The Making of a Star Elf (Finished) Update 07/02/10

Hiya folks! Okay, some of you know me, from my forays into this place to learn and/or try and help out and give an opinion. Well, now it's time to put reading into practice! I finally have a project of my own~! Yay~!

I just received my Bobobie Sprite on the ResinSoul boy body today before work, and when I came home this morning I ripped into him! I bought myself a WS Sprite for my Star Elf, Tremis. He's got some work to do though, before he is who he SHOULD be. Let's me do some 'splaining first about Tremis' race so you'll get the idea.

Star Elves are a race of mine, something I made up when I got bored with 'standard' elves and Drow. XD I imagined a race of elves that got smart and distanced themselves from the other races so far that they managed to get into space. Over time they learned to live very close to stars, either on very near circling asteroids or in ships made from high-density minerals found in space inside some of the dust clouds. Their skin began to marble a bit, turning shades of blue and violet to protect them from the harsh lights, their eyes lost their pupils because there was so much light they would be blinded otherwise. They also began to bear children with printed star maps on their bodies. Not whole maps, not even whole stars, but bits and pieces.

Tremis comes from that. He's purple skinned, with yellow eyes and red hair, and a long arm of a galaxy coming around his thigh, up over his hip and side, across his shoulder and onto his face a bit. So, the steps are...


