π§Ά crafts post !
May. 24th, 2024 07:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
girlrockrecently posted some crafts stuff i've done over the past few days/weeks/months and i wanted to delve more into my processes on dreamwidth to look back on later as i continue refining my methodology / hopefully try new things t__t
been debilitatingly fatigued lately but i suppose it's worth it if it manages to even slightly alleviate the mortifying ordeal of being known... problem is i don't really think it's doing that yet but βοΈ we ball. Hence why i'm writing dw post now instead of actually drawing or writing or doing something productive because i simply do not have the energy to do anything else π
but onto the reflections!
stickers
i'd been meaning to clean up/finish revamping some old sticker designs for a long time now and i finally printed out new stickers over the weekend!!
out of everything i've done over the past few weeks.... i am soooooo happy that i finally figured out how to print things correctly. God i'm an idiot i can't believe it took me so long but also whatever it doesn't matter because what matters is that i figured it out!! the last few times i'd attempted to make stickers... well first of all i used to have SO much trouble with my autoblade not working and i'd have to take it out and manually adjust the depth because it wasn't clicking properly, but thankfully this time it just worked??? i really didn't do anything but maybe with one of my millionth restarts it just fixed itself.
second of all... why are printers not default set to "best" printing quality πππ i did that, set the paper to glossy photo paper, and then intuitively finetuned some of the color settings (a bit less magenta, a bit more yellow, and a bit less intensity mainly) and it really made a worldddd of difference. except for some difficulties with deep/vibrant teals/greens everything genuinely looked exactly as it did on my monitor which i genuinely did not know was possible like i had resigned myself to just having horrible color calibration. i'm so ππ§‘π§‘π§‘
anyway before i put everything into my silhouette i also finally LAMINATED them first, and honestly i detest laminating things because i'm so bad at using the self-adhesive sheets and i get really stressed out smoothing out air bubbles but it worked out decently. i'm also an idiot because for the first batch i used a whole sheet and then tried to cut the edges around my sticker page instead of cutting the sheet first to only have enough to cover the sticker area without the registration mark π but we made it out in the end !!!
i put my robotter and 81 helmet stickers on my water bottle and they lichr look so good and the lamination has worked so well in helping them hold up with any water. also makes the texture so much more pleasant... i'm TT___TT !
honestly i never thought i'd be capable of making stickers or any kind of mini merch like ever... i remember in 2019 i wanted to make txt stickers to give out at the nyc show i went to with bia and meg but i hated everything and only finished like 2 before giving up. but over the past few months i've just been organically developing my 814 cheeb style + making sure i draw all my doodles on 300+ dpi canvases so i can always convert them to stickers if i want to and i'm much more satisfied with what i have now compared to my first test batch however many months ago. a big thing i wanted to do was finally Standardize my oscar style because i feel like he always looks wildly different in everything i draw, and i feel like i'm still a ways off but we're getting there... mainly when i draw 814 the things i focus on the most are (in order of importance):
oscar: hair swoop, bunny teeth, straight/tapered/v expressive brows, under-eye blush, round cheeks, pale cool tone, warm brown hair, and then ears i do plain rounded ones to contrast with lando's. i also like giving him a little tuft of hair at the top of his head sometimes for that sprout look π±
lando: elf ears, warm tanner tone, cool brown curly hair with a bit of a side fade, thicker eyebrows, triangular-ish eyes, and heart mouth β€οΈ honestly all kind of equally important i think lando's features are quite distinct... for lando's hair i also almost always give a little curl sticking out at the front just because i think it's cute idk :3c
anyway i have a few things to fix with my designs (mainly i realized i fucked up lando's helmet LOL also i'm going to make the background lighter since cmyk teal doesn't really work) and i might add a few designs to print out but otherwise i am quite satisfied with this batch... in the grand scheme of things and given my personal artistic limitations ofc. problem is i'm too shy so i don't think i'll actually give them out to anyone...
