Plum Workshop: July 2014

Hello! I realized it's been quite a few months since I've posted but I have been busy painting and with life. Probably the biggest reason why I've been busy is because of this little guy below:

His name is Missile and he is almost five months old ^^

I could just write on and on about Missile...he's a Pomeranian/Japanese Chin mix and every day seems like it's something new/exciting/awful lol. I've owned dogs in the past but I've never raised one up from puppyhood (we've owned him since he was 8 weeks) so it's a big adjustment to my lifestyle (no more late nights, socks on feet, etc.). The pros far outweigh the cons though and he's a big light in my life.

I've also been working more on myself since I was dealing with what I'd like to think is a little depression this past semester. I just felt so unhappy with everything even though I thought I was pushing myself pretty hard (maybe that's why?) so I've decided to make some personal changes to my health. I often struggled to eat or drink anything during the day because I was flying from getting up early in the morning 4-6am --> bus --> meetings/class --> sometimes working --> more class --> more working? --> bus --> and getting home at 6-7pm and then heading to bed unless I had to study in which case I would stay up until like midnight and then wake up at 4-6 again. This is also why I don't have time to build during the semester -_- So I've basically been forcing myself to eat a certain number of calories and to exercise more and I think it's making a little bit of a difference. I don't feel as tired walking around places and cardio isn't bad and I've dropped a couple of pounds since I started so I just hope it's a good sign. Other than that I am putting off the job search because I'm being lazy and terrible and I'm not sure what the future has in store since the SO has some pretty major plans he wants to put in action. We'll see I guess.

Enough about me though since I haven't been totally useless! It seems like the last time I posted I was working on a Remilia kit but like all GK builders we often switch from project to project without finishing anything...so I started working on one of my favorite kits recently, Nostradamus from Windflower ^^

This is a lovely kit that was first sold at WF2012S. I am a big fan of Oyari Ashito's art style and the sculptor in this circle Chikai did a terrific job translating Nostradamus into 3D. As much as I love this kit though I am not a fan of the color scheme...I get that it's supposed to be very roughly based off the 16th century and prophecies and stars and stuff but it's a little too whitewashed for me. So since she is a GK and I don't feel any attachment to the character I decided to reinvent the color scheme!

The colors are a little muted here and the scribbles are a mess but drawing the figure out like this helps me figure out what I want to do early on so I don't go in blindly painting lol. I am actually ~95% done with this kit now since all the pieces are painted and I'm just shading her so I expect to take pictures in a couple of days and then do a full post about her. Here are a couple of WIP photos.