Have a beer and tell me WHY this happens all the time

Sigh. What I really hate is my inability to finish my own comics. 

What my main problem is, I'll be sitting down reading/playing games/eating/whatever and WOW! I have a moment of inspiration. This character will do that, they'll get out of this sticky situation like this, fight whoever, etc. And I want to draw! And it becomes epic and awesome, and I draw like five pages, and then I think:

"Man, this actually kind of sucks."

"I'm sure I'm subconsciously copying something I watched a while ago here."

"The perspective here is so bland, let's redraw that three to four more times."

"I don't know what look I'm going for here."

"How is this going to end, when I don't even know what direction to take it next?"

And then I get a bit deflated and kind of fizzle out. And it becomes a cute little orphaned project. I must really develop stronger willpower, somehow. Somehow.

This was something I had in my head for a while (some kind of fantasy/medieval setting, you know, with knights and assassins and elves and dwarves and all that role-playing shizzle), but ultimately it's still at three pages. *kicks self*

So yes, I do know this is slightly self-indulgent, but here's a little sketch of the two main characters. They're supposed to initially start out very antagonistic and suspicious of each other, but despite their differing opinions on pretty much everything, share a similar willpower and strength of character. *nods in excitement*

VIOLENCE TOTALLY SOLVES PROBLEMS

So some of us fellow CSM illustrators decided to create a zine especially for the upcoming Degree Show (should I be capitalizing that?). It's based on the theme, 'First Day', though some of us have interpreted it as 'First Time' as well.

I wracked my head for a while. At first, I wanted to do 'the first time I saw my mother cry' (I was young and can still remember the utter, sinking feeling of horror; there is nothing more terrible than seeing one's mother cry), but then I remembered this one particular incident.

It's all true - except for the fact that actually, I fought off his best friend too, after he got tired of fighting me. Haha! That was the day I learned that:

1. Violence can sometimes be the answer;
2. That sometimes, you have to learn how to fish instead of letting others catch it for you;
3. And that my mother gives the best advice ever, except when she doesn't.

Superheroman v.II

Hm. So we got our dissertation marks back. Pretty happy with mine, so I went back to look at my Mode of Design, which I am now perfectly happy to post a full version of. (I'm weird like that.)

I do realize now that I've had more time between this project, that the chin IS definitely distracting, but I'll take it in stride. No more point in emo-ing about it; I'll simply tone it done enough to appease the tutors without, hopefully, compromising my style. After all, I'd like to think I'm confident enough that it'll still be distinctive enough afterwards.

This is actually a summary of my second case study (which, in its way, is the main one, since the other two case studies go into more specific situations described in the second one in-depth), but with elements of the other two included. You cannot actually believe how long the scripting for this took - it seems so simplistic, eh? It really was a struggle to condense everything into an appropriate 'comic-book' language whilst communicating my main points.

Also, I'll be happy to let you know my lettering has improved since this project (oh, some of the speech bubbles do look painful). But anyway, you probably don't really care about that. Enjoy!

Superheroes 'n Stuff

I feel potentially like I'm in a poker game with my cards on full display by posting this, but I thought I should as well. Hopefully won't regret this later. These are a few pages from my mode of design. Woo! It's finally over! 6 months of heartache and headaches - goodbye!

P.S. Even looking now, I see a lot of mistakes I am irked about. Can you blame me? I was half-asleep, hooked on caffeine, and in a last-minute daze when I did these. Oh well; what's done is done.

Ah-Mah's Journey

Well, that took three days. Three whole days (although Saturday hardly counted, as I spent most of that time eating cake and YouTubing.). Although I went to Polina's party on Friday so that wasn't too bad. Nevertheless. I have had enough leg-ache from this project to last me a while.

I'm kind of posting this up now, because I'm still floundering on how to present this tomorrow. Should I print it out? Lugging my laptop to school to show this totally isn't worth it. But trying to fit all that into a bunch of A4 pages will be annoying time-consuming. Grrr.

