Finally watched Fantastic Mr. Fox. (Yeah, I know, I tend to be a bit outdated) Borrowed it from the uni library, I guess that's one of the good things about being in art school, you can do fun stuff and call it studying. As a side note, I'm trying to catch up watching and reading all the 'classic' stuff that everyone has to see, like novels, comic books and movies. Recently finished reading Lord of the Flies.Also watched the first Star Wars movie for an assignment, and plan to finish watching the whole series. Hmm...all animators seem to be geeks who worship the very DVD that the Star Wars movies are burnt onto, and can recite everything that happens in every shot of every scene of every episode. But me, I know nothing about it. I can name a few characters. And I think the concept art is cool *thumbs up*. Um...that's all.

Anyway, back to the main story. Fox is based on a book by Roald Dahl, of course, but you'd notice that a lot of the content makes you wonder "wow...how did they translate that from words to picture?" I haven't read the book, but based on the interviews in the DVD (I'm starting to like special features sections) the story was actually quite short, so a lot of content was added. Which is really good, I think, because it's all in Roald Dahl's sweet and sarcastic style, so you never notice the difference.

The animation was a bit jerky, but I thought that was ok. Apparently they were aiming for a more old school King Kong kind of feel, and the stop motion animation was done in a more manual way. Not sure what that means,though. The rippling fur effect(caused by the animators touching the puppets) was used well, there were parts where the fur was still, when it should be, and then there were parts where the puppets need not have been moved by the animators, yet the fur was still intentionally disturbed a bit to make it look like wind was blowing.It's kind of nice when people leave in the flaws of a certain medium that makes it unique.Was pretty impressed that they managed to pull off human character animation as well, and it didn't look rubber-zombie freaky.

The art direction was pretty good too, especially the backgrounds, which kind of remind me of colour pencil childrens' book illustrations, in a charming, simple way. The voice acting was good. The acting for animation was wonderful, lots of small gestures and expressions that make the animation look really natural. Umm...can't think of anything bad to say about the movie.Oh yeah, the rat was annoying.But he was kind of a minor character anyway.

Being experimental with my grocery shopping recently. There's a lot of foodstuff that cannot be found in Malaysia, and not just ingredients for Mexican food. There's also this hippy stuff:

pseudo-milk, in rice and almond flavours :D. Apparently, it's targeted at vegans and lactose intolerant people. Maybe it's something that needs getting used to, but I prefer normal milk. Mostly it tastes like water with flour dissolved in it. The almond one is a bit better. It tastes like flour water with an almond aftertaste...On the other hand, you'd probably loose weight if you keep substituting ricemilk for normal milk with your cereal every day.

Nah, I don't get the whole vegan thing. If they're so concerned about animal welfare, just get organic eggs and milk, and life will be that little bit better. I don't get the no-garlic religious thing either. I heard that it's because garlic is antibacterial, so no killing of microbes is allowed. But then again, so is your saliva.
Also, just bought a small amount of this to try since it was on offer. I think it's called sweet brown rice, or something to that effect.There's also many other kinds of brown and wild rice sold at the place I buy my food from, which looks really fascinating, especially the more colourful varieties. Unfortunately, I think I might have boiled today's rice with too much water, and it only achieved the consistency of soggy glutinous rice.I'll try again next time.

And I roasted a turkey for dinner too! (ok, fine, I roasted sections of turkey for dinner)But it turned out pretty satisfying for something so easy. Add to that some roasted vegetables and pumpkin, and potato salad left in my fridge since last century.I put the pumpkin seeds in the pan as well just to see what would happen.Turns out you can get the same effect as those pumpkin seeds sold as tidbits, although it probably will help if the pan is not so juicy and oily.
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Passed by the building that burnt down a few days ago, since I'm such a KPC. Must have been pretty scary being the neighbours and standing outside, crossing your fingers and hoping the fire won't spread(I heard from the tour guide during orientation tour, that buildings are required to be built with a 1 inch gap between them so that if a building catches fire, water can be squirted into the crack and prevent the next building from catching fire). Apparently the floors have caved in, so the whole building is inaccessible now, and they'll be tearing it down. All because someone was careless about their cigarrette. They must be having plenty of sleepless nights now.
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In other news, my apartment common areas have been decorated for Halloween by the Resident Assistant and co. Adds a bit to the atmosphere. Can I have some candy too? According to one of my lecturers, there's going to be a marathon coming up in SF, where everyone runs in costumes. Don't know the details though, but that sounds pretty fun.

Here's a little painting I did inbetween studying anatomy,1) when I feel apathic towards muscle names,2)to test myself if I can do a digital painting, and 3) because I need to refresh my memory about how to use Photoshop.I had to think hard to remember shortcut keys which I used to use everyday in office. Come to think of it I probably have to do some Maya work urgently before I get too rusty.

Slightly better than what I did before. Found out that crosshatching the colours is a more intuitive painting mode for me, and maybe because I didn't pressure myself too much. And yes, I like fluffy albino hair.It's becoming a bit predictable.

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It's been raining like crazy these past few days. The annoying thing is that when it rains, it drizzles, for hours, maybe a few days on end, and even worse, it's a light misty kind of rain, like the sky is pretending that it's not raining. I prefer Malaysian style. It's either pouring dramatically or it's completely dry. It's stopped raining this evening. For now. Hopefully I can walk outside and get some things done tomorrow. Just discovered a list of grocery places which I can reach by taking the uni bus and then walking the rest of the way. A few of those grocery places sound like they could offer both food and non edible shopping (like toiletries and kitchenware) under the same roof, rather than what I'm doing now, which is food from Chinatown(fresh food) and the food store(Western ingredients and non-perishable food), and anything else from the convenience mart(which is probably more expensive than what I should pay).

I made chocolate pudding! More accurately, it's called Jaffa Pudding,and hopefully the texture is correct. I don't have a weighing scale, so all the ingredients are by judgement only. But it tastes great!(of course, if it has an unspeakable amount of sugar and chocolate in it)

served with ice cream.
Also, here's what my wall looks like now, with my Birthday greeting cards and some other eye candy on it.
Coin purse and hairclips from my eldest sis! So cute.
In other news...my entire class ditched lunch today 0_0. That's what happens when the lecturer asks us to finish up our sculpture base and then go for lunch, and everyone is kiasu enough to just keep going until lunch passes by. So that's 6 hours of standing up and pounding heavy clay about, without eating.Probably everyone was like me and waiting to see if anyone would make the first move to put down the clay and step away for lunch.

Hmm..at least that's more noble than the last time I missed lunch in class because I forgot to bring a spoon to eat lunch with, and people thought I wasn't eating because I was nervous to present my final project progress work.

Here's some pics of new recipes I've been trying. Running out of ideas about what to cook these past few weeks, mostly it's been improvising old recipes to suit whatever ingredients I have in the kitchen.

Roasted pumpkin and spinach lasagna. It has bechamel sauce on top, which is milk with butter and flour, so after baking it looks almost like cheese. I intentionally skipped the cheese in this lasagna though, it's probably not good that I've been eating so much of it lately. That and red meat. And potatoes, come to think of it.Roasted butternut pumpkin tastes really good though, and you don't really have to peel it.

Left: Broccoli tomato pasta with lemon juice, Right: Potato salad. Not a big fan of lemon juice on pasta, so I've been trying to finish up the portion by eating a bit of it at every meal. (And yes, this plate has too much carbohydrates on it)
Besides those, I went out for an Indian lunch on Sunday with my Malaysian friends here. It's been so long since I've had a professionally prepared Indian meal, so that was satisfying. (so just have to take care of the croissant, sushi and chocolate cravings next) Tried paneer naan, since I've been curious about how paneer tastes like. It's a type of cheese, which is pretty mild. And...

kari kambing :)

Well...more accurately mutton masala. But that's one to keep in mind if I eat at that restaurant again.I overate though...so I had a weird feeling in my stomach for the rest of the day.

