Thursday 30 April 2015

Disney Overalls: Megara











Megara's dress was supposedly designed to resemble a fluted column, which is why there are all those vertical lines.

Monday 27 April 2015

Disney Overalls: Eilonwy


I think another reason Eilonwy is less widely-known is because her dress doesn't have a single unifying colour. It's pink, and blue, and white, and red, and another shade of pink, and the blue looks dark green or black in some lights. The more complicated an image is, the harder it is to remember. That's why designing an iconic logo is such a big deal.

Thursday 23 April 2015

Disney Overalls: Jasmine







































I suppose, since Aladdin is the one the movie is named after, and the one it focuses one, and the one who sings a solo, that I should do some overalls based on his pants and vest one day ... but that day is not today, and probably would not be anytime soon.

Monday 20 April 2015

Disney Overalls: Aurora


This was actually the first design I doodled for changing the princess gowns into overalls. I just didn't tutorialize it first because (A) it's probably the most complicated, (B) it's not my favourite dress, and (C) Cinderella had just been reinterpreted in live-action.

I did see the live-action Sleeping Beauty reinterpretation, 'Maleficent'. It was okay, but not great. Certain parts were very well done - but there were a lot of scenes that were just characters frozen in place, posing for the inevitable poster, or just close up shots of faces. I was disappointed that the queen didn't get to have a larger role - in fact, I think she had fewer lines in the remake than in the original - but I liked the depth given to the raven Diablo, and I was glad he didn't get turned into a statue. The scene with the dragon was very well done. I was disappointed they dropped the cover name of Briar Rose, mostly because there didn't seem to be any narrative reason for that change. I did not approve of Maleficent's skintight leather pants in the battle sequence, since the materials available at the time and the fact she arrived on horseback would have made loose canvas pants more believable, but the wing-return was impressive. Also, a lot of things were left open-ended when the movie cut to the credits, making the ending a little dissatisfying. The biggest disappointment was the lack of singing.

So, yeah. I mostly enjoyed it for the special effects. I would watch it again if I saw that it was on TV and nothing I liked better was on in the same timeslot, but I'm not going to purchase a copy.

Another blogger, 'Beaded Fae', did an excellent costume based more literally on the blue-and-pink 'paint-splattered' dress. Just type "Disney Sleeping Beauty costume paint-splattered gown" in a search engine and it should pop right up.

Thursday 16 April 2015

Disney Overalls: Rapunzel



Pink and purple and gold and white - sure, most of them are accents, but this is one of the most colourful dresses in the whole lineup.

Monday 13 April 2015

If I were a model ...


As a model, I don't look all that different from an anime character. Go figure.
Also, my art style is such that, even as a model, I would still be 'plus sized'. Plus-size fashion models are just noticably under the standard weight for women of their age group and culture, as opposed to extremely far below the standard weight.
I approve, at least in concept, of new laws in France stating that you must have a certain minimum amount of biomass to works as a fashion model. In practice, I suspect it will lead to a lot of under-the-table arrangements and falsified documents.
(Still working on catching up on the tutorials I couldn't work on while my computer was going belly-up. If all goes well, you'll get a proper tutorial to read on Thursday.)

Thursday 9 April 2015

Escher Exhibit Reminder





This is to jog your memories before time runs out entirely to visit the exhibit. I had it scheduled to be posted later in the month, but in light of my lack of scanner-access ... The computer I use is actually working again, slowly, but I'm posting this now anyway to give myself a bit more time to generate new content.


Also, I realized after posting my previous M. C. Escher tribute that I had forgotten his lithograph of the crazy staircases, to the climbers of which gravity and perspective do not consistently apply. (Not that I plan to do a visual tribute to all of his work, just that I wanted to include his most famous pieces in the 'ad'.) In his pictures of buildings, you can really see the effects of his architecture training.

Monday 6 April 2015

Computer Error

If you are seeing this message, I wasn't able to get my usual computer working in time for Monday's post. That's where I have all my image files related to this blog, and it's the one connected to my scanner, so if that computer fails, I have to wait to update until I can get hold of a scanner connected to a different computer.


If I haven't worked something out by Thursday, I guess we'll have April NaNoWriMo. I pre-created and set up a few story prompts with the intent of publishing them in November, but in the interest of continuing to add content to my site, I can post them early to buy some time while sorting out the hardware situation.


It's an older computer. It started being really slow near the end of March, then started abruptly powering down while in use, then somehow stopped being able to respond to the keyboard. My parents are thinking about replacing it.


I don't really want to leave you guys without a tutorial ...


Want to read about the prank I pulled on April Fools' Day?


I live with my parents still, but I pay monthly room and board. It's a lot less expensive than being out on my own. Mom and Dad put the money in a savings account for me to use for university or home-setup once I move out, or technically whatever I want, but I don't get the money back until after I move out. (I'm not the only one of my siblings to get this deal.)


Anyway, I pay with a cheque given to my parents on the first of the month. This month, I put the cheque in an envelope, along with a bunch of newspaper strips. I wrote on the front of the envelope that I had decided to pay room and board in cash this month. On the inner flap of the envelope (the thing you open to insert or remove the contents), I wrote 'April Fools!' I left it on the table so they'd see it first thing when they woke up.


Mom says she fell for it!

Thursday 2 April 2015

Disney Overalls: Kida


You know what's interesting about Atlantis: The Lost Empire? It has probably the greatest number of named female characters in the cast of any Disney animated movie (Helga Sinclair, Wilhelmina Packard, Audrey Ramirez, Kidagakash), and yet none of these women actually talk to one another.

Well, except for this one exchange right before the Leviathan attacks.

Helga Sinclair: It [the sound of the approaching Leviathan] could be our engines echoing off the rocks.
Wilhelmina Packard: [annoyed] You want to do my job?

I don't require a movie to pass the Bechdel test before I'll admit to enjoying it, but it is an interesting thing to observe. Audrey was an engineer, for example. It would not have been implausible for Kida to approach her before Milo (a linguist) for help in activating the ancient hover-vehicles ... unless, of course, Milo hadn't managed to explain what an engineer was in his and Kida's earlier conversation where she was trying to figure out who was who.