Thursday, January 21, 2016

10,000 Hours

Been drawing a lot recently (partially because I needed to catch up in my one sketch a day plan) and it feels SO GOOD. Still really struggling to get facial-likeness, but I'm getting a little more comfortable with it. To be honest, I was feeling a little down a few days ago about what I'm doing, and wondering whether all the hours I spend each day drawing will be worth it in the end. AKA Are all the hours I am not spending on my thesis going to waste? But the day before I left home to come back up to Boston, my dad told me that in order to really get good at something, one needs to dedicate 10,000 hours to it. Some people start off with raw talent, but even if you are lacking that, you can achieve what you want by putting your time into it. Who am I to complain and worry after only putting in maybe 20 - 30 hours so far? The only thing I can do is to draw more. If I draw everyday for a year and I see absolutely no improvement, then maybe it will be time to re-assess my values...but otherwise, I will draw! This morning I was browsing the illustration community on Instagram, and I came across this artist's post. People often get the wrong impression at times (myself included) that these extremely talented artists we see on social media are just straight up talented. They draw beautiful characters and amazing environments, but we often forget to consider just how much work, practice, and time went into getting to where they are now. That post was a nice wake up call for me. 

I recently fell behind by about 5 days in my daily sketches, but someone I almost never talk to sent me a message saying, "You got this Sonya! Keep up the sketches <3" I was surprised by the sudden message, but was also deeply touched by their kindness and support. Later that day I was cleaning my desk, and came across an old letter that my artist friend in Japan had sent me, encouraging me on my "path to the artist." I am so so lucky to be surrounded by such supportive people in my life @__@.

Select 9 pages from my sketchbook so far during my One Sketch a Day project!

Friday, January 15, 2016

Sheep Dog or Dog Sheep?

It's been about a week and a half since I've returned to MIT, and although I'm having a lot of fun dancing and drawing regularly, I'm low-key stressing out over the fact that I've barely touched my thesis prep work that is due at the end of this month! I'm mainly struggling to decide what exactly I want to do with this thesis. We've technically picked topics already, but after meeting with my advisor at the end of last semester (where she gave an impassioned speech about how liberating and fulfilling a thesis is), I'm getting second thoughts on my current topic that, to be honest, I do not feel that strongly about. I'd like the culmination of my undergraduate career to be a in depth project of some sort, not a research paper. I've already found a stack of sources, and have even analyzed a few of them, but I just don't feel inspired in any way. That's why at this point I am unsure of whether to push forward, or backtrack and find some topic/plan that interests me more. I'm convinced that doing thesis work without passion will make for a not-so-enjoyable spring semester...or maybe I just need to suck it up. I did talk to a couple of friends who graduated in 2014 and their general advice was that the thesis is really just something you need to do to graduate and it doesn't need to be anything amazing. LOL more on this as it develops I suppose.

In more exciting news, I met with a recent MIT architecture alum (who also wasn't looking to become an architect) at a cute coffee shop last week. She didn't say anything too groundbreaking, but it was a really insightful talk! A lot of things she said were super relatable, and the whole experience just sort of relaxed me. Staying positive for the future! Now when people ask me what I want to do when I graduate, I can say: I want to become an illustrator. Fuck the fact that my portfolio is nowhere it needs to be in order to land an illustration job.  I will draw and draw and draw until some studio takes me.

Lunch with Mom and breakfast with Kaykay before catching my bus back to Boston! I tried to make the toast-with-fried-egg-middle thing...I think it was fairly successful :3 Also, I feel like i bonded with my family quite a bit over the course of the two weeks I spent at home. I don't often feel homesick while at school, but I've been feeling very homesick recently even though it's only been a week and a half so far. T__T 
At 1369 Coffee House with my architecture senpai. Check out their cute spin on the traditional tip jar!
Froyo at Berryline! Went with Ktian to grab curry at Cafe Mami and decided to make the trek to Berryline even though we were basically full. Their porter square location had TARO MOCHI. Was very exciting but tasted like normal mochi lol. Also it snowed the other day! Only like a tiny film of snow, but someone decided to make a mini snowman with the mini snowfall. Spotted on my way home after practice! It's only a few inches tall xD so cute.
I've always wanted to take one of these arial hipster photos. Featuring my sketchbook companion, trusty wooden ballpoint pen, and new Macbook Pro *__* 

