Just got the best necklace ever!!!

Yup. I bought it on Etsy about 11 days ago, and finally got it today. I'm talking about my Deathly Hallows necklace! Take a look:

ISN'T IT JUST AMAZING AND ASDFGHJKLMNBCSAAQWERTYUIOLMNBFDERTYJ...

Ok. I need to calm down. Why did I even make a post about this?

P.S I know my hand is sort of burned, I accidentally touched a burning hot stove yesterday. :D
P.P.S Remember I made a similar necklace in one of my drawings?

A little preview

I forgot to add this in my last post, but here is a sneak peek of what I'm working on right now. The main focus of this is a tattoo (mentioned in my previous post) that I have just started working on.

This is made 100% by me. Do you like it so far?

Maria

Rapunzel gone hipster :D

This is something I made when I was really bored in my Tangled obsession period (if you visited my Stardoll account recently, you might have noticed Pascal the chameleon sitting on my shoulder).

I don't have much experience with editing, it's very different from drawing something yourself because you need to match the style of the original picture. I think it ended up quite well considering it was my first time, but what do you think?

Here's a version in black and white:

I think it looks better, but you can't see the colours which was part of the editing.
And here is the original image so you can compare:

At first it looks like I only changed the clothes and gave Pascal a hat, but there are many small details too. For example, the arm is barely visible on the original picture so I had to draw one myself, and as I said before, try to use the same style of shading. Did I succeed?
Pascal had to be moved down, because the original sleeve is puffy. I also tried to make the hair ombre and adding a green stripe. I don't really like the stripe, it has a weird shape, but other than that it didn't turn out too bad.
The tattoo is a mix of the magic flower and the kingdom flag, which I have been practicing on in the last few weeks. I can draw it much better now, and it will probably come out in a tattoo in my new drawing (spoiler alert!).
By the way, the t-shirt is something I found on Polyvore (and instantly fell in love, but it's way too expensive for me to buy).

Soo, what do you think about this edit? Don't be afraid to comment with your opinion, I don't bite! :D
Maria

No, I'm not dead...

I'm sorry for leaving this blog inactive and dead for... how long? A month? I have about a million things I would like to post/ask you readers about, I'll try to do that over the next few days so you won't have to read one big, fat post.

I'll start with a drawing I made around the 5th of June for a friend.

She requested the clothes, background etc. And I know that it looks like the girl is falling over to one side. I tried to fix it and change the upper half of the body for, like, 4 or 5 times (I'm not even exaggerating) and it looked much better then before, but when I finished I could see that it was still not good enough.
What I like about this is the face, the dress and most of all the background. I've tried to make a similar one for later use, but it just doesn't look as good as this one.

I think I'll put the next thing in a separate post, which you will hopefully see today or tomorrow.

What do you think about this graphic/drawing thingy? :)
Maria

P.S. One of the reasons for my inactivity was that I started working on a new blog (mentioned in my last post), so I wanted to post all these new things there instead of spending time on this one. But suddenly I just lost interest for it and it's just standing there, locked for visitors, collecting dust. Do you think I should continue with it and use it as a place to post drawings, edits, real life things and thoughts/rants? Or is this blog enough?

kcv183's graphic (finally finished!)

I'm sorry for taking so long time with the graphic, but today I've finally found time to finish it.

I know the shading is choppy and it's sort of meh but I tried to do my best.
Hope you like it! :)

Maria

When I finish the graphic requests I have I'm planning to start a new, NOT Stardoll-related blog with graphics, drawings, photos, real-life related things and all sorts of other stuff. I promise to make it more interesting and active than this blog!
What do you think about this idea? Because I can't do it if it doesn't get any followers :(

Almost finished

I just need to shade the skin and shoes then it's done. What do you think so far? Is the shading too choppy?

Maria

P.S. sorry for the great delay, I wish I could make it up by an amazing graphic but this is not really worth the wait :(

An old drawing to keep the blog active

I won't explain much because I'll go to bed early and use ALL DAY (or as much of it as I'm allowed to) on graphics tomorrow.
I'm sorry for the bad quality, I can't be bothered to turn on the printer and actually scan any of my drawings.

I really like the pose, clothes, hair and stuff. I'm not very good at backgrounds though.

