*singing* I Want To Break Free

I grew up with that Queen song. I used to sing it as a kid before I even knew what the lyrics meant (much like "Like a Virgin" by Madonna..... I couldn't understand why my mother would hush me every time I belted out the chorus). Now I seem to have that song stuck in my head, because I really do want to break free! Not from a relationship, like the song, mind you- I want to break free from this little rough patch I'm in.

Okay, I said I wouldn't write about personal life stuff. I won't get into all the details, but I think I should mention some things so you guys know where I've disappeared to. Perhaps you can drop a word of advice my way.

I've mentioned that I've been having health issues. Yup, still got the health issues, but I'm working on it with my doctors. How's that gym regime going? I've joined a really good new gym and am working with a personal trainer to get me into shape. Hopefully I'll put some flesh on my bones and gain some weight, build up my bone density and tone up the muscle I already have.

I'm planning for my engagement party and wedding. The engagement party is flying at me at breakneck speed, and I'm scrambling to get everything organised in time. The catering, decorations, music, etc is all being put together by little ol' me. It's a huge task, as I haven't done any of those things before.

One....... no, make that two..... disasters hit over the last two weeks. I found the venue where we were going to have our wedding ceremony and reception. The price was excellent (A mere $5000 for an all-inclusive ceremony and reception... nothing left to pay but the dress, flowers and transportation) and they were very flexible to ensure we got exactly what we wanted for the money. We paid the $750 deposit. The events coordinator sent out the confirmation letter for us to sign to lock in all the small details.

The morning I received the confirmation letter, I put it aside to deal with later (as it turned out, I wouldn't even think of that letter for another 2 and a half weeks). My mother had left word that my grandmother.... my Nonna.... was in hospital. 'That's okay', I thought, 'She's been in hospital before'. I figured it was to outfit her hip with some new gear (we joked that Nonna was the true bionic woman- she was full of metal joints and plates), as her hip had been getting particularly bad recently.

That evening, I was standing by my Nonna in her hospital bed, and watched her die. I learnt two new words that evening- aorta, and aneurysm.

I don't think I need to go through what things have been like since then. I'm sure that anyone who has lost a loved one will know all too well.

Yesterday I received a phone call from the events coordinator to my wedding venue.
"I suppose you've called to chase me up for that confirmation letter," I said. I was going to tell her what I'd just gone through, that it wasn't tardiness (this time) that was holding me up.
"Actually..... no..... it's not about the letter," She replied. The venue had been shut down, she told me. There would be no wedding for me there. Oh, but my deposit would be refunded in full, of course.

So now I'm practically at square one. I spent months finding a venue that was cheap enough, convenient enough and good enough. Now I have to find a new one pronto. At the same time, I'm organising my engagement party and the rest of the wedding details (I've found my dress, at least). Not to mention all the house (and mortgage) hunting I'm doing so that me and my fiance have somewhere to live once we're married.

If you guys are waiting for anything art related out of me (which I presume you are), please bear with me! Follow/subscribe to this blog so that you can actually be notified when my butt is pulled into gear.

God knows, God knows I want to break free............

~Belinda

Photobucket Responds + Updates

Wow, I can't believe so much time has passed since my last blog entry. I keep telling myself I will leave the bulk of my 'personal life stuff' out of my blog, but not much arty stuff has happened over the last 2 months. Thus the lag in blog entries. ;)

Anyways, do you all remember the blog post I made back in August on my Photobucket petition? The Acceptance of Nudity on Photobucket petition had a better response than I thought it would receive. However, I knew that the some 145 signatures would not likely be enough to pose a very convincing case to the gargantuan Photobucket.

I finally got to check my emails again this afternoon (persistent, very severe storms in my city lead me to keep my computer unplugged for a week as I don't have a surge protector board), and found a response from Photobucket regarding the petition. The email was rather succinct, and quite disappointing:


"Photobucket’s Terms of Service prohibit nudity and we currently have no
plans to alter our policies in this regard.

Sincerely,

Your Photobucket Support Team"


Well, we lost the mini-fight, I guess. All of us wanting to have our technical skill in portraying human anatomy critiqued will have to turn to private hosting.

In other news, the renowned Ballistic Publishing is having its next call for entries. Click the image to get more info.

I would definitely like to attempt to have another painting published by this awesome company. Their printing is very high quality. The problem is, with all my focus being on sculpture for the last 2 years, I haven't painted anything new. So, I began a new painting, and in an afternoon's worth of blitzed activity, I've made a lot of progress on it. I haven't been able to work more on it since then due to the activity I mentioned in my previous post, but I will definitely try to find time to get the painting complete for entry. I will show some progress images when I get back to working on it.

Wish me luck! I'll need it! O_O

And ya, I've almost finished editing Part #2 of my Sculpting a Miniature Fae video , for those who are wanting to know what the hell is going down in that department. ^_^ So sorry about the huge delay. I'll try not to be so tardy the next time I do a two-parter.

~Belinda

Inactivity Update

Hey guys and gals, this is just a quick note to my readers regarding my relative inactivity. To those people who are waiting for Part #2 to my latest YouTube video, please hang in there! ^_^ The footage is on my computer and waiting to be edited. I just need to find time.