charms
baby's first charms ?!?!?! this was my first time ever making charms and i learned a lot ! i've always wanted to try my hand at making my own but i honest to god didn't even know vograce existed until like 3 months ago and i didn't realize how cheap it is to get them produced? figuring out how to set up the file optimally was a big part, and also because i wanted to make a matching set trying to get them similarly sized/posed was another thing. there are a lot of little things i want to fix about these designs if i were ever to make another batch (or maybe i'll turn them into stickers too), like just some color editing + fixing mistakes on lando's flip side (remembered to flip the mclaren logo on the microphone but not his shirt π) but either way i'm quite satisfied with the quality and i think it all came out pretty well. i spent sooo long finetuning these that it's kind of embarrassing and i really could never be a proper merch artist but this was just for Me and my 2.3 friends so it is what it is !
i think next time i'll also go for bigger charms because that's what my taste is... and it's super affordable either way. also they don't have orange as one of the clasp options (and there are like 10 color options... sob) so i just went for a plain lobster clasp, but i have my own orange ones and i need to figure out how to swap them out... i have pliers but i'm scared. but yes another milestone achieved π
photocards
save me koala pc holder save me π !!! there have been too many good photos lately for me to not make another batch... also now that i understand the concept of printing high quality and realize that this is why my gradients were coming out with interrupted white lines beforehand (π) i wanted to remake some for that reason as well. i also redesigned the 4/81 individual driver card backs with their 2024 helmets and those printed much better this time.......
i think i will always have the most emotional attachment to jp double podium selfie pc though π she has quite literally traveled the world with me
my dream is to design an acrylic pc holder............ i actually tried planning one out but i gave up asdflkhdf. and i want to make my own kisscut deco sticker sheets because honestly why are they so expensive but i'm awful at the style required for that. one day though
crochet
does anyone remember how in my last post i was like "i don't think i can ever learn to crochet this shit is impossible" and it's because i tried to learn how to crochet by immediately watching a pattern tutorial and didn't even know how to chain πππ anyway i watched an actual video on how to make a single stitch and fixed my tension and eventually figured it out. what was i on about
of course i still have a serious skill issue but i'm really glad i pushed through... the main things i wanted to make were 1) a sweater for my koaloscar plushie and 2) a keychain plush of sorts that i could attach to my bag... and i sort of kind of accomplished that !
the sweater was made 48 hours after i learned to crochet so it's a mess but i was so pleased with myself for learning how to hack an approximate mclaren logo by reverse engineering a nike swoosh tutorial on youtube π i think i can make it look more accurate by sewing it better next time... i actually redid the sweater and the second version looks a lot tidier but i haven't added the logo yet.
then i managed to make my first plush and he is so fucked up because i followed a written tutorial and it explained NOTHING i was fighting for my life my god. but credit for the design idea goes to tuva who inspired me to make the blue/orange koala in the first place and has also been such a massive help in general as i figure out how to do this crochet shit... i sewed everything horribly but overall i'm really proud of myself for actually finishing him and making a recognizable-ish looking koala thing. however i still need to attach a keychain to it except i'm nervous of messing it up so i haven't done that yet aslfdkhasdf. maybe later tonight if i can regain some energy... TT do not recommend having med-induced fatigue while also struggling with chronic insomnia and a preexisting sleep disorder because it messes you up so bad. i'm so freaking tired all the time but i can't even sleep properly...... huhu
magic rings are still the worst to set up but it's a lot less painful now than it was the first few times. i want to start more projects but i'm not really sure what to do next... but i'll figure it out at some point
β
that's about it... i want to do other stuff but i'm kind of blocked in general lately idk. too tired to do anything... i don't really want to write but i want these two ideas i've had rotting away in my docs to be realized which is Annoying me because they will never see the light of day if i don't commit to them. alas. and i still need to learn BLENDER i want to make figurines soooo bad. i mean not Make figurines but like design them and spin them around on my screen you know what i mean
also domodachi is good...... kim namjoon i wasn't quite familiar with your game
ok girlrock out
been debilitatingly fatigued lately but i suppose it's worth it if it manages to even slightly alleviate the mortifying ordeal of being known... problem is i don't really think it's doing that yet but βοΈ we ball. Hence why i'm writing dw post now instead of actually drawing or writing or doing something productive because i simply do not have the energy to do anything else π
but onto the reflections!
