"Shimmering Dynasty" Katy Keene Doll

There's so much truth to the statement, "When it rains; it pours." Yesterday we picked up nearly 50 artist dolls we'll be selling on consignment. Today "Shimmering Dynasty" Katy Keene and Sybarite "Precious" arrived.  Tomorrow  Kingdom Doll "Eira" is due to arrive and I believe "Midas Touch" Poppy is due very shortly.  A new microwave oven is on it's way to be installed this afternoon and we're meeting with our real estate agent tomorrow for the second foray into the housing market this week. I'm trying to stay calm. I only go crazy when tornado warnings are issued which seems to be almost every week lately in addition to torrential rain and lightning. I need a vacation...but I'd probably be bored to death.
Wait...I forgot one thing. My graphics card dropped dead on Sunday night. Off to the Apple Store I went to have one of their geniuses check it out. Luckily for me there will be no charge to replace the card because there has been an issue with this particular card. Yay. But I'm using a dinky old laptop without Photoshop. The things we become accustomed to....

Anyway, let's discuss Katy Keene. For the first time (for me) from Integrity Toys, the inner doll box was wrapped in tissue paper—just like a Silkstone doll. That was a nice touch.
The box is very attractive with it's KK graphics inside and out.

The gown is exactly as shown in the promotional photos. It's lovely and I hope it fits my other FR dolls.

I'm not a big fan of the painting of this sculpt. It could be beautiful if there were shading but that's not going to happen. I have said it before...Katy Keene should have been created to look like vintage Katy Keene, not a distant relative of Jem who owns a comb.

KK shares Jem's sculpt but not the wild hair.

It would have been appropriate to have cartoonish screening without shading in that case. Just slapping a name on a doll does not mean anything. The graphics on the box are the only authentic Katy Keene thing about this doll.

I had to give her a chance because I loved Katy Keene when I was a child.

Her hair is separated into three distinct curled, uber-gelled segments. It is not a cohesive style. That is the only defect and it's a result of a poorly trained or poorly instructed factory worker.

My First Chewin Fashion

This year I'm focusing more on fashion than on accumulating more dolls. I recently purchased this fashion from Chewin who is well known not only for his extraordinary sewing skills but also for his wigs.  The model below is Tonner's Yoshio and although I ordered the outfit to fit a Jamieshow doll, it also fits the Matt O'Neill body perfectly!

What you don't see is the finishing on the inside of the garments. Every seam is finished! I love the teensy buttons, the collar that lays properly, the closures that don't show when they're in use. It's extraordinarily realistic. This is miniature tailoring at it's finest. I appreciate that no zipper fly was used as they are always too bulky. I've already ordered another fashion and I can't wait. I'm hooked.
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For anyone who might be interested:
-This photo was taken with a mini iPad under artificial light at night. I altered the color to be less yellow using Photoshop.
-The setting is a small corner of my doll room.
-Yoshio is barefooted because one of his ankles is cracked and I'm afraid I'll break his foot off. I need a new body for him.
-The two dolls seen in the upper left are Tonner characters. One is his 13" Simone Rouge and the other is 13" Artemis of Bana Mighdall. (Redressed.)

Altered Color - Digital Magic

One of the themes this week on Prego is Black and White. I have an enormous archive of my digital doll photography, yet somehow, I remember individual photos even when they are several years old.
I like black and white images but even more than that, I like a shot of color in a b&w image. Here are several which appeared in a past FDQ piece a few years ago.
I do all my photo editing using Photoshop.

Click on each image to see the various color details.

Antoinette

Aphrodisiac

Attention

Goldmine

Illusion Nadja

Puki Puki

Spottted at the Pink Parlor: Liberte´, egalite´, fraternite´

Posted by angelcollector87 today on the Pink Parlor is her re-imagined Eugene Delacroix painting of a scene from the French Revolution.

Wow! How much fun is this? Fabulous work!

Below is a reproduction of the original 1830 painting entitled La Liberte´ guidant le peuple

Factoid: According to Wikipedia - The painting inspired the Statue of Liberty in NYC which was given to the United States as a gift from the French only 50 years after Liberty Leading the People had been painted. The statue, which holds a torch in its hand, takes a more stable, immovable stance than the woman in the painting. (OT: Perhaps they never saw Ghostbusters.)

That's one big doll!

Digital Backgrounds: Retro Series from Savage

The DVD I recently ordered contains 48 digital backgrounds at 300dpi and can be used in Photoshop. I haven't checked the tutorial with which it comes but I'm sure it can be used on most available platforms and with most professional software.

I was just fooling around with a picture of Tiny Kitty and this is the frightening result.

Don't worry, you won't be seeing too much of this from me. This disc has tremendous potential.

In my hands it has tremendous potential for pain.

Picture of the Week Award ~ Al Gudka

I came upon this stunning photograph of the new Mini Avantguard doll Androgyny on the W Club board.

 Property of Al Gudka

Al's photography is  a favorite of mine. He's a master of composition. You will come across his posts not only on the W board but also on Doll Divas and BC.Com.

Here are the answers Al sent to my questionnaire:

-This gorgeous doll is the Mini-Clone Androgyny AvantGuards with her original wig

-No changes were made to the doll itself, but I did release the wig's ponytail

-She is wearing the Barbie by Jonathan Adler dress; corset and stockings from Aerodynamic Vanessa; shoes from last year's W Club Eugenia; jewelry from Flight Pattern Kyori

-The Hows:

• The camera I used was a 15 megapixel Canon Powershot G10
• For the backdrop I used a white foam-filled poster board; doll is leaning against it
• The only prop was a little desk fan that doubled as a large industrial fan in 1/6th scale
• For lighting I used a cluster of three 35 watt daylight florescent bulbs placed directly in front of, and slightly above the doll, at approx 6 ft away.  I hung a large sheet of tracing paper 2 feet in front of the lamps.  This diffused the light and made it look like natural light.

