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 :(

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

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.

Currently working on...

... my entry for SDNTGD season 3. I know I'm not allowed to show my entry before it's published (although I haven't even finished yet) but here's a little preview of the graphic:

As you can see, I still need to do the part I'm so bad at, the hair. But I really like what I've made so far!

Oops, I also need to add some highlights on the neck.


What do you think so far?

Maria/mgirl07

UPDATE: I got a tablet for christmas, so I'm using it for the hair!

New graphic..

Yep, after a looong time I finally decided to make another graphic. I used a reference pic from a post on The Voice (THIS ONE).

Some parts need work, but it's not my worst. I'm actually just a little bit proud of it :-P
I changed some of the things from the original photo like the hair shape (drawing curly/fluffy hair without a tablet is torture) and the dress fabric and shading.
Opinions?
(if anyone bothers to comment at all)

Maria/mgirl07

Preview of PunkBrunnette5's graphic

I'm working on it right now... it's not finished but a preview of what it's going to look like.

As you can see, I've made the legs, shorts, hands and most of the sweater. The bag, face, hair and right arm still need work.
And I know that the face is sort of blurry, but I don't know why :/

Opinions?

Maria/mgirl07

Wow, it's a long time since my last post...

The last time I posted here was, like, 14 days ago! And the weird thing is, I haven't even really missed it! Yesterday I started working on a graphic because I was bored, but I don't really enjoy making them anymore. I also don't enjoy Stardoll, I won't be so active now.

Yup, that's me^^
You can click to enlarge, but it won't look as good. I have made a small mistake with the hair layers.

What do you think?

Maria/mgirl07

depi2's graphic

I think this is my best so far! When I will add the text the banner will be ready!
What do you think?
Maria/mgirl07

First attempt at background?

Yes, the title says it all. I have tried to make a graphic of a beach, just for fun. I didn't use any reference image for the beach, only for the palm leaf. It's NOT finished yet because I think the leaves need some more detail (I was in a very lazy mood that day) and obviously a beach needs seashells and pebbles and stuff like that, but how do I draw them?
Here is the unfinished beach graphic:

If I ever finish it I might use it for a graphic.

As you can see, I've used many of my program's 'childish' functions that a good graphic designer should never use... you should be able to make the sand look natural and 3D yourself without using the 'textures' tool, and although a self-made gradient takes more time it looks better than when it's made with the gradient tool!
I still like it, although it's not perfect.

Maria/mgirl07

Graphic from drawing!

This is the one that got deleted (see last post) but I made it again! It's made out of a drawing I made of my mom (she asked me to draw her new haircut), and I decided to make a graphic out of it!
The drawing (made by me):

A photo of my mom: (I did NOT draw after the photo, it was taken when I was done drawing)

And FINALLY the graphic!

What do you think? :D

Mari/mgirl07

New version of face graphic

Earlier today I finished a graphic of my face, and now I changed a couple of things. What do you think about the changes? Better or worse?

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The 'before' eyes were not very nice, but these look a bit creepy. The mouth is darker and looks more natural. I have changed the mouth shading a little but to make it look like I am smiling. Also, all the shading is brighter and more defined.

My first face graphic!

Yep, I decided it was time for me to try making real faces in graphics. But then, what face should I make a graphic of? I am not obsessed with any specific singer, model, etc. And chocolate cakes don't have faces. So I decided to use a photo of myself.

This is my graphical recreation:

I am very happy about everything but the eyes. If you zoom in, they are very rough and unclear. And for some reason it looks like I have a very sad "why don't I get a cookie? :( " face expression.

This is the original photo. I have darker lips (which is annoying because I wish they were as pale as on the graphic version), unclear skin, and ugly clothes. But at least I am smiling.

What do you think is better? The graphic version or the photo?
I would put up a poll but I'm too busy. I really need to hurry!

Maria/mgirl07