Mona's Portrait: Day 1.something

this is the painting i've been talking about. this was started about a year ago but circumstances -like my thesis exhibit- prevented me from continuing. so i'm determined to finish this by wednesday.

a 3x4 ft. painting is a lot to work on but i already started with the under-painting a few days ago so hopefully, it's smooth sailing from here. i painted the first layer of paint early this afternoon so the shadings aren't right yet. i don't know if the colors are right either. the day has been gloomy. worse yet, there's a typhoon coming. phew. i do hope that this one doesn't disappoint. -_-

photograph i'm copying

I Need Some Sun

I need bright light even just for three days. i seriously have to finish a portrait before sunday. not only that, i have to take pictures for this Black Rock Shooter Figma review that i'm going to write. i would pretty much prefer natural light. i ended up using our emergency light as substitute. *sigh*

it's amazing what you can do with just a LED light. hahaha

seeing the initial pictures that i took, i badly need a tripod for the camera. it takes me at least five tries to get a picture that isn't blurred out.

anyway, i can't do anything about the weather. rain or shine, i have to start doing that painting tomorrow. -_-

Sleep Problems

whether it's a problem going to bed or rising from it, i think we all have them. i can't decide which one is worse. being a student most of my life, i only came up with the solution to them almost by the end of my school-days: an mp3 player. *gasp*

If I'm having trouble sleeping
over the years, i found out that i sleep faster when it's raining, not because of the cold(although, it's a plus), but because it drowns out noise. so i downloaded an mp3 of the sound of rain (with the occasional rolling thunder), put in-ear headphones on and adjust the volume. i'd be asleep after five to ten minutes.

it's widely believed that soft and mellow classical music usually does the trick. i tried; it failed. it's because my brain looks for patterns in what i'm hearing and music has a lot of that. i tend to look for the patterns and forget to relax so i can sleep.


If I want to wake up early but I'd rather go back to sleep
my last semester in college, i was working on my thesis about how color and music affect a person's mood. research shows that up-beat music stimulates the release of certain neurotransmitters that quickens bodily functions, such as heart rate. that was my answer: music with a fast tempo.

i had a seven thirty class in the morning and had to travel for about forty-five minutes, at most, to get to school. so roughly, i have to wake up around five thirty to take a bath and eat breakfast.

i really hate those minor subjects that either starts very early, finishes late, gives more assignments than your majors *ahem* P.E. *ahem* and/or is the only class for the day. but we don't have any choice, do we? i can't skip that class either because i don't want to NOT graduate because of some subject that i can't even use after college. i mean, Social Science. pffft!

what i do the night before is set my mp3 to an upbeat song that i like(at the time) so that it's the first song i hear when i turn it on. i make it repeat over and over again just in case i don't wake up the first three minutes. oh yeah, i set it in a loud volume, just enough to pop my eyes wide open but not impair my ears for life. and since it's a song i like, it cancels out that grouchy feeling you get when you know that you just woke up early for a subject not worth mentioning. it can get you in that i've-got-a-pocketful-of-sunshine-scene-from-Easy-A moment.

My Current Reading List

i love to read. there's no other way of putting it. my problem is that i buy books faster than i could read them. the thing about books is that its value doesn't diminish with the passage of time. the abundance of second-hand bookstores near me doesn't help either. what's more, i usually read the classics, which most of these stores sell for a very cheap price -unless it's been made into a very popular movie.

i usually read before i sleep and after i wake up. in other words, before and after i struggle through the day. they aren't kidding when they say that books are another world.

here are the books (that are not being borrowed as of the moment) that i have been meaning to read/finish before half the year passes by, or before i could add another one to the pile. i settled on picking a book at random rather than spend an entire day deciding if i want to finish "the secret garden" or start reading "the vampire lestat".

Rainy Days -er, months

it's been months since i've seen clear skies that could last the whole day. days have been very gloomy since late november, i think, and hasn't brighten up for long ever since.

i don't have anything against cold weather. in fact, i love it to the point that i wish it'd be rainy all year long. the thing is, cold weather isn't very favorable when you want some work done. it makes you want to sleep past two in the afternoon among other reasons.

i, for one, have not been able to finish this painting since gloomy days gives the surroundings a bluish tint. disastrous since i'm doing a portrait. all i could work on is the under-paintings which took a long time in itself. how much more if i were to start on the actual painting?

i never thought i'd be saying this but... i hope the sun will come out tomorrow (bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there'll be sun).