Yay!!! My Camera is back in business. Last year I had to stop using my camera because I stepped on the memory card and broke it (losing all my wonderful summer pictures in the process too!! *sob*) but I got a new memory card (courtesy of a very nice person) so now I can take pictures again!!!

So like I said in the audio post, I'm continuing my Master Cleanse until my ingredients run out. I already ran out of Cayenne Pepper so I substituted with Mexican Chili Powder instead, which I am never going to do again (it's horrible). I have to find Cayenne pepper quickly because I can't drink the lemonade without it (it tastes too much like lemonade and I can't stand lemonade).

My final weight for Day 11 (taken this morning - Day 12)

In other news, *drums roll please* I got my very first ever COPICS!!!!!!!!

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Copics are markers. Yes you heard right. You use them to colour on paper. But here's the thing though. Copics are very special markers because they are what all the professional mangaka use. They go on very smoothly and they don't leave streaks or lines (if you know how to use them). I've been dying to get some but not only are they very expensive but they are very numerous (there are about 400-1000 of them in all sorts of different colours) so of course you can see how these markers are special because only a professional (and very rich) comic, animation, or manga artist would be able to afford them.

My COPICS!!!!! (oh, and my Master Cleanse lemonade too )

If you're wondering then how I, a humble college student with limited funds was able to purchase such exquisite high-end markers, fear not. I did not resort to criminal activities of any kind (although I have heard that there are people that steal Copics). Copics can be bought in sets (which will cost you an arm and a leg) or they can be bought individually (which will still cost you, only a lot less).

The general advice for buying Copics if you're not Veronica Lodge is to buy them one by one and build up the collection over a number of years. (Yes, I said Y-E-A-R-S).

Sha, today I went out and got six Copics. You're advised to get the colours for skin first so that's what I got. Although they didn't have all the skin shades in the store I went to which disappointed me. Nevertheless, I still had an awesome time this afternoon. There are only two kinds of stores that can fill me with unassailable joy besides Barnes and Nobles/Borders - Starbucks, and Art Stores. Between Art stores and Barnes and Nobles I'm not sure which one I love more.

Nigerians in colour, here we come!!

Anyway, I also picked up some books from the art store. I would have liked to stay longer but I had to run out prematurely for fear of bankrupting myself.

Because I want to draw dark creepy stuff

Because I need to learn how to do expressions

In addition to all the other things I have to read and learn

I have a lot of books.

I have an illegal number of books.

My birthday is in 17 days.

Maybe someone should get me an e-reader so I can stop renting out whole U-Hauls just to store my ungodly volumes of books.

Hi Mom!! (*Hint*Hint*)

My room is such a mess. I have art stuff and books everywhere. I generally try my best to keep my room nice and tidy but for the past couple of days I've been really busy so I haven't been able to keep on top of things.

Yeah, I know.

Yay! It's my drawing model! =D

I have this one drawer where I store all my drawing materials

Unfortunately my art stuff has taken over the rest of the room

I've been working on the Nigerian Fiction website.

Yes, that is a sewing machine.

So if you were wondering (from the last post) why I take a yard stick to the bathroom with me, here's the answer.

This is the light switch of my favourite bathroom in the dorm.

It's one of those eco-friendly light switches (meaning that it will turn itself off after a set period of time - based on the assumption that noone is using the light - in this case: 15 minutes)

The problem is: The Fireshit Flush makes you sit on the toilet for TWO HOURS

Also, the actual toilet is nowhere near the light switch.

Which means that every 15 minutes I have to get up from the toilet and go reset the light when the one minute warning goes off.

This would be all nice and gravy and everything except for the fact that I have diarrhoea. 

Since I have no desire to splatter uncontrollable liquid poo all over the floor as I make my way to the light switch, I came up with a solution to the problem.

Meet my yard stick: The solution to my problem

(yes, that is my laptop on the floor)

Necessity is the mother of invention.

No standing up needed.

Now back to the Copics. I was really excited to try out my Copics although just having Copics doesn't mean that your colouring is going to be great. You have to actually know what you're doing and you have to understand basic artistic concepts like light and shade to be able to colour like a professional. I understand all the basic art concepts since I did art in Loyola (at least until I was forced to switch to the Dreaded Physics) but I've never coloured seriously with markers before so I definitely didn't expect my work to be perfect.

I did hope it would be good however. I also watched a couple of tutorial videos on YouTube about how to use Copics properly. 

I chose this particular drawing because it's not an original composition of mine (only the head is my original creation) so I wouldn't feel bad if I ended up destroying it.

Cleaned up (pencil lines and shading erased)

Flat colouring.

As you can see I'm not that good. 

It's so streaky and all my lines are very visible.

I hope to improve with time and practice.

I pulled up a photo of the pencil work on my laptop as a shading reference

Initial shading done and flat colouring of the hair with some shading

I dunno, I think the pencil work looks sexier

But still not bad for my first try

It could have been worse....much worse

Final product. 

Nipples darkened.

Very streaky, but I'm still proud of it.

Yay!! My first colouring EVER!!!!!!!

NOTE: Once again, this is NOT my original artwork, only THE HEAD belongs to me. I simply drew this from someone else's artwork for PRACTICE purposes - to improve my own skills.

The ORIGINAL can be found here: Lolita Art on DeviantArt

P.S. Eccentric Yoruba has a new blog! I don't know what happened to her Blogger but I kept going there stupidly until it occurred to me that she wasn't updating but I was seeing her online regularly.