Civilization is collapsing and life, surprisingly, is still busy. I'm currently working from home - fortunately, my job can be done using my own laptop computer, I'm just writing papers anyway... I don't have access to some programs I'd use at uni but I'll just have to improvise. Actually, working from home is surprisingly nice: less distractions. I
like my colleagues, I really do, but my work goes better when I'm not interrupted by social things like conversations, obligatory coffee breaks and stuff. XD Also, fortunately, everyone here is healthy.
Germany, of course, is in a state of panic and chaos. We have over 12000 confirmed coronavirus cases now (over 400 here in Hamburg), and I suspect the real case number is much higher: due to lack of testing capacities, only those who display symptoms
and had close contact with a confirmed case - which means that those who caught the virus, say, on public transport or in a café or whatever
don't show up in the statistic. Which is... nice for the statistic, I suppose, but catastrophic from an epidemiological standpoint. At least there's no shortage of food. People are buying canned goods like crazy but the supermarkets are re-stocking every day so it's all good. Only flour, yeast, toilet paper and disinfectants are out, and of those, only the latter is a serious problem - not for me (I don't need disinfectant, I'm planning to stay at home for a while) but for the hospitals that are also
out of disinfectant. I read that people are
stealing disinfectant from hospitals now, and while I'm not a religious person I
hope there's a special hell for people doing shit like that. Seriously, WTF?
But as I mentioned: I, personally, am fine. I'm holed up with a computer, good food, good tea and enough art supplies to last me a few months at the very least. Also, on a happy note, I received
reeeeeaaaaalllllly wonderful mail from someone on the German site where I swap ATCs. :)
She sent me a hand-bound sketch book, some hand-made watercolors and a lovely ATC featuring a character from my story/project/thingy. I have to show you
this wonder-wonder-wonderful drawing of Deeyan - the character is an astronomer and that painting, that, mood, wow. Also, the sketch book is very special!
It's YELLOW!!! :D There's a story behind that... As some of you might already have noticed, I love to draw on toned paper. A while ago, I was sort of complaining in our forum that all the toned sketchbooks with artist quality paper (that is, acid-free, lightfast and thick enough to withstand watercolor) are grey or brown, and I was like: I want bright colors! Why don't they make that in bright yellow, because I'd
totally buy
that... Heh, and apparently this nice person read that and, since it's impossible to buy sketch books with good quality yellow paper, she decided to
make one for me. And it's PERFECT.
The yellow paper is Canson Mi-Teintes, which is a very good brand - I once had a pad of Mi-Teintes in different shades of grey and I was very happy with that. The book has a cover with a nice geometric pattern in gold on black, and it's bound with coptic stitch, which means it lies very flat when it's opened. :) I'm going to use it for drawing my own characters because it's simply too awesome to waste it on anything else.
Aaaaaaand the watercolors! They're also wonderful - most of them have a bit of a shimmer, which unfortunately doesn't show up in the photo... But the copper is really shimmery copper, and I think my favorite is "Cleopatra", which is a lovely rich leaf green with tiny flecks of gold, and it's so pretty! :3
...yeah. I'm trying to stay positive, here. If anyone wants to receive cheery mail with a flower drawing or something, just leave a comment here or PM me. Coronavirus doesn't survive long on paper or cardboard so that should be safe...
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yhlee. I decided to answer the questions for my characters Dev, Deeyan and Koh (because they appear most often in my stories) as well as Ruon (because he's in the story I'm currently working on, so I should think about his characterization more). ( Behind a cut because not many people will care. XD )