Btw is it fine that I do little updates like this or should I only post every time I have something REALLY important to say? What do you prefer? :)

Maria

Right now I'm working on...

I know, not much is done yet. I'm really busy at school, and I had a lot of homework for the weekend (and used the rest of the time to relax) but I promise to work more on it as soon as I can.

This was just to keep the blog updated :)

Maria

3D stuff that I've been working on lately

I haven't forgotten about the graphic requests, but I have had very little time after starting at school again. (This week I went to school for the first time in over a month because of something called a lockout, a conflict where the teachers of the whole country aren't allowed to go to work.) It wasn't easy to get used to it after such a long break, and we have much more homework after missing a month of lessons.
I have some time for drawing in the bus and in the breaks at school, but making graphics looks really weird to someone who hasn't seen it before, especially when you are using a reference image and you switch between your version and the original.
I used this time to get better a using Google SketchUp, which is a free 3D drawing program. This is what I've been working on for, like, the last 3 days. (it's obviously not finished, the house needs a kitchen and bathroom and I need to colour the front door) Other than that, I've left some of the walls transparent on purpose, so you can look in. I might add a roof when the house is finished, but then it won't be as easy to see the details.

This was the first time I tried to record something on the screen, did it turn out all right?

And what do you think about my house so far? :D

Maria

P.S. I have just realized that the video quality is very bad, but I don't know if I can do anything about it. I'm sorry!

Graphic/digital art/sketch/whatever-you-call-it tutorial

As I promised in my last post, this is a tutorial of my most recent graphic. I'll try to keep it short and simple. If you have any questions, you are always welcome to ask.

What you need:
- A drawing/editing program. I use Gimp for most of my graphics, but I used Pixlr (Editor) for this one. It's online and free, so you don't have to install anything.
- A tablet. I don't know if you can do it without, it will be really difficult.


1. Idea/reference

You need to know what exactly you are going to draw, or at least have some sort of idea or inspiration. It could be a photo like the one above - I was originally going for the romantic/gothic theme like on the picture but changed my mind later. It was very useful to get the anatomy right, though.
You can use a photo as a reference if you don't want to draw the outline yourself.
If you don't have a photo you could make a quick sketch of what you want to draw - but this is optional.

IMPORTANT STUFF!!! + new graphic, tutorial coming soon

I might just as well start with the "IMPORTANT STUFF!!!".

Only two people have entered in the raffle so far and it ends tomorrow, so I decided to change it a bit. Now there won't be one winner, but everyone who applies gets a graphic!

I canceled graphic requests around September, I think, but you can now apply again until next Friday, 3rd of May.

I will make the graphics in order of requests, so the two people who entered the raffle will get theirs first.

You sign up the same way as before, you only need to:

1. Be a follower of this blog (hehe :-P)

2. Comment with your name and a way I can contact you (Stardoll, email or anything else)

You can apply in the comment section of this post or the raffle, I will check both.

I will send the people who applied an email/friend request asking what they want the graphic to look like, if you don't answer within a week I will cancel the request.

Hope you liked this change :)

*new topic*

I just finished a new graphic, and I'm going to make a tutorial of it (it will be in my next post). It's just to show my way of making graphics, I'm not telling anyone to do it the same way because we all have different techniques and opinions of what looks best, and I'm far from a pro myself.

Anyway, here it is:

It's drawn 100% by myself and has taken about 865432340987654323456789 hours to finish. The shading is choppy, but other than that I'm really pleased with the result.

It's not meant to look like a certain person (does it reming you of anyone though?) but some pars of it represent me. For example the tattoo, because I love music and the Deathly Hallows necklace because... well, isn't that pretty obvious? :D I'm going to buy one that looks like this in real life, on Etsy.com. Long purple hair because I like hair in unnatural colors like bright red, turquoise and - you guessed it - purple. A neon yellow top because I see neon yellow all over and I'm starting to like it.

I also wanted to draw a cat, wolf or unicorn on the top so the graphic would be even more personalized but there's not much place for it.

That's all for now, I think. The tutorial will be up very soon.

Opinions/critique on the graphic? Did you like the change?

And don't forget to tick a box below, it's much easier than to write a comment!

Maria

Birthday raffle!

I'm really proud of my new cupcake graphic, made to fit the blog's new theme :P

As I promised earlier today, I am making a small raffle to celebrate 1 year of this blog and of me making graphics.

