GIVEAWAY TIME! MyMemories software package.

It seems that have once a blog has more than ten followers (HI! Love you guys!), it is customary for strangers to approach you to shill their stuff on your site. :D

I usually turn stuff like this down, probably because most of the people who ask appear to have not read this blog and their product is way off topic (in so far as I have a "topic" to be "on"). Actually, the same day that the following company got in touch with me I had just sent a curt reply email to someone else telling them that I would not be reviewing their dodgey sounding downloading software.

OK, disclaimer time.

I have been provided with a copy of the MyMemories software for review purposes.

The opinions expressed here are mine (and the Sprog's - their website claimed the the software is simple enough for kids to use, and that's the kind of claim I need to put to the test).

I used to do a lot of paper scrapbooking, and I work with industry standard imaging software (cough~Photoshop~cough) on pretty much a daily basis. I teach people how to work with said imaging software at the Day-Job. I'm also a wee bit picky.

For the most part, this software is very easy to use. It comes preloaded with basic "kits" and the  MyMemories site has dozens of free backgrounds, embellishments and whatnots. Honestly, it was a bit overwhelming. I, of course, spent a couple of hours trawling through and downloading stuff. The priced stuff is very reasonable, most of it being under $6 or so.

When you add kits to your cart, you are given the option of downloading an *.exe file, or a zipped folder (containing *.pngs that can be used in other software). I haven't checked the licenses of all the stuff I downloaded, but the ones I have checked have a provision allowing use on personal blogs - so if you are after some new design fodder for your blog banners I highly recommend having a nosey around.
To use the kits, you download and install the *.exe file (it installs into the right place), open the MyMemories program, and you're away.
The kits are filed into themes (some minor deduction work might be needed at this point - I downloaded one kit that I could have sworn was "Vintage" that got filed into "Love").

The embellishment files are very clean - there's no iffiness in the alpha masking - so you don't get weird artifacting when overlaying images (translation: there's no jagged white line around digital flowers etc. when you add them to the page), which makes it simple to get a clean, professional looking product.
I love the drop shadow option for elements - it is based on a Y, X pixel offset which can be tweaked with the arrows keys.

There are a couple of things that I think that the software would benefit from:

• when resizing elements you grab a grey bounding box guide and pull it - but you don't see the result until after you've let go of the mouse. It would be nice if there was an interactive update - but as I said earlier, I'm used to working with hefty imaging software, so I'm a bit spoilt.
• Some sort of Layer box/indication of what elements you have added - preferably something that you could select elements in, as sometimes elements on lower layers became difficult to grab.

But these are relatively small quibbles, and frankly this software is absolutely wonderful for it's price. And as you can see, the claim that kids can use it is absolutely true:

Is that what I sound like? Really?

They have given me a "Share the Memories" code that provides a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - $20 value!)

Enter STMMMS92447 in the "Enter Coupon/Promo Code" box at checkout.

I also have a copy of the software to giveaway!
Just pop over to www.mymemories.com and come back here and leave a comment telling me which Kit is your favourite, and I'll do a random drawing.

You have until Midnight, Oct 31st.
Tell your friends. :)

OOAK Doll is Done

And she's floofy.
And pink.

Creating an OOAK Doll - Part 3

Well, after getting off to a roaring start there, I hit a snag. 

My camera started acting odd  - I took around 60 photos of adding the eyes, and sculpting the torso and shoulders, and it only 'saved' around 20 of them. This threw me a bit, and I've avoided both working on her, and blogging about it. 

Using my trusty scalpel to cut the eyelids.

Normally I have quite steady hands, but at this point I always mysteriously get the shakes.

Whenever I need to get some symmetrical, I like to work upside-down. I find it makes it easier to gauge negative space, and helps me with keeping proportions steady.

She's looking a bit formless in the upper face...

Some small clay rolls to bulk out the under-brow.

When I was working on her, I decided forehead was too far back. looking at it now, I don't mind it so much...

Anyway, to correct this I slapped a pancake of clay in the middle of her forehead.

Which had the effect of making her hideous. (I've seen Nacho Libre too many times).

So, another bit of clay to fill in the bridge of her nose.

Smoothed on one side.

At this point, she looked a bit like my mother...

I used to have some very nice, proper clay shaping tools. Gods only know where they are now.
Currently, I use a sharpened eraser to smooth areas I can't fit my finger into.

Another improvised tool, a sharpened coffee stirrer. (I always grab one when I buy a coffee - they go straight into my bag.)

Gently inserting into the eye...

... and even more gently rolling up - this makes for a nice base for the eyelid.

Winking!

It's a bit rough, but the shapes will be corrected once the eyes are in. 

This was the second-to-last photo on the memory card.

And then I sculpted the torso, hands and feet. And the ears. The bloody ears took me longer than the whole face. I hate bloody sculpting bloody ears.

I took LOTS of photos, I swear. Photos of making those bloody ears too.

