I did a little more painting today & came up with these two:
I am pleased that he at least looks like a guy!
I’m not sure what either of their names are, or what year. ( couldn’t get the color to show right but she’s more like a strawberry blonde).
Ok, so I decided that it was worth it to try to tweak her lips and make them a different red. I think it’s an improvement, though darker than I’d originally intended to use for her.
and a close up of her face:
Ok, that’s todays effort.
Of course I couldn’t leave well enough alone!
This is what I did today:
Raven:
I decided to wipe Raven’s face & tried to repaint her today. I’m much happier with the new resultant Raven, and although (IMO) she looks more wide eyed (and less angsty) I think she’ll do for a younger student & trying to rebel younger sister.
Following on Raven’s heels is Zach.
He was something of an experiment & I’m not sure how I feel about him. I don’t paint male dolls very well & it shows. (don’t mind the stray flocking in the pics)
And then there’s this girl……
(She needs a name)
Do you think she is a 1st or 2nd year student???
She was a pre-rooted obitsu head & is on a volks eb-a body. I feel she’s got some spark to her (although I also think she looks slightly cross-eyed). Even with the eye issue I didn’t want to wipe her because I do like the vibe I’m getting.
So there you have it–some more of my students for the photostories.
I’m always inspired by my good friend Nat over at Milkshake Melody. 
We’ve had joint photostories & characters whose pasts & futures & families are intertwined and related in some way. We were talking a few weeks back about how one of her characters, Inessa, only has her somewhat stuffy & more conservative sister Yseult to visit when she comes to Quinlan (and for photostories). I’d give you a link to Inessa’s profile w/ an updated pic but Nat is updating them so she isn’t up w/ a new pic yet.
With that in mind she’s encouraged me to make a Mistress for my cast of characters. I have yet to determine what if anything she does for a job– might make her a lawyer since Inessa is one and that could be one more way that they’re contemporaries. Maybe. :wink: Anyway, here’s the mistress. You can’t tell from the photos but her eyes are actually blue with aqua/ cerulean
Click the x to see the enlarged version at full size for detail.
Her pet?
A bit more info about her: (she needs a name)
So gave it a try, though it’s a long time later and the details are kind of hazy to me. I recall she had long, blond hair that had curls/waves, a big chest (I’d experimented–I forget it it was paper clay or milliput I’d used) and a little black plether outfit. LOL That’s about all I remember.
Ok, and you remember that yesterday I tried painting Portia? And how I’d misplaced where her eyes were and in general she had personality but looked a bit “off”. I wiped her & Raven’s faces last night & I gave another shot at painting Portia. Not a radical difference, but…?
Any better?
As always, comments welcome!
Yes, I did at last finally get to do some face painting! That’s the good news! 
The bad news is of course that I am so very out of practice that they just don’t measure up to where I think they should be. However, even with that I’m looking for a feel for the dolls and I think (maybe) they work.
First, Raven:
This is the 2nd incarnation (and a variation) of the original. I wanted to make her look younger than the original who IMO always seemed a bit older looking than she should have been.
Rupert:
Rupert came out best out of all of them I think–and that’s not saying a lot since I can hardly paint guy heads even the “Boy” N head.
And….. Portia? (Maybe?)
I think her eyes are high up on her face and it gives her a long looking face. I’m not sure if it works or not, though I feel like she has some instant personality. .. Not sure.
So. Not a lot to show for a whole day’s effort. I’m not sure what to think of them.
Any thoughts or comments? (should I wipe them?)
You might recall I got my paws on a Pow Wow Poncho Blythe a little while ago. She was supposed to be my “model” girl so that when I sew and make things she can show them off. (this is because I am still customizing Emily (Natasha Moore Blythe) and I plan on putting her on an obitsu body for photostory use). Anyway, I can’t ever leave well enough alone. I had to do something to make her more…well, mine I guess.
So I gave it a shot (scroll past the photos and you can read about what happened & what I did) Also, does anyone care to suggest a name for her??
Before & After
Things didn’t go quite according to plan…
I’ve tried being “on the ball” and getting stuff done my production levels haven’t been where I’d like them. It’s the perpetual story of “so much to do so little time to do it in”. The last month or so has been particularly rough for me but I’m still pushing forward.
Here’s a quick update of what’s on my plate:
Website:
Blythe related:
Etsy Related:
Cafe related:
Home related: (this is really the biggest news for me!)
We’ve been looking into getting a new cat for our family. Max has been pretty lonely and sad since Pudgy had to be euthanized. Mark thinks it’ll be a good thing to help me and I think it’ll be good for max especially when it comes time for us all to clomp onto a plane. Then he’ll have company and that’ll make me feel more at ease. So the last week or two has begun the slow process of baby proofing the house…a hard thing to do when you have two craftspeople and a small space. LOL!
