Brain Freeze!

Recently I got a little journal called the "Brain Freeze Journal" by Potter. It is super adorable and it looks like an ice cream sandwich. (As you can see here). 

The journal has a really cute soft brown cover, and inside it has lines. The only parts I didn't really like about the journal was that on the inside between the brown and pink part (so the white part) there were no lines, making it harder to write. I guess that'd be useful if you were to draw something but it's placed in such an awkward position I didn't really know what to do. The other part I didn't like was that the cover was only on the front and back, and none on the side. You can't see it in this picture but on the other side of the journal it has the binding glue and nothing to cover it, which made it sort of ugly. Other than that though, it looks cute enough.

If you were wondering what I did with my journal, I used it to record the Japanese vocabulary I didn't know on the journal to review. It's super handy... and cute!

A Feast!!! ( The Indian Family Kitchen)

Recently I read the book The Indian Family Kitchen by Anjali Pathak. I'm a lover of Indian cuisine so I thought, "why not try this recipe book out?" This book is full of colored picture of the finished dishes (which I liked) and it is hard covered. The dishes looked like they were super easy to make and the spices look simple enough to find, even though they are Indian dishes. I currently don't have time right now to make those dishes, but I'll do it soon and post a picture of it right on this blog!



Cover:

Can I become Superman now? (Super Genes)

Super Genes: Unlock the Astonishing Power of Your DNA for Optimum Health and Well-Being by Deepak Chopra M.D., Rudolph E. Tanzi Ph.D is a self help book illustrating on how anyone (even you) can change your daily lifestyle but alternating a few things in your genes.

The first part of the book is the explanation on how your genes can affect anybody's daily lives; how your problems (physically) are not because of your habits, but because of your genes. The first part struck to me as interesting (I love genetics stuff), the second part wasn't that well put. It was mostly on how you can change your lifestyle to change your genes. While it is good advice, I didn't believe the advice was good enough to actually pay money for it. I mean, I can find a lot of the "how to change your lifestyle" tips on the internet for free. Overall though, I'll give this book a 3/5 stars.

Let's Paint! (Pop Painting)

OK! I absolutely love Pop Painting by Camilla d' Errico. Why, you ask? Well it so happens that the first page I turned to was a page teaching you how to draw fluffy things, and the example was Totoro. As someone who studies Japanese and is consistently emerged in Japanese culture, I loved the reference used so that automatically got me interested in the book. As I read through the book, I noticed that the painting style is all similar to anime, a style I usually draw in, which got me more connected with the book. Pop Painting has a great text to picture ratio in the book. Almost every other page has a colored picture (YES THE WHOLE THING IS IN COLOR) to it. The colors too, are vibrant and lively. The book itself is just really beautiful 238 page book. The tone of the text is relaxed, from teaching you how to find inspiration, to what to wear while painting, and how to shade. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes painting or drawing in a more anime-like style.

 This is the cover of Pop Painting by Camilla d'Errico.

An example page of the book. This is one of the step-by-step drawings in the book. Notice how detailed and how abstract the coloring is.

A Great Book for Artists Alike (Classic Human Anatomy in Motion)

Classic Human Anatomy in Motion: The Artist's Guide to the Dynamics of Figure Drawing by Valerie L. Winslow is a great book for artists alike who are struggling with body proportions or movements within the body. As the titles suggests, this book shows how to draw different part of the body while it's doing an action, not just when it's standing still. For me, I've always had trouble drawing hands, as I couldn't get the proportions right. What I found super helpful in this book is that it explains why I should draw the hand a particular way, and how the proportions matches up. What I also found interesting is that this book is very descriptive about the different muscle groups and body parts. I've taken anatomy before and I can say that this book is very accurate on these descriptions.

Author's Site: http://valerielwinslow.com/

Winter Break

I guess I will write about my winter break time, after all. So I spent all last week doing basically nothing, besides my birthday (which was a week ago from today) and Christmas, I just sat around playing League of Legends. Now I'm frantically trying to make stuff up for my Theory of Knowledge essay and getting really distracted with different things.

Blogging for Books

Hahaha... So I haven't been posting anything for a while. I guess there goes my goals for posting everyday. Anyways, I'm trying out this new thing called blogging for books. I'm not sure how it'll go but stay in tune!