Thursday, March 26, 2015

7th Dragon Mage Color Scheme

Hi everyone this is a quick update since I'm about to paint my Mage and wanted to share her color scheme!

So for my last kit (Nostradamus) I couldn't figure out which color scheme I wanted to use so I asked people on MFC for some advice. They were really helpful so I decided to try doing that again. Sooo I took a poll on a GK group I'm in and on MFC and the final results were pretty close overall...
I like sharing data so here's the results:
I was leaning toward 5 from the beginning but I'm surprised how many people liked the other choices as well. The results on the GK group were kind of similar but more people liked color scheme 4 which is interesting since that was not popular at all on MFC. I've taken statistics but I still find it very interesting how sets of data differ depending on what kind of crowd you ask.

Anyway I decided I liked color scheme 5 best (plus it reminds me of a raspberry). One of my friends said that adding in a 3rd major color was a good idea though so I messed with the colors a little and found one I'm pretty happy with. I also added in the markings on her face, lightened the gold details, etc. I will also change the base and will probably have her standing in a field with rocks or near a river or something since she is from a game. I'd like to get rid of that little orb and add a summoning book in its place but that depends how ambitious I'm feeling haha... overall I'm sure that my actual kit will differ a little bit but overall I want her to come out like this:
I think I mentioned in at least one earlier blog post how small this kit is but she is small so I'm not going to bother with the airbrush and will stick to hand-painting. For comparison:
~13cm or so not including her hair and ears
Yup these pieces are 1cm...
And that's the right side of my desk as I'm typing this. I'm not sure if I'll make any WIP posts since when I start painting I get really into it but maybe I'll try to do something for her eyes and the details on her outfit ^^ My next blog post should be this completed kit so until next time!

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Even More Life Stuff

Hi everyone I figured it was more than enough time for another life/figure update.

I'm having an incredibly difficult time getting into the habit of using my airbrush. I think it may be because I don't have a dedicated work space and any spraying I do has to be outside on my balcony but it's such a pain to set it up and mixing colors is the worst! I really hate doing it. With craft acrylics I could easily blend two paints together to get an exact shade but with acrylic paint you are forced to drop x drops of yellow and y drops of red to get who knows what shade of orange and then worry "wow this jar cost like $3USD so I better not waste it." It's so bad that I've considered just going back to hand-painting because I miss getting up close and personal with my kits lol. The paint looks so good though when you airbrush it's not fair ;_; and I have like 3 kits pretty much ready to go to paint but I can't bring myself to do it ahaha...

Other life stuff: I posted about my dog breaking his leg back in December and I am extremely happy to report that his leg recovered on his own without needing surgery!!! It took around 3 months and I had to go through a huge ordeal with a local veterinary office in town which led to switching to another vet altogether but I'm just thrilled he's walking around on his leg again.

I also hit my goal weight a couple of weeks ago which is pretty exciting but I'm still in the process of adjusting so I've lost a little more than that. It took me 8 months to get here but I'm officially 30 lbs. down at a safe BMI of 21.8 and was never even this healthy in high school so I'm pretty happy. ^^ It makes me want to try to cosplay or something but I still need to work up on toning up lol. If you want to lose weight and are scared or don't think you can do it I really recommend getting the app MyFitnessPal on your smartphone and buying a food scale. I started logging my calories every day after calculating my total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) and aimed for 20% less calories than that and it has definitely worked. The only exercise I really did was walking, DDR, or biking a couple of miles a week so most of it was diet but it has absolutely made a difference and I just feel so much better about myself. I used the website Scooby's Workshop for my TDEE measurements but all the online calculators vary so it's kind of better to do the calculations manually after you've been counting calories for a few weeks. The hardest part was working up the courage to start.

OK enough ranting about weight when this is supposed to be a figure blog lol. My chibi Remilia kit is currently sitting all primed in white ready to be painted but I need to get out all my airbrush stuff again. I started working on my 7th Dragon kit again because I'm finally inspired and discovered a color scheme! And that is because...

I started playing Final Fantasy 14 (maybe the REAL reason I haven't been getting anything productive done lol)! I started playing with my fiance when we have time together and it's a lot of fun. I have never played a subscription game but it makes the game a little more serious since there aren't bots and younger kids running around all over the place. The graphics are absolutely beautiful and it has a lot to offer so if you are looking for a new MMO I recommend trying before buying. I recommend playing with someone else or in a guild though since it can be lonely running through everything yourself.

Anyway I realized last night in bed when I was thinking about my kit (yes I think about how to paint my kits when I'm in bed >_>) that this mage shares some qualities with my scholar character so I think I'm going to paint her color scheme similarly.

See they both look kind of the same lol...

So her hair is definitely going to be a moss green with bright green eyes and she'll have those little markings/freckles on her skin. I want to add a little summoning book to her as well but I'm not sure if I'll go for the glasses or not. The only thing I'm stuck on is the clothes...blues/greens suit her really well but I also want her to pop out so I want to put some red and yellow in there somewhere.

ALSO I wasn't that impressed by this past Wonder Festival (Feb. 8th) at all. :/ Everything that I have been interested in wasn't re-sold this time which is a shame but is probably for the best because I'm broke. I knew a couple of people who actually went this time and it seems like everyone is so surprised when they take on all sorts of personal orders for others and don't end up with anything at the end because everything sells out so quickly. I've known this for like 2 years now since I've tried to get proxies for the kits and I never end up with anything so just a heads up if you want to go to WF pay for that premium ticket that lets you get in like an hour early and either (a) find 10 equally insane people to run around the event buying resin for you or (b) practice building up your stamina because it's basically the same thing as training for a marathon because you'll have to RUN to get a chance at what you want. As for whether people actually run around in the convention center who knows but it's worth a shot LOL...

This ended up being slightly long-winded and longer than I thought but at least you guys know I'm alive...bye for now!