-My inspiration for this shot was some behind the scenes footage of model Gisele Bundchen during a photo shoot.

-The biggest suggestion I would give to budding photographers is to get acquainted with Photoshop.  It can transform a dull, lifeless photo into a brilliant, high contrast eye-catcher. It is also indispensible when it comes to white balancing your photos if your camera can't do it properly.  I see so many beautiful photos that have been unintentionally marred by green or yellow color casts. 

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Thanks for sharing your expertise with us, Al. 

Picture of the Week Award ~ March 21, 2010

I came across this picture on the W Club board and I thought it was so well done that it deserved to be featured this week. The photographer is Parisuthi Wasanasomsithi aka Paris W. The theme of the photo was the result of a challenge in a Flickr group called "Mad Men's Season Finale Wrap Party."

I sent several questions to Paris. Here are her responses:

Describe the photo.
- It was the final challenge for the "Fashion Royalty International Jetset Diva" contest on that Flickr group. The challenge is "Mad Men's season finale wrap party".

Explain how you did it briefly.

- Found this portrait of Don Draper that I thought I could work with (he's alone in the pic). - Then took a pic of my Diva (I chose Mini Livewire for this contest). - Then took a pic of Agnes with tissue in her hand. - Combined those three in Photoshop. Made them Duotone mode and added background and other elements (sparkles, wine glass, cigarette smoke, etc.)

Did you make changes to the original doll?

- Adding a running mascara on Agnes in Photoshop only.

What is she/he wearing? Wig?

- Mini Livewire is wearing "Kelly Girl" by Randall Craig, with jewelry from "Mon Cheri" by Dressmaker Details, and wig from Vero's Urban Antoinette. - Agnes is wearing "Together Again" by Randall Craig. Setting?
- I took pics of them with just plain white background and combined them all in a Photoshop.

Camera equipment and set-up used?

- Canon Ixus 80 IS and a table lamp. I don't have a studio/fancy equipments so have to make do with what I got.

Suggestions to other doll photographers?

- Mmmmm I'd say find your strength, work with what you got, and follow your imagination...
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The images were combined seamlessly into one photo. I'd say that Paris has definitely found her strength!

If you would like to see more of her work, click here for her Flickr photostream.

Congratulations, Paris, on the Picture of the Week Award!

Picture of the Week Award ~ January 17, 2010

A classic beauty for this week's Picture of the Week Award is a repainted Scarlett "Return to Tara" doll from the Tonner Doll Co. Her hair has been restyled and the gown is a OOAK creation by Alana Bennett of dollfashionsbyalana.com. The photographer/repainter is Boots Villavecer from the Philippines.

When I find a candidate for the Picture of the Week I always send several questions for the artist to answer. Boots was very generous with his time and response so I am going to paste his response here.

I am no professional so I don't have much equipment. The doll here is a repainted Tonner Scarlett "Return to Tara" doll. The hair has been adjusted. The gown is an OOAK creation by Alana Bennett of dollfashionsbyalana.com. It is inspired by a gown worn in Scarlett the TV series in 1994. It is originally in "blue" but via special effects has been made green -- Margaret Mitchell's favorite color.  All factory paint has been removed and I used what I call my special brush from Noel Cruz himself who encouraged me to pursue repainting. Just a Canon Digital Camera IXUS B515 10 Megapixel Camera. I don't use flash, because that creates shadows at the back of the doll. I always use the "portrait" function on the camera and from there, control the exposure because the lights can often be strong. I have 2 table lamps that can be angled as lighting sources. For the backdrop I use large clamps to hold a cloth on the photo. The cloth must slope down have no wrinkles or folds (depending on how the kind of effect you want). If you want some draping soft cloth is preferrable. I don't have a tripod so I have to have a really steady hold on the camera, but that's actually easy with the camera I use. 

Thanks to technology, one can fix the photo using Photoshop CS3. I use "dodge" tool to highlight dark shadows; "burn" tool to darken the areas in the background; the "clone" tool to add details, and various tools under the "Filter" tools to create the brush strokes, the additional lighting. The magic is in a Filter tool known as "Liquify". Here you can fix the hair and the gown if there are unwanted or desired things you want to enhance. 

My real name is Boots Villavecer, from the Philippines. 44 years old, working as a Creative in an advertising agency. I spent 5 years in Publishing and during free time would practice photo-editing for 13 magazines. Among them being fashion and beauty. My website is: http://www.soultalk777.blogspot.com.

Congratulations, Boots, on the Picture of the Week Award!

Picture of the Week Award ~ December 13, 2009

I've seen the name La Pierle many times connected with beautiful and trendy doll fashions. What I didn't know was that this same person is an accomplished photographer and Photoshop user. Her real name is Valerie Humbert-Deshayes and she is a free-lance textile designer. Her photography and fashion design demonstrate and echo her passion for textures and fabrics.

Valerie's native language is French but her English is excellent compared to my French. She described the image and fashion to me and gave me permission to reword her description. The part in quotes are her words.

Valerie obtained the embroidered tulle with irridescent beads and mother of pearl sequins from her Indian textile supplier. She wanted something transparent and light even though the fabric is quite heavy due to the beading. Once she had the fabric the style of the dress came easily.
The idea behind the image's mood is "inspired by the magic of Christmas. Salvation is the concept that other higher power, as part of Divine Providence, saves Humanity from spiritual death or eternal damnation by providing for them an eternal life."

Post processing was done in Photoshop through the use of multiple layers and lots of skill!

You can see more of La Pierle's work at Etsy and Flickr. 

Congratulations, Valerie, on the Picture of the Week Award.