Today I woke up late, and I started off with a bit of a headache. I guess it didn't occur to me until now it might be my lack of water over the last two days. I really need to step back on that water train again. Other than that things have been going alright.

Today on my to do list is:

• Finish my journals for the Summer course I did this year
• Finish video presentation and report for the Summer course
• Complete my entry for the D&AD New Blood competition
• Complete my entry for the Navigator design competition
• Next update for my webcomics

I have a lot on my plate, and I don't think I'm going to get through everything on this list today. Perhaps the journals I can complete.

Any hoo, that's all for now,

I'll catch ya in another entry tomorrow for an update! <3

Uni work - Week 3

Tuesday - No classes but I went to the university any way because I thought I'd get some extra work in. Well, actually, I mixed up my days and I thought the class that was on Wednesday was actually on Tuesday for some reason. 

Wednesday -  Was at home chilling until the time I had to go and get ready, and go catch the bus to get to uni. Suddenly I realised, my class actually starts an hour earlier than I actually thought. Again, I had mixed up the days, I thought the time for Thursdays class was actually for Wednesday. So suddenly there was a mad rush for me to get there as quickly as I could. 

In the class, I think I made some decent progress on my assignments for my projects class. I did some rough sketches of my ideas for my data visualisation, which the topic is "Travel" and I have decided to research data sets on travelling distance and time between Newcastle and the main cities around Australia via different modes of transport. I also was able to sketch down some rough ideas of what some of the pages and buttons graphics might look like for the interface of the data visualisation. Also, with a little help from my teacher I was able to make a decision to cut out some details of certain data to research to make the assignment job not seem as big.

Other than that the lesson was basically just a lesson in both InVision and Atomic, and how to use them to put together our data visualisations.

Thursday (today) - I made some progress and discussion for feedback on both my seminar presentation and essay topic. My seminar is going to be a talk about the infamous "Josiah Brooks" aka "Jazza" from "Jazza Studios" or his YouTube series "Draw with Jazza". As one of the artists on the internet that I look up to the most, I thought it fitting that I talk about him and his work, and how he influences me. My essay topic, I'm still trying to decide but I think I'm going to write about the topic of Illustration, what it takes to be a freelance Illustrator and how the idea of an illustration agency for freelance illustrator's work. But as I said I'm still working on it, but I have started my research on it now, because the more I read into it the more I actually want to know and write about it to insight others as well.

Well that's all I have to write so far, thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts and I'll hopefully see you in the next blog.

I just had a really cool idea!

I think when I'm a bit more free from this comic competition and any outstanding commissions. I think I'd like to create "Me in Chinese/Other Zodiac costume" stickers. Either me in the costumes or me and my friends or me and some of my original characters.

A new comic story and a competition!

Hello Blog Bells!

How are you doing today? Just thought I'd write an update on how I'm going. 

Over the last few months I have been working on a few projects, one of which seems to be taking up most of my time but is completely worth it. This project is a comic I'm working on for a comic for the Medibang website (https://medibang.com/contest/mcpo/). It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do but at last I have figured it out and am already 5/30 pages into the story. I won't spoil the story too much for all of you, eventually I plan on putting it up online on both Medibang and Tapastic for you all to see. However I will tell you the story is based off of the new roleplay I've been doing with my friends. I will share below a few screenshot previews of the comic so far though, so you can get a feel and get excited about reading it when it is done. Of course when it does come out it will only be the first episode/chapter of the story, I plan on making this a continuous story and I'm quite excited about this. Because this is the first time in my life that I've chosen a story to draw and decided to stick with it, and have made the most progress on. I will admit that the story isn't entirely my own, I am using a world that was created by the GM and two characters that belong to the other two players. But I have asked everyone if it was alright for me to make this comic and they happily agreed and were very supportive in me doing this. I appreciate their support and could not have made this much progress without their cooperation! ^_^ To combat the fact the story isn't completely my own, I may decide to add a few things of my own to the story to adapt the story from RP (roleplay) mode to comic mode.

Anyway other than that I'm still going strong with my other projects, which some I cannot mention here for secret reasons, but who knows maybe when it's finally finished I will display it somewhere for you all to see.

Let me see what else, it has been an absolutely scorching hot Australian Summer, my kitty Midnight is the most adorable kitty in the world, and I'm going to be going back to Uni soon. So I'll be making the most out of my free time I have left. I still don't have a job but I haven't given up. I believe somewhere out there is the job for me, be it retail, hospitality, freelance graphic design, animation, illustration, etc. I WILL FIND WHERE I BELONG IN THE JOB WORLD SOMEDAY, SOMEHOW!

So bye for now, lots of love to you all you Bells out there!

Sofi (SakuraBellStudios)

UPDATE!

