Blog Archives

Another Lisa

11/30/2022

I recently acquired a second KID Lisa. I love my Special Real Skin version, and often thought I'd like to get her in Normal resin as well. