Art WIP, and Adding lace to things

Hello again people!

I added lace to some fabric gift bags lying around. I have some women's handkerchiefs, from my mother, she found them lying around. I so far have crocheted on them, I mean to one day knit an edging onto another, but other projects have interrupted this!
Making tiny, dainty things takes so long.

What would be interesting would be to add lace to the glasses cleaning cloth.
Why? Because it is possible!

Anyway... More drawing and knitting.

Cross Posted from my tumblr account here. http://murasakinoryuu.tumblr.com/

-MNR

Original art, prints, and ACEOs/ATCs

I'm working on making the merchandise but I am unsure of what folks would even buy. I guess I have to take a risk.
So, here are the ACEOs I have so far.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/calienteokami?section_id=6319316
I am  working on making them into prints. I believe prints should be drastically more inexpensive than originals, so I will give customers a choice between potentially being the one to own the original (ATC style, like putting them in a binder), or having a print with a border for framing. Or, you can cut the border and make it ATC sized.

Anyway, I'm moving onto larger sizes of artwork. ATCs are nice and fun but larger sizes obviously give me space to make more intricate works.
I did have some professors that said my abstract work would have more impact if it were much larger. =o

I have begun painting on canvas! I wish to start drawing on  larger pieces of paper and board. I figure now's a good a time as any...
Check out my facebook and deviantart pages for more recent artwork.
https://www.facebook.com/calienteokamistudios
http://murasaki-no-ryuu.deviantart.com/

Murrrr its snowing and I'm sleepy...
So much shovelling...

-MNR

The Lady and her Engineer

My Advanced Drawing Final image. I didn't have time to color it. I will be honest. D= It needs some work but I loves it as is so far. These are two characters from my next comic project. I have too many comic ideas! I have to still work on their storyline and such. But I want this comic to deal with ideas of  artificial personhood, 'nontraditional' lifestyles and relationships, atypical relationships... they're supposedly lesbians. You know. I will go in more depth when I actually flesh out the story more and get it... actually started.

I really like 1700s fashion, rococo stuff, so the clothing, styles, and everything will be neo-rococo styled. Because what's better than cyberpunk neo-rococo???
(Nothiiing that's what. Hahahah. JK)

You might have seen these two, Geneva (da one with the ears) and Ursula (da one with the purple hair) before, I've posted them to me blog before.


-MNR

Happy New Year!

HI everyone. Thanks for holding on.

This has been a hectic few months, trying to get my affairs with college squared away and such.
Hopefully this will be a productive and mostly happy year for all of us... I sincerely hope, considering the tough stuff all around the country and in the US and in the world that is still continuing into 2013.

I've been thinking about New Years resolutions for the past few weeks. Brainstorming. I feel the key to successful New Years resolutions is to start small, and not to despair if you don't keep to them 100%. Any progress is good progress.
For example, I think one of my 2012 resolutions was to lose weight and get in shape. Well, I've built up some muscle, and lost a few pounds, and used my mother's gym membership a few times when I could get transportation.
Another was to draw more. I haven't necessarily been drawing more, but I made an effort to study art and gather inspirations together. I also learned Sculptris and am on my way to learning zbrush. I did several watercolor paintings, and stored them more neatly than I have in the past. I have also painted several paintings.

Resolutions shouldn't just be one year fads, methinks. They should be lifelong goals.

This year, I think I want to:

• Sell at least one painting
• Lose 5 lbs and keep it off
• Make my crafts look more professional and neat
• Get better at tailoring clothes
• Start a plus sized lolita clothing line (even if the things I make aren't for sale yet)
• Work hard at my schoolwork
• STOP PROCRASTINATING WITH PAPERWORK
• Join a club or organization and make some more friends
• Dress Lolita or Mori Kei more OR build my wardrobes (This is an ongoing goal)
• Make a new petticoat, high waisted skirt, cocktail dress
• Finish my Robe a la Francaise (I need to get pictures of that...)
• Post more pictures to my blog here!
• Make more comics, and perhaps launch a webcomic (I have already been creating more comics)

There are a few more private ones, but those are mainly they. I will add more if I think of more.
I encourage you people out there to start your own lists and post them on the wall. Don't feel disappointed if you don't do them all. It will be ok. Progress is gewwwd.


