27 May 2012

Afgaristo, Greece!

#NowPlaying - We Own The Night by Selena Gomez & Pixie Lott

When we are together, it's the time of our lives. We can do whatever, be whoever we like. 
Spend the weekend dancing cause we sleep when we die. Don't have to worry bout nothing. We own the night.

I have just recently returned to the UK from Greece. And I cannot say enough how much fun I had there. I am so glad to eye-witness the beauty of this country with my closest friends. I guess going to a desired destination is one thing and going with the right company is a whole other thing.




Life, can sometimes feel so beautiful. x

11 May 2012

Art & Design Degree Show (prep)

A day in the shoe of a graduating student. Or at least I think I'm graduating? In preparation of the degree show, I'm one of those who're curating the show, managing the layouts and stuff. Not as easy as we thought, not when our tutors are still, constantly squeezing the last bit of creativity from us. We figured they're not going to do this much longer, so we surrender and kept on devising floor plans after floor plans to please em. It's like after a whole day of moving these poled boards around and arranging them, we felt a good sense of accomplishment and they come in the next morning and say, 'hmmm.. no'. Andy, my lecturer, his contemplative 'hmm' is a scary one. His signature thoughtful hum is a silent gun. 


My lunch: Peanut butter kit kat! 


#OOTD


Working on the floor with a cup of 90p hot chocolate and sketching out floor plans.
Feels kinda nice, felt like we were doing actual work for the first time. 


Till we're done!
XO

10 May 2012

How to be a better female illustrator?

There was a very motivating talk today in class and well, this is what I've concluded on how to be a better female illustrator\designer.

1) Think like a man
Do you know that in general, guys are more assertive than girls? Basically, they are capable of working along the lines much better than girls do. They're self-promotional most of the time, and are confident in their work. I'm not saying girls aren't like that, but most female are more insecure about themselves, hence, their work. I believe this has everything to do with our EQ level. The fact that we like to feel has become an obstacle for us. So ladies, think like a man. The male rate of being a boss or an employee with a high position is higher than female, but it's not our fault. For such a position, we need someone who incorporates this manly personality, so this generally goes to the guys who are so confident with their work and are able to pull off an interview as though it was a sure thing. All we need to do is think like a man and we'll be able to work like a boss. The world out there isn't all that sexist. We can do this, ladies. It's not what we do, it's how we do it. 



2) Doodle with pen instead.
If you're a doodler like myself, and often uses a pencil, change. When we naturally reaches over for a pencil to doodle, this say something about you. Insecurities. The fact that you know you can erase a wrong path chose your choice of tools, and that is also double the trouble of inking afterwards. Yes, a rough draft of your image is fine, but when you start doodling in pencil for a long time, you find safety behind the eraser. Pen's not easy, you'll make mistakes, your line wouldn't be stick straight but it's fine. There's a reason why they're call doodles. And although, the best inspiration comes from mindless doodles, you can however scan them in your computer and digitally correct your mistakes. This again goes back to number 1, it's about how you present it. Naturally, your potential employers would be more interested in seeing your finish product\doodle than your entire sketchbook. Once you've digitally enhanced it, it's no longer a doodle, it's part of your work, now that's more presentable to be in your portfolio than your scrappy moleskin you eat and sleep with anyways. So live dangerously and doodle with pen instead. 

3) Practice makes perfect
Now I know this word is overused, but it's never wrong. Especially in our field of practice. Whatever you do, do it often. Even the ugliest drawing gets better if u do it over and over and over again. Sometimes we give up on a piece of work because it may seem to have drift further away from what we imagine it to be, don't. Just remember, nothing looks pretty half done. And beauty comes in complication in most of the case with us, so don't stop until you're done. And you're not going to be done with it until it's pretty. In the nutshell, keep going. Practice is the road to perfection for us. And we can only keep getting better :) I used to seek for perfection, now perfection seeks for me. 



And lastly, you don't really have to have a style of work (if you're struggling to find an identity for yourself). Potential investors and employers recognize us by our style of work, yes. But we're designers, we're taught to be flexible and cater to our client's demands. You can always have more than one style with your work. The perks of being a designer, I believe, is that we never need to settle for one. Brace your indecisiveness and brace your difference. In our world, being different pays. And we are always going to be standing alone when it boils down anything in relation to our art. If you've reached a point where you can no longer compromise your work with anything and anyone else, congratulations! You're heading upwards where you will find total agreement with your lost for style and many things else. 