Also, I've been craving chocolate these past few days. I purposely went out to get a candy bar the other day, and made an excuse that I had to buy toothpaste.Don't recognise the candy that they sell here. I wanted a Crunchie. So I'm planning to make a really indulgent chocolate pudding soon. Maybe it's the effect of eating too much vegetables. I noticed though, that most vegetarian recipes will have cheese in it. It's like there has to be some animal component somewhere. But if you are vegan, good luck. Find a house near a forest and gather your food from there.

I know, right. Being a modern human, there's no way of being fully sinless towards nature unless you actually gather your own food from the forest.And walk around naked. And have no mode of transport except your legs. And basically isolate yourself from the rest of the world.Also, your house can only be either a cave or woven out of fallen tree branches.

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Speaking of which, I've been slightly sick these past few days. The weather is fluctuating like a chameleon on drugs, so I've been loosing my voice and getting my throat clogged with phlegm. Been thinking of going for a blood drive organised by the uni in a week's time too, so I hope I can get well before that. People have been encouraged to get vaccinated for the flu season though. I dunno if it can get serious here? To me a flu is just a flu...so no vaccination for me.

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Also, I've been thinking of new places to stay during Winter, and for Summer onwards next year. I have to be back in the same place for Spring because of my contract, but other than that I want to look for somewhere cheaper. I've been hearing that some places in the outskirts can be as low as $500-600 per month, compared to $1230 I'm paying now. Only drawback is that it will take more time and money commuting back to uni and the city area, and there might not be as many nearby amenities such as grocery stores and launderettes(is it time to get a bike? No, Yeen Yee, what about when it's time to shift?). But in the outskirts it doesn't feel as congested as in the city, all there is in the city is apartments, whereas there are proper houses in the outskirts, with more trees and no high buildings to block off the view.

OK, I have some photos from the Legion of Honor :) I used up my camera battery taking all this stuff. Here are my favourite pics.

The entrance to the museum.
The museum houses a lot of sculptures by Rodin. This one's the Thinker. That's my lecturer in the background, the guy with the camera. The other 2 are my classmates.
Rodin's The Kiss. Apparently this, and a lot of his other sculptures were considered offensive in his time because they portrayed everyday people, not mythical characters.

Dynamic poses. Give me moar.
Another one by Rodin. I like the floating postures.

This was my favourite, Monteverde's Columbus as a boy.
Awesome folds.
And my favourite painting (I'm a sucker for technical details) Makovsky's The Russian bride's attire.

English-made Chinaware. Wasn't enjoying most of the English porcelain, there's something about the colourful kitsch that annoys me, but this one's pretty. I prefer made in China chinaware more, which is more delicate and understated. And also Rene Lalique glassware.

Oh yeah, random thought, but Louis Comfort Tiffany is an awesome name. And yes, he is related to the Tiffany and co. jewellers. Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse Lautrec Monfa is even awesomer(I found this out from watching Moulin Rouge DX)
This piece reminds me of Japanese Washi

I like how the fowl is superimposed on the rabbit.Now it's got 4 legs, 2 wings, a long tail and ears. And I think it was intentional.
The top part of a grandfather clock in the Rococco furniture hall. I'm not sure if Rococco annoys me or not...but Baroque is probably better. To me.

Just been thru a rather hectic week this week, mostly caused by having to do a presentation on the development for my anatomy final project. Here's a pic of the 1/2 sized maquette I made for the presentation. I only decided that I would forgo sleep and make it the day before class. I have several pages of pose studies I did as well, which I thought would be enough(and is the average amount my classmates presented), until I remembered the lecturer sort of hinted that he would like to see a maquette for my project as well. Hence had to do a bit of running around the various uni buildings getting wood sawn for the base and looking for tools to make it. That's one of the bad things about staying away from your family, you never have certain objects that you take for granted. For instance I needed a wire cutter,epoxy putty, a saw and hammer and nails for making the base. Luckily there's the traditional sculpture building a few blocks away where I could use those. I still bought the wood though, which turned out to be a 90 inch plank I had to drag across the city while people pointed and laughed. Thinking back, maybe I should have just been thick skinned and asked for used pieces of wood from the uni.

