The next meetup of VTDL heralds the return of the popular Halloween theme. I finally have an incentive to complete Thalia, as her skeletal aesthetic will make for a perfect Samhain debut. Of course, I haven’t made much progress since the last time we saw her early in July with faceup plans penciled all over her face. But here she is again.
First I painted the inside of her mouth black. Then I used Pebeo and an Xacto knife to remove black paint from her teeth and wherever else it wasn’t supposed to go. At the same time, I painted one of her tongues [the licking one, as opposed to the sticking-out one]. Then I did her face in white and gave her some temporary red eyes, as I haven’t made her specific ones yet. Pictures follow.
Andrea recently Tumbld that Joann Fabrics came out with their Halloween prints last week, so I made my early pilgrimage. I got, from left, daisy-like flowers with skulls in the center, little white skulls and swirlies on a black field, and Ye Olde Stereotypicalle Cemeterie Silhouette in Sepia. This picture appears in the entry about Thalia because I plan to make her a shirt out of the flowery skulls — my first foray into 1:3 scale sewing. Not sure what I will do with the swirly skulls, but they were too cool to pass up. I picked up Ye Olde Stereotypicalle Cemeterie to frame a section for Isabel’s taphophilic decor. However, it appeals to me too, so I will frame a section for myself too.I searched online for the type of skullface makeup I wanted for Thalia: something stylized, but a little more realistic than pure black-and-white cartooniness. This is a print out of a Victoria 4 character and texture [for a 3D model], Jacqueline, by Morris. She is discontinued, but I found this picture illustrating SWAM’s Jacqueline Hair for V4. I especially dig the shading around the eye sockets.My current progress on Thalia doesn’t look like much, but it sure was a challenge. I stared painting the inside of her mouth with black acrylic, but I didn’t like the chalky, flat result. I mixed pearl powder with black and slapped on more layers, trying to achieve a wet, shiny look. The black was still cold and chalky, rather than warm and vivid, but I gave up at this point.Here is Thalia with her preferred lip-licking tongue. The color does not represent well; it’s supposed to be deep magenta, again with a liberal mix of pearl powder. After agonizing about how to paint her teeth, I realized that the unpainted color is a pretty accurate depiction of how enamel looks — i.e., white with a yellowish tinge — against the artificial whiteness of the face paint. After scraping around in her mouth for too long, removing black paint from her teeth like some dentist for BJDs, I’m glad to forego painting her teeth. Aside from the boring red eyes that do her no justice, she’s looking pretty cool.
