Powers of Creation

139%!!

Definitely something Will would wear.

Maggie, Anneka and Will. Will is wearing an A-line dress that Andrea made for CGs with a reversed Jet pleather top as a corset. That pig he's holding is from Andrea too. Thanks, an42!  ( Read more... )

Look -- a backdrop of black velvet stapled to foamcore. This is also Will looking awfully devious! ( Read more... )

This weekend, I removed ZaeZae's original brownish hair and gave her a braid of purple and pink yarn attached to a new scalp of pink pulled-back hair. I also made her spectacles out of 20 gauge brass wire.

In other pink news, the pink count should eventually increase by 5:

• I still need to remove Pippilotta's current hair and replace it with a sculpted scalp and wired yarn braids...pink, of course!
• Come to think of it, Marabou would look fabulous with a really deep magenta hair color similar to Andrew's!!
• If I give Janet pink hair, then a majority of the core cast and most frequent secondaries will have pink hair. ^_^
• UberBarbie is making me a fabulous teen boy with pink hair.
• Susie was supposed to have pink hair, but I had such a fight with her current red wig that I have temporarily given up on changing her hair.

Pink Squad as of now.

Standing, back row, L to R: Davry, ZaeZae, Andrew, Anneka, Will, Rori, Sibley.

Sitting, second-to-front row, L to R: Baozha, Sarah.

Lying, front row, L to R: Zinnia Pascale.
( Read more... )

To soften the light from my desk lamp, I put fabric softener sheets over the bulbs...not because they are supposed to soften things, but because they were the only appropriately translucent papers I could find. [I wonder where the tissue paper went...] Not only are the results much easier on my eyes for all desk-related tasks, but they also produce photos with lower contrast and better, unwashed-out detail. As a bonus [?!], my desk smells like a dryer sheet. I deem this experiment successful!  ( Read more... )

I am playing more with my new camera. I learned how to turn the autofocus off so that it loses battery power more slowly. I also note that my new camera does much better in low light than my old camera. Both of these pictures are taken with my desk lamp pointed up at the wall to the far left of Anneka and Will.  ( Read more... )

I just bought some boring clothes for my dolls from War Toys, my preferred loose parts dealer. The damage was just around $54.00.

• Carl Hages jeans: a baggy pair of blue denims with silly paisley accents. For Will and Anneka.
• Attila the Hun shirt and pants: a simple loose white shirt and baggy black pants for figs who don't care about fashion. Pants possibly for Gemini.
• Roscoe shirt and pants: light brown long-sleeved shirt and dark brown pants for conservative figs. Shirt possibly for Max. Pants possibly for Mark.
• Dr. J. shirt: blue/grey long-sleeved shirt for conservative figs. Shirt possibly for Max.
• Det. Chow outfit: light blue T-shirt and blue jeans for anyone that fits into them. Pants possibly for Sibley.
• CJ7 shirt and pants: white long-sleeved shirt and black pants for slender, smaller figs. Shirt for Mamie. Pants for Chow.
• Mme Marie skirt: a long black skirt for a conservative female character. For Teodora.
• 4 pairs of cheap, nondescript boots. Slip-ons for Chow. One pair for Max.

Davry now has pink hair. Unfortunately, that doesn't make him any less self-righteous.

I finally got a passable close-up of Will. Unlike other dolls of mine, his face is done more impressionistically, with fewer definite borders. My new camera picks up details such as this that I don't even notice in real life. Also please note that the Cy Girl relaxed hands may not be the most detailed out there, but they are the most graceful and elegant. I think they work equally well for male and female figs. Will looks very amused by something in this picture.

In other news, the battery charger + battery that I ordered is out of stock, so I have to get one somewhere else. I also need to get an SDHC card reader. Fleargh.     ( Latest results from my new camera... )

H2 Creative is I think where Will's head originally came from. I think he's HH042. If so, then this is my reaction: right here.

Sideshow's upcoming entry in the Dead line is a zombie priest entitled The Harbinger. I must say that, while Sideshow's record for 1:6 likenesses stinks, they do a great job on The Dead. I love my Dead Babysitter [who became Zinnia Pascale], and I really like the Harbinger too. His hand sculpts look arthritic and bony, and his drawn face and rolling eyes accurately reflect a despair that I think much more pertinent to zombies than slavering rage. Sideshow really has to start making their zombies lose ears, though. I don't understand how this guy's brain became exposed without him getting an ear or two torn off.

I'm tempted to get this guy for Ethan [the poor man is having such a problem being immortalized in plastic!], but I'd rather not wait an untold number of months before he comes out. His release date is Q1 2009, but toymakers are never on time.

I've been contemplating the creation of my own Ethan, but my current materials always daunt me. I don't have an appropriate sculpting medium, just the remnants of some peach Sculpey and some rotten air-dry clay that won't adhere to existing heads. I have a resin skull that could conceivably be the base for Ethan's cadaverous visage, but that involves building up features, and I'm much better at scraping out features by using an Xacto knife or sandpaper.

Maybe I should just get an unpainted resin sculpt and shave it down. The prominent brows, sunken eyes, dour mouth and narrow cheeks of Hugh Laurie could work, as seen in this sculpt by Wanted Action Figure.

