Nachiii

I have been long absent from DA, although I missed it. I have been busy with work, which is art-related, so I am drawing all the time! But I can't show all the pictures I've been drawing and maybe will post only a few I like occassionally. So my life pretty much revolves around art. Work, some sports and weekends and some evenings can be spent on some other art projects, if there are any at the moment. Also, this year I will be working on some illustrations for a new upcoming issue of European Breeding Bird Atlas II! It was a very detailed book some decades ago and now, volunteers gather new data and illustrators from across Europe illustrate and I am very happy I can be a part of this huge project. But I should really start working!

Because I have been slacking with updating my galleries and generally being active here on DA, I want to change that. I will add some new art and hopefully I will have some more personal things to post, too. But because I don't have much time left for big personal projects, I decided to start a Facebook art page, which I won't hesitate to fill with sketches and smaller stuff, too.
I have only just created it so there isn't much content, yet, but I hope to improve on that, soon There will be some older notable works of mine to keep the things lively from the beginning, but also things I haven't and I am not planning to post here on DA. If you are interested, I will be happy for some followers to keep me motivated to keep the page lively! I am also always happy for critiques and tips and whatnot Come check it here: Nachi on Facebook

Ahh, it's summer and incredibly hot these days...
I realised I haven't updated my journal in some time again and since I use it a bit like a diary and I'm procrastinating at the moment, I'd like to write a few things down

After my lapwing season ended (and it looks like I might actually have enough data for my thesis, now!), I went to Croatia on a training camp with my karate group. It was an incredible week and I enjoyed myself so much! We had a lot of fun and fooled around quite a bit, too...



I shared the room with three girls and two of our teachers and we had frequent visits from other friends from a room across the hall, shared the dishes, fridges and so on, so it was always very lively around
There I even passed the grading for the 6th kyu and therefore earned to right to sow a nice black stripe on my orange belt

Just the next weekend there was another, very intensive training camp with 4 or 6 hours of karate a day and some more sports in the meantime. The next weekend there was a visit of two high graded karate teachers from England, so we showed them around and spent some time with them. Yeah, that's basically how I spent June

I decided to work on school stuff etc. in July, but I'm procrastinating however I can and go to any karate event there is. There are some planned for August, so until then I need to work harder. One of the projects that needs to be done is to prepare my first ever poster (about my lapwings) for a scientific conference in - tam ta da da! - Iceland!   ...and there's still a lot of work on it...

As for the next school year, I hope to finish my diploma thesis and preparing the poster may help me with the deadlines
And another news is that, quite unexpectedly, three of my fellow karate students and I have been asked if we wouldn't be interested in helping out our teachers by actually getting our own beginner children class to teach. I'm not very sure if I'm experienced and competent enough, but we decided we'd at least give it a try and if there won't be any major problems, we will get our very own students That idea is kind of scary, but exciting at the same time.

What are your plans for summer?

So the spring has come and that means I'm spending a lot of time in the field, near the city of České Budějovice in South Bohemia. The lapwings are displaying and nesting, so I have a lot of work recording their voices and song-flights and watching them make pairs or polygynous bonds, build nests and incubate the eggs... Basically gathering data for my diploma thesis. It's the second year I'm doing this stuff and as I got some experience, it goes much better this season. It looks like I might already have enough data for the thesis. The other thing is that it's going to take a lot of time before I process them and actually write the thesis

It's good to be out in the fresh air and watch all the interesting birds return one by one from their wintering sites This weekend I found and saw my first nest of a Common Redshank, a critically endengered wader in the Czech Republic. I saw a pair of them dig and build a nest and wrote down the location. Two weeks later my friend thought it was time for them to lay eggs and asked me if I haven't an idea of any nest since I spend so much time watching the birds. I told him I had and navigated him to the spot. And there it was! Not a complete cluth yet, just two fresh eggs. I know most of you probably don't care, because you might not be interested in birds or maybe because Redshanks are common in your neck of the woods, but it made me really happy
Here, have a look:



And when I'm not watching birds, I'm drawing them. I've already got several new bird pictures finished, but will publish them later. Just so you know I haven't given up on bird art

It's incredible how fast time seems to pass by. It feels like yesterday it was winter and tommorow will be summer again. And I haven't done everything I was supposed to (as usual). It's a little frustrating, but at least I can say I'm not bored at all.

