Happy Halloween
Ninja October 31st, 2008
Occasionally, I get some drawing in during my lunch breaks. Happy Halloween!
Female skull
Male skull
Love and treats,
Ninja
Archive for October, 2008
Live out your dream
Ninja October 23rd, 2008
I met a young woman named Nicole last nite. What got me excited was seeing the passion in her eyes when she spoke. I wanted to say, “Go for it! Just go for it, and live out your dreams!!” But I didn’t want to interrupt her as she was talking so quickly and just pouring her heart out. This quote is for you, Nicole.
good luck out there. i think as long as you’re doing exactly what the fuck you want to be doing and not a note or word differently, life will be good.
- Ben Folds in an email to The Dresden Dolls
Much love,
Ninja
Related links
+ How to do what you love
+ How and Why to Be Unreasonable by Timothy Ferriss
Monday laugh
Ninja October 20th, 2008
Penguin was setting some titles over the weekend and told me that he used Garamond. “ITC Garamond?,” I asked suspiciously. He later changed his mind and opted for Bembo.
Anywho, I stumbled across this Typocalypse flickr set from Lars Willem Veldkampf this morning and had myself a laugh. What does your type choice say about you?
It takes me forever to paint
Ninja October 20th, 2008
I was feeling ill before our trip to LA, but it seems like the warm rays of the sun did me some good. This past month, I tried to get some painting in. Ugh, I hate that it takes me forever to complete one. I was going to wait until I finished to show you the process, but I’ll settle for showing you the process up to its current state.
This painting started off as an inside joke, but it has really grown on me.
Normally, there is a bit of planning involved (rough sketches, tight sketches, graphite transfers). But being that I wasn’t taking it too seriously, I sketched straight on the wood. And this is what my handsome boyfriend would look like if he sprouted antlers.
I sketched very lightly with a HB pencil and then darkened in my lines with a 4B pencil.
I added a bit more detail with the 4B and 6B pencils and then applied a thin coat of gesso on his body.
I applied a thin coat of gesso on the antlers and used thin layers of Payne’s Grey and Raw Umber acrylic paint for his hair.
The painting was looking a little bare, so I sketched some friends.
Here they are after the graphite transfer.
For the deer:
Just like before, I add more detail with pencil, then lightly apply gesso.
After the initial pass, more gesso is applied to areas with denser highlights.
And this is where I am now—building up layers by painting each individual strand of fur/hair. I’ll admit, I went a little cross-eyed, but it’s so worth it.
Happy painting,
Ninja
Short: Doll Face
Penguin October 20th, 2008
A machine with a doll face mimics images on television screen in search of a satisfactory visage. Doll Face presents a visual account of desires misplaced and identities fractured by our technological extension into the future.
A beautiful visually told story. The live action is seamlessly melded with the cg animation.
-Penguin
Related postsShort: Martin Scorsese’s “What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This”
Penguin October 19th, 2008
This is one of Scorsese’s first films. He shot it while he was at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1963 on 16mm film.
Martin’s come a long way.
-Penguin
Related postsVideo: David Fincher’s Nike “Fate” Commercial
Penguin October 17th, 2008
I was on Anonymous Content last night and was caught up in David Fincher’s body of work. This is one of his latest. A commercial for Nike chronicling pro-footballers (American football) LaDainian Tomlinson and Troy Polamalu as they meet on the field.
This is why David Fincher is one of the best directors in the world.
-Penguin
Related postsShort: Cashback (NSFW)
Penguin October 17th, 2008
It starts off kind of slow, but once you get to the half way mark it becomes beautiful. Not just because there’s naked chics, but the shots and the story really draw you in. Normally, voice overs aren’t a good choice, but it works here and is used effectively.
- Penguin
Related postsIt’s Okay to Fail
Penguin October 16th, 2008
I’ve been really stressed out since coming back from LA. Part of it was because I had an essay due on Tuesday. I started working on it but didn’t make much headway.
Class came and it still wasn’t done. But before that, I decided that I was going to hand it in late. Wednesday came and gone and although I made a little more progress, I don’t even have what can be called a first draft.
Right before I typed this, I played a little Tetris DS before sleeping. CPU lvl 5 thoroughly kicked my butt. And that’s when I realized what was really stressing me out. I was afraid to fail.
Not in the grade sense of the word, but fail myself. I set myself up to be amazing. I have to get the A. I have to try really hard. And in that, I lost sight of everything and stressed myself out. I had frozen in panic.
So instead of moving forward and just doing it, I ended up doing nothing.
This is the same lesson we sometimes have to learn as filmmakers or artists. We’re so caught up in needing our work to be perfect, in being amazing, that we set ourselves up to fail by not meeting those expectations. And we’ve been trained for 18+ years of our lives that it’s NOT okay to fail. When in reality, it is.
It’s okay to fail.
I look back at some of the stuff I put out and I know it’s not the best. But there was something authentic about it. Instead of just talking about doing something, I did it. And that’s a success.
Doing nothing is the failure.
Shoot that short film, write that book, draw what you enjoy, do something, anything! Because not doing anything would be a tragedy.
Now I can sleep.
-Penguin
Related postsBach Inventions
Ninja October 15th, 2008
I was driving to work and had the urge to listen to some Vivaldi. At a stop light, I started fumbling through my bin searching for the right CD. Almost all my classical CDs look the same (just the track titles silkscreened on the CD face). I accidentally put in my Bach Inventions disk and woah, what a flashback!
When I was younger, like every other Asian kid in the neighborhood, I was forced to learn the piano. I used to hate it, but now I really miss it. When I was about 10 or 11, Bach 2-part inventions were some of my favorite things to play.
Bach’s Two-Part Invention no. 1 in C is the first invention I ever learned to play.
My teacher was convinced that I would grow up to be some great mathematician because she thought Bach’s inventions would stimulate that part of the brain. Boy, was she wrong.
Daydreaming away,
Ninja