So watch the blog & when we find the right one to bring home I’ll be sure to post about it! 
I know, I bet y’all thought I haven’t been doing much lately, haven’t you? 
Ok…I can admit that I go in cycles. I make plenty of stuff but sometimes it’s the effort of setting them up for photos that just does my head in! (So consequently things get boxed up and stuck in a “photograph later” corner of the room.) But I have baked goods & furniture to share now!
But this week I managed to photograph a bunch of them — partly due to Carmen’s encouragement & general “go girl” attitude! Thanks C! :mrgreen: If you’re interested in seeing more photos of them you can check out my Etsy (where they’re all listed!)
I’ll start with the baked goods then follow up with the furniture!
Pink frosted Chocolate Cupcakes
Chocolate Peanut-butter Fudge Bars
Small Moonpies
Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes
And here are the couches I’ve made!
Maroon Couch
Sage green Couch
Thanks for looking!
I bet y’all thought I’d stopped working on the cafe, didn’t you??!! :silly:
Well you’re wrong! Hehe! I’ve been slowly (very) working on the bits and pieces that go on in the inside. You know things like shop fixtures & whatnot. So while the walls are still unpainted (except for the white basecoat to seal the MDF) it is still moving forward.
Here are some pics!
Obviously there’s still a lot to be done before these pieces can be considered “done”. I’ve got to paint them with wood grain, pick out some detailing & some other tweaking…. but I thought folks might want to see them “in process” instead of just when they were finished…?
I’m still debating on painting or papering the top & inside of the re-ment counter. I’ll figure it out eventually though I’m thinking I might go with antique gold or brass look for it since that’s a partial theme in the cafe.
I still need to add a hinged flap/to the counter so that I can keep students & other customers from randomly walking behind the counter.
Some of what was done so far:
For those of you who might be curious the counters started life as a barbie counter & a re-ment bakery store counter. The back counters were a sink & a stove from pedigree sindy. I really gotta say the pedigree furniture sure does make for good stock bases for stuff!!!
If anyone’s actually interested in the step-by-step stuff post and or write and let me know. I don’t want to bore people with more details than I have to!
Not wanting to forget about the action figure girls in my repainting frenzy, I decided to go to work on some of the knock offs I’d gotten. I like the Midori headsculpt and IMO its one of the nicest of the CG heads out there.
These heads are seriously over-rooted with hair. I had to try to thin it out and event hen still decided to give them boil perms to get the hair to lie down flat.
#1 Brown eyes
#2 Blue eyes
Over all I’m happy with how they turned out. They’ll be going up for sale on Etsy this weekend since even though I like them I don’t have a use for them.
You remember Devin right? The he-she-not-quite-sure-gender-ambiguous doll from last week?
Well as I stated at the time I wasn’t that happy with the way Devin’s eyes had turned out. They’re gloppy & sloppy & just not that good. And one of the eyes seems to be going off on its own……
DEVIN [Before]
Repainting Devin is a tough call because sometimes it’s that impressionistic painting that gives some of my dolls their personalities….but I feel it’s also me being lazy. Since I don’t want to get into that habit (the same phenomena exists on Jillian’s eyes) I felt I needed to repaint Devin. And hope that I can keep that quirky vibe.
So….
This is the result of the attempted repaint. I don’t feel I caught the spark, but I am happier that the painting is cleaner (though you probably can’t tell from these photos).
What do you think?
So you might recall that painted Claire a while ago….
I liked her eyes (although I did feel they were a tad large) but something about her face up really irritated me. This week while I have been trying to get back into doing repaints, I considered wiping her face and repainting her.
This is Claire: (who might be renamed)
I really didn’t want to since her eyes had come out rather well. So instead I decided to try repainting her lips . She had bubble lips—and maybe that’s what was bothering me, I don’t know! :whistle:
The thing with the old style C heads from Volks is that the lips/mouth area is very molded and fairly deep. I don’t do very well with it even if it is a favorite of mine (and I wish they’d done something more similar to it on the newest version of the C head).
One of the other issues I have with the old C head is that they also tended to be more conservatively rooted…so you ended up with more bald spots visible on them. Claire also had this problem. So I decided that if I was going to work on her, I might as well do it right. So I rooted in some high and low lights into her head in an effort to plug up the most obvious bald spots. Gave her a boil perm to set the hair to lie down flat.
This is how she looks now, with the newly inserted hair & repainted lips.
The lips aren’t perfect but she’s suddenly looking a lot better to me, and I am not going to repaint her (at least not right now).
Of course, now I think I might rename her Chloe. It’s the name that keeps coming to mind when I think of or look at her.
