Artist Spotlight: Sebastian Masuda

The last artist spotlight of the month!  Sensational kawaii artist Sebastian Masuda (website)(instagram) is immensely popular, with international shows and probably best-known for fashion brand 6% Doki Doki (instagram)!

Za X Sebastiam Masuda powder compact

I bought this Za X Sebastian Masuda compact just for the art, but it turns out I really enjoy the powder foundation too and bought a refill for it before I left Taiwan.  His art is usually super cluttered and detailed.  The more you look at an arrangement, the more you see!

Some people may find it too messy, but I sort of enjoy that messy kawaii aesthetic when it's a small item like this ^u^v  I'm not sure how I'd feel in one of his installation art rooms!

Is this heaven or hell to you?

Image from his instagram

If you're ever in Tokyo, visit Kawaii Monster Cafe (instagram) for a taste of what it's like!  I was so exhausted when I visited that I fell asleep there and missed the performance show T^T  But have some photos to share!

The lighting inside is rather poor, so if you want to take prettier photos, bring an extra light with you!!

Kawaii cake!

Artist Palette Pasta!

He also made the art of "Yoshi's Crafted World" in the TV commercial (side note: that game is ADORABLE!  I played the demo!)

Image from instagram

As for the 6% Doki Doki style, I enjoy the busy prints as accent pieces, but I don't know if I'd dress head-to-toe in Doki Doki?  Of course, the shop staff all ROCK the sensational pop kawaii style!

Image from 6% Doki Doki instagram

Image from 6% Doki Doki instagram

Do you enjoy this style of art?  It's different from the previous artists I've posted about, as he is not an illustrator, but I really enjoy this as well!

Artist Spotlight: Meredith Dillman

Today's artist spotlight is on fantasy and fairy artist Meredith Dillman (website) (deviantART) (instagram) who is from Minnesota! If you are a fan of Art Nouveau, fantasy, fairies, and Asian aesthetics with highly-detailed clothing and backgrounds, you'll really love her style!  I appreciate the watercolor and colored pencil look especially.

Work in progress
Image from instagram

In addition to prints, she also produces enamel pins, charms, books, coloring books, and has an oracle deck, all available on her website.

Image from deviantART

Image from deviantART

Personally I adore the attention to detail in the folds of the fabrics and how there is depth and color variation in the light and shadows.  There are probably too many folds to be realistic, but I really enjoy the draped effect it gives! 

High Priestess
Image from website

My love for fantasy art came from the days of Amy Brown and Nene Thomas fairy art at Hot Topic ages ago.  While I do still enjoy those artists, Meredith's style has more whimsy and fantasy that I find so alluring!  I do also recommend Nene Thomas for more photorealistic artwork and Gothic aesthetics though~

Do you have a favorite fantasy/fairy artist?  I've named my top three here but I'd like to see more!

Artist Spotlight: Zihling Huang

Time for a smaller artist spotlight~  Today is a Taiwanese artist named Zihling Huang (Instagram)(website)  I first found her art through her collaborations with my friend's Lolita brand Little Rose Planet and fell in love with her style!

Image from her Instagram

Described as "a mix of sweet girls with some weirdness added," her girls are "doll-like creatures walking a line between human and inhuman."

Similar to Yoh's Monochrome World, whom I previously wrote about, she does very detailed lines with some yami-kawaii (sick-but-cute) elements as well as dark or Gothic designs.

Image from her Instagram

The proportions and faces of her characters are much more human and less exaggeratedly spindly, though, which I think adds a more kawaii charm to her style.

Image from her Instagram

If you'd like to wear any of her art, be sure to visit Little Rose Planet (JSK, SK, tights are all available!) and support two local Taiwanese artists!!

Do you have any local artists you are a fan of?  Please share if you do because I really want to know more small artists!

Artist Spotlight: ECONECO

It should come as no surprise that ECONECO (Instagram) (Art Shop) (Products Shop) is one of my favorite artists!!  Her dreamy pastel colors and deco'd canvases are totally my style *u*   Of course, I've previously blogged about meeting ECONECO when she came to Taipei  (1st time)(apparently I didn't blog the second time, only post on Instagram)(3rd time) and now own a few little things with her art!

Flashback to the first time I met and purchased ECONECO!

There is a whole series of cosmetics and home goods in collaboration with ECONECO available in Taiwan as well.  I miss it!  I did purchase the BB cream for the packaging, but it turns out to be a good BB cream as well!

From ECONECO Instagram

On LINE you can add the ECONECO TW account to get a free mobile wallpaper each month.  I cannot seem to link the account on the webpage, but if you use LINE you can do a name search to find it I'm sure.

2019.07 monthly wallpaper

 She also visits Taiwan quite often, and did again in July!! (Crying because I missed out!)  She even did a special wallpaper using four Taiwanese animals:

Formosan Blue Magpie, Formosan Black Bear, Formosan Clouded Leopard,, and Formosan Macaque 

The blended pastel colors, canvases with strass crystals and peals, and whimsical settings I think would be popular with Lolitas!

From ECONECO Instagram

I think the deco canvases are really a cute and unique touch.  If I had art skills I would want to attach sequins, pearls, and jewels to my artwork, too!  It reminds me of a puzzle I had as a child that came with a glitter pen so you could decorate the completed puzzle.

Let me know what you think!  Also if you have any similar artists that you are a fan of, I want to know!!

Artist Spotlight: Yoh of Yoh's Monochrome World

I'd like to start sharing some of my favorite artists on my blog here!  I enjoy a variety of styles and mediums, and artists both internationally famous and small-time deserve to be seen ^u^v

Today I'm sharing one of my absolute favorite artists, Yoh of Yoh's Monochrome World. (Instagram) (Shop) Many of you may be familiar because he's been featured in Lolita bibles before, which is how I originally discovered his art, and there was also a collaboration with Alice and the Pirates!

I own the book Gothic Lolita Punk (Amazon link) which includes his artwork as well as a variety of other wonderful artists (including famous artist Kira Imai who often does Angelic Pretty illustrations)

His style is very detailed and almost always just ink lines on paper (hence "monochrome world") though occasionally there will be some color.

The pictures usually depict spooky-cute dolly girls and boys.  I especially love the hair and eyes!

Some of the artworks are very sweet-themed too~

I really enjoy the clean lines and hatching/dotted shading.  The illustrations seem to be sort of dark fairytale or dreamy, like the colored illustration above.  Even the dark Gothic pictures don't rely on gratuitous blood or gore to make it seem sinister.  It's more like a creeping shadow than a bloodfest, if you will.  This style appeals to me a lot more, as if you are being gradually drawn into the details and cannot look away.

As for the collaborations with Alice and the Pirates, there are cutsews from 2009 and can be found on Lolibrary (Princess Grape, Princess Pear, Princess Raspberry).  I believe there were collaborations with Tokyo Rebel as well, but don't really know much about that one ^^;

If you use LINE (messaging APP popular in east Asia) there are also LINE stickers you can purchase!
There are currently six sets, three in Japanese and three in English here if you are interested~

The example

Do you enjoy this style of art?  I will try to share more artists regularly, so stay tuned and thanks for reading!

Detective Pikachu

It's been a while since I've updated as I've moved across the planet (again)!  I moved to the USA at the end of April and will be starting work this week.  Yesterday I went to see Detective Pikachu with my friend and my sister.  No spoilers ahead!

Hat: offbrand
Jacket: Nasty Gal
Shirt: customized by me
Bag: Swimmer Japan
SK: Algonquins
Socks/Shoes: offbrand

Overall I enjoyed the movie for the world that was created, and the plot itself was pretty meh.  The beginning seemed better than the end, which felt a little bit rushed.  The realistic Pokemon were pretty cool overall, though some of the fur textures seemed rather stiff and the feathers looked like they were ruffled or wet all the time rather than how they look on real birds when dry.  I've seen the artist's work online before, so I already knew the renditions would be hit-or-miss for me.  LOVE the Bulbasaur though!

I think it'd be cool to see the concept art for the world in order to really study the details.  I also which the voice actor for Detective Pikachu had been somebody with a more "uncle" type voice.  If you've ever played the 3DS Detective Pikachu game (or the free demo) you'll know what I'm talking about XD

We only paid US$5 to see this movie because it was on a Tuesday and some theaters have $5 Tuesdays I guess!  So I'd say it's worth $5 but I probably wouldn't want to pay much more than that, and don't think it'd be worth seeing in 3D, especially with one section in a forest that was just very drawn-out and confusing with all the angle changes.  It was pretty easy to figure out what was going on long before the characters did, so it was just awkward watching them flail around and almost headache-inducing with the sideways flipping camera changes and stuff.

The ending credits are well done too!  I think that's what it's called :P  At the end of the movie where they list some of the key actors with some illustrations, before the endroll with all the behind-the-scenes employees plays.

Have you seen Detective Pikachu/played the game or plan to?  Who's your favorite Pokemon?  I really have too many favorites XD  And it's mostly based on the anime rather than their effectiveness in battle!

Belle's Library~ Monster Hunt

It's been a while since I've seen any good movies, but recently Ano and I watched a Chinese film (it has English subtitles) called 捉妖記/Monster Hunt.

While not a Lolita-themed film at all, I still recommend it!  It's a fantasy adventure about a world where monster hunters are no longer needed because they've caught all the monsters sneaking into the human world so effectively humans no longer remember the existence of monsters.  Now the monster queen is pregnant and the monster hunters are after her and her baby as she's crossed into the human world.

The computer graphics are really good!  The film is both funny and touching, and event includes a plot twist ;)

Trailer below:



And a promotional poster:

See?  Nice graphics!

Hollywood tends to dominate the movie market, but sometimes little gems like this pop out as well.  If you can find it in your area (or *cough*online*cough*) give it a watch!

Gothic Lolita Battle Bear

When Lolita fashion shows up in media, it tends to be sort of wacky cute.  Everybody is familiar with Shimotsuma Monogatari the novel/manga/movie, and probably with Deka Wanko, the Lolita detective, Gothic Lolita X (I think is the name?), the guro film about the revenge killer, and the short film about the Lolita wrestler.

Last year there was another Lolita movie made, and I haven't found any with subtitles, but this is the wackiest I have seen yet!

Gothic Lolita Battle Bear is about a Lolita who can fuse with a teddy bear to become a superhero and fights a creepy old man who fuses with a black teddy bear to become the villain.

I did find the film on Youtube and... well... I think everybody needs to see it for themselves!

NOTE there are some slightly more sexual scenes!

For those who haven't got the time to watch it right now, here is just a list of things you can expect to see:

zombies

talking teddy bears (similar to Ted from the movie Ted, foul-mouthed and adult)

Sweet Lolita

lesbian love triangle (I believe)

magical girl transformation

Gothic Lolita (who does strip down in later scenes!)

adult baby

Shiro Lolitas (who get topless during the battle and are actually the most effective at destruction)

nipple lasers from said Shiro Lolitas

power of rock guitar

zombie rock concert

erotic/implicit scenes

Basically, it is really confusing.  Any readers who understand Japanese, please enlighten the rest of us as to the plot?  My conclusion is that an alien plant was destroyed and some of the "sparks" ended up in the pink and black bears and they are using humans to help them battle by fusing and lending them power.  The rest of it makes no sense to me :)

Magazine Splurge!

A friend from MN came to Taiwan recently and we had an impromptu meetup and happened across a Japanese magazine store (雜誌瘋) and I spotted two magazines I wanted to buy right away!

