Dyyyyying To Make This Uuuuuuuugh I Need A New Sewing Machine

I did some fun holiday-appropriate stuff last week (dark harbor @ the queen mary) but didn't do anything on actual halloween because I was

dead tired

BLU Industries ;)

I've been using Sai for years and only just now tried the vector linework tools I AM SO MAD I didn't bother sooner they are perfect and wonderful. I can be as anal as I want and scootch the lines around, adjust the lineweight at every control point, and NO handcramps omg. INKING.

Linework tutorial here.

Drawing real people is haaaaaaaard. weh

Going overboard with layer fx in photoshop again. BEVELS

Fluorishes from the vector lab

This is fanart for my favorite band or something

...more clothes augh

I read Bunny's discussion about her intentions/goals and so I mean, *flail*, what with the awesome tag its crowdsourced costume design almost, cannot deal. CLOTHES. I love stripes too but I'm super biased toward vertical ones especially on legs #teamverticalstripes :p

There's this special kind of el wire that's braided and animated in a way that makes it look like flowing liquid/marching ants/THE FUTURE so imagine that on the bolero jacket hnnnnnnghggh dear gOD I want to make it seriously Bunny if you're reading this I would absolutely make that for you just say the word because ROBOT CLOTHES GODAMMIT my stupid sketchbook is filling up with doodles of costumes (yup, totally including hatchy & the spine) adfhgdaadsdgf

I think I might take a break tho, I just want to make everything so badly but I can't (need a new sewing machine, moving soon, currenly traveling for work bla bla bla)... and it's starting to hurt my feelings T_T

I just love costumes so much you guys *ugly crying*

I noticed that this raised some questions, lol. I did waffle on it for a while but yeah there was some reasoning behind it (no really)

a. rubber bullets.

b. she is a cop (detective NOPD anti-gang, coast guard reservist instead of full time) and feels naked without it /stereotype

c. she has great aim with firearms, not so much with powers.

d. edited her abilities so she has to switch her entire mass to energy form to use her power, no laser hand-blasts.

e. this version of Monica is when she is very new and doesn't have precise control over her ability, her resting energy state is basically a glowy white-light energy being that is diffused over a fairly wide area so she doesnt risk incinerating everything/one around her. When she concentrates it she can tap into the cosmic background radiation to boost her intensity but its like opening power floodgates. This is great for battle against superbeings and giant monsters, not so much against humans. She CAN manifest at more midrange intensities but no matter what area of the spectrum she's at this would be either very annoying to downright dangerous (disrupting radio communications, internet and wifi, being too blindingly bright. Or uh giving everyone around her radiation poisoning/cancer... not really an acceptable form of collateral damage. Everyone tends to draw the line at weaponized throwing cars)

f. IN CONCLUSION, her two current settings are essentially "light show" and "atom bomb". 

/nerd

PS- later on she learns to reign it in enough to work as an Active Denial System though :p but takes a level of precision she doesn't initially have and would just microwave everything.

This hat!! and I have been in a battle of wills for 2 months!! I've made hats before but nothing as... ambitious. I knew it had to be purple ostrich leather because that's basically fantasy dinosaur skin, its synthetic, but even so a big splurge for me (50usd from aliexpress), its so cool. So that was problem one, never made a hat out of heavy pleather before, I tried heat shaping it, didnt work due to the suede-y backing material. Problem two was making the cone easy to separate from the brim for easier packing but honestly wasn't a problem at all because velcro is awesome. Problems three through infinity (ongoing xP) was my need to have a fancy musketeer-inspired brim shape that would also be stable enough to mount a huge feather from the edge, lol! I'm still stuck here. I made a framework from plastic canvas, music wire, floral wire and the last of my worbla, and a small socket from a piece of plastic tube (dogpoo bag roll core lol) and a tiny metal corner brace. All of this would have been absolutely overkill for a real feather but turned out to barely be enough for my handmade yarn feather. Thinking of making an organza feather but I really love the realistic texture of the brushed out yarn soooo. Further experiments needed. Wire core is too floppy and steel rod core is too heavy so carbon fiber rod is on eventual to-buy list. Right now the feather shaft is a combination of wire, vinyl tube, ribbon and two metal headbands that I flattened out which is actually really great wire on its own! Feather will get its own post, it ended up being kind of complicated too (...also unfinished) Part of my annoyance is thinking that just making the entire brim out of worbla and/or varaform would solve a lot of my structure issues AND help the hat weigh a bit less but waaay too spendy for me. I'm going to make do with my scraps, aida cloth, felt, wire and glue. ITCHING to rip off all the fabric and start tweaking nowwww Because hat brim will also be supporting the weight of leds and LOTS OF BLING Its so heavy already aaargh! Problem infinity plus one? Securing it to my gigantic wig??? I'm going to try using chopsticks as hatpins lol https://www.instagram.com/p/B2OshoojEDg/?igshid=1qwksvo6y2w98

Breakin in a new sketchbook.

I use HDR Camera+ app to tweak exposure/saturation/etc. I do actually own a real camera but lol who uses those anymore :p it kinda makes me want a camera phone with real HDR and the fancy cases that let you attach real camera lenses geez. I don’t have room to take an actual camera with me when I’m out on bsns, despite some sweet photo ops out in The Nature. To think I used to view camera phones as the silliest thing ever (I still find them silly, but let’s be honest, the thing smartphones are worst at now is actually being a phone).

reblogging on the off-chance any artists who follow me haven't read this WONDERFUL post full of excellent advice. Its ALL here :D

Character design and drawing are tome-sized topics and even if I had all the answers (I don’t - I have a lot to learn), I’m not sure I could communicate them effectively. I’ve gathered some thoughts and ideas here, though, in case they’re helpful.

First, some general things: - Relax...

A crooked crook with a crooked grin >:D Hurr. I gave up on trying to be efficient with my work, it's just not me. Well, I GUESS I can make it me if I have to, but I don't have to like it! Pattern from squidfingers.