Ok there’s some stuff going on behind the scenes and depending on how it turns out I’ll share it (vent it) here or not. :angry: It’s related to that steampunk custom I did a while back. Anyway, I’m going to try to ignore the current anger I feel & share some photos of my 2 most recent customs.
It’s been a long while now since I did any repainting so these aren’t as cleanly done as I’d like. Forgive their clothes too… I tried to find stuff that would sort of fit their personalities but didn’t have much on hand that did. Both were done using Volks Neo heads rooted with old hair from NDR (Noix de Rome).
OSCAR
Out of the two I’m happier with Oscar’s facial painting. It’s cleaner & neater. I enjoyed making his porcupine hair but although I wanted to cut it shorter than it is Mark vetoed that idea.
DEVIN
I liked a certain something in Devin’s face so I did not end up wiping it. That said, I probably will repaint him/her soon since looking at it int he photos it just looks clumpy & not too good.
Here’s a better pic to show the crappy painting: Wonky eyes, clumpy brush work. etc.
Devin originally started out as a male character and then morphed into a semi androgynous figure–probably a girl, but currently shown on a Volks Excellent N body type. I’m not sure what body type will ultimately be assigned.
But at least I worked on something. Plus the room you see (vaguely) in the background is the dorm room in process.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been sick this week (including most of today) with a mix of migraines & stomach/ GI upset. So I haven’t gotten much of anything done.
What I did manage to get done this week:
I re-rooted 2 heads & rooted in highlights/lowlights in another one. (No pics yet but maybe tomorrow).
It’s 4pm here and I’m finally getting my head to a functional state. So I’m pulling out a couple of my blank obitsu heads. I haven’t painted a head in months & rather than use of the newly rooted heads I figured I’d just practice first. I don’t want to put pressure on myself (got enough of that from Mark at the moment) LOL. And yea–if one of them turns out really well then I’ll root it LOL!
So anyway, if I’m successful then I’ll paint into the night or else again tomorrow. If not then I might switch off and see if I feel like painting the canvases. Or maybe sewing. I have a couple of things I NEED to make.
eh.
So I mentioned I was taking a brief intermission from working on the Cafe. I’m planning on getting back to that on Monday so don’t fear! :biggrin: Anyway I wanted to give you an glimpse of what I’m doing now: I’m working on the Dorm Room diorama/ roomset. What? What am I talking about? LOL! Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut…..
What if I could do the “Dorm Room” on the Small Living Room base (aka the Friday Monologue room) ? I’d use the wall with the door in it (after all it’s a dorm so who cares too much about that?) So I decided what the hell? I’ve got the walls handy (I just need to give them a couple coats of paint & some skirting boards) toss the beds in and a barbie desk (and wardrobes) and there it is! Ready to go!
The great thing about this is that if I’m careful & tweak things just right–I might actually be able to start proper episodes & photostories for the Quinlan Chronicles.
Then really–at least as far as the student stuff goes—I’ve got just about everything I need! (Ok not everything but a lot!) and I can use the same base & part of the walls from August’s Living Room set for a student classroom if I decide I need to do some of those shots in the psys!
Ok so anyway, I was taking a break right???
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigght! 
I saw a thing called a ticker tape quilt. There’s an awesome tutorial that made me feel it was doable: SewMamaSew . So I wanted to try to make one. I’m not all that good at quilting (up to now I’d never even completed a quilt) so seeing one that made me feel like “hey, I can probably do that!” was nifty. So I got to work on it–after all if I was going to make a dorm room (for multiple people) different bed treatments would be needed etc.
This is how it sort of started out:
I was lucky that the rolls of scraps I’d gotten last time at the fabric shop had a LOT of small prints. It helped make the quilt seem a little more in scale than it would otherwise have done.
After all the sewing (and sorry they’re small but they’re still pain in the ass things to sew) I washed it roughly a couple of times in very hot water. I wanted to get the patch pieces to fray (I wasn’t sure if they would since I’d prewashed everything before hand) and I wanted the base of the quilt (white) to have that kind of rumpled/used look that they get. (I’m not sure how well you can see that in the pics)
I know, not a lot to look at and not really a palette that I would have chosen… Which led me to wonder which of the students it would be meant for?
Yeah. Looks like Eff has claimed it!
Anyway that’s what I was working on the last two days. Overall I’m happy with it and I learned as I went along which is good. I doubt I’ll ever be a “quilter” since it’s so fussy & nit picky (and part of the reason I liked this kind of quilt was that it seemed to be less-so than usual).
Comments?
Making good headway with the cafe project! :biggrin:
Here are some pics to look at! (I’ll try to explain what I’m trying to get across in them)
This is the back & side of the cafe (before being primed for painting). You should always prime MDF since otherwise it pretty much sucks in coat after coat of paint… ugh.