The first is this Alice in Wonderland edition that came with a gift of a book-shaped bag, which I was SO excited about!


I've wanted a book-shape bag for ages! The cover advertises it as "Bag in Wonderland" haha! The magazine is full of artist renditions of the original illustrations from both books, original art by the artists, introduction of Alice events, and explanations of the puns in the books. The book is entirely in Japanese, but there is a cute Alice cookies recipe I want to try!

The second is "We Love Pokemon" because I LOVE POKEMON!!! It also came with a gift tote which is the perfect size for going out:


The front has Pikachu's face and the back has a picture of the new game version Pikachu:


Also entirely in Japanese, and has celebrity opinions on Pokemon (boring to me), maps and history of Pokemon games, photos of the Tokyo Pokemon Center, Pokemon goods, and Pokemon nail art! I found that many of the items in the book are actually available here in Taipei ;D

If anybody is interested in the contents I could scan or take photos. Just wanted to share because I'm excited haha!

Belle's Library~ Smurfs 2

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go watch Smurfs 2 and take photos with the Smurfs!
Growing up, I actually didn't know what Smurfs were, really. I'd only ever seen them in a video game that I saw once, but I thought they were really cute.
I saw the first movie on TV here, and really think it was quite well done. I love the evil cat and think the realism and cartoon aspects were balanced really well.

The ticket I got was from work because I'd helped to work on a collaboration between the movie and the school I work for, so my mom and I went to see the movie.

Check out the 3D glasses we got!

I love the little hat on it!

Honestly, I don't think the movie was worth watching in 3D because it didn't really add much to the overall effect. I also got a headache by the end of the movie :( So if you are planning on seeing this movie, I suggest watching the regular 2D version.

Spoiler-free review:


Here's my fancy ticket:


An hour before the movie, there was a blue carpet set up and you could take photos with Clumsy, Papa, and Smurfette!

Here is me pretending to be a celebrity:


The sequel is semi-noncontinuous, so if you haven't seen the first movie, it's not too big of a deal. I really loved the themes of self-discovery and non-conditional love in the movie (for both the humans and the Smurfs), and the comedy was pretty well-balanced.

If you haven't seen the first movie, pretty much all you need to know is that Gargamel is in the human world and is now a celebrity because he can do magic using the leftover essence he got from Papa in the previous movie. It's really funny how he learns to cope with modern society and technology while still holding on to magic and the world of the Smurfs.

I didn't like the "goofy" new character of Haggis (I think that's his name?) very much, but he is a contrast character I suppose. I did like the new girl character, Vexy, though!



There IS a post-credit short between Gargamel and Azrael (the cat), so be sure to stay until the very end!

Belle's Library~ BABY Mook

BABY came out with a collective mook in July, but I didn't buy it despite the fact that BABY is my favorite brand and my first step into the Lolita world.

Cover. Photo from online sale (Amazon JP)

On Saturday, I went to 東區, literally translated as "East District," a fun, fashionable place to go with lots of shopping and eating to do should you ever be in the Taipei area. After eating, we went to Mag Freak, a chain of magazine shop that carries imported magazines and mooks, mostly from Japan.

Normally you are lucky to find back issues of the Gothic and Lolita Bible or a copy or two of Gosu Rori. So imagine my surprise when I saw a whole stack of BABY's catalog mook! I couldn't resist buying it! It's more expensive than it would have been online, but seeing it in person is more exciting ;)


Pochette page (from Amazon JP)

Of course, I was also attracted to the gift with purchase - the BABY heart pochette! I saw 小米(XiaoMi)'s pochette at the MiraMar meetup and it is really quite small, but handy for carrying your phone and small cosmetics such as a lipstick or small compact for touch-ups. Normally, the gift with purchase in these types of magazines are eco totes or small makeup pouches made of fabric. The pleather pochette for BABY's mook seemsto be a better deal to me!

The mook itself is rather thin at 62 pages, but I really enjoy it!