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Sticky Resolutions

The New Year is officially here (we're already two days in~), which means it's the perfect time to make some resolutions, and to stick with them! So here they are, in no particular order:
  • Be on time, and be prepared! For classes, for meetings, for practices, even for social events. My dad once told me that if I'm late and unprepared it means I don't value that person's time, which definitely makes me feel guilty every time I'm late to something. Time to fix my chronic-lateness.
  • Draw. At least one page a day in my sketchbook! No more whining about not drawing enough...just do it. In general, give myself more down time to dedicate to art :)
  • Blog. Once a week. I want to remember my life, and I like blogging about it. No more feeling guilty about blogging when there is still work to do. Err...but uh D:
  • Stay on top of work. Self explanatory. Might be tedious, but will definitely make my life easier near the end of the semester...
  • Take care of myself. That means, sleeping (atleast 6 hours a day, but ideally 8) and eating regular and healthy meals. 
  • Call home more frequently. Maybe every 2 weeks? I realized lately how much I miss them while I'm away at school. It's easy to stress out during the semester and tell myself I don't have time to Skype, but I'm gonna make time from now on!
  • Get over myself. I was born and raised a perfectionist. To be honest, I've always been proud of that trait since it usually allowed me to end up with a good quality product. But this semester I realized that my perfectionism was actually paralyzing my ability to get things done, causing me ridiculous amounts of anxiety, and depriving me of sleep (which made anxiety worse, surprise.) Hand-in-hand with this one would probably be to procrastinate less. I often procrastinate things, not just because of laziness, but also because I'm scared of failing or not executing the perfect idea or design. Fuck it, just do it.
  • Be more patient, forgiving, and understanding. Short-temperedness runs in the family but that's no excuse :P
  • Stay true to myself. Cheesy I know, but it's so easy to lose sight of my priorities and personal goals with all the external pressure from academics, extracurriculars, peers, etc. that surrounds me on a daily basis. Breath and stay focussed! 
  • HAVE FUN. This is 2016. This is the year that I will graduate and hopefully become employed at my first real job. This is the year when I make some pretty big life decisions! Terrifying, but I'll try to make the best of it and have some fun along the way. 
It's a lot, and although I know it's unrealistic that I will be able to follow all of them flawlessly, we'll see how it turns out. 2016 is a scary year, but as of now, I am very optimistic :)

Ringing in the New Year with sparkling cider while watching Mr. Peabody & Sherman on Netflix! I love family movie time :3
First meal of 2016: DIMSUM.

Friday, January 1, 2016

To 2015

As I sit here watching Ryan Seacrest lead one million people in counting down the New Year at Times Square (seriously, the official estimate is one million) from the comfort of my couch, I wanted to take a bit of time to reflect on 2015 (mostly the last 4 months) and welcome in 2016! And what better way to do it than via some photos and captions? 

To another semester in my messy but homey apartment :) Taken during the sunset when the whole room was lit up in orange light.
To home cooked brunch ^_^
To old friends and end of summer relaxation. To blue skies and no worries :)
To new friends and a wonderful semester dancing with Upro! To picking dance over academics and screwing up my GPA. To not regretting my decisions but learning to change my ways for the future :)
To shelling out money for photo paper, but having it all be worth it when the images appear in the darkroom.
To following around Minerva who tolerated me taking endless pictures of her (thank you @__@). To printing out foot after foot of expensive paper...for free! (for reference, the larger photos are 2 feet wide) To wrapping up the semester with a successful photo review. 
To my partner in crime who has a tongue problem but I still like her :)
To doing cool experiments in strobe lab and taking some amazing photographs (seriously, check out those shock waves). To working in a not-so-great lab group but getting through the semester anyway.
To another semester of dancing with Mocha, warming up to old faces, and making new friends :) To the super comfy Rilakuma onesie that Randi got me for Secret Santa! To Mocha Show 2016, coming your way >:D
To my beautiful MONSTARK dancers who made Sonya a very proud and happy choreographer @__@ To hand-painting bandanas for hours when it could've been done in a fraction of the time if it hadn't been a last minute impulse idea. 
To my boy who does stupid things with me like spinning around while taking selfies. Thank you for keeping me grounded even when everything else was anything but. 
To Mongolian hot pot and USDA choice rib-eye. To spicy, rich, oily broth @__@
To my family! To being Santa, eating cookies, and forging notes. To my little sister who can hold a real conversation now. To spending time together and falling together on the snowy slopes of Killington. 
To looking back on a great semester and reflecting on my decisions. To taking artsy photographs and then finding a way to use them as a metaphoric image in an end-of-the-year blog post. 
To going home and looking up. To blue skies hidden behind grey clouds. To trying to take a direct photo of the sun. To the adventure that was 2015 and the start of a new one. Here's to 2016!