Random Ramblings

( Pygmalion and dolls.... )

This weekend, I went to go check on my clay...
I had tried to make it not-hard-as-a-brick before (several months, a year, not sure), but after letting it sit for awhile, the balls I'd made were hard as rock, and the sculpting tools I'd left in the bag with the wet paper towels (to keep the clay moist) were covered in mold. Whoops.
So Friday, I got the mold off of said tools (which may or may not have made me briefly, intensely sick D:) and put a few new paper towels in with the clay, to soften it up.
On Sunday, when I went to go check it out, I was able to smoosh apart one of the balls with my fingers, from outside the bag.
<3
It was nice to know it was going to soften up without so much hard work, and that I could keep it that way. I'll be able to play with clay again!
If only I had the time. XD
But I just thought I'd share the good vibes that that one little squish brought. : ]

Just postin' to let you know I'm alive. XD Just busy.

( Haircut, weekend, brain sabotage, today, getting work done, commission!, doll contest that was oddly appropriate, and starfighter lol. XD )
Mmmhmmmmmmmmmm.

So yeah, that's what I'm up to. :D

Here's the sketch I FINALLY have shat out of this guy... augh. YAY DOLLYCARD...
This was way too much work. XD

Here's stuff from in-the-making, journal wise. Really only of interest if you're into in-progress stuff.
http://pt-33-repeating.livejournal.com/910.html

( Stuff. Sketch, notes. )

Lately=
Working on Alucard doll again
Which means I was-
Looking at dolls for ideas
Re-reading a lot of Hellsing for reference
-over spring break.
Which has led to thinking existentially (or at least, way too deeply) about dolls, and things I object to, and if I really should be objecting to them...
and then realizing I was doing my OCD fucking myself over thing again, just in a new WAY, so I didn't even NOTICE it...
And I've been writing a lot that hasn't been reaching everyone, which drives me nuts. So yeah.

I'm gonna go try to draw the revamped version of the full-sized sketch for said doll, again, tonight. Because I've wanted to ALL GOD FORSAKEN WEEK.

Tomorrow is drawing for Epshteyn... yaaay... Oh well, at least it's constructive.

Also, yesterday I was running on an hour of sleep... ( Rambling about seeing hallucinations on my drawing, 'Fairies wear boots', and dolls, attractiveness, and creepiness... )

FAST INTERNET IS BACK YESSSSSSSS.
( How the rest of my day went. Because I have no life, I'm up, and I'm feeling ranty. >_> )

Some random things floating in my deluded, sleep-deprived thoughtmeats.
( Click for Light Yagami, Pheonix Wright, Opera Music, and snippets of me whining. )

I got stuff.... I have to do.... XD

Here's the list:

( Liiiiiist )



I did figure out what classes I was taking. Since I felt like a total lameass for not knowing what I was taking. D8 Turns out, I only have 4 classes next semester. Which is why I kept thinking "There's just GOTTA be more!!!" Since I took SIX last semester.... Only, I'm taking 12 credits, meaning I have to take 16 next semester to keep my scholarship. D8 D8 DX Yeah.... hmmmmmmmmm....


In the meantime, I was having some weird dreams last night. The only one I can remember was that I got an email (like I was on there mailing list like my mom is...?) from www.shopgoodwill.com, and they had a Volks Super Dollfie on there (or at least, that's what it was supposed to be. Never actually saw one that looked like him...). D8 Liek OMG. What the hell??? And he was FREAKIN' ADORABLE too. Of course, the little sketch I did turned out cuter, since he had those unfortunate alien-looking eyes that end up on Volks dolls a lot... :/ But he came with a floofy pale blonde wig and dark gray-green eyes, b0x0rz, apparently some clothes they didn't put in the picture, and... cheetah ears. XD Like OMFG adorable Lion-king-style floppy ears. XD
But the opening bid was like $600. D8 WTFFFFF???
I kept not believing it. XD
I was like "Hey, I could do some sweet stop-motion stuff..." *instantly video plays in head* "Awesooomme..."

And of course, since he was a catboy, I was ALREADY planning a Schrodinger costume for him.
...I think I have a mild Schrodinger obsession. XD But he's just so adorabllllllleee *is shot*

And our turkey in the fridge smells like walnuts. :/ I'm not eatin' any of that..


Annnnd Erinnnn??? You don't like dolls, but do you mind action figures/figurines? :9 I just has me a great idear. XD

pt_33_repeating is my new doll blog. I'll post to here, though, with links to the posts on there, since I won't be updating it as much as this one, lol! XD

But yeah.. It'll have in-progress stuff there. :P Because I'm OCD like that and need to have the separation! XD It'd seriously kill me to have it all mixed in here with my random stuff. I'd like to look back on it in the future, and just be able to read about my doll projects, and nothing else. XD

So here! http://pt-33-repeating.livejournal.com/519.html#cutid1 :3


Happy Fourth of July!


