Classic and Wa: progress report

I shouldn't have tempted fate by counting my chickens. Life dropped a ton of bricks on me last Thursday. So all I have this week is a shoddy colour rough that I almost don't want to put up -- I was just slapping on the paint without thinking much, and this is the kind of crap I come up with when I don't think much. Perhaps I'll delete this post later.




Should stop using the same kimono stock  and scan some more. But -- I'm lazy!!

Should also think up names and character sheets for the two young maidens here. I'm very fond of them, but I don't seem to be doing them justice.

The finished version should be much nicer. Maybe next month.


Update: I decided to just go right on and do the real thing. Current progress is


(The little blond one looks pretty scary right now. She'll get better, I promise!)


Update 2: And she did.

More to come.

お花見

A long-belated present for my friend, Liling! As an indicator of how tardy I am about such things, I offered to do her something in February. Now it is May. Ahem.



As requested by Liling, the picture is of a flower-viewing party between a couple wearing kimono. The background was done by scanning in some really expensive chiyogami paper. This picture originally began as a colour draft for a papercrafts project (yes, I was planning on cutting out the black stuff using a penknife and everything), and then I got a bit carried away. So instead of getting a honest-to-goodness 3D artwork made of cardstock and chiyogami she got this instead. *_*

I liked the above version, but then I thought I could do more with the colours and textures, so I pulled out a second layer of scrubbed blue and yellow for a richer statement and thinned out the cherry petals near the top.



Liling said she preferred this second version, even though it feels more like winter than spring. :D Perhaps a late afternoon hanami? The poem on the top left is about loneliness and memory, and has very little to do with the picture unless you create a story for the two people in it.

もろともに哀れと思え山桜花より外に知る人もなし

It's one of the Ogura Hundred Poems and the only reason why I know about them at all is because I'm watching Chihayafuru (Arata's Fukui accent is very charming! I'm hooked!!) My calligraphy's pretty awful however.

Next up (if I keep to my schedule) will be drafts of my comic short, unless I get distracted by something else.

Craft store sale!

I went out to shop for materials today! More epic corsages due soon.

Qi-lolita

Qi-lolita: Chinese-inspired lolita clothing. Lolita fashion being primarily defined by its  petticoated skirts, qi-lolita is especially doable because most cheongsam tops have slits up the side to accomodate skirt poof. I'm a follower of lolita fashion right now because I'm young and deviant, but I've made it a point to be collecting qipao all my life. I buy an average of maybe three cheongsam-style pieces every year depending on whether I find one that I like while it's on sale (<-- i.e. broke because of lolita fashion *_*) and I haven't shown signs of stopping yet. When I am older and more monied I will find a tailor and make him produce my awesome qi-loli designs as well as cheongsams for everyday use.

Cheongsam tops are especially useful for work wear because they can be worn with pants. The combination makes me feel elegant and powerful in a ye olde worlde don't-mess-with-da-master way. The dress varieties are wonderful too but I save them for special daytime occasions, since they're all knee-length or slightly below. Black-tie requires ankle-length styles, and I haven't any of that kind yet.

Today someone asked if I could make qi-lolita coordinates, and I took these photographs -- the lighting wasn't so good, but No. 3 shows my rose corsages!


COORDINATE I 
intended for wearing to a cheongsam exhibition (the pink flamingo is called Shrimp.)
cheongsam: Madame Butterfly, silk voile over polyester chiffon
bolero: Innocent World, Millefeuille Tulle Lace
skirt: Alice and the Pirates, Dance of the Black Cats




COORDINATE II
tea party for Chinese New Year last year (sans a buttload of pearl accessories! I forgot to include them in the picture!!)
cheongsam: Pine Peninsula (松崎), peony-patterned cotton blend jacquard
bolero: Innocent World, Frigg
skirt: Alice and the Pirates, Hide 'n Seek with Missin' Alice




COORDINATE III
random outfit I thought of today, featuring my awesome rose corsages (I wanna make more!!!)
cheongsam: i-Shanghai, cotton and polyester brocade with pattern of chrysanthenaum, wild rose and sedge
skirt: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright, Alice Cards



I ended up going out today sigh. And reading. I'll draw tomorrow. Procrastinate procrastinate.

(it occurs to me that I should have changed the colours of my signature to tally with the colour themes of each photo, but I'm too lazy to switch it back. Well, next time!)

*__*

Gorgeous Corsages

Do you guys remember my absurd table of roses early this year? This is the result:



Instead of making one huge corsage out of the lot as I'd originally intended, I decided to put them together in smaller groups  for more coordinating possibilities... and so that the corsage wouldn't flop about. I'd have to use a number of pins to distribute the stress over a large corsage anyway, so it didn't make sense not to just split them up.



Oh, and I threw together another corsage yesterday, but it's missing some components and won't be complete until I buy the odds and ends. Here it is anyway.



The dress I'd bought the dandelion flowers for didn't work out after all, which is a pity. BUT after I've finished with this thing it would make the perfect hat pin or OTT hair clip. I even have the perfect hat in my cupboard. When the weather is sunny again I will make coordinates featuring my flower corsages against selections of my wardrobe!

Right now, however, I have to speedread through a bunch of books because they're due tomorrow (eep) but after that I'll be back to drawing. I've been pretty lazy these past two weeks, but I swear I'll have more stuff up this week -- stay tuned.

♥