In Transit - twin high-maintenance machines

Dollies!

2006-12-29T05:50:47Z

For anyone who's not on my regular flist (and I apologise to anyone who's seen this twice!), I've posted pics of the Sydney doll meet-up in Hyde Park!

Walk This Way

Because this poor journal has been so sorely neglected, I'm thinking of transferring everything over to my regular journal, which sees a fair bit more traffic - and friending you all over there so I actually get to see and comment on your lovely dolls. Does anyone mind if I do this? Let me know if you'd prefer I didn't, otherwise I'd love to friend you all on arabel.

Long Lost and Returning

2006-11-02T09:39:28Z

Wow... this journal isn't so much disused as derelict by now. Many many thanks to nightghast, who gave me a nudge, and thereby got me to post here. To be honest, I've missed checking in on all of you - I'm not sure I realised how much until I crept back here and had a look at my friend's list. I'm trying to get back into lj, and make sure I keep up, yo.

So, what have I been doing? Working myself half to death, mainly. Hah. I also blame the young gentleman whose acquaintance I made... but apart from that, I've been trying to do a whole huge heap more art - so to prove I haven't been sitting on my ass the whole time, here: ARTS! Many of them. If you're on my other flist you will have seen all of this, by the way... apologies!

This was an illustration for a magazine advert - they were going to drop it in after they received the illo from me, hence my lame scrawling on the cover.

This was a sketch that kinda got out of hand - I really love her thoughg, and I want to do some more stuff in this style. Yay for using reference (um, which I did here)!

I really really like drawing like this - I think if you scroll down in my journal you can see a thing I did like this last year - only now I think I have a much better grasp on drawing faces, so I like this one so much better. Even if it is slightly Dan Kim...

This girl needed way more work, actually - I like her, but she was for a poster, and the deadline cut me off a lot shorter than I'd have liked. It's kind of sad - though I'm thinking of doing something on a similar theme, only in a different style and with waaaay more time. I'll keep you updated or something.

This is a quick oekaki I did... actually, when I say quick, it did take me a lot longer than it should have, but anyway. I'm sure you all know that everyone's gay for Bridget.

So, um... yeah! That's what I've been doing with my time. And gaming. Lots of videogaming. *grins* Disgaea takes an aeon to play.

As for dolls, well.... I'm very hopefully sending Nana off to have her face done soon, and I may even have my eye on someone new (auctions are horrible, and I refuse to talk about them until they're done and I can weep bitterly for my loss. Positive, aren't I?). It's odd - I love having them there, but I've been too busy to do very much with them for a while. But just recently, I decided it's time to get everything just the way I want it - so hopefully, I might even have new pics soon. Yay!

But if you'd like to keep up with my other stuff, like art and so on, please feel free to friend arabel, my main journal - just drop me a comment to let me know you've done it, so I can friend you too.

^_^

saynevermore @ 2006-03-01T23:46:00

2006-03-01T12:51:17Z

*dusts cobwebs off the lj*

...I've been lurking, I admit. So I apologise if you find random very very late comments from me turning up. I've just tried to go back through my whole flist...and of course I apologise if I missed things, too. I'm certainly going to try to be rather more attentive now. Gah.

Nana is slowly coming together - although her eyes and wig are still MIA, which is really rather sad. Has anyone else ever ordered anything direct from Souldoll before? :x Any info or advice?

But nonetheless, I doodled this random and disturbingly cute drawing of her this evening. She's so lovely and cute - I really can't wait until she's the way she's really supposed to be. ^^

saynevermore @ 2006-01-29T02:09:00

2006-01-28T15:17:47Z

It took some convincing to get Mort to do his 'Mr Tumnus' impression in the back garden, but I think it turned out reasonably well...

Both cloudtrader and pithetaphish made lovely clothes for my dolls, so I thought I'd take advantage of the one day it didn't rain last week to take a few quick pics in thanks. Seriously, guys, these clothes are so. damn. COOL. Huge amounts of love, for real!

Nana's clothes, and Mort's scarf were made by pithetaphish - she was kind enough to take pity on Nana and her totally clothes-less state. cloudtrader made Mort's way awesome jeans. Love. For. Reals. You guys rock. ^_^

Nana: "Why aren't you wearing a shirt....? It's about to rain!"
Mort: -_-;;;;;;;;

To be honest, Nana's currently still looking nothing like I'd planned. But when I get back to work on Monday, there will be eyes waiting for me (hopefully!), and soon her wig should be sorted. Then I need to figure how to paint the ears smoothly, as I don't own an airbrush....but we're getting there. *grins*

Hobo!Nana

2006-01-05T13:21:07Z

As my friend dubbed it, "Hobo Nana"; she's hiding out in Mort's clothes until she gets some of her own.

