Unusual Girl Studios

I'm naked and I have man hands. Not really sure how to follow that statement- except with the evidence! This lady is my haunted war bride in progress.  Its for the ADQ Bride challenge and I have until Dec 15???? I think??? to finish her.  Which considering all I have going on would seem impossible.  I'm starting a new job and I am very excited about it.  I'm preparing for the NCIDQ exam and am very apprehensive about it.  (That's certification for interior designers and its a humdinger of a two day exam that a lot of people don't pass on their first go round.) But, I don't want to talk about those things right now.  I am just popping in to show you my naked lady. See, I have to sculpt the body even though it will be covered by a gown to get the gesture correct.  By gesture, I mean the over all positioning of the figure.  What I didn't count on was how therapeutic this work would be.  There's so many things going on that I can't contr...

I'm a little side-tracked right now, folks!  I've got some things going on and they are all good!  Can't wait to share but I need just a little more time to nail the details down.  BE RIGHT BACK!

Well, I don't know what you guys were all worried about! She turned out just fine.  I gave the Matriarch an underskirt and now you can see the Maiden.  There.  Simple, easy, done.    Ok, so really it was me that was in the proverbial quandry, I admit.  Sometimes it gets near to the end of the project and you think you should have been done already but you know things aren't quite right.  And, if you are a busy person this can be a bit frustrating.  After all- I'm on to my new challenge.  Haunted Bride!  Do you know if you research these words on the internet there's really not much out there?  I thought the internet had it all but I was dissaopointed.  I took a bazillion pictures because I'm insane that way.  Plus I wanted to try back lighting behind the fabric which the above shot shows quite clearly.  Not sneaking that one past anyone. and I should have brightened up the picture of the back for you ...

Remember how I said I was painting the girl's room a shade of turquoise that was so pretty I wanted to lick it? Well, this is it.  I don't know if it shows as well in the picture- perhaps you have to be right on top of it to fully enjoy its depth and luminosity.  Maybe you do have to lick it.  Just sayin'. Accessories are the finishing touch so I had to get rid of their old jewelry boxes and came up with something new.  By 'came up with' I mean 'wasted a whole Sunday on them'. Thought I'd share with you- but be kind- I am not the queen of decoupage. A couple of heart shaped paper mache' boxes and some glass drawer pulls and my stash of images and I was set to go.  For Brooke's box I had altered photo's of the queen herself.   For Kayla's I used her drawings- the super cute blue line drawings of fashionable ladies. This way they each had a reflection of the individual girl's personalit...

Yes, I do believe that.  And to help you along I am going to give you instructions.  First off- you must have photshop and be able to open it.  You must already be able to open a file in photoshop.  Laugh if you want, but I had to take a class to even do that.   Start with an image that speaks to you.  I thought this one would give some interesting contrast because of the light on the face.  Open it as a new file. Then start messing around with those filter options.  I like to pull down the filter gallery.  In my humble opinion filters are the very best part of this program- SOOO FUN!  Now, I'd like to tell you how I made the image look like this.....but I don't remember.  Actually it went something like this....hmmm, yeah...this is ok...but let's try another option....Oh...COOOOL!  Uh, crap!  How'd that happen?  (Yeah, its that kind of tutorial- did you expect anything else from me???) ...

My girl doesn't like it when I take pictures of her when she's sleeping.  "Don't Sleep." Says woman who gave birth to her.  This time, two years later, its morning time that I caught the light on her face.  This is rare- me up before her...I'm a night owl and she, like her father is up with the birds.  Today it must be the dream of butterflies keeping her in this slumber. Ok, so really I'm trying to learn photoshop.  Before you are too impressed this took me two hours and I haven't showered yet.  On the to do list- everything!  I just got the newest edition of ADQ- Art Doll Quarterly and the challenge is BRIDES.  Why so excited?  Because the idea of doing a haunted or forgotten bride has been hanging around the edges of my creative mind for months!  So haunted- forgotten- perhaps war time bride it is!!!!! Then there's those paintings in process...can't sell them if they never leave the basement.... But first....have to rem...

Remember this?  I sold it.  And then commissioned one.  Yes, a man was so saddened when he had learned that he missed his chance to buy this that his darling (and she was a sweetheart) wife contracted me to create another one. You know what's hard?  Commissioned art.  At least with a personality like mine.  Will they like it as much as the one they saw?  Its not the same.  Not exactly the same.  Will she like it as much as he did? OMG, what if she hates it?  What if it doesn't go with their furniture and then she hates him for it?  And every time she looks at it all she can think is 'God, how I hate that!'  What IF??????  Really, I like it when people just buy the one in front of them.  Sure, it sounds fancy to say "I've been commissioned...." But is it worth the stress? Well, farts and feathers, folks- I sweated this one.  I even drove over to the new home of the first painting and held them side by side....