http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:ritabuuk&section=today deviantART RSS for by:ritabuuk en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:40:48 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/28477426/ http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/28477426/ Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:09:15 PST
I've also been involved in my school's Game Development Club. I need to work on making 3D models of the characters I've designed, but I am not sure when I will be able to. I'll have time over Winter Break, but no access to 3ds Max. Maybe I need to try to figure out Blender. eeehhhhh....

You might have seen my recent uploads of stuff I've made in my Computer Graphics programming class. The assignments are not very pretty, as they are kinda ghetto 3D, but I did my best to make them aesthetically pleasing. I've done more assignments since the ones I have already posted, but they are more technical and not interesting to look at. Right now, I am working on making a raytracer, which lets you calculate shadows, reflections, and refractions, and a lot of other cool lighting effects. The next assignment sounds like it might be more creative, so I might be able to post the results.

Next, a story. For the past few days, there has been a growing smell lingering about my refrigerator. At first I thought it was coming from the pantry, so I cleaned it out. One of my bell peppers had a bad spot, so I thought that was it. However, the next few days, the smell did not dissipate, but rather it increased. I realized it was clearly emanating from the fridge, as whenever I opened the door, I would be hit with a blast of the stink.

My one roommate says it smells kinda like bad fish. My other roommate says it smells like bad cabbage. I say it smells like bad fart.

My roommates and I took everything out of the fridge and inspected each item. There were a few things that looked old and we got rid of, but nothing that was nasty or smelly. We washed the inside of the fridge and the shelves. However, the smell stayed as strong as ever.

My roommate thought maybe there was something dead under the fridge, but we took the grill off and looked, and there were only dust bunnies.

So now, the only thing we can think of is that the fridge is broken. It stinks inside the freezer too, so that's the only explanation that makes sense. However, all of us recently went food shopping, so the fridge is pretty full. We're going to call maintenance tomorrow, but I fear they will just see all the food, roll their eyes, say something must be rotten, and leave us with this awful stink.

We opened a window to let in fresh air until I realized a worse smell was coming in from outside.

There are two piles of vomit on the ground outside our window.

THERE IS NO ESCAPE!!! GAAAAAAHHHHH!!! *sprays Frebreze everywhere*

]]> ~ritabuuk http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/24064888/ http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/24064888/ Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:30:50 PDT The new critique "feature" is stupid.

THAT'S WHAT COMMENTS ARE FOR.

]]> ~ritabuuk http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/23652893/ http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/23652893/ Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:38:37 PDT

It has been nice to be painting though. The first was the still life all in brown that I recently posted. My second painting is done, and I will be posting it soon. This evening I went shopping for a prop for my next painting, which I am quite excited about. While the class may not be as serious as I would like, it is very relaxing, and most of it gets done during class time, meaning it's not really adding too much to my homework burden (except, of course, when I pick a masochistic still life for myself and have to spend the night before finishing it up until ridiculous o'clock in the morning).

My other classes have been pretty hard on me, especially as of late. I'm also taking the continuation of the computer animation class I took last semester, but I have barely been able to work on it at all. This semester we get the opportunity to do motion capture, which is awesome, although the equipment is not that great. To compensate for the noisy data I will inevitably be getting back (probably with my limbs spontaneously flying off into space), I planned my animation to be simpler in concept than my last semester. However, I still would like to try to make it as pretty as possible, and focus on doing a better job on rigging and skinning my character. However, I have been able to devote so little time to it, right now my poor character only has his legs modeled. Hopefully I will be able to work on it more soon.

]]> ~ritabuuk http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/23052542/ http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/23052542/ Sat, 07 Feb 2009 02:04:02 PST news article. If you agree with me, you might be interested in this stamp and the *stop-tracing club, which tries to help learning artists not become mired in tracing.



I could care less about the fine details of copyright law and whether it or not is legal to post a traced anime screenshot on a website. What bothers me is an art site's official policy considering tracing to be art, and then seemingly welcoming it.

Art should be something the artist worked on to create. We all are at different stages of learning and improving, but I salute artists that try their best to create something on their own, even if it is not of the same "quality" as the official art they could have traced. Those are the artists that will get better, since they are trying to learn for themselves how to render shapes as they see them and what constitutes a good composition, while the tracers stagnate, mindlessly copying the predetermined lines before them. Encouraging dA members to move away from tracing or heavily referencing another artist's work is a much better way of "nurturing [their] inner artist" than simply giving tracing a blanket stamp of approval.

