#and maybe... a reblog? ;0

[what-even-is-sleep]

Shores Made for Lovers [Excerpt]

song I started tonight messing around with the uke! v exciting it turns out that when u can finally accompany yourself after singing a capella for 10 years that some kinda smooth sounds can slide out

[e-likes-bones]

so a couple months ago now i think? i decided on a whim to make a puppet since i figured i had enough supplies lying around to do it, which resulted in me being struck to make arguably one of the best members* of the rock-afire explosion into a marionette: looney bird!

(excuse the goofy looking puppetry, i don’t actually have any experience w/ marionettes. whoops!)

anyhow i know a couple people that have seen puppet looney were curious how i made him, so under the cut i’ll have my rambles about that!

making looney bird was super fun! so expect this section to be long because i do wanna explain everything as much as i can. i will divid this up into sections, which shall be:

body, head, & neck

face & plant/leaves

tail & wings

legs & feet

strings & control

anyhow! let me get to explaining lol

Section 1: body, head, & neck

this is where i began! i made a base for the head & body out of crayola air dry clay so i had base shapes to put the fur on top & so the puppet would have a decent little bit of weight to it. the head was just a small ball, while the body was larger & slightly more oblong. while the base & the other sculpted parts were drying, i had to color the fur i was going to use.

i only had white faux fur (2 different kinds, a soft, sort pile, & a less soft, longer pile; what i use for most of looney is the short pile) going into this project, & since this fella was made exclusively from craft materials i had lying around, i needed to find a way to color it. I attempted dying some of the fur w/ some old t-shirt dyes i had lying around, but when that didn't work i turned to my old alcohol markers to see if they worked, & they surprisingly did! really well too! (altho there are some areas that i struggled to get ink into, but overall the color isn't too too patchy)

once i had the dry clay & fur, i got to covering the bases w/ the fur! which. i did primarily by super glueing small sections of each piece of fur down, maneuvering the fabric to lay flush w/ the base & making sure to maintain the same direction of the fur, & repeating until the fur was completely attached.

the neck was simpler, i took some more of the red colored fur, folded it over into a flat tube shape, & glued either end to the head & body (still paying attention to the fur direction!) then i took some of the remaining uncolored (white) fur & made the ring of white around the base of looney's neck!

Section 2: face & plant/leaves

imo, this was the section i had the most fun w/ lol! i actually sculpted the face after making the head & body's clay bases so that they had extra time to dry. i made the entire face as a "faceplate" for easy attachment at the size i needed, plus sculpting the face as one thing allowed me to have the 3 extra bits i needed to attach looney's face feathers the best later on in the process. the face is also made of crayola air dry clay btw.

after the face was dry it was painting time! i just used some old art kit acrylic paints for all the base colors, & the eyes were possible using a nail art dotting tool. i went over looney's cheeks w/ chalk pastel dust to get the blush effect, then sealed everything in using mod podge.

now he needed his face feathers! remember how i had 2 different faux furs? well here's where the longer pile one gets used! i cut really small sections of the longer fur & trimmed them down to be just 3 little fuzzy bits essentially, then using another alcohol marker, i colored them green & glued them to the green side sections on looney's faceplate. from here, i attached looney's face to his head, then cut & pasted the surrounding small white feather sections on either side of his face & below his beak. it was after that i made the purple feathers, as those are just colored paper clippings that i glued to the back of looney's faceplate that didn't attach to his head. (picture of what i mean below)

anyhow! onto the plant on looney's head! the stem of the plant was just a jewelry wire that i twisted to make a bit thicker, then dipped in green paint to color it & smooth the twist out, then sealed w/ mod podge, & finally glues to the top of looney's head. the leaves, much like the purple feathers, are paper, but cut into leaf shapes & colored to roughly mimic looney's leaves, then they were very carefully super glued to the stem

Section 3: tail & wings

these bits were pretty simple imo, the tail is made of embroidery floss i cut & sectioned to create looney’s tail pattern, then i tied it together to create a base i could easily attach to his body. i also tried brushing it to make the individual threads smaller since i preferred the look & thought it made it look more like feathers? but either way, from there it got glued on & i moved on to the wings.

the wings are again the short pile fur i used on the body, but they were left white when i cut them, so once i got the wing shape formed i could color the sections that needed to be red & just leave the wingtips white how i wanted. the wings were 4 panels cut into a roughly triangular shape & glued together to create 2 wings