What's that phrase? That one needs to "buy out" time? To get time, one must pay a price, or sacrifice something.

Anyhoo, October is shaping up to be a busy month for me. In a past blog I mentioned that I was having some health issues. October is the time for me to take some big steps in fixing those issues, as well as just try to lean towards a healthier lifestyle in general. I'll be starting up gym- I really need to gain some weight, and will be working at building up some muscle. I'm also looking at cutting some of the junky food from my diet (I used to have a good diet in general until I started working at my current workplace, where saturated fats are on tap).

What does this mean for my art? I still don't know how free I'll be to make a huge amount of progress on my latest works. But I do know that if I get healthier, that will play a big part in helping me to create my art with more enthusiasm, more passion.

I did come up with an idea for a future sculpture, and drew up a sketch. I won't show it just yet, as I'm worried that if I get myself too excited about it, it'll take my heart out of finishing my other works. :P So for now I'll just tell you that in an attempt at finding an identity for "CityRose", I've returned to my roots. ;)

I'll update my blog soon!

~Belinda

Fae Catcher: New Art Doll Part #3

Alrighty, now for the next Fae Catcher update.....

I removed the clay and reshaped his ears- I have yet to add detail, but I think the shape is more what people were looking for. I also made small modifications on his face (he's not 'smiling' so much now), but will still push it further to get some good expression into him. Most of my focus was on his body (ie. the legs).

I did make very small adjustments to his armature to make his feet slightly smaller than what I had originally (they were extended out to his knees before, and it looked a bit silly after I put the clay on). I've yet to sculpt the shape of his feet- at the moment it's just clay pressed onto the armature.

I've had a hard time finding reference for his legs, because they're a cross between man and animal legs and feet. I need to do some more hunting to try and find a realistic way to merge the man with the animal. Hopefully the end result looks 'believable'.

Here are the pics!

see it bigger: http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/CityRose_2006/FaeCatcherWIP08.jpg

see it bigger: http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/CityRose_2006/FaeCatcherWIP09.jpg

see it bigger: http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/CityRose_2006/FaeCatcherWIP10.jpg

More updates soon!

~Belinda

Fae Catcher: New Art Doll Part #2

Ah, I just realised how far I'm falling behind with my Fae Catcher blog posts! I've had a few sculpting sessions with him now, and received critiques on the results. Here's the updates:

I tinkered with his face some more, but nothing significant. After a forum member donated some old man reference images to me, and after finding some of my own via Google, I set to work on his body. It still needs a lot of definition, but I'll get there (slowly). I also wrapped up his feet with my uber-sticky masking tape to complete his foot armatures. They're kinda like kangaroo feet. ^_^

I will sculpt my way down his legs to his feet. I've realised that I have no idea how an old man's legs are shaped! I keep giving him womanly legs, and that just won't do! Google Images, here I come......

The pictures also show the alterations to his ears that I mentioned in my previous post. Here are they are!

see it bigger: http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/CityRose_2006/FaeCatcherWIP05.jpg

see it bigger: http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/CityRose_2006/FaeCatcherWIP06.jpg

see it bigger: http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/CityRose_2006/FaeCatcherWIP07.jpg

I will change his face expression to look a little more evil, for a couple of reasons. I do like his ears smaller than they were before, but I think this change coupled with the face expression change has made him look a bit too much like Roald Dahl's BFG (Big, Friendly Giant)

The other reason for changing his face a little is that an artist from another forum pointed out that he has created a doll that looks virtually the same as mine. His had the long pointed ears and the 'squint-eye' face expression. I was totally shocked at the likeness of my work to his, as I've never actually seen his doll before (yet his doll was created first). For someone who always advocates originality, this is a big blow. The first thing I will be doing next time I work on him will be to change his face a bit! I'll also see if I can get more of that evilness back into him!

I may also slightly change the shape of his ears to make them slightly more evil looking again- mainly because someone mentioned to me that he looks like a "Ferengi" from Star Trek....

Well, after all that, I'm glad I seem to be on the right track with his body!

~Belinda

YouTube: Sculpting A Miniature Fae Part #1

Hey all, I have a new YouTube video up (and I haven't got a cold this time!). I sculpted the miniature fae that is to be trapped inside the cage of my malevolent Fae Catcher. It's the first time I've ever sculpted a miniature..... anything..... so I thought this would be a good thing to record. ^_^

I've yet to decide whether to go through the process again and try and improve on this little fae. I'll see how I feel about her a little later down the track. ;)

Here's Part #1 to Sculpting a Miniature Fae.

In this video, you will see me create a tiny armature using an armature map I've drawn, as well as learn of the clay mix I'll be using and how I condition and mix the clay.




I hope that this clip has proved helpful to someone! Keep an eye out for part 2- all the footage is shot, I just have to edit it now!


~Belinda

Fae Catcher: New Art Doll Part #1

My Sentry Woman is on hold at the moment as I'm looking to find a decent supplier for Paverpol (to use on her clothing). So, in the meantime, I've started my next sculpt!

