"Looks Like You're Not Happy, 'Less I Open a Vein..."
Literally the day after my last post, I came down with a surprise headcold, and I’ve only just recovered from it. (Yeah, I could’ve kept working on this while I was sick. But for one thing, I was dealing with Sick-Brain, and Sick-Brain never wants to cooperate with anything outside of sleeping and showering. And for another thing, I didn’t want too many germs to attach to my little guy. Sure, he’ll get exposed to some germs no matter what, but still.)
Anyway, remember what I said about posting throughout the whole vein-drawing process? Well, turns out I decided to be a bit more gung-ho with the details than I thought I’d be...
Although I was still pretty damn nervous about it, I’d made a point to practice drawing vein patterns on paper with other Ohuhu markers (basically every color outside of gray and red, since I really needed those markers to stay viable for this project). And despite my doubts about my drawing, I’m actually pretty pleased with how they turned out so far.
My personal artistic skills are focused on writing, sculpture, and painting the clay used for said sculptures. (Yeah, decorating cakes and cookies is kinda there too, but I’m still an amateur at that.) When it comes to drawing, I typically say, “I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler.” But veins are actually kinda easy. It’s just a matter of making streaks weave together. The uncanny resemblance to tree roots/branches helps. (Even if that was one of the things I questioned about how I was drawing them.)
A big part of this success is the fact that the fur hasn’t put up too much of a fight. I’ve noticed that the three Labubu lines seem to have different types of fur in their designs. The BIE line specifically has very thick, fluffy fur. The EM line has dense, curly fur. The HAS, meanwhile, has fur that seems much thinner, and a bit more prone to matting. Not that that’s a bad thing, it just needs to be handled with more care. It seems to create a bit of a smoother palette; you still have to be cautious with your marker-strokes, but it’s probably easier to customize than, say, a BIE’s fur. (You could still color it, but complex patterns would certainly be a challenge)
Yes, I know, the fur and veins of the head looks different than everywhere else; I'm really not sure how that happened. I wasn't happy about it at first, but by now I've embraced it as a happy accident. For one thing, the slight color-spread could reference burst veins. For another thing, this could be chalked up to how the brain actually requires a different type of bloodflow than most other organs of the body.
As you can see, the ears are now fully colored-in. I tried to outline the inside and the the outer-edges with red, but I found myself having to try and clear up more smudges with more rubbing alcohol on the parts that were SUPPOSED to remain untouched. And that made the ears just...kinda resemble strawberry shortcake. And while I usually don't mind strawberry shortcake, this project is about blood, so changes had to be made. It was a last-minute decision, but I don't think it takes away from the rest of the look.
I didn’t originally plan to outline the entire face with red; the first idea was to just have veins branching off one or two corners of it. But hey, if you look up diagrams of the circulatory system, then you’ll see how veins are fucking EVERYWHERE, so that gave me more confidence. Plus, I kinda like the way the face is just poking out of the red like that.
(Also, yes, there are some smudges of certain parts of the vinyl. I guess there were some weak points in the tape, just like what happened with the ears. Luckily for me, the worst of it cleaned off. Plus, those smudges leaked onto much less visible areas, save for directly around the nose. The hands and feet are a bit of a different story. But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense for the Labubu to look grungy as well as bloody. The titular submarine isn’t up to code with its mechanics, so it probably wasn’t too clean on the inside even before it was sent into the blood ocean.)
Aaaaaaannnnnd he's pretty much done! I considered taking the customization all the way to his eyes with red and black metallic paints, but I ultimately decided not to. The irises are behind plastic, after all; you can't really touch them or have any paints properly set on top of them. Besides, look at their original design! Makes my buddy look like he’s happily contemplating some arson. And who the hell says hearts are too cutesy/girly? Just because they’re pink doesn’t mean they can’t spiritually relate to the blood ocean.
Notice how I said "pretty much done." Despite everything I've done for the modification, there's still something missing. And the movie literally comes out tomorrow (even though I could only manage to get tickets for a showing on the 31st, because the one for the 30th sold out a few hours after my local theater accepted the movie), so I don't have time for anything too extravagant...
That's where this comes in!
Literally just a spare pendant from Etsy on a chain that was originally human-sized until I cut it down a bit. I made a special necklace to wear to the showing, so I figured it was only right for Fabian to one as well. (That's my buddy' official name, by the way. Fabian. There's a reason for that, because of course I have to be extra about everything, but I won't get into that right now.)
NOW he's ready to come to the theater with me!
I really didn't think this would turn out so decent, since it's my first time trying out plushie modification. I think I'm gonna keep trying it in the future, since I actually had a lot of fun and learned quite a few things in the process.
But that'll be a post for another day...
(Although I might post something else for Iron Lung in the next couple days, depending on how I feel. We'll just have to see.)
@sammys-magical-au @insane4fandoms @the-matpat-ever @inkbedou @darkedeusvult48-blog
