arrivals and photos

Mirodoll was having this great sale on their stuff and I was perusing the site and contemplating buying a body just because they were so affordable, but I finally managed to talk myself out of it because I didn't really need one.

However, I did go ahead and order a small bust and some shoes.

Some of you may recall that at one point I replaced the bust part on Elaria with a Resinsoul one because I didn't envision her character with the enormous bazongas the Glamor Eve body was endowed with.

So the package arrived today and I tested the fit with the body. I was just assuming I'd need to mod it to make it fit but it looked great to me right out of the packaging so I just went ahead and redid her stringing with the new bust part.

The neck isn't a perfect fit and the arms were swallowed whole by the sockets, but hot glue sueding fixed the arm issue and at some point I can go and sand down the neck some but for now it doesn't bug me too much and I have so many other things I want to work on anyway.

I feel like her figure looks far more natural now than with the last attempt at giving her a smaller chest. I am very happy.

The shoes were for Avignon, so now she has a full proper ensemble. She doesn't have high heel feet so it took some effort to get these on right and she didn't really want to stand up. I could probably switch her feet with Selenor's since they're both WS but for now this is fine.

And lastly, here are a couple of full shots of Selenor's outfit with the new sleeve endings.

further additions: Selenor

I added feathery stuff to the ends of the sleeves and tacked on the tail feather type dealy to her back. I considered having it attached by a small chain like the part in the front, but the 'feathers' are far too puffy and there was a definite possibility of it hovering about 90 feet away from her body because of them, so I decided to just glue it down. I really don't see her changing clothes that often so it shouldn't be a big issue. 

I'm quite tempted to re-design Avelarion's clothes now. Or at least make him a secondary outfit that would mesh better with hers. I can definitely see him wearing what he has now as like "around the house" wear but I imagine he probably would have a more fancy getup for when he was doing official kinds of things. 

outfit progress: Selenor

It shouldn't be terribly surprising to anyone that I didn't end up working on clothes for Batu. I thought about it, but I was far more excited about Selenor's potential outfit (which I have been saving materials for for months now) so I worked on that instead.

The head may not stick for her character (mainly because I feel it's too large for the body) but the body is pretty much stuck in that role now because the clothes are specifically made to fit it.

Anyway my idea started with a concept that involved pseudo wings being attached to her arms so I decided to make an outfit piece to attach those to.

I've seen a lot of tutorials lately that use this method of wrapping an area in plastic and then covering that with tape. Then you cut it off and get it to lay flat so you can use that to make your pattern. So I started with that.

Here is the piece after being cut away from her body.

I laid it out and drew a pattern based on it.

And then I arranged it on a piece of fabric. If I ever have to do this again I will not be using a stretch knit. It seemed like such a good idea in theory but it made the fit a little less than ideal.

Unfortunately, I got far too invested in working to take any more in progress pictures after that point. I had things pretty much planned out in my head until I found some of the old jewelry I had stockpiled from back when I was designing clothes for Aeri and Esyrlon. I experimented with this one piece that ended up becoming the chestplate and that completely altered my plans. For the better, I think.

Here is a picture of the outfit as it looks right now. I still need to add some plumage in the back and on the head and near the wrists but I am taking a break for now.

a busy day

As mentioned in my last post, I decided to sell some things because I needed IOS Infernale. There is an 80-85% chance he will be my Istthraen, a character I have wanted in doll form for years.

Anyway, with one of my sales I was asked if I could do another face up on the head for them. I was a little nervous about that since I've only ever done face ups for myself and Selly.

I did sort of a 'mock up' version yesterday, laying down the general colors and blushing to give the person an idea of what I was getting from their request, and after getting the go ahead I started on the real version today. Luckily, they were online and I was able to get feedback relatively quickly after sending them new pictures!

Between messages, I started work on a new robe for Auralion. His old one was just cotton and I figured he'd want something a little more ostentatious than that. I had this sort of idea that I might want to do the robe in black but I wasn't 100% sure that would look okay, so I made both versions.

