Disfiguredream's wardrobe post

It's wardrobe meme month on EGL. Following Carmidoll's request, I've taken on three other commissions for banners from my friends (two of them in exchange for cake, hoho. The others are too far away to send cake).

This request was for one of the characters in a comic I used to do, Bethony, wearing BABY's koitsukihime stained glass print. Bethony is what we call a 'shiro' (white) lolita when she's not being trampled, defenestrated, broken or otherwise bloodied into a 'guro' (gore) lolita, so putting her in a print dress was a little uncharacteristic, but I envisioned the stained glass angels rising out of her dress through the blood and I thought, 'OK'.

The comic still lives on the Internet here.

On the side is the colour palette I use for this character. All of my characters have a unique colour palette for their hair, skin, eyes, and highlights.

The background used below is the actual sketch I'd done after we'd finished our souffle pancakes. (She and I were at a cafe.)



Final version: grittier. I considered putting the height/weight prison thing in the background, but it wasn't as if Bethony had done anything wrong. 

Disfiguredream's actual wardrobe can be accessed at... well, I'll let her put it up first. There'll be more of these wardrobe banners to come, so check back in a week or two.

Edit: is this karma? When I made this art I had red stools and a plaster on my knee from walking into a storm drain. Fast-forward one day, and I'm down with a cold and a cut finger (sliced into myself trying to make ginger broth for the throat). I'm losing blood in all directions!! <_<

Edit 2: I've been attacked by bloodsucking insects. Oh, and the wardrobe is here.

Cultural stereotypes

Yesterday my friends were discussing cultural exports. It started when I saw a comment somewhere lamenting how Japan was only known in the US for weirdness, anime, and sushi (we're talking common consciousness here). And then we fell to talking about other countries.

So here is my little list. It's not exhaustive, and some of the cultural exports are really unfortunate. Please don't be offended. This is an exercise in stereotypes and deliberately intended to be unfair. But if I had to summarise a country in three words, and to name the first three things that came to my mind, politically correct or not...

US: sex, guns, stupidity. (alas! fifty years ago, it was freedom, rock'n'roll and atom bombs. A hundred years ago it was speed, money, and good old-town generosity. whatever happened??)
UK: tea, the Queen, Benedict Cumberbatch.
Singapore: Singlish, muggers, prudery. (yup, that's my country over here. We're a sorry bunch. For those who don't know, 'muggers' are children who study very hard and have no life.)
Taiwan: fried street food, TV soaps, hilarious politics
China: Chairman Mao, cheap stuff, poisoned milk powder (that one really made a huge impression on me...)
India: rape, rape, ... rape. 

Rape is the new curry. I debated putting 'rape apologists' in but they were a part of rape, so -- well, you see India's receiving a lot of bad press right now. I wanted to explore India last year and partake of its magnificent history, culture, culinary environment and landscapes but now I wouldn't fly over it at an altitude of 2000ft in case I caught their cooties. It's for the same reason that I'll never buy milk powder from China. This is what publicity can do: tea here is being associated with the UK and no longer with China, where it rightfully belongs. And this is the UK which once owned 1/4 of the globe and was the world's single largest exporter of slaves, and which also endured the Blitz with resolution and courage, that now appears relatively harmless.

Of course the US contains many sympathetic, intelligent, and unarmed people who may also just happen to be celibate, and Singapore is trying its best to wipe out Singlish while engaging in some hilarious politics of their own. And I'm sure there're men in India who've never raped a thing. It's up to these people to change what their countries are viewed for... even though I really like Singlish and don't want the hilarious politics to stay.

Now that I'm done offending everyone, I'll put up some artwork. In 12 hours. Smell ya later.

Carmidoll's wardrobe post

I've found that a good way of making myself do art is to have people ask these favours of me. So if you are reasonably good friends and want something done, just ask (and treat me to cake!)

The request was for something with a gingerbread house in it. This friend lives in a cold, cold place with lots of snow, and the outfit she's wearing in this picture is something I once saw in her photos on Facebook! She likes pink, too, so I put lots of that in.




Pink! The colour was a sort of template for what I wanted, but I knew from the start that the background had to be fibrous and watercoloury. It was just one of those things. Fortunately, I had some stock that fit the bill just right. Cut, paste, colour adjustment, voila. Oh, and the gingerbread house.



