flower garlands on Yukimura

So I saw this on my Tumblr around March 20, 2014, and I just couldn't get the image out of my head, of Yukimura with a crown of flowers and a bright smile.  So during 2 separate days, I did about 4 different photoshoots with Nendoroid Sanada Yukimura and Date Masamune.  (I couldn't decide on which faceplates to use, so I used a variety.)

 

 I went out and did a second-day photoshoot of this “flower garland on Yukimura” idea, because in retrospect, I really liked Yukimura looking right at the camera (but still believably at Masamune).  Also, I had to re-do with Yukimura’s original faceplace, for more sunlight the next day.  Yesterday, the waning light put this big shadow on Yukimura’s nose that just made his faceplate look less adorable, than I knew it could be.  He looked cute using faceplates from female Nendoroids, but I just had to prove that his original male faceplate looked cute too.

You can tell this is day 2's photoshoot, because the garland popped open & had to be re-twisted.

And that was all after the 2-3 days I spent trying to make a mini paper flower garland.  Maybe it wouldn't have taken so long, if my only flower die cutter didn't break, half-way through my project. (No more lever-shaped die cutters for me!  Especially fro Provo Craft.)  And maybe if I didn't also waste so much time looking for my mom's flower-shaped die cutter...that turned out to not even be the right size I needed.








flower garland: design draft 1

 Fortunately, I was able to take my sun-shaped die cutter, and paste 2 punches together to make pretty convincing daisies.  It was even better than my actual flower-shaped die cutter.  Through all my experimenting, I had to junk my first 2 flower garlands, since these new daisies just blew them out of the water.  Plus, being without leaf-shaped die cutters, those first garlands had diamond-shaped leaves...which turned out to not be as effective as successive garlands' leaves punched from lip-shaped die cutters.  Experimentation made something as "simple" as mini paper flower garlands, take way too long, but after perfecting my processes (which die cutters, details in making the daisies, how to alternate the elements on the vine, etc.), I think the result was really worthwhile. 

flower garland: design draft 2

Other than the construction paper, there wasn't any special paper used for the flower garlands.  The vine is actually just twisted wax paper, that was first colored green with a Copic marker.  (You can use any permanent or alcohol ink marker.)  When I realized I'd have to twist paper into a vine, the first thing I thought of was crepe paper, like my craft books often advised when I was a kid.  But I never had any of that, and just used tissue paper instead.  Now it's come to a point where even tissue paper is too nice to waste on experimental crafts I haven't tried before.  But wax paper was not only equally malleable to crepe or tissue paper, but it felt stronger too. 

 

Cut a stirp of wax paper, around 2cm wide.

 

Lay some scrap paper over your work area, then color the wax paper green with a permanent or alcohol ink marker.

 

Lightly crease the wax paper in half.

 

Begin an upturned fold at one end.

 

Fold that "triangle" in half.

 

Continue folding upturned paper into halves.

 

After it gets thin...

 

Grasp the thin end, and gently continue thin folds down the paper strip.

 

Gently turn the folding into rolling.

 

Gently turn the rolling into twisting.  Don't worry if it rips!  Just roll over the tear.

 

This vine will be the base of the flower garland.

 

Here's an iris made from 3 fleur de lis die cuts.  It's too complex for my garland, but just thought I'd show my other experiments.

I used a sun-shaped die cutter to make daisies.

 

 

Paste 2 suns together.  Ensure their spirals are moving in opposite directions.



Use regular glue here instead of hot glue, so there is leeway to shift the suns around if necessary.  Ensure that the rays of 1 sun fill the gaps between rays in the other sun.

 



Add a yellow dot to the center of 2 pasted suns.  In retrospect, the daisies look better when the dot is small.

 

 

Make leaves from a lips-shaped die cutter and green paper.

Tape down the ends of the previously made vine.

Warm-up a hot glue gun.