I also made his pseudo-tabard thingy but it came out way too wide and kinda wonky so I'll have to revise that later. I'm not sure if the black would work okay if the thing didn't cover most of the lower half, but for now I'm pretty sure I like the red better.

 Here is the face up I spent most of the day on and off working on. Some of the blushing detail is lost because indoor lighting tends to do that. But it shows the basics of it reasonably well.

Now I just need to figure out what I can use as a face protector for shipping since I'm not sure I have any around.

sweater attempts

I got pretty sick last weekend which kinda put Aura's outfit on hold. And, as so often happens, once I lose momentum it's hard to get it back. So today when I got inspired to try to work on some sort of project it was between redoing Orkas' face and making fitting clothes for Aleksandr.

Alek ended up winning in the end when I ran across a tutorial for making sweaters on DoA.

This is not the best sweater ever made and if I had it to do again I'd probably go with something with a tighter knit, but I really wanted this color and only had two pairs of socks lying around in this color. One would have resulted in a folded over turtleneck top part (which I liked) but would have made it impossible to avoid some sort of brand name or logo (which I didn't like).

I'd say it's not the greatest sweater I've ever made, but it actually is because I suck at sweaters. I think it will look passable once I make some sort of jacket for him to wear over it.

outfit progress (now with 'gloves')

Today I painstakingly crafted the glove dealies for this outfit. They're pretty simple, but it was a pain to get them right. The first attempt was fine with just the crushed panne velvet, but the brocade ruined the stretch so it didn't work anymore. If I had been thinking clearly, I would not have done this all in one piece and would have used snaps or velcro to fasten it in the back or something.

Anyway, after multiple attempts, I got these to work. I ended up having to hand sew most of them because I'm not good enough with the sewing machine to be accurate on such a small scale.

I'm relatively pleased with the results, however. Eventually I plan to remake the base robe in red silk and then add a semi-tabard dealy down the front and back so that the lower half of the robe doesn't look stupid boring by comparison.

It absolutely did not occur to me to even look at my sketch plans until after I posted this picture. I added the little parts around the wrist as an afterthought when I felt the gloves looked too plain. I was wondering why I didn't account for that. Then I realized that I DID. I just forgot. 

in progress clothing

after I got home from work today I got busy making outfits for Aura. I completely screwed up on the hood/cowl deal. I don't even know how it ended up the way it did but it comes to a point in the front and it was supposed to just be straight across. I don't know what I was thinking. So it looked weird and I added another layer under it and I liked it better. I still need to do the semi-tabard dealy and the gloves but I think I actually like this version of the top part better than my sketch or the modified version in my head.

I could not shoot this from an angle that didn't make it look stupid, so here's the best I managed.

attempting to design clothes

As much as I kind of like the look of the temporary outfit I have Aura in, I want him to have something of his own that isn't made of spare clothes and Batu's belt.

So I kind of sketched out something based on Priest tier 9. It's simplified because I couldn't make that outfit without wanting to chuck my sewing machine out the window after about five seconds of effort. Among other things.

So I sketched this thing out. I can't decide between the more WoW!Priest colors of greys and whites and black or something. And then the more blood elfy colors of red and gold. Aura's first RP outfit was red and gold but his actual priest tier 9 is more greys and whites.

The red and gold is probably more Aura cuz he's a flashy arrogant jerk. (But I love him that way). And he'd look too much like a unicorn in neutral colors. His hair is already lighter than I'd hoped (but it's growing on me) so I think the red and gold would liven him up some.

It's really hard to resist the urge to picspam him constantly. I'm so utterly and completely in love with his sculpt.

bonding issues

So after dyeing Shino and redoing his face (twice) I just wasn't feeling the same attachment to him as I did before. Last night I decided to chill with him for a while to see if I couldn't either figure out what was wrong or sort of re-attach.

Anyway, it was just making me more and more frustrated and I just didn't want to be anywhere near him and I couldn't figure it out. Finally, I realized I just wasn't liking the eyebrows on his face up because I didn't feel like they meshed with his overall expression. So I removed his head immediately and set it aside to make sure I wouldn't forget to redo it today.

After a long day of family gatherings and job applications I set to work on redoing his face.

Here we have a 'lovely' photo of him in my room shortly after the face up was completed. (You can see a brush and a pencil sticking out of my chopped up peroxide bottle full of rice that acts as my brush and pencil holder for face up time!)

I'd promise natural lighting photos tomorrow but I almost always break that promise so I'll just say that I'll try to get better pics at some point. But so far I like the eyebrows better.

I also made Loki some pants. While they end up looking like capris when he sits (because I didn't want to make them overly long and mess up the way his future boots would fit) I feel like they are the most well-constructed pair of pants I've made in doll size. (Which isn't so much a glowing review of their craftsmanship as it is a decidedly UN-glowing review of my normal pants-making capabilities).

No pics of those but there will be pictures as I progress into the other parts of his outfit.

EDIT: There was a request for pants pics...

the quest for tiny eyelets

To make Esyrlon's cloth 'gauntlets' (in WoW, those exist. so.. that's what I'm calling them) the way I'd drawn them in the concept sketch I needed some tiny eyelets. Sadly, the fabric store didn't have any that were even close to small enough, so I was seriously considering finding another way to make them because I'm impatient.

But Selly suggested I look online, and even though I didn't want to wait on something to ship I went along with this. I figured a quick google search wouldn't hurt. Maybe someone would know where to buy some in person. And sure enough, someone did! I came across a forum where someone suggested that people looking for tiny eyelets should try the scrapbooking sections in craft stores.

So I did that today and they did indeed have tiny eyelets!

Shown here in as close to actual size as I could get them. They're still slightly bigger than the real thing, but it gives somewhat of an idea of how big they really are. To my eye, they are the perfect size. Or at least small enough not to seem drastically out of scale with a doll.

And here we have a picture of the properly eyeletted cloth gauntlets. I'm quite glad that I didn't take the easy way out because I feel like they look really nice all laced up! They've really saved the outfit for me.

Aeri's outfit: completed!

Sorry for all the entry spam lately. I've been rather inspired.

Tonight I finished Aeri's headgear and added the last accents onto her outfit.

 Here she is with her new headgear dealy, sitting in front of my sketch of her outfit.

 So as not to spam more than I already have, I am editing this entry to add that I have 'fixed' Kael's shoulders! They used to have this unsightly gold thing going across the center to keep them from falling off, but I decided to try hot glue sueding them. It works for doll joints.

And it worked! They stay on by themselves now! Looks much more official!

Aeri's new dress and pictures of Esky and Shino

Selly and I agreed that the shiny fabric at the bottom of Aeri's dress wasn't really meshing with the rest of the ensemble since it was so white up top, so I removed the lower part of the skirt and have tried another design that Selly liked.

I feel like perhaps the top part's ruffles go too far down for this to mesh perfectly, but I will see what Selly thinks.

Some pictures of Aeri that show off the bottom of the dress.

And just a random shot of her from the shoot that I liked.

Also was screwing around with watermark-esque things in photoshop just for fun and to throw them on images to be obnoxious and so that in the extremely unlikely even that someone finds the images floating around the net, people can figure out where they came from. /shrug

 Few random shots of Esky in natural, slightly overpowering, lighting.

And a few pictures of Shino after I gave his face the same magic erasering that I gave Esky's. So now they both have minimal spots with weird discoloration and I can stand to look at them in places with decent lighting.

For Shino's pictures I switched the camera into manual so that I could stop it from taking in so much light and washing him out. I probably should have re-shot Esky after figuring out a good setting, but I didn't. Because I'm dumb.

Aeri's dress, nearly completed

I've been working on a dress for Aeri, Selly's Zaoll Luv.  So as not to overwhelm myself or cause myself to rush into error like I usually do, I've been taking it slow and doing it in segments over the course of a few days.

