DollsArtCats

This is a personal Poser project that I am hoping to share with someone else, but I need to get it enough done and fixed that she will like it :D You can see here the lips I painted don't quite fit on the lip shape..I have a guide: but until you actually paint on it and render it out, it's hard to see what goes where. The guide isn't random, it's where the polygons of the model really are--each corner of the polygons have a number that the computer knows, in three dimensions (x-- usually left to right on your screen; y,up and down on your screen, and z, in and out on your screen.) Here's the mesh on the model: (The hair is just a "hat"). The base photo texture is "Copper" by Fenrissa , and it's nice in that it's already stretched across the maps, but still needs a lot of work because photos have bright spots and shadows that are no good in a render, since the computer's lights don't match the original reference photos. Also so...

This is how Tuppy in Philadelphia does it--he uses Gus as a warmer.

It's true it's just the Renderosity spam flyer, but it was fun to see--gypsyangel did this render of her!

..run over here and you can see what I see when I look out my window: http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2014/01/chromatic-snow-sparkles.html Of course I also have this in my view:

..now comes in sunny yellow! This little cutie (who is actually "Lucky"; her brother "Happy" is blue) can be found here: http://dollsoom.com/eng/shop/item.php?it_id=1390799453 The Russians were generally pleased with this little cutie, though there was some grumbling about the feet. The feet look ok to me--there is a mobility joint at the ankle, and the back claw is long enough to support the weight of the doll--tinies are so easy to pose anyway, it doesn't take much. But Ilsonya did post up this, and it made me giggle so much:

Granado Nico has arrived at Kihaku's house in Finland, and she has added him to Comparison Heaven so you can appreciate how big he is--I think that cheery rascal next to him is an Iplehouse EID Chase, a doll that I know from handling a similar Arvid is ..huge. I think baby clothes will end up fitting Nico nicely, though Granado has had some made for him, as seen here: If you go to Comparison Heaven, remember that it is Not Safe For Work unless you work somewhere like I do ;) and that the instructions are here: By the way, (and completely unrelated) the Port of Helsinki has a fun webcam-- you can see the ships come in and out and the traffic on the waterfront here: http://www.portofhelsinki.fi/port_of_helsinki/web_cameras/south_harbour

Thanks to gypsyangel, who did 90% of the work on her, the Poser version of Aurelia went live last Friday at Renderosity.com. I always learn new things when I do a project with someone, and part of it is how much work it is to get one of these add-on characters to load and run properly. Never mind the actual modelling part is mostly done, there is still a lot of code that has to work and fetch all the color maps. For me, painting the maps is easy...getting the maps to load right is hard. But she works very well. It's been fun to see other artists use her.. linwhite made an awesome mermaid with her and a green scaled tail, and featherwitch transformed her into a dragon/harpy with supercharged colors. Poser Aurelia has a little green tongue--it would have been fun to make it a lizard tongue, but that would have been still more coding and testing, so it's just the regular Poser tongue, but green:

I get spam a lot since I am "a blogger", though how anyone besides a doll company would be interested, I don't know...but a website called Bookoo sent me the cutest spam, so I went and looked at the site, http://chicago.bookoo.com . It's an online yard sale (it looks like they make their money from sidebar ads check out their "about us"), and as you can tell by the URL, it's sorted by locale--for me the chicago.bookoo is the local one. The swan above is listed by MaryAnn in Plainfield and immediately made me think of when I was a kid and swans like these were popular for planters and keeping shampoo in the bathroom, so it made me smile. I will have to be careful not to visit the site much, because just a quick look turned up 80 skeins of DMC floss down in Joliet. It would be really easy to transfer everyone's leftover arts and crafts stuff to my house, and there is no room.

This is just a science thing, not a serious wish to put a WS head on a bronze body, but the size and shape of Sidonia's head looks pretty nice on the new Soom Super Gem body: It is of course not the cheapest option--and I do like her best on her own Granado body. And now for something completely different: Nick wearing the smaller boa that Girrl sent, because it is cold in here :D

Soom is doing it's annual cleanout of lost goodies and there are two Beryls in there, some Breccia NS human girls, and a potload of tinies that I am not going to look at too closely in case one follows me home. The rules are complex and the 3 day sale runs on Korean time, so you will need to set a reminder after checking google. Rules and such are here: http://dollsoom.com/eng/bbs/board.php?bo_table=gem_notice&wr_id=450 There is also a lot of remaining outfits, but you need to painstakingly translate the catalog numbers to clothes, and I haven't had a chance to do that yet, but check the Notice if you are interested, on the main page.

Another one of Girrl's creations, which makes farmboy Rain look amazingly dapper! It's such a pretty color and shape, too--much more subtle than Aurelia's :D

Girrl has been busy knitting--she sent me this gorgeous red and glitter and gold bead scarf for Aurelia; a good thing since the high Monday is supposed to be negative four. I hope they are wrong. In any case, Aurelia will be warm AND magnificent--look how long it is! Very suitable for a Dragon Empress! (Though now there is a need for a matching red velvet dress!). Girrl is amazing! And she has a bunny/doll blog too! http://bunimalsfiberdolls.tumblr.com/

Coming in the Near-Vague-Future: Dear SOOM fans, Hello~ Thank you always for your interest in our creations.^^ * We are going to open a SOOM eyes sale for a limited period of time (open schedule will be given later in an other notice). * A discount will be applied on all our SOOM silicone eyes of all sizes and items will be available in limited quantity. * Also, at the end of this event, part of our SOOM eyes will be definitely discontinued. Take this chance to get SOOM eyes at an interested price.^^ Thank you for your attention~ SoOm team Well, I'm interested!

