When Creating/designing Anything- Fantasy Races, Settings, Clothes- Do You Prefer To Try Isolate Them

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

If you want to paint yourself and your friends weird colors for Halloween season (OR if you’re a nerd who cosplays at every opportunity, or even when there aren’t opportunities because you’re obsessed with makeup like meeeee) I would like to reccomend airbrushing :D

Top photo is my airbrush kit which fits in a toiletry bag from ikea. It includes a mini compressor which you can get for about $40 on amazon.

I use a $20 Badger airbrush from Michaels. I honestly use it more often than my nicer double-action professional airbrush because ngl I get tired of cleaning that thing out. Paint doesn’t actually go through the Badger air gun at all so its easy to clean.

BEST of all, if you also make props or paint fabric for costumes, you can stop spending money on spray paint! Seriously, airbrushes are where it’s at.

THE KEY ITEM is the Badger to Master brand adapter! The most annoying thing about airbrushes is there’s no standard sizing and shapes for ANY brush item or accessory between brands. I got mine in a set from Amazon for about $9. This way you have the choice to use any compressor instead of the expensive air cans.

Anyone who’s tried to do white makeup knows how ANNOYING it is no matter what! Creme makeup has good coverage but it’s gross and gets everywhere no matter how much powder you use to set it! Airbrushing lets you get 100% coverage with water-based liquid body paint. I got the best results with two layers of white and two of Ben Nye final seal (a layer of sealer FIRST helps the color stick and adds a small amount of protective barrier from sweat/oil). The key is to get full coverage with the thinnest possible layers, it flakes off more easily the thicker the paint is applied. Diluting liquid makeup with sealer instead of water or mixing liquid helps too, I don’t have a brand preference and have Ben Nye and Mehron colors, and some more expensive alcohol-based brands for experiments.

Examples! My QT frans (and me, whatever lol) :3 I painted em and they did the rest of makeup and powder. Powder pigments for colors and shading seem to work best before paint is entirely dry, if it gets too dry for blush/shading/etc, I’ve had good results with a light spritz of sealer to make it tacky again. Riles glows in the dark because Mehron has glow body paint so I had to try it, NATURALLY! Also used pure glow pigment as ~gremlin blush~, TKB has it I want to buy it by the pound, lol LOOK AT THAT SPOOKY GLOW THO

OK hope that was informative enough, I’m trying not to make this twenty pages long ok? K.

new year, new instagram for crafty stuff! I'm working on a pressed pigment palette and now my fingers will be Red 40 for the rest of the week. worth xD

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

oceanmaster:

This is how 3D animation should be.

Ohmanomanoman, this is exactly why I love 3D, it can make animation like THIS possible. I'm still waiting for people to get a least a little more bored with realistic rendering styles so we can have more THIS. THIS. <3

It's interesting to learn that you are hypersensitive. I, for one, have been enjoying your art for a very long time. What I don't understand is that there are people out there that would die for your talent, yet you are nervous about sharing your art. To me, artists who are that good shouldn't be shy about their work... So stop being shy about it! :)

... I had to sit with this for a while.

This... I get that it comes from a place of good intentions, and that's nice, the sentiment is nice. But I'm not here for it, because like you said, you don't understand. I'm well aware that my opinions are strange but they're opinions about MYSELF and you're essentially telling me how to feel about myself and that's really unfair. And unrealistic? Emotions don't work that way. (You have a feeling? ITS WRONG. FEEL DIFFERENTLY) I will defend anyone's right to their feelings and it took my entire life to learn how to defend my own. I feel these misunderstandings boil down to a few things.

1. A view that my difficulties in sharing stem from an insecurity, or that I take my skills for granted in some way.

Not the case. I was hesitating as usual to say anything because I didn't want to make any artists who have yet to reach a similar skill level feel bad, but I don't want anyone laying that at my feet ok? (die for my talent?? How do I NOT construe that as a guilt trip D:) NO artist gets where they're at by taking their talent for granted. But lets not pretend I got where I am skillwise without pouring a ton of my blood/sweat/tears/years/life/soul/time/energy/everything into developing said skills. Art is a SKILL. I don't really want to have the skill vs. talent argument but if you're wondering what side of the fence I am on, its that side.

2. YOU DON'T KNOW MY LIFE

Aaaaaaaahhaaaa. Augh. Really tho. Like I said I wasn't always this way but I've had a lot of experiences (unrelated to art) that have made me a very closed off, private person. I've been called selfish, but I don't see how making things for myself in order to cope and then... keeping those things... is selfishness and not self-care. Do you ask a starving person to share what little food they have with someone who is just sort of hungry and will be fine without it? I hate using that comparison but if you follow artists on tumblr I'm sure you get plenty of nice stuff to look at on your dash, you'll be fine without my stuff on there all the time. I DO try, otherwise I wouldn't have artblog at all.

Serious Question: What if the hypersensitivity is the REASON for said ability? Two sides of the same coin. I've read some things that link sensitivity and creativity and if that is the case for me then would it still make sense to push me to be somehow different? I DO know artists who are VERY talented/skilled and don't have these struggles, and I also know artists who have struggled with serious huge ego problems too. I'm not trying to say it's gotta be one or the other, but maybe at extremes, its gosh I dunno, harder to be balanced about these things. I do occasionally dabble in arrogant snobbery but I can keep it to myself.

I feel some type of way about this. :/

I like em fuzzy.

