Writing in English, a practise

I expect to write an article about my master's research in a few months. So far, everything is doing good : I already produced a series of results which I presented to my director and he was quite amazed by those. I wonder if my case is every student case, surely not, but I have collected a huge amount of data since I started my master in January and I'm already able to present preliminary results. Lucky me. If I am given the occasion to write an article by the end of the year, it will mean my work will have been well done. Perhaps my director would even consider hiring me as his doctorate student. For certain I would appreciate such an offer. He already mentioned my resourcefulness and a few of his colleagues also brought up my first and only presentation to be instructive and very interesting for a beginner.

The possibility of composing an article leads to my capabilities of communicating in an understandable English. For practise, I expect to post often on this blog. I need to improve my vocabulary and sentence structure. At the moment, I'm counting on Mozilla Firefox built-in spelling corrector, www.synonym.com and Google Translator which act like as online dictionaries, but I will not necessarily have access to these all the time. Since I will also visit London for a week, I surely want to clearly communicate with the people of the English metropolis. I would feel a bit uncomfortable if I was to seek all the time for my words in my French-English dictionary.

A few people say my English is, so far, pretty good. I believe I still need a lot of practise.

*****

I am all by myself in the apartment until July 16th. I have never been alone more than a few days and it kind of stresses me. Perhaps I care too much about my security, being paranoiac sometimes. Or simply I despise being alone more than a few days. It seems I always need someone to fill an unknown and mysterious emptiness that surrounds me. I believe this void was born from my lonely years back in high school where I was separated from my friends from Friday afternoon to Monday morning as well as the week evenings. When I started college I remember partying every week with many people and maybe I became "people addict" then. I fear being all alone though I sometime need loneliness. I simply love to be with people I appreciate, even if we have nothing to say, though it sometimes creates awkward situations...

*****

Soon I will try to write one of the 2 stories I have imagined. I wonder how it will come out. At the moment, both stories seem to be in a comic format which obviously suggests pictures. Can I draw well enough to create a comic of my own? Are my writing skills good enough for a comic? I have always asked myself these questions and I am still not confident about my abilities. I could write in French, but after a few pages I get bored because I am not following my imagination pace. And I hate to write drafts...

*****

That's enough for today. I think I'll go to bed earlier than I thought. I feel damn sleepy.


Myriam

Got that weird feeling

I don't know if you ever experienced a lack of imagination because you have too much. Somehow, that's my case at the moment. I have plenty of ideas, my imagination is surely dreaming of new stuff but I just can't get the hold on it.

I wonder why.

Is it because I don't have the time to grab those great ideas swirling in my limbo-esque imagination? Or is it, perhaps, that I'm simply not satisfied by the perfection of my art when I need to give a realistic medium to my ideas? Probably both. I would really like to release my ideas, all of them, quickly and beautifully. I can't, like I impose to myself perfection, not less and perfection is a matter of taking my time.

I'd love to draw nicely and quickly, but it seems I can't. It's probably what bothers me most. In the end, my ideas are slowly merging, getting so big that they can't stay together and then POP!, they explode, disappear from my imagination and I never was able to get a hold on them.

It all started at the beginning of the year when I had that huge drawing craving. My imagination simply popped out of its narrow physics prison. But I started my master a week after. Though I had time to draw back in Tucson for keeping myself occupied, it wasn't enough. It's never enough!

Same thing about writing. I'd love to write something. Perhaps creating a comic of some sort. I'd love it. I have a few strong ideas I haven't forgot yet, but damn! I just don't know how to write it well in the first place! I don't have my evenings like I had back in high school when I went to bed after hours of creating new stories. I also think my boyfriend is an imagination inhibitor. Not that he lacks of imagination (he surely does have a lot), however I would like to please him with what I create, and that's hard!

Am I thinking too much about the people's reaction to my art? I now a lot would say I shouldn't bother about their comments. But listening to such comments is a way to perfect my art...

What I'd like to do :
- Draw tattoos ;
- Write short stories based on our Victorian London Exalted game ;
- Finally draw on Photoshop ;
- Create a comic and perhaps posting it as a weekly strip.
- A lot of things...

*****

I'm still in the process of creating a sort of tattoo-esque picture. It isn't my first attempt at drawing tattoos (I did a couple of them and two are permanently decorating my body), but my first attempt to draw non-tribal tattoos with complex curves, shades and design. I'm doing good for now, the main design is fixed (I hope), but I haven't started the hardest part yet. I hope I'll be able to get something good out of it soon.

Here are parts of this project :

Punky girl representing the our present or a near future. I don't know how I ended up with such an haircut, but I love it. The aviator sunglasses, well, are doing good. She looks a bit emo though, but I don't give a damn about it. I simply love her style, that's enough for me. I love the feeling of emancipation she's showing by her pose, the taste of freedom, curiosity, adventure.







The lady besides is from another epoch, probably the lat 1800's. She's representing romanticism, love, sweetness. She is somehow restrained by her epoch, dreaming of inconceivable freedom. She's obviously the opposite of the neo punk girl above.







Then a couple of roses I draw for practise. I expect to draw one (probably not from the three beside) in order to split the 2 girls epochs. The rose will probably be nature on one side and made of metal on the other. Well see...








Well, that's enough said. Lets draw!


Myriam

Hola!