This month is the month I plan on:

• Working on my own personal projects
• Comics
• Illustrations
• Commissions and Design requests from various clients/friends

• Updating and fixing up my website again
• Reading A LOT more books, journals and articles
• Getting my health, wellbeing and fitness schedule up and running
• Working on my time management skills
• Creating networks and learning more about setting up my own freelance design and illustration business/ store thing
• Getting together a group of creative friends and becoming a creative group to sell stuff at a stall/store somewhere
• Finding a Graphic Design mentor to teach me and take me under their wing and become their apprentice or assistant. (or maybe not I don't know, is that how that works. Does one just ask to become someone's apprentice/assistant?)

I've been busy!

I know I've been a bit slack lately with updating the website. But I assure you I'm still active in my work. I'm just having a hard time at the moment in my life focussing and managing my time. So I need to get myself sorted out first before sorting out my website.

I should have some new stuff up soon. 

I'll make a better and long blog post then too, so until then,

Stay happy and healthy

LOVE

Sofi

Looking New? Lookin' Cool!

SO you may have noticed there have been some changes to my website. I realised I may have been over complicating things a little too much. Plus I explored wix a little more and found some cool features. Like linking my blogger account to my wix account and having the app on my wix website, which in my case makes everything ten million times easier to do on here. I was feeling rather hesitant about starting up this website for real because I already had a blogger and didn't want to have two places where I needed to make blogs like this. So, the fact I can combine them made me so happy! ^_^

Any way, this was just a quick update for you guys. I'm pretty busy with uni at the moment but hopefully in the break I will make time to properly put more of my designs, illustrations, comics, and photography up. Also, I will hopefully be able to get more videos up quicker, sorry my YT channel is going a bit slow but I bet that's how all YouTubers started, right?

I'll probably create a separate page later for my illustrations and comics to separate from my designs. I will also try to find a way to post videos here separately from my blog. Just to keep things neat and tidy for you guys.

Any way, I have to go and study hard now!

So I'll see you guys later!!

Little Book of Quotes and Zen Tangles!

So one of my favourite projects that we were given to do in the graphic design diploma this year would have to be the one where we had to find 12 quotes and create our own A6 sized "Little Book of Quotes". We also had to create out own image to go with the quotes.

I chose to draw 12 little zentangles and 1 cover zen tangle for my book. This is the cover of my Little Book of Quotes. I'm almost finished.

I may or may not upload more here. I will probably upload more on my theloop account.

Don't forget, I'm also on YouTube!

So I've decided I'm also going to post some of my videos here in this blog too. For those interested in my gaming. At the moment it's just Left4Dead2 vids but when I get more time and get Premier Pro to stop playing up for me with exporting my vids then I will start to vary a bit. But for now I'm going to finish uploading all the Left4Dead vids I have going.

The video above is the newest one I uploaded, it is the 7th video in my Suicide Blitz series. I suppose you could call it "Season 2". You can find Season 1 if you visit my Youtube channel; you should find a link for it on the right side of my blog page.

Well, I've got to go and get back to work but I thought I'd just drop by and let you guys know I'm uploading videos too.

I may upload more than gaming vids later but for now it's just games.

Talk yo you guys later,

Sofi.

The Sketrix

"Let me tell you why you are here. You have come because you know something. What you know you can't explain but you feel it. You've felt it your whole life, felt that something is wrong with the world. You don't know what, but it's there like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that brought you to me."

"Do you know what I'm talking about?"

Sofi

"The Sketrix?"

Man of Wise

"Do you want to know what it is?"

Sofi swallows hard and nods.

Man of Wise

"The Sketrix is everywhere, it's all

around us, here even in this room.

You can see it out your window or

on your television. You feel it

when you go to work, or go to

church or pay your taxes. It is

the world that has been pulled

over your eyes to blind you from

the truth."

Sofi

What truth?

Man of Wise

"That you are a slave, Sofi. Like

everyone else, you were born into

bondage, kept inside a prison that

you cannot smell, taste, or touch.

A prison for your mind."

The LEATHER CREAKS as he leans back.

Man of Wise

"Unfortunately, no one can be told

what the Sketrix is. You have to

see it for yourself.

The Man of Wise points to two tables, which

seem to appear suddenly out of no where. 

On the right is a Pillow.

On the left, a pencil."

Man of Wise

"This is your last chance. After

this, there is no going back. You

take the pillow and the story

ends. You wake in your bed and

you believe whatever you want to

believe."

"You take the pencil and you stay

in Wonderland and I show you how

deep the rabbit-hole goes."

Sofi looks at both items, both are enticing, the moisture

growing in her palms.

Man of Wise

"Remember that all I am offering is

the truth. Nothing more."

Quoted from "The Matrix" and then reworded by Me.

DWARVES LOVE FIRE!!

Dwarves do indeed love fire!! (and gold... but mostly fire)

Watch the YOGSCAST!! They are pretty awesome!!