"Please can we be having less NAKED CHILD INCIDENT in the house???"
*eyeroll* Her clothes are on their way, calm down already!

"Also please to be fixing the bad lighting!" It's the middle of the NIGHT here, and I have crappy bedroom lights. Shut up! "Excuses, excuses... WAIT. Why does she look as TALL AS ME?" Perspective, you dork. "FIX IT." -___-;;

Also: still squeeing.

Yes, she does talk in the third person, sorry! ^_^;;

2006-01-03T04:03:26Z

Nana?
*snore*...*snk*Wha? Nana has...Nana has ARRIVED?
Yup. Hallo. ^_^
Hello!

Okay, I'm going to take some pics while my ed's away, or else everyone will kill me.
REALLY?
Uh, no.

x_x No...Nana's not coming out!
Huh?
Nana's all...wrong! What happened to Nana's haaaaair? ;_;
Er...I'm sorry! It hasn't arrived yet.

Then NO PHOTOS OF NANA.
-_-;; Come on, please? My friends want to see you.
Your friends...?

See, they're nice.
Hello...?

^_^

Nana thinks...she'll like it. ^^ But...but get Nana's hair, okay? Please?
For sure. (*doesn't mention eyes or ears being the wrong colour either...GAH*) I'm glad - you're cute. ^_^
Nana? Nana's cute???

Heh heh heh...for real.

*squees like a madwoman* I love her so much already.

PEE ESS: THE MANAGEMENT WISHES TO APOLOGISE FOR THE PHOTOS BEING SLIGHTLY YELLOW. THEY SHIFT RESPONSIBILITY ONTO INDOOR LIGHTING AND INSUFFIFICIENT PHOTO EDITING TIME 'COS THEY'RE AT WORK. THANK-YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING.

AAAAIEEE!

2006-01-03T03:05:29Z

There is a large-ish box sitting next to me on my desk at work.

(It still has the original Volks mail stickers on it, see! *_* AWESOME!)

I'm ridiculously tired, have a sore neck, and it's the first day back at work, but the thought of being able to get her out of the box when I get home is making me smile.

Unfortunately the eyes, wig, and dress I'm sorting out for her are probably going to take a little longer to get here. She won't be "herself" for a little while. I'm haunting some y!j auctions hopefully...I wasn't expecting her to get here so quickly, so I'm caught all unprepared. *wails* She doesn't even have a thing to wear!

But still....*grins* Hallo, Nana. (*mrphphprhphph* <-- muffled box noises) Uh... ^^;;;;

news and pictographs

2005-12-27T02:42:12Z

No.
"But how did you know what I was going to spell...?"
Give me some credit, it wasn't that difficult.
"But pl-"
NO! Well, at least not when you're playing Upwords with my family...

And we present, in grand bjd tradition, some random Christmas Day tree-climbing.

"I am KING of all I survey"
You're looking down at your toes.
"..."

In sadder news, I'm trying to sell my School A. I don't think I'll ever be able to afford a body for him...and it's so sad to see him just sitting there on a cloth body. I still think he's absolutely gorgeous, but I just can't justify having him around when he's so ignored. Poor boy! ;_; If anyone is interested in him, let me know.

On the bright side, there may well be a new addition to the family instead. We shall seeeeeee...

Also, I'm committed to being less in hibernation this coming year. Yay!

TEH SCANDALS

2005-11-06T13:48:01Z

THE TRUTH IS FINALLY REVEALED!

The TRUTH behind the LIES.

I give you...

THE SCANDAL?

I'll tell you something now...

...being an intergalactic space detective isn't always all it's cracked up to be.

Take this case. I found myself in a bit of a pickle.

Two combatants.

Too many weapons.

And a whole lotta antagonism, with only a lonely wookie to
even the score.

This is MY story.

So, you ask, how does a streetwise wookie end up at a disadvantage?
Well, I wasn't expecting to run fur-first into a conflict of this scale, let
me tell you. These two clearly had some history. Prior engagements...scores
to settle. And they were trying to do it smack bang in the middle of my precinct!
I WOULD NOT BE HAVING WITH THIS. So I let them know exactly who was boss:

"WHEEEEEEEEEUUU. WOOOOOOOuuAUUNG."

Tomas: ...WHAT?

