This was both painful and amazing to do. I like seeing my improvement but looking at my old artwork makes my eyes bleed until I don't even have eyeballs anymore.

For 2010, I'd love to do more traditional art, draw BIG BIG BIG, and really get focused on backgrounds. Here's to a new year!

Template is here: [link]

Original is here.

Although I feel like I improved a lot this year, I don't think my finished pieces are really all that great. None of them really pop for me. Still, I feel like I accomplished a lot this year. Looking forward muchly to 2010.

Labels: _art, _meta

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Labels: _art, _meta

I'm bored. Instead of reading Death of a Salesman, let's see if I can summarize and describe my verses, hm?

Errerrin: Once upon a time, a god was sealed. After nearly a thousand years, he's waking up. On one side is an ancient but dwindling organization racing against time to reseal him. On the other: a young prince and princess desperate for power to guarantee their city-state's survival in an upcoming war against monsters everyone thought extinct.

Darkcity: About one Samuel Richard Grey, whose wife is killed by vampires and who thus makes the probably unhealthy decision of seeking revenge... by eradicating the vampire population. He gathers similarly insane vampires to his cause. When he's not being a homicidal little shit, Sam is a PE teacher at a pretty crappy public school.

Boneyards: Code just wants to save his sister. Liam just wishes life were less boring. Elle thinks they're both idiots. None of them ever thought they'd have to save the world, but sometimes, these things just happen.

This verse is shiny because it's post-apocolyptic.

Etherworld: Methis--a mercenary who struck a deal with the dark magician, Sezhrarn, in order to resurrect his dead wife. Lucas--a fairly normal boy, other than having a few really, really creepy powers. Other characters include Aliza, a dragon; Camen, a fallen prince; and Trisha, a mother.

Labels: _meta, verse: boneyards, verse: darkcity, verse: errerrin, verse: etherworld

You guys. YOU GUYS. I have THE best senior class IN THE HISTORY OF EVER and we are EPIC.

CLASS 2009. ♥

It was the last day of school today. Every single one of us, bar one or three, wore our own clothes instead of uniform. AND WE WORE WAR PAINT. FUCK YEAH. I will never forget the look of oh hell no that was on Dr P's face.

Today we marched through the school--OH WHAT--OH NINE--got threatened with suspension/not walking at graduation (BECAUSE THROWING WATER BALLOONS AT LUNCH IS A TERRIBLE CRIME)*, sang "Black & Gold" and "School's Out" and "the Wall" and were generally awesome.

*YES. THE ENTIRE SENIOR CLASS. ALL OF US. I do love our principal :D

Also we stuffed ourselves on brownies, pizza, and soda, but that's kind of normal.


I'LL MISS US.

Labels: _meta

This isn't fiction. This isn't art. What it is is a post about racism, because there are some things that just need to be said.

-

I grew up, more or less, an expatriate in an international community. I've attended a local Malaysian private school, an American/international school in the Netherlands, local public school in Texas (CULTURE SHOCK let me tell you), and now again an American/international school in KL. And lately I've noticed something really weird about the international community, just because of all the posts lately about race and racism.

It's this: We like to pretend we're not racist.

First: I'm racist. When I was little, my friends and I would bully a girl called Rishayini. She was Indian. That made it okay. I'm better now, but I don't believe you can get rid of internalized racism that easily. Or, let's be honest here, at all.

Growing up international helped the most. It's just hard to stay that blatantly racist when you have friends from India, from Korea, from Sri Lanka, from--everywhere, really. (Except maybe Russia. Weirdly enough, the only Russian I know I met in Texas.) It opens your eyes. And the international community is, in general, a weirdly nice place. It's easy to be nice when people are, for the most part, well-paid, well-informed and well-traveled. And people comment a lot about what they've seen, about international news, about all the different economic and political systems.

And then when the subject turns to racism, the general sentiment is this: Malaysia has racial problems. America has racial problems. France has racial problems. But we don't, because we have been ~exposed to diversity~, and--

Wait.

What?

We are better than the average, I'll admit. Diversity helps... but it doesn't magically cure racism. The assumption that international = non-racist is just mind-boggling. Yet it's mentioned all the time, in discussions about race, about prejudice: that pat-on-the-back comment, with all its ignorant implications and self-congratulatory deceit.

The problems aren't as obvious. There are no fights, no riots. But they're there, and I just wish people in my community would admit to that.

Labels: _meta, meta: racism