Time

Don't we all wish we had more of it?

But this isn't some rant about how 24 hours isn't enough in a day,

(is it?)

but to show just how dusty this blog's been for ages since.

Partially because I've been too swamped up in favorite-ing others' works

on Deviantart and getting myself known there. 

Got some good friends there already!

So after my previous work that I've published here,

I've done 2 more but just didn't have the time to post them up.

Jack(left): I mean, don't you pass this sign *everyday*?

Squad Member no. 14765: ....Shuddup.

This my friends, is a commission work for an upcoming animation called

The Undertaking 

which is done by a group of people in Deviantart,

so they requested me to promote it.

=)

My first take on semi-realism.

Title: Orz.

Seriously, it's called Orz in my Deviantart page, 

because I had no idea what I was thinking when i did this.

I spent a few hours in this seemingly simple piece because I was trying a new way of

shading the facial features in semi-realism-ness.

(Got too lazy for some epic background. Ugh)

Good news is that the lineart didn't take as long. 

Guess JollyJack was right. 

"Experience gained can be more important than the final outcome."

Or something like that.

P.S.: Don't know what 'orz' means? Google it. It's a new emoticon. =)

Money Well Spent (Warning, High Content Post)

Which is what I can say for the definite highlight to this term break of mine.

Oh yes.

A year ago I watched their performances on Youtube and envied the Americans

for having something as awesome as this. 

And now here we are, experiencing this for ourselves!

I had Maine and Jas for company, and we all got the 2nd-class seats,

 so we were just in perfect distance from the stage itself. 

=)

pardon the soddy camera phone shots...

It was packed! I never thought that so many fellow gamers would turn up for this!

And yes, that's Jas on the lowest part of the shot. XD

From the beginning till the end, this entire orchestra never ceased to fulfill 

all our cravings for the best-of-the-best of video games.

They started off with a memorial for the late King of Pop by 

showcasing his character from the classic Moonwalker game into others

like Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Space Invaders and Tetris, to name a few.

It was one of the best and funniest montages ever!

Then ALL of the great classics came out that we used to play as kids, like:

Super Mario Bros.

Tetris

Space Invaders

Outrun!

Moto-Cross

Top Gun! 

Duck Hunt

Elevator Action!

They changed the arrangements and the games included,

but hey, that means every concert is varied!

It brought back so much memories!

Then right off the bat, the second piece to come up was:

Metal Gear Solid.

Me and Maine, we screamed like crazy at the mention,

and almost freaked out when Hideo Kojima made an introduction on the big screen.

There were other epics like

 God of War (almost the whole hall screamed, including myself!)

Shadow of The Collossus (Again, everyone went crazy)

Warcraft (Need I say it? We all screamed)

Kingdom Hearts (Yeah, everyone waited for this one, man)

Sonic the Hedgehog (So nostalgic =D)

Super Mario Series (We all sang along to it!)

Legend of Zelda (Maine and Jas went nuts XD)

The guitarist is Tommy Tallarico, video game song composer and producer of VGL,

the maestro is Jack Hall, video game song composer,

and the flute-player is Laura 'Flute Link' Intravia, 

who donned a dress to play vocals for the God of War piece.

One of my personal favourites was when the composer of the Metal Gear Solid series,

Noriko Hibino came out to bring out Snake Eater, the opening theme of MGS3,

and he was on the saxaphone!

(Maine swooned on this one, I'm sure.)

And there was one of my personal favourites,

HALO!

And Tommy was on the electric guitar for this one!

And the closing call for the whole this was,

to everyone's pleasure,

One Winged Angel!

(now, you don't need a Youtube video for this one, no?)

The encores (they were generous enough for 2!)

were Chrono Trigger (hardened fans loved this!)

and Castlevania (another hysteria-causer)

Afterward we had a meet-and-greet session that they were so gracious to have

for every single last person who stood in line,

(we waited for almost an hour and not one person in the line seemed to mind)

and I got myself this. =)

Autographs from (clockwise starting from the middle)

Jack Hall,

Noriko Hibino

Tommy Tallarico

and Laura Intravia

We were all so hyped-out about the autographs!

Especially Maine. Tommy winked at her. ;)

A stroll in the KLCC park and a Starbucks with the girls was our version of a nightcap.

Almost got lost trying to remember which floor I parked the car in.

Yes, I jotted down the pillar number,

but forgot which floor.

==

All in all a good experience.

I owe a very special girl thanks for convincing me

that I should treat myself to something like this every once in awhile. 

;)

Soothing Spring

So I have been a busy bee these past few days to complete this lil' something 

as a Kiriban (commerative art) for my Deviantart site, 

which hit its 1,111th page view marker recently.

This piece took me almost a full day in terms of accumulated hours to complete!

The lineart was exceptionally hard to do right since I was going for crisp,

non-fuzzy lines.

Orz.

Grass! I drew grass! 

XD

The weather's been rather soft and breezy these past few days,
so it sorta puts things into the right mood.


I can hear the trees rustling right now.
=)

50 cal + 20mm

Here's yet another digital painting I finally got done with.

Ready?

Pardon my rather botchy Japanese. 