Oska: ...say WHAT?

Tomas: Shut it, One-Eye. One whining
hairy beast is enough for now...

Oska: Say that again to my revolver,
assh-

Oh no.

Dammit. Language barrier ...AGAIN.

Well, there's only one thing to do in a situation like this:

SING.

Music is the UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. Of LOVE.

It was my last hope.

Oska: What...the....ngh....

...I feel...queer

Tomas: You ALWAYS...no wait...why is
this so...gragh, NGH.... too...easy!

I could FEEL it working.

Tomas: Oh, OSKA! I can't fight it any more!

Oska: Must....kill....self...before....ARGH!

Oska: Oh Tomas, I can't deny it either!

Tomas: How could I ever have been planning to sew scorpions
into your cargo pants...

Oska: What?

Tomas: Oh, never mind, sweetie...

I thought I had the situation under control, but in a universe
as big as this, you can never know what to expect next. That's why I love my
job.

Darnell: Uh, guys...what's up? You're both acting a bit...um...I'm
worried...

Wait - what's that noise...?

MOMENTS LATER...

Mortimer: Seriously, you lot, what are you doing? There's kids around here...

Mortimer: And what is that damn NOISE...?

EVERYONE ELSE: NO, MORTIMER! D:

MEANWHILE...

Oska: What is that hairy excuse for a throw-rug doing...is
he ASLEEP?

Dylan: And what on earth is he dreaming
about, anyway?

Oska: Feels like someone just walked over my grave...

THE END

OMAKE

Oska: WTF there are GIANT HANDS on our
ARSES I WILL KILL PEOPLE FOR THIS

Many thanks to:

onegreyelephant, for turning her back long enough for us to perpetrate this madness
pithetaphish, for the extra photographs
Everyone who had their lovely, lovely boys at Supanova!

saynevermore @ 2005-11-07T00:41:00

2005-11-06T13:44:12Z

Also:

"What are you lot looking at?"

(Maybe the lack of depth of field...?)

I took some extra pics of Mort in cloudtrader's pants of awesome, but it's way too late to sort that shoot out now. GAH! But they're awesome, seriously.

missing in action

2005-10-26T02:45:08Z

I've been a bit quiet around here, not only because I've been busy (the photostory is almost ready! :D), but also because my boys have been on vacation.

A friend helped me get all my gear home from the con, and some of it went to stay with her temporarily. So the boys have been living in her spare bedroom for a while. She meant to bring them on the weekend with my comics but didn't put them in the car, so it's been two weeks now. And don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful to her for carting them around for me (and I'm so forgetful that I don't mind in the least that she forgot ^^;;)!

But I wasn't expecting to miss them, and I am.

Which is kind of funny - even just in the few weeks I've had them, I've gotten used to having Mort around my room, having him sit by my computer.

I was really annoyed with myself because he nose-planted onto the table at Supanova, and chipped his MSC on the tip of his nose - I've been itching to try to use some acetone to smooth the edges of the chip or something, so you can't see it. I was upset, but I suppose something like that was bound to happen eventually, and at least he didn't hurt anything I can't fix. *sigh* And I want to re-paint Ros, now that I have some acrylic retarder medium, and some new pastels for shading. Plus I need to do a photoshoot with the awesome pants that cloudtrader sent me!

Scary how quickly you get used to them, eh? *grins* And now I want a mini, damn you all. A Schultze, maybe? GAH NOOOOO!

SOWWY! SCANDAL POSTPONED FOR LEGAL ADVICE

2005-10-18T14:28:12Z

SCANDAL DELAYED AS ARABEL SEEKS LEGAL ADVICE.

Eek, I suck at getting things done on time. I think the whole finishing the comic drive thing has left me with a total case of apathy. Well, and I want this story to be un-rushed. That, and I had to clear the whole things with my legal representatives...

But to tide you over - Sydney Dolls!

click for a larger version

That'd be Oska, Tomas, Mortimer, Dylan (top), Darnell (as Squall), Rosencrantz, Amias (bottom) and North (as Edward Scissorhands). I think? Please tell me if I stuffed up. XD;;

All the boys were so GORGEOUS. And now I'm totally jealous of the minis - they're so tiny and cute and portable! Squee. Anyway, I need to go and do some of that sleeping thing. Soon to come - THE SCANDAL! D:

scandal, yo!

2005-10-16T23:28:30Z

OSKA SCANDAL!