Yeah, I stuffed it with newspaper because I wanted to save clay and also to make it lighter. Carrying sculptures in the bus, with 3 other bags you need for class is definitely not fun. The maquette is 1/6 human size, the actual sculpture will be 1/3, roughly as high as you knee. Need to alter the pose a bit for the final sculpture, tends to still look static from certain angles.

And here's some pics of other sculptures I've been making.

My updated feet. Now with an inch high base! My sculpting lecturer said he would help me bake this, so I'll have to hollow out the sculpture to 1 inch thickness. Hopefully by then it will still be in the same shape and will not crack/break/disintegrate DX. Hopefully this can get into the Spring Show(the big exhibition the uni puts up once a year).

This is the second human figure I've been making in class. The first one was a female model, but we had to tear it down in the end so we could reuse the armature for this piece.(oh noes...hopefully I can get my hands on a pic of it from my classmate) Usually we'd have the same model come for 3 weeks consecutively and we have to make this 1/3 scale model of them. Still have some issues with the head-body size though.Oh gosh...6 hours X 3 classes...18 hours that the model just stands there. You could write a novel in your head in that amount of time.

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This edition's food pic. Cinnamon shortbread I baked for my birthday! (yeah...so sad, I baked my own birthday treat) I was worried it wouldn't hold together because it came out of the oven still soggy and crumbly, but it was alright after it cooled down. Could probably use more flour and cinnamon next time though. I gave myself an ulcer from eating this too much.
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While we are on the subject of sculptures...I dunno why, but sculpting sessions always, without exception, end with me in some degree of pain. Most of the time I get minor scratches from the wires inside the sculptures, but if I get new materials, like wood or clay, that means I will get muscle pain from having to transport them around. Other than that, I've gotten my shins blue-blacked from kneeling on a deformed stool, my thumb currently feels mildly poisoned by the epoxy putty, and my knuckles are getting super dried out from the clay (they use clay as an oil-removing product in facial care, don't they?)If all else fails, I still get a paper cut from, believe it or not, a flier posted on a classroom door.

Makes me want to stay as far away as possible from sawing machines, welding and metal casting, I tell you.

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'Tis the season for field trips for uni. Tomorrow, my sculpting class will be going to the Palace of the Legion of Honor art museum, so that's a happy little break for my fingers from oil sucking clay.

My anatomy class will be going for a cadaver workshop though, so guess who will not be joining. Luckily attendance is not compulsory. I really think the trip would benefit me, but no way I will muster up the guts it takes to go for it. Studying from textbooks for me, please. The most I think I will ever make myself do is to watch a dissection from video, or 'dissect' a chicken before cooking it for dinner.More than not wanting to see a dead body, I don't want to smell one.Even funerals are not as gruesome, but the deceased would of course be made to look nice and would be relatively fresh. I remember we were shown a video of a dissection in TOA once, I was one of those that looked away, but could hear my classmates' gasps and accidentally caught a few glimpses. Even then, I didn't want to eat meat that was still in the shape of body parts, for a few weeks, and it took the fun out of eating meat indefinitely (except kari kambing). That video put me on a mince-meat trend. If I go for the cadaver workshop, I'll probably go on a boiled-cabbage-and-congee trend.

I'm consoling myself by saying that anatomy textbooks and instructional videos are there for a reason, and a 2 hour dissection won't make too much of a difference to my understanding.