 

Add alternating leaves and daisies to one side of the vine, with hot glue.  Tweezers or knotting pliers are optional.
Whichever side of a leaf/flower that is glued to the vine, has its flaws hidden.  So for parts of daisies with too many gaps between petals, have that side glued to the vine.  The left-top curve of a green lip is glued to the vine, in order to hide its lips shape.  The valley between the top lip's curves can be hidden by the vine as well, to make a more convincing leaf shape.




 

After one side is full, remove the tape, and scrape the vine off your desk.  The hot glue will invariably have had some spillage onto your desk.  Use a pallet knife, spackling tool, or even a plastic credit card, to scrape the vine off.

I guess if you need to protect your work surface, get a sheet of acrylic or even metal roofing shingle.  Paper used to protect your desk, will only be glued to the underside of your vine, and that would look bad.  Even if you tear off the scrap paper from the back of the vine, not all will come off, and that "back" will actually be turned into another "front".  Both sides of the vine must be presentable.



 

Flip over the vine.

Tape it back down at both ends.

 

Repeat the process of hot-gluing, alternating daisies & leaves to one side of the vine.

 

 

 



 

 After the vine is full of leaves & flowers, remove tape, and scrape off desk.

 

 

If necessary, combine 2 vines to create enough length, to make a circle that can twist into itself (and lay properly around the intended figurine's head).

 

When vine is long enough, bend it into a circle and gently twist the ends together, to create the garland.

 

 

 

snake shaped dragons heads

Vanja Todoric-theartofanimation

http://chibidragons.tumblr.com/post/80572797948/theartofanimation-vanja-todoric

 

 

I thought I wanted to draw dragon heads that looked more like snakes, with their smooth elegance, vs all the gnarled knobs of an exaggerated crocodile, piled with horns and goat ears.  But after seeing this piece, I've begun to think that maybe I shouldn't aspire to draw snake-like dragon heads.  ;_;

 This giant snake drawing has a head shape that just does not portray elegance, strength, or even majesty.  And yet, it is unmistakably snake-like in its head shape, even without looking at the body. 

 Then again, I know that photographs of real snakes have all the qualities I want to convey, and there's no reason that someone else's drawn interpretation of snakes is anything more than their interpretation.  For all I know, this artist probably meant to imply a dragon with suspicious and un-admirable qualities.  In fact, now that I look at the girl in the drawing, she is looking at the giant snake with a kind of contempt, but totally unintimidated by it, as if it wasn't worth being frightened of.  When I look at a real snake, I don't see that, and I don't have to draw that.  Snakes are not automatically narrowed into this one artist's interpretation.  My interpretation can be what I want it to be. 



UPDATE:  2:53 PM 3/24/2014
Just discovered the Indonesian Autumn Adder.  So freakin' adorable, I can barely stand it!

http://holmesyde.tumblr.com/post/80457655926/indonesian-autumn-adder-baby-smaug

OuO!  Adorableness of a snake; stylish scales of a dragon!  Must find more photos of Indonesian Autumn Adder and sketch!  *u*!

That’ll solve the self-doubt I recently had about wanting to draw dragons with snake-shaped heads.  This makes me so happy, because I was starting to feel really sad at the idea of not using snake references for my dragon heads (as if that'd be _another_ drawing style I'd fail at). 


check-in: figurines and sewing

Even though I haven't been creating something everyday, lately I feel I've produced more work than in a long time. 

 I made some polymer clay teacups in the Raku Ware or Rakuyaki style.  At first, I was afraid of making them too sloppy, but then I remembered I was making Raku Ware and imperfection was kind of its characteristic. 

 The polymer clay was formed around the shaft of my needle tool.  Because I did not think to cover the shaft with talc first, for the 2 cups in the front, pushing the clay tube off, resulted in these "melting" lips at the top of the cups, which turned out rather nice, after some trimming.  The recessed grooves were made by turning the clay tube on the metal shaft, while pushing a round-ended ear-cleaning tool into it.  The tool kept jumping, so the grooves aren't perfectly straight.