Supanova convention, Sydney, 16th October 2005: And the questions keep coming - why is Oska so startled? Who is the dashing mystery man with whom he is locked in a seemingly passionate embrace? And what does Squall have to do with anything?

Tonight*, all your questions will be answered, in a stunning and unprecedented expose by our Wookie correspondent, Stanley. Your world will never be the same again...

* Er, I'm pretty sure I'll get the pics up tonight. XD

COMIC GOES ARGH

2005-10-09T03:16:35Z

Ros and Mort helping with the comic...

Mort: Oy, that line over there is kinda crooked!
Ros: Um...he's right, you know.
arabel: Hey! It's uh...my style. It's a style, dammit.
Mort: You keep telling yourself that. I'll try and find a ruler.
arabel: -_-;;

arabel: PHEAR THE TABLET! TABLETS ARE LOVE.
Mort: You don't think you're a little too attached to that thing...?
arabel: It is impossible to be too attached to my tablet.

Right, now to stop procrastinating...

and some DEATH...

2005-10-06T07:31:29Z

"I will get this comic finished on time, I will get this comic finished on time, I will..."

(10 minute lunchtime sketch)

I'm sorry I've been so quiet of late - and especially given I should be posting a tonne of pics of my new boy. But I'm currently on an insane deadline to finish my new comic in time for the Supanova festival out here...in a little over a week. ARGHPANIC. So all spare time that isn't spent on work deadlines has pretty much been channeled into the comic. T_T Mort just sits there and watches me in awe at my stupidity in leaving the deadline this short.

And the missing-ness sucks too as y'all have been posting some pretty awesome stuff. But in a week and a little bit, I shall rise from comic-related death, though. I hope...

More with zee picspam!

2005-09-27T04:52:06Z

Mortimer At Work

"Oh, that's total bollocks, that call..."

Mort + FIFA soccer with the games mags lads = chaos. The best thing was that I put him in there, set him up with the controller, and they didn't even notice. Malky in the front there is turning to ask me why the hell I'm taking a photo of them. Then when I pointed him out, they just started ragging on him for being completely crap at the game.

"So you're telling me that controlling the world's coffee supplies will allow me to conquer all the highly-strung arty types in the world? I don't know, that sounds like more trouble than it's worth..."
Yeah, but you have to start somewhere...

And a nicer close-up of the faceup. Yay, I figured out the macro on my camera... XD;;

The best thing is that no-one here so much as bats an eyelid at me carting around a big resin boy. I would have taken more pics, but I've been kind of busy. It's rather nice to just have him sitting here with me, though. ^_^

But I *must* get a soft carrycase. He's bloody heavy, and the big hard case would be great for travelling, but it's a bit ostentatious for carting the boy on a day-to-day basis. Today I just stuck him akwardly in a shoulder-bag. Can anyone recommend a good soft carrycase?

AAARGH!

2005-09-26T02:12:35Z

HE'S HERE!

Yes, I'm waiting until I get home to open him. Yes, this is KILLING ME. But the time waiting for him has taught me patience. Some patience. The main thing that's stopping me is also that I want it to be kinda special, opening him for the first time - so I'm waiting 'till I get home. *^_^*

But still....*dances*

Also, in random artspam...part of an artwork for a friend's anthology.

Rosencrantz with a face

2005-09-19T00:57:16Z

So there you go! I'm still learning how to use my new digital camera, actually, so the closeups leave something to be desired (and it really blows out a lot). Give me film again...*cries*

Anyway, he definitely needs more blushing - I need to get hold of a darker skintone pastel to use in the eye socket area, and I need to properly blush his cheeks. The brows are kinda okay - I could do something more precise, but I was happy with the single hair kind of look I got from about halfway down the brows (although you can't really see it there, sorry! ^^;;).

Any opinions or crit would be well welcome. ^___^ I had fun painting him, and I need to finish him off...but I think he looks okay, for a first ever face-up.

I still don't really know him yet - I think maybe the cloth body really doesn't help that. It'd be so nice for him to have some expressiveness and movement. At the moment he just looks kind of...puffy. >_>;; But I took him out last Friday to meet people - he spent the day at work with me, and then went along to a sewing night with my medievalist friends, who were all sewing new tunics or padding for their helmets and so on (they're a live steel group and all, so there are weapons all over the place there - it's really funny). I took a pic of him posing with the absinthe bottles, which I might post when I get the chance.

Mmm. Absinthe. Okay, I think I'm done with the rambing for now! *laughs*

homecoming

2005-09-15T00:31:33Z

AAAAAAAAH!!!

MORTIMER IS COMING HOME!

