Vivi22's miscellaneous artsy crap

First off, all due credit to Levian for making the blog post that got me started making these a few years back: The Wall - Blogs - Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums

Anyway, I stopped for a while, but picked it up again a few weeks ago. I found the process of making these somewhat calming for some reason. Maybe because I can do it while my brain pays attention to a show, movie, web video or whatever. I guess it's somewhat like meditation for me, which has been nice lately as my mind has a tendency to race a lot (in fact, it's racing right now making even focusing long enough to post this somewhat challenging). Anyway, I figured I've been making tons of them so why not share some picks. Made one into a magnet for my wife and a couple of keychains, one of which went to my sister. I'm planning to start making some more original stuff soon as well.

(SPOILER)http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psb71eb2d8.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps908bf35d.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps3aca49dc.jpg
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Nice! I really wanna make a few of these, they're so nerdy but they look awesome.

Cool! I'm not the only one :D

I love beading, and it's indeed very relaxing. I haven't done it in, like, 6 months. and now I want to do it again. :|

Some new ones:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps0864b742.jpg

And a WIP for the FFIV fans here. It's actually a bit farther along now, but I ran out of black. I'll update it again when I've got it finished:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psa485673b.jpg

Duuude! That last one is so intricate!

The sprite from the game actually used four shades of purple too. I had to make do with two shades of purple and white, but I think it's turned out quite nice. Those four sections are less than half of it too. I think I'm going to make some of the battle sprites from FFIV after and hang them on the wall above my computer desk.

Unfortunately the two places where I get my beads around here had no bags of black in stock so I've got to sort black out of a bucket of 22,000 beads. Next time I see black in stock I'm buying every bag.

I used to make so many Sonic the Hedgehogs with these things as a kid. I'd love to do it now but it's one of those things that I never get around too...

These are awesome though.

Also, because, relevant:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMg7K7QJ7g8

Is it sad that when I saw the large, flat surface that person had I was immediately jealous? I've been having to iron Golbez in rows because I don't have a decently large surface to really do it on, then fuse the rows together. Haven't ironed the back yet though since that's where a lot of the strength is going to be. I wish I had a nice big surface to do it on (aside from the floor which doesn't work with a needy cat walking around), but chunks it will have to be. Plus I only have four peg boards anyway.

Did a Cecil and Kain today just to break up the monotony of finishing Golbez. Then I did another peg boards worth of Golbez and I have 31 black beads left after managing to sort maybe 500 out of the 22,000 bead container I bought. Now I just have to wait for more of them to be in stock locally because I'm not buying more containers to sort.

Here's a pick of Kain in his action pose and Cecil anyway. I'll probably wait on posting any more until I have the full party and Golbez done. Luckily I have some Warmachine models to paint until I find some more black.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psb0558f23.jpg

These are real good!

Vivi these are super cool! :D
I've been thinking of taking up cross-stitch again and making some cross-stitch sprites would probably be doable!

Thanks guys. I was out picking up some model paint, stopped by a store to see if they had any black beads and walked away with 4,000. Wasn't sure I'd find any in stock that fast.

Guess it's time to spend the day watching bad horror movies and making sprites. :)

EDIT: Got Golbez finished and fused together. It's the first really big sprite I've done and good god was it the single biggest pain in the ass to iron I've ever seen. Individual beads would refuse to fuse or would just barely fuse and break free as I tried to handle it. Had an a good chunk of an entire peg board get jostled and have to be fixed entirely before I could iron it. I've learned some good stuff to help me do it better next time, but I spent the better part of the last three hours dicking around with this thing. Still have to fuse most of the back too, but it can wait since I've got a drum student coming in a few minutes and I am damn frustrated with it right now.

Those are freakin' AWESOME. Especially since you opted to put them in the "action" pose!

I made a bunch of these once! Glad to see someone is carrying on the tradition!

Golbez is done and on the wall. And none of you get to see him until these three are ironed tomorrow:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps2469f6a8.jpg

And done.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psa823376d.jpg

Wow. :O

Vivi that's great. Now I want to dig out my perler beads again.

Do it Pike!

Niiiiice!

Gotta make the background to mount 'em on now!

