The Sword Stick

Today while I was outside I saw a stick. It was a good stick, pretty big, probably had just been broken off the tree it was laying next too. When I saw it was nearly overcome with the desire to pick it up and use it as a sword. It was so strong I had to do the "eyes forward, keep walking" thing. Had I paused or looked back I think I would have grabbed the stick. And had to play with it.

As I walked away it occurred to me that maybe I forgot to grow up somewhere between childhood and now. Worse, I rounded a corner and went up a hill and was behind a family with three young children, the oldest two about 8 -10ish. Both had sticks. Both were using them as weapons.

So now I have the maturity of an 8 year old. Though I didn't actually pick the stick up, so that has to count, right? Even though I really really wanted too and still kinda do?

Heh. ^^;

*goes off to play with dolls*

*comes back*

Hey, look. Pictures! :D

First, my ghost girl! She's still blank, but I did wipe her faceup, clean her off, restring (ok I just tightened her strings) her, pull the weird wires out of her legs that I DID NOT PUT IN THERE OMG WHO WAS WIRING MY DOLLS!?!?!??!?!? find her a new wig (temporary), outfit, and eyes. Sort of. It's one of two pairs. Or a pair and some marbles. I can't decide if I like all black or just pupiless. Or if I should buy new ones. A faceup might have to come first.

I want to really scary her up, but maybe keep her looking tragic. Or evil. I like both, so it's hard to decide. Kind of like the eyes! lol


Oooooh spooky lighting!! Or bad lighting...whichever.




This is definitely bad lighting.

Or maybe it is spooky! >:D
 

Ah photoshop. Some people should not be allowed to play with you. Ha ha! But yeah, there she is. The wig I borrowed from a friend, and it's actually backwards as the back looked nicer and had no bangs. Her outfit and creepy doll are vintage things I picked up at the Doll and Bear show last year, and an antique mall a couple years ago. I'm toying with the idea of giving her a wound on her neck like she was decapitated....or not. Maybe just bandages because god knows I can't have enough bandaged dolls....though I guess no one has seen Lucifer since I did that too him....

I'm already happier with her. I hope she'll capture my interest enough. So far so good XD

Now for Jean in her spankin' new Phoenix outfits!!



It's all kinds of fabulous! When I first got the crazytoon idea to make a male Jean Grey this was what I pictured her wearing! Colors are off because I didn't want to take the chance of ordering something and having not work out right so I had to make due with what I found in the local stores. This was seriously it. We don't have much in the way of a choice around here. Personally I think it's ok! She's kind of tan so the darker green looks good. I'd also like a similar one in red for the Dark Phoenix outfits and a black one just for funs, but I want them all different so I have to do some redesigning.

Oh and my favorite part?
BOOTS!!


I have never seen gold BJD boots (though I'm sure they exist somewhere) and I was too impatient to look and then order them, so I bought spray paint and painted a pair no one uses! They turned out amazing and I love them!! Hurhurhur Now I must spray paint ALL THE SHOES!

My Cosmo head should arrive tomorrow, and I'll get to see how it looks with Jean and Gambit, if it's good, I may have to cave and put a faceup on it. I am not sure I can wait to find out if it's a good match for the body or not. I want to make a Wolverine NOW!

That's all I have. I hope everyone in the states has a great Holiday (though mine doesn't start until after tomorrow - boo)! And everyone else has a good weekend! and rest of the week! I'm off to find some chocolate! <33

New project: Ghost

I took my Volks Midori off the sales block today. She's been up for nearly the whole year, her character was already successfully replaced, and no one has shown any interest in her. I've said a couple of times that if I could think of a character for her I'd go on and keep her (since I don't want to lower her price anymore and no one wants her anyway), but nothing has come to mind. If she was WS I would have done this earlier, but as an NS doll I don't know how well it will turn out.....

I am hopefully going to turn her into a ghost. I've tried this before and failed, but I'm better now, and I can't sell this doll anyway so why the hell not. I'm going to wipe her faceup off tonight, try on all the wigs I own until I get something near to what I want, give her some "dead" eyes and get ready for a whole new look. I will just call her Ghost, and she will be either a boy or a girl...which ever I feel like having at the time. Maybe both!! I just hope I can do something with her I like. Volks NS is on the dark side.....I will try to pale her up as best I can but you can only do so much without an airbrush and I wouldn't do that anyway...it would just chip off!

for those who don't know which doll I'm talking about (because I have never posted her here), it's the former Cassiel (recently replaced with a PW Goldie/Zaoll hybrid):



I think she'll benefit from a new look. I have a lot of clothes that will work for a little ghost girl, so there's at least that! Maybe she can hang out with Bob and Skullface since they're all dead n'stuff too.

