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[lusciakoushiro]

Small crafting update

I haven't done too much, though I am making some big plans. I'll have more to share once I have dabbled in it some. That said I have an update on something I made last year. Back in my August part 1 post I showed that my Zack and Aerith dome fell apart with the resin peeling and breaking down causing pieces to lean. Within that post I mentioned that plastic/resin piece of my Lotura dome wobbled too. Well turns out it wasn't the resin on that one...

Granted all 3 of the domes had flaws but only my Sheith one seems to be minor. I can't remember if I said, but there is a leak in that one and I can't for the life of me see where it is. So I'm just leaving it and once it drains the baby oil it will just be like the other 2 as a dome environment thing. That said though if you do attempt making a snow dome shrink plastic dome with resin do work with baby oil as your liquid, apoxie sculpt is best for the grass should you decide to make a simple environment and use large glitter flakes or shapes so they don't dissolve. Of course make sure you have enough sealant going around the rim and at the bottom (if there is a hole on the bottom of the base, I also closed it off with UV resin). These were fun projects & I will try again in the future

[lusciakoushiro]

Slow goings, but getting somewhere

Well it's been a little while. As I said before I was purposely not keeping the same crafting pace, but ultimately it came for another reason. On January 21st I lost my mom due to cancer and hadn't been in a good head space to create, though I had projects in mind. It wasn't until late February/early March that I felt a desire to try making something. Nothing fancy. I had been playing the new Theatrhythm and have always adored the sprite work so I drew Hythlodaeus and my husband's character Tia in that style.

I also got myself some skin tone markers for my birthday and tested those out and Eevee seemed like a good candidate.

I also managed to snag Jazza's Pro Sketch Pack just for something special for my birthday. With 2 new sketchbooks that came in the pack, the "dreaded" question of what do I draw on the first page came up. Not really a hard question for me as I knew I was gonna draw my avatar, Luscia.

The spread on the left is a dry media paper and the right is mixed. I miscolored her in the chibi drawing due to bad lighting, but the materials felt really good. I really like the pic in the right, using the iconic picture of FFIV's Kain for inspiration. My only tiff is I wanted to use the acrylic marker to outline her but it seems the marker doesn't play well with graphite. But the win here I think is her skin, which was done with water soluble graphite. I am in LOVE with how that makes her skin look.

And lastly the project I had pop in my head at the beginning of the year. I have always wanted to make my own plushie, but I have 0 know how or skill when it comes to sewing. So I thought " can you make one with felt and fabric hot glue?"

The body you sure can. Though not felt (idk what kind of fabric it is. Amazon just said it was for making dolls) the glue worked very well. Only thing I would suggest is making the pattern a bit larger, especially for the arms and legs or smaller add ons. Since the glue is stiffer turning your pieces inside out becomes slightly more difficult and despite the good bond the glue has can result in tearing. As for the felt...

It can work, though not with so much polish. I think I would have preferred to paint the facial details over the felt. And something to note that some felt sheets (I got these from Michael's) were thicker than others. In this case the black was thicker so him sitting like this is a little awkward due to it. Overall I like him and plan on making Emet-selch as well.

[lusciakoushiro]

為了動畫功能買了CSPEX到現在超過半年了…. 終於去摸索動畫這一塊啦XD! 平常都是用Photoshop上色，這全程再CSP裡面作業整個很崩潰….Orz 要不是想畫紅黑貓貓吃麵麵親親的邪念再，我大概中途就逃走了吧….. 哈哈哈哈……

[lusciakoushiro]

If anyone has any advice...

As I mentioned in my year end recap I wanted to start selling some fan art/merch only I'm still unsure to go about it. Hosting platforms aside, the act of selling fan merch is quite gray. Obviously I have seen people do it, but I also don't want to get into any legal trouble.

Any advice is appreciated 💙

[lusciakoushiro]

2023 Art Plans

2022 as you saw was very productive year for me and even though it was my New Year's resolution it honestly never felt forced or rushed. Though I won't purposely keep the same pace, I do have plans of things I wanna try to make.

Firstly and I mentioned this on my Twitter, there is something special about seeing something you made sit among your collections like they belong there.

I will forever cherish this feeling and have it as a reminder for when I work on future projects.

So the planned to projects I would like to work on,

The DIY Funko- Lala Lus will have her day and will more than likely be started soon. It should be noted with anything I do I am taking my knee into consideration and listen to my body should it tell me it can't take sitting for long periods.

Another OOAK doll- I have I think four base dolls I bought for my FFXIV character so I would like to try and make her. Since I have more than one of this doll, mistakes can be made with little stress. Originally I wanted to do her throughout the years, from ARR to at the time Shadowbringers, which is still possible. But part of me also wants to display my fave glams for the jobs I play. So we'll see.

SNAK sculpture- I was lucky to get the Super Not Another Crap Kit and actually came up with an idea late November last year. I wanted to make a diorama environment with fake grass and flowers with the creature from the mold being my avatar's brass dragon, Kethend. This would be sn older version of the dragon, but I would also be adding Luscia too by customizing a body-chan figuarts. This will more than likely take a long time to complete so it's definitely for a little down the road.

