Sad news in the dolling world: The Gathering is closing. No definite time has been announced, but the forum’s pretty much dead.

I’ve been a member of the Gathering since 2004; it was the first forum I joined. My reason for joining was to get critique for my dolls, but being there helped me in other ways that I never expected. TG gave me practice interacting online, and while I’m still not exactly a social butterfly, I gained the courage to join other forums on other subjects. If it hadn’t been for TG, I might’ve been too shy to create the Brainchildren!

I’ll never find another doll forum like the Gathering, no matter how long I doll. Farewell TG, and good luck Xandorra and my fellow members.

AZ Dawn

Last doll post of the year, folks! This doll’s from October, when dollers like to make Halloween themed dolls. I originally based this on a cat ballerina costume. When I changed the colors to my tastes, though, she started to look more like a Black-Eyed Susan.

Base from Apitchou. Last modified October 31, 2011.

Goodbye, kitty; hello, flower girl!

Now that she’s a Black-Eyed Susan, she seem more like a springtime doll than a Halloween doll, which, of course, is just fine.

Happy New Year, everyone! (And a very good one, I hope.)

AZ Dawn

I’ve got some non-doll graphics for you: avatars. There’s not many, but perhaps you might find what’s here useful.

I’m a member of a few forums that only allow 80 x 80 or smaller avatars, and being at a loss as to what to doll for an av, I looked around the web for something premade to use in the meantime. Not only are 80×80 avs hard to find, many of them were on sites I’d fear to link back to for credit.   I saw a need for avatars of that size from sites you would let your kids visit, so I looked for some tuts and gave it a try.

All photos are from morgueFile. The grunge brush is from Digital Goodies. I’ll link to the tuts I used near the avatars I used them on.

Iguanas. Last modified October 6, 2010.

This av was made using this Vintage Effect tut minus the last step because the picture was red enough without it.

Last modified October 6, 2010.

Same photo, but I used this Orton Effect tut instead. A bit more cheery than the reddish one, don’t you think?

Chameleon. Last modified October 8, 2010.

For this one I used this tut for Making a Photo Grungy. Unfortunately, what works at large sizes doesn’t always work at smaller sizes, so I had to supplement it with a grunge brush and layer modes.

Coyote. Last modified December 28, 2010.

This is another one I did with Orton effect tut; definitely works better with brighter colors.

A silly setter. Last modified December 28, 2010.

Made using this Black and White Vintage tut. This is the best of the five, I think; simple and crisp.

The rules for these avatars are slightly different from most of my graphics. Credit is still required, of course, but in cases where linking is not possible, credit can be giving by saying something like, “I got this from The Brainchildren,” if someone asks where you got that spiffy avatar.

Also, you may change the size of these avatars if necessary. Indeed, depending on where you use them, you might not have a choice! No other changes are allowed. If you want to do anything more, go to the morgueFile and get the original photos. Who knows, with skill and the right tuts, you might be able to make a better avatar than me! Or at least one more to your own tastes.

AZ Dawn

Sorry for the infrequent posting, folks. It’s been a rough year, full of stress and thwarted creativity. The Brainchildren is still alive, it’s just that most of my work on here lately has been behind the scenes.

Anyway, here’s a doll from earlier this year. I would’ve enter her in a contest, but I decided to experiment with makeup on dark skin, and the deadline passed before she was finished. *sigh*

Base from Xandorra’s Place. Last modified March 28, 2011.

Hope I got the makeup right. I had to wade through tons of Google results to find a few useful sites on the subject. (Someday, I should share those sites with you.)

AZ Dawn

  The heat has been brutal (and the AC deficient) and I’ve felt limp for most of the summer. Fortunately, there was a cooling trend near the end of July, so I managed to make a simple summery doll.

Base from Miniature Reality. Last modified July 29, 2011.

I was going to use the head variation with bunny ears (beach bunny, hee hee), but it looked too much like a certain other bunny from a magazine that won’t be named. The regular human head didn’t have ears or eyebrows so I had to add them. The lack of visible hair? The real reason is that it was giving me a hard time, so I slapped a swim cap on her. The in-character reason is she’s either got it tucked up under her cap or she’s bald.

Hope you can all stay cool and hydrated!

AZ Dawn

Sorry for the lack of posts these past few months. Life hasn’t merely kicked my butt; it’s put on brass knuckles and punched me in the stomach. I’ll spare you the depressing details; suffice it to say that my life stinks and I haven’t felt much like posting. The Arizona heat and my cruddy AC aren’t helping, either.  

Hopefully I’ll be able to post more soon. I certainly have things I could post.  In the meantime, be good and stay hydrated.

AZ Dawn

Disclaimer: None of the graphics in this post are mine; I adopted these from another site. Do not adopt these graphics from here, even if the original site is down!

At long last, here’s the Adopted Graphics Showcase!

Click Here to Go to Xandorra’s Place.

Xandorra was one of my first dolling influences. Her dolls and bases are great, she has lots of palettes and patterns, and some helpful tutorials.

All these dolls were made with Xandorra’s own bases.

This doll has an RPG feel to it. Pretty, yet butt-kicking!

This is the example doll for Xandorra’s Regency Dress tutorial. It’s a very nice tut, and the skirt part of it helped me out a lot. Sadly, there’s a lot of imitations out there, so I decided that when I was able to adopt dolls, I’d adopt the original.

Xandorra has lots of fairy dolls, and I wanted to adopt one. It was a tough choice, but I finally settled on this green girl.

As a little girl I used to wear a lot of gingham, so for nostalgia’s sake I had to adopt this doll!

The costume design’s what drew me in, but what got her adopted is the dark-on-dark color scheme. I don’t quite know why, since I generally prefer brighter or more contrasting schemes; maybe the doll’s just that good!

If you like this sampling of Xandorra’s, then please visit her site; there’s more great dolls and things there.

AZ Dawn

The doll in this post is for adoption only! Do not use in avatars, signatures, or layouts. Please read the rules on my content for more details. Thank you.

January was a rough month for me and my family; my nephews kept getting sick.  The worst case was when my eldest nephew had to go to the hospital for a suspected appendix issue. Fortunately (sort of), it was just a tummy bug. While he was there, I told myself I’d make a doll of him when he got out.

Base from Kawaii Hannah. Last modified January 27, 2011.

I was originally going to doll him as a Jedi (he was heavily into Star Wars at the time), but something didn’t go right, so I decided doll him pretending to be a Jedi. Unfortunately, the toy lightsaber looked awful, so I switched it to a popsicle. He likes popsicle, too, though I have no idea what flavor a lavender-colored popsicle would be.

He’s definitely better by now, and though he’s been ill a few times, he hasn’t been emergency-room serious since then.

AZ Dawn

When I saw the Dark Rose Maiden costume in a Party City ad some years back, I thought about dolling it. Of course, I modified the design; I rarely try to make an exact replica of an inspiration, and when I do try, it never works. For instance, I was working with a much smaller picture that the one I linked to, so I couldn’t see the little details, like the skirt pattern or that the “sleeves” were actually a really short cape.  Also, when I drew the outlines I thought, Wow that’s a kind of princessy design; I’ll doll it in bright colors! The results:

Base from Guinevere’s Pixels. Last modified January 11, 2005.

Not bad considering what my skills were like back then.

I really liked the basic design of the bodice and tried it several time on other dolls on other bases. In January, I got the urge to do that design again for an elf doll. Coincidentally, I did the finishing touches 6 years and a day after the doll above.

Base from Pyrate Rose. Last modified January 12, 2011.

The colors are dark, but the doll’s still cheerful overall. I made the main color palette with an online palette generator. The highlights were too bright, though, so I had to blur them. Also I added make up to this doll (the lips were too dark for my tastes, and the cheeks and eyelids were too light.) I took the eyeshadow color from the main palette and either blurred it or made the layer more transparent (can’t remember which). Same with the blush, except that I took the color from the lips and definitely know I blurred it.

I have another January doll to put up, but that best left for another post… 

AZ Dawn

Sorry for the lack of posts lately; my life’s been overwhelming these past few months. On the bright side, I’ve got so some posts in progress. I just need to figure out how to word them. Expect to see another post or two soon.

Goodbye for now!

AZ Dawn