Here is a shot of it from front and back (ish).

A flash shot to s how how shimmery the thing appears in person.

 

And a random picture of Aeri sitting amid a zillion white fabrics. 

doll projects when the internet is out

Our ISP went bankrupt and left us internetless with absolutely no warning. Was quite frustrating as I am a bit of an internet addict, but I chose to make the best of the situation and find things to do that didn't require the internet. Yesterday Selly and I went fabric shopping for her Zaoll Luv, Aeri, who I am going to make a dress for.

An ambitious project as I have never made a dress before! But Selly seemed relatively pleased with the progress so far, so that made me happy.

Selly has already posted some pictures of it on her blog, but since it's a project I'm working on it belongs here too.

Since Statik is also a Zaoll Luv (albeit a modded one) I wanted to get a shot of the two of them together! They are unicorn twins. :D

This is the only picture I got of another modding project I did. I gave Doppelganger swivel joints in his thighs.

headgear

Damon has been bugging me about posting pictures of Batu's in-progress headgear, so even though I'm not entirely happy with it, here are some pics.

I probably should have done a mock up in cheaper fabrics first, but oh well.. live and learn. At least it was only doll-sized so I still have plenty left. The main issue is that it doesn't drape very well. If I do this again I will probably use lightweight fabrics with patterns printed on instead of actually sewn into them.

I had NO idea how to construct this thing and Phobs' most recent comic with them seems to have it working differently than I thought it did, but that was posted on DA yesterday and I'd already started work on this the day before. XD

brief really late night (early morning) update

I have been itching to start work on Batu's clothes, but he's not on the right size body and I don't want to make things so they don't fit properly when/if he gets a shorter one (which will hopefully be acquired with funds received from sales of my two spare bodies).

I decided that one thing I can make is his headgear stuffs. Somehow, I ended up making his sash dealy instead. I'm not really sure how that happened. I was laying out fabrics next to each other to see what went well next to what and making arrows to my clothing sketches with what fabrics I wanted to use where, and then suddenly instead of working on head things I'm making a sash and.. I don't even know.

I was pretty much eyeballing it the whole time because it was almost 2am when I started and I don't have enough room in my room to lay out fabric that long, but I feel like it came out reasonably well given the circumstances. I am mostly using this as my reference, but with bits of other pictures from the comics and sketchdumps.

Anyway, here's what I have come up with. (just the red and gold thing. the white thing is not part of the outfit)

Also, did a massive photo shoot the other day, so my section for dolls now has pictures of (almost) all of my bjds! Not much in the way of info yet, but just getting pictures was a start.

costuming

I wanted to get something relatively productive done today and I decided that it was about time I gave Theorin's outfit a try. (If I can get his done then I'll know I am at least capable of making Scileraen's since they dress somewhat similarly)

So I set about spray painting pieces of jewelry so they'd be appropriately gold (because most discount jewelry I find is silver). And I also got out my bags of leather scraps and tried to find ones in the appropriate colors for outfit parts. I still need a belt, a proper pair of pants, and some shoes, but for now I'm pleased with progress.

 If it wasn't so late I'd try to get pictures in natural lighting, but for now we will have to survive with my poorly lit room.Everything except the pants is made or modified by me. The cape is intentionally somewhat asymmetrical, but I think I might have overdone it a bit. I'll see how I feel in the morning.

Edited to add: Rather than just go to sleep and cease productivity I ended up fiddling with Esyrlon's head ornamentation while chatting with Soren.

I originally had it all symmetrical, but since his hair isn't parted evenly I felt like it looked weird so I just made it unbalanced the way his hair is to some degree. I tried doing it with wire but it was proving to be a bit difficult so I just disassembled leftover pieces from the necklace that had the spikes on Theorin's outfit (above) and modified some earrings and added a fancy button. XD

Detail view of one of the sides of this thing: