I Shaved Down The Upper Lip Completely And Plan To Build It Up Again. Just Fine Tuning The Facial Symmetry.

I really do feel awful about the lack of updates. I am still working on the commission and so I am not left with any time for personal work, really. I did pick up a dremel, though! So, that's exciting :)

This is a little dragon I'm making for my sister. It's far from finished and I plan to smooth out the clay. Hope to finish it by her birthday if not sooner.

Worked on her cheeks, chin and lower lip. Only had a little time tonight but I’m glad I made some progress. Slowly working toward symmetry :) Picture is a before (left) and after (right) of my progress.

This was my original sketch and kind of has some hints as to my thought process and some details I forgot to mention, like I wanted the hand and feet pads to be heart shaped lol. And I intended for the markings to remind one of moss, the way moss grows on sloths :)

Just trying to even things out. Make sure the eyes are at the same depth, checking nostrils and the way the philtrum and septum meet up. Her skull/forehead will obviously be larger, I'm just focusing on her face at the moment.

I feel the same way. I know from looking at this blog, one would assume I was new to the community, and in ways I am because I've always been a lurker, and never joined any forums or anything because I didn't own any dolls myself and knew it would be forever before I did. I have admired ball jointed dolls since I was a teenager. I'd say I first stumbled upon them when I was 14 or 15. I have finally reached a point in my life where I feel my creative ability may allow me to make my own ball jointed doll. Note that I am 25 now, going on 26. I still can't afford a legit doll (I'm sure if I'd been saving for one in particular I could have found a way to make it happen but that's all hypothetical.) and I can't even afford a recast but even if I could, I'd rather MAKE MY OWN doll than ever pay for a recast!

It's hurtful to actually sit here and do the work, to see for myself how much time and effort and skill goes into making these dolls, and to think people believe it's okay to ignore all that, because they feel ENTITLED to it for the price they want to pay. They cost so much for a reason. Would you work for pennies an hour? Probably not unless you were forced to! Yet there are those who look at a doll that took hours, days, weeks sometimes months or even years to come to fruition, and they think, "that's too high a price." Basically you're saying what you want is more valuable than honoring the artist.

I know it sucks to be poor. I know it sucks to see others with luxury items and it's hard not to feel less-than when others have so much of what you'd like to have. I know because I've been there. I never had the newest toys or clothes. As an adult I never have the newest phone, I own no gaming systems, etc. I know it sucks!!! But why would you want to spread the suckiness? Do what you can to change your situation but don't take your shitty situation and make someone else's life shitty as well. Sorry if that seems harsh but it's true. Life is not fair and you could act like an obstinate child and say, since it's not fair to you, why should you be fair to BJD artists? But then that makes you childish.

If you buy recasts knowingly and willingly it's the same as admitting you love yourself more than the community you're trying to be a part of. And it's okay to love yourself, but it should never come at the cost of another. Loving yourself should never come at the cost of stealing someone's hopes and dreams and hard work.

Casting

I normally don’t write/respond much to the recast debate, particulary because some people can word the resonse I agree with much better then me. But this time I kinda want to write down my thoughts on it, especially because it hits close to my heart. So I heard Haru Castings Adori has been/is in the progress of being recasted. I’m not sure how true this is (since I haven’t seen any evidence) but the idea alone really upsets me. They are a family run company that tries to make pro-casting availeble for smaller artists, they are in that way helping art and artist around the world to make this little bulb of matter a bit of a more beautifull and creative place. They also, out of love, had their son portraited as a doll, something that super relatable for me since I also portrait my friends and family out of love in the shape of dolls (although in porcelain). It’s so commendable that they are willing to share their love and intamicy with us, it’s beautifull that they have been gifting him/her away… it’s nausiating to think that someone is willing to defile that love, to defile that willingness to share.  To think that there are people in this world that are so selfabsorbed/selfcentered and selvish hurts me. I want to make this place more beautifull, I want to ad my little two cents to this world to make it a better place for everyone. It’s like there’s a fight between people who try to make this a better place and people who are only willing to look at themselves. At one hand you would think, I don’t want to share my work anymore, I don’t want to make it in such way that it’s possible to steal, etc. But at the same time that makes them win… so, I have been toying with the idea to have my African girl casted, mainly because my boyfriend, father and Snow-and-Resin have been very supportive/pushing me. But now I’m certain that I want to have her casted, because if I am willing to go out there, and support Haru by giving them work, and share what I make with the world to hopefully bring a little bit more love and acceptance in it. So I just wanted to say to all the artist out there, do not be discouraged, work hard, try hard and fight! Things won’t always be sunshine and rainbows but if we don’t try to make things better no one will.  This kinda got like a long emotional rant but I can’t help it, it just makes me so angry and dissapointed. But I will take that anger and turn it into energy to create and finish my girl. I will work really hard to make her the best I can!  ps: is you are of African descent and are willing to help me with feedback drop me a message tl;dr: recasting makes me angry enough to get myself out there as an artist and do what they are discouraging, the fight is on! 

Want to use a fancy custom language for something, but don’t know how to make one?Use Vulgar!

Vulgar is a conlang (constructed/fictional language) generator created to help literally generate a language for you. No, really. No tricks, and it’s super simple to use. It’s my favourite tool right now for writing fantasy, even as someone who loves creating his own languages, it’s an amazing starting point.

Want a random conlang, straight away, with no prep or fuss? Just visit http://vulgarlang.com/index.html and click “Generate New Conlang”… and that’s it. Scroll down and through your brand new, generated, completely original conlang. 

If you’re a little more advanced in terms of conlanging and want to specify IP phonemes to be used, you can add them too, but even with no knowledge of linguistics you can create a language at the click of your fingers.

This version of Vulgar is completely free, sure…. but! the guy who created it has not only made an amazing thing (which I repeat, is absolutely free at it’s most basic point), but is also planning on updating it more and more!

Under the “Buy” tab on the Vulgar website, he links to his email, where you can offer to pay for the full version of Vulgar, which is a total steal right now at a sale price of only nineteen dollars. Considering professional conlangers and linguists could charge you, like, a metric fuck ton of money for the same data you’re getting here for just nineteen, that’s a major steal.

Not to mention, buying the alpha build now gives you free access to all of it’s updated versions, which I can guarantee are just going to get better and better! I’ve already bought it and I adore it, and this is a tool the likes of which we in the conlang community have never seen in such an awesome way.

Please consider helping Vulgar out, because the creator is a damn genius

Don’t mind my sweaty face it is melting here in Oregon…but my Familiar from @offalteeth’s Summer 2017 Familiar Exchange arrived!

This adorable little friend is a wind serpent and they even brought me a gift 😍 they were made by @thejoancode and I am so in love already. My son is also and has taken to calling them “Fall” which I think is cute and silly since it is a flying serpent 😄 They spent all last night curled up on a blanket next to my bed, resting from their long journey.

Thank you so much for my new friend :)

Fall is watching us play Minecraft today :)

Finally have sandpaper and wooooow, what a difference it makes!