I'm a little bit behind with my blog post on this guy (I started him a week ago), but never mind. ^_^ Meet the Fae Catcher! Here's the general gist of the story that popped into my mind before I started working on him:

"The Fae Catcher is a nasty sort of fellow. He lives in the middle of the forest and never speaks with anyone- not even other goblins. He does seem to have an unusual fascination with the forest fae however, and is often seen briskly scuttling back to his shack in the middle of the forest with his filled fae cage tucked under one arm.

What the Fae Catcher does with the faes, no one is certain. Some say he eats them, others say he's a hobbyist in fae taxidermy, still others say that he simply wants company, and keeps the faes in cages around his home.

The Fae Catcher uses the Griever Flowers to catch fae. These flowers can be repeatedly uprooted and replanted as many times as one wishes- they're very hardy. The Fae Catcher plants these flowers in the flight paths of faes, and waits in the shadows. Faes are drawn to the flower's beautiful large petals, and land upon the flower to seek out its sweet nectar. The flowers are very sticky though, and an unsuspecting Fae is easily caught. The Fae Catcher simply plucks the Fae from the flower, pops it into his fae cage and returns home."

I drew up a very quick sketch to show you the image that came into my mind. It's the Fae catcher holding his fae cage in front of his face, eyeballing the frazzled Fae inside. He drags his bunch of Griever flowers behind him.

see it bigger: http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/CityRose_2006/FaeCatcherWIP00.jpg

The armature I created is more simplistic than previous armatures I've made. It's probably somewhat weaker, but my clay mix should compensate for that. The armature is actually the same method that Wendy Froud uses for her art dolls. It's twisted aluminium wire, foil and quality uber-tough masking tape that I picked up from the hardware store. Usually I cover my armature with Magic Sculpt, but I wanted the freedom of being able to easily make alterations to the armature as needed, seeing as I won't be working from an armature map.

see it bigger: http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/CityRose_2006/FaeCatcherWIP01.jpg

I sculpted his head first; I'd already gone a fair way into sculpting before I realised I should stop and take pictures (I promised myself I'd try and keep better track of my sculpting steps, but whatever...):

see it bigger: http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/CityRose_2006/FaeCatcherWIP02.jpg

And here he as he stands now; still have to work fine details into his face and his right ear. I'm starting to add more clay to his body, and will have to hunt down some good old man references soon:

see it bigger: http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/CityRose_2006/FaeCatcherWIP03.jpg

see it bigger: http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i84/CityRose_2006/FaeCatcherWIP04.jpg

The polymer clay mix I'm using is Prosculpt (3 different colours) and lots of Fimo Mix Quick. I'm wanting to use up the rest of my Prosculpt that I have on hand as I will be changing over to a Cernit / Kato / Fimo Mix Quick / Puppen mix to give that a shot (it's a test of durability, flexibility and colour). He will be an art doll, so that means any hair and clothing he has will be real, not sculpted. I've also got some manzanita wood bases on the way that I will be dressing up. I will be making a miniature fae for inside his fae cage- the cage will probably have translucent liquid sculpey 'glass' (a technique I've seen used for fairy wings that I'd like to tinker with).

I've spent too long sculpting pretty girls and cute things. It's time to get back to my typical 'ugly dude' goblins! ^_^ I'll keep you guys updated.

UPDATE: I didn't actually have another sculpting session after this post, but I did make an alteration to my Fae Catcher. After showing him around to a number of my family and friends, there was a general comment that this large, pointed ears made him a bit too sinister looking. So, I took out a pair of sharp scissors and cut through the clay, tape and thin wire in his ears to make them smaller, and rounded. The alteration took about 15 seconds. I think he looks a lot better now! He looks more like the character I was trying to portray.

I'll post pictures of this next time I work on him. ^_^

UPDATE: After receiving critiques from the members of one of the OOAK Art Doll communities I frequent, I realised that I hadn't quite nailed the facial expression I was going for. There were numerous people who weren't sure whether one of his eyes being smaller than the other was deliberate or not. Well yup, it was intentional- he's supposed to be pulling a kind of smirk, a squint eye thing, kinda like this:

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d120/ ... Squint.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/saintcatherine/200069268/
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3126/257 ... 76.jpg?v=0

Except, you know what I noticed? In the photos, the smirk on the lip- the corner of their mouths that curl up- is on the same side as the eye that is more closed. That's because the smirk of the mouth pushes the cheek up, which closes the eye slightly. I knew this basic point already, but for some reason, I botched it on my doll. On my sculpture, the smirk is on the wrong side- it's on the right side, where his eye is more open.I either need to push the expression a bit more and fix up this little mistake, or open his eye up so they're the same size. I'll try and fix it so you guys aren't trying to guess whether it's a mistake or deliberate- it should be an obvious, deliberate face expression!


I'll keep you guys posted on his progress! Oh, and for the handful of people who were interested in buying something from me, I do intend to sell this guy if I achieve good quality in his craftsmanship. I'll let you know!

Cheers,

~Belinda