 The 3 teacups in the back were made after covering the metal shaft with talc.  Plus, I rolled the handle of a small paintbrush onto the clay tube, while it turned on the metal shaft.  Because the side of the paintbrush handle was rolled onto the clay, instead of pushing its rounded ended into the clay tube, there wasn't any jumping of the tool off the clay, so the grooves ended up straighter. 

 Then I finally got around to trying that idea from Pinterest, to make a bag out of old jeans.  But I had a hand-me-down pair of short pants instead.  The handles are trimmed cuffs from hemmed pants, and the longer strap is an old belt.  Hopefully all the custom features I added will make this bag useful enough, so I don't have to periodically hunt for new bags anymore.  It can fit letter paper sized cases, like a messenger bag, but it doesn't have those flaps that hit my face when I open the bag.  Plus, it's got the smaller handles, for when my shoulders hurt too much for the larger strap. 

 But the majority of what I've been putting effort into lately as been figure photography. 
 I used it in place of writing an actual fanfic.  I was too lazy to write a fanfic about Yukimura being a lead zookeeper in charge of big cats, while Masamune becomes the zoo’s new resident veterinarian—-So I shot this photo instead!  @.@; Now I realize the nametag probably would have been a better reference to "Sengoku Basara", if the zoo was named "Basara Zoo" instead of "Sengoku Zoo".  Oops.  Another oops:  I had to add in the nametag from a later photo during my photoshoot.  This photo turned out the best, but originally didn't have the nametag in the set-up.  I would have liked to replicate this shot, after I had made the name tag, but my figurines fell down and a piece even broke.  So I had to end the photoshoot and just Photoshop in the name tag. 

based on this drawing:  http://tsunbasa.tumblr.com/post/74989852620/by

 I've begun this streak of a particular type of figure photography:  Re-creating drawings.  Lately on the Tumblr stream for the "datesana" tag, there have been some fan-art drawings that coincidentially feature props and costumes that I have in the form of figurine parts and miniatures.  When I realized I had all the same props, I just had to see how closely I could re-create this fan-art.  I didn't get it exactly like the drawing, but working within the posing constraints of the figures, I think I did my best to make the photos look nice, in and of themselves.

Another drawing that I have the same Nendoroid parts for?  Challenge accepted. 

based on this drawing:  http://dragonmune.tumblr.com/post/74094073093

For the photo where Masamune and Yukimura wear the same kimono/hakama outfit, I only had one set of that clothing.  I actually had to do separate photoshoots, then splice them together.  Since I was already doing some Photoshop, I did the same for the background flowers, instead of doing it in-camera.  Rather than use my fake flower props, I Photoshopped in my old photos of my neighborhood's pear tree blossoms.  Then, I modified them with the "find edges" Filter and darkened some of them. 

 

This past Figure Friday Challenge was themed "faces".  I needed to do a photo inventory of my Nendoroid and Chibi-Arts faceplates anyway.  (Makes customizing my photoshoots so much easier.)   

My dad thought I was making a plate of desserts.  ^.^

Coincidentally, there was a recent episode of DNews that boiled down facial expressions to "happy, sad, angry, afraid, surprised, disgusted".  http://youtu.be/wW0PaKOXxQI  I thought I'd try to organize my Nendoroid and Chibi-Arts faceplates by type of expression.  I think some of the fear, surprise, and disgust faceplate categorization is debatable though.   

 

I discovered that I had to add some new categories:  neutral; very happy (laughing).  I seem to recall there being a whole other word in Japanese for "smiling very intensely/earnestly", that sometimes gets translated as "laugh", but is used the same as "smile".  I wonder if that has anything to do with it.
I had to Photoshop the background into a consistent black, since my camera flash glared too much in the center.

how to work through creativity blocks

http://youtu.be/_ztQZdwPKYQ

My sister sent me this video she found which was very helpful, as well as having a cute animated cat. (particularly the purr at the end)   ^u^  Fortunately, there are captions available in English. 

