Neon’s A Doll A Day… Again (2020)

[neon_jellyfish]

They look like such a gentle couple here.

Thank you!!!

...became rather disenchanted with the pretentiousness of it all (I once had to redo a still life three times, and I got so pissed off when I was told to redo it again, I decided to troll the prof a bit and brought the first one again instead of painting a new one. He said 'see? You can do it if you try and put in some effort.' Yeah right).

This... "the pretentiousness"....
The story about the prof really made me laugh.  Good on you!  Did he ever find out?
I quit art class after about a month in the final year of high school.  I'd been taking it for fun, and it was fun, until that year with a different teacher who was really... "uptight", let's say.  She thought she was preparing everyone for a graphic design career.  She made me re-do something because the lettering was about 2mm lower on one side of a big poster than the other.  (Yes, she measured.)  It was taking so much after-school time to get the projects done, already behind, that I wasn't getting time for other homework.  She made art class no-longer-fun.  That is a poor legacy for a teacher.
I've thought of her now & then when I've been doing some photo-framing or design project, where I've eyeballed something and it's come out even, or close enough, to sell, and said to the memory of that teacher wherever she is, "Eat your heart out, Ms. B."  
Any fun thing can become not-fun when you start to have pressure to "produce" I guess.  The lucky ones are the ones that can continue to produce art they like and have fun doing it.
So carry on and have fun with what you do!  

Oh, and, nice portrait of Salome & Orpheus.

He didn't find out
Oh yeah, ladies with rulers. Prof from my main course was like that, too. Crawling around a work until she found 1mm disparity that absolutely needed to be fixed. I got so depressed there, I lost all my ability to create. I didn't have ideas, my hands became numb and it was as if I lost all my drawing skills overnight, I didn't even feel like creating something. I'm slowly trying to get back into it.

Such an elegant couple.

Thank you very much!


Day 34

Another 9-shot doll - Felis. Please pardon the crappy photo, I'm a zombie today (low pressure and strong wind outside - kills me every time).

[werepuppy]

Felis is stunning and still my top Pullip want. All due to your fantastic pictures of her, actually. I hadn't considered her much before that.

[Alliecat]

I am tempted by her too.
Hope you feel less like a zombie soon.

[Lejays17]

So elegant a couple.

The art school discussion is very interesting. It’s like a lot of creative works, having to redo something over and over again to meet an arbitrary standard that keeps moving (like the still-life you presented the first go at again and it was “right” that time) takes away the joy of creating.

The doodles (I assume) are bringing you joy, even if they aren’t always exactly what you wanted to do when starting out (like the one for funereal clothes when you didn’t want to cover up the work on the face with the appropriate veil)

[Lejays17]

Felis stunning - she was one of the first Pullips I really really wanted even though she arrived later in my collection.

Oh, and I forgot to compliment you on the Lacy beauty too! Even if the grey wasn’t a part of the character you have fo her, it works very well with the mint skin

[Elfy]

Felis (ours is called Toni, short for Antoinette) was the first of the Alice in Steampunk World Pullips that we got.

[davidd]

Your dolly portraits this ADAD season have all been stunning. I think your photography has somehow improved over the excellence you exhibited last year. Each daily picture is a gem.

The "doodles" are remarkable - the lettering in the coffin exhibition poster is divine, and the entire funereal fashion illustration is both beautiful and fun. The discussion of art school has been interesting... and occasionally depressing. (And I'm really having second thoughts about participating in the Doodle a Week; I'm definitely out of my depth here!)

I've missed seeing Doll a Day during my absence. I'm delighted to see that you are still forging on, stronger than ever. Congratulations on completing the first month!

[neon_jellyfish]

Felis is stunning and still my top Pullip want. All due to your fantastic pictures of her, actually. I hadn't considered her much before that.

Thank you! She is a stunning doll, and I'm super glad to have her. Glad I could be of enabling service!

I am tempted by her too.
Hope you feel less like a zombie soon.

She's a cat and a redhead, no way she wouldn't be tempting!
Thank you!!!

So elegant a couple.

The art school discussion is very interesting.  It’s like a lot of creative works, having to redo something over and over again to meet an arbitrary standard that keeps moving (like the still-life you presented the first go at again and it was “right” that time) takes away the joy of creating.

The doodles (I assume) are bringing you joy, even if they aren’t always exactly what you wanted to do when starting out (like the one for funereal clothes when you didn’t want to cover up the work on the face with the appropriate veil)

Felis stunning - she was one of the first Pullips I really really wanted even though she arrived later in my collection.

Oh, and I forgot to compliment you on the Lacy beauty too!  Even if the grey wasn’t a part of the character you have fo her, it works very well with the mint skin

In case of that particular still life, it wasn't the standards shifting as much as absence of standards - from the comments he was giving me, it felt like he was just trying to come up with reasons to make me redo it, because that's what you do with freshmen, they need to be shown their place... It was all so vague, and it often contradicted what he told me previously. It really seemed like he isn't even looking at the work, making me redo it just because. That's why I decided to pull a little troll, because I was practically sure he won't remember, and it's more of a 'make them redo it at least four times" thing. I wasn't the only one treated like that.