I thought about it, but it's so much black. :Oo:

My goodness. You got some skills boy!

You should make Vivi next. :vivi:

I've been taking a break from the bead sprites for a bit to paint some Warmachine models.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psaed040e1.jpg

Got my Warmachine army made so it's time to get back to some bead sprites. I'm at a loss for what I want to attempt next, so I'll take requests. I only ask that it not be Golbez sized because that was a bitch and I'd like to do some more small ones for a bit.

WHERE IS YOUR ARMY?

I want to see it. :)

Since you asked, here's my just barely legal Warmachine army:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps4906fc99.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps2ca3a8b3.jpg

Sadly, I don't think my troutty phone camera really does them justice. Since they're basically imperialist Russia with giant steampunk robots and a red colour scheme, I'm putting the Red Son Superman logo on all of my robots that I get. Just feels right.

I think I'm actually happiest with the detail on the grey capes though. They turned out really nice. It's kind of interesting to look at them in the order I painted them up close because there's some clear improvement, despite painting everything over the course of five days.

Completely unrelated to bead sprites again (maybe I should just change the thread title at this point), but I've been wanting a new tattoo for a few months now and inspiration finally hit yesterday. It's not as clean as I'd like since I free handed the whole thing, but I like what came out of it. Might tweak it a bit more, and I need to come up with a colour scheme, but this is more or less what I'm going to get on my right forearm.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps6c524d21.jpg

omg are you going to get this as a tattoo? I like it! What is it? Is it an alien?

More of an art deco robot really. I became somewhat obsessed with that style of design in the last month or so.

Ohhh, I see it!

also it kindof makes me think of this:

(SPOILER)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IAXbhbQSul...hristopher.jpg

Yeah, now that you show me that the mouth and cheeks I guess look quite similar to Iron Man.

I've been playing around with colours a little bit, but it's tricky since I don't have photoshop or anything and kind of suck at painting things that aren't models.I was actually thinking of something like this though: http://media-cache-ec7.pinterest.com...45c7d872b6.jpg

Go for the bronze colouring for most of it with more of a copper tone and some black here or there for highlights. I think I want the eyes to be blue though, almost like they're glowing. I need to enlist the help of someone better at this stuff than I if I want to see what it looks like though.

EDIT: Actually, I'm now somewhat torn on colour scheme because I really like this:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7rjd7i0yjc...rmachine-9.jpg

EDIT2: Yeah, I'm pretty much sold on the second one.

Been doing some more miniature painting in the last couple of months. The first two are actually the same model but some of the parts are magnetized so I can switch between them. We've got some snipers after that. The last guy is a complete homicidal maniac with an axe named Lola according to the fiction for the game. Hence the pile of corpses (the one he's standing on being on of his own men) and the copious amounts of blood.

It felt a little strange to spend several hours doing a really nice paint job, then cover up a lot of it with red paint.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps234defb9.jpg
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http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psa1c0ca0e.jpg

aaaaaah that's so cool! I love all the detail and the blood from the ax-wound.

Thanks Shorty. I'd say the detail is the hardest part to get right sometimes. It's hard to tell in the pics since there isn't much reference for size and the models themselves are really detailed, but these things are tiny. The snipers for example are maybe 4cm tall and their bases are 3cm across. The Butcher in the bottom pic (I kid you not, that's what the guy is called) has a 4cm base and is only about 6cm tall including corpse pile. My hand isn't always steady and the lighting in my apartment is typically awful, so there's often much redoing as I paint models.

Viviiiiii!! I want to interview you about your wonderful fan creations!!!

No promises on it being interesting. :p

I like your bonny little bead things and you'll fit nicely into my 'Ultimate FF Fans' somewhere :D

I'm definitely up for it. Just don't ask me about my thoughts on FFXIII since they won't fit into an "Ultimate FF Fans" feature. :D

But speaking of beads, I need to get some more bead sprites out. I was part way through the FFI classes at one point, and I'd like to do another giant one sometime (though I may have to actually sell the next one to justify that).

troutty cell phone pic of the new tattoo? Don't mind if I do:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps9e923dc4.jpg

I love it, I love it! Couldn't have turned out better <3 Did it take long?

Took about 3 straight hours. I was so glad when he said it was almost finished because I'd past the point of endorphins making me kind of numb to the pain about twenty minutes before that. :D

I took the bandage off a few hours ago and good god was it swollen. It's feeling much better now though.

That looks awesome, although I'm now nervous for mine if you said it hurt really bad! Mine is gonna take 2 and a half hours apparently!

I was exaggerating a bit. It hurt, but it wasn't that bad. It hurts a bit worse by the end because after that long everything's pretty raw and swollen, but even then it's pretty tolerable. :)

I'm looking forward to some friends reactions. I made a passing mention to some that I was getting a tattoo soon, but the only people who saw the design were my wife, sister and parents. None of my other tattoos are normally visible either, so I imagine some people will be a bit surprised when they see a new one covering half my forearm.

On the plus side, I think my rock drummer cred went up a bit. :D

Heh.

Nice, too bad my parents won't let me get a tattoo.

If my parents had their way I probably wouldn't have any. Luckily for me they stopped having any say years ago. :)

Another Warmachine model. I finished the paint job over the course of the last two weeks. I've got plans to make the base really pretty. And by pretty I mean I'm going to buy some individual pieces of a model from one of my friends armies, customize it so it's just his torso lying on the ground with blood and entrails everywhere, then cover everything else with snow. I'll post more pics, including some shots showing his size compared to my other models (hint: this guy is huge) when it's 100% finished.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps9116873a.jpg

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psa7482185.jpg

I love the work you're doing Vivi, and as such gave you a honorary mention in my community update. I love the detail you put in these!

Thanks Formy. Honestly, if I could get paid to just sit around all day making bead sprites and assembling/painting wargaming models I'd be a pretty happy camper. It's nice to just sit down at my computer desk, start up a movie or something and just get to work for a few hours straight.

I must admit that this guys size made things a bit tedious sometimes despite him being so cool. Doing the red and metal base coats took a while since he's so big, but once I got into the detail work the time flew by.I know I said I'd wait until he was totally finished to show some size comparisons, but I had my other box of models sitting beside me, so why wait?

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps35c88ac4.jpg

smurf me, that is a monster. I used to do 40k as a dorky teenager and I thought painting the tanks in that was a bitch!

Great job on the painting, btw.

I smurfing love it.

Love the miniatures!

Thanks guys. I decided to take some step by step pics of the whole sculpting process. The downside is that the putty I use takes about half a day to dry so it might be next week before I'm finished and can show everyone how it took shape.

Ah, who am I kidding? I've never possessed an abundance of patience.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psa5747b4a.jpg
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That last one is so intricate!

It's hard to see, but there's actually a spine and stomach underneath the torn flesh of the torso. If the weather is good I'm going to try and get these primed tomorrow at the very least.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps014425e0.jpg

Took a while longer than I expected. I had the body parts half primed then it rained for more than a week straight. Eventually I just caved and finished the rest of the priming with brush on primer. Add this to the list of stuff I painstakingly painted then covered up in red.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps4b69a132.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps00f8486d.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps45655f59.jpg
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http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...pscabf58c2.jpg
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NEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRD.

I bloody love it. :D

Started a new Warmachine army. Most of them will be in a Portal colour scheme, and I have the first model that's finished in that scheme here. The other is a really fast warcaster with wings. So, naturally, I decided to paint her in a Red Bull racing colour scheme.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps557fbf08.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psa3fef811.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps60e48115.jpg

And as usual, my camera phone flash washes everything out. :exdee:

I demand you get the word "crap" removed from the topic title.

It's good. Real good. :cool:

In my part of the world crap is a synonym for stuff and things.

Also, thanks! And I want to add that painting things white is a huge pain in the ass. Small mistakes and shaky edges show so much more than with most other colours.

Been busy this week.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psd568d052.jpg
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Shame the lighting sucks. Not 100% complete, but almost there.

Well?

Keep me updated, damn you. I like things that people give care and attention to. :)

I have painted a bunch of stuff over the last few months. I'll have to take some pictures.

