Of art (and roses and batwings!)

Recently I've had quite a few new followers, so thank you very much! I hope you enjoy your stay at the Ballroom.

Last month, I participated in a couple of art contests on Deviantart, so this is essentially an art post. The two contests had to do with very different fandoms, but the common thread was Halloween (but of course).

The first contest was related to Avatar: the Last Airbender. In fact, it was hosted by the Ursa x Ozai (or, Urzai) fanclub on Devianart, of which your host is a proud a moderator/co-founder. I love Urzai at any age (or timeframe, or universe, or....), but most especially teenage Urzai. So for the Urzai + Halloween contest, naturally I had to combine it somehow with gothic-and-lolita.

In Night's Arms

Isn't Ursa adorable in her loli? While I admit that I couldn't decide what sort of sleeves and so forth  to give her, that isn't the only reason for the conflicting features of her coordinate. You see, I decided that I liked the effect of having having bits of different outfits combined. It's as though you can see two separate sides of her, or two interpretations of her "fate," or...I can't really explain.
You may recognize the reference to the "red string of fate," a bit of Japanese folklore that I'm not nearly as familiar with as I'd like to be. But it seemed fitting: sort of ominous and romantic at the same time, which is very fitting for Urzai.
Speaking of ominous, yes, Prince Ozai does indeed have batwings. And claws. (And fangs, though you can's see them...) A form in which I can never pass up a chance to draw him. In fact, the first time I drew him in this incarnation, he singlehandly inspired an entire race of batwinged, fire-affiliated spirits that have haunted my stories ever since. <3

Do any of my readers, by any chance, like Visual Kei? How about roses? The band Versailles? Their vocalist? Speaking of that last one...the second contest's theme was "Kamijo + Halloween" (hosted by The Kamijo Fanclub on Deviantart). I drew inspiration from Versailles' song Zombie, as it's very Halloween-sounding (albeit rather atypical compared to the band's usual sound).

Graveyard Prince

I never knew it would prove so useful to know how to draw someone sitting with their legs crossed! (That seems to be the preferred pose of Kamijo-sama, so I ended up incorporating it into the piece.) Those boots of his actually weren't quite as hard to draw as they looked, thankfully. Which is a good thing, as those are Quite Some Boots.

I love using bits of red (especially for roses and blood--they're both so romantic! Yes, I'm serious) in an otherwise greyscale piece of art. One of my favorite things about this picture, though, is the splash of gold and blue for his hair and eyes. It's so startling in the context of a spooky haunting scene, you know? And odd as this may seem, it makes me think of a "rose that blooms even in the shadow of the grave"--which seems like an idea Versailles would like very much, even though I'm not doing a very good job explaining it, I fear. I guess it's because golden  hair makes you think "prince on a white horse" sooner than "gothic vampire." (Although Kamijo tries to be both--and succeeds, in my opinion--and of course, nothing says that gothic folks can't be blonde. I'm proof of that. If I count as blonde.)

The text is from Zombie; it says (roughly translated) "By the master's orders, beat the bones! Sing along with the song of the bats!"

If you'd like to view these pieces on Deviantart, please step right this way (er, click right this way?):
In Night's Arms
Graveyard Prince

I've been wanting to produce more finished art, especially art featuring my characters (most of whom are gothic or lolita -esque in some way or other). So if I complete any more pieces along the lines of these, I'll try to remember to post them.

Of spiderwebs, ruffles and cosplay

And she returns to the ballroom with an array of long-promised crafting photos, and with thanks to her dear guests who have waited so patiently for an update!

Ah, Real Life. Busy, as usual. But not entirely in a bad way, as evidenced by the photos below of my excursion to Comic Con a couple weekends ago. (Wait...does Comic Con count as "Real Life"? It does for me!) Of course, I can't entirely blame my absence on real life, as various fandoms hold their share of the fault. (Yes, I do admit to writing fanfiction, and I blame that on my obsession with Lady Ursa and most especially Prince Ozai of the Fire Nation.)