What is this obsession with losing weight? Well, like I said in the past, I want to fit into my clothes better. I want to be able to buy some cute clothes off the rack. Most of all, I want to be in decent shape. I don't want to be the size 0, like I said previously. I want to be healthy enough to run places and not feel tired all the time. I'm looking into low impact exercises, which are good for obese people. Lately I've had hip pain (exacerbated by working retail this past month...), and I really want that to go away on its own, rather than me going to the doctor about it. I figure it is just because my hip muscles are weak (which happens to a lot of people).

Bah. Since my company laid off all the seasonal workers, I guess I'm going to have more time between now and when I return to school in the spring. Therefore, I'm going to work on these resolutions.
My resolution is to work on these resolutions for at least one week. There we go! That's a good resolution!
But yeah, I'm going to be brainstorming a lot for all of these things.

Also: I'm going to have an Artist's Table at Genericon in March! Runs from March 2-4 I believe. If you read this, you should stop by! That would be fun, wouldn't it?


-MNR

Things I learned about Illustrator and Blender

I still don't like Illustrator. However, I have to use it and I will have to get used to it.

In Windows, if you hit alt+lmb on a layer, it selects all objects on that layer. I've been having a lot of trouble with that. I couldn't select things easily, until I learned this trick. On Mac, you must press command and use left click.

I suppose I haven't learned all that many new things in Blender. I am using version 2.5. Vers. 2.6 is soon to come. I feel that, since I'm more of a 2d artist, that those features should be improved. I have ideas that will fix the interfaces for the painting menus, so it is more akin to a 2d painting software, and looks less makeshift. All in my free time, that is.


-MNR.

New year, new clothes?

It's a new year. Been very busy.

I'm amazed at how hard I worked to finish my finals. Several all nighters to finish art projects. My animation 1 final was crap, but it was finished! I am still learning Maya. I still prefer Blender.


Anyway, so I've been catching up on knitting, crochetting and sewing that I didn't get to do because of class. I really want to work on getting my school life together, but I also need to do some personal stuff. like make my life more lolita friendly.

Ah, the lolita life. I would like to call myself a lifestyle lolita, but I have quite a ways to go before I can actually say that to other people.
At the moment, I don't know of anyone else that dresses lolita... sometimes I prefer being the lone lolita because it's somewhat unique, and I've learned to shy away from online communities. Other lolitas I've found in the past... have been a bit unfriendly. I'd love to have a lolita penpal, or just a regular penpal. Handwriting personal letters sounds like so much fun.

Oh well. What's important is that I have cloth and I'm going to try and sew as much as I can before the break ends. I don't have much time, as we go back to classes the 22nd. I go back to school the 20th. D; I did manage to get a decent lot of things knitted! There's this skirt that I'm hand-sewing though: I think it's too long. Like 30 inches long. I will try to fix it.
But I've found so many lolita accessories too, that I've put together myself or found from the thrift store. I'm so happy about that. Months ago I purchased two cigar boxes for them. I'm hoping at least the jewelry will fit. I have two headdresses so far, those may have to just go in my closet at school with my hats and such.


Aaaanyway.... I'm trying to lolify this pattern here. http://ravel.me/murasakinoryuu/n40ap
It's a top down raglan tshirt done in cotton and acrylic Lionbrand Cotton Ease, and I aim to make the bow at the top more pronounced. It's going pretty fast and I'm excited.

And this pattern here is going to be such a cute lacy waistcoat. It's going to be heavy though, due to it being crochetted. http://www.coatsandclark.com/Crafts/Crochet/Projects/Print+Ads/SN0113+Filigree+Cardigan.htm I have no idea what yarn I can use. I'm thinking caron simply soft, but I also have caron one lb in white. I need a yarn that's not immensely heavy.

Clothing Queue:

Pink trellis lolita skirt
black lolita bonnet
felted wool lolita purse
lolita dress (design coming soon)

Thinking about Creative Things

Gonna make some textures. I've always wanted my own library of textures! I just have to figure out how I'm going to put them either into the blog or on my website. I have plenty of bandwidth on both.
And besides, crediting ppl all the time is kinda.... tedious.

Things I thought about the other day.

• What does world peace look like? It is an idea that is easily taken for granted.
  
• People don't want to hear the truth if it goes against what they've believed in.
• Diya is a good name for a female. Very cute. Gonna use that as a character name.

That is all.