Translate.google.com

I am writing a short story in a notebook, in Japanese (!). Of course I don't know how to read or write Japanese, but www.translate.google.com is such a great tool!

As long as the sentences are short and simple, it translates them into any language correctly.

After writing the Japanese sentences in romanized letters in my notebook, I draw facial manga expressions next to each sentence (just like in this post). It feels as if I was a mangaka! ^^'

I don't want to imagine if someone finds out about the notebook though... Oh my pride!!! XD

Katana

Source: this blog.

Anime- Manga Expressions

Some images that I found on the Internet. Enjoy! :)

These two: I copied from Yami no Romance Game ^^

Here are the text facial expressions

(^^)//
(^_^)
(^.^)
(^o^)
(o^v^o)
(>_<)
(x_x)
( ' ; ' )
(~o~)
(o.o;)
(@_@;)
(-_-;)
(^_-;)
(~_~;)
(; _ ;)
(T.T)
(*_*)
(+_+)
(-.-)Zzz
('-')
(^_^)/~~
p(^-^)q
)^o^(
!(^^)!
o(^-^)o
o(^o^)o
(=^_^=)
(^o_o^)
<(^.^)/
\(^.^)/
~(^.^)~(^.^)~
^(^.^)^
'('~'")'
'('o'")’
<(- c -)
('3')
(-.-)
(-.-#)
(#- -)
(T_T)
\(~_~)/
(>~<)
(#'_'#)
<(o-.-)=

Anime- Art

Anime Expressions

CUTE!!!

 

For more anime/manga expressions, see this post in my blog.

Shouen's Yamato - Painting

Art

Art

Drawing

As I always do when I take a break, I went to cafe shop today and had some art shock. I was reading the magazine called Artists' Cafe. I really thought, the artists in that magazine just created stuff because they love doing it in their way, not considering too much what people will think about their art. Then, I started looking at a regular art magazine, you know, the paintings of landscapes, people, and stuff, they looked so dull.

I really don't see any point in painting the photographs again.
Also, I don't see any point in painting or drawing something exactly like in real life. If I were good at drawing a little bit, I really would draw something imaginary but with my feet on the ground.

Anyways, I still can't draw. One day I might :) Not only because of my lack of skill and practice, but also because my hand shakes when I hold a pencil, due to after tennis effect :))

My lines are like earthquake recordings :)))

For Valentine- Jennifer's Drawing

This is one of the Jennifer's drawings. It is so cute! Lots of cute drawings in her blog.

I want to quote what she wrote once: "For a long time, I thought my "art" had to be a certain way. But, I want to just out down what comes out of my head and my surroundings, that way I can have a real dialogue with others and the work truly reflects my beliefs."

I also want to be honest toward my drawings too.

There are some quotes that I wrote down on my small notebook in the coffee shop, from AA Drawing magazine.

*"If the honesty of effort and desire are truly there, the artist within reveals itself" Henry Casselli

*"If it is the product of simply copying, the work becomes merely a decoration, detached from who you are as an artist" (He was talking about why it is not good to draw from a photo) Tony Luciani

Marvin Franklin

In American Artist: Drawing magazine I read an article about Marvin Franklin. There was a quote that I really liked. (It is actually his teacher Irwin Greenberg's).

"An artist is a sketchbook with an arm attached to it"

It seems like this sentence really influenced his artistic life. He had tons of sketches and he drew all the time. Although he has a second job (working on the subway tracks) and a family with three children, he planned his life so well that he can do lots of drawing. So he always carried his sketchbook with him.

I don't understand why I am so selective. I have to start drawing anything without thinking too much. Practice always makes it better.

Here are some of his drawings that I took from nytimes.com. The first one is his self-portrait. He passed away, hit by a train on the subway tracks while working there, at the age of 55 last April.

In the magazine it says:

"He didn't wait until retirement to fulfill his dreams, postponing until tomorrow what he wanted to do today".

I want to be like that too.

Drawing Lessons

If anyone is interested in learning drawing, this site is very nice and helpful.

http://www.drawspace.com/

It has step by step instructions and teaching basic skills. Lessons get harder gradually. I couldn't complete the lessons though. At one point I stuck and stopped drawing. Nothing that I drew seemed good. I still have hope that one day I will start drawing and painting again.