huge travel diary update!!

Hello and goodbye!

Hi guys! I am so sorry I abandoned this blog for a while--I've been a little busy for the past two months arranging my trip to Japan and creating miniature felt desserts.

Unfortunately I either misplaced my travel diary or some master thief was able to take it out from under my nose in .01 seconds. *sigh* but I have started a new one and hopefully will get a chance to scan in a few pages from that before I leave.

I'm lifting off American soil next wednesday! D: Japan will be the farthest I have ever been from home. ;_; i feel like Sam from LOTR taking his first step outside of The Shire. I'm excited, anxious, and am gorging myself on as many american/mexican/ thai foods as I can. Oh taco bell, how can i live without you? (well actually i can...)

Although my family can't see me off to my flight, they wanted to do a going away party. Since they were kind enough to have the party, I thought I would make little fake postcards. I feel like I'm working on an assignment from school haha but without the pressure of 'who's best?' and 'will it sell?'
here's just some progress pics!

for some reason, I really thought it was more difficult to create the clean, crisp, exact shapes I wanted in photoshop--as opposed to illustrator. But I'm kind of really liking and getting more used to photoshop when I do these graphic kind of illustrations. Although the shapes are a little imprecise on PS, it gives the image more character. I still wanna add a little more texture and need to finish painting the statues.

btw! the statues that I'm seated next to are called jizo (jizo bosatsu) statues. They appear to be child-monk forms of Jizo Bodhisattva which I think is some kind of deity that exists in India, China, Korea, and Japan. He is the protector of women, children, and travelers. Statues of Jizo are placed near intersections so that the traveler could choose the correct path. 
--03/07/13 11:49 pm
done woot!