This is a Doom Reaver:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps42987d9b.jpg

They are convicts chained to Swords which whisper to them constantly and drive them mad, making them excellent murder machines who will not stop killing until there's nothing left to kill. Even if that means killing each other and allied soldiers. In his madness, this one has skinned his own torso.

Very nice

I don't think those words have ever been used to describe a Doom Reaver before. Certainly not when I'm using them against my friends. :exdee:

Normally they don't skin themselves, but mine is extra "nice."

Who likes crappy photos of half the stuff I need to paint?

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps6fdf196d.jpg

And I'm kidding, it's a photo of less than half the stuff I have to paint. Most of it recently procured. I need to get to work.

What brush do you use to paint these tiny things with so much detail? You must have a very steady hand!

I wish I had a steady hand. I just have to be extremely careful and prepared to touch up any mistakes. I've tried a number of different brushes over the last couple of years but the best I've used are some round watercolor brushes I came across at an art supply store a few weeks ago. They seem to hold up better than others I've used and the bristles are firm enough not to splay and make my life difficult. I bought three of them, all size 0.

EDIT: Speaking of my not so steady hand though, the big dragon was actually refreshing to paint. There were some small detail areas, but for the most part I was able to do the base coat, washes for the shading, and highlights of red mixed with orange with pretty big strokes and wider brushes with no issue. It was quite an enjoyable change from the really fine detail stuff. Makes me want to get another colossal model to paint.

Well, that and the colossals are just really nice models.

I knew it, Vivi is building an army. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

These are all really nice. I never would have thought white paint would give you such a hard time, though.

It's not so much that white is hard as it is if your lines aren't crisp or you run over into an area that's supposed to be white with another colour it really, really, stands out compared to other colours. And my hands aren't famous for being steady.

And technically I'm building three armies.

Not really an art project I suppose, but I'm going to be hanging my dads guitars on wall hangers I bought mounted to a nice red oak board. I'm planning to take pictures and go through the step by step of what I do. Soon as I'm over this flu anyway.

Cool! I will totally try to guess your dad's personality by his guitar collection.

The flu has passed. Haven't gotten a lot done, but the oak board has been sanded and the first coat of polyurethane is on it. It's quick drying, but it'll still be about 6 hours before it dries, and I doubt I'm going to do the second coat at 9:30pm. I'll try to sand it and do the second coat early tomorrow morning. That way I can decide if I want a third coat in the afternoon.

I was bad and didn't get as many pictures as I planned, but most would probably just show a shiny board in varying stages of shininess so no big deal.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...pscrlfr8zc.jpg
Started off by sanding it down by hand with 220 grit sandpaper. Smoothed out the edges and corners, got the grain nice and smooth. That sort of thing. Then I removed the dust using a tack cloth.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psloc0hsq3.jpg
This is right after the first coat of polyurethane I believe. Nothing fancy, just brush it on. The can says it's quick drying. Apparently quick drying means taking 4-6 hours. Not sure I want to experience the slower stuff.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps5rvar5ip.jpg
After that was dry I sanded it down again with 320 grit this time. Then I applied the second coat. You can see the very much wet second coat above. I was planning to do a few more, but it honestly looked great after two and I was pressed for time to get this done before my parents returned from their vacation. I was doing this as a surprise for the old man so it being done when he got home was important and the flu ate up a week.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...pshr9u2zcu.jpg
Here's the board up on the wall. The screws going into the studs are around 5-6 inches long minimum. I can't remember the exact number, but I didn't want to smurf around when it comes to expensive instruments. I'm pretty sure that if the board was thicker than one inch I could hang off of this no problem.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psgqsf9xwm.jpg
First guitar hung (a Peavey Wolfgang for anyone curious), and the spacing for the other hangers marked. The nice thing about using polyurethane was that I could mark the spots for all of the hangers using dry erase marker and wipe it right off when I was done.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psktqsqukh.jpg
Last shot with all four guitars up.

I'll note for Pete's benefit that this is just less than half of his total number of guitars. Some highlights missing from this are a Gibson Flying V (can't remember how old it is, but a few decades at least. I think he got it in the 80's maybe), and a Gibson Les Paul Custom sitting behind me on a stand right now (I bought the game Rocksmith 2014 to try learning guitar and my old man insisted I use something that will "stay in tune." Apparently his tastes are a bit too refined for my Epiphone Special :lol:).