Yeah, I'm kinda back. I just used my blog today to test a few things and seemingly everything work just fine... Well, almost. Since I lost the allowed space I had on my budy's server I lost a few images from the blog which I'll probably have to redo once again. Redo is the perfect word : I have deleted all the images, PSD files and others for these. Too bad, as they say. But hey, that's not such a big problem.

Master, master, who's the master? That's me! I started my Master in January by flying to Tucson, Arizona to observe a star under a magnificent dark sky. Way better than in Montreal, that's for sure! I spent a month (2 trips) in the Saguaro land and I really enjoyed it though I really missed Alex. And since I felt sick back there at the beginning of my second trip which lasted 3 weeks, I really wished I was home at the end. However, it was great besides having my eardrums pressurized. I will start to analyze the data we gathered in Arizona very soon, probably this week.

Still drawing! Meh, I just can't stop. Still the same page (http://sicmentale.deviantart.com)! It's been a bit over a year that I restarted to draw and I keep improving myself. Pretty cool.

Gotta leave for now since I have to give a math course in 45 minutes. Since I'm paid, I really don't mind.


Myriam

One session left

Finally the 6th session is over! You don't know I much I was waiting for this present day, Thursday April 26th! At noon, I was done with my last exam and just left school for the whole summer. A month and a half ago, when the mid-term exams where done, I was already eager to quit school for summer. I wanted to draw, to write, to listen to all kind of animes and read a bunch of mangas. Studying wasn't my priority. Anyway, summer vacation are starting well : I received a B+ grade for my astronomy course.

So what now?

There's a lot of things to do. I gotta work for the summer so I could afford the last session of my physics degree... and other needs like a new computer, a new bike, maybe a graphic tablet... I would also like a table like those architects use for drawing huge plans. I'd like to draw bigger, but I have no place but the floor to let me drive by my artistic instincts (did I write it right?).

I'm also eager to play Exalted, which should happen often this summer. It's been like 3 weeks we didn't fight any creepy vampires in our 1800's London-like game and I miss my character as well as the other players. And it's been almost 10 months the other Game (with a big G) is been left aside. I'm building up a new character, an Lunar archer with a jackal totem. I think I spent a good 16 hours just to complete all of her stats and still I have to create her a past and a story. Got few ideas, I'm still waiting for the approval of the Storyteller.

Now listening to Hellsing OST. I'm addicted to it!


Myriam

Hi honey, I'm home!

I think that's the first thing that came to my mind when I entered my new apartment on April 1st. Since then, Alex and I settle ourselves comfortably in our new love nest (that's a direct translation of "nid d'amour", but I think it's good). We love it! It's a huge apartment, lots of room, and close to all of our needs : grocery, subway, drug store, friends, etc. Name it, it's close. Actually, I'm just repeating myself (I'm getting old, you know, 22 years old!), I remember writing in a previous post about our new apartment situation, but never mind.

6 out of 7, I'm done with this 2007 Winter session. I attended to my last course this morning (didn't pay attention though, I was finishing my last subatomic homework). There's only 3 exams left, starting Monday morning. Then, on April 26th, I'll be free as a bird from school until next fall, to complete my degree. I have 3 courses left, including an astronomy project, a stellar atmosphere course and another course that's yet to be chosen. I'm hoping I could take a physics didactics class, trading it for a option course.

I'm still in the middle of this artistic mood I was writing about last time. Things are getting more serious as I speak about it to my friends. One of them is ready to lend me is Wacom tablet so I could try it out and another one showed me a few Photoshop tricks. I bought myself recently a pen and ink to get use to the technique (is it right to write it this way?). I'm thinking about building myself a little drawing table with a few pieces of scrap wood so I could improve my drawings on a bigger scale. Still, I can show you a recent fan art drawing I inked, Alucard from Hellsing manga. It's a whole original fan art and not just a copy from another picture. I had a hard time with it actually, got big headaches just to complete it.
I did a little modification on Photoshop to color the background. It may have worsen some details, but nothing terrible. I just have to mention that this is not the original drawing, just a photocopy I inked for a test.


Myriam

Moving soon, sooooo soon!

Tomorrow is the day. I'm finally going to live with my boyfriend! We've been talking about it for more than a year now. I'm starting to get excited (it's 7h15 pm, Saturday night) and yet it seems I don't realize what's that all about. Damn, I'm freshly 22 years old but I can't stop to see myself as a irresponsible teenager... Like I was still a kid but with adult responsibilities. Actually, I think of myself this way quite often and others tend to say all the contrary.

Maybe I'm still lost in this part of my childish imagination. I'm acting like a 22 years-old woman, but I may never lose those childish fears of adulthood.

I should stop worrying. I'm moving, God damn! I should be happy and proud about it! And this blog is not fit for any psychological analysis. It's a bit too personal and only my diary know those things, and yet...

All I was going to say is that I will not be over the Internet for the next 3 days. Since we're moving, we need to get a new Internet connection which we'll have next Tuesday. Until then my boyfriend and I will be, in a way, cut out of the world. If we manage to get the TV working good, we'll probably be able to check out Sunday's latest news.

There's not much left to do but to wait for my laundry to dry and to dismantle the racks from the wall. I'll probably read again Hellsing manga and hopefully Naruto Shippuuden 348.


Myriam

March 28th, absurdity day!

But I did nothing absurd... Meh. I spent some time sleeping and doing my subatomic homework (still 2 LONG questions to do).

Here's my new creation, drew on Flash over a sketch I did almost a month ago.

I'm kinda proud of this pic, for a first time!

Myriam