stickers
i'd been meaning to clean up/finish revamping some old sticker designs for a long time now and i finally printed out new stickers over the weekend!!
out of everything i've done over the past few weeks.... i am soooooo happy that i finally figured out how to print things correctly. God i'm an idiot i can't believe it took me so long but also whatever it doesn't matter because what matters is that i figured it out!! the last few times i'd attempted to make stickers... well first of all i used to have SO much trouble with my autoblade not working and i'd have to take it out and manually adjust the depth because it wasn't clicking properly, but thankfully this time it just worked??? i really didn't do anything but maybe with one of my millionth restarts it just fixed itself.
second of all... why are printers not default set to "best" printing quality πππ i did that, set the paper to glossy photo paper, and then intuitively finetuned some of the color settings (a bit less magenta, a bit more yellow, and a bit less intensity mainly) and it really made a worldddd of difference. except for some difficulties with deep/vibrant teals/greens everything genuinely looked exactly as it did on my monitor which i genuinely did not know was possible like i had resigned myself to just having horrible color calibration. i'm so ππ§‘π§‘π§‘
anyway before i put everything into my silhouette i also finally LAMINATED them first, and honestly i detest laminating things because i'm so bad at using the self-adhesive sheets and i get really stressed out smoothing out air bubbles but it worked out decently. i'm also an idiot because for the first batch i used a whole sheet and then tried to cut the edges around my sticker page instead of cutting the sheet first to only have enough to cover the sticker area without the registration mark π but we made it out in the end !!!
i put my robotter and 81 helmet stickers on my water bottle and they lichr look so good and the lamination has worked so well in helping them hold up with any water. also makes the texture so much more pleasant... i'm TT___TT !
honestly i never thought i'd be capable of making stickers or any kind of mini merch like ever... i remember in 2019 i wanted to make txt stickers to give out at the nyc show i went to with bia and meg but i hated everything and only finished like 2 before giving up. but over the past few months i've just been organically developing my 814 cheeb style + making sure i draw all my doodles on 300+ dpi canvases so i can always convert them to stickers if i want to and i'm much more satisfied with what i have now compared to my first test batch however many months ago. a big thing i wanted to do was finally Standardize my oscar style because i feel like he always looks wildly different in everything i draw, and i feel like i'm still a ways off but we're getting there... mainly when i draw 814 the things i focus on the most are (in order of importance):
oscar: hair swoop, bunny teeth, straight/tapered/v expressive brows, under-eye blush, round cheeks, pale cool tone, warm brown hair, and then ears i do plain rounded ones to contrast with lando's. i also like giving him a little tuft of hair at the top of his head sometimes for that sprout look π±
lando: elf ears, warm tanner tone, cool brown curly hair with a bit of a side fade, thicker eyebrows, triangular-ish eyes, and heart mouth β€οΈ honestly all kind of equally important i think lando's features are quite distinct... for lando's hair i also almost always give a little curl sticking out at the front just because i think it's cute idk :3c
anyway i have a few things to fix with my designs (mainly i realized i fucked up lando's helmet LOL also i'm going to make the background lighter since cmyk teal doesn't really work) and i might add a few designs to print out but otherwise i am quite satisfied with this batch... in the grand scheme of things and given my personal artistic limitations ofc. problem is i'm too shy so i don't think i'll actually give them out to anyone...