AND NEW HELLSING CHAPTAAAR. XD Everyone was bitching about how short it was (10 pages) but really, it covered a lot of ground in those 10 pages. Or at least it felt like it. So I'm not really upset at all. 8D

And the OVA's are getting picked up by Funimation for distribution!!! 8D Not sure if it'll adversely affect it, but hey, I get to buy the DVD's. I'm happy. :3
~Special editioooon~ <3

Hey, Erin, are the special editions of 1-3 still on sale? I was looking at yours last time I was over and pretty much was fawning over them. Aluminum cases~ <3

WAHAHA, you know what I just realized? If I buy this new OVA as my first Hellsing DVD, and book 5 as the first Hellsing manga, my collection would consist solely of the volumes containing... Rip Van Winkle. XD Lolz, I gotta do something about that. XD


AND WHAT'S GOING ON SUNDAY??? PLEASE LET ME KNOW. DX

...

akgjijo ghdgklgn fklgnafgd.

Mom found a bunch of old Doll Reader magazines in her room, and I was looking through them hoping to find this one doll artist in there. No luck. I'm sure I'd seen her before, but I can't find her now. ARGH!

She was a Russian lady who made very stylized, gorgeous dolls. Their faces were pale, noses long, nice costumes...

I can't remember her name, and can't find the magazine she was in. I'm wondering if I made her up, or if she's somehow disappeared. Wouldn't that be scary, if you could just disappear? Like you never existed?

I wanted to find it, since it was those dolls I had in mind when I was thinking of making an Alucard doll. Those lovely faces... I wanted to make something like that.

By the way, he has a new name. Instead of referring to him as "the Alucard doll," he is now - Dollycard. X3 Uwaah~


I found an article on Alexandra Koukinova in one of the magazines - this is the article - http://collectdolls.about.com/library/prm/blskoukinova.htm - but sans the gorgeous pictures. Her site http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.alexandra.ru/english/home.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=2&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dalexandra%2Bkoukinova%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3D6vE
is interesting... somehow, the quality of the dolls that I struck a chord with most isn't on that site... maybe her work has changed. *shrug* But I don't think this is her. I like her, though.

Someone on the internets made mention of Natalia Lopusova-Tomskaya - I actually found it when I just searched "doll artists" in Google Images. I found this:
( Click for cuteness. :3 )
http://www.ravendance.com/wordpress/?p=34 here.

I think it's her.

I remember the name.

As soon as I saw the doll, I liked her, thought this might be at least in the same STYLE.
But unfortunately, I can't find SQUAT on her. ANYWHERE.

I know I read about her in a magazine fairly recently - at least in the last year - but I can't FIND THE MAGAZINE ARGH.

Driving me nuts.




I don't know what it is about Russians- and other E. European folks - that makes me identify so strongly... Also, Holocaust stories really get to me, as do tales of immigrants coming to America. Either I was an Eastern European, possibly Jewish, in a past lifetime, or it's blood that's in me now. XD My great grandparents immigrated to the US in the early part of the 1900's from Czechoslovakia- Prague, in fact. I find it extremely amusing that Franz Kafka, whose works I like a LOT, was in Prague at the same time as my great grandparents.

They were purportedly Catholics, who said "screw you" to the church when, once in America, they wouldn't recognize their marriage, which had been done in a courthouse and not a church. But, I kind of wonder. There were rampant huge noses in my grandpa's side of the family. XD My mom was so glad she lucked out of it. >>
But my mom says her sister has Kafka's nose. XD Lol. He's Jewish.

I just find it amusing, since I'd be fine with it either way. My religion is... not anything conventional at all. I guess part of me also is kind of reaching for some sense of history and heritage in my family. I guess I need to do more research...

Back to the Russians, though. I read a LOOOOT of Russian literature Senior year of High School, and ate it up. Made me depressed as shit, but it was SOOO good. Crime and Punishment started it, and I finally got to finish of Notes from the Underground. Dostoevsky is my favorite. I can't even list all the others. I've read some of Kafka's short stories too - Metamorphosis being the first...

I guess, they're all extremely intelligent writers, and I admire that. I like books that make you think. And these... man, they're rollercoasters. They'll BREAK your brain... They're beautiful.

And then there's Russian dolls I like. I don't know, maybe it's the snow, and the sense of the 1800's. I like the 1800's with a passion. SOMETHING about it I can't place.

Damn, I need to read that Rasputin book...

I'm always so proud of whenever a Czech person is even mentioned, since I'm 1/4. It's my most cohesive chunk of nationality...

And it's also probably why I dig vampires, and Dracula, and all that - it's where a lot of the tales started, that entire Eastern region. Vlad Tepes wasn't all that far away from my ancestors. I wonder how far back I could track it... I wonder who it was that came before me...

It's freakin weird.

I'm fascinated by old things... I'm considering a lot of things in making Dollycard, here. Part of me wants to make him with all old-like materials, because of his age, and another part wants me to make the arms, etc, in Sculpey, which would be more "Invincible" - stronger, and age resistant. I ALWAYS think of how my art will look 50 years or more down the road, since I've seen so many bad things happen to old things. I always want it to last forever...

How odd.



P.S. - Dollycard's probably going to get his own LJ.
...
Dollycard isn't the most masculine name in the book, is it. XD