Thursday, December 2, 2010

mas trabajo



So I spent a good three hours working on those same two hats today, the Totoro and Houston ones...mostly just lots of leeeettle tiny time-consuming background details, like cleaning up edges and making things blend better and shit. 

I did, however, entirely redo the background of the Totoro hat. The colors (a light pink-yellow-orange fade) actually came out perfectly, really pastel and almost buttery.




I also did the letters, which actually took over an hour in themselves -- first I had to paint the background color fade around them and then in all the crevices with a little bitty brush, and then go over each outline (which were originally embroidered in red thread) in a metallic gold Sharpie paint pen, and then touch up any mistakes in the white letters themselves with thatsame tiny paintbrush. Ayayay.








Here's a close-up of the letters...not a great pic (thanks Photobooth) but the fade around them came out very nicely. I was, however, hoping the paint pen would be a brighter, more yellowy gold -- anybody know of a better brand?










I'd really like to finish either this or the Houston one before winter break, but as of right now today is the only day I've allotted myself to not study or work on my many final papers, so we'll see if I have time. The Totoro design will be really cute.

So....esta todo! Buenas nochesss

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EDIT: it just occurred to me that a lot of people actually don't know what/who Totoro is. I had to introduce him to my poor deprived roommates just this year. Totoro is a creature in the Hayao Miyazaki anime film My Neighbor Totoro...I suppose technically it's a kids' movie, but it's fantastic. Honestly the most comforting, content, zen piece of art I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. So here's Totoro, for those of you who don't know:


Nowww you understand. Exciting right? Yeahhh just WAIT.