Basically, it says to get through creativity blocks by:

1)  Do something inspiring to you.  Reminds me of my old Tumblr post about writer's block:  http://md3artjournal.tumblr.com/post/58989308813/writers-block
"I remembered a TED Talk discussing how education should be like farming, in that the focus should be on creating an environment in which growth is most likely to occur.  That’s exactly how I should conquer writer’s block.  In my case, I tend to have great daydreams that spawn stories, right in the middle of watching really great anime.  Also in the middle of reading manga I love.  They inspire me…or get my motor running.  Who cares which.  It works, and that’s what I should do."

2)  It then says to adjust your ambiance to facilitate your creative mood.  Listen to music, play a movie in background, change tactile materials (until finish warming up). 

3)  Then you get started on your blank page, choosing a method, dependent on your mood/inspiration:
A)  If you have a feeling in mind, then start with color splotches.  Gradually add in detail.
B)  If you have a movement/action in mind, then start with line gestures.  Maybe do several/many tiny gestural sketches, to test ideas.  Sketch from a source material/model if necessary.

Made lots of things today

Did a figurine photoshoot.  Managed to finish very quickly, since figures were already posed and prepped.  I had been meaning to do this shoot for a while, but just kept postponing for a chance to go outside.  In the meantime, figures were posed and waiting in my display case.  I finally went out for the shoot today around 3:30pm.  I forgot that in winter, this time is no longer the brightest part of the day.  Oops.  But still enough light.

Didn't want to waste my translucent polymer clay.

Made some new extenders for a Nendoroid support stand, since the original did not fit properly into Kurisu Makise's back.  I seem to notice this with a lot of my Nendoroids:  Support arms that are too big for the figurine's sockets.  Is this common with anyone else?  So, this is second time I'm starting to bake with the toaster oven, that has been given exclusively to my polymer clay projects, to protect the regular oven and food from plasticine fumes' residue.  The last time, the clay didn't seem to cure very hard.  But I needed to carve the clay after baking, so I didn't mind.  Besides, I thought it was a fluke, because the previous project was very thick.  But now, this is just a small 1/4-inch roll of clay, and it still cures kind of soft---even after increasing the baking time by almost double.  I'm beginning to wonder if that toaster oven has hot/cold spots or if I should much more drastically increase baking times, or maybe even just do multiple re-bakes.  In any case, this result is still a nice discovery.  Sometimes, I do want semi-hard cured clay, especially with some parts of figurines that need flex, like their clothes. 

Mushroom & potato sauté.

Mushroom & onion sauté.

Flour fried tofu.

Also spent too much time cooking.  I was totally going to keep it down to half an hour, but I ended up at almost 2 hours.  -_-;;;;  I blame my indecisiveness.  First it was "let's make a separate sauté for mushroom vs. potatoes", then I went ahead and mixed them, then I had more potatoes than could fit in the pan at once,...  x_x;  I couldn't just put away the potatoes; they tend to go forgotten and rotten at our house.  ~_~;  I also had to get rid of the tofu.  Sure, it's been overdue for almost a month, but it's been in the frig the whole time and it didn't smell bad.  Besides, due dates are usually just suggestions anyway.  ...At least, that's the kind of faith I was going to try with this case of tofu.  If I don't get a stomach ache tonight, I'll cook the second case tomorrow.  Too bad I forgot to photograph the tofu until it was almost all eaten.  ^.^;  But I did find a quick way to flour the tofu.  I just put a spoonful of flour at a time, into a bowl, covered it with a plate, then rolled the tofu around inside, and after a few swirls, all evenly coated.  ^-^

As nice as this is, I suspect I'm procrastinating.  I should be working on my taxes, but important things always intimidate me into paralysis.  (On top of my usual agoraphobia and social anxiety, it's not fun.)  Forgetting worries for a while is nice.  Maybe I'll make cookies tomorrow.  ...But I should work on my taxes.  Hmm...  If didn't know how unlikely it is for me to bake when I'm not procrastinating, this decision wouldn't be so tough.  LOL 
 (Seriously, I've got to stop being afraid of filing my city business taxes, just because I haven't done it before.  It's available online, so I'm sure they made sure to make it easy.  Just like the state did for state business tax filing.)