I'm truly dying to somewhat "finish" her and be able to take photos of her as her character, but it seems that my tinies can have their final looks without some trouble first. Cookie also rebelled to me, but I think it was for good, since I really love the current "fairy" story of them.
Anyways, since I'm having a lot of trouble painting and styling Merry's fantasy ears and tail, I have decided to do a blogpost about her progress, the idea of her character, and the troubles I had, in order to ease my need of share her.
Wall of text ahead! This post has so much ranting and ideas! I will give chocolates to whoever reads it completely :D
Briefly summarizing the story for my tiny dolls, they are animal fairies in a fairy settlement, where they have assigned jobs depending on the animal they are. Because of this, the Dragonfly Fairies are the most common "fairy godmothers" for humans, the Kitten Fairies enforce the order and check mysterious events, and the Mice Fairies... well, here comes a gif-set from "Rise of the Guardians" (under the cut!):
Wall of text ahead! This post has so much ranting and ideas! I will give chocolates to whoever reads it completely :D
Story
Have you seen the movie "Rise of the Guardians"? I love it! The movie is about myth beings (for saying it in a way) like the Easter Rabbit, Santa, the Sandman, the Tooth Fairy... and the protagonist, Jack Frost. I'm talking about this because it has a scene that perfectly explains an important part of Merry's character.Briefly summarizing the story for my tiny dolls, they are animal fairies in a fairy settlement, where they have assigned jobs depending on the animal they are. Because of this, the Dragonfly Fairies are the most common "fairy godmothers" for humans, the Kitten Fairies enforce the order and check mysterious events, and the Mice Fairies... well, here comes a gif-set from "Rise of the Guardians" (under the cut!):
 |
 |
 |
 |
Yes! They are tooth fairies! I'm silly like that. By the way, I did not made that gifset, it was found on this deviantART account... and here is a Tumblr gifset of this scene. So, Merry is a newly 'graduated' tooth fairy, that is starting to do her work by collecting teeth and leaving a coin in exchange. I did write a little more about her character on her Charahub file.
Speaking more of Merry, here is a dreamselfy I did for her while planning her character. The ears should be white, not gray as in the mockup, but I couldn't find white ears, plus they would be lost on that background anyways. Also, she will have a long tail, not pictured. I would talk about my issues with them later.
As said before, she is a mouse fairy in charge of collecting teeth and leaving a coin in exchange. My idea for her is that her spirit animal is a white mouse, and -as all fairies in my silly story- was born from a flower sapling; in her case, a light blue bellflower. I know the color is not natural, but Cookie's flower also has a non-natural color (orange roses), so I will justify it with a they-live-in-a-magical-world-so-you-can-find-anything argument xD
Merry will also have a special item -just like Cookie's notebook. In her case, it will be a small purse, where she carries the coins and the teeth. My mom made me a cute and small pink crochet purse for her that I can't wait to show!
Regarding her clothing style, I want it to be cute and simple as Cookie's, but Merry will prefer to use bloomers and pants, instead of skirts. The mockup has a white/gray pant, but I don't know if it can be noted =S
The idea is that Merry and Cookie will eventualy become best friends (yup, a Mouse and a Kitten), with Merry often bringing things taken from the human world to Cookie... like a laser pointer xD, or traveling together to find interesting thingsI might have a few photostories like this already plotted.
However, Merry won't have her pink hair for now, as I need to plan my packages carefully. She will be using the white tibetan lamb wig I made before, tied on a bun. It seems I can't get rid off of that wig, sadly. The planned wig will probably be a For My Doll, and I'm loving the Baby Pink color and this model in particular. I like my tinies with short hair, so they are easier to move and pose, and their animal tails can be easily shown.
Everything was going fine, I was using acrylics to paint -as I always do- and I painted everything white, with the tip of the tail on silver, the edge of the ears on silver too and the center on pink. Then, I got to use the spray-gloss I had always used (on Coco's antlers and spider-queen's horns, on the soles of the heels and boots, and on Cookie's ears and tail). What was my surprise and disgust when I woke up the next day to see the transparent gloss completely yellowed!! Everything looked awful!