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OK, since I've had a good nap just now, I think I have some time to leave some thoughts on the life drawing sessions I've been having. I remember when me and my officemates were going to Melaka and we were in Jarold's car, he remarked about how sad it is that nude drawing in unavailable in Malaysia. I wonder if it's technically illegal? Will the khalwat people come and raid? Hmm...I think they would O_O (Or the would register for classes. lol. Oops, I didn't say that.)

Incidentally, I saw this when I was reading Persepolis. For those who don't know, it's a graphic novel about the author; a Middle Eastern girl growing up in Europe. Check it out if you haven't, I was entertained. They have an animation version of the book too.(btw, click the pic to enlarge)

But back to the main story, after going for the life drawing sessions here, I kind of wonder what the use of life drawing was back in Malaysia. People in tights, really all you get to observe is their line of movement(to a certain degree) and some basic blocks of mass. And maybe forelimbs if you were paying close enough attention. Then again, even here, not all models are created equal, right? Personally for me I get a bit disappointed when some models aren't being original about their poses, and you have like 5 similar poses of them in your sketchbook, and if you are unlucky, from the same angles as well.

And what's the deal about people's perception of the models? I think my roommate still thinks they are slutty, but I don't agree.Yes, I have seen one that looks slightly slutty and I think while standing there, in her head she's probably rehearsing the steps to her lap dance she has to do that evening, but other than that one person, everyone else is decent. Several of them are artist themselves, so I guess they get why what they are doing is important for the students. As for the atmosphere is a life drawing class, I guess it's almost the same thing as a Japanese bath house. It's kind of peaceful (at least it is for me, not so if you are the emo kid who keeps cursing your charcoal pencils as the reason for you bad drawings)as in everyone is appreciating human form, regardless of whether or not you are fat, or you boobs are too small, or saggy, or if you have spots on your body, or if you have pubic hair. Because humans are like that, we're not all fashion models, and it becomes an almost religious appreciation of nature. I think it's wabi-sabi.

Time for a little update. I've been very busy these past few weeks with uni projects...but anyways here are a few pics I took anyway. When I'm free next, I'll post a long philosophical piece,ok?

Yeen™ Macaroni v2.0 . Now with bacon and hard boiled eggs. Served with fruits. These past few days I've been massacre-ing fruits...they make me feel full and hydrated after a meal. Based on observation, peaches and bananas are the cheapest fruits to buy here...ironic...I was hoping for oranges and prunes. My favourites. But I think prunes might actually be cheaper in Malaysia.
Vegetable pie. This one is another version from the one I tried before. I modified the recipe that I found online, which had wine and lentils in it. I used mung beans instead. Wanted to add milk too, but I accidentally made the vegetable filling too watery in the first place, so I stopped adding more liquid.Somehow tastes very jelak...might be the mung beans, or the cheese.
Chunky carrots inside. I eat too many carrots than is morally correct. Wonder if it will make my skin more orange. The good thing is that it's good for your eyes, protects it from the sun and computer glare, I think. Broccoli too.

A bunch of homework and home studies for anatomy class.

a: Life size drawings done from skeletons

b: Thumbnails for this term's final project

c: Copied bone and muscle diagrams from a book,as a way to memorise anatomy

d: Skeletal overlays. The lecturer gave us a few copies of classical drawings, and we have to imagine how the skeleton looks like(as in, be medically correct too). Next step is to imagine the muscles over that.

e) Sketches from life drawing sessions.

Homework from sculpting class. The feet are work in progress. But both clays are really nice to use, very soft and smooth, and no weird smell.They are natural, water based clays. Pity that I dunno how to bake them(apparently that is an entire subject by itself). I remember the last time I used clay, it was a non-drying variety of natural clay that I bought from Multifilla, and it smelt like sulphur. Also, it was so hard that some people warm it up with a hairdryer before they could easily sculpt with it. I'll tell you something ironic, the ear was sculpted from my roommate's ear, and she's Black. The feet are sculpted from my own feet, and under my suntan(like my feet area, since I wear sneakers so often), I'm quite pale.

It looks like chocolate!