Section 4: legs & feet

the legs & feet were also relatively simple but i have never been the best at sculpting feet so i suffered just a tad. anyhow the feet are also sculpted from crayola air dry clay like other pieces, then painted & sealed the same as the faceplate.

the legs are pony beads & more embroidery floss. i used the beads to make the legs as full & patterned as i wanted & the string to make sure the legs are loose & easy to maneuver. 2 beads were glued to looney’s body & 2 to his feet, & the string was looped thru the body beads, down through the leg beads, & tied & secured to the feet beads

Section 5: strings & controls

finally! the last section!

the string is just some clear beading string. there are 4 strings, which were tied & glued to both foot beads, the base of the tail, & the base of the plant. i eyeballed the needed length for each string to keep the puppet at an upright position when held up regularly & cut them to size.

the control is just a pair of chopsticks i cut to the rough size of the puppet & glued the ends of the strings to: the head & back end strings to either side of one stick, & both feet strings to either end of the other stick.

& that was pretty much everything i had to do to make looney!! it took like. 2 days? i was very dedicated to finishing him in just a weekend. thank you to anyone who read all my extended rambles about how i made this guy!!! i appreciate it!! also please excuse any typos, i never make typos ever idk what y’all are talking about

[wren-kitchens]

mildly frustrated at how many 'we need to talk about lizzie more' posts ive seen and the distinct lack of actual posts of art or writing about lizzie that ive seen cross my dash

like guys i thought we wanted to talk about lizzie and not the fandom's problems when is that happening

[ahollowgrave]

hi people can see your tags!! i know we like to talk about how 'safe' screaming in the tags feels and to an extent it is safe, indirect communication. but it is communication and the OP is very likely to see them. if its not something you'd say to them don't put it in the tags, maybe. (:

[z-ppy]

brad headcanoning

Brad's no liberal arts major, he will make that very clear. Paying money to read a novel and then getting drunk instead and showing up to class hungover and bullshitting your way through socratic discussion? No thank you, he'll pass.

But. Brad loves the Hero's Journey. He loves King Arthur (he avoids Shakespeare on principle for a reason he will not disclose).

He loves the idea of Fate. It falls so perfectly into his ideas about honor and duty and ~warrior's spirit~ AND it means he gets to do exactly as he's told. There is a script. He follows the script. His abilities and instinct are perfectly suited to the tasks at hand. It all slides into place so neatly and there's nothing messy like feelings or pain or heartache--

He's a knight on a quest with a code of chivalry. He is chaste. He is honorable. He is protected.

[casiavium]

links meet but it's just my 600 AUs of skyward sword

[swagging-back-to]

people wonder why artists are leaving the site in droves and abandoning their accounts meanwhile most FANDOM art barely gets 5 likes in two days. barely gets 2 reblogs in the span of half a year.

and im not even gonna TOUCH on what it's like for oc art (which gets no interaction. at all. ever. oops I just touched on it.)

why the fuck would people keep feeding ai companies when absolutely no one is supporting them? when absolutely no one cares about their art? when no one even spares it a second glance? why would tey go through the trouble of glazing and nightshading everything when it gets NO INTERACTION AT ALL. When it's going to rot in the tags buried under hundreds of other ignored pieces of art. when ai generated photos get dozens of reblogs and likes in the first hour.

you people wonder why artists are leaving? You. you are the reason.

[elboxitracio]

*manages to pirate one game* i am. A computer genius<3

[astralriver]

Btw its late af but tomorrow is gonna be exclusively fundraisers reblogged here

[ward-leon]

8 and 10 for distracting asks (*･ω･)ﾉ

okay!

8 (something you look forward to)... i dunno, life can be. uh. a bit turbulent sometimes and i dont wanna jinx anything, but... moving away from my parents, probably? that and graduating from college

10 (favorite animal) - cats. and sea slugs

[nexus-nebulae]

i feel like half of my posts are just hidden from other people's dashes bc like 80% of what i post is just not seen by anyone

[sunnydayaoe]

[randomestfandoms]

…

[risingsunresistance]

last final tomorrow, wish me luck o7

[volfoss]

like hearing abt the monster design absolutely being the best in volfoss i was expecting rly bad gameplay and story. bc why else had it been lost to the sands of time if it wasnt good. and then i started playing it and now im hooked to trpgs and spend every minute of every day thinking about it