Custom Hydro flask- I bought two with a gift card I got from work last year for this purpose. I just need to figure out what I want on them.

Misc crafts for gifts- I still need to make the two glass paintings I had planned as well as testing the techniques for homemade charms, so this will be sprinkled throughout my crafting days.

Work on my fics- Yeah, I've been on a hiatus since finishing Love Eternal last year. I would like to work on the ones I want finished, but I have learned not to force it. So we'll see what happens. I did, however, start to post more of my FFXIV fic Soul Voice since I do have a chunk of that written since 2019 and never posted.

Lots of things to look forward to and I am excited to get crackin on them

[lusciakoushiro]

The Star keywords are hope, creativity, optimism, and inspiration. 

The Chief of the Bureau of the Architect, Hythlodaeus, responsible for creative concepts for creatures and gifted with soul sight (seeing stars) seems most suitable for this card.

[lusciakoushiro]

The Moon card symbolizes intuition, dreams, and unconscious.

This card I focused on literal word (the moon) than symbolization. Well… It’s moon card and ffxiv have moon! Loporrits and watcher were first thing came into my mind. Also 2023 is rabbit’s year. Happy New Year! :D

[lusciakoushiro]

December

With the year coming to a close I knew I wasn't going to get everything I wanted to finish or even try done, but I still had things I could do of course.

Drawing is the easiest as I can do that anywhere. Both of the ones I did this month took from 15-20hrs start to finish. But something was going to get in my way...

At the beginning of the month I was hit by a car on my walk home from work. I managed to walk home and at the insistence of my husband went to the ER to make sure nothing was broken. Thankfully nothing was, but healing is and will take time. That said I couldn't craft because sitting normally at the table hurt my knee a lot. Even sitting at my desk at the office killed me.

Thanks to a coworker who found a step stool I could elevate my leg with a little bit, I was able at least return to drawing some.

After doing the redo of Luscia in the lake (inspired from a screenshot from LUNAR 2 Eternal Blue) I wanted to reimagine it slightly.

And this is what I came up with. Lus had just stepped into the water before turning her gaze to the moon and this is what Dem sees. I am very proud of this one, especially the scales. That took A LOT of patience.

I have been resting my leg since the accident and I finally deemed it well enough to try and sit at the table for some crafts. I will say sitting with my knee bent for two hours isn't ideal as it became very sore and super stiff. So, if I was gonna craft, I was gonna need to take breaks and the squishy I started was the best way to force breaks since I needed to wait for the paint to dry between layers.

If you guessed I was making Keith's wolf, Kosmo, than you wete correct! I have mad respect for those who do these on the regular, this was not easy. But, for my first try ever I think he came out great and super cute!

And as the year got closer to the end I wanted to draw at least one more pic.

I made a glamour inspired by Bayonetta and just had to draw it. Originally I hated it, things just looked weird, but then I doodled a chibi version (no pic to post. I haven't scanned it) and went back to it and I actually really like it now. I might change a couple shadows, but yeah, I love it.

And as of 11:30pm est, I finished my friend's FFXIV figurine I started a year ago with Nerdecrafter's Not Another Crap Kit.

I had the whole idea of making it look like he was in the middle of the lotus from Scortch. The petals are a little skewed, but I made it work with what I had. The method I had watched didn't work as the tape that the wire was attached to completely cured with the resin instead of being able to be peeled off. When it didn't work after three attempts I decided to freehand a mold and that worked more or less, I still cant quite get them to hold the bendy shape, but for my first attempt I think I did okay.

I'm so proud of myself for actually completing my New Year's resolution. It was fun and I learned a lot. Just because I don't finish something right then on the day I started doesn't mean I never will. Sometimes things just won't work and require more research or an alternative to see it through.

Here's to more art in 2023, whether it be a big project or small, stay creative! 🖤❤

[lusciakoushiro]

commission of Hyth wielding Deima!

[lusciakoushiro]

lady of the light

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[lusciakoushiro]

2021 Endwalker fan arts

[lusciakoushiro]

November Part 2

My drawing continued and once again I decided to go over a piece I did the previous year.

I did this originally to test out the graphite method of transferring an image to another canvas. I still haven't colored the transferred image so I figured this would be a good time to and look how cute Kosmo is!!!!

Upon doing this I also decided to just do a full shot of puppy Kosmo as well as color the PGSM Luna.

Not quite sure what I did to make Luna so purple, but I'll go over her again later. At this point though I was running out of things to go over and practice coloring and once again YouTube decided to teach me something and that's that ibis has base poses you can use. Intrigued, I loaded one of them up and made this.

It was an interesting experience to go over the base pose and fill in the blank. So naturally I did it again with my other OCs.

