Far Across the Words

Navci (2 of Hearts) and I started a penpal photo-story project: Far Across the Words =)


(This is obviously a photomanipulation).

She's living in BC; I am living in Ontario. It all started with us wanting to do something together. And this happened. I really admire Navci's photography and dolls in general. I think her taste is really exquisite ^^

If you have time, or you're just plain bored, please go and take a look =) We don't know where it'll go or for how long we will be doing it, but for now we're really happy about the whole concept.

Some pictures

Non-doll stuff:

Doll stuff:

My first female doll

Before starting anything, what's going on with SPAM? I'm reading everywhere Spammers weren't happy enough with attacking email accounts and now they use blogs and website ads and so on. I don't know about you guys but my last two posts were infected with them, geez...

Anyway, as I said earlier, another doll has come, she's my first female (because the other one belongs to my sister), her name is Helena and she's supposed to be Morten's GF ^^U (he felt so lonely T_T). She's a Supia Roda dreaming head, and I haven't seen many of them so I guess she's not a very popular mold.



Trying a red wig on her


Aren't them cute together?!?! X3 (Excuse the fangirlism *ehem*)




However there is something that isn't working... There's 16 cm difference in height! And in doll proportions, that's huge! Take a look:


Morten looks like a pedo!!! This time I didn't do it on purpose, I swear! Yah I knew she was 58cm and he was 74cm, but I wasn't that aware of it. Anyway, sitting pictures from now on.

And just because, an extra pic of Morten 'cuz he's so pretty in that curly crazy/gay wig I got for him:


Now I can say my collection is coming to an end >:3 I just need to save for Glenn and Paul and that's it! (yah, I already know which molds they'll reincarnate in, mwahahaha). That's it folks. Not much time nowadays, due to my two jobs X__x * kills herself *

New year's ramblings

2009 was a very interesting year in my life. I've got my animation diploma, my sister came to live with me, my mom visited me twice, I've got my cat neutered (thank God), Erick Goldberg saw my stuff, I've been into photography... And most important, I've been studying the bible (which hopefully will lead me to become a better person).

Now, this has to be the most procastinating year ever regarding illustration. Sure I did draw a lot the first half of the year. But after school was over my drawing was reduced to almost zero. There's this facebook project I've been until now, which was one photo per week. It took me into this other kind of art and almost made me forgot my roots. Since my previous post was spammed several times I'm going to post here again the pics I liked the most (they can be all found in my flickr account). As you can see, I was mostly into "photomanipulation". However not this kind of photomanipulation that you see and you say "hey, cool photomanipulation! Nice non believable photo!". I don't want it to be that obvious, I want people to look at it and not even think... That's a photomanipulation, if you know what I mean. Let me know if I kind of succeeded (also take in mind that I own no doll-sized furniture).





















This experience with photography made me realize that... It's just not for me. Let me put it this way: Everytime I took a picture, I felt I cheated my roots. How so? I mean, with just one click you can have ready what could take you forever to draw. However there was another big realization: Photography is just an illusion of your surroundings, or your interpretation of your surroundings, and nothing else. Like I said to a friend of mine, could I take a picture of a dragon flying the skies? For sure, there are tricks and what not involved in photography, but you cannot take a picture of a dragon. Period. Nothing as fascinating as drawing, illustrating and such... And what about animation? It's creating "the illusion of life"! (I'm really proud to say myself "I'm an animator" XD). What I want to emphasize (sp?) is that I've got my share of this, and I have to keep moving. I need to draw and that's for real. I think this huge and massive art block is coming to an end.

So yeah, I woke up and I felt this urge to write in my blog xD Dunno why, new year thing? I dunno. Most likely my new post will be about my new doll (which I'm waiting for). Yah, me and my dolls...

Have a good weekend everyone.

Saint!!!

Yes, another doll post! Mind you!

But this one's special! I've been wanting a Dollshe Saint for nearly a year and for reason A and B I couldn't have one until now! He came yesterday after waiting for three weeks since I've ordered him (woa, now THAT is a record).

I love him SOO MUCH, this is NOT normal. I loved him even with his blank face (despite everyone calling him sick or dead). And today I've painted his face and... Oh... The connection was magical. So here he is, my wonderful Saint! I've ordered the closed eyes version, so I still have one face waiting for the face-up! I have no name for him yet, but I'm between Morten and Marcello (thansk mom!). Can you believe that's the box I've got from the mailman? Why is it so big?!

Haha, the taller, the harder they are to stand up. I don't know why I get in love with tall dolls. I'm loving his excess of joints!!


Of course, the comparison picture!


And the face-up I've just painted today =_=U





Beside my doll fandom, nothing much's happened. I keep on painting BGs for Benjamin Bear Season 4, and I've been refining my "cheating" techniques in order to get to deadlines X__x And yeah, that's it u.u I wanna draw

Trying something new...

... With my cheap camera. I always thought the "manual focus" thing was worthless ('cuz I didn't know what it was or how it worked). I needed to create the Bokeh effect without using Photoshop and the Macro function >.< So yah, I had to document myself about technical stuff that I can't quite understand yet xD Anyway, my first experiments! Which is your fav one?

Celestina

So I was keeping this wintery head, and he/she needed a body. Chiqui liked it and we decided he/she looked like a she. After some research I chose a B&G body that arrived just today! And despite the resin match looks quite bad in the pictures, it's not like that at all in real life.
She is my sister's first BJD, and the first hybrid in the family xD I did the face-up and chiqui chose the outfit and general appereance. I love size comparison shots so I leave you with these ones!






I think Loren's gonna turn hetero now.

How to sew a PJ outfit for a SSDF

These are the tools of trade. And the book I bought which is very good if you're a beginner like myself.





First off, you need a pattern. I downloaded the PJ shirt from UndeadThreads and resized it to 110%. For the bottom I used a pant I bought and traced a pattern out of it, then I adjusted it some.



Then you have to place the pattern pieces with the grainline arrow parallel to the selvages and pin them.



Double check the placement before cutting as accuracy is important. Mistakes made in cutting cannot always be corrected.



Do the same with the pants.





Since this fabric tends to fray you need to apply finishing seams. In this case, a zigzag stich was used. Then, iron the piece. Always remember to iron in order to get better results.



Sew right sides together, pin the sewn right and left pants sections together at the crotch seam. Line up the inner leg seams, and match any notches. Stitch the entire seam.



Join both pants at the crotch area using pins and sew them accordingly.



Finish the waistline. Fit what you have done to the doll and see where you want the girdle to be placed at. Fold the upper edge of the waistline and iron it. Stich and leave a a opening just above the first opening in order to get the elastic inside.



Use a pin to drag the elastic inside. Try it on the doll to see if it fits. Once done, stitch several times until it's strong enough and close the opening.



Try the pans once again on the doll and mark where you want the hem to be. Iron it and stich. The pants are done!



Now with the PJ Top. This is the collar and it's kind of tricky. You need to cut it perpendicular to the selvages of the fabric. With right sides together pin and sew the collar around top and sides and leave the other side open. Turn right sides out and iron flat.





With right sides together pin and sew the fronts with the back by the shoulders.



Fold wrong sides of the cuffs together at crease line, and iron them flat. Pin the cuff to the right side of the sleeve and make sure all the seams are aligned. Stitch the cuff to the right side of the sleeve.



Fold the cuffs out so that they lay flat. Iron the seam allowances pointed towards the top of the sleeve and stich.



I didn't take photos of the rest but the rest of the explanation can be found here since I followed those instructions.

And this is how it looks once the buttons are all added!



And this is how it looks on the doll! What a great feeling to see that it fits!