 But the last saved photo was this one. It's not even the last photo I took! This is after I brushed her down with Sculpey Clay Softener, and used the brush to really get into those tight corners. Then I patted the whole thing down with tissue, which gives the clay a nice 'tooth' for paint or what-have-you once it's cured.

She's now baked, so the next step is bulking out her body.

Creating an OOAK Doll - Part 2

Part one is here.

So, this is where I left it.

From the side the head looks too short. So I need to add a jaw.

I make a thick sausage of clay. Roughly the same length as the head and a third the width of the face.

This sausage gets added to the lower part of the face - it will be the edge of the jawbone and chin.

I use the side of my knitting needle to smoosh the new clay into the base shape.

Here's a little nose. At least, it will be a little nose...

Looks kind of like a skeletal Muppet at this stage.

Starting to blend the nose in. Still keeping everything pretty rough.

I also smooth and refine the jaw shape as I go. But not much, I find that over-working the sculpt before I'm happy with it hamstrings me a bit, and I don't let the doll's "personality" come through. (What an Arty-farty thing to say)

I make a small disc and cut it in half.

I place one of the halves where the doll's upper lip is.

That gets smoothed right up into the cheeks/cheekbones.

Then I shape the lip a little. Is for fun.

A common "mistake" is to treat the lips as if they only extend to where they change colour, and sculpt duckface lips.
The lips are the inside of a flat, doughnut shaped muscle. The top lip starts at the nose, then changes direction at the lip-line and curves back into the mouth.

The other half of the disc gets rolled into a wee sausage and placed directly underneath the top lip.

Then I smooth out and down at the ends, but keep the shape of the added clay under the bottom lip.

Adding a teeny ball for the chin, and two elongated pancakes for the nasolabial fold.

Which then gets a rough smoothing.

Now I fill the eye-sockets with balls of clay. I find this is easier if I reshape the balls into eggs/teardrops and insert them point first.

I blend the new clay in again.

It's important to constantly look at the sculpt from different angles, otherwise I end up with this.
I find that I often get caught up in the creativeness of sculpting and forget to pay attention to how the overall face is looking. Now is a good time to stop, switch that Left-side of the brain back on, and look for areas that, well, suck.

And add more clay (or remove some) to even up those discrepancies.

Then I absent mindedly re-arranged the features into a smile. I worked for about ten minutes before thinking "Crap! I forgot to take more photos!".

Tomorrow I'll add eyes to it, and the day after - hands!

Creating an OOAK Doll - Part 1

I've been feeling a bit down and useless recently, so I decided yesterday that I would start a new doll, and see if I can't shake myself back out of it.
The camera has freshly charged batteries in it so I thought that I might as well document my process as I go too.
So, here you go, a photo-tutorial on making a doll...

Supersculpey seems to work best for me when I mix it with opaque clays (it prevents plating). Sculpey III has beautiful colours, conditions super easily and just feels nice to work with, but once it gets warm it can be too soft. Du-kit is cheap, firm and strong, but after curing looks ... oily?

I'm  not using any tinfoil in this doll, as it's quite small. Instead, I'm going to pad the cranium with the same masking tape that I'll be wrapping the wire armature in.

I've screwed one end of a length of tape into a (really) tight ball, then used the un-screwed-up end to attach to the wire.

Then I wrap the tape as tight as I can.

I didn't start with a long enough strip of tape, so I had to add more. No biggie, it just needs to be tight.

Just stuck it on top of the stuff already on there.

My armature with part of the wire covered with a layer of Masking tape.

I'm aiming for a pale ivory skin tone here, so I have half a block of (shock!) Ivory Sculpey, roughly-the-same-but-possibly-a-slightly-smaller-amount of SuperSculpey, and a slice of Pearl Du-Kit (Sparkly!)

Then I mush it all up and start mixing the colours.

By the time the colour is smooth, the clay is nicely conditioned too.

I take a bit of clay and squish into a thickish (about 5mm) pancake.

This is going to be the head, and it's nice to have extra clay on there, so I don't hit tape when removing clay later.

Enclosing the armature with the pancake.

Making sure that there are no airpockets.

Then I smooth and shape to a kinda Lightbulbish silhouette. In this photo I'm using a makeshift loop tool that I made from an X-acto handle and half a paper-clip.

("Kinda" was the keyword there...) The out-of-focus tools in this photo are: the aforementioned loop tool, a double-ended size 3 knitting needle, a dental scraper, and a nail-pusher from a manicure set.

Marking a centre line. This is to help with keeping the features symetrical.

A horizonal line for the eyes to go on.

Gouging out Eyesockets.

Two of them.

I haven't used as much Du-Kit in this clay mix as I normally would, and it's not as "stiff" as I'd like. It blends into itself beautifully though.
At this point in the process, my clay was really soft from being handled. Also, it's summer here and ridiculous hot - which makes the clay easier to mush around - the flip side of which is that it pushes out of shape with the slightest pressure.

So this is where I took a Coca Cola break (would've been coffee - but TOO HOT).

(Part 2 will go up tomorrow.)