30 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 3 – Favourite Food

Most people associate soup with cold winter days. But I believe there’s never a wrong time for a nice bowl of soup. Thick soups make for filling meals, and noodle soups are great light snacks. Out of potato chips? Just shake up a bag of raw Mr. Noodles and the soup stock! But don’t tell mother Raichu I said that.

Also viewed at: http://pikainabag.deviantart.com/art/30-Day-Art-Challenge-Day-3-Favourite-Food-622123028

As you can probably tell, this particular drawing was inspired off the ramen Sosuke’s mum made in the movie, Ponyo (on the Cliff by the Sea). The trick is to close your eyes and wait three minutes. It doesn’t work if you peek!

The truth is, I still haven’t seen Ponyo. After delving deeper into the wonderful world of interactive entertainment known as “vidya gaims,” it has become harder to sit idle and watch movies, in which the characters follow a straight path, upon which you have no influence. Even if the video game is linear, you have the feeling of knowing the story cannot progress until you do something to help them along.

The most fascinating part of Miyazaki’s films were the little details that make things feel so much more three dimentional. From Chihiro tapping her shoes in Spirited Away, to Pazu licking his lips before playing his trumpet in Castle in the Sky, these little details stay true to real life, and make the movies feel like both fantasy and reality rolled into one. In Ponyo, it’s the inclusion of this very simple trick you can do for kids. And for yourself, on those days when you also want tea.

You might recall a previous post, in which we tried the 3-minute ramen recipe. If you want a more vegetarian-friendly recipe, skip the ham and eggs, and add a spoonful of organic peanut butter. It tastes like pad Thai. Don’t forget the 4068!* (You know you’ve been working at the grocery store too long when…)

And thus concludes another brief post about the drawing challenge. We’re nearly at the next plushie post! What could it be?! Here’s a hint:

Going back to where it all began…

How do you like your instant noodles? Comment below!

Pika, so happy~

*That’s the PLU for green onions, by the way.

30 Day Drawing Challenge: Day 2 – Favourite Animal

Truth be told, I like all kinds of animals. But being a dog person in particular, this funny little guy came to mind:

Daschunds combine two of my favourite things: doggies, and food. Ta-da! Sausage dog! As you can see, I had improved somewhat in my colouring techniques. One of the best tips is to not be afraid to press harder when colouring. Also, try using the very tip of the pencil, rather than laying it on its side.

I went back and touched up this doggy, after realizing the shading on its back leg was actually not too bad. You know, I never liked when people took pictures of their drawings, because they would hold the drawing (creating an obvious dent in the page) or turn on flash. (Seriously bro, what is your life about?) But after seeing what scanning does to pencil drawings, taking pictures may not be a bad idea. Now, if I could just get the lighting right…

And now, some sausage dog stories. Because everyone likes dogs, right?

Percy the Dog

I once went with M to his friend’s birthday party, and the friend had two doggies: a white dog (Maltese, I think?) called Sophie, and a sausage called Percy. When I tried to pet Sophie, Percy came, shoved her out of the way, and put his snout in my hand. Later, when I was sitting on the porch step, he squeezed himself under my legs, and he felt like a squishy pillow. When M came outside, Percy ran away, and I was upset with M for scaring him away. M was forgiven after he gave me a drink. 😛 Percy was also staring at me while we were eating dinner. I think he was confused as to why I was eating a sausage. His eyes looked like he was saying, “but… I thought you loved me!”

You might also remember Edgar, a long-haired daschund from doggy days a couple years back. I sang him a song called, “I’m so Edgar” by Doggy Azalea. It went as follows:

I’m so Edgar,
you already know,
I’m in the Edgar,
from Edgar to Edgar land. (8)

He had a bit of small dog syndrome: when Abby the big rottweiler came, he started barking at her. XP; Here is a video of me feeding him doggy snacks. (Warning: Vertical video incoming)

Finally, Top Hat drew this for me, for my birthday. Now, I just need to find the right frame. (Click for original link)

Doggies are great, aren’t they? I often wish I had one for companionship, but too many factors stop me from getting one. Oh well… hopefully one day I can post about doggy DIYs. Other girls my age are all, “OMG LOOK AT MAH NEW BABEH” while posting pictures of their, well, human babies. I’ll be that one lady who’s 30, wears dresses from Hot Topic, and when I say “new baby,” I’ll mean furry baby, as seen above.

And that wraps up this week’s post. Tune in next time when — gasp! — a new ami will appear!

What is your favourite kind of dog? Or do you prefer cats? Have you attempted the 30 day drawing challenge, as well? Comment below!

Pika, so happy~

Getting Back in the Habit: Drawing Challenge Day 1

For the Shoonie and Top Hat who still read this blog, you will know that I turned 25 at the end of May this year. Which means this blog has been active for two years.

Make that a year and 9 months. Yuck! I don’t like being an adult; all you do is go to work, and even on your days off, you struggle to wrangle your friends together for some relief.

I’m not going to make any more excuses as to why there haven’t been any new posts. So instead I will find excuses to make more posts. Let’s go back to the creative roots where it all began: with drawing.

I used to draw all the time… and then I got a laptop. Sigh. Top Hat suggested I try an art challenge to get back in the swing of things. You’ve likely seen 30 day fitness challenges floating around the internet: the end result is to have toned muscles, reduced body fat, and a general improved state of well being by the end of day 30. But why should big butts and toned abs have all the fun? There are all kinds of challenges, from reading and writing, to daily puzzles, and of course exercising. If you miss one day, don’t worry. Just pick up from where you left off, and continue.

I picked this drawing challenge because it had the cutest mascot in the corner. If you’d like to try out the challenge for yourself, here is a link to where I found it.

One way to get things done is to break it up into smaller, more manageable tasks. This drawing challenge is nice, because it encourages you to simply draw one thing per day. And it doesn’t have to be good… but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be good, na’am saying?

For the next few blogs, I’d like to talk about these 30 day challenge drawings. I chose the things for a reason, and hope you will enjoy reading about them.

 

Entry #1 – Yourself

deviantArt: http://pikainabag.deviantart.com/art/30-Day-Art-Challenge-Day-1-Yourself-621115925

So what to say about this self-portrait? How about, “this is the first thing I’ve drawn in ages.” You might recall the derpy little avatar I’ve drawn in other posts, but this time I drew it using pencils and ink, not the tablet. This is due to the fact that my tablet (which still works beautifully, despite being over 6 years old) cannot be installed on my new laptop. And so, I took out the huge box of coloured pencils I bought from Staples (so you know these things are even older than the tablet) and coloured the drawing myself. Sadly, I might not be able to get Photoshop and my tablet installed on this laptop. As one classmate said, “CDs?! What is this, 2010?”

Sigh. It’s a bit disappointing to see my drawing skills haven’t really improved since high school. Then again, that was the last time I truly sat down and drew for fun. I also cropped the feet, because how do I feet? I also tried colouring, but something just always feels wrong about the way I shade. I mean, it doesn’t look right. Perhaps it’s time I looked up Prisma colour tutorials.

This challenge is going a lot slower than expected. But I’d like to think it’s at least breaking out of the rut. Hey, there’s a post this week, isn’t there?

It appears that the knitting and crochet clubs on dA have been quiet, as well. But with recent events, they are back in business and have an appropriate contest going on! Here’s to hoping we can get in an entry!

What do you think should be the contest entry? What do you think day 2 holds? Comment below!

Pika, so happy~