Based on the public outcry, it seems most members of deviantArt hold a similar view of tracing as I do. Therefore, I do not understand why, if "every staff member, volunteer, and member is a contributing factor to deviantART’s success," the community's opinions are being so condescendingly shot down in favor of merely following some legal minimum.

The ideal deviantArt that I envision in my mind is a place where all the members self-moderate and only post the art that they themselves know they have tried their hardest to create. That is primarily why I am disgusted by this issue: this policy officially lowers the standards for what is acceptable and discourages self-moderation. This policy goes against "a passion for excellence, quality and creativity" or any attempt "to instill these values in our community."

We need to stop worrying about what is legal, and instead consider what would be best for deviantArt as a community of growing artists. I believe allowing tracing runs counter to the goals deviantArt itself proclaims.

]]> ~ritabuuk http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/22413764/ http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/22413764/ Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:36:31 PST
I also was supposed to work on my big school project over break, but pfft! Who really expects me to do that when I am home and am able to relax for the first time in what feels like forever? I'd much rather just keep drawing. *guilt*

And when it comes to drawing, I finally finished a drawing of Zero I had in the works since last winter. I tried some new things with the lines, which I might try to do more often. I experimented with a few other things that were less successful, but that's what experimenting is for.

Hopefully I can get my next big drawing done a bit faster than in 1.083 years, because I want to give it to a friend as a gift. It's be nice if it is done in time for her birthday as opposed to next Christmas, heh. While my younger cousins were over, we spent time drawing, and I drew out the basic concept with colored pencils. I'm going to draw it again from scratch because the angles got kinda wonked out. However, I would like to report, it actually looks like the character has a torso. I had to pause and silently celebrate. Anatomy! Yes!

Also, for Christmas, I received Copic markers. They are really excellent, and almost make me want to go get a coloring book or something so I can just keep on coloring with them. Thank you to everyone who already gave me hints for using them. I made a drawing of Bulbasaur and colored it with the Copics, and I have almost finished coloring a drawing I made of Ivysaur.

I'm interested in the Pokemonathon challenge to draw the original Pokemon in order, but I don't want to Jynx myself, so I'm not going to promise anything officially. I did draw all 151 and about half of the Jhoto set back when I was younger, relying heavily on Ken Sugimori's artwork. I hope I can draw them again, but this time I want to make all unique poses and actually draw backgrounds. They're only going to be on index cards, so nothing huge... but don't expect me to keep pumping them out within any small time frame, and don't get mad if I get too busy and have to stop making them altogether, eheh.

I also got the first Phoenix Wright game for Christmas. It's a good game, though I almost think of it more as a book. It's a really good book that you have to keep reading until you are done, and then you want everyone you know to read it too. It also helps that all the jokes were made as if they were specifically targeting my particular sense of humor, and the music, characters, and animations are excellent.

]]> ~ritabuuk http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/20875486/ http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/20875486/ Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:36:46 PDT Yay!

I was really feeling a need for a formal art class. The class I took last semester was computer science, not art, so the expectation level on assignments was really low. I wasn't putting in all that much effort, yet what I made still went well beyond the requirements for the projects and made me look like I was sucking up. Also, besides a little introduction to Maya, I didn't really learn anything new. It served primarily as an excuse to keep doing the art I was working on already, but it was homework, so I was able to let myself devote a little more time to it than usual.

So, overall, I felt like I was stagnating artistically. Now that I am taking this art class, I'm feeling the artistic juices coming back. I have a really good professor, and this is also the first time I have ever drawn nude models, so I really feel like I am learning a lot in terms of anatomy and new techniques.

If you see some newer things added to my gallery marked as mature, they are simply nude models, not anything scandalous.

I am also taking a class specifically on 3ds Max (no wasting time with Photoshop, huzzah!), which should also teach me a lot. I'll have a little animation to show you by Winter Break. Hopefully I'll be able to put enough time into it so that it looks at least somewhat like how I envision it in my head...

