esther-ti-designs

[esther-ti-designs]

update #2

welp my asian parents were definitely not happy to hear about the possibility of me working at a tattoo shop. they're pretty conservative and they're boomers, so i can't change their minds

so i went home in late january and from the moment they picked me up at the airport, my mom suggested other jobs to apply to, like not-so-subtly hinting that she doesn't like the tattoo idea. and then after a couple quiet days at home, i had a very one-sided argument with my mom, and my dad threatened to cut off all financial support if i took up the job. apparently, everyone who supports me getting the internship is a bad person. that includes my boyfriend, my roommates, irl and online friends, and even my dentist. and i can't risk getting financial support cut off right now. well, tbh i expected a negative reaction but not this extreme. sooo the apprenticeship is off the table

anyways, i recently landed a job at a print shop! i know it doesn't sound interesting, but it's actually my first paid job (kinda late for a 24-year-old, i know). i actually spotted the hiring sign while picking up my bf's photography project and immediately emailed the shop when i got home. i'm gonna see my bf and a bunch of design classmates while working because this shop is the one place everyone goes to get their projects printed out. it gets super busy every time there's a deadline for any design class lol. i'm starting in a few days, at the time of writing this, and i'm excited!

jan. 16, 2022 | 11:00 am pst

update: i’m back!  and i dropped out of uni

ok i never really disappeared off of tumblr.  i mean, my posts have been really sporadic for the last couple years.  and lately, my insta has been turning into a calligraphy account and i’ve been thinking of doing the same thing here.  if you’re not really into traditional pointed pen calligraphy, don’t worry, i have some bujo pics sitting on my camera roll too.  though, they’re nothing like my 2017/18 bujo spreads, back when i tried to fit in with all the bouncy lettering, washi tape, and stickers.

also, uhh as you can see from the headline, i dropped out of uni.  at least for this quarter.  because my dad couldn’t afford to pay my tuition.  but i’m likely gonna get started on a tattoo apprenticeship soon.  yep, tattooing.  it’s not even close to the first job i imagined i would have.  if you’re interested in finding out how this opportunity came up to me, sit tight, because it’s a long story.

Keep reading

#blog updates #wow look esther actually talks

[esther-ti-designs]

mar. 19. 2022 | 9:03 pm pdt

it's spring break, and my roommates all went home, so i brought out the white foam boards for a photography session. didn't want to look weird while my roommates were here lol 😅

anyways, i got myself a foil quill during the holiday season and only started using it like last month. my bujo is so pretty now! literally can't stop looking at it 😍

i also crammed in some monthly spreads because i rarely take pictures while my roommates are home. so this is all I got for the past 3 months

🖋️ supplies scribbles that matter notebook (a5 dotted grid) we r memory keepers foil quill (fine) muji capped gel pen (0.38 mm) muji mechanical pencil (0.5 mm) wonder & weiss fineliners (0.05, 0.1, 0.3 mm) zebra sarasa vintage gel pens (0.5 mm)

#mine #my bujo #bujo #bujoinspo #monthly #calligraphy #copperplate calligraphy #floral #floral drawing #foiling calligraphy #foil quill #flourished calligraphy #handlettering #hot foil #lefty calligraphy #lettering #artblr #studioblr #athenastudying #einstetic #gloomstudy

[esther-ti-designs]

So Billie Eilish, a recording artist who makes millions with her creative work, has teamed up with Adobe, a multi-billion company, to bring us a contest where artists make merch designs for her for free, and only the winner gets paid. Sorry, a “prize”. And part of the “prize” is exposure.

Oh, and if you submit an entry, whether you win or not, you give them the right to use your work.

Contests like this are a scam. They’re exploitative. Always. They’re a way to get people to do work for free, and only pay the "winner”.

Billie Eilish makes music. She is a creative professional herself who makes money, a lot of money, with her art. She can afford to pay an artist to design her tour shirt. Adobe can afford to pay artists to do design work.

If she wants to give fans the opportunity to work for her - just invite portfolio submissions. Let artists send you work they’ve already done, pick one whose style you like, and hire them to make a design for you. Easy.

This, though? This is trying to use her fame to get people to work for her for free. This is trying to exploit her fans. Note how the key selling point they picked for the tweet isn’t the cash prize, it’s the exposure. This entire thing is based on the hope that people will be so excited to have their work officially featured by Billie Eilish that they’ll work for free just for the chance.

Don’t enter “art contests” like this. It’s not a contest, it’s a scam.

