Haute Comme 3 Pommes

Mango cheesecake with a caramelized sugar decoration. I wish I could have it again.

I can't believe August is slipping through my fingers so quickly! I've spent the last week and a half on a small family vacation and on a camping trip (I got back on Sunday). I did do some sketching, but I had a chance to take some lovely photos on both trips (let's just say I forgot my sketchbook at home at some point)! Here are some of the things I took... excuse the terrible quality of some of them, I have no idea how to use a fancy camera.

The pool at the hotel my family stayed at- it was sooo beautiful!


This was the marina; I played with the settings so it looks like cool creepy lights.

And, I have new feature for this blog..it's called "Eye Eat"
This is where I get to showcase the food I come across.
You see the pun? I'm so smart super duper lame eh?

And behold, the first Eye Eat!
It's laksa - a curry-like soup with vermicelli, vegetables, and seafood. Or at least that's the laksa my dad had (there's various types of laksa says wikipedia).


And the second Eye Eat too. It's vietnamese chicken noodle soup or pho ga. I'll be honest, it wasn't as crazy as I thought it'd be - the soup was lacking in flavour and the chicken wasn't too great either. On the bright side, I did get a good helping of vegetables in it!

That's it for now, stay tuned for part 2!

I love drawing!
...
...
It's a shame I'm pretty lazy though. *insert generic excuse about time and priorities here*

On the other hand, I've been enjoying the sunshine - and not sitting in my room and playing my PS2 (yes, I'm too cheap to upgrade to the PS3). The only problem is that my arms are a shade darker than my legs. I'm debating whether to tan my legs while covering my upper body with a beach towel or blanket.

Here's a peek of what I've recently drawn in my sketchbook:

1) Doodles

I was bored and wanted to try drawing people that weren't necessarily standing upright and staring directly at the viewer- if you've seen my art, those aspects are common. Okay, I realize that the girl who's playing hide-and-seek is standing up.. BUT NOT UPRIGHT HA! Um, anyways. Please excuse my lack of knowledge of the derriere, it's a learning process. Wait, everything is.

2)Serious Business...in the form of a chair

This is a drawing I'd like to paint digitally (soon), but I have no idea how to use straight line in SAI. Tutorials, where areeeee you? Jennifer needs you! I literally brought up a chair from my dining room to my room to sketch it.

Dad: "What are you doing with that chair?"
Me:"I'm drawing it,Dad."
Dad:"Oh, okay". *leaves*

"Drawing something" = good explanation

I'll be in the back, practicing SAI.Hopefully. I'd like to know what keeps people motivated to draw and be immune to procrastination

Insomnia sucks, so why not blog instead?
I've decided to take a stand against my fear of digital painting by trying out some programs (that art trade you saw last time is currently frozen)..

1) Sumo Paint: I found it very convenient to use - no download needed, hooray for more space on my computer- and loved the brushes that were offered (dry brush 1 and 2 were my favourites, and the random chess piece brushes were pretty awesome), but I got frustrated pretty easily since some of the functions didn't work well (in my case, the undo button). I'd like to try this again when I have some more experience.. and patience.
Website:
http://www.sumopaint.com


2)Painter 12: I've seen amazing pieces done with Corel Painter in the magazine ImagineFX, so I figured I could try it out. Corel Painter offers a more traditional approach to digital painting;for example, if you decide to use the (Acrylic) Bristle Brush, the strokes look genuine - just like how you'd paint on a canvas or on paper. Only problem is, I know *drum roll* NOTHING. It's (in my opinion - because I know nothing about painting programs) complex. I'm nowhere close to the point where I know when to adjust viscosity nor grain (note to self: figure out what grain is). This is something that can be really useful if I ever want to imitate a traditional medium like acrylics or oils.
Website(30 day trial):
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/ca/en/Product/1208716842481#versionTabview=tab0&tabview=tab7

3) Paint Tool SAI: It seems as if Paint Tool SAI is a good program.. People have told me it's a good tool to paint with and it's easy (the angels are already singing). I just downloaded the 30 day trial and...IT'S ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Pardon the capslock, I'll return to being polite. Anyways, I find this program (in the 30 minutes I've fiddled with it) to be simple - I've haven't played around with the advanced setting or anything.. just some brushes and the blender- and not irritating like Sumo Paint (sorry Sumo Paint). Here's a doodle I did on SAI (it's hair if you can't recognize what it is)!



*I've used a mixture of yellow, orange and brown (at low opacity) for the hair*

As a newbie to digital painting, I'm going to try out SAI some more and hopefully make some cool stuff. That blinds people.. with AWESOMENESS.

Website (30 day trial):
http://www.systemax.jp/en/sai/


P.S. For some reason the SAI and Sumopaint links weren't working so I'll see if I can fix them up later - the websites are bolded for now.

Yup, it's that time of the day - WIP (work in progress) hour!
Well, I only spent half an hour. But that's a secret between you and me.



This is my current masterpi- I meant WIP of an art trade I'm working on with someone on deviantart. The only trouble is, digital art sort of frightens me. Why be afraid of a program like Photoshop or Paint Tool SAI you ask? Please refer to Exhibit A and Exhibit B below.

Exhibit A(before I use a digital medium):


Exhibit B (after using a digital medium):


*I might have burned some corneas and stopped people from looking from my art ever again*

A simple equation that sum up my current relationship with painting programs...
Digital medium + Jennifer = Epic fail

What is an Epic fail? Homer Simpson demonstrates the concept well.




Regardless, I'll do my best to get this picture done to the best of my abilities! :)

This is my scholarship painting about the relationship between the development of Canadian medicine and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - the theme for the scholarship was Canadian medicine and war. There are three soldiers, one from a different war; the one in the back is from WWI, the one screaming (oh yay) is from WWII, and the one in the front is from the Middle Eastern conflicts / Iraq War. And to make this painting even more impressive, there's terrible lighting! I kid, it was an accident (I didn't realize until the last minute that the committee was going to keep my painting :( ).

So that's it for now, and I'll be posting up some Work in Progresses (WIPs) pretty soon!

One more exam to go. I can do this. I think.
While I try not to go insane, here's some photography I did in Art this year! :)