I can't even write my own  Chinese name right.

 Haha.

Anyway, here's something about this artwork I feel you guys should know.

Lineart: Wacom, mid-January

Begin coloring-in: Last week, postponed due to laziness epidemic.

Finishing up: Today. But as I was doing this halfway, I realized I drew the neck too long,

therefore the head being too high up.

So what did I do? I had to readjust the lineaert and the colored bits seperately. Orz.

Tell me what you think, yea?

Three of Hearts

Three of Hearts.

Not exactly the best of cards, but it got me where I wanted right there.

Right at the 21 mark, with the Eight of Spades and Ten of Clubs for companions.

"Now there's something you don't see everyday. Grip's finally got himself a win!"

Lefty never seemed to fail at making the boys laugh.  Never failed me.

It was a painkiller, really. Humor.

While the others were laughing their collective butts off, I felt the need to look at that card again.

That plain white card was still wedged between my index and middle finger, and the only thing hindering me from feeling the unnatural smoothness of it was the standard issue tactical gloves we had to wear when we were on-site. No excuses.

"Hey, what's with the long face? The pot's yours. All 50 bucks of it. Should be enough to get you that book you saw at the store that day, eh?"

Tagger always could read my expressions well. Heck, everyone on the squad was readable to him. That's what made the bastard so good at bringing us out just at the nick of time before depression sank in every now and then.

I nodded, a sudden rush of anticipation rushing through me. But for all I knew, that bookstore might not even be there anymore. I had to make a point of finding out some time soon.

And as if he too knew what I was hanging in my mind, Tagger placed a hand on my shoulder. My armored shoulder. 

I'm sure it's still there. It was the city center that got hit bad, not some random building.

"A shopping mall isn't exactly random," I finally said, with not much emotion to it, mind.

"True," Bronx -always hulking on- said, that inquisitive and ponderous side to him baring itself for the fleetest of moments. "But it is a useless target if you're thinking of crippling an infrastructure. What c'you wanna do? Spark a guerrilla force of disgruntled shoppers?"

We laughed at that. Mostly because we knew what he said carried some meaning. Seriously. Hell hath no wrath than a shopper scorned.

It was then that Liang dropped in -quite literally- bearing the most inconspicuous mess of metal and more metal.

It didn't take him 5 seconds to see the questioning looks on all our faces. 

"Just got word from the Sarge. We're pushing the line up by half-a-click. We'll be able to retake Sierra Whiskey by today, the way things are going," he reasoned before putting that contraption down.

"So that warrants you to carry a minigun along?" Blade asked, sharpening the very machete his namesake's for. More than half his kills came from that. And he carries a light machine gun around. Go figure.

"One per squad. We're gonna do sweep-up in 20. Once Sierra Whiskey is clear, we'll be able to push on back to Ground Zero." Liang said. He didn't sound like it, but we knew he was all too pleased to carry a minigun around. 

Heck, I wouldn't mind giving it a go. Maybe he'll let me spray a few rounds. Maybe.

We remained silent after that for no reason, the silence rather deafening, if you asked me.

"So...any idea when we'll be able to fully take back Kilo Lima?" 

Faz decided to be the one to break the wall. 

"...I don't feel right, calling in that. What's with all the full-names and stuff?"

"Avoiding military goof-ups," I simply tossed in my two-cents.

It was then that the ground thundered and shook.

It didn't take long for the sounds to come after that.

I got up to see at least 5 of them, 5 tanks making their way through the street, an entire column of death slowly moving on to who-knows where.

I heard some other people cheering on, some yelling their amusement at the sights of these behemoths. To the infantry, tanks were near-indestructible. They mostly think so because they're never close enough to see one get blown apart by a missile to the top.

We did. Not a pretty sight.

"Probably they're gonna push the line forward. That means we're on point," Blade said, sheathing that machete and holstering it next to his hip. He often unsheathed it mere seconds before the blood started splattering. Ugh.

"Aren't we gonna wait for the Sarge?" Bronx was right.


Blade made an impatient sound as he sat back down. We all knew what would happen if we moved before Sarge told us what to do. Orders were orders. And we were ordered to hold this line, though we had 5 full squads covering us just a click or 2 ahead.

We waited another good 10 minutes, and the thundering herd of battle tanks were nothing more than distant echoes by then.

And just when we thought it would be quiet again, another thundering herd came by. No, more like a thundering flock.

We heard them before we saw them.

Fighter jets.

I counted at least 7 of them, flying by us, and for the briefest moment I raised my own rifle up, forgetting the  what it would do to something traveling at over 600mph.

"Easy there, hot-shot. It's ours," Lefty said, putting a rather firm hand on my gun, lowering it.

"How can you tell?"

"By the fact that the AA guns nearby aren't blowing our eardrums to bits."

"...Oh."

Hey, you can't blame me. I'm just Ground Infantry, people.

"Ground Infantry or not, know-how's important, Grip."

That voice never got old.

I turned around quick enough to get a glance of the first thing that anyone would first notice about Sarge.

Dark, long hair that always moved with the wind.

Her rather generous assets were a close second.

"I'd advise you to keep your eyes on your equipment and not mine, private," she said coolly,
the rest sniggering.