I was so sad, because it was two Saturdays ago, and I was extremely excited and anxious to showcase Merry! I sat there so disappointed (imagine my despair, thinking I might have ruined the parts that my friend made for me!), when the super-hero-hubby came, and told me "don't worry, my love, I can fix it and remove the gloss and painting for you". So he patiently sat with my nail-polish-remover, some cotton, and slowly wiped off all the yellowed gloss and paint. After that, we rushed to a nearby paint-store, and bought a new spray-gloss, thinking that the one I had may have been old (it was only 4 months old, it shouldn't had yellowed like that), and a new white acrylic.
That afternoon, I slowly started painting the ears and tail, but this time with no silver: only white and the pink center. I left the parts to dry for more than 24 hours, before spraying them with the new gloss. What was my surprise, when I went to check and found out that the pink paint on the center of the ear had gone wet againmagically! and dropped pink drops on the lower part of the ears!! And it had more than 24 hours to dry!
At this point my disappointment turned into sadness. The hubby came to the rescue once again, and wiped the gloss and the painting one more time. We brainstormed possible solutions, and decided on the following: paint only white until the epoxy color is covered, do a lot of quick and extremely small and fast layers of spray gloss, and after some layers, add the pink.
The bad thing about this, is that I can only do one spray of gloss per day, because I want it to dry completely before adding another, and since the layers are so small and thin, it is taking me ages to reach the glossy point I want... I have been doing this fasts-gloss-sprays since a week already, and there is a lot to go yet =S
The tail is going to be done early than the ears because it is only white! For the ears, I was able to buy some cold porcelain on Monday, and since it can be dyed before modeling, I'm going to do some small leaves and light-blue bellflowers to add in the back of the ears. I also should be doing the pink center of the ears anytime soon... if the spray-gloss is messing with me again, I will go nuts. For sure.
Merry's Character
 |
| Dreamselfy Merry's Mockup |
As said before, she is a mouse fairy in charge of collecting teeth and leaving a coin in exchange. My idea for her is that her spirit animal is a white mouse, and -as all fairies in my silly story- was born from a flower sapling; in her case, a light blue bellflower. I know the color is not natural, but Cookie's flower also has a non-natural color (orange roses), so I will justify it with a they-live-in-a-magical-world-so-you-can-find-anything argument xD
Merry will also have a special item -just like Cookie's notebook. In her case, it will be a small purse, where she carries the coins and the teeth. My mom made me a cute and small pink crochet purse for her that I can't wait to show!
Regarding her clothing style, I want it to be cute and simple as Cookie's, but Merry will prefer to use bloomers and pants, instead of skirts. The mockup has a white/gray pant, but I don't know if it can be noted =S
The idea is that Merry and Cookie will eventualy become best friends (yup, a Mouse and a Kitten), with Merry often bringing things taken from the human world to Cookie... like a laser pointer xD, or traveling together to find interesting things
However, Merry won't have her pink hair for now, as I need to plan my packages carefully. She will be using the white tibetan lamb wig I made before, tied on a bun. It seems I can't get rid off of that wig, sadly. The planned wig will probably be a For My Doll, and I'm loving the Baby Pink color and this model in particular. I like my tinies with short hair, so they are easier to move and pose, and their animal tails can be easily shown.
The Infamous Issues
Yes, I know I poured my Twitter with all the issues I had, but I want to share them here, anyways. I did a small trade with a friend: a made some lingerie and blouses for her doll, and she made me unpainted mouse ears and tail from epoxy.Everything was going fine, I was using acrylics to paint -as I always do- and I painted everything white, with the tip of the tail on silver, the edge of the ears on silver too and the center on pink. Then, I got to use the spray-gloss I had always used (on Coco's antlers and spider-queen's horns, on the soles of the heels and boots, and on Cookie's ears and tail). What was my surprise and disgust when I woke up the next day to see the transparent gloss completely yellowed!! Everything looked awful!
The gloss ruined the ears and tail for Merry T_T What a way to start the day!
— Musume (@musume_desu) April 11, 2015
I was so sad, because it was two Saturdays ago, and I was extremely excited and anxious to showcase Merry! I sat there so disappointed (imagine my despair, thinking I might have ruined the parts that my friend made for me!), when the super-hero-hubby came, and told me "don't worry, my love, I can fix it and remove the gloss and painting for you". So he patiently sat with my nail-polish-remover, some cotton, and slowly wiped off all the yellowed gloss and paint. After that, we rushed to a nearby paint-store, and bought a new spray-gloss, thinking that the one I had may have been old (it was only 4 months old, it shouldn't had yellowed like that), and a new white acrylic.
That afternoon, I slowly started painting the ears and tail, but this time with no silver: only white and the pink center. I left the parts to dry for more than 24 hours, before spraying them with the new gloss. What was my surprise, when I went to check and found out that the pink paint on the center of the ear had gone wet again
I keep thinking on Merry and I feel so bad for messing up her ears/tail so much.
— Musume (@musume_desu) April 13, 2015
At this point my disappointment turned into sadness. The hubby came to the rescue once again, and wiped the gloss and the painting one more time. We brainstormed possible solutions, and decided on the following: paint only white until the epoxy color is covered, do a lot of quick and extremely small and fast layers of spray gloss, and after some layers, add the pink.
The bad thing about this, is that I can only do one spray of gloss per day, because I want it to dry completely before adding another, and since the layers are so small and thin, it is taking me ages to reach the glossy point I want... I have been doing this fasts-gloss-sprays since a week already, and there is a lot to go yet =S
The tail is going to be done early than the ears because it is only white! For the ears, I was able to buy some cold porcelain on Monday, and since it can be dyed before modeling, I'm going to do some small leaves and light-blue bellflowers to add in the back of the ears. I also should be doing the pink center of the ears anytime soon... if the spray-gloss is messing with me again, I will go nuts. For sure.
Concluding!
I'm dying to show photos of her, and start taking little photostories with Merry. Her first cute outfit of her own is ready, and I feel bad for having her there without her ears and tail T_T Gosh, I never thought I would have so many problems with them!
Anyways, thank you a lot for bearing with me, and if you did read everything, I truly thank you :3 At least this post is helping me share something of her, and not feel that I'm neglecting her. Dang gloss stop messing with me!! *shakes fist at spray gloss*
Hope to be able to finish her soon, but I guess it will take me at least another week of daly spray glosses. Wish me luck!
Oh I love Merry's character! ♥ The idea of a mouse tooth fairy sounds so cute~ My fairy characters are actually born from flowers as well! Sounds like they might be distant relatives of your fairies without our knowledge? XD My little tooth fairy is super jealous that Merry has a proper bag for the teeth she collects, that sounds so cool! D:
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your problems with the ears and tail :< I hope you'll be able to finish them the way you want them to be! I've had some problems with epoxy and gloss too, it's so frustrating when you're almost done and add the gloss as a final touch and suddenly everything's ruined and you need to start all over again =.=
That is so cute, maybe they are distant relatives, indeed! I bet that Merry and Cookie would want to send some letters to them xD
DeleteYes, I know the feeling of the gloss T_T I think the cause here was the white paint, because I never had troubles with black or brown painting. I really hope to finish her soon, I can't wait to take her photos.
Thank you so much for reading this wall of text!
It's so annoying for you, that you can't get her ready now, but I'm sure all your effort will be rewarded in the end :)
ReplyDeleteYour concept is super cute, and I think she'll look great with Cookie!
I can't wait to see some more photo stories from you :D Your story is very interesting. :3
Thank you so much, dear!! Well, yesterday I finally had some time to sculpt the flowers and leaves for her ears... and the parts are slowly getting more glossy, but it is taking so much time!
DeleteI can't wait to take photos of her either!
Good luck with the ears and tail, all the ahrd work will be worth it in the end and the drama will be a thing of the past.
ReplyDeleteThank you!! I really hope so! I'm slowly advancing each day, but can't wait to see how she looks all finished :3
Delete