Step 1: Doll! And a wig. (DONE!)
Step 2: Dye purple! (DONE!)
Step 3: Galaxy arm! (DONE!)
Step 4: Face-up! (DONE!)

~~~~~~~

STEP ONE!

Doll! And a wig!




Here his is in all his newly unwrapped glory! XD I bought him WS so the dye would take pretty much true-to-shade. Isn't he awesome? ^w^



Here he is in his wig, and some temporary eyes that came with him. I have some specific custom eyes in the works with no pupils and all pretty, but these will do until then. The wig is by Thereif, its lovely, very fluffy and soft and kind of tribble-like ^-^ I love it. Carmine Red is the shade, it will be fabulous once he's dyed!

I plan to work on him on my four days off starting on Sunday, because I have to buy the dye and stuff for him. So~ Here we go~! ^-^


Oh yes~ And a sample image of the galaxy I'm going to try to somewhat mimic. I'm just sort of using it as a guide, I'm not trying to replicate it at all. I just need reference material.

http://www.milkywaygalaxy.ru/images/spiral_galaxy.jpg

^-^ See you guys on Sunday~! *trundles off*

 

^-^ Thanks guys! I'm going to start working on this today, after I get some sleep, since I just got off work and came home. So, nap, then out to buy a pot and the dye, and then..... *cackles and fetches her hair-colouring shirt in place of a lab coat*

 

Looks like tomorrow will be the day. I'm so tired and sore I can't function. XP Stupid job, getting in the way of my dollie fun.

 

Okay so we're making progress! We are drying so I thought I'd give you a look at the process and the occasional chihuahua helper (Lily).

First step, the supplies and the victim~! Cloth twine, Purple RIT dye, 8 quart pot, four quart rinse bowl, Tremis, clothes line and two chairs over top of plastic to keep stuff off my floor. Ignore my messy kitchen.



Second step! The doll in bits! Didn't take long, but its kind of funny. XD



Instructions! I didn't refer back too much but its nice to have them! And my pot of dye! Looks black, is actually purple.




Third step! Dye! A foot and a shin, as well as my bowl of Tremis soup. ^-^ Its.... very light, I may go back and do a second trip. We'll see.





Doll Mobile~!




It's definitely purple.... but I'm not sure its dark enough for me.... Second trip? Opinions?

 

Well, I want BRIGHT, but not light coloured, you know? I mean, he's very definitely purple but.... Its so light! Perhaps I should add more dye to the pot and try again. >-> I just don't want to get him TOO dark and no be able to lighten it back down again. XD

 

Very true, especially in my case since all I have to use is Testors. XP I want MSC but right now I can't afford it and Testors is more readily available. I'm heat the bath back up, and I have added some more RIT too it, we'll see how I fare with the second dip.

 

Okay so I did a second and third round of dying. He was just far lighter than I wanted. Not purple enough for the purple club. X3

Here's the test number two dip, with our chihuahua helper, Lily. X3 Still not dark enough but definitely darkER. XP



With the untouched white head-cap. ^-^



The shin part on the left is after dye trip number three and the right is the number two shin.. Can we now see the difference in shades of purple? XD



Dollie Mobile! Again! With our assistant. X3 She was like "Sissie~ Wha'cha' do~in'~?"

 

KittyFields - Thanks! I was going for BRIGHT but not dark. ^-^

Dumbunneh - Thanks!

Pheonix-Faerie - Doesn't he? He says he's "Getting sexy" XD

Vampirealien5473 - I'm glad, its my favourite colour!

ArcaneDesires - It was so much more the thing wasn't it? I'm going to be putting him back together today, possibly getting a start on blushing him while I'm at it, if its dry and not 96% humidity today. >-> It has been raining like someone up-ended a bucket on us recently.

Nanjura - I'm moving as quickly as the temperamental Indiana weather will allow me. ^-^ I'm impatient.

PoeticSoul - ^-^ Well, in Tremis' opinion he's "Getting sexy" but I'm all over playing with things like dye! XD I wasn't the least bit nervous. I was EXCITED! XD I wanted to do it! Sadly its not nearly as messy as I'd hoped, my hands aren't even purple. ;~; X3

 

Gintsukimegami - ^w^ Lily says thankyou and yes, thats much more the shade I wanted. Third time's a charm, ne?

 

Tremis is now preening because of all the compliments. ^w^ Just thought I'd let everyone have a look at him after he was dried and with his wig and temp eyes in. He's actually somewhat uneven, but that's okay, I didn't want him perfectly one colour. His blushing will fix it, and besides, the galaxy arm that will go on him will be somewhat marbled anyhow, so it will be fine.






Its nice and dry today so I'm going to try to get a start on his blushing and the galaxy work. As well as at least putting in some red pastel for his eyebrows. >-> Things without eyebrows kind of weird me out.

 

Thanks! Will it hurt anything if I just pop out his eyes and leave him strung to spray him with sealant? I plan to blush him while he's strung anyhow, to make sure the galaxy arm is right, so would spraying him that way hurt anything? XD I really don't feel like taking him apart again if I don't ABSOLUTELY HAVE TOO.

 

But it doesn't accidentally 'glue' them together or anything horrid like that? Because I really need the parts to be together so that the star arm will match at the edges, and not be in the joints. I don't want to have to worry about it chipping a ton right away. XP

 

metalheadneko - Well, its not his ARM I'm painting. XD Its part of a thigh, both torso pieces and his face. XD I don't think sticky-tack is strong enough to hold all of that together. I'm just doing it while he's strung after all. XP

Nanjura - Aww, that's poo. Too bad. I'll just have to muddle about on my own I suppose. The issue is becoming the number of layers the sealant is going to be. XD

 

I plan ton unstring him for the final seal. I need his head off after that anyhow, so I can do his face. XD And I want to tighten his body string again.

 

I'm working on him, its just.... complicated. XD I'm not too grand at this yet.

 

Okay So I'm actually working on his stars now. I've.... tried once, didn't come out like I wanted so I decided to...... Deviate, a bit, from the plans. X3 I'm liking this one much better. I thought I'd share the first steps with ya.

Okay, there's a line of dark purple dots as a sort of guide for me. They'll mostly be covered in the end, but I needed a guide that wouldn't look too..... Out of place. So purple dots. The white and blue star 'bursts' I like. I made dots of various sizes with one brush, a 10/0 round, and then went back with a dry brush that was a little longer and pulled the paint out from the centers. The second brush is a 0. Some of the whites got a little highlighting with the blue, but this isn't finished yet, so ignore that it looks bad and chalk it up to me being new to the medium. >-> This is NOT like clay and glaze, so I'm learning as I go here.






What the heck happened with this photo I have no idea.... Hopefully its clear enough to see that there is work on his face. >->


>-> And I may need more Testors before I work anymore. Bugger.

 

Yes well, I didn't want PB to take it down for *GASP* Dollie Peen! XD Not everyone is mature enough to understand that its an example photo, not pronz. So I had to edit his bits.

 

Updates! ^-^ Aren't you excited?

Okay, so my mom bought me two cans of sealant, but! My weather has conspired against me, it has rained ever since! So, I finally got impatient and painted the rest of his star-work (please don't kick me if you don't like it, I'm satisfied with it finally) and thought I'd give you guys a look. He isn't sealed at all. I used my 10/0 round brush and some metallic gold and metallic red on this. I also went ahead and did his lips and eyes as I wanted them.

So! First round, gold paint!






I didn't get any of his sides and stuff at this point, and I should have, but its too late. Anyhow, there you see his eye-liner is on, its gold. I wanted the liner UNDER the few tiny lashes I put at the corners because that would be how it would NATURALLY go. Eye liner goes on the outside of the lash line, not the inside.

Round two! Red paint! Also a metallic, and yes, I meant for it to be all swoopy and huge. I like it. I'm finally happy with how it looks.










So at least that part is done. Now I just have to seal him really well as soon as it's dry enough to spray, and do the rest of his face, which is mostly just eyebrows and a bit of blushing. Not too much, because honestly, the way the colour came out when he was dyed, it's uneven enough to look like its really skin.

So, there's only one bit left to go! ^-^ Then Tremis will be complete! ^-^

 

^-^ Thanks so much! I was hoping it wasn't horrible, but honestly, I like how it turned out. Now just gotta be careful with him until I can get him sealed and then he can't be hurt. I'm hoping the metallic paints remain metallic under the sealant, but I have a doll with a beautiful pearl-painted face-up, and the parts that were done in the pearl paint remained that way. So I'm figuring the metallic will.

If not, I can always go over them with some gloss or something. ^-^;