I do enjoy these little doodles! Although they're taking unholy amounts of time to finish. I'm quite rusty... I don't want to let bad ex!perience from college take the joy of creating away from me, so I'm working on taking it back.

And thank you very much!!!

Felis (ours is called Toni, short for Antoinette) was the first of the Alice in Steampunk World Pullips that we got.

That's a great first (within that particular line) choice!

Your dolly portraits this ADAD season have all been stunning. I think your photography has somehow improved over the excellence you exhibited last year. Each daily picture is a gem.

The "doodles" are remarkable - the lettering in the coffin exhibition poster is divine, and the entire funereal fashion illustration is both beautiful and fun. The discussion of art school has been interesting... and occasionally depressing. (And I'm really having second thoughts about participating in the Doodle a Week; I'm definitely out of my depth here!)

I've missed seeing Doll a Day during my absence. I'm delighted to see that you are still forging on, stronger than ever. Congratulations on completing the first month!

Thank you for your kind words!!!

As for doodles - don't use me as a standard, or anyone else for that matter, it will always make you feel bad, regardless of the actual quality of your work. Your current 'best' is more than good enough! If you don't have fun with it, and don't have any goals you want to achieve with it, then don't bother with it, but if you'd like to do it, then go ahead! There's no minimum skill level required, and I'm probably not that much better than you as you'd like to think, that's the trap of comparing yourself to others. This is for fun!

I decided to do it, because I wanted to make myself use my art supplies on regular basis and to get my hands back in shape, and I wanted to do it in a way that would go with ADAD, because they both take a lot of time, so I decided to make them support each other. ADAD makes me motivated to get to the drawing, because I sort of promised I would do it, and posters give me material for ADAD.

And thanks again!


Day 35

ADAW #5 - Pet Show
So... I gained a lot of interesting ex³perience from this one... Meaning it is quite a failure
This method of shading doesn't work, while the gradients look quite smooth IRL, they're awfully rough on the photo. Ew. The ornament isn't wide enough, its top and bottom and also sides are sompletely hidden by the frame. Need to make these things wider next time! I used silver gel pen for the lettering and the creature's eyes. Looks very nice IRL, but it is harder to photograph than I thought it would be. Whew.



I tried to soften the gradients on this one by lowering the contrast and blurring it just a liiiiitle bit, but it didn't work, it just made the rest of the poster look uglier than before



One more from different angle, to capture the silver parts better (still not good enough):



LOL, this one so doesn't work on photos, but I'm not too bummed, I quite like it and stuff I've learnt will be useful for future posters.

[davidd]

While you may not be entirely happy with how today's poster translates as a photo, from this end it looks really super cool! Another spooky Art Nouveau sideshow poster! Love the claw marks, too!

Honey looks lovely, as always, and she seems happy to pose next to the intriguing poster that complements her personal color scheme so nicely.

[werepuppy]

Seriously, you may not be entirely happy but it does look amazing. The claw marks add a sense of delightful danger to it - what pet caused those, I wonder?

Judging by how bemused Honey seems about it all, perhaps it was her pet that caused the claw marks?

[Alliecat]

I think we're often harder on our own work than others will be (unless they're art professors or critics, haha).  (So let's say "harder on our own work than our friends will be"!)
Adding claw marks was the perfect touch.  
Are we going to see some of your crew's pets??  This makes me wonder what kind of ...well, odd... pets, the Oddwickshire gang might have. Honey doesn't look too worried about meeting them though.

[Elfy]

Another great doodle with an appropriate model and the claw slashes are a really nice touch.

[Lejays17]

The claw slashes really make the picture, I do wonder who’s pet was objecting to being in the show.

I agree with Alliecat about ourselves being our own harshest critic. Ask Elfy about the discussions we have had about the relative merits of my writing - I think that the stuff I do is rubbish, so am always surprised by the positive comments from others (who aren’t Elfy )

[neon_jellyfish]

Many thanks, everyone! I like the poster itself, I just don't like how it photographs, because the photos look much worse compared to the original. I have no idea who made those claw marks °_°

My crew actually doesn't have many pets, I have some MH ones, but I don't really like them, and as for other animal figures, I have some ponies and some plushies, but those usually aren't good size for the dolls. Oddwickshire is full of most peculiar animals, but I would have to sculpt them myself, and I'm no good at sculpting. My 'artistic' skills are limited to 2D


Day 36

Bonus doodle! Today is Western Monarch Day, so I tried painting one. I didn't get it quite right, so it probably wouldn't pass as a western monarch, but it still a pretty butterfly (as they usually are), so I'm happy.

[davidd]

Looks like a Monarch to me - and so does the butterfly! (ha!) Clever to pose the Ruler of the MH Kingdom with an appropriately-named Monarch butterfly.

Are there Monarch butterflies in Europe? (Quick online search: yes, populations are established in Spain and Portugal, with occasional examples seen in France and the UK).

This is a good reminder to me to look in to acquiring more milkweed seeds and trying yet again to start a butterfly garden. (I'm saying this as the temperature last night plunged to almost -10F/-23C)