HOW DO YOU ART SO GOOD?! Also why you no been on for like a year?

I was on the fence about answering this XD; BUT I got a bunch of new followers recently (HI THERE) so I figure I will give it a shot. tl;dr guys.

That’s.. kinda related to the second question. It’s hard for me to articulate why I am such a freaking hermit. It’s not shyness… a lot of it is sensitivity because my relationship with art is SO personal. People can dislike me IRL all day long and it’s not even an issue cos FFF they dont KNOW me. But if they don’t like my art its like OMG I’m giving you a peek into my BRAIN, that IS me, it just got personal, time to throw down. When I say I peaked early, I was a fairly active artist on the internets when I was a teenager and got a LOT of attention I wasn’t able to handle well. The pervasive attitude that artists are sort of visual candy dispensers with a duty to share everything they do makes me reeeeaaally uncomfortable. I don’t draw for attention. I draw because I have stuff in my head that has to come out, and because creating makes me whole (I say creating instead of drawing here because I also love to make stuff, dance, sing, play music, I wanna do EVERYTHING).

I feel weird saying “I don’t draw for attention” because there’s a sort of implied diss that I don’t want to be there. Attention is actually really valuable! Motivational encouragement, constructive criticism, etc, all great stuff. I have made a lot of amazing friends through sharing art, and I totally love talking about it all the damn time, it’s often the medium that gets in the way with me. I like realtime chats best. I’m gonna sound like a cranky old lady now but it took me way too long to figure out tumblr and I miss IRC >:( And in my crankly old lady old age I just don’t have anything to prove to anyone and fucks are no longer given. I draw what I want, when I want, and share when I feel like it. SORRY NOT SORRY.

I’ll be honest, it’s only because once in a while someone tells me that they are really inspired by my art that I make the effort to share. But I forget often, and the fact that I can go thru really long periods without drawing much at all… well. Gushy fangirling is about the only thing that will bust down that wall these days. I used to feel guilty about this but it’s just how I am.

I’m a lot happier answering more specific asks about art tho XD Composition? Design? Style? CLOTHES? Lighting/Materials? Color theory? COLORSILOVECOLOR? Gimme.

Sharing art from 2009 without sharing anything from 2019? Because I don't really draw like I used to. I'm sad about it sometimes, but I don't see it as having quit art. I still sketch regularly, but for years now my interests have been absolutely all the way into Making Stuff. Lots of learning and experimenting with Skills and less easily consumable content to share online...

Since I made my illustration I still like to call my Masterpiece (lol), my life changed a LOT. I changed a lot with it. The mockup of companion poster I started not long after is STILL asking me to complete it, it belongs right next to the poster of my Elf Son. I made a file of unfinished illustrations that I still Care about, this is the major one. I miss how much mental real-estate my elves took up, it was fun! But had to make room for Other things.

Stuff I've learned since drawing less: C/C++ (I'm garbage at it but I keep trying lol), Crochet & Knitting, writing small programs for Arduino, Blueprint Reading/Creating, metal machining on lathe and CNC milling machine, Circuitboard Design, Sculpting/moldmaking, Drafting slopers and clothing patterns from scratch for sewing... Next will be welding xD I want to MAKE! AND! BUILD!

How to achieve your dreams when you have 6 or 7 of them? I've abandoned two already (professional puppeteer, stage magician) but I still have only so much time on this earth! ;p

I also keep quiet these days cos I dont seem to have relatable problems. Creative block? I don't know herrrr.

When I die there will be 38,472,000 unrealized project ideas that simply cease to exist ಠ_ಠ

I'm keeping the Illustration skills in my back pocket, but it was honestlyyyyy never what I REALLY wanted to do forever, I want to do SO MANY things. I'll be 35 soon (hhhhhhhgh) and if I view my life as ONLY an illustrator then I peaked REAL early and have been Struggling since lmao! My destiny is tangential to colorful drawings. But lets be real its tough to be literally ANY kind of artist. Im just a lot busier Adulting and trying to survive/thrive in a worker-unfriendly economy with insufficient mental health care xD

ALL THAT SAID, I really do want to finish that poster, eventually xD and the elves need their story out in the world in some form. Still gotta decide what that is.

FFFF I guess I could... delete the door?? I haven't looked at the comic in months and the only page I saved before it was taken down was the one with the exterior of the manor, for reference. It looks like there's a door there but I suppose it could simply be a hole. OHGOD I have no idea I need more to go on HALP

WALTER MANOR?

Ok this is gonna be rambly bear with me. I don’t blab about what I post here usually cos portraits and clothes whatevs, self-explanatory. But ARCHITECTURE, OK. I am so happy with this you don’t even know. I’ve messed with sketchup a few times in the past with the intention of modeling locations in my stories but this is the first time I was motivated enough to power straight thru 3D’s infuriating learning curve (I still can’t function in Blender at ALL the interface makes me cry but I’ll keep trying). I traced the elevation from the comic and the rest has been a series of educated guesses from what I know about architecture. It’s pretty straightforward to figure out scale and floor locations based on window placement. I reeeally want to do the whole manor because it’s fun to think about all the wacky stuff that must be in it and I’m seriously looking forward to the comic for exactly this reason. Seriously, where is Bebop.

So YEAH I totally want to do the interior, etc, but that depends on what Bunny and Sam share with us. Hint hint.

Hint hint