Halloween (Thursday)

You didn't really think I'd pass up this sort of opportunity, right?

Well, our door decoration is up, but I haven't taken a picture yet.

HOWEVER.

I DID SOMETHING COOL AND I'M A LITTLE EXCITED?

IT'S NOT TOO OBVIOUS RIGHT?

Here's my Halloween costume!

It took 45 minutes, but the look on my Statics professor's face was worth every minute.

*evil cackle*

And thanks to a little forethought on my part, I took process photos!

(So if you're not terribly interested in how this masterpiece came together, you can go now.)

Step 1!

Outline your wounds:

I didn't really want large open wounds (because those take a lot more effort), so two slightly open slits and a closed cut seemed like enough. Also, now's a good time to put your eyeliner on. I used a dark brown for this step.

Bonus:

I included the neck cut to add an obviously not real element, so as not to scare the people who care too bad. The first time I tried this out, my roommate asked if there was anything we needed to talk about. Which was nice, but still something to be avoided.

Step 2!

Bruises:

I started with some yellow around the "cuts" and then blotted on the purple. Applying the purple this way makes it look more natural. Then I lightly put some green on the edges of each bruise, just for a more rounded look, but it's not entirely necessary. And don't forget the shadows under your eyes, particularly when including a nose wound!

This is probably the longest step, and it seems horribly simple for the amount of time put in, but it really isn't all that difficult.

Step 3!

Where we make use of white eyeliner and black lipstick:

For the white eyeliner, the key is to put it pretty much on or around the dark brown lines you started with. Also, if doing stitches, put dots where the thread "goes into" the skin. I would also recommend brushing a very light brown over the white so that it doesn't look as stark. This give more of an appearance of having broken skin.

For the black lipstick, put on a line on the bottom lip about where your lips meet and rub your lips together, then wipe off some. I also used some of the dark brown left over on my brush to do the drips from my mouth. This will make it look as though you've been either eating blood or coughing it up.

Yay!

Step 4!

Bring on the blood:

Ok, not a great picture, but still.

Now's the time to fill in those little gaps with a good amount of red. This is no time to be stingy, inside the wound needs to be dark. I also did a line of red over the neck line. (Adding a little trickle here and there makes for some really good reactions.) Also, anywhere you may have added "dry blood" (a.k.a. the dark brown near my mouth) brush a little red over it to get the right color.

Step 5!

Stitching it together:

Should have taken a close-up of this part.

Oh well.

Here you'll want black eyeliner to play connect-the-dots with the white spots you added earlier. Also adding a spot of red at the ends of your stitches makes them look cooler. 

And with that you're done, and ready to startle some unassuming teachers!

Almost makes me wish I had more classes today.

So have a Happy Halloween, and I'll post again sometime soon.

Go with God,

~Allie

Look at all this art I'm producing! (Tuesday)

...

 Yeah.

I finally caved and bought those ridiculously expensive awesome markers and I've done exactly nothing with them.

So, to recap, while I've been practicing in the margins of my notes, the minute I sit down with a sketch book and an idea, everything falls to pieces.

The fact that I recently realized I am verymuch behind in Statics and none of my classes will slow down to let me catch up is probably a big contributor. Maybe once I'm all caught up I will be more artfully productive.

In other news, I've signed up for NaNoWriMo!

For those of you who don't know what that is, November is National Novel Writing Month. There's a website dedicated to it, but as it's down for maintenance right now, I can't post a reliable link. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month.

Yes.

Fifty

Thousand

Words.

You don't actually have to sign up to participate, but registering with the website allows you access to several "motivating" tools, one of these being the forums where you can communicate with others in your area to keep inspired.

Since I've signed up, I've decided what I'll be writing about and have already started building scenes in my head and trying to construct realistic scenarios.

I don't know if I'll post it here.

As a writer, I'm fairly inexperienced, so the first draft will likely be excruciatingly rough and probably around 75% will have to be totally rewritten.

However, I'm looking forward to the challenge, and I hope I will return with good news in December.

(I will try not to go that long without posting, but we'll have to see.)

I'll try to pull something together to post here drawing-wise soon.

Go with God,

~Allie