And as I promised, (sadly) the prize won't be big: 1 graphic/drawing/sketch/whatever you want made by me.
I will contact the winner about what it should look like (if they have a picture they want to recreate, if it should have a Stardoll face, if you want it to have outlines like my latest graphics and so on).


If you want to enter:

- You need to be a follower of this blog
- Write a comment with your name and a way I can contact you. (Stardoll, email, Skype or anything else)
- I am going to add a new tutorial soon because last time was about half a year ago, but I can't decide if it should be about graphics or pencil drawings. What do you prefer? (this is optional but it would be a great help)

Yes, that's all!

You have 1 week to enter, until Friday the 26th.


Hope you will enter :)

- Maria

Happy birthday to this blog!

Yup, my portfolio/private blog/asdfghjkl is now 1 year old. That's why there's a new layout and banner. Hope you like it :)

And here is the graphic from the first banner and my latest:

Do you see any improvement? (I really hope you do because I did my absolute best on this last one)

The graphic to the right has taken me about 2-3 hours I think? and it's made 100% by me without a reference pic or anything. And it has a big, fat outline because I like outlines, if you have a problem with that you can go away :)

Btw it's made on Pixlr.

I think I'll make some sort of raffle/contest thing later today, but you can't expect a big prize, sorry. (I don't want it to be Stardoll-related so the best I can give is a graphic or something)

Please comment on what you think about the new graphic or layout or anything else you want to say :)

Maria

UPDATE: I forgot to say that all the swirls on the banner are also made by me, I'm so proud of them haha :D

A graphic of.. ME!

(I did this before - half a year ago or something. But this time I needed a profile picture for my account on DrawingNow.com and didn't want to use a photo or old graphic.)

Soooo... here it is:

It's not meant to be a a really detailed graphic with 900000 layers of shading and stuff, I expected it to be a plain 20-minute thing with about one shading layer (and maybe an extra one for the hair. and some highlights. and a shadow. In the end it took MUCH more time than I expected.)
I like this simple technique, because if I will work like a real professional graphic designer some day it's important to work fast and not use too much time for small details. Graphics are made for cartoons and advertisements, so they don't have to look 100% realistic.

Anyway, here is the original photo:

I think it's better than my version, although it's still not too bad.

Opinions? :)
Am I improving?
And did any of what I wrote actually make sense (because I'm in a hurry)?

Maria

Dear graphic, please jump off a virtual cliff...

... but please leave your hair behind.

I tried to make a graphic out of an old drawing, but now when it's finished I really, really hate it. In fact so much that I won't even show it here. I'll show the only part that I like, the hair.

It's very choppy in some places and huge so DON'T TRY TO OPEN THE FULL SIZE IMAGE. You have been warned.
But at least it's not that bad, I might use it for another graphic later.

And I'm getting tired of the banner, so I need make a new one sometime soon.

Do you like this hair?

- Maria

Harry Potter is taking over Stardoll :-O

If there was a most-random-blog-post-in-the-world award, this post would win. For sure. But loom what I found in the Starplaza today:

There's nothing special with the shirt itself (except for its ridiculous price, I wonder if anyone would actually buy that)... but look at its name! It stands for Defense Against The Dark Arts (or probably something else, but this is the first thing that jumped into my mind.
And no, it's not because I'm so HP-obsessed that I need therapy, I've actually started reading some other amazing books. I'll make a post about that here or on The Voice some day.

Sorry, I have no drawings or graphics to show today, only a half-finished one and it looks so bad that I might just as well start over again. Or actually I have many drawings but I really can't be bothered to go all the 5 meter-long way to the printer and use two minutes of my life on scanning them. I'm just that lazy.

I'm sorry if I just wasted two minutes of your day, I'm just so bored that I finally decided to keep my blog active :D

Maria

When magazines come alive

A weird title, I know. It's the title of a drawing/graphic/whateveryoucallitasdfghjkl I've been working on.

As you can see, the model notices a KitKat on the table and it's so delicious that she becomes alive and reaches out of the magazine to take it. :-P (watch out your magazines don't do this at home lol)

It's made 100% by me, and I decided to keep the outline/sketch because it gives the graphic a special cartoon-ish effect. The background is not very creative, but it works nicely as a contrast to the bright red chocolate.