]]> ~ritabuuk http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/19759767/ http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/19759767/ Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:45:43 PDT
Earlier in the summer, I pooled a lot of my creativity into my first ever AMV, which I started for a contest. I missed the original deadline, but I will keep tweaking it and try to get it done before the next one. I might post the link along with a piece of fanart once I fix all the things I don't like, and then I can ask you all for input, to help me see the mistakes that I have become blind to from watching my own work too many times.

I've also been doing a lot of cosplay. My friend has taught me how to sew, and with her help I have been adjusting an older costume I made with my mom's help, and also starting a new costume. I didn't upload pictures of my first costume because I did not feel like I had personally done a large enough percentage of the work, plus it needed its tweaks, but I think after the adjustments, it will be enough of my own work to be post-able. My new costume is also coming along nicely, but don't expect it to be done for quite awhile. 9.9

I've also been working on that painting I've previously mentioned. I'd say its about 3/4 done. I'd love to finish it by the end of the week. Either way, it should hopefully be done soon.

I have done some work on my tarot cards, and started digitally inking an older sketch that I hope to do some experimentation with, but those are a bit lower priority than my other projects right now. They'll get done eventually.

]]> ~ritabuuk http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/18229851/ http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/18229851/ Thu, 08 May 2008 16:18:26 PDT

]]> ~ritabuuk http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/17187858/ http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/17187858/ Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:24:34 PST
]]> ~ritabuuk http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/17028976/ http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/17028976/ Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:50:01 PST ~ionlyfavegarbage, and then they fave things that they feel do not qualify as art, to express their dislike of the deviation through faving it. It sounds kinda elitist, but most of the accounts I have seen do not go after young artists that may have made some mistakes. They fave things such as effortless snapshots that would do better on a myspace account, or a doodle that clearly took 5 seconds and no thought to scribble down.

The most interesting one I came across was ~ifavecrap. This user explains in their journal why they don't think certain pieces qualify as art, and then they find similar pieces on deviantArt that they think DO qualify as art. This is interesting, because it is sort of a constructive criticism done with imagery instead of just words. For instance, from their latest journal: [link] vs. [link]

The critique here is very obvious with the juxtaposition of the two. The first photo is just a picture of the dog lying on the grass. The dog is not doing anything particularly interesting (as, in fact, the artist says in the description, it is just being a dog). The picture is not clear or close enough to show off any interesting features of the dog, such as the texture of the fur, or the moistness of the nose, etc. It is not lit interestingly. The dog is towards the top of the photo, and there is something else in the yard at the top. The rest is just grass. This makes it highly unbalanced toward the top, and the negative space is uninteresting. It appears to be just a snapshot the user took of their dog one day on a whim. There does not seem to be any artistic forethought or artistic effort. It is merely an ordinary, everyday, photograph, as if taken by a lay person, not a photographer.

The second photograph is also of a dog. The dog is a split-second away from catching a filthy soccer ball, which is seemingly hanging in midair mere centimeters from the dog's wide open mouth. You can clearly see the dog's fur flying with movement. The dog's eye is bulging, as if with excitement. Everything is in mid-motion, yet all the details are clear. The lighting is nice, and actually adds an extra bit of interest, since it divides the photo into a light and a dark half. The dog, ball, and even the patio and the grass are well positioned in the frame and are balanced. And, speaking of a frame, there is a dark frame added around the photo, which adds crispness and a little extra touch to the photo. The contrast is good may have been enhanced a bit (or the photo just turned out that well). The shot itself may have been planned, or it might have gotten lucky, but either way, it is definitely art, in that artistic effort went into it. Plus, it is interesting to look at. I am generally unimpressed by photography, but this piece earned a fave from me (and when I fave something, it means I do indeed really like the art).

