Apoligies

Hey guys,

I'm so sorry for not posting much recently, I have some good news and some bad news.
The good news is that my English exam finished last Thursday and I don't have another one (maths) until January.

The bad news is that it's Christmas and it's ALWAYS busy at Christmas! However, I'm slowly but surely making my way through a hair tutorial. It's bigger (slightly) than the others so it's easier to see. I know I said I'd do proportions, but I've discovered that, acutally, that isn't that easy to do and seeing as I'm a beginner at tutorials It'd probably be best not to dive straight into the difficult bits.

However, that being said, a hair tutorial should be up on the blog by this weekend :)

If you guys ever want to contact me now (I'm rarely on Stardoll to be honest, which is why I made this blog I guess) go to my DeviantArt (a page which a few people requested to know) which is the oh-so-surprisingly named hunnigall.deviantart.com. Follow me, watch me, whatever, you can stalk me if you like :D

Anyways, I'll stop rambling. And if you guys ever want to hear from me, or get me to post something specific (real life drawings etc.) then be sure to suggest it in the comments :)

- Alice x x x

PS. The "Your Stuff" page is slowly being sorted :)

I Did This Awhile Ago...

If you're an active DeviantArtist like me, you'll know about Dianae's AMAZING digital art. Because my awesome friend Ruxxy (who sometimes goes under the 'guise of BooWow_1998) wrote a book. We decided not to use this in the end, in favour of something more simple, but seeing as I can't make anymore tutorials for awhile, I thought I'd show you guys it :)






Click to enlarge - it's HUGE!

- Hunni x x x

Finite Incanatum!

Stop waving your wands, and put down your quills as I tell you the story of how Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 used a strong dose of veritaserum to ensure I let you know of it's charming qualities ;)


As with all the Harry Potter films, Harry, Hermione and Ron have been faced with a mortal task; destroy & defeat Voldemort. And, as revealed in the Half Blood Prince, that's not exactly going to be simple as a knife to the chest. Voldemort has somewhat split his soul into several pieces, and implanted the pieces into objects, these objects known as horcruxes, which, ironically enough, are near impossible to destroy, great, huh?
As a different thing for this film, the trio aren't at Hogwarts. Infact, the only view of Hogwarts we get is a short snippet of Dumbledore's untimely fall from the Astronomy Tower. The main "settings" for the film are campsites situated in various uknown places.
As in the book, the film tried to portray the tension growing between Hermione and Ron, but the two haven't got much chemistry, which is dissapointing, because I half-expected Harry to kiss Hermine at points. Emma Watson's acting was sub-par this time around. I've always been skeptical about how she delivers her lines, and this film was no exception, she seemed quite wooden and blunt, and at times it felt very scripted. I think I'm probably being fussy, but I would've thought that by now she could act 100% professionally. I dunno :P

But yeah, it was a good film. There were some flaws (the death of a VERY loved one wasn't as touching or emotional as it should've been. There should've been tears, but it wasn't sad enough, something seemed missing...) but there were also some highlights (the animations are fantastic, special effects are stunning, we FINALLY got an inside view of Malfoy Manor and Hermione's torture scene was fantastically played [I never said she was all bad!]) so I'd say this was a good watch, it was definately worth booking the tickets a MONTH in advance - and even by that time the VIP seats were sold out!

This wasn't my favorite in the series, that must be said. I liked it but I didn't like it as much as the Half Blood Prince; though I can't really decide before seeing it's counterpart. Still, it was worth seeing, worth the wait and definately had me on the edge of my seat at times, plus, there was enough Draco for me to go home happy ;)

This gets a Hunni rating of 4 stars. Not excellent, but very very close :)



What did you guys think?

- Hunni x x x

I'm Off!

Yes, I'm officially leaving Stardoll!


*jokes*


Hehe, scared you? Naah, I'm just off to watch Harry Potter! Expect a review and perhaps (if I get time) a SMALL graphic :P


No tutorials are planned for this weekend beceause I'm extremely busy (English exams, sleepovers, working etc.) but I have an idea of what I want to do next, sorry for the delays but my GCSEs come first before everything :)

Have a great evening, and if you're seeing the film too, I want to hear your reviews!

- Hunni x x x

And This Season's LE Comes To...

Granted, that does include doubles on the shoes and stuff, but still. It's alot of money...

I thought I'd mention, this blog isn't just tutorials, I'm going to post about anything I want to so that I can at least get in one post a day, and I'd like to start being able to blog. The great thing about having a self-named blog is that I can pretty much do whatever I want (yay!) so um.. Yeah, I'll be doing a proportions and body construction tutorial around the weekend (or next weekend, I have an English exam Thursday through next Friday)

Enjoy your day, and for God's sakes don't spend all your money on LE, you'll have none left for later (always happens to me. I drain my money on LE and then end up broke for when HotBuys or something awesome comes out... Ahhh, the typicalness :D)

Anyways, I have maths homework, tally ho ;)

- Hunni x x x

Why I Hate the Dodge/Burn Tools

I've had a few people ask me this - What's wrong with using the dodge/burn tools?