And from the karate corner I'd like to say that for the second time I've visited a seminar in Wroclav, in Poland. This time the seminar was lead by the World Chief Instructor of IOGKF, Nakamura-sensei. I've never seen him in person before so I was curious. I found out he's amazing - both as a karateka and as a person. He's very friendly and so the atmosphere of the whole seminar was really great. I love events like this and I'm sure a lot more are coming

Hi, I know I'm still not very active here on Deviantart, except for perhaps adding the new pictures when I finish them, but I thought a little journal update was in order.

The exam period just passed, being the historically first one for me when I had no exams at all The new semester is here, though, and my last (but certainly not easy) two exams are slowly approaching...

While I didn't have to study much, I spent my days drawing and working on other school stuff, and of course, doing karate
There was this great weekend seminar near Prague in January with seven masters from England who came to teach us. The training was great and the evening drinking with them, too (although one of the senseis got me drunk more than I'd want to ). The atmosphere was very friendly, in fact so friendly that we earned an invitation to come to England and stay and train at the dojos of the two teachers. Which is an offer we're planning to take up
It always amazes me how these people with high rank are so friendly even towards beginners like me.



And to uphold the tradition, at the end of February, people from our club (and others, but not with much attendance) with their families went to the mountains for a winter karate camp. It's been a looong time since I went skiing, and this year I decided to try the cross-country. It was surprisingly fun (so much more then with my previous over-30-year-old skis that didn't exactly work the way I wanted them to, anymore). But of course, my technique could still use some work
Apart from skiing there was a training every day. We also played voleyball, basketball, fotball, dodge ball and table tennis as there was a gym at the place we were staying. Then needed some time to relax at the welness centre and spent the evenings playing board games. I'm really looking forward to more camps like that


In the meantime I try to work on my diploma thesis and I'm drawing quite a lot, with a goal to save for some trips abroad. There are so many opportunities and so many things I'd like to do! The closest one is a weekend seminar in Wroclav, Poland, which is close to our borders, fortunately. I'll also be going to Croatia just as last year and probably visiting the England dojo in Liverpool in July to train. But unfortunately I'm unlikely to be able to visit my friend who studies there through Erasmus right now, because by that time, he'll be back in Prague . At the same time there was a possibility to go study birds to Chukotka at the Russia's far east, but I don't think I'll be chosen to go, as it's quite late to organise it.
I've also been reminded by a friend (ornithologist) that he invited me to the United Arab Emirates to watch birds with him. Which totally wouldn't be bad, either! Maybe some day...
Another trip that would be awesome, but probably beyond my reach, is the European karate camp in Spain this summer. I think I'm going to miss this annual event again, because I'm determined to save enough money to go directly to Okinawa next year to train at the birtplace of karate and see the Grand master and visit the Honbu dojo ...A little dream of mine
And I would really love to visit an Oriental country such as Japan! Not that I know too much about the culture and history, but it keeps fascinating me

Although Christmas isn't here yet, I've already gotten several presents in these past few days.

After a year pause, I've received a scholarship again, so I'll be saving the money for something cool.

The thing I was so scared of in the last journal - karate belt exams - passed. Destiny or someone above probably thought I wasn't nearly scared enough, though, so they made me ill just a few days before (thankfully I wasn't the only one), and I had to do my best with a cold and a temperature of 37,5°C.  - Just great.
Nevertheless it wasn't bad enough not to try and I'm glad I did, because, YES! I did pass both grades and I can now wear the orange belt proudly Sensei (teacher) even spoke very kindly about the results to us.
I got scolded later, though, by a fellow student whose whole family was also present at the exams and fell ill just the day after, as well as Sensei and a few other friends. Why am I the one being blamed for everyone's illnesses and bruises? Yeah, how funny to play a game of guessing who is responsible for this one's bruises and the other one's, too?
Oh well.... I'm sorry... :3

Another great news is that as a Christmas present, the Prague dojo t-shirts were made. And guess what's on the back of them.... Correct! My picture I gave Sensei as a birthday gift and which is now hanging on the main wall in the (what could be called a) living room in the dojo. I'm so happy! Not only that our teachers seem to really like the picture as well as the idea behind it, which they grasped perfectly, but hey, it's on the t-shirts representing our dojo! Oh, and it will be on the hoodies, too! There are only a few as examples now, but it looks even more gorgeous on those