Sketch Dump!

Time just keeps slipping away...so this calls for a sketch dump! These are some of the ideas and such that I've been playing around with for the beginning of this year:

Settling in fine to Oregon life. Working very hard at the new job, but trying to have some fun too. It's a world of unexpected craziness and bizarre inspiration that's for sure. Anxiously awaiting the rest of my furniture and supplies - which should be here towards the end of next month when the lease there ends...especially looking forward to the return of the bed. Missing friends and loved ones, but I should be seeing them before too long. :) 

Another Miss Julia

My dear friend Britt had a character named Julia long before I did. (Incidentally, I named my Julia after my Grandma - and sisters Rosalyn and Emilia after my great aunts Emily and Rose - no other real resemblances known or intended) For Britt's Birthday and Christmas this year I decided since I had already done a picture of her character Gabriel (My unofficial boyfriend from back in the day), that I would now do a puppet of his wife - the second Julia.

Beyond the challenge of blonde hair (a variety of yarn, not embroidery floss) and matching a different artistic style (I tried to make her appear more like how Brit draws her), I also had the interesting task of late 1800s fashion. How is it so different than the first Julia??? Oh, the difference 10 years can make. The early-mid 1870s of Great Britain saw much more bustle - a different silhouette on top of much more draping - than the early 1860s of Holland.

Check out more of this Julia's story on Britt's blog HERE. 

Biggest lesson of all on this puppet - Brocade is even more of a pain to work with at a smaller scale. Time for more in-depth researching on fabric types!

OniSan Update!

 No!! No pictures! I'm camera shy!! 

 

Oooo excitement! Here is the armature stage for the Oni of OniSan. You'll no doubt notice a few differences between the armature for Julia: 1. More massing in of the body and 2. No head. 

This is why: 1. In accordance with the design, more of his body is going to be "visible", necessary to fully structure than Julia's body (Mainly hidden by clothes/highly structured under garments) Normally I'd advocate doing every part since it's educational and, to me at least, fun. But when you're on a budget, it's okay to creatively problem solve around material restrictions. He's also going to be a bit more mobile in terms of posing. Julia's pretty stationary - more of a show than a touch item. Within reason, I want people to be able to "play" with Oni when he's on display. More on that later. 2. I'm not sculpting a head - that mechanic is being handled by Raul, who promises to do his own write up for me to link to when I create Oni's master post down the road. (Should be especially great for those of you who like sculpting digitally and are curious about 3D printing) The middle picture is more or less a suggestion as to where we're going with that. Took me far longer than necessary to find the proper (KS) pipes for it - hint, go to a HOBBY STORE not a hardware or craft store. 

 

Anyways, he's a good inch or two taller than she is, making him close to a foot tall - but I won't have an accurate dimension until we get the head back from print and assembled. I had originally envisioned using foam to mass in the larger areas, it's a bit lighter and in my opinion holds shape a bit better than foil, but I didn't know how I would bake the necessary sculpy bits - if the foam would melt or not - so for now it's foil again. If all goes well I may go back and replace the aluminum with foam. I would like to try/demonstrate that technique since it's not too expensive or difficult from what I can tell. We'll see I guess. I'm a bit anxious and excited for those hands. Since I won't be spending a lot of time sculpting the face myself, I will have time to focus on the hands - awesome because having more time on them will let me try to match the quality of the digital head sculpt, but nervous also because hands are indeed a bit difficult. His especially are going to be quite interesting.

Going to be a busy next few months, can hardly believe that April is nearly half over. Will be checking in regularly, more often than not having some kind of update along the way. If you have any questions about materials or process I will be doing another master post at the end, but please leave me a comment and I can answer it more immediately! Also, if there's anything you're interested in seeing me break down/explain further let me know and I can do step-by-step shots too!! :)

Quick! To the Muse-Mobile!!