Now, onward to a group of sewing photos that have been waiting quite a long time to see the light of day--er, cyberspace. As mentioned in the last post, I have been working on The Endless Ruffle for the lower edge of my first loli skirt. Somehow I feel that last sentence needs a <3 at the end, for maximum whimsicality. Which I am quite in favor of!

At any rate, here is the ruffle all spread out on my floor. It looks a bit shinier than it is, because of the flash. Pretty endless, no?

From what I've read, the hem of one's skirt should be four times the circumference of the waist, and then a ruffle is two to three times that! So you can imagine the fun I had basting, especially with that stiff material. (The fabric is synthetic, but I've been told it resembles taffeta, which I suppose lends a bit of that "richness" I'm looking to include in my coordinates. The next skirt will probably more of a natural fabric--partly because I live in very hot Southern California, after all.)

Despite the sewing tribulations, I persevered, and gained victory over The Endless Ruffle!

Here is a close up of the fabric.

Again, the flash makes it look extremely shiny. I fiddled with it a little in Gimp2, but couldn't seem to do much about it (perhaps when I become more of a Gimp guru). My carpet is a much darker green, for that matter.

The spiderweb design is a raised "fuzzy" material. This skirt will be two layers, and for the top layer I have a variation of the same fabric, with a patter of blossoms instead of spiderwebs.

At this point, I still had the basting thread in the ruffle. I like that shade of blue, though. It made me feel very Moitie, even though the thread's a bit lighter than the Moitie shade of blue (even without the flash).

The skirt still needs quite a bit of work, but I hope to complete it by the third week of August. You see, there is a meetup planned for the 21st, which as it happens...is my birthday! What better way to celebrate turning 20 than to don my first complete coordinate and attend my first meetup? Pictures of all this sewing and meetup-attending will be forthcoming, I assure you.

Now, onto a little bit of non-loli crafting. Last year for Comic Con, my mother and I (mostly my mother) made an Ursa cosplay that I am quite proud of, as it turned out rather gorgeously. So for two years now, I have attended Comic Con as young Ursa from Avatar: the Last Airbender.

At the convention, Ursa found her favorite student from Monster High: Draculaura (at the Mattel booth)! I'm sure you see why a whimsically romantic goth girl such as myself can identify with her.

This year, I made myself a few new accessories for the cosplay--hence the mention of crafting. At Micheal's (a craft store) I found some lovely beads from Blue Moon Beads, specifically their Asian-influenced line of beads, called Orient Express. With these I made two hair clips, a matching ring (looped around my finger with a ribbon), and a necklace. The pendant makes me think of the Fire Palace, or perhaps Avatar Roku's temple!

Young Urzai (UrsaxOzai) has a special place in my heart, so I mainly cosplay young Ursa, specifically during her betrothal to Prince Ozai (i.e. before she became Princess Ursa). I figure His Highness totally decked me out with jewels--do excuse your host's girlish giggle--and said assumption did rather add to the enjoyment of working on my cosplay! To complete the "decked out" look, I bought a few more accessories, from Target as it happens. There I acquired two more hairclips, a hair elastic (for the back of my top knot), and a ring made from a zipper!

I have a few more crafting pictures for you in the near future, which will include the goods from a recent run to Joann's (my favorite fabric store). I hope to post them very soon, but I believe I should end this post before it gets much longer! In the meantime, do look over the long list of tutorials which the marvelous Miss Caro-chan has compiled over at F Yeah Lolita. As a sewing loli, I know that I at least shall find this compilation quite useful!

