5 posts tagged “duct tape”

I do all my drawings on plain paper first (sometimes lined notebook paper for rough sketches, usually normal white printer paper for nice sketches), in pencil. Sometimes I ink them with pens (especially if I want to color it in). Then I color if I'm going to do that. The khaki-colored lolita skirts to the left were sketched, inked, and colored, but I never bothered to clean them up more. (I actually never even finished the one I got started... ;_; )

Afterwards I scan it into my computer and use Paint.NET's line tool to trace over all the lines. I usually use a width of 2 or 3 pixels for outside lines and get finer widths as the details get smaller. Since I can't really go smaller than one pixel wide I usually try to figure out how many levels of detail I want and then use that number for the first width line.

The Secret Garden lolita dress has a looot of detail, so its outside lines started quite wide. I also varied colors for borders on some of the areas (notably the skin and hair) to further differentiate.

The important thing is to use a layer above the sketch to trace (I like to trace different levels of details on different layers so then I can adjust and change my design more easily) so then when it comes time to color you can just turn off the sketch and add another layer under your lines for your color. Again, I like to have multiple layers so that I can adjust single colors as needed. It especially helps if some colors specifically go over others-- like in my

duct tape dress, the silver-gray goes under all the other colors. I happen to be extremely lazy, so I don't bother to shade. I pick a color, add it to my palette, and switch to the right layer. I use a biiig paintbrush to fill in the right areas and use an eraser to trim down anything that spills over the edges. I make a new layer for the next color and continue.

It's kind of long and a little bit complicated, but it's really not too bad. Once it's all colored I save it as a .pdn file to preserve the layers, then a .png to show it off to the internet! :)

The best part is that once it's done I can  modify it thanks to the multiple layers if I change my mind or decide it needs something else added. You can see the changes made to my Pirate Hello Kitty design as it got improved through suggestions by forumgoers on Cosplay.com.

It was really fun to wear duct tape to prom. Tons of people were really impressed. The biggest comment I got was "wow, you actually did it!" (Like I wouldn't carry duct tape around for two months and work on it in class WITHOUT wearing it?) It wasn't terribly hard to wear, but sitting made it wrinkly. :( The bow turned out fantastic. I didn't overheat at all thanks to the cloth lining and hoopskirt. :D

All in all, pretty cool. My hair and makeup turned out fantastic. My makeup was done by myself, but the hair was professionally done. Woohoo!

My only regret is not getting better pictures of my date's hat and tie. The tie later had colored stripes added to it so it would match more (it was originally made for something totally different). I also forgot to put on my duct tape necklace, but that wasn't too big of an issue.

SO HI GUYS. If anyone's still out there.

I have a list of things to blog about. The duct tape dress project is one of those.

I uh. Iv'e been meaning to but instead I've been reading Quesitonable Content.

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=794 <--- this is where I was when I realized it was 3:45 am and I had done nothing useful for the past four hours! Hooray!

THINGS I AM WORKING ON:

Knitting
Doll clothes
Visiting my family/soon-to-be roommate
Being nicer to people in general and not talking so much
Getting all my scholarship papers in order

I want a new Talkbits but I dunno when I will be doing that. I kinda don't know exactly where my video camera charger is.

Also my camera broke but I got a new one before I went to this little first-year con called AniMix. It was pretty awesome for a first-year con! Maybe I will show some pictures. yeah right i suck at updating.

Things I wish Vox had:

Image support without me having to upload and fiddle with settings. For most of the time I like the way Vox's picture settings work. Then the other half I'm just like "ARGH CAN'T I PASTE A .JPG LINK FROM PHOTOBUCKET ALREADY".

Drafting support. 'cause it kinda sucks to have to switch to "viewable by no one at all ever" if I want to stop midway through a post and go do other things with my internet.

PREVIEW SUPPORT. It is so freaking hard to actually try to figure out how pictures will actually lay out -- especially when I'm trying to add copy to particular pictures all in a column. I have to try to work out how to make the text line up with the photos through a tedious process of saving and editing. Argh argh argh. See the Pullip Profile one for an example.

OFFLINE POST EDITOR oh man I would love that so much. I like to organize my thoughts so you don't end up with posts like this one. Plus then I can write up a lot at one writey time and post them all over a long period of time! ^_^ Yay!

OTHER CRAP woohoo

I won Flower Childe. IKNOWRIGHT. So crazy. She is gorgeous (her eyes are so pretty and vibrant) and I'm really loving the way she looks. Her new/final name is Lola and I am not sure if she is really CArbine's stepmom or not but she is totally a fan of the kids. Woo. Also she says Darling a lot!

Also I have a Taeyang now! Horizon. He's so gorgeous in person although he's got a little blue  dot on his nose I have to fix. It doesn't bug me too much though. His name is Louis J. Vinz. The J is a secret.

so hey right I am totally going on a trip next week! I have a laptop now so I'll try to post a little bit (or at least get some crap written up so I can post later).

Other things I am currently fascinated by include makeup and my kitty. She's so soft and fuzzy! aww.

LOOK ME UP ON FLICKR my name is Babelglyph and I don't know if I posted my account or not but there's a pretty cool picture of me there wearing my She Blinded Me With Library Science shirt from QC. See front of post for what QC is. I think it's cool. ^_^

HAVE A FUN GUYS. =D

Yeah, you read that right! Duct tape prom dress. I've been planning this since November and been working on it off and on since January. Now I'm buckling down to really get things done!

Here's the design. Accessories not included... ;D Those are for another day when I'm not so lazy. (They're on a separate picture, you see.) The front view is on the left and the back is on the right. The grey underneath is going to be shinyshiny chrome duct tape with black strips crisscrossed over it!

There is a matching guy's suit but I'm not sure that I'll be able to do this. ^_^; The guy I'm going with is not perfectly reliable and so I'm finishing mine first. Plus, his is less labor-intensive. At least, I think so... :S  It's really hard to tell!

I'm going to reuse my hoopskirt from the Jalissa costume. (Orange and black, shiny, cyberlox.) The jury is still out on hair designs.