#never listened to billie eilish but #yikes #adobe #art contest scams

[esther-ti-designs]

2021 photo dump

jan. 16, 2022 | 2:00 pm pst

sorry for being absent all year last year. here's some stuff i did during the year, in chronological order

jan. 2, 2021 - set up my bujo

jan. 2, 2021 - bujo yearly spread. that 2021 header here and on the cover page was handlettered

june 8, 2021 - my first calligraphy work done digitally to mark the harry potter alliance's name change to fandom forward

sept. 9, 2021 - designed and 3d printed a spinning top for a cad class. the handle was supposed to look like vines, not a witch's hat

oct. 1, 2021 - actually used a pointed pen for the first time on my boyfriend's birthday card

oct. 1, 2021 - also engraved a tumbler for my boyfriend's birthday (my 2nd engraving project)

oct. 20, 2021 - made a tiny model apartment (4" x 4" x 4") for an interior design class

oct. 31, 2021 - went to my boyfriend's friend's wedding in santa monica/l.a. on halloween. the first wedding i ever attended. and i caught the bouquet :)

nov. 25, 2021 - did a spontaneous chalk display for my boyfriend's grandma

dec. 24, 2021 - sent my parents and some close family members a digital christmas card because the quarter system got me so busy and left no time to make and send cards by snail mail

#calligraphy #copperplate calligraphy #pointed pen calligraphy #faux calligraphy #digital calligraphy #lettering #handlettering #chalk lettering #3d printing #3d design #computer aided design #cad #engraving #calligraphy engraving #bujo #bujo yearly #my bujo #mine

[esther-ti-designs]

a hella late update:

ok so i went to my bf’s friend’s wedding back in october, caught the bouquet, and this costar thing came up again like a couple months ago 👀

Um my Costar astrology for today said, “Think about the word ‘marriage’”

Not even 20 minutes later, my bf’s mom followed me on Instagram!!

What the heck is happening

Update: I got a friend request on Facebook too 😂

#wow look esther actually talks

[esther-ti-designs]

jan. 16, 2022 | 11:00 am pst

update: i’m back!  and i dropped out of uni

ok i never really disappeared off of tumblr.  i mean, my posts have been really sporadic for the last couple years.  and lately, my insta has been turning into a calligraphy account and i’ve been thinking of doing the same thing here.  if you’re not really into traditional pointed pen calligraphy, don’t worry, i have some bujo pics sitting on my camera roll too.  though, they’re nothing like my 2017/18 bujo spreads, back when i tried to fit in with all the bouncy lettering, washi tape, and stickers.

also, uhh as you can see from the headline, i dropped out of uni.  at least for this quarter.  because my dad couldn’t afford to pay my tuition.  but i’m likely gonna get started on a tattoo apprenticeship soon.  yep, tattooing.  it’s not even close to the first job i imagined i would have.  if you’re interested in finding out how this opportunity came up to me, sit tight, because it’s a long story.

ok so my boyfriend’s friends are musicians and they practice in a home studio owned by an affluent homeowner and entrepreneur - let’s call him “n.”  before my first meeting with n, my boyfriend j had told him about me and showed him some pictures of my calligraphy work.  so the first time i met n, he had this wild idea of me doing calligraphy tattoos.  i’ve been kind of sleeping on the idea for the past year or so, before finally telling him that i actually want to take up the tattoo opportunity.  and apparently, he has 1/3 equity in a tattoo shop downtown and he offered to talk to the primary business owner/head artist for me.  so i sent over a dozen pictures of my calligraphy, and now i’m waiting to hear from him.

#blog updates #wow look esther actually talks

[esther-ti-designs]

04.02.2021

“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” -Michael Jordan

Exam season took a look at me and decided ‘thou shall not have any rest and suffer.” The last few weeks have been a lot :) exams, failing an exam, retaking it while still having to study for another exam I don’t wanna fail too lol it’s a struggle but we’ve made it so far and I’m not gonna quit until I have all the credits necessary to be able to take this damn first state exam!!!

#good luck with your exams cynthia!! #tagged #accio queue!

[esther-ti-designs]

15.01.2021

“Stay. The sky is a lot more heavenly with you still under it.” -Eloise Night

How to describe January so far? Cold winter days, cold cheeks and just a lot of studying to do while trying to stay sane and not lose myself in negative thoughts (bc we’re trying to leave that back in the hell hole of 2020 lol)

#haha yes accurate description of january #btw you look so cute cynthia!! #tagged #accio queue!

[esther-ti-designs]

15.12.2020

“Memory of sun seeps from the heart.” -Anna Akhmatova

How is Christmas already next week? Is time even a thing anymore?? Anyways next Monday is my third anatomy exam and so far I feel very unprepared and stressed but luckily I still have a week left to squeeze as much information as possible into my tired and overworked brain :)) very looking forward to that

#ahh sorry for checking my tag a month later!! #hope your exam went well! #tagged #accio queue!