Hopefully I can make her less happy....I think black eyes will help >:D

Wolverine: Stage 1

Hur hur I got a head.

Even though I had totally planned on getting a Mirodoll body first, and a head later. It may end up not working, but it's a start.

I had a very short list of sculpts that might work for Logan (I can't get used to calling him James), and by chance I found one today on the MP for a great price, in the color I wanted, so I couldn't pass it up. Dollzone Cosmo was one of four heads I liked that were pointed out to me by various DOA peeps who read my "What sculpt could make a decent Wolverine?" thread, and I did like him, so I did a half-ass mock-up yesterday. It looked ok, and finding him this morning sealed the deal.

So then I did a slightly less crappy mock-up (only slightly less)



Could use some eyes....

I think he has potential!! He will of course have black hair...the blue was just so it could be seen on that black background (and a nod to back in the day when blue was the over-used black highlight color for hair). Alls I did other than the hair was use the burn tool to darken places on the sculpt, so I should be able to get this look easily with pastels.

I have an idea of how to do the hair with fur. I'll have to glue, but who cares.

The only things that will trip this up are the head not fitting on the body, or looking horrible or the head not looking good with my other two who are not changing. The tiny eyes worry me a tad....but it might be ok.

Normally I would wait until the body is in hand before I do extensive faceup work like this will be, but I'm not sure I can wait XD

In other news I broke the freaking Souldoll body while I was getting it ready to sell!!! I'm so pissed. I think I'll try and sell it (damaged disclosed of course) separately from the head now.....Ugh. I have never broken a finger before....and of course they don't sell hands so I can't replace it (which I totally would have done). It really sucks. That's like, $50 I am going to have to knock off the price.... :P

Ha ha oops

I've been saying ever since I got my Luts Delf Claus that I really didn't want any more bjds, at least for this year. I've also been saying I don't want to sell anyone else atm.

Heh why is it I never listen to myself?

So just yesterday I was lamenting over what body I wanted to get my Heath (Gambit) in place of the Souldoll body he was on...At the same time I'm in a horrible place with my Switch Taeheo/Granado hybrid who was supposed to be Marcus. The doll looks the part, sorta, but I have had the worst time finding clothes for him as Marcus has a certain style that I just can't seem to get in his odd fing size. For the last 3 months he's been sitting untouched and naked. NAKED on my shelf.

The head also has issues. It's way smaller than I thought it would be, does not match the body (Switch used to be a match for Volks - apparently that changed)...and I blushed him too dark when I did the faceup. He's supposed to be a vampire and he's practically tan....just about everything about him bothers me.

So last night I put the Switch head on the Souldoll body, gave the Granado back to Heath (it was bought for him anyway back when he was Marcus) so Gambit got a taller body and I'm selling the Taeheao on the Souldoll body. Marcus is just going to be put on hold for now, I have gone through two versions and wasn't happy with either, I need to rethink what I really want for him. And when I do buy him again, he's going to be a full doll so I don't have to deal with him anymore. Possibly from Granado or even Soom (Spinel was my original first choice....I might go back to that again). Who knows.

Gambit is keeping the Granado body, which is fine for him. I'll have to do something about his wardrobe (which is a shirt and a jacket lol), but I shopped around today and already found plenty of stuff for him...so it's not going to be nearly the pain it was when it was Marcus' body. Woo!

Plus it made him taller...which opens the door for my new project: Wolverine.

The real Logan/James Howlett/Woverine is supposed to be short. Like just over 5 feet short (not the 6 foot plus monster that is Hugh Jackman - though really, it's Hugh Jackman, so who cares lol), and super-buff, so making him into a doll while Gambit (who is over 6 feet) was just over 60cm was impossible....but now it's not! The Mirodoll 60cm body is maybe still too tall for real acuracy, but my Jean Grey is a man, so I'm obviously not going for exact here. It's shorter and really muscly, not something I want for my own characters, but for Logan it's perfect!!

I uh, just have to find the perfect head >.<

Or a head I like that will work with a little work. lol
I am so excited to try out that hair....it's already killing me and I only just decided to make a Wolvie doll this morning XD

Now I just have to sell some stuff so I can buy the body so I can get a clearer idea of what heads will work for it.

Now the Granado body....oh it needs work. And since I'm officially keeping it I think I'll actually do the work to get it right.