Now, happy sewing or however it is that my dear guests like to amuse their darkly frilly hearts. <3

Of Lolita Day, and a Fire Nation prince and princess

And she wishes everyone a marvelous Lolita Day! For those who may not know, this is the first of two International Lolita Days that take place every year: on the first Saturday in June, and the first Saturday in December. As of yet I have no lolita clothing with which to create a suitably fancy coordinate for the occasion (which my dear guests already know, of course, because otherwise I would have posted pictures of said clothing, most likely during as well as after construction). However, perhaps when December rolls around... And that will almost be more fitting as my first Lolita-Day-with-a-wardrobe, because winter is so very gothic, after all...even in Southern California, where, ironically, the blazing summer is the season during which plants hibernate and people stay indoors.

However, my lack of loli clothing does not mean I am not celebrating, in my own small way. Do my lovely guests (that is, the US-based ones) by any chance remember all those Tshirts at Walmart during Halloween last year, that were printed to look like spookily fancy gothic outfits? I have two (having elevated them from "costume" to "everyday wear," as they obviously were meant to be worn, no?) and today I donned the more loli of the two. Let's see, I do believe it has printed on it a pinstriped button down blouse; a purple and blue vest with madly ornate "points" (on the hemlines), which laces (corset style!) down the center; another vest, this time with a pattern of grey curlicue leaves, which fastens with a large ornate cross; and at the top (just under the neckline), a strand of pearls and a big red bow. Very rori, no?

I must say, this Tshirt makes me want to sew an outfit like the one pictured on it! Speaking of pictures, I will have to take one of this shirt sometime, if picturing it is as hard for my guests as describing it was for me.

Besides that, I have celebrated this day by finally trying out a lovely two-tone gothic makeup tutorial that the amazing sweetsailormars (LJ name), whose style I greatly admire, posted for us less makeup-practiced lolis, over on LiveJournal.  (And if that gracious lady wishes me to erase the link for any reason, let me know and I shall.)

I have no picture of my attempt at this makeup style, unfortunately, but hopefully during later attempts I shall take and post one. It came out fairly well considering my less than ideal materials, but the two-tone effect gave way to a general smoky darkness around the eye. (Which, mind you, I am quite happy to wear nonetheless!)

That brings me to the slightly loli-esque event that I shall be attending this evening. You see, I was practicing my makeup in part for a dinner party in honor of a dear friend (and two others), who is graduating from highschool! Although she is not a lolita herself, many of her interests and certainly her marvelous creativity seem to fit with our fashion/subculture's ideals, and make me admire her very much.

Despite my lack of lolita pieces, being a Romantigoth for so long has proven very useful in choosing tonight's outfit. I have a long strapless gown of black lace, which I plan to wear with my "doll shoes"--a pair of slightly-heeled, purple maryjanes. Not a loli outfit by any means, but certainly gothic and romantic, or so I like to think. I shall do my best to post pictures after the event.

Speaking of pictures, I promised you photos of that pair of re-costumed dolls (young Ursa and Ozai, formerly Mulan and Shang) that my little sister presented to me, now didn't I? I haven't gotten a chance to take pictures of them myself, but she had done so previously, and so here are a few!

Thumbelina, anyone? The wings are a detachable pair we have (the only thing not made by my sis in this picture), and admittedly not completely Fire Nation...but this picture does remind me of the song Let Me Be Your Wings from the animated Thumbelina.

Can you believe my sis made these outfits out of scraps from my Ursa cosplay (of which Mulan!Ursa is wearing a mini version, essentially)? Her dollclothes always amaze me!



 So does her photography...

I think she really captured the spirit of why I love young Urzai (UrsaxOzai)! Well, I don't wish to overwhelm you with pictures (although I suppose they could count as a photoshoot, of a sort?) so that's all for now. Incidentally,  we are still busily cleaning house, hence my lack of posting, and lack of creative projects about which to post. However, very soon I hope, the gothic-and-lolita
 lifestyling will be back in full force!

And last but by no means least, I wish to thank everyone who is following my blog so far! I didn't expect to get an audience very fast, but I appreciate all who come to listen to these dark, ecclectic musings of mine.

Do have a wonderful Loli Day!