This is the front of the cafe.
I’m working on what style doorknob/latch I want.And I need to make the mailbox/slot insert. I’m thinking something like worn brass or aged bronze for it and the door handle.
It’s also had the inside walls primed, the front’s been painted with a sand textured paint (it might end up becoming another color but that’s just for now). Some scribed in bricking was added for detail (though it might end up being lost when I make the awnings for the front.
DO you think there needs to be an awning over the door as well as the window? Or just the window/table seating area?
Here’s a shot through the window—you can see the lovely round (smaller) tops that Mark made for my barbie table bases!
Since they started out looking like this:
I think they’re much more in keeping with the cafe feel & size now. (after all they need to pack customers in, don’t they!??!)
This is the front of the cafe with makeshift sidewalk bases in place. These are previous diorama roomset bases that didn’t end up getting used… (yes they’re small–they were for things like bathrooms & storage closets LOL) so they’re getting used for this. I’d have liked them to be a bit narrower but eh, I got what I got and that’s what I got! I plan on actually extending them a bit lengthwise so that I have more play with angles I use to shoot.
This is pretty much the whole set (for now) the main diorama roomset, the spacing out front of it for seating & some scenery stuff, and the off side area where the archway is (which could turn into another room down the line if I really needed it to)
Annnnd…there you have it. The current state of the Un-named Cafe Roomset/diorama!
You know, as a kid in school I absolutely dreaded “progress reports” you know the mini report cards that would get sent home telling your folks how well (or not) you were doing?
Heh. I’m finding a weird sort of humor in doing my own–even if I dread admitting that I’m not getting as much crap done as I wanted to.
On the list of things that I was supposed to get done between last week & this week:
Nope. That’s just not going to happen right now. I’m not in the mood to mess around with grouting and getting all grotty. (that gets moved to next week now)
Yep. Did that using an old bike cover.
Turned out like a flaming pile of crap though. 
The bike cover was one of those narrow gusseted ones and although I tried to cut it down /adjust it to fit in multiple pieces it –well it just ain’t pretty. I’m going to the pound shop today (while I’m in town setting up another eye exam & returning library books) and will see if I can pick up a lightweight tarp there. Ideally I’d like something the weight of those old plastic tablecloths people used to use….
Gave it 4 shots this week & I just got sick & tired of the plasq comic life program crashing on me. WTF? I’m sorry, but writing original dialogue–and then trying to re-write it repeatedly is no fun. I so seriously need to get on the ball when it comes to making some balloons for PS. Comic life’s biggest pro is the lay out ability–but man, it’s just pissing me off otherwise. At this rate Mallory’ll just tell me to get bent before doing another FM.
Yep. You betcha! It’s looking promising as well since he mumbled something about doing it and having the space for more airplane parts. Heh. It’s May now…I wonder if I might have it before the end of the month?
Yep. Or at least that’s in progress. I’m surprised but actually happier with how it’s turning out now.
That’s the state of things for now.
This post has been a looooooooooong time in coming! I bought Miracle Child Ayumi back in 2007. Thank you again Ursula for giving me Ayumi-envy so much so that I bought one!!
I didn’t know exactly what role she was going to play in my collection I only knew that I really liked her headsculpt. It didn’t take me long to lose patience with the FR bodies (sorry the posing standards just aren’t up to my needs) and so consequently Ayumi got shelved with the “I’ll get back to her at some point”.
Back in 2008 I started seriously considering giving her a new body and again I didn’t really like my options enough to commit to one.
Then last year in 2009, Jendini posted some photos in flickr of her Ayumi who had been re-bodied onto a Volks Neo Teen body. I was surprised (considering how anorexic she had looked on a regular volks body) and thought “Ah hah! At last! Here’s something I can run with!”. When I asked her about how she managed it she gave me a couple of photos that she’d done to show how she held the head on to the body.
So yesterday I was feeling all full of nervous energy (had to go to the dentist this morning which fills me with extreme amounts of anxiety) and thought I’d give that a try. While I didn’t manage the magnets (or inserting them/holding them on quite the same way) my method still worked and I’m happy with the outcome.
I’m confident that I’m going to play more with Ayumi (Imogen) more often now! :biggrin:
Ok, so despite the fact that I didn’t finish the furniture today, I’m still pretty pleased with it. And if I’m honest, I could have pushed a bit harder and finished it today but I don’t want to rush it more than I already did–and end up screwing it up.
So instead…. You get to look at a partially completed project! :tongue:
What’s left to be done?
Ah ha! Glad you asked! :cheerful:
I need to:
So…that’s what I did. When I’m finished with it completely I’ll try to remember to take photos (preferably outside since it is meant to be a patio table)
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