Best wishes,
A.

06 May 2012

Me at My Best

Or should it be 'Me and My Mess'? I finally cleaned my room sometime earlier this week, I can't really remember.  It was in a terrible state, especially after last weekend, it got worse. I left my bouquet of roses on the bed tray from 2 weeks ago!


My desk\working space. I know this is the only area of the room that can be accepted to be in shamble but I don't work on the table. And look at my M&M dispenser, it's empty now. About 2kgs worth of it in 2 months! Not too bad eh?


My bed end stand\make up spot. Or so it was? It has everything from chocolate to train tickets from Italy, iphone pouch to coinbox and etc. 


My 'walkway'. On the left side of the plug point is the door, sometimes I honestly don't know how could I walk around in my room. I get comfortable in my mess, yeah, and I get used to it. I sleep in this mess! But don't call me messy, please? Call me... artsy!


I can just come home and take off my pants hope to bed wake up the next day and my pants would still be in the same position where I just had to stand into the legholes and pull my pants up! It's all about one step less - Rules of a Minimalist.


More bags, more bras, more water and paper. 


Things by the window, my paint\dye\get-dirty shirt on the radiator, a few over toasted (clean) panties from the last time I did laundry, chocolates, round mirror to do my face in the morning and ya, you can see for yourself what's by the window.


May I present to you a closer view of what's there, I have my plushies - Say hi to bad boy! - chocolates, scissors and err, a piece of news article? No idea how it got there. I was probably cutting it out while I was stalking my african neighbour and left it there when it was done.


So after uncluttering my room, I vacuumed the place and moved my table to the middle of the room again. I was hoping that it would encourage me to do proper work on a proper place, but I went back to the bed that very night.

XO - Me in my room today

I also made a healthy dinner for myself. I threw in a handful of wholewheat fusili and some stick carrots (carrots are good for the eyes carrot are good for the eyes carrot are good for the eyes) to boil for a little bit before I stir them up with bolognese sauce. While this was all going on, I had my Levi's style chicken breast (chicken breast is low in saturated fat chicken breast is low in saturated fat chicken breast is low in saturated fat) cooking in the oven. Then I popped in the shower for a rinse while I toast the bread. Now, who says I can't multitask? My brother did actually, just last night. I was eating healthily for the sake of making that day as normal as my life should be. By normal, a (always) clean room with a decent sleep cycle, healthy, goes to church or has proper moral values (not that I dont) & well, other normal stuff. But knowing I can barely keep a routine long enough, I can only do it every now and then. And that now and then happens to have happened this week.


02 May 2012

Creating an identity for yourself

..is not easy at all! For all of my years in university, I've been enrolled in modules to help me find my 'brand' or my 'identity'. It's not easy at all. It's like getting married, how are you going to be sure that he's the right one to spend the rest of your life with? I know my style of work can change over time, but as a 'soon to be' fresh graduate revealing myself to the subjective world of design, I want to start off strong.  Honestly, up to this point, a day more until I hand one of my best work to be in the degree show catalogue that 'speaks' Anna Yeoh, I am still clueless. 

Did you know that I'm on tumblr? I know, I know. Social network overload? You see, that site has always been named 'It's a peanut butter affair!' I don't have a good story behind the name, besides the fact that peanut butter's my ambrosia and as far as many other happiness has been short-lived, a jar of this happiness has always been constant. I'm thinking of making me the 'It's a peanut butter affair!' girl. 

I tried doing this with Adobe Illustrator, but after speaking to Joy today, I realize it doesn't really make much of a sense to people who doesn't know me. I've changed my design for tomorrow's self-promotional hand in already, but I'm looking forward to developing this piece of chocolate for my own use. Chocolate's the best medicine right? I can be your Anna-sthetic ;)


Oh! And I tried digital painting today! I want nothing more than to paint again. I perk up thinking about how fun art class was back in high school. How fun was it to be young & paint again. Well, I can't paint anymore, no shit. You see, in my head where pixie dust are constantly snowing down, I picture my finish product to be breath taking. But when I've spend 2 hours painting something and it looks nothing like I pictured it, I get discouraged and give up. 

I tried a different approach today and I'm quite happy I didn't spend a single penny on paint! And I can easily just use an eraser for my mistakes! Now, I'm a happy girl. looking forward to work more on my first proper piece of digital paint!

"Life's battle don't always go to the stronger & faster man, 
but sooner or later the man who wins is the man who thinks he can"