I have been working lately on the contest entries for Good VS Evil and the Adidas contest over at dA.  There are already some amazing entries (just from what I have seen in my message center from people I watch) so I am not feeling all that optimistic but at the same time I am creating work and learning along the way and the topics have generated a lot of interesting ideas I want to try out so… Here are a couple thumbs of ideas that I have. I have finished one entry so far and will post it later over at dA when I think of what I want to say about it. For now thumbs.

One of the main characters of a manga idea I want to create-Eros. Still working on the design for Seoul-the other half of the main cast. I used a pic of the guy from the Korean version of Hana Yori Dango-who’s name I know I will butcher without looking it up.

I was browsing stock photos over at dA and came across one I really liked by Badinstinct of an underwater scene. Total time around 30 minutes in Painter 11 using just Artists’ Oil.

xx

Adding a dreamy effect to pictures: Go to filter>distort>diffuse glow

http://niftytutorials.com/photo-effects/add-a-dreamy-or-misty-effect-to-your-photos/#more-80

Creating realistic looking water:

http://photoshopcontest.com/tutorials/26/displacement-water.html

Movie Effect

http://ebin.wordpress.com/2007/03/21/how-to-turn-your-photo-into-movie-like-effect-using-photoshop/

After reading a photography book (title slips my mind at the moment) it mentioned that getting up early around (before?) sunrise and near sunset are the best times to take outdoor photos so that is what I did in the following pictures. The thing I like about these is that there is so much beauty in rural Japan and sometimes when I am telling someone look over there isn’t it lovely, they look at me kind of strangely as if to say “it’s just a field” or “it’s just a xx”.  I think these photos capture and show what I can’t seem to convey so well with words-like giving anyone who views the pictures a chance to see things the way I do. I never thought about it but that is rather intimate, no? It’s not so often we can literally see something from someone else’s perspective-that is something I will try to keep in mind in the future when taking photos ^_^

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A week or so ago I finally got a dslr, with a name like Kiss X2 I couldn’t resist ^_^Here are some of my first pictures with it playing around with the various modes and settings.

A small sketch dump, full post in first comment

I currently have a copy of Painter 9.5 but version 11 seems to be a vast improvement. 11 is so much more responsive than 9.5, considering upgrading after the trial is over. A couple of doodles playing with the different media.

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A friend and I got together and made a sofa out of styrofoam. Haha I couldn’t get the silly wood tool set to work right with the power source here so I gave up trying to use that and we put this together literally with pins and needles (and some hot glue tehe).

On the sofa is a Japanese 500 yen coin (about the size of an American quarter) for size comparison. The legs are not finished yet, I originally cut 4 rather nice (imho) curved legs for the sofa but can’t seem to find them. So using what I have I am thinking about “carving” the styrofoam legs at some point-or maybe not. I did this mostly to see if I could, since I could maybe I will just throw it away….?

Just another close up of Chaerin. I really like my Sony digicam. I am just playing with it for now but in the (near?) future I want to get a book on photography after I have spent some time learning how to use this camera.