Beautiful Irony

I know I've been away for a while. I've had life. You know, the basics of laundry and child rearing and summer camp and 1st grade and Pre-K starting... Lest you think I've been all work and no play and thus become a dull girl, I'm going to tell you a tale of two books. They are beauty, they are the beast, but not a Tale of Two Cities.

The first is "Universal Beauty". It's the Miss Universe Guide to looking beautiful. And it's chock full of great advice on skin-care and such. And it's not really that geared towards the Pageant Girl.

The other great book I read was The Photoshop Elements 6 Book For Digital Photographers.

I've always wondered how and wanted to learn about making a good picture GREAT. Well, that book tells all! And how...

The irony of it all? There's not ONE picture in the first book that was NOT manipulated SOMEHOW using the techniques in the second. Take a good look at the cover. I promise it has been enhanced.

Manga & Anime, OH MY!

The Japanese kind (graphic novels/comics), not the Indonesian kind (mangga = mango).

Anime and manga, oh my. See, this is what happens when you marry an Asian. They bring their insidious culture with them. First it was the Japanese RPGs for PlayStation (Final Fantasy, anyone?). Then it was "I want this [mecha/robot] action figure that I used to have as a kid". NOW it's Macross. And not the pansy-ass Robotech series that was butchered/hacked together from 3 DIFFERENT anime series. Noooooo. The ORIGINAL Macross. And then Macross 7.

For someone who was a real Hello Kitty fan "back in the day", this stuff is ADDICTIVE. Help me, but I'm hooked. And not just on anime. Now it's manga. I realized that all the funny cartoons I used to draw as a teenager were actually manga-ish. I can't draw myself out of a paper bag when it comes to "real" art. But give me some manga-themed something and somehow it's intuitive. Like THIS drawing done today while I sat in a parking lot:

I left it full size so you can really see the detail. This is my FIRST attempt at a manga figure in a decade. I'm not formally trained. Bonus points to the first person to comment correctly on the inspiration for this character.

I'm working on a manga (and hopefully an anime) series starring the Chen Sisters. We'll see what comes of it.