Frozen Practice Sketches

I have seen the movie "Frozen" about two times now and both times I have loved it! So I got inspired to sketch my favourite character "Queen Elsa of Arendelle". And, "Hans, Prince of the Southern Isles" I wouldn't say he's my favourite character but there are certain aspects of him that I do like; like his voice, his determination to do whatever it takes to make his plans follow through, and that fact that he is quite the independent character. I also "ship" or "pair" these two a little because I feel that they may have a little in common wit each other and they are both fairly independent and strong in their own personal situations.

Any way enjoy my sketches (don't steal them please) hopefully I will have more up later.

Gaia Online Commission Illustrations

 Some nice illustrations I've done for some people on a site called "Gaia Online"

Find me in two new places!!!

Odesk and Freelancer. These two places are places where you can hire me for Graphic Design, animation, comics, illustration and more.

Parent and Child

Standing outside in my backyard I see many birds that range from doves, minor birds, lorikeets, rosellas, magpies, and many other birds that I don't know the name of. Like today for example, was quite a sight to see, I was throwing bread (technically pizza) out for any passerby birds when suddenly a Magpie and 5 of the brown type of bird (i assume a baby Magpie) came and sat on the fence all together. The black and white one came down first and then one by one the brown ones came down to get the pizza crumbs. I was so fascinated by this sight, because it was such a big family of birds and they have never come by the backyard before.

When I ran inside to get my camera, I wait for a while when I got back and the black and white and this little brown magpie flew down. I snapped as many photos as I could just before my battery ran out.

I find birds and most animals to be quite a big source of inspiration for me. It makes me smile seeing the chirping baby call after its parent.

I'm as busy as a bee... poster design!

So this is a poster design I started working on, its based on the Olive Tree Markets competition that finished the 6th of November. I missed out on the competition but I still wanted to give the brief a shot.It also means I will have something else I can add to my portfolio.

Tell me what you think in the comments. Give me your honest opinion.

Another design challenge done...

Ok, so I finished another design challenge from Reddit. The subject of the brief was a bit odd but I did it all the same. I think it came out good but I'm not quite sure about the colours I used. If anyone has an opinion on that please share?

http://www.reddit.com/r/design_challenges/comments/reazv/design_challenge_3_door_hanger_poopy_diaper/
The brief was for me to design a door hanger advertisement for the mock up "Poopy Diaper Delivery" company. I did the best I could from what was given to me in the details (see link above). So here it is:

Current Design Project!

So my current design project that I am working on is putting together a small but impressive portfolio of works. I have decided to take some design challenges I found on Reddit and do them, so that I can then put the finished designs in my portfolio to show my current skills.

(http://www.reddit.com/r/design_challenges/comments/qiyyw/design_challenge_1_logo_zork_delivery)
The first challenge is shown in the link above and is asking for people to design a logo for an Interstellar Delivery service called "Zork".  Now none of these types of projects are new to me because I have had there very types of projects given to me to do as assessments. This is why I think these challenges would make for good exercises to put together to demonstrate that I still have the skills and talents to be a graphic designer.

The following images shows my two designs that I came up with for the challenges, if you have any opinions, like which you prefer please leave a comment:

These designs are copyrighted to SakuraBellStudios. The concept of Zork was brought to us by the person who posted the design challenges on Reddit.

I'm back!

Hey viewers,

So after a long period of not blogging, I have finally decided to return. I will blog my current projects, articles on my current views on life, the things I am studying, and many more things.

Lets see this as a fresh start! Forget the stuff you saw before. The new stuff is what will count.

I've designed myself a new logo and soon it will show up on my blog. Instead of pink, things will be more blue and orange. They aren't my favourite colours but they are my favourite colour combination.

The first article you will receive from me will be one about how much I hate Facebook and how much it is tearing the communication world apart.

What's happening in my life? Well I still have no job (no one needs me right now) but I'm still studying, and of course still trying to get a job from that study. Currently I just finished a course of marketing certificate IV at TAFE. Next year I will go on to the graphic design diploma, finally?! After not being chosen to get in due to a technicality before and having some retail experience, I can finally get back into getting that diploma.

Any way not much else to say right now but I will have more content for you guys soon.

Love you always!

Sofi

Dear Blogger...

Sorry I haven't been very active with you. Tumblr has made for an excellent blogging system lately and provides exactly the kind of system I need for blogging my stuff. But I figured I would come back here for a different reason. I will use you as a digital online diary of sorts. A little more personal than tumblr but not too personal so that anyone that reads this doesn't think i'm being to open and over sharish (that's a word right?).

Any way, today I will probably work on editing some of my game videos like left 4 dead 2 and minecraft. I will also probably work on drawing some of my outstanding projects I have and do up proper title images for my videos.

I should also probably put in some study for my learners test which i plan to take at the end of july. Hopefully I will pass it this time and be able to start my journey in the world of driving a car.

Any way that is all I have to report. Hopefully I will remember to blog another entry tomorrow or sometime this week.

PS. pretty damn excited for monday and tuesday; i'm getting an iPad and minecraft is finally updating to 1.6 officially. HORSES DUDE, HORSES!!!

Yours artistically,

Sofi (Sakura Bell)