Closeup of the pochette page (from Amazon JP)

I took some photos of the real pochette~

Here is the front of the mook:

The shape will be warped from the thickness of the pochette, but it flattens out after a day or so of being weighed down under a stack of GLBs ;)


The pochette is protected in plastic, a layer of cardboard, and then another plastic with the BABY logo printed.


I recommend cutting out the page it is glued to along the cutting line before removing the pochette. The sticky lines will stick to the facing page of the mook! I cut out the page, which was printed with BABY's Swan Lake print, and saved it for scrapbooking.


This is the inner layer of plastic


The pochette!


The Brand Logo is inscribed on the pochette. It is a little difficult to photograph due to it being black-on-black, but I hope you can see it!


In the opening. You can see that it is quite small. I can only put a phone and wallet or lipstick and compact. Even phone + camera is too much! But I think I will use this pochette for makeup at meetups.

The handle was quite bent from being rolled up, but I hung it from my doorknob with just my phone inside and the handle straightened out within a day, no worries!

I didn't take photos of the insides because I am not sure how the copyright works for magazine scans.

Inside, it has:
BABY's magic closet - some ad-type photoshoots like you see in the GLBs
New Items on the stage - photos of latest items like you see in the GLBs
BABY's Dreamy World - some fun photoshoot drawing combos that are very cute!
ALICE and the PIRATES - some photoshoots of AatP clothing
Headdress a la Mode - two pages on headdresses
Dolls Make Lesson - three makeup tutorials spread out over 4 pages. Pink Princess is the only one with step-by-step. Snow White and Brown Make both show the final look with closeups on the eye, cheek, and lip with notes on how to do it along with Base Make and Point!
Dear, My Sweet Friend - all about Usakumya!!! Baby's famous mascot! I love this two-page spread!
BABY LOVERS - I think this is notes from fans and evens and things BABY has done? It's all in Japanese so I am not sure...
My Favorite BABY - a two-page spread on the models' favorite BABY dresses as they model them I think? In any case, it shows five models, Misako Aoki, Midori Fukasawa, Azusa, Yui Minakata, and SELEN.
SWEET&CUTE COLLABORATION ARCHIVE - as the name implies, a collection of collaborations!
All the past Popular Item Archive - pretty self-explanatory; it shows popular items from 1997 to the present
Textile Chronicle A collection of print swatches! It's so nice to see the detail in all the prints!
Interview to Designers - This would be neat if I could read Japanese
We Love BABY! - fan and event photos
Un Parti du The de Lolita - Paris tea party and Magical Mystery Tea Party in Japan
Special Pochette - The pochette and some descriptions of it (see the scans above!)

If you are interested in buying this mook, here are some places to find it online!
Amazon JP
CD Japan

Belle's Library~ Mister Rococo

One of my MN Lolita friends just posted the full short film, Mister Rococo, in our FB comm so I will share it here!



It is short, but quite fun to watch. No spoilers until after the jump!


Personally, I really enjoyed it because I wasn't expecting any morals or real plot. I know some other Lolitas found it disappointing because they were expecting more of a Shimotsuma Monogatari-type film, but if you take this just for light-hearted fun, it's great!

I liked the room views and her deco'd weight as well as her cute exercise outfits. Several years ago I actually designed a Lolita-inspired workout outfit after some slight drama on EGL (regarding wearing Lolita to the gym, if anybody was around for that) and after watching this, I want to make the outfit!

Although she has quite a frightening figure in the end, it was funny to see her take down Vancouver Cat and get revenge on her ex

Slight tangent, but in school I have a class called Creative Basic where I am making a mask. I finished the wire base and realized...



It looks like Yuri's wrestling mask!!

Don't worry, mine will end up looking more like a 3D version of Lilith's head:



DON'T ASK ME HOW THIS CLASS IS RELATED TO FASHION

/tangent

Sorry for the lack of real posts - school is much busier than I can manage on top of my jobs!
What do you think of Mister Rococo?