Well. What's wrong... Hm... Maybe we should start with what's right about them. Nothing. Absoloutely nothing. While they're incredibly useful for eyes, digital art & photomanipulation, they're horrible for editing Stardoll pictures. Why? Take a look for yourself:

The left leg has been shaded in the way I would use, and the right leg has been shaded using the dodge and burn tools. Granted, I have no experience with using them whatsoever, so this looks worse than it might usually look, but you get the idea. When I zoomed in, I noticed that actually, it looks something like this:


Does that look accurate? No, Do those colours look natural? Not unless you have some weird light or you're trying to shade a worm.
You'll also notice how much more crisp and precise my method looks, this is attractive in many ways, one being that it looks alot like Stardoll's original graphics (which is why Style magazine was so successful in it's day, it stuck to it's Stardoll roots) another being it looks proffessional (you could use the graphics you make today in your future CV, meaning a better job AND it'll be impressive because to be able to produce graphics like this at our ages is pretty good material to work with for the future) and lastly, it's easier to see the light source. We know that the light is shining directly onto the object and that the skin isn't oily or dirty. The dodged/burned leg looks rather oily and orangey, almost like Katie Price's leg o.O

Another great thing about my methods is that you can get intimate with the details. As you can see, I've contoured the leg muscle a bit for definition. This also is effective in folds of skin, where the bone peaks (eg. the collarbone) and fingers/toes. The more detailed your body is, the more reallistic it will look.
Your "homework" for next lesson is to study the human form a bit. Look at where the muscle is and how the lines are contoured, also look at how fat lies on skin, a great exercise for body tone is to draw a very overweight person, which allows you to study how shade and light fall onto contours and "bulges". As I said before, I'd love to see your work, and I'll probably feature it on the "Your Stuff" page soon after I see it :)

Happy Hunnigraphicing!

- Hunni x x x

Beginner: Skin & Shading in General

These tutorials are for beginners. They are very basic and thorough, however, a basic knowledge of Photoshop is required. As far as I know, all the tools featured are availiable in Paint.net and GIMP.

There are 3 different skin tutorials, each with different skintones. I've included swatches at the end of each tutorial and detailed instructions on how to do them. These skills can be applied on dresses, makeup, objects, pretty much anything. I'll be posting a poll soon on the sidebar to vote for the next tutorial, so keep checking back!

Also, with these tutes, I expect you all to read each of them to find your favorite one. If everyone used the same technique, it'd be very very boring and Stardoll graphics would lose their diversity they have at the moment. Don't use my instructions as a set desicion, play around with the rules and find your own style, and soon you'll be Stardoll's next top graphic designer ;)

- Hunni x x x

PS: All comments are well-received, I really want to know what you guys are thinking, how you're all doing (please send in pictures!) and what you want to know about next. If you need further instructions, ask! I don't bite ;)

Click on each swatch to take you to a tutorial, or just click on the page called "The Basics" at the top :)

Basics: Medoll Printscreening

This technique can also be used to printscreen jewellery in your suite. Later I'll upload a tutorial on how to cut out backgrounds on various objects

- Hunni x x x

Before We Start

There are a few things that I have to say before I try to teach anyone to make graphics. Or any kind of art, infact.
If you make something and think "Ugh. This is complete and utter shit. I might aswell go stick my head up an emu's ass I'm so useless" then you're going to get nowhere. Hear me? Nowhere. Fantastic. My point is, if you don't appreciate you work, then you can't improve. You have to be able to look at what you've made and say constructively what's wrong. I'll show you an example.
There are MANY things wrong with this graphic, some of the issues are more important than others. First, it's not nice to look at. You would not like to see this image on your DeviantArt page or whatever. Second, it's very very angular. I cannot stress how sharp edges affect your work. If you have smooth, rounded edges with no blurring or pixellation, your image will look far more lifelike and far more professional. Next, the perspective is completely wrong. A shoe is not one dimensional. Sure, there are some horrific shadows, but they aren't accurate and tehre doesn't appear to be a specific light source. Also, if you study the shape of a shoe, it does not look like that. Take a peek:Now, if you compare the two pictures, you can see I've mucked up on perspective. You can't see much of the insole when the shoe is at a side view, so technically my picture should be shaded differently. MUCH differently.

And my final, most important point of the lesson. I will KILL anyone who complains about crap graphics and continues to do this: Never. Ever. Ever. EVER. NEVER even THINK about using Dodge, Burn or Sponge tools on my watch. I will KILL. These tools are horrible, they make the colours of your image look unnatural, they can't get an accurate shadow, they look very airbrushed and you can't achieve a precise shading. The most important part of graphics is accurate, controlled shading. Dodging and Burning your work will not give you any of those results. I swear. If you want to use them beceause they work for you, then that's fine, but I will ban you from ever asking me for help :D

Anyways, I hope I didn't bore you, and I hope you guys are taking notes ;)

First lesson will be out soonish. I'll start with shading, because that's the basics. I'll progress from basic to more advanced tutorials, and there'll be a poll or box where you can request tutorials for different techniques :)

Over and out

- Hunni x x x

This Blog

Will teach you in the most BRUTAL way possible how to be like me. It will involve many many dangerous techniques. Most of which will be tutorials written by myself.
You have been warned

- Hunni x x x