Now I am pleased with both of these for one reason or another, but there is something about the bases that are weird. So on the one of Luscia I had to edit the chest down as the base seemed to have quite the large booba and her booty became odd once I added her skirt. On the one of Sora and Tracey, I had to fix Tracey's jaw as it was too long. Both of those changes got made after I started to fill in the blanks as it were. Tracey's hand also looks fugly (I also forgot his wedding ring...) and this was witb going over the lines the program provided and it didn't look like that on the raw base. So werid, but overall a welcome experience for when I can't find a reference or just want quick practice.

Though I am still uncertain about what happened with my snowglobe and the resin, I still wanted to do a giveaway for the Sheith fam and I remembered seeing another way of doing charms with the shrink plastic by using printable vinyl. So what am I to do? Test out the vinyl and my printer to make stickers of course.

I am so happy with how these turned out! (Excuse the rough cuts) In all seriousness, I was not expecting these to come out to vibrant and professional looking. Knowing that my printer could handle the vinyl I tucked that knowledge away for later.

Since binging art YouTube I had become quite intrigued by the squishy makeovers, however finding any in stores near me was like a needle in a haystack. And where as I normally don't mind spending a little extra on art supplies, the fact that I don't know what I am dealing with as a canvas made me not want to drop $20 on a small lot. Luckily my Dollar Tree had a few so I only dropped $5 for this experiment (excluding the cost of my fabric paint)

Can you guess what I am making?

And to round out the month, my Facebook memories showed a drawing I did years ago (10 years to be exact). This picture is what really hooked me with the desire to draw. So when it came up I made the comment that I kind of wanted to go over it on the tablet, to which my friend was very encouraging of it. So I did.

I'm overall happy with it, the filtering to make it more shaded for night time really is a nice touch. I could have done better with the leaf brushes though lol.

With that, we are coming to the end of the year...

[lusciakoushiro]

November Part 1

Much like October, I did a lot of drawing with the tablet. I felt like I really got a handle of the basics in ibis and decided to go over another piece, this time one that was more recent and one I had already turned into something else.

Now, don't get me wrong, I adore the traditional piece, but I am in LOVE with the digital. So much so it's actually the background on my phone. As I have mentioned before, I didn't usually if ever use my own art in this way before, but now? I have a phone case with my OC/avatar, my lock screen and desktop on both my phone and tablet are of my work (tablet of Sora and OC Luscia and phone of the Sheith dance and FFXIV Luscia). Not to mention having my own works printed and on display in my apartment.

Follow this I did some more work on the figurine of my friend's FFXIV character. After he broke originally I procrastinated in fixing him because I was not about to oven bake him again. But I was also running low on Apoxie Sculpt so I tried with my typical air dry clay and I waa so grateful that it worked out and frankly, I think it turned out better than before.

Where you can see the white, those are yhe areas I repaired or added (his shoes were added after I made the base). Though this is a gift, my friend has seen these shots I'm sharing so no surprise is ruined.

And this is him almost completed. He needs a couple touches of pastels, but other than that he himself is finished. I just need to finish the base, which is kind of special, but that's an actual surprise I haven't shared yet, so shhhh.

[lusciakoushiro]

your bitter heart heals my heart (oh stay with me)

[lusciakoushiro]

October Part 4

And all the carbys!!!

The last thing I did for October was to finally test my printer and see how some prints would turn out. I learned that some times my printer wants to print the same picture three times for no reason (pretty sure I had a different one selected but maybe not lol) and alsobwhat happens when you print on the wrong side of photo paper (my poor ink...)

But like my phone case and two pics I showed with these posts, this was the first time I felt good about my work and wanted to display it.

Quality on the paper is very solid. This is alsonthe second piece of something Sheith that I have made that sits with my collection and actually feels like it belongs.

[lusciakoushiro]

October Part 3

With merch still at the front of my mind and the rekindled love for Kamen Rider W thanks to Fuuto Pi, I wanted to design a double (ha!) sided charm of Shotaro and Phillip.

Guuuuuh!!!! I can't get over how cute these turned out!!!

Though I was practicing with my own art I wanted to try practicing on something my husband drew for me years ago of my OCs Sora and Tracey.

It felt nice to be able to color something of his work and honestly I hope I can do more down the line.

And then I finally decided to tackle a drawing I did about four yearscago, back when Stormblood was the newest expansion. I drew a picture of Luscia as her AST with a ball point pen, which was something I rarely did and said I would go over it digitally. I tried once with a sketchbook app on my old tablet which didn't work, forgot all about when I started to work with the Wacom tablet and CSP and tried it for the test on the old tablet with ibis only for it to look like a hot mess. But now? This is the before and after...

Not having the moon look like a banana does wonders lol.

Old or new, going back to previous works can do wonders in some way. Remember the Hythades standee? Ever since making it I kept thinking it would make a near/cute print.

I. Love. This. Piece! Seriously, I am amazed at myself that I captured my standee in such a way. This is easily in my top three pieces I made this year.

Of course with looking back to past art I needed to see what they looked like on the tablet with the hopes of them becoming some kind of merch.