#loraine nutcracker

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The Solstice Ball - A Nutcracker Holiday Audio Skit

Premise: In the Kingdom of Equinox, Winter is a huge celebration, and with that comes many different festivities. Tonight, we follow Auran Dulce and Loraine ...

Merry Christmas everyone! I’ve been hard at working preparing this audio skit of my original work for you. I call it “The Solstice Ball.” I hope you enjoy it, and that you’re having a wonderful holiday season!

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Hey folks, I’m doing a little better. Mental health hasn’t been great, but taking a break from social media this weekend proved to be good. I didn’t draw as much as I would’ve liked, but that’s okay, what I did do was good, and clearly I needed to rest. I spent a lot of time outdoors, since the weather was nice, and in an unexpected turn, I brought out my airbrush. I ended up painting the body of a new doll, my Christmas project if you will. She still needs another coat of varnish, but she’s gonna be beautiful. 

The lighting in my room is kinda blowing out the photo (irl it’s a lot closer to my reference and will be further enhanced with some pastel blushing). For Christmas, I’m making Loraine! I have a doll of Auran, so I want to have her to go with him, they’re kind of a package deal. There’s so many ideas I have for how to make this work. I don’t know how I’ll swing the lower legs, but I have a resin mold to make her swords and daggers with, I’ll be sculpting a bunch (already sculpted her nose to be more angular, since I was painting the body anyway), there’s some great yarn in my box for her hair, I’ve got some foam I can use for her hat, she’s gonna be an absolutely beautiful doll. Very ambitious, but that’s why I’m starting in early November. 

But Loraine isn’t the only ambitious project. I have Auran’s updated reference to finish by the end of the week, at least the full nutcracker version of it. For not drawing as often as I’d like, I have to say, it feels really good to be drawing him now, and it’s come out better than I expected thus far. I got his back side started last night, but it needs tweaking before I can ink and color block. Then I just need some detail panels so you can see his full construction and emblem. I want to make sure this is as quality as possible. If I can do my own fella well, then I can convince myself that I’ll do the rest of the nutcracker crew justice in the coming month. I just haven’t figured out how to do Nutcracker Month without burning myself out so that it’s still high quality for every entry and personal from me. X’’’D This is gonna be nuts, but I’m determined to make it work! 

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Adventures in the Sims 4: Auran and Loraine

So because I’m having fun designing my characters in the world of the Sims 4, I figured now would be as good of a time as ever to share them with you guys! I’m gonna hide this under a read more just because it’s gonna be a lot of images. One warning before we start, these screenshot compilations include people in their underwear/swimsuits/shirtless, so if that makes you uncomfortable, viewer discretion is advised! With that being said, let’s get started!

I’m actually gonna start with Loraine because she’s the one I made first. 

I had no idea it would be this much fun to dress these two up! I mean I know the characters are dolls in their story of origin, but danggit, I never saw this coming. XD Part of why I wanted to do this is because I’ve been struggling to figure out Loraine’s skin tone for the past few weeks. This still isn’t quite what I’m looking for, but it’s as close as I could get with the colors available, so I’ll take it. In regular canon, Loraine is a nutcracker soldier that acts as the captain of the royal guard. Here in the Simsverse, she’s got a much quieter life with wanting to rescue animals, which totally falls in line with some of her canon traits.

Unfortunately there was no option for me to make her candy-cane striped hair, but I was so glad to play with the options it gave me. She looks very fetching in a a variety of styles, don’t you think? I really need to draw her more. 

Now for Auran. It was so weird to try and dress him up. I got to embrace his dorkiness quite a bit, and oh dear god, I love him in a suit. My boy dresses up nice and it shows! Sadly I don’t have Get Together, so he can’t pursue a career in dance like normal. So I made him a spellcaster, and he’s on a quest to go learn some magic, because that’s cool and why not? 

I immediately needed to turn off the gendered filters for him, or I was never gonna get the hair I needed. My boy rocks a ponytail no matter the universe, even if it isn’t as long and fluffy as canon. He is so fab and I need to learn to draw some of these on him!

But we’re not done. Last but not least is Polaris, Loraine’s dog. I just wanted to try making a pet for fun, but I actually want to bring this little guy into canon somehow. At first I thought he’d be representative of a dragon I have plans for, but now I think Loraine should just have a sweet little pupper to help her out. He’s got a strong sense of direction and is very friendly. I like him a lot. <3

That’s all for now as we start off on our Sims 4 journey! Once I’m ready to make some houses, I’ll get back to you with a tour of where they live. But for now, I have another compilation to upload. See you in a bit!

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🔔

🔔 Do you have any characters you haven't posted/mentioned yet?

Oh that's most of them. XD Most of my designs have never shown up on this page, which is a shame because Manny is like the prettiest guy ever in my head and I wish I could render him right. But the struggle is real, I have a hard time making my visions a reality when it comes to drawing. I know I've shown Auran, Loraine, and Marigold, I've talked a little bit about Manny, Amelia, Jumbalah, Hans, and Clara, and with my doll customs, I've shared Delilah, Gail, Annikah, Dina, Odette, and Amaryllis. So who haven't I shown/talked about that's relevant?

Oh, how about most of the mice? Yeah the mice are important, I should probably talk about them more, namely Lord Bertle. Bertle is extremely important to the plot and I WISH I knew what he looked like! He's a mouse that's actually disguised himself with a human glamour and works as Hans' royal advisor. It's all in the name of trying to get him to lift his banishment of the mice to Rodentia, as his people are suffering, but things take a turn for the worse as he's kidnapped and used in a ritual to bring back the mouse king from the dead by a group of extremists. Let's see, there's the other three seasonal guardians that go with Jumbalah, there's the sugar plum fairy that needs some fleshing out. OH, there's Nellie! Nellie I should really show on this page, she's little red riding hood's granddaughter and she's also a werewolf. She works delivering packages all around the kingdom, really fun character, love her dearly. All of Loraine's 25 brothers and sisters exist and never get talked about, I really should share Kallahan and Aisha at the very least. There's one for each letter of the alphabet, and I love them all dearly. Felicity, she's a human dancer bullies Loraine at ballet, very important actually. There's all of Manny's crew at the tailor's shop, they're a lovely bunch. I should really share more on the twin nutcracker soldiers, Tinsel and Minstrel, same with Allen. And Captain Dieter, he's a fun antagonist.

Yeah there's just a LOT of moving parts in this world, I really don't share enough. X''''D Thank you for the question! If any of these things caught your eyes, any of you are welcome to ask for more details on these, I don't mind. Consider this an open invitation.

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❄️

❄️ Who is your favorite character?

Do I really have to choose? XD I love all of my brain children so much, they light up my life a ton. I think it really depends on the day and who's playing nice with me. Auran and Loraine remain my ultimate favorites though, they're the main characters for a reason. Auran is just, so many of my favorite things in a character. He's a dancer, he's polite and charming, has a sparkle of mischief in his eyes, and he's always trying to brighten up the world in whatever way he can. He's also incredibly dedicated to his friends and loved ones, never one to turn away when danger strikes. Loraine is the source of a lot of my self exploration, she's been important in learning to love myself, flaws in all. She is strong, she and Auran are both protectors and guardians at heart, though they have different ways of going about it. Her loyalty means you have an ally for life, and she's so curious about the world, eager to explore and create and live to the fullest. The two of them balance each other out very well, I love them. Thank you so much for the question!