[esther-ti-designs]

15.12.2020

“Memory of sun seeps from the heart.” -Anna Akhmatova

How is Christmas already next week? Is time even a thing anymore?? Anyways next Monday is my third anatomy exam and so far I feel very unprepared and stressed but luckily I still have a week left to squeeze as much information as possible into my tired and overworked brain :)) very looking forward to that

#tagged #accio queue

[esther-ti-designs]

26.11.2020

“I’m the only one who can free me from this mess of mine.” -Unknown

So the second anatomy exam is finally done and to be completely honest with you I feel more like a stone than human rn (weird analogy i know but it is what it is lol) Thankfully I passed and I won’t have to see the library or an anatomy book for the next few days before it all begins again :)

#oops sorry i just remembered to check my tag #glad your exam went well! #tagged #accio queue

[esther-ti-designs]

How to learn a language when you don’t know where to start:

General Plan:

Weeks 1 and 2: Purpose:

Learn the fundamentals sentence construction

Learn how to spell and count

Start building a phrase stockpile with basic greetings

The Alphabet

Numbers 1 - 100

Subject Pronouns

Common Greetings

Conjugate the Two Most Important Verbs: to be and to have

Basic Definite and Indefinite Articles

Weeks 3 and 4: Purpose:

Learn essential vocabulary for the day-to-day

Start conjugating regular verbs

Days of the Week and Months of the Year

How to tell the time

How to talk about the weather

Family Vocabulary

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Weeks 5 and 6: Purpose:

Warm up with the last of the day-to-day vocabulary

Add more complex types of sentences to your grammar

Colours

House vocabulary

How to ask questions

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Forming negatives

Weeks 7 and 8: Purpose:

Learn how to navigate basic situations in a region of your target language country

Finish memorising regular conjugation rules

Food Vocabulary and Ordering at Restaurants

Money and Shopping Phrases

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Weeks 9 and 10: Purpose:

Start constructing descriptive and more complex sentences

Adjectives

Reflective verbs

Places vocabulary

Weeks 11 and 12: Purpose:

Add more complex descriptions to your sentences with adverbs

Wrap up vocabulary essentials

Adverbs

Parts of the body and medical vocabulary

Tips for Learning a Foreign Language:

Learning Vocabulary:

What vocabulary should I be learning?

There are hundreds of thousands of words in every language, and the large majority of them won’t be immediately relevant to you when you’re starting out.Typically, the most frequent 3000 words make up 90% of the language that a native speaker uses on any given day. Instead try to learn the most useful words in a language, and then expand outwards from there according to your needs and interests.

Choose the words you want/need to learn.

Relate them to what you already know.

Review them until they’ve reached your long-term memory.

Record them so learning is never lost.

Use them in meaningful human conversation and communication.

How should I record the vocabulary?

Learners need to see and/or hear a new word of phrase 6 to 17 times before they really know a piece of vocabulary.

Keep a careful record of new vocabulary.

Record the vocabulary in a way that is helpful to you and will ensure that you will practice the vocabulary, e.g. flashcards.

Vocabulary should be organised so that words are easier to find, e.g. alphabetically or according to topic.

Ideally when noting vocabulary you should write down not only the meaning, but the grammatical class, and example in a sentence, and where needed information about structure.

How should I practice using the vocabulary?

Look, Say, Cover, Write and Check - Use this method for learning and remembering vocabulary. This method is really good for learning spellings.

Make flashcards. Write the vocabulary on the front with the definition and examples on the back.

Draw mind maps or make visual representations of the new vocabulary groups.

Stick labels or post it notes on corresponding objects, e.g when learning kitchen vocabulary you could label items in your house.

How often should I be practising vocabulary?

A valuable technique is ‘the principle of expanding rehearsal’. This means reviewing vocabulary shortly after first learning them then at increasingly longer intervals.

Ideally, words should be reviewed:

5-10 minutes later

24 hours later

One week later

1-2 months later

6 months later

Knowing a vocabulary item well enough to use it productively means knowing:

Its written and spoken forms (spelling and pronunciation).

Its grammatical category and other grammatical information

Related words and word families, e.g. adjective, adverb, verb, noun.

Common collocations (Words that often come before or after it).

Receptive Skills: Listening and Reading

Reading is probably one of the most effective ways of building vocabulary knowledge.

Listening is also important because it occupies a big chunk of the time we spend communicating.

Tips for reading in a foreign language:

Start basic and small.  Children’s books are great practice for beginners. Don’t try to dive into a novel or newspaper too early, since it can be discouraging and time consuming if you have to look up every other word.

Read things you’ve already read in your native language. The fact that you at least know the gist of the story will help you to pick up context clues, learn new vocabulary and grammatical constructions.

Read books with their accompanying audio books. Reading a book while listening to the accompanying audio will improve your “ear training”. It will also help you to learn the pronunciation of words.

Tips for listening in a foreign language:

Watch films in your target language.

Read a book while also listening along to the audio book version.

Listen to the radio in your target language.

Watch videos online in your target language.

Activities to do to show that you’ve understood what you’ve been listening to:

Try drawing a picture of what was said.