From Jpopdolls, she's so nice to buy from!

In New Jersey, it snows about 5 or 6 times during the winter. It will snow about six inches, the kids will stay home from school, businesses will close, and then a few days later it goes back up to 40 and the snow melts. Chicago is not like this. Now I look at the thermometer and plan to go to the store when it hits the teens, because then my car battery won't die. But it is beautiful--these are some of my neighbor's icicles--they get really long, he comes out with a broom and smacks them down (because they are heavy, and damage the gutters), and then they start up again. My camera damps down the sparkle--in person they look like chandeliers. It was cold enough this morning that the snow was just blowing in the brisk wind, and it looked like glitter in the air--again my camera couldn't get the full effect, but imagine all the dots as points of light, ignoring the reddish reflection of my kitchen lights in the window: The yard looks great too--the snow covers all the weir...

Works for me! :D

Noted in 1420 by a Deventer monk: Here is nothing missing, but a cat urinated on this during a certain night. Cursed be the pesty cat that urinated over this book during the night in Deventer and because of it many others [other cats] too. And beware well not to leave open books at night where cats can come. Some things never change. :D Story found at: http://io9.com/this-medieval-manuscript-curses-the-cat-who-peed-on-it-1502884468

Soom suddenly looked at the calendar and realized that they needed to put up some kind of Super Gem sized thing, so they rummaged around and dragged up Obsidius (formerly cast in Epic Pink) and recast him in a much more pleasing Brown Tan . It's kind of a shame that they didn't spend more time cooking up new accessories and a story line for him, because he is absolutely gorgeous-- but according to the ad copy he's apparently just some random Fallen Angel with beast paws. The wings and boots are nice, and available as an extra charge. There are also some new eyes called Antique Gold that I love, but I can't see doing a split for just some eyes. :D And now I must complain..I really hate whatever Instagram filter they are using on the photos, because it looks like they took a magazine and put it on a scanner, which gives you the same washed-out look with the edge shadows. It looks cheap and loses the nice details of the sculpt. They need to go steal Souldoll's photog...

A quick photo of my Granado Davon, holding the "ghost" in rock form.

Because it may be months before it's warm enough to do a "real" faceup on my Granado Mads, I just hauled out the acrylics and glopped on a face. it's a "little heavy for day" since it looks like it was applied with a trowel, but at least he's got some color now!

And Tuppy is sooo happy!

My cat is not a snow leopard:

We went last night to an excellent restaurant in Downers Grove. It was snowing hard, 15 degrees F and there were lots of people hiking around as though it was a regular Friday night--the Italian restaurant was full. We had parked in the parking structure and walked across town when J, of all people, saw something interesting in a trash can. Now J does not approve of my addiction to dumpster diving, but not only did he point this stuff out, he walked back to the car to put it away before we went to eat. He did say something about "Scott would have made it to the South Pole if he hadn't stopped for those brass snowflakes and antlers", but I was still delighted to get them. The antlers need a little repair but both the prints and the brass snowflakes are perfectly good and will be made into other things!

I lifted this off James Gurney's blog (Gurney Journey is on the side links, and there is more information about Sylvia's creation there). I really like her head sculpt and her outfit. As a kid, I would have run down to the dollar toy store and loaded up on dinosaurs to play with her. It would be fun to customize some bjd's to look like Dinotopia characters; they would probably have to be minis unless you wanted to make paper mache scale dinos to go with them. Though that sounds pretty fun too. :D

I received a wonderful (and somewhat undeserved) Christmas present in the form of a rare little Domuya mermaid, one of the last sets of dolls that Domuya made before the company broke up. She is msd sized and a perfect friend for my sailor Jack (Granado Terra). She also has a cute little lower leg fin which I somehow managed to crop out of the photo. I also got Teodor's (Granado Mads) semi-permanent eyes put in, and now like everyone else, he needs clothes!

I think we are all ready for Spring, including Soom, who has just popped out another really cute little fairy. Someday I am going to break down and buy one of these cuties--they are so well made and I love the colors and the styling. This one is a Tulip Fairy and it's all good--and she should ship right around the time the tulips are coming up! More cutie-pie pictures here: Mullu Tulip Fairy Oh, and totally by coincidence Iplehouse has come out with a couple of Pixxies, and I am sure they are fine--I've just never seen one in person.

The type will change (there is a legacy font that the publisher will pop on there) and it's possible there are tweaks left to do, but the tenth book in the Okal Rel saga is done. It's a great series--I actually own large parts of it for my own reading pleasure; it has great characters and a lot of adventure. It's definitely an adult reading experience, though, so be warned, though it's not trashy at all.

I found this photo of a Lee_el Livan while digging around for Granado pix--he's 90cm tall and you can see the scale of him next to Kuro herself. He makes Aelfric look short. Currently her Iplehouse Evan head is on that body, and it looks surprisingly cute. Her whole Flickr is fun to look at--if you scroll down you can find an Akando in steampunk wings, though sadly it doesn't show the whole outfit. Here are the aggregated pix on Flickrhivemind , too

Test render of makeup...worked on teeth.. and a cover today!

This is the DuPage river in Naperville. It's a lot warmer today, and this weekend it was nice enough we went into town to look at the river and eat at Hugo's. The ice on the river must have been impressive last week. I noticed that the picnic tables from last April had been removed from the trees, but the ice had bent the railings down by the river's edge. Naperville must be constantly paying money for Riverwalk upkeep and repairs! Here is K doing her Zoolander impression in front of the river: We bought some girly stuff in Naperville too, including nail polish: And for no reason, a photo that a friend sent me titled "Meanwhile, in Russia..."