On the subject of Wanted Action Figure, maybe I should get a Johnny Depp head too. I've been toying with the idea of remaking Will with an appropriately scrawny body, but that would require getting him a new head, since his current one is already way too fragile. The Depp sculpt approximates his features best. Now if I could just find a body that's as etoliated as the Obitsu Slim Male, but with slightly broader shoulders... Jesus Christ, it'd probably be best just to modify a PB or a CG 2.0!

I STILL have a hard-on for Medicom's Young Indiana Jones because my mind thinks River Phoenix=Will. I wish I weren't so interested in it, because I'm sure that there's something disappointing about the sculpt that the prototype photos don't show.

Hot Toys is issuing a beautiful 1:6 Edward Scissorhands soon. I want its clothes. The fact that I could probably get a likeness of Will out of the head doesn't hurt either.

Sekiguchi's Momokos continue to tantalize me. I draw very close to purchasing one, but then I always cheap out because I don't have a designated character for such a doll, who costs a lot, even on sale. That said, I have found Miracle Party Girl, Wild and Sexy Tune, Dash After School, Sweet Poodle, Lovely Folklore and Berry Hunter for <$100 with s/h. Too bad I want Sea Maze/Blue Labyrinth/whatever the hell she's called.

Tonight I was filming an ep. I accidentally discovered that the colors as seen under my full-spectrum light were more realistic and much less yellow than those seen under fluorescents. Therefore I placed one full-spectrum in front of my subject as shown and then took some example shots.

Conclusions: Full-spectrum light obviates yellow correction in post-production. Full-spectrum also errs on the side of excess blue, but, since most of my characters are cold and dead, I welcome the increase in blue light, which seems thinner and crisper than the thick, yellow, sludgy light.

Also, the crisper the light, the better my photos. My wienie of a camera functions best in full-blown natural light, which is best approximated by full-spectrum bulbs. Ergo, under my full-spectrum experiments tonight, I achieved sharp levels of detail and color more accurate than that under fluorescents.

Also, Will looks incredibly sexy in black.( Photos of setup and results within )

Lola is the first Triad Toys doll that attracts me. It's not the fetishy schoolgirl outfit, though I do like it. It's not the thigh-high black pleather platform heels, though they are perfect for Will. It's not the custom cartoony bomb and the match, though Baozha would love those. It's not the backpack with the teddy bear, though I can always use more backpacks, and I know Will wants the teddy bear. It's not the guns because, unless they are squirt guns, firearms are irrelevant to my LHF universe. It's not even the Otaku body, which sacrifices form over function.

It's her face, her weary, sarcastic, annoyed face. 

Get doll; keep head, hands, clothes, shoes, pack, bomb, match, teddy. Sell body, guns, holsters and other weapon-related crap. Body should go for $30.00. Guns should go for $10-15.00. Recoup ~1/2 of purchase price.

Give doll pink hair!!!

But he doesn't. 1:6 Will is back after about a year of lying in the drawer. He has a new body -- arms too thick, torso too muscular, but I can live with it. I also gave him new eyebrows and eyeshadow and touched up his blush. Not new, however, are his endearing expressiveness and his inveterate attraction for trashy outfits. Will and Anneka are my best beloved dolls ever.

A big thank you to freak42, who gave me my very first comment ever. While I don't do this to satisfy my readers' desires, I do love comments, which are proof that someone is reading.  Anyway...

William Philomel Ashby Cox, known as Will, is a vampire.

Over the past 4 years [ack, has it been that long?], Will has been one of the most physically instable characters of mine. He started off as a default Sideshow Toy general edition Spike 12" doll. Then I put a custom resin sculpt of James Marsters on the same body. Then I went to a Dragon body with CG ankle cups so he could wear high heels. Then I tried to make him a skinny hybrid body, and he was on a weird early Medicom body for a while. Then I got him a modern, shorter Medicom body. Plus I resculpted his hair about 4 times during that period; it went from the default greasy comb-back, to a poofy comb-back, to a meringue-like sort of mess, to a modified bowl cut. I also repainted him about 5 times, each time making his skin paler and his makeup darker.

After the 1:6 modern Medicom body broke, I put the 1:6 Will in storage. Then I got my 1:3 Will.

Then he went digital in October, 2007. Since then, he's gone through 4 reconstructions from scratch and countless textures [or paint jobs]. I need to do a slideshow of him through time in the same way that I collected a bunch of photos of my Frank doll[s].

So, thanks to SailorZeo, I found a free animated avatar program, Meez. Naturally I set to work recreating my current favorite characters, Will and Anneka. The browser crashed in the middle of Anneka's pixelated construction, so you'll just have to enjoy Will for now. ( Read more... )

My concept of Will's physique has always been closer to that of my 1:3 Jareth doll, rather than the ridiculously muscular soldier's body he's had for years. Unfortunately, the custom head that I use for Will won't fit on any of the skinny male bodies...until now. Tonight, after a long silence, I broke out the Dremel and my drawer of bodies in an attempt to transfer the brawny neck assembly from a Dragon male body to the scrawny slender Obitsu male body.  In order to balance out the thicker neck, I imported Will's original muscular arms [so he doesn't have twig-like upper limbs]. I have yet to ream out the torso to allow for neck poseability, but you can see a mock-up of how I want Will to look below.