BJD Backgrounds

New camera!

2007-09-06T01:36:34Z

I snapped this with one hand, spinning a little in my office chair, with no lighting but the flash on my new FujiFilm FinePix 8.3mp digital camera. I'm so doing a full photo shoot this weekend. Plus it holds like a thousand pictures and for once I'm not exaggerating to be amusing. It really holds a thousand pictures!

Yay! This is going to make me look like a far better photographer than I am!

Japanese Garden Process Pictures

2007-05-16T02:28:06Z

This post isn't just image heavy, this is image 'he ain't heavy, he's my brother' heavy.

With kind permission from lunameth, the new owner of an MMD Background titled, Japanese Garden. These represent just a little over a week of work, most of which was staring and planning with little bits of painting mixed in because every successive layer had to be laid out before I could start with the actual painting.

This is one of two rough, preliminary sketches I did with elements lunameth had specifically requested. This is the one we went for, as the other looked a little boring.

We have sky! We have a rather unnattractive color of ground! And a pond!

Now there's a wee waterfall, and some work done on the water. I didn't like the golf-course look of the previous photo so I blurred the edges of the pond by pulling color into it. I also added some depth to the ground with a blue-green on top of the flat olive.

The beginnings of sakura trees.

A crap-ton of neatly-trimmed shrubbery.

Trees! Also a bit of tree reflection in the pond. I also went ahead and started the shadow in the water, because I had that color mixed already (heh). This is also where I froze. I suppose a freezing will be inevitable in every painting from now on, *sigh*, but I seriously had to suck it up this time. Here I spent all that time painting the background stuff and putting reeds and lillypads in the pond behind the path, and then I had to go and cover it up. If you paint a big brown line across blue and green and it's not in the right spot, there's no coming back from that. You're starting over, or you're putting something on top of it to cover it up and then your balance is screwed. Very nerve wracking!

But the bridge did come out ok, whew! I've also added a bench in the background, a stone tower, posts along the path, the beginnings of the midground sakura trees, and brightened the reflections in the water a bit so the pond didn't look quite so stagnant.

And we're all done!

Friday meditating in the garden.

And one more because I can't help it. Er, for scale. That's it. Scale.

My girl's gray camisole and undies just arrived today, in addition to her cargo pants and groovy sneaks, thank goodness. I'm taking her to Oregon this weekend so the MIL can take measurements for homemade clothes and now she won't be wearing a wrapped bit of fabric or be minus pants and shoes. Yay!

Next week I should have beach photos, whoo!

Er, help?

2007-05-10T00:09:08Z

The head keeps falling off...am I doing something wrong?

I have so many thank-yous and weepy gushing to spread about, but right now I'm trying to put my girl together.

She's even MORE beautiful than the photos made her look.

But her head! Is there a way to fasten it on?

Grr

2007-05-09T04:59:19Z

Tracking with Hongkong Post is super brilliant fun and completely useful. The site tells me that the package I ordered two weeks ago and which the seller notified me was shipped on the third (my fault, must remember to leave some money *in* the Paypal account), the site tells me that it left Hongkong on the third. And, by 'tells me' I mean that's all it tells me. Er. Extreeeeemely helpful, thankya.

I hope folks in Hongkong have better postal service options, truly.

I think this entire hobby is a secret exercise in waiting. Like maybe you guys are going to leap out from behind a bush tomorrow and scream 'gotcha!' as I go outside to stand and stare beyond the iron community gates, searching for the UPS truck, the FedEx van and that silly little Post Office box-on-wheels. The last several years of short story submissions has somewhat prepared me, but not enough so actual patience is surfacing, just a vague sort of grim endurance.

Since the thing is coming from the other side of the world I feel like a brat for complaining, but geez. Raise me up in the Nintendo generation and then deny me my instant gratification? I think not, world. I think not.

The latest commission, start to finish

2007-05-06T16:32:22Z

I thought I'd post (with permission from fairemma) process photos of the latest commission, Rotten Garden Wall.
This piece nearly ended at the black and white stage, because the black and white base painting came out so well I was afraid to muck it up with tinting. It took me an entire day of worrying before I worked up the nerve to continue.

After the first brown tinting on the brick. I have a trick to get the stone texture quickly and easily but I can't tell you folks, because then I'd have to kill you. And I don't want to kill you because I like you all quite a lot.

The beginnings of plant life.

More plant life.

This is the final version. I added the last of the plants growing from the wall as well as some further highlights on the bricks to give the impression that some of them stick out farther than the rest. All in all, very pleased with this painting, and fairemma tells me she's pleased as well, so a success!

Love of Tiny Things

2007-05-01T02:09:20Z

I had no idea, not really. You guys post pictures and you talk about resins and outfits and wigs and eyes, and everything is lovely and I want want want, but I didn't get it.

The first package was the pink wig I ordered. I opened the envelope and pulled it out and I felt my chest swell up. It's small and the hair is long and pretty and it really doesn't feel like a wig at all. It's more a dusty pink than a bright one. I'm looking at it with this enormous smile on my face and I can't believe how well made it is, like a wig for a very small person, not a doll, a tiny young woman who's on her way to sit around my house and maybe drink all the beer when we're not looking. And it's hers, it's her hair. Thinking about it now, I want to take the thing out again and arrange it and my idea of cutting it is a little horrifying now. I took more care putting away this hair than I take with the Kate Spade purse my mother gave me for Christmas two years ago. Certainly more care than I take with any of my own clothes.

The second package was from fairemma, and then I did cry a little, over tall brown boots with these darling little heels, and two more wigs and I'm like, I need miniature hatstands for these so they don't crumple and squish, and a bit of felt to wrap around the boots so they aren't scuffed when she wears them, and is this filling in that biological imperative to reproduce? Is that why I want to stand up the boots and just look at them, and play with the laces?

Because the doll isn't even here yet, and I have a feeling when it arrives I'm going to be truly fucked.

Before the doll

2007-04-25T01:15:13Z

My Domuya Flexi girl body probably won't be arriving for a few more weeks, but for some reason I'm terrified that she'll get here and have no clothes to wear. Logically I understand that buying clothing, shoes, etc. after she arrives is probably a better idea so I get a feel for her style first, but I've never been a creature of logic. It just feels wrong to have her show up and have nothing. On the other hand, I don't want to invest a lot until she gets here, so I've been bargain hunting.

First purchase was this lovely long pink wig I found on eBay. Ten dollars! Whoo! I'm going to take it to a friend of mine (she cuts my hair) and have her chop it up and put it in little pigtails with wispy bits so the bangs don't seem so heavy. I like it because it's crazy bright pink but didn't look terribly shiny in the picture. I dislike the shiny-looking wigs. I want to go nuts and order mohair and fake fur and long braids, but not until the doll arrives.

I'm also keeping an eye out (ha!) for inexpensive eyes, although the sizes are a bit confusing. I saw a listing for MSD size 16mm eyes, but my Namu head's default eyes are 16mm and it's an SD (as far as I can tell, anyway, there are far too many abbreviations in this hobby and forget the abbreviations with numbers attached like SD13 or whatever). It's big at any rate. Also, what's that stem thing for? Also, if they're flat on one side they seem cheaper, so is that a bad thing? Also, do other sizes fit in the head? Also, why do there have to be so many pretty colors and how am I supposed to pick just one?

Also, I need a BJD for Dummies book.

Welcome and hello

2007-04-15T18:38:50Z

I expect to have background photos to post soon. This journal will be friends only once photos start going up, not to be cliquish, but only for protection of the various photographers. So, drop a comment and you'll get an add. Thanks for your interest. :)