So. There was no post last week. Various contributing reasons, but the best one was:
I AM AN AUNT NOW.
My sister had her adorable Eva on Wednesday and both baby and mom are home/healthy. I know lots of people say this, but she is the cutest monchichi I ever have seen. I am itching to get home this April to see her and poke those chubby cheeks. 

And now for the worst reason for no post last week: I had nothing to post. >< I've been taking my time with Oni since he's just as important if not more so than Julia. I've nailed a design that I'm happy with and have been carefully building up pieces for Raul's reference as he's sculpting the parts that will be 3D printed, so I had nothing ready yet. In an effort to quickly bolster my archive so that I might have something to post in the slow moments (I anticipate a lot in April since I'll be out of town two weekends in a row) I started a sketch of Anne Neville from The White Queen. 

I didn't love it. 

I mean, it was okay, but it wasn't challenging. It was too close to the Tudors historically and culturally. It wasn't to try out a new technique. And beyond my passing fancy of the series, it didn't speak to me. The York and Lancaster women were certainly strong and interesting characters, but my favorite person in the whole series was Richard III. 

Fellow Shakespeare enthusiasts may well be confused or ashamed. I am myself still puzzled. 

Feeling rather despondent, I went into my kitchen and promptly spilled something since that seems to be what I do in the kitchen most of the time. Spill things. I looked around for a hand towel and there were none. Which is also not surprising since my significant other enjoys playing hide and seek with my hand towels. (Who needs a cat when you can have a boyfriend?) I finally found a hand towel under the couch and that's when inspiration struck. 

For about as long as I can remember any house in which I reside has had one or more of these hand towels, lovingly hand embroidered with various Sunbonnet Sue patterns. I do not have a complete set though I would like one, I seem to only acquire those intended for the month of January (As if looking out the window wasn't enough of an indicator that I live in an inconsiderately cold climate). None the less, they have always intrigued me since you never see Sue's face. You never know if she does her chores jovially or with resentment. Who is Sue anyways? Would it destroy the mystique to give her more than a hat?
So after cleaning the spill I did some digging. The original "Sunbonnet babies" were the creation of Denver native Bertha Corbett Melcher, a children's book illustrator in the early 1900s who studied under Howard Pyle. That was a name I recognized from Art history class. Her hooded children doing chores were reprinted on everything you could imagine, including fabric - leading to the HUNDREDS of patterns existing today, including multicultural Sues and Sues of various ages. 

I already had hand towels (Likely to get more for Christmas) and I didn't need another puppet project immediately, but I wagered my own take on Sue might be an interesting tribute to my Nana and great Nana. And it'd give me something to post in-between Oni updates. Since that style of bonnet was a bit too close to the time period of OniSan, I updated her to an era I had thus far widely neglected, the 1930s (Oh so Greatly Depressing in terms of fashion) and ta da!

More to come from both OniSan and Sunbonnet Sue! :)

Adding Some Soul

DOUBLE UPDATE! :D This is for two reasons:

1. A certain company that I'd LOVE to work for has posted up their next round of internships for the summer. Since this personal project is one that I'd envisioned done for/by this studio - I figured it'd be great to get more of it out there sooner - maaaybe get an internship too? *Rubs lucky ears*

2. She LIVES. I literally just finished her, so I won't be behind next week when I leave for this weekend and can easily do a double post this time AND next time - so the final will be posted next week!

So. The top image is of the acrylic painting process (Sneak peak in the background of the design sketch) and then they are followed by two in-process hair shots. I opted for embroidery floss - as opposed to my actual hair - which was a smart move considering how much my glue gun decided to melt stuff and smoke randomly. Though I burned myself considerably less this time than the last crafty project.
Leveling up with the glue gun! :)
The embroidery floss also allowed for more strand colors and lock thickness variation. (Much easier to braid and fray than Scuply) Overall I think this was my favorite part.

The last four pics are a turn around of the finished hair. Hope you enjoy and stay tuned for corsets, lace and all the skirts!