Anyway, rant over, and on to the actual story:

For the strangest reason, when Ah-Mah first told me the story of her trek from southern China to Bangkok as a child, I always imagined her to be this hardy, resilient little thing, determined at all costs to reach the other side. Even if it meant literally swimming across the gulf all the way there. Obviously, I was a child with an overactive imagination and little concept of time management.

Of course, as I grew up, I eventually realised how ludicrous the whole thing really was, but that didn't stop me from wondering how cool (not for her, of course) it would have been if it were actually true. Us Chutaprutikorns are made of strong stuff! Ho-ho!

Thus, part-truth-part-child's-fantasy: the journey of my dear grandmother.

WIP - "He never meant to hurt you. But he did, all the same."

A personal work, in progress. Unfortunately, it seems my drawing/colouring style has taken a turn for the 'taking-forever-to-do-a-simple-drawing' category. Consider this: I started this in July, and this is all I have managed to do so far (no, I mean I've done more frames, but this is how much colour I've put into them). I've tried to simplify my style, but it seems quite impossible.

Some background information: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, wishing to be rid of the character that made him famous but also confined him to the same stories over and over, decided to 'kill off' Sherlock Holmes by having him die in the chasms of the Reichenbach Falls.

However, due to public backlash (not to mention ailing funds), he was forced to resurrect Holmes. Holmes returns after a three-year hiatus from the dead - the excuse being that he was forced to pretend he was dead in order to escape the clutches of Moriarty's henchmen - in 1894. All is well again.

My point is that I could have hardly imagined what Watson must have been feeling at the time; not only had he lost a best friend, but the reader may also know that only a few months afterwards, his wife will also die. To have to lose the two people you love most in so short a period of time is heart-breaking; to have it happen to someone with so big a heart as Watson's, the pain must have been more than he could bear. It seems that life is determined to make the best people suffer the most.

What irks me even more is that Holmes cannot contact Watson to let him know he is indeed alive and spare him the grief, for fear his attempts to contact Watson might expose him to Moriarty's henchmen, bent on revenge. However, he does still contact his brother Mycroft to ask for funds as he travels. Mycroft, knowing that Holmes is alive but Watson believes him dead, bears the burden of knowing he cannot do anything to help ease the pain.

In this scene, Mycroft approaches a visibly pained Watson, attempting to offer Watson some kind of condolence; however, Watson is having none of it. He brusquely brushes off Mycroft. Mycroft, knowing his brother is still alive, can only wonder if Sherlock fully understands the consequences of his actions.

Yes, melodramatic, I know. I would have been a good soap opera writer.

Prapim's Life As Dictated By The Recession.

This is for the competition they posted on Blackboard. I thought I may as well add more to my portfolio and try to fill up more of my time. Stupid Flickr resized my image to something super-tiny and therefore illegible, so I had to submit this by email (which seems relatively unreliable compared to the other method of submitting) so I really really hope they actually receive my entry. Otherwise...time, wasted, Prapim, fail, again. You'll know by 30th April (the deadline for submission) because I'll probably be writing another blog entry, subject: "FUUUUUUUUUUUUC--"

"To be perfectly honest, I saw very little change in my life that I could directly attribute to the recession. Other than a few minor incidents here and there, my life (luckily?) was mostly unchanged. I wanted to illustrate how, despite the fact that the recession impacted the world on a huge scale, on a personal level all it really boiled down to was realizing my parents are a little bit sneakier than I thought. "

Prapim's New 'Haircut'.

I may consider actually naming the series of autobiographical comics Proof of How Prapim Fails At Life. Or maybe The Chronicles of Prapim's (lack of) Adventures. Which one has the better ring...?

I pay the price of being too cheap to go to a hairstylist and being impatient. It honestly did seem like a good idea at the time! The sadder thing is, I was totally sober at the time.

On a positive note, it may please you to know that my fringe has since grown a bit longer and thus not so awful, and although one of my friends could tell I cut it myself (it being that uneven, sadly) most of my friends didn't really seem to notice. So...yay!

(Sorry the text is so small! D:)