First, it poses great, but doesn't hold those poses. No matter how tight the strings are, it's a floppy mess, and I think it's the same problem a lot of larger dolls seem to have: the channels aren't big enough for the elastic. So when it should have really thick elastic, it can't. Alex has 5mm elastic, Gambit has smaller elastic than most of my Minis.  And some of my tinies.

I sueded the crap out of him, and wired him within an inch of his life, but that's just temporary. I really need to drill out his neck-hole, and possibly the arm pieces, to restring him with at least 4mm string, if not 5. Then if he still needs work, sued and wire. I would also like to maybe smooth out some of that insane muscle. I've never done that before, but If I got slow it might work out ok. This is a big maybe....I might ignore it, but if the drilling goes well....why not, y'know? Also going to wire those awful jointed hands. Maybe sand the veins off them too. I am kind of excited he'll be able to hold things now! Because I have things! Heath matches this body perfectly, so I don't have to redo his faceup (yayyayayay!!) but I might go on and blush the body.

Clothes. I already have a few things I want to get him, I might order them tomorrow. The coat still fits, it's just shorter in the sleeves than I'd like. And I wouldn't mind having one that isn't shiny....or black. But I might be able to poke my friend into making one for me! :D
Shirts and maybe one pair of pants are more important now.

I'm so excited....I have kind of neglected my dolls other than changing their clothes here and there for a while (Marcus. Naked. Three months.)....all the depressing stuff not only is depressing but time-consuming. Now I'm totally getting back into it.

No Nets

Still no internet. Thanks to stupidity on the half of AT&T there may not be any for a while...I am seriously not doing anything on my phone. I'll go insane. Er.

A close friend passed away, my best friends' brother. He was a better brother to me than mine is, so it's very very sad.

I threw in the towel for Nano, the whole death thing kind of killed it for me, I had zero desire to be creative (plus for some reason not having the internet has made me less productive...I have no idea why). I plan on trying to keep up with this thing though, as I have been planning it for a while. I may go back to what I didn't post and start editing, then I can pick up where I left off.

Jeans new eyes came in...holy crap are they perfect!!! You can actually see her face now :D
I have one crappy pic of her, but they're so vibrant...She's also getting a modified Phoenix outfit soon. Pants are finished anyway. The colors aren't accurate, but in the long run I think they'll be better this way. I'd love a similar one in black, and then a "Dark" Phoenix one in red.....but green was my first choice for being first and there's only so much choice in pleathers (like one :P) so it's really dark. I can't wait to see how it'll turn out!! Other than that I have no doll news. I finally got back on to DOA today, changed my trade lists to equal what I want (bodies bodies bodies) and am trying to decide whether or not to put that Souldoll body up for sale/trade. I was pointed toward Doll Family for a 65cm body and I really like it...they have a NY which has to be a better match to Volks than the pale pink Souldoll I have. Plus it's taller and thicker around the waist. SD has the same measurements as Alex, which is weird and wrong. I will have to do a little research (I know nothing about DF) but I'm thinking it might be the winner.

Now I want to just do it. I should. If it doesn't sell it doesn't sell...

Anyway here's Jean with new eyes! Oh, and her shorter wig...



This may be my favorite look for her...I really like the fur wig I made, it was the first hairstyle that came to mind for me to do, but this one is really "her".

Internets Fail

So, long story short, I'm without internet....I've been net less for days and will be possibly for a long time.

It.
Is.
Death.

I'm sitting at Starbucks atm, using their free wifi cause, it's all I got. I have my phone...but I'm used to massive screens (being a graphic designer has spoiled me) and the very least, my iPad, so the phone is....tiny and unimpressive. And I can't do anything on it without it eating stuff, or just not working right (some of which might be me hitting the wrong thing...tiny phone sucks.). I've been able to do basic things, like check email (which I haven't done anyway lol) or websites, but I've been largely internet-absent.

This is at home btw, at work I have no issues...that I know of XD
However I have had to live through friday night, yesterday, today and tomorrow with no internet....I may be at starbucks a lot this weekend LOL

In other news....nothing good. My best friend's brother is in the hospital...it's not good and he isn't going to make it. Before that her sisters new mother-in-law died. Their family has not had a good few weeks.

My cat got really sick last week (like throwing up and bloody stool sick) and I thought I was going to lose him, but it turned out to be stress. Yep. My cat is stressed. Not that I blame him....my kitten Gozer is a disaster. She cray cray. I had a huge vet bill which I couldn't afford, and had to feed him with a syringe (ew)....but he got blood taken (he old. The vet recommend bloodwork for my ancient kitty, though I had wanted it anyway - I was sure it was cancer - it wasn't) and we found out that his kidneys are fine. He's been on prescription food for years for kidney disease and he's fine. NO MORE EXPENSIVE FOOD!!! Even better, no more expensive food that he hates. Now he can eat the "junk food" (science diet) that he loves so much.