This is like a week of doll amazingness. *faints* Tasha has done a gorgeous, gorgeous job on him. I'm going to have to make sure that I fix Rosencrantz up in time to meet Mort, so it's artzing times for me very soon.

*^_______^*

The Boy

2005-09-12T14:34:53Z

Me + doll =

Both taken by me. Hurrah. That's prooobably the end of picspam until I can get his face sorted, methinks.

I suspect he's unimpressed with the cloth body, but who wouldn't be? ^^;;

PICHOORS

2005-09-12T02:23:06Z

My editor went off to a meeting, so I snuck myself off to the photo room to take some rushed pics in my lunch hour. *grins*

And thus, my orsum friend neotokyo presents....

neotokyo and I were all excited about the Japanese newspaper with talking foodstuffs, too. He was the only person around here who cared about the boy arriving, so that's why he gets to be in the pics. *grins*

And finally - the boy!

And in the wig by zoi_no_miko, he kinda looks like Robert Smith. *grins* And a very noice Robert Smith at that. I was suprised it looked so good on him - he's a more innocent type, but it seems to suit him well anyway. Kind of cute and mad. All hail the wigs of the Zoi!

And looking kinda evol:

And um no, no pics with me yet. ^^;; It's rather hard to photograph him without a face-up - especially because our photo room setup is designed to get rid of annoying shadows, so it's difficult to catch the detail on his face here. Sorry! ;_; I'm looking forward to experimenting with lighting, though. *photogeeks*

But I think he's absolutely and totally gorgeous, and the resin feels so beautiful! I can't wait to get the poor boy a body, dammit. And I'll be painting him up as soon as I get my hands on some decent pastels, hopefully some time this week. I'm ecstatic at having a reason to art shop again. Heh heh...

*gambols with joy*

Momentous Occasion Yo

2005-09-12T00:12:30Z

*cue 2001: A Space Odyssey music*

WOOO YO! The School Head A has landed. ~^____^~

I don't know whether to open it here or wait until I get home! I think I might wait until my friend gets in to work, and open it then. That way I can use the work photo studio to take some nicer shots of him.

But anyway....*runs around like a loon* YAAAAAAY!

WHEE!

2005-09-08T05:32:00Z

EEP! The SchA made it to Rinkya!

*dances*

Now, if my credit card is feeling generous, he'll be shipped out immediately. Otherwise I'll have to wait until the freelance people pay me (people who have done any freelance work will understand the pain involved here. T___T) to clear it out and try again. Gaaaah.

But in any case, the fore-runner for his name at present is Rosencrantz (or Guildenstern? har har). This works well with the fact that I don't know who he is yet, and I also really wanted a name that reminded me of something good and happy (okay, it's eventually a tragedy. Shut up! It makes me laugh ^^;;). He's feeling like he'll be kind of floaty and absent minded, and again that'd work. I'll see how it sticks, anyway.

Randomly, it's starting to worry me, because I keep thinking of other things I buy in terms of how much of Rosencrantz's body I could be buying instead. I can't wait until I have everyone sorted with a body, and then they can all shut up. Well, there'll be clothes, but that's not as painful.

Oh, and Ros the SchA gets the cloth body for the moment. When it arrived at work in the (bitten) package last week, I was talking to a colleague about which boy should get the cloth body while I playing with it. I was wondering about whether Vergil would want it, and I happened to turn the body upside down. It kicked me in the head. So no body for Verge. -_-

a classic case of wtf?!?

2005-09-05T11:52:33Z

This is the weirdest thing that's happened to me all month.

I received a package of doll bits at work last Friday (some verry smexy collars, and a cloth body for whoever wants it. The two heads can fight it out if they wish when they get here). I had to head off to a workmate's farewell at a rather nice bar, so I took it with me, not wanting to leave it at work all weekend. I wasn't worried about it, as it stayed with everyone's bags, off to the side mostly.

But when I came back at the end of the night to get it, I found this:

BITE MARKS.

Two perfect imprints of teeth on my package.

What...the...?!? Who the HELL bites a random package in a bar? I know it wasn't my friends because I was with them the whole time. O_o

...theories, anyone?

saynevermore @ 2005-08-29T17:23:00

2005-08-29T07:31:20Z

Note to self:

STOP OBSESSIVELY CHECKING RINKYA TO SEE IF THE HEAD HAS ARRIVED OR I SHALL BE FORCED TO NAIL YOUR MOUSING HAND TO THE TABLE.

Go play with fonts or something.

Love, me