DollsArtCats

I think it's a sleeve...it might be a cloak, if I can't find the patience to make 2. You can see I went to the car wash last weekend. It snowed here on Friday..Stripey cat is sure there are mice under the snow, just like there are "mice" under the blankets in the bed.

More old art--this was an acrylic painting, 18 x 24 on birch panel. It was also on a calendar and a magazine but I was underpaid for one and not at all for the other, so I won't tell you where. Also someone else has the painting... and he hasn't paid me either, but he also hasn't been asking about another painting I was supposed to do for him, so I guess that sort of works out. If I had more storage space I would just keep these paintings here.

Today it's more art, rather than dolls. I have two covers now I am supposed to be working on at the same time. One SF, one romance. Instead I went and bought one of my own ebooks to see if the cover resolution was correct for the PDF, and it is not, the resolution needs to be higher. I can think of two easy fixes right away but they depend on the cooperation of whoever makes the pdf, and since for all I know it is the pdf fairy who does these at the publishers, I am going to have to bother my nice art director first. I need an extra pair of eyes to look over all this stuff. And send in the paperwork for my taxes, which I keep putting off. The owl is just a small acrylic painting from ages ago, I found the scan yesterday when I was looking for some virtual shoes. It would be easier if I could remember the file name.

I have a lot of 3d Poser "dolls". they are much easier to store than the ball-jointed ones, and they don't need sewing skills, just coding skills. This is a promo for my friend Gypsyangel's Michael 4 character, Quinn; and if doing these promos paid in more than polygons I would do them all day; they are so much fun. The robot in the back is a very old one that may have shipped with Poser 3 (Poser is up to 9 these days.)The clothes and hair are painted on, the sword is one by Danie and Marforno, from their Hero's Path set.

Not much got done this weekend. We looked at houses, which was depressing, and then went to Hugo's Frog Bar, which is a chain that serves drinks, fish,.. and frog legs. I was tempted by the frog legs (I like them) but I decided to get a fish taco. I have had frog legs before but never a fish taco, and it was great. This bronze frog-thing was on the side of the restaurant. I understand the martini in the frog's hand, and the steak/potato/asparagus thing, but the frog seems to also have some kind of plumbing attached to a lotus. I think I would have designed a different support, like a chair, but this is what they got. On the other corner of the restaurant was the goddess of recycling. Who knew? She's a scary woman.

I have had work, so poor Sirocco has had to sit around and wait for me to work on her clothes. I did get some stitching done on her "shirt", couching down some glitter yarn. The yarn looks good stitched down. I made some tassels out of it as well, but I think I will take them off the skirt--they are too large in scale. Instead I will pick apart some of the extra wig yarn and make something out of that. Here is the unsatisfactory skirt tassel: I'll probably do that Saturday night when we are watching "Billy the Exterminator" on cable. Louisiana is apparently full of spiders and snakes!

I actually took this picture because someone wanted to see the difference between Iplehouses' SID hands and wrists, and a Soom Super Gem hand and wrist. (You can't swap them, they are different sizes). But cupcakes for Valentine's seemed appropriate--may yours be delightful!

It's been cold enough that the cats are not spending much time outside. Instead they are entertaining themselves inside. When the sump pump broke today in the basement (resulting in some upwelling of water so stinky even the cats wouldn't drink it), they entertained themselves watching the fix-it guy working instead. We no longer have a fireplace, but we still have paper towels:

(Click for full size--it's 1220 pixels across, which fits my monitor but you may need to "center" it to fit.) A good place to hide icons. ;)

Darn it, another cutie face. I was trying to paint up my tough sand fairy to look tough, but no. I may have to send out to be painted anyone who is going to be anything other than a Disney Princess. On the other hand, the PearlEx I used on her lips (copper) caked up a little around the edges so it looks like she's been eating sand, which is ..maybe..kinda cool. Or just weird. At least she has a face!

I still like DollZone dolls. They used to be the "Cheap Chinese Dolls" until they got arty and expensive, and started to compete more with Soom and Iplehouse on an higher level. You don't see the old sculpts much, but I have 3 of the old ones--this Christmas head, a Shengxi, "Dawn"; an original elf-eared Wing; and a Celine. They are more anime-styled than the newer dolls but I think that is why I like them.

It's coming along slowly..I have most of her skirts done, though it needs the yarn trim applied,(that is the yarn that she is holding that looks like a tumbleweed) and possibly an underskirt, and I have done more stitching on the top. She still needs a necklace, an outer wrap and of course, a face ;)

..is coming along--I need to move one of the dangling metal ornaments, as it is not lined up with the others, but at least she has hair now. Still working on her shirt and skirt today, but we also took a few minutes to go for a walk in the woods and view "Chicago's top skiing destination", which is a block from a strip mall, across the street from the 4 Lakes Condos, and just below the Benedictine Abbey. J and I were wearing spring clothes, it is 45F here. All the snow is man-made.

Stripey Cat loves wigs. Valentine knows this, and is keeping a close eye on Stripey. Stripey cat says: "LOL Whut?" (You can see how BIG Valentine is here.)

I love yarn, and I go to yarn shops and feel up the skeins every 6 months or so. This is silly since I neither crochet or knit, though my Mom and my sister both do. I just buy it and bring it home with vague ideas of attaching it to something. Here Sirocco is the recipient of some really fun Cordoba novelty yarn-- the wig isn't quite done, and since I never can leave well enough alone with wigs, there will be some beads in there as well.

Raisin,(Migma, Rauco of Sin [Lavender]) is a problem. She is purple. Well, not super purple, subtle purple. In buying her I am now having a problem similar to filling an inside straight in poker:I have managed to find the purple hands, feet, ankles and shins, and head, but not the purple body. There are lots of purple heads on the market, which makes me wonder-- what people are doing with all those purple bodies? I finally did something even stupider...I now also have a Cream White Migma head, which makes the problem so much better, as now the Dreaming Moon head (Which I had forgotten was on the White Super Gem girl body) will have to share the with either Raisin or the white version. Maybe I should name the white version Chardonnay. Maybe I should just go find some purple paint and one more WS Super Gem body.