charms
baby's first charms ?!?!?! this was my first time ever making charms and i learned a lot ! i've always wanted to try my hand at making my own but i honest to god didn't even know vograce existed until like 3 months ago and i didn't realize how cheap it is to get them produced? figuring out how to set up the file optimally was a big part, and also because i wanted to make a matching set trying to get them similarly sized/posed was another thing. there are a lot of little things i want to fix about these designs if i were ever to make another batch (or maybe i'll turn them into stickers too), like just some color editing + fixing mistakes on lando's flip side (remembered to flip the mclaren logo on the microphone but not his shirt π) but either way i'm quite satisfied with the quality and i think it all came out pretty well. i spent sooo long finetuning these that it's kind of embarrassing and i really could never be a proper merch artist but this was just for Me and my 2.3 friends so it is what it is !
i think next time i'll also go for bigger charms because that's what my taste is... and it's super affordable either way. also they don't have orange as one of the clasp options (and there are like 10 color options... sob) so i just went for a plain lobster clasp, but i have my own orange ones and i need to figure out how to swap them out... i have pliers but i'm scared. but yes another milestone achieved π
photocards
save me koala pc holder save me π !!! there have been too many good photos lately for me to not make another batch... also now that i understand the concept of printing high quality and realize that this is why my gradients were coming out with interrupted white lines beforehand (π) i wanted to remake some for that reason as well. i also redesigned the 4/81 individual driver card backs with their 2024 helmets and those printed much better this time.......
i think i will always have the most emotional attachment to jp double podium selfie pc though π she has quite literally traveled the world with me
my dream is to design an acrylic pc holder............ i actually tried planning one out but i gave up asdflkhdf. and i want to make my own kisscut deco sticker sheets because honestly why are they so expensive but i'm awful at the style required for that. one day though
crochet
does anyone remember how in my last post i was like "i don't think i can ever learn to crochet this shit is impossible" and it's because i tried to learn how to crochet by immediately watching a pattern tutorial and didn't even know how to chain πππ anyway i watched an actual video on how to make a single stitch and fixed my tension and eventually figured it out. what was i on about
of course i still have a serious skill issue but i'm really glad i pushed through... the main things i wanted to make were 1) a sweater for my koaloscar plushie and 2) a keychain plush of sorts that i could attach to my bag... and i sort of kind of accomplished that !
the sweater was made 48 hours after i learned to crochet so it's a mess but i was so pleased with myself for learning how to hack an approximate mclaren logo by reverse engineering a nike swoosh tutorial on youtube π i think i can make it look more accurate by sewing it better next time... i actually redid the sweater and the second version looks a lot tidier but i haven't added the logo yet.
then i managed to make my first plush and he is so fucked up because i followed a written tutorial and it explained NOTHING i was fighting for my life my god. but credit for the design idea goes to tuva who inspired me to make the blue/orange koala in the first place and has also been such a massive help in general as i figure out how to do this crochet shit... i sewed everything horribly but overall i'm really proud of myself for actually finishing him and making a recognizable-ish looking koala thing. however i still need to attach a keychain to it except i'm nervous of messing it up so i haven't done that yet aslfdkhasdf. maybe later tonight if i can regain some energy... TT do not recommend having med-induced fatigue while also struggling with chronic insomnia and a preexisting sleep disorder because it messes you up so bad. i'm so freaking tired all the time but i can't even sleep properly...... huhu
magic rings are still the worst to set up but it's a lot less painful now than it was the first few times. i want to start more projects but i'm not really sure what to do next... but i'll figure it out at some point
β
that's about it... i want to do other stuff but i'm kind of blocked in general lately idk. too tired to do anything... i don't really want to write but i want these two ideas i've had rotting away in my docs to be realized which is Annoying me because they will never see the light of day if i don't commit to them. alas. and i still need to learn BLENDER i want to make figurines soooo bad. i mean not Make figurines but like design them and spin them around on my screen you know what i mean
also domodachi is good...... kim namjoon i wasn't quite familiar with your game
ok girlrock out
no subject
Date: 2024-06-01 01:09 pm (UTC)