Catharsis by Ghibli

Needless to say, the internet hiatus didn't work.

I was way too stressed out to stay away from the internet.

I have now reached the conclusion that especially during finals, internet access should be permitted. Otherwise, I become a compressed gas chamber waiting to burst.

Yesterday could have been absolutely dreadful had I not made the decision to just let everything go and watch a movie. I watched Howl's Moving Castle again, but this time in English, which was amusing to say the least. I don't know who thought it would be a brilliant idea to have Christian Bale go Batman on Howl but it certainly wouldn't have happened if I had been in the executive chair.

However, I felt so much better after watching the film a few times on loop and meanwhile drawing this as a stress-reliever. I realized that drawing happy faces releases my sadness. It worked before, too, when I was drawing that One Piece illustration. I think this is my own way of creating value out of obstacles. The Howl group pic took about 7 hours, but it didn't feel laborious at all! I enjoyed every brush stroke! c:

Markl, Sophie, Howl, and Calcifer (c) Hayao Miyazaki & Studio Ghibli

Another Daily Deviation

Wow! I got another Daily Deviation today!! What a great surprise! Thanks to aruachan for suggesting me and to Alexandra for featuring my Amelie fan art digital painting: Letters to Madeleine Wallace on deviantArt.com! Totally made my day!

I don't believe I've shared it before so here's the other drawing I made last summer that got a Daily Deviation, too. This is a fan art for the Japanese comic One Piece titled One Piece Summer 2010.

Really, this couldn't have happened without your support! Thank you for your kind encouragement, support, and comments! You push me to strive harder to become a better artist!

Pre-flight speedpaint

I've been really uncomfortably busy these past weeks and it'll only get busier as we sink deeper into May. I've got three large papers due in less than two weeks, for which I've written absolutely zero at this point. I don't understand how writing has become such a difficult feat with every additional year in college. I recall being (or at least feeling) much more eloquent in middle/high school. 

Anyway, I drew this as a destresser last night. I've been really absorbed with the Space Race lately, and I recently watched several episodes of NASA's When We Left Earth documentary series on the progressive projects to send man out of earth's orbit and on to the moon. The whole space-age decade is fascinating to me, with the almost arrogant confidence that pervaded the politics of astrophysical engineering triggered by the omnipresent competition of the Soviets. 

So instead of drawing the stuff that I should be drawing for The Pearl and commissions and my now completely abandoned independent study (again), I drew an astronaut in one of the original Mercury 7 space suits. I was debating whether to draw Alan Shepard or Ed White (from Gemini 4 and perhaps the most charming, after Neil Armstrong) and ended up drawing nobody. lol This took approximately 2 hours.