I'm probably behind on NaNo as of someday. I was ahead, but only did about half my daily count friday and nothing yesterday...and so far nothing today. I might try and do some later, but we'll see. I am going crazy looking for some stupid comics I lost (I don't lose stuff. Especially comics or books) and someday I want to organize my wardrobe so it's not all over the floor, but those are just excuses....I really should write. It's been going well believe it or not. I think it has a lot of editing to do, but I'm ok with what I have - especially for a "first draft". Alex I has been hanging out with me in zombie-killing attire to inspire me. So far all he's really done is look tired. Which is appropriate for him!

Now I leave you with skullface. I took this for a contest on DA, I don't have the actual files at work, so I had to download off DA on my laptop at starbucks to get it in flickr....so really, i have no idea what it looks like XD

I don't know how anyone does anything on a laptop!! The screens are so temperamental!! And mine's big, I have the largest MacBook Pro available. Like I said, I'm spoiled my tv-sized desktops (seriously, my iMac is as big as my tv).



 D'aw, he so cutes!! This is Bob's first picture in a couple years. He goes to a lot of doll meets, but I don't ever photograph him. :\\\

So it goes with most of my dolls.

 Jean got her new eyes friday as well, but I left my stupid camera card at work!!! So I can't actually photograph them. Which sucks because the weather has been perfect, and I've been in the mood to play with her and Gambit! Boo. I need more cards. I a always misplacing the one I have, or leaving it at home or at work when I'm somewhere that's not one of those.

Speaking of Gambit, I am thinking of looking for a new body for him. I like the one he's got, and I do think it's pretty proportionate, but it really doesn't match him at all, and if he was a cm or two taller I wouldn't mind. Thing is, I have no idea what is out there that would work, other than a Volks SD17...and I am in no way wanting to spend that kind of cash. If anyone knows a similar, taller (65ish cmd) body that matches Volks, I'd love to know.

That's about all I got. Hope everyone else is going ok.
<3

Quick NaNo Update

First day went great! I did over 6000 words, which is amazeballs for me, my best first day ever, probably my best day ever, and also good because I was gone all day and no way am I going to get anything done tonight. Dollmeet and a wake tomorrow mean not much time for writing, and that means I'll already be two days behind...if I wasn't 3 days ahead! So I'll still be ok if I don't get anything done this weekend. Though I know I have to go back and ad something about a dream in my first chapter for anything to make sense.

So far the Before, Prologue and Ch1 where easy, and just came out. Ch2 was a little harder but I also think it was because I didn't have a 100% idea of what I was going to fill it with, and I wrote it while watching Iron Chef XDD
Michael Symon is a distraction for me.

Earlier in the year, I started a Blog titled Vampires vs Zombies. I didn't post anything because I was trying to figure out exactly how I wanted to approach it, and because I didn't have time to write anything. Months later, I started the story for NaNo, so I'm finally posting in the blog! I just put up my forward, so anyone who wants to read it can, here:

http://vampirevszombies.blogspot.com

Keep in mind, this is NaNo, so no editing (I'm totally editing, I just can't ignore those red squiggly lines...I'm just not editing a lot), and I'm not really a writer. I'm a graphic designer. So don't make fun. Also, this Alex's voice, not mine. Seriously. I don't talk like that. Maybe a little. But not that extreme.

I don't post a lot of my actual writing, but I made the stupid blog for this purpose, so I might as well try it out. There will (hopefully) be art too. Here's some as a preview!



 Yay Alex! Cause you don't see him enough!! He's so fun to draw though D:
This is what will hopefully be my "cover" if I can color it adequately.

There's this too


 which I might make into a banner.

But first I have to change Baby Alex, so he can go to the Dollmeet at the Doll and Bear show tomorrow. This is seriously one of my favorite meets of the year, I love pawing through all those vintage-looking clothes and finding fabulous pieces that fit my dolls.

Other than a handful of tines (all Alex), I usually bring an SD - usually one of the Kara Klums. I'm kind of torn this year, I'd love to bring Jean. But I will honestly feel a little guilty for not bringing an Alex. >.< so stupid. I never feel guilty over my dolls...but I kind of do for this. Plus I might miss having him (he weighs a freaking ton though. Seriously, for a tiny SD he's one of the heavier dolls I have - my arm breaks every time I drag him anywhere). I dunno. Everyone is wearing a decent outfit, maybe I'll just grab someone tomorrow and go.  = . =