Ask yourself some questions about it and try to answer them.

Provide a summary of what was said.

Suggest what might come next in the “story.”

Translate what was said into another language.

“Talk back” to the speaker to engage in imaginary conversation.

Productive Skills: Speaking and Writing

Tips for speaking in a foreign language:

If you can, try to speak the language every day either out loud to yourself or chat to another native speaker whether it is a colleague, a friend, a tutor or a language exchange partner. 

Write a list of topics and think about what you could say about each one. First you could write out your thoughts and then read them out loud. Look up the words you don’t know. You could also come up with questions at the end to ask someone else.

A really good way to improve your own speaking is to listen to how native speakers talk and imitate their accent, their rhythm of speech and tone of voice. Watch how their lips move and pay attention to the stressed sounds. You could watch interviews on YouTube or online news websites and pause every so often to copy what you have just heard. You could even sing along to songs sung in the target language.

Walk around the house and describe what you say. Say what you like or dislike about the room or the furniture or the decor. Talk about what you want to change.This gets you to practise every day vocabulary.

Tips for writing in a foreign language:

Practice writing in your target language. Keep it simple to start with. Beginner vocabulary and grammar concepts are generally very descriptive and concrete.

Practice writing by hand. Here are some things you can write out by hand:

Diary entries

Shopping lists

Reminders

What could I write about?

Write about your day, an interesting event, how you’re feeling, or what you’re thinking.

Make up a conversation between two people. 

Write a letter to a friend, yourself, or a celebrity. You don’t need to send it; just writing it will be helpful.

Translate a text you’ve written in your native language into your foreign language.

Write a review or a book you’ve recently read or a film you’ve recently watched.

Write Facebook statuses, Tweets or Tumblr posts (whether you post them or not will be up to you).

Write a short story or poem.

Writing is one of the hardest things to do well as a non-native speaker of a language, because there’s no room to hide. 

There are lots of ways to improve your writing ability, but they can be essentially boiled down to three key components:

Read a lot

Write a lot

Get your writing corrected

#languages

[esther-ti-designs]

Dec. 22, 2020 | 10:00 AM PT

I made a Christmas card for a friend :)

Members of the Harry Potter Alliance at UC Davis (@thedavisalliance) sent cards to each other during Thanksgiving, and I sent mine out on finals week, about 3 weeks later.  I included some small samples of washi tape to make up for the really late mail, though.

#adelinestudiess #allydsgn #athenastudying #heypat #einstetic #gloomstudy #headgirlstudy #moonshinestudies #small studyblr network #mine #my art #calligraphy #copperplate calligraphy #modern calligraphy #calligraphy art #christmas cards #handmade cards #harry potter alliance #my lettering

[esther-ti-designs]

yeolmu_: he’s working

#omg my heart �� #he's so cute!!! #what a good boi #studyspo

[esther-ti-designs]

Gentle reminder that often creativity decides to hibernate for a bit.

It’s okay.  You’re not broken, you’re resting, and much like spring, creativity comes back.

#thanks i needed this 😭

[esther-ti-designs]

Thanks @moonshinestudies for the tag again!  I always wanted to do a handwriting tag, and uh, I may have gone a bit overboard hehe

I’m not satisfied with my Copperplate calligraphy though.  I only started learning it last summer and I don’t practice often enough. And yes, I know my critical designer side is showing haha

Also, some unsolicited handwriting-related fun facts about myself: I’m a lefty, and I was given a penmanship award in kindergarten!  I’ve always had major issues with perfection and writing speed though.  I write extremely slow!

Tagging: I don’t know anyone who hasn’t done this.  I’ll just tag anyone who wants to do this lol

Supplies Paper: @emmastudies dotgrid printable printed on Staples multi-purpose paper Pens: Muji capped gel pen (old model, 0.38 mm) and Pentel Fude Touch Sign brush pen (black)

#esther was tagged #mine #handwriting #penmanship #calligraphy #modern calligraphy #bouncy lettering #copperplate calligraphy #copperplate exemplar #my lettering

[esther-ti-designs]

I wish everyone would admit that classic literature is inherently difficult to read, and that you shouldn’t feel stupid if you don’t “get it”. Especially the dark academia/ classic lit fandoms and stuff. Like unless you have the vocabulary and pop culture knowledge of an 18th century nobleman, it’s going to be a tough read. It’ll take you longer to read; you’re not stupid if you’ve spent several months on a single book! And you don’t have to enjoy everything. It’s okay if you got bored after one chapter of Wuthering Heights, and couldn’t be bothered to read the rest. It’s okay if you want to read your favourite kids book for the 10th time instead. You’re not stupid. No piece of literature is inherently better, more “important”, more “meaningful”, or more “intellectual” than another. First and foremost, read what brings you joy.

#this!! #@ my parents!!!