Damn it, I only looked for a second. S'not my fault you wear body armor that resembles a corset more than anything.

"Because I don't go out into the front lines. That's what we have you boys for," she said, crossing her arms, her form-hugging cargo pants doing nothing to hide her curves from my angle of view.

Nothing about her uniform was regulation-fit. There haven't been any complaints so far, though.

"Orders, Ma'am?" Blade asked. He was the only one that never seemed amused by Sarge's dressing. It was either he was strong willed enough, or he was gay. We never voiced it out with him. That machete is very persuasive, sheathed or not.

"We're pushing on. Your squad and the other forwards are taking point with the tank column that passed by earlier. They're already engaged at Bravo-Bravo," she said as we began moving up. She walked us to the transport trucks waiting nearby, her arms remaining crossed.

"No good luck kiss for the road, Ma'am?" Liang asked, earning wide-eyed stares from the guys from the other platoons. Her reputation was well-spread among everyone here. They just never saw it up close.

Sensing impending doom, the rest of us prepared for whatever Sarge must've planned out for Laing. Poor bastard, why'd he have to go poke the hornet's nest like that?

"I don't see why I have to. You've got all the dumb luck in the world already," she replied, earning Liang some snickers from the boys.

She then slapped the truck's hull several times, and the truck itself jolted to a start as the engine started. Probably a faulty timing-belt.

There were no goodbyes. In the army, there was never any need for them. It was like a silent prayer that we'd all see each other some time later.

Still, I waved ever-so-little to her -not too obvious, or the others would know- and I could've sworn I got a nod from her. Maybe I was seeing things?

I'll make a point to ask her later.

There will always be a later.

Summer Time

 

So here I present to you my latest work of art.

 She's a kitsune (fox girl) 

=D

Clouds! I did clouds and an ocean!

This is kind of a hallmark for me as it's my first

actual piece done with a solid background.

Well, the lineart (meaning the girl herself)

was made by godzilla23 on Deviantart and I decided

to use it as a practice for digital painting.

People there in DA usually color linearts from thier

fellow compatriots as a form of practice. I'm glad to finally be in that circle.

 =)

 

The original.

 

Some references from other works were used to get this coloring done right.

 

 Tell me what you think guys think, yea?

The Third Impact

Several things can go right on certain days that'll keep you smiling.

For me, several of those things did occur.

 

The most significant

(or rather, the one I'm most willing to announce publicly...)

thing, is this.

 No, not the rather tasteful eye candy on this picture,

but what it represents.

Yes,

for all you anime fans out there who actually knows a hoot,

this is from Evangelion 2.0.

I can tell you honestly that it's awesome.

Seriously.

"I got chicken skin when I watched the movie, man,"

-Ah Fai.-

Indeed, whether you're a fan of Evangelion or not,

I'd recommend this to you, 

though one should watch 1.0 before taking in 2.0.

(Google: ]Evangelion 1.0 stream] or something like that.

Okay, really sleepy now.

Signing off.

2200

It's been ages since I last wrote something here.

Culprit: Work, and good plain laziness.

Well, I'm suddenly feeling less...lazy,

and actually have some things to muse about, I guess.

So Drama was today, 

and the entire class gave it their best on this one,

and I hope the videos will get posted on Facebook

(better get it on pronto, Jordan!)

But more often than not, 

Good News gets stalked by it's unwanted counsin,

Bad News.

Clothes printing in Visual Comm. didn't go on very well,

and we sacrificed several white t-shirts on these stints.

Did not take it very well when I had to run to Giant in Sunway Pyramid

to get extra t-shirts

(Well, I volunteered since I messed up 

one of those t-shirts trying to fix it...)

and up getting quite pissed since

I didn't get to print that A2 stuff for Composition.

So what happened?

I released some pent-up frustration when one of my team mates pointed out I got an XXL 

t-shirt by accident, when there was really that only size left for that color.

I did apologize for that one,

as I'm not one to always be grumpy.

Maybe I was experiencing withdrawal syndroms from

immersing myself into character for Drama?

(CK said this could happen.)

But yeah, when I'm frustrated,

it shows.

Kai Lee got scared when I asked her for her ID Tag for the locked door

since I lent mine to Shaz.

She thought I was scolding her.

LOL.

We all had a laugh about it when the rest began reciting my Drama lines

to the poor girl.

"You're my wife, so you do as I say!"

or something like that.

Asides that,

today's been a rather good day.

I'd give it a 70%-30% split.

Laughs aplenty, good thing.

Dinner with CK and Johnson was a good tonic.

=)

Now, all's that's left to worry about it printing my Compo work.

Not that I can't find the place,

it's a 10-minute downhill drive to the Leisure Mall area,

but for once,

I wish I didn't have to drive.

Maybe a little Red Alert 3 and reading a nice chapter from that HarryxHermione fanfic 

would suffice as my nightcap.

My preverbial substitute for Bacardi Coke and Vodka Sprite.

Mmm.

Makes me miss the shots we had at my aunt's place on both New Years'.

It's good to be legal. 

=D

Dang, this is the most I've written in awhile...