The lolipop trees were in the plan all along. I was worried that the picture would get overcrowded afterwards, but I compared these two versions and found that I preferred having the them in.



At this point, I was almost tempted to just add snow and stop, but something seemed missing. There is no art without perfectionism, so I pushed on.

Final version:



The background reminds me of watermelon. I love watermelon.

This is one of the few times that something has turned out almost exactly as I'd imagined it in my head. I'm getting better at using textures, too. I need to do more art!!

The actual wardrobe is here. Have a peek. Carmidoll's got great taste in clothes.

A little night music

I've been thinking that I might have the skills to finally colour these sketches -- I must have done them four years ago, because I distinctly remember them being doodled on my Political Science notes. I'll try that out perhaps a little bit later.


Intended colour scheme: red, black, parchment colours, gold.


Intended colour scheme: blue, fawn, silver, foliage green with yellow notes

Note: just discovered that I in my former wisdom had actually DATED the sketches. They were from November 2009! Time flies!!

Small children with cancer

Toy Parade

Karmen, Emily and I are hosting a tea party on the 29th of December! If you have time, do come by -- we have food, games, and PRIZES.

Natural kei

These pictures were made on request from a friend who wanted to see how I work natural-kei into my semi-normal outfits.


blouse: random Korean brand
overdress: Hyphen World Gallery
underskirt: Victorian Maiden


neck-kerchief: Earth Music Ecology
hat: Hyphen World Gallery


blouse: Hyphen World Gallery


blouse: Hyphen World Gallery
head-dress: Surface Spell
skirt: a local shop that closed long, long ago



It's been raining a lot lately and the sky was really dark when I took these photographs, which is why they all look so dingy (despite my best efforts at shooping them up).

Also, here are some desserts from my mad social schedule this December.



Less eating, more art! I must!!

Sparkles WELKOMES you.

I moved back home two days ago and the house is still in a mess, albeit a sane mess mostly caused by not knowing where to put all my beautiful new books.

Unfortunately, my tablet does not seem to be working this weekend. I'll need to take time tomorrow to find out why. So here is more old art: in this case, something I made for the FAQ page for a lolita comic website I used to draw. I had done the original sketch on the first stage of a flight to Hanoi to take my mind off how much I hated flights. A telephone got in because the flight attendants kept reminding all of us to switch off our mobile devices.


I really enjoy this style of Sweet lolita, it's just that I can't wear it. My body shape was never really suited for Sweet-style cuts to begin with -- but I can live out my fantasies via Photoshop.

I'm beginning to develop twitches if I'm kept away from books for too long. Now that there are no more classes I'll be back to my reading average of one per day! JOY!!

Link to original page: http://url.thecomicseries.com/faq/

Edit, 27 Jan 2013: I have just found out that this is technically a re-post. Urgh. I'll try not to do it again.

Lace!

Another busy week! Bless me but that three assignments were due on Friday; I'm glad I got through it without actually losing much sleep, because I'm awesome like that. But today I went out for tea with S. (who, incidentally, looks like a Taiwanese model and wears Classic lolita so well I could weep) and then we went shopping afterwards. I have been neglecting my drawing duties.



So here I present the little thing I was doing before my graphics card crashed last month: a header for a Facebook page that didn't work out. Tuesday is a public holiday so I'll probably try to do a bit of painting. Let's see how that works out.

(sometimes I wonder what kind of mastery I could have achieved if I had made this into a living when I was younger and let myself spend all day practicing. But that's a very big 'what if' and those can be dangerous. Never mind.)

The lace brushes are courtesy of Courthouse on Deviantart, a la http://courthouse.deviantart.com/art/Lace-Brush-Set-139455191.

The original ribbon-and-saucer photograph was made by Em.

OMG apocalypse!

The graphics card on my computer died three weeks ago.

I sent it to the shop. They said, 'wait one week'.

Two weeks ago, I fell ill. :/ And slept for days and days.

Last week the shop finally told me what was wrong and gave me my options.

This week I took it home. *_*

So that's why I haven't been posting.

Here's an old picture.



More next week if I live through the three-assignment bloc next Friday!