Sticker Contest: I won!

OMG, I was one of the winners in the sticker contest over at the Valley of the Dolls forum! :O My photos are going to be made into stickers with the Valley of the Dolls shop name on them, and used on their packaging (like this one)! I'm so flattered and honoured! I actually didn't realize there was a prize -- I thought being chosen to represent VOTD's shop was prize enough, but I found out I got to choose one Pullip, so I chose Another Queen. ^_^ (She's a limited edition, designed by Pullip's creator herself, Mango Park.) My Another Alice is quite happy to have another Wonderlander join the group! ♥

My entries for the contest are below. Contestants could enter as many times as they wanted -- there were over 400 entries this year! If you can log-into the VOTD's forum, take a look at the other fantastic entries that won too. ^_^


If you're interested in purchasing a Pullip Doll, Valley of the Dolls is an excellent shop (I'm not just saying that either -- I buy all my Pullips there ^_^), and they even have a shop here in Los Angeles (which I keep meaning to make a trip to)!

Drawings: Superhero Chicks!

This week I drew two of my favourite girl superheros for fun. My plan is to take the time to draw more (like Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, etc...) I tried a new colouring technique this time. Instead of doing the flat layer of colour thing, I decided to colour them in properly. It took me much more time, but I think they look pretty good this way, especially Wonder Woman, since she's so colourful and vibrant. I tried to make my line really clean this time around, because I wasn't too happy with my messy lines in my previous drawings. (I was once a clean-up artist, so I really should try to keep my skill up.) Now that I look at them, I think they look like animation cels with that white background! Anyways, without further ado, here's:

Wonder Woman...


...and Catwoman!

Drawings: Alice and the Geisha

Sketchclub didn't have a theme this week (not that I'm good at keeping up with it anyways...), but I decided to draw my own stuff this week anyways. I always start off with a Col-Erase pencil (in this case I used the colour pink), and when I have sketched everything out, I clean-up my sketch with a blue ball-point pen. Then I did the usual thing of adding a layer of colour over top of my drawing in Photoshop. This is what I came up with:

Alice's Shock


In this scene, Alice has just fallen down the rabbit hole in pursuit of the white rabbit. She tries to go through a small door to chase after him, but she's too big. Alice drinks a shrinking potion (to get through the door), but when she's shrunk, she realizes that she's forgotten the key on the table, so she finds a piece of cake (in my case a chocolate chip cookie), takes a bite and gets bigger again. She grows way too big to get through the door and begins to cry. Her teardrops create The Pool of Tears, which whisks her through the door and off to Wonderland. (For the Alice fans, you might notice that this drawing is in homage to John Tenniel's version. ^_~) When I added the layer of blue to the drawing, I decided to add a bit of white to Alice's eyes and pink to her cheeks to really enhance her look of shock.

Sad Geisha


Okay, I have to admit it: I *love* Geisha's. I love them for their aesthetic value, and I love their dedication to their artistic lifestyle. One of my Flickr contacts (mboogiedown) is always posting absolutely gorgeous photos of authentic Geisha's (Geiko's) and Maiko's, and it's such a delight to peer into this secret world. It's really hard *not* to appreciate the beauty of these women. Geisha's wear a kimono (which can consist of over 10 layers of fabric), all held together with an obi (the large "belt" that is tied around their waist). They also wear geta (wooden sandals) which can be almost a foot high off the ground, so their body movement becomes quite limited and restrictive. However, when they do have to move around to dance, they can get quite expressive poses with simple shapes like the tilt of a head or a bent arm (like this photo or this one). I love playing around with these shapes while I'm drawing Geisha's. This drawing is also a commentary on the life of a Geisha. I will never know what it is like to dedicate my entire life to mastering the arts 24/7, but I can just imagine that you'd have to sacrifice a lot. I think there is such a beauty to Geisha's, yet I think there is an incredible sadness about them too. So, my Geisha is feeling sad as she lets beauty fall away.

I guess I have Geisha's on the mind more than usual because of the Hannari: Geisha Modern documentary premieres in the next couple of weeks.

If you would like to read more information about Geisha's, the Immortal Geisha site is great for information (for instance, did you know that the first Geisha were men?) and they have a great forum, too. If you're looking for a great read, pick up Geisha: A Life by Mineko Iwasaki, a true biography written by a real Geisha who lived in Kyoto. Her story is fascinating, and she hopes to squash the common stereotype that all Geisha are prostitutes... a stereotype that is held up as fact in the well-known Memoirs of a Geisha book by Arthur Golden. Even though the life of Sayuri is practically stolen from Golden's interview with Iwasaki, I still think it's a good book, and the movie is gorgeous.

Paintings: Zombuki sisters ♥

I recently completed these two acrylic paintings of Hanami and Ume, the Zombuki Sisters. I kept the Hanami painting for myself (because I own Hanami), and I sent the Ume painting to Brigitte (because she owns Ume. Brigitte is also the mastermind behind the Zombuki customs). A few weeks ago Hanami sauntered off to spend some time at the "Zombuki Spa", getting minor changes to her face-up. When she came back, she was even more gorgeous than I thought she could be! I was so pleased with Hanami's new changes, that I decided to make something as a thank-you for Brigitte. That's when I thought of making two paintings of the sisters. I thought it would be fun to make a set of paintings that match when they are side by side (they mirror each other, and the blue/turquoise gradation (that is hard to tell in pics) matches in the background), but they will forever be apart, just like Hanami & her sister Ume. Awww. ♥

[Hanami is on the left, Ume is on the right.]


[Strange Sisters #5, by pbrigitte]

Here are some close-up shots. It's hard to tell in these pics, but their eyes have a silvery/shiny layer of paint over them.




Here are a few in progress shots:


[First concept sketch]


[First I draw out the preliminary sketch, then I draw directly on the canvas exactly what I'll be painting. ^_^;]


[Next I just fill it in! I start painting their faces, and then their hair, and after Hanami & Ume are all painted in, I decide on the colour of the background.]


[They're almost 1/2 done in this pic. There's my reference pic of Ume, and Hanami thinks this work is very tiring, so she takes a nap. ^_^]


[And after all that painting, they're finally done!]

More pics here!

Etsy Plush Team: Scavenger Hunt Contest

Plush Team is celebrating its one year anniversary by hosting a scavenger hunt contest! The goal is to find "PT Stitchy", the Plush Team mascot hidden in participating Plush Team Etsy shops. There are 16 hidden PT Stitchy's in total. Once you've found them all, email Redmag with each item listing number.

The game starts today, and ends on June 6th. The winner will be announced on June 9th, in Plush Team's blog.

These are the participating shops:

abbydid
absolutelysmall
beetlegirldesign
casienipper
christinaward
followthewhiterabbit
furwillfly
moogancreations
moonscreations
pattihaskins
siansburys
slcstudio
squirrelmomma
weirdbuglady
yummypancake
zzbeadz

This is what PT Stitchy looks like:

And this is the grand prize!

[My Blueberry Deer is a prize, too! ^_^]