First:
I believe the world is coming to an end; oh well, I guess we're gonna pretend. Let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've come.

2012 came out on Friday the 13th! How cool is that? Though I make such a big deal out of it, I don't plan on watching it anytime soon. Also, I strongly believe in the apocalypse occuring in the near future, though I'm not too convinced about a specific date. Nuclear wars, people.

The second part of those lyrics:
I've improved tremendously over the past year (yes, just one), so I thought it might be fun to look back and see exactly how far I've come. See for yourself.
[link] This was done on the first day of last school year. (It's laughable. )
[link] This, my latest drawing, is over a year later.

Guess how I did it? Practice, duh. But none of it would have been possible without the help of Basilers (yes, those immature people), you all, and my horribly critical sister. Thanks everyone! <3

Hrm. I didn't place at my piano competition. Again, I wasn't expecting anything, so it's alright.

4 more weeks of school before winter break. :[

Well, I just finished numbering about 2000 measures (including copies), and my hand is sick.

Wednesday, November 4: Piano competition

Huge day. Only plus side is that I get to miss school. So I have to get up at 5:30ish, and be ready with everything by 6:30. It takes over an hour to get to my competition site, and we're sparing an extra hour in case of traffic. I have to be checked in by 8:30, then I have 15 min or so to warm up. 9:00 is my official play time, and I'm second on the list. Poor guy who has to go first, lol.

Anyway. This is the state competition, in which the winner will move onto national. If things are the same as last year, there are three judges, and it's done as open-auditions (in a concert hall where anyone's welcome). Also, this is the last year I qualify for the junior division. The requirements are 20 minutes maximum of music (I have 22, but they'll cut me short if necessary), and all done by memory. Scary. Next year, my age will force me into senior division, which has more specific requirements. I'm not sure if I'll be doing that afterwards.

I, in no way, intend on winning, though I'll try my best. There are 18 participants, and I have a 1/6 chance of placing. Third place wouldn't be bad at all. ;D But...last year I had a 1/4 chance of placing, and I didn't. Let's face it. I'm up against people who practice 2+ hours a day and are most likely going to pursue music as a career. Maybe there's no need for me to beat them. They deserve what they get, and I deserve what I get. Regardless of the results, I'm really happy with my playing abilities and accomplishments.

So guess what I have to say? BRING IT! >8D
If you care to listen while multi-tasking or whatever, here's my repertoire: h*ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBDAklpf8X4&feature=*PlayList&*p=C02BC9380D19B57F&index=0&*playnext=1

[Hrm, emoticons on dA won't let me put in the link. Just take out all the * when you paste this into the address bar.]
I was too lazy to actually record myself. Pretend I play that well, except I don't. My fingers can move extraordinarily fast, but they hit wrong notes, which doesn't do me any good.

~Art~

I really hope to start my studies this weekend, covering the following areas (possibly in this order):
-Face (proportions, variations, shading)
-Body proportions, and some...area shading.
-Hands and feet (might do this during school, cause I have an available reference)
-Hair (fun >_> )
-Perspective
-Textures
-Drapery
-Light and shadows (even more fun >_> )
-Basic background objects (trees, clouds, etc)

Can't think of anything else.

Happy November! ^o^

Woo! Finished my first complete story.
All the chapters are uploaded on my writing account: [link]
I...haven't proof-read the last few chapters, so please excuse any errors. Hopefully you'll still be able to tell what I'm trying to say. The chapters are short, and the story overall isn't too complex either. I like keeping things on topic and to the point.

If you guys read the entire story, I'd love you to death, but I know that's asking for way too much. Even just one chapter would be great! 8D In that case, I'd recommend this one, [link] , though it's a bit freakish. Sorry that I didn't label anything as mature content, cause I don't think it's bad enough to qualify. But that's all opinionated.

Well, enjoy! I'm glad at least. Now I can focus more on drawing and music. T.T

Just wondering about you all's reasons and opinions. Feel free to post your answers below, or make your own journal entry.
Rank these 1-10, 10 being the ultimate reason.

When you draw or produce other art, you do it because:

[9]You want to practice and improve
[6]You want to share your art with others
[1]You want to make money
[4]You want to express your feelings
[5]You want to put your creativity on paper/other media
[7]You just want to have fun
[3]You're bored/have too much time on your hands
[8]You're stressed, and you need to relax
[2]You're required to (assignments, projects, etc.)
[10]Art rules!
Other reasons include:

(That was actually pretty hard to rank...there are the really bad reasons, and the really good ones, and numbers aren't that accurate.)
___________________________________

Rank these 1-8, 8 being the most extreme, and mark an 'X' if you've ever done it before.

You know you're obsessed when you:

[6; ]Spend over $30 on it
[3;X]Spend over 2 hours researching it (this includes other video clips, pictures, and fanfics, but does not include the actual thing, such as watching an anime)
[5;X]Spend over 20 hours producing related pieces (this includes art, cosplays, music videos, etc)
[7;X]Spend over 5 hours a day on it, in any way
[4;X]Can go on about it for over 30 minutes
[2;X]Literally dream about it
[8; ]Create sayings related to it (ex: OMJ for "Oh my Jonas", instead of OMG)
[1;X]Disobey to do something related to it
Other "symptoms" include:
____________________________________

Besides that, I'm really hating school. The people, mostly.
And I bought a new violin on Tuesday! ;o It's omgsoawesome. Named it Viginti Sonitus Bellus II after my first violin, meaning Twenty Beautiful Sounds in Latin. Online dictionaries FTW, so please correct me if I'm wrong. >_>;

Piano competition - Nov. 4
Orchestra concert - postponed to Nov. 5; our theatre didn't pass inspection, lol.

I would write a novel of rant, but I know you don't want to read. Let me just say that I'm starting to hate America. A lot. The people, really. Of course, this is generalized and does not apply to everybody, but. Argh. Technology has gotten the better of us. I am horribly sick of seeing cell phones (I don't have one). They're like peoples' lives now, and no one cares about rules anymore. Plus obesity, ignorance, self-centered attitudes, overused and unnecessary profanity, and the fact that many people seem to think life revolves around sex. I'm tired of the media too, especially about H1N1. We get the point; you don't need to broadcast it 1000 times. >.<

Basil: I'm really bugged about the system, more so than the actual people. I mean, I've learned to ignore trolls and art-bombers who don't care about how you feel. But besides that, lots of impressive art is being ignored and deprived of front-page goodness, losing to effortless chibis. That's one of the reasons I stopped drawing chibis, because mine always got front-paged, even though I was aware they didn't deserve it.
And now, Mr. B is clearing all the comments off of old art. Even my picture that I submitted two days ago has been wiped clean. The reason I post on Basil is to read all the comments, and I like going back and seeing what people have said. Now I can't anymore. T.T

Apart from that. 4 day weekend! And one quarter of the year gone. And Health's over, cause that class was torture, besides the free time for me to draw. And I'm almost done with my story. Getting to the good part too.

Oct. 15th: String Quartet background music.
Oct. 17th: Performing with a friend for a talent show.
Oct. 22nd: First high school Orchestra concert.
Oct. 29th: Re-visiting my middle school for the first time - their Orchestra concert.
Nov. 2-5 (TBA): Piano competition. I'm not ready.