Life Update

 

Have a picture of Sumikko Gurashi display on the river to brighten the mood!  I took these photos a few days ago.

The last few months have been busy and not too great, and unfortunately it has gotten worse.  Though I am keeping myself positive as much as possible, it can get difficult sometimes.

Need to believe that things will work out for the better.  Today was supposed to be the day that the apartment negotiation was resolved (dissolve the contract) but the seller refused to accept either dissolving contract and paying the scrivener and 3rd part (holding my down payment) fees (our original request) OR the dissolving of contract and each paying our own fees (as detailed in the contract originally) and is now taking me to court to try and get me to pay an additional NT$150k (roughly 4.5 months' average salary in my city) for "compensation" to him due to changing a water pipe in the laundry room.  It is still a functioning pipe and would not make the property unsellable to the next buyer, so that seems unreasonable to me.

Today is Taiwan Teddy's birthday, and almost the new year, so I'd really been hoping it would end nicely today.  It's bad luck to carry on to the next year, but maybe this means that next year can only get better.

Wishing everybody a lovely end of the year and may you all be blessed in the coming year!!

Excuse the crazy face :D I had been practicing eyeliner to try and make my round eyes look longer.  I had not even been planning on going outdoors but there was a Christmas Glaceon at a nearby gym so I went to go get it (failed as I was alone, but got very close!)

During my time away from blogging, I have been working on making more cards and also doing 3D digital art as well as streaming on Twitch, so that has been quite fun!  I will be taking a break from Twitch until things are better for me though.

Here's a closing photo of Violet in her birthday outfit!  After the failed negotiation I was so distracted I forgot to buy a cake for her >_<;; So I will need to make it up for her soon!

Here is also a picture of the model I'm working on.  I've replaced the eyeballs, hair, ears, and lashes with more realistic textures, which means I'm fast approaching uncanny valley if I don't balance the "cartoon" features and "realistic" features correctly!

Thank you for reading!  If you would like, please leave me a comment about something good that has happened to you or that you have done recently?  I'm most pleased with progress I've made in the texturing of the model.  I learned a lot about hair cards and using nodes in the material shader editor!

Halloween Pull-Tab Card

During my time away from social media I've been getting back into making interactive cards.  This card is unfinished, but I really only need to put it on a card base and write PULL or put a pull ribbon on the tab so I thought I'd share it anyway! 

Pull tab extended

The card has two ghosts hidden behind little houses that pop out when you pull on the tab! 

Ghosties hidden!

I did mess up a LOT on this card.  I watch many card-making YouTubers and whenever they mention how long a card like this takes, it seems they usually get it done in around 1 hour.  This is 4+ hours for me and I am STILL not done!  I want a matching background paper (the one I originally bought is orange/white stripe and I don't think it matches) to mount this on, plus the card base of course.

Texture of the black paper

The images are all stamps that I stamped and colored on white cardstock, and the background is yellow construction paper that I tried ink blending on!  I don't have any of the specialty ink-blending brushes, so I used a cosmetic sponge.  It was a bit difficult, but I think the final effect at least is recognizable as a moon in a night sky.

My first time trying ink blending!

Despite the struggles and frustration, I still enjoyed making the card and am pretty happy with how it turned out.  There are mistakes you can see from certain angles, but overall it's still ok!

Thanks for reading and I hope you are doing well!  I hope to be able to make more interactive cards in the future!

Icy Monster Makeup

 

Belated post!  Unfortunately a lot of life things have been happening and I am not able to do many things right now.  Things are being sorted out, and I can only hope for the best!

Several weeks ago I completed the Velkhana story quest, and have currently been stuck at Namielle.  Velkhana is an ice dragon who is surprisingly small!  I defeated it using Insect Glaive!  My favorite weapon.

For the look, I looked at a lot of "ice queen" looks and then tried to incorporate Velkhana's colors instead.  I set my entire face with highlighter, which was really weird for me, but I guess it looks frosty?  I just think my forehead looks HUGE.

I did a blue and purple cut crease with a silver highlight in the center.  I honestly didn't know what to do with the lips much, so I just added a touch of purple in the center for shading.

I couldn't find white lashes so I just colored on my lashes (after mascara) with while liquid eyeliner. I think it turned out ok?  Velkhana has icicles/spikes coming down from the sides of its face, so I created that with crystals rather than color.

Concept Art - Ice Form

Concept Art - Regular Form

To be honest, I didn't like the overall look as much, but I do like how the eyes turned out!  The blue shadow didn't photograph well in the top photo, but I think it still looks nice!

Today is also Double Ten Festival!  So after today I suppose we will see whether there is a spike in cases and whether restrictions will tighten up again~

I am also going on a "staycation" in a couple weeks (if restrictions don't tighten) so hopefully I'll have something more interesting to blog about.  Everything being closed really makes life quite boring.

Thank you for sticking around!

Monster Makeup! Ebony Odogaron

Recently I have been progressing in Monster Hunter World Iceborne expansion (yes, I'm probably 2 years late) and have been doing makeup to match the last couple of story quests.
Because it gives me power over the monster.
So far, it is working ^u^

The first one I did was Ebony Odogaron, or as I like to call it, burnt hamburger:

The "lightning" parts for the dragon element were a bit difficult for me to draw.  I referred to a lot of Ebony Odogaron screenshots for the lightning pattern.

The above picture shows Ebony Odogaron, the subspecies, with Odogaron, the base species.  The texture of Odogaron looks like raw hamburger according to DreamBoss__ (friend on Twitch) so I just called it Hamburger since then.  Of course, the Ebony version just looks burnt!

The idea for this one was easy.  I wanted a black and red smoky eye with the lightning/dragon element bits coming out the side. I wasn't able to incorporate the purple shades of the tail into the look this time, but I think it could have been neat either as the eyeliner or as contour!

However, I normally do not wear smoky eye makeup, and oh boy did I learn just how long it takes to blend out all the colors!!!!!!

Products used:

Milani -eyeshadow base

bh cosmetics -Trendy in Tokyo palette (the website has new packaging, but I like the original one I have better!) for the red shade

-Glam Reflections Smoke for the dark red and black shades and red shimmer

Kate Tokyo -gel liner as a base for the black

NYX cosmetics -epic ink liner in black

-epic wear liner in white

-matte lip liner in Alien (black)

-liquid suede lipstick in Alien (black)

-soft matte lip cream in Monte Carlo (red)

essence cosmetics -mascara that I don't really like too much so no link

e.l.f. cosmetics -instant lift brow pencil 

DUO -lash glue as brow gel

I digitally erased some acne spots so I won't list any base products.

Overall it was really fun!  Makeup is a really fun creative outlet for me!  Sometimes it turns out well, like this time, and sometimes... less so, but still enjoy the process!!

Do you ever try experimental looks?  Whether it's makeup, fashion, hair (I'm SO boring with my hair!!), etc. I like to see how others experience "wearable art"!

Cardcaptor Sakura Exhibit Second Edition

Finally Part 2 of the Cardcaptor Sakura Exhibit could open!!!  Find the first opening in two parts here and here for more photos of the interiors from the first visit.  The main part that changed was the art prints, which cannot be photographed.  I did also make a new wig for my teddy bear so I got new photos of her as well!

After the pandemic breakout and lockdown, we were unsure if the exhibit would even re-open.  They were offering refunds for tickets, but it would require you to turn in the ticket holder and Thank You card if you had it.  That did not seem worth it to Doro or me, so we chose to hold onto our gifts and just hope the exhibit would open again!!  Luckily, it did, so I booked a time slot quickly!  There were very few people there and masks are required as usual.