That looks awesome. You have good taste in guitars, son.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vivi22

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psktqsqukh.jpg
Last shot with all four guitars up.

I'll note for Pete's benefit that this is just less than half of his total number of guitars. Some highlights missing from this are a Gibson Flying V (can't remember how old it is, but a few decades at least. I think he got it in the 80's maybe), and a Gibson Les Paul Custom sitting behind me on a stand right now (I bought the game Rocksmith 2014 to try learning guitar and my old man insisted I use something that will "stay in tune." Apparently his tastes are a bit too refined for my Epiphone Special :lol:).

---

That's a nifty collection! I bet your dad is into hardrock of the various kind :p The Fender Strat looks nice and I'm jealous of the Custom. I got a Gibson Les Paul Studio myself, dated 1993. I'd totally put the V on the wall. How are things going with Rocksmith?

Rocksmith is good and fun and actually does seem to work well for learning guitar. I had to put it aside for a bit due to computer issues though so I need to get back to it now that things are running fine again. It was a bit hard to play it when my audio drivers were bugging out on me. :exdee:

And my dad agreed with you on the fact that the Flying V should be up there. I wasn't sure where it was at the time. I might grab it and throw it up there for him now though.

Vivi, those are beautiful! You should invest some time in trying to find better lighting with your camera as it drains some of the detail. I think it's pretty obvious to see you have great colouring talent though. Keep it up.

I've spent my afternoon designing drums and hardware that are inspired by the design of cars and whatnot from around the 1920's-1930's or so. Unexpected to say the least. Might have to take a bad cellphone pic of some of the sketches later. Minus the picture of a snare strainer design I've never seen attempted before which would be utterly awesome if it works, and which I plan to build and patent if it does. Hence why I won't put a picture on the internet.

Slight tangent, but not being depressed anymore has done wonders for my motivation and creativity.

I was planning to buy some drum shells and hardware to assemble some drums soon, but after selling a bunch of stuff to fund it I've realized something: I made way more money than I'd need to do it. So since I wanted thicker shells than Keller drum shells are available in, I've decided to make my own. I'm presently buying some second hand tools to assist with this: table saw today, router on Monday. I'll buy some MDF to build the few jigs I need, then make some stave drum shells, probably out of red oak, maybe maple. So look forward to some updates over the coming weeks/months.

That sounds like an awesome project!

Should be good. Hopefully I get it done right before I run out of money. I'm aiming to make the final drums about an inch thick. They'll be 8" and 10" rack toms. A bit thicker than most drums you can buy.

I'm now the owner of a table saw and router, some clamps, and other assorted tools. Going to buy the stuff to build a router table and the maple this weekend. Dye, gloss finish, a rounded plane, wider 45 degree router bit and some other stuff I think I've forgotten have all been ordered. trout's getting real kids.

I've also realized that most of this will actually be easier than I expected. I just need to build the router table (easy), some jigs tighten the staves around and keep everything round while the glue dries (also easy), and a jig for rounding the outside of the shell using the router (not as easy, but not too bad). I'll buy a piece of pine or something to test it all on though. Might just start a new thread for the drums once I get started.

Exciting :hyper: build that stuff and bang it Vivi!

Edit: the drums I mean! Bang the drums. That's normal right? Oh man it almost sounded so wrong.

If all works out they may be very bangable. ;)

And the wood has been purchased.

It begins...

Did a test cut on the table saw with some left over oak from making my dad's guitar rack. Ended up burning the wood. Probably need to check the alignment of everything on the table saw, and likely fed the wood too slowly since I've never used one before. I'll make some adjustments and try again tomorrow hopefully.

Sadly I have some bad news: While looking into some more of the challenges I'd face building my own drums and what it would take to overcome them, I've arrived at the inescapable conclusion that it would cost on the order of a few hundred dollars more than I originally thought and that won't fly now.

Looks like I will buy some shells for now and explore scratch building them again in a few years once I'm working and can afford to put the money into tools and materials for something that may not even work the first time. Wish it didn't have to be that way, but I will not be beaten forever.

That said, I will still cut the edges of the drums and finish them myself, so I will document that process.