The only mistake is that the KitKat is too small in comparison to the magazine, just pretend it's a KitKat Mini. Problem solved.


Opinions PLEASE? :D

Maria

Practice graphic

Hello, people. No, I'm not dead. But it's been so long since I made a graphic that I decided to make a new one. It's not a big thing, just a dress I found on Topshop for practice.

It turned out even worse than I expected, my expectations were probably too high lol.
But I still like it a little bit, the cute necklace almost makes up for the horrible shading.

What do you think?

Maria


EDIT: I lowered the opacity a bit because the shading looks too choppy. Do you think this version is better?

It's not as bright, but the shading is blended in more smoothly.

Do you like the new makeover?

I know, the colour scheme and stuff is similar to before, I'm just not very good at blog layouts. But I like that the banner is actually ME. I used this picture of myself:

This is hopefully not the end of the changes. Look forward to more updates and stuff tomorrow.

Opinions pleeeaaaaseeeee??! :3

Maria/mgirl07

New makeover coming today or tomorrow! :D

I feel bad for not updating this blog for so long, because I have a lot of new stuff to share with you readers (if anyone is still reading this, of course)! As I said in the title, this blog is getting a makeover as soon as I finish the banner that I am working on right now.
Until then, you can get an update of my graphics since the last update. I will put the drawings in a separate post, I'm too lazy to scan them all right now.

Now, before you ask anything, I made this for a project in Danish. We were working with a book and one of the tasks was to write a part of the story from another character's point of view. We were working in a group, and I did all the illustrations. So, yeah. I know, the quality of the shading itself is horrible and asdfghjklmnbvcxsertyutrewxcvbn but it's still better than a barely visible pencil-drawn illustration like by all the other groups. I like the trees though. :D
And I forgot to mention that I drew it all by myself, no reference pics.

The rest is my entries for SDNTGD Task 1 and 2 (I was eliminated after that lol)

Ok, I agree with the judges. The background is horrible. But it was my first time using a tablet - for the hair and dress - and I think it works quite well.

I understand why I was eliminated, this is better than my previous graphics but it isn't good enough anyway. There are some places that look really awkward and wrong, although for my first time drawing fur, it didn't come out as bad as I feared (the fur, everything else is much worse).
Thank you SDNTGD for giving me this opportunity, I know I'm not good enough now but maybe some day I'll become a professional graphic/animation artist - yes, I'm starting to take the dream seriously.


Yeah, that was all. But expect MUCH more from me soon - I've decided to make this into a personal blog and not only graphics, so maybe I will also start writing real life-related posts and stuff like that.

  - Maria

Oh, and you're still welcome to comment/react in any way and show that you are actually reading (or at least skimming through) this. :3

Random drawing made on Pixlr

Ugh, I haven't updated this blog for so long time now. I have so many new drawings and stuff to show, but I'm too lazy to scan them all. I made this sketch right now and I actually like it :)

The only problem is that I forgot to add a new layer, so this is on a white background and I can't make a graphic out of it :/

What do you think? :D

- Maria

New drawings for Pottermore

Hi. It's really late but I can't fall asleep, so I'll just post this now.
On Pottermore, I read that wizards do not have any specific fashion, only the traditional clothes and pointed hats, otherwise they just wear normal muggle clothing (you might have noticed I'm talking about Harry Potter lol), so I decided to create my own. I ended up making a collection of three outfis (maybe I'll design more). I've uploaded it on the website, but I'll also post it here.

On the third one, the shirt is based off a 'real' Quidditch uniform (I googled it).
So, what do you think? A good idea or just terribly sad? :'D

Maria

PS: if you are too lazy to comment you could at least pick one of the 'reactions' or whatever t's called at the bottom of the post, it only takes one click but means a lot to me! Because you see, this blog gets quite many views but I can't actually know what the readers think about it unless you say it!

PPS: if you also have a Pottermore account, you can add me. :) My user is MahoganyStorm15658. And do you know how to make the Swelling Solution? Every time I reach the very last step, to heat it for 10 seconds or something, it says I have heated it wrong BEFORE it reached the right temperature! I'm so mad at it, but I need to make it so I can open a door in Snape's office and get ingredients for Polyjuice potion to get into the Slytherin common room :D Sounds complicated, right?