otherworldly craft of its heritage. Just as my teachers and professors stated, photographs can’t possibly express the greatness of things I saw there, and that feeling of awe is exactly what I need to expand my horizon and add to my skill.

My favourites were London and Versailles. London streets themselves are a work of art; the swift pace, precision, and elegance of everything makes London a charming place to see. Plus everything that the Brits robbed from other countries are there so it made it even better. Versailles is just beyond description. I wished it was a little more well-maintained though, I mean the hallway of mirrors is like the hallway of dirty mirrors, but I realized it’s kind of hard given its size.

My least favourite was touristy Italy. It reminded me a lot of China with its poor manner, control, and the general atmosphere that you have to beware of everything. Plus it was super hot. Good thing it was touristy for good reason, otherwise it would’ve been a horrible way to end the trip.

Now, time to catch up with 3 commissions and 2 manga projects fldsj;flkjhgiodfgahs;jfa

This is the first time I went to AN without a helper/partner, and HOLY SHIT it was difficult to setup/take down on my own because I brought so much crap to make my life easier during the con. I was like dropping stuff all over the place outside and blocking traffic ROFL. and I turned down like 4 people’s offer of help because the day before, my dad was all like YOU SHOULDN’T RELY ON OTHER PEOPLE’S HELP, IF YOU TRY AND THINK YOU’LL FIND A SOLUTION when I was talking to him about setting up and I was all spited and stuff uuuffhh. But Draiad was such a sweetie and helped me out <3

ANYWAYS this year I ran into a lot of RO fans, I think it’s because I printed 2 more RO pics lol. this is like the 10th time I’ve said this but I WISH RO WAS HUGE AND SUCCESSFUL. god I’d love to just make a pure RO stand. I also wish they could just get rid of the pro wrestling area next to the artist alley, HOLY SHIT those bunch are loud and I couldn’t hear myself half the time BUT IT’S THERE EVERY YEAR ]: I didn’t take pictures of anything because I had to stay at my table for the whole weekend. Come to think of it I don’t even remember taking pics of friends that came by LOL I’M SO HORRIBLE. I’ll just have to ask minyi for that ONE pic she took of us……

speaking of minyi, turns out she stayed at a place very close to me so I took her to and back from the con for 2 days. She didn’t wake up on the second day and totally jumped when I busted into their bedroom LOL and she was so out of it after that and couldn’t do BASIC MATH…… That’s ok though, her kawaii asianness and awesome free print (fist to whoever that took the one I wanted) and British accent makes up for everything. I swear if I hang out with her for a few more days I’m going to start talking in that accent……

I drew a bunch of sketches on the last day because I was so sleepy and didn’t want to do more commissions. I was a GENIUS and slept at 3am on both friday and saturday nights so I was like brain dead for all of sunday. I was leaning backwards on my chair and drawing on my table at arm’s length. when I was done I look up the paper and they were all long and slanted and trapezoid shaped and WARPED because I was looking at the paper from a weird angle. Now I have to free transform them on photoshop back to whatever strange angle they were at before…… and all the sketches were so generic because I couldn’t think of anything interesting. I tried to make a character design but it was kinda meh and bland cus my brain couldn’t function. At least there was no wrestling on the third day ]:

Second drawing of Veloce in that outfit. She looks like a windmill at top view lol. I STILL can’t decide on how to do the back but whatever. The rectangle on the left is a thumb of how I want the entire picture to be (cumulus cloud covering the sun, pouring over a destroyed land in the horizon). the little text says “Storms that blind the sun cannot extinguish the destruction I’ve wrought”

Random sketch of Blackbird because I never draw her. I hate this sketch though, cus the figure is so not her and the shapes are horrible and her face looks dumb. This one and the next 2 are the sketches that I had to free transform cus they were mutated ]: but ya she doesn’t wear the same thing all the time, just very similar

Vocruen slightly pissed LOL??? he would never pull this face on vel though. maybe on other people…

prelim design for Rae (sangyun is his last name). most of the asian names in the story would phonetically mimic the chinese pronunciation. While I like asian names names I just can’t stand the authentic spelling, not to mention half the time it’s pronounced wrong. So I might as well make up cool english names based on chinese pronunciation! I need to look up chinese clothing to improve this ]: I have very limited ideas when it comes to oriental designs. The rug on his back is like wolf skin but I don’t know how to do it LOL. He’s a young bookworm mr. nice guy king. He’s kinda like Keri save for the fact that he’s not naive to the point of stupid

THAT IS ALL. And going to europe in 2 days :D I’ll be at london, paris, luzern, venice, rome, munich, and maybe salzburg. what are some recommended destinations of these places?

Maybe this is a strange reaction to this video, but this video touches my heart and this video reflects very well the reason why I wanted to and enjoyed studying music. sadly I’ve given up. I guess I still have art!

oh and I totally want to own the documentary in this video. I don’t understand half the things they’re saying because of their accent BUT I DON’T CARE

I should be ashamed but I love shit like this. well until he got to the end. if it weren’t for the end I’d be tempted to learn it lol

anime north nonsense coming up when I’m not so brain dead ffffff