Anyway, I think I am going to try out this method of critique, as it makes certain points immediately clear that I would ramble on about in a massive comment, like I did above. I'm going to try [link] (from ~ifavtrash's favorites) vs. [link] The first is a picture of a butterfly that landed on the person's wrist. While it is cool to have a butterfly land on your wrist, and cool to have a camera handy at the time, the picture is blurry (which is understandable due to the rush of quick-take-a-picture-before-it-flies-away!, yet decreases the quality of the photo). They lighting is also not very good, and the background appears to be of a roof and the street below, which is the less than ideal backdrop. While this is certainly a very nice picture to put in a photo album or a myspace, if it were my photo, I would not have posted it on deviantArt. It is a nice moment to have been able to capture and save for yourself, but I would not say it is art. The second picture, on the other hand, is of a similar butterfly on a flower. The picture is closer, and the butterfly is not blurry at all, so you can see all the details on the butterfly. It also is in an interesting position, with the one wing of the butterfly aimed directly at the viewer, rather than the typically seen shot of the butterfly with the wings flat. The lighting and contrast are good. Since the camera was focused on... ]]> ~ritabuuk http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/16692730/ http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/16692730/ Sat, 02 Feb 2008 15:13:19 PST
I managed to trick my school into letting me take what is technically an art class this semester. So, I may be able to upload some of the projects from that, if I am able to interpret the very restrictive project guidelines loosely enough to be able to make something that I personally am proud of. The first project has a lot of strange rules. Using Photoshoop, I need to make a building in the foreground look weathered and decayed, a building in the background look fresh and new, incorporate textures and custom brushes, and then throw a "standard primitive", referring to something like a circle, on top of everything and make it look not completely out of place. It is probably supposed to be a photomanipulation, but I think there is enough of a loophole in the guidelines for me to get away with drawing something myself. So this class will be entirely about loopholes, I guess.

]]> ~ritabuuk http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/16091703/ http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/16091703/ Tue, 25 Dec 2007 10:42:57 PST
I recently finished my Vyse drawing from Blogathon and posted it. I am quite happy with it, but I always want critiques, please. I also posted some older art that I have been meaning to post but didn't want at the front of my gallery. Now that dA allows me to reorder my art, I'll probably be uploading more of my older stuff too, because I can put it in the order that drew them in.

I'll hopefully work on some more new art soon.

]]> ~ritabuuk http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/15932728/ http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/15932728/ Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:19:01 PST It very much needed an update, and I like the inclusion of a book.

Winter break is coming, eventually. Just got to make it through the homestretch. I hope to be able to do some drawing during the break, so, if all goes well, I might be able to update with some new art soon.

]]> ~ritabuuk http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/15293673/ http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/15293673/ Tue, 30 Oct 2007 21:14:23 PDT
I just recently finished my half of an art trade for . I tried to focus a lot on the background, since my art has been lacking those lately, and I tried to improve my drawing of anatomy a little bit. I'm proud of the background, though I have drawn a lot of forest backgrounds before, so it might not have been the most adventurous choice. The anatomy is okay, but I still see that I need to work harder on improving it.

School is currently taking up most of my life right now, but when I have time, I will be working on a new drawing of Vyse from Skies of Arcadia that I started over the summer during Blogathon. I finished the sketch during Blogathon, and did the outlining and base coloring on the computer before the summer ended. I just need to work on shading it, highlighting it, and adding shininess. I am proud of the background so far, which was my primary focus in this drawing as well.

Recently I have also been drawing concept sketches for my school's video game development club. I might post something from that later.

Whatever I draw next, besides continuing to work on backgrounds, I am going to really try to focus on anatomy a lot, because I am realizing that is a huge area that I need improvement in when it comes to my art. I really don't have any concept of things like how the torso works or the actual shape of the human head. That is a bad thing. But that's part of art. I just keep trying to do my best and improve. If you have any constructive criticism on any of the artworks that I have posted, please let me know. Any critique or tips that can help me improve will always be appreciated.

]]> ~ritabuuk http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/13787429/ http://ritabuuk.deviantart.com/journal/13787429/ Thu, 19 Jul 2007 06:16:30 PDT Blogathon 2007 on the weekend of July 28-9 during which I will blog for 24 hours, once every half hour, to benefit Alzheimer's Association. I will be drawing during that time, and updating with scans of my drawing progress. Please check out my blog for more information, and consider sponsoring me (how to sponsor me), if you can. Those who donate will have the privilege of suggesting things for me to draw. Plus, you can feel happy knowing you are supporting research that will help for us to be able to, one day, cure Alzheimer's disease.

EDIT: I have changed my charity from The Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research Foundation to Alzheimer's Association. While a higher percentage of donations went directly to research with the Fisher Center, Alzheimer's Association seems easier to donate to, with a more secure looking web page, and no minimum donation amount that I can see. I hope this makes things better for anyone wishing to sponsor me (and myself, I'm going to sponsor myself too, lol). Besides research for a cure, donations to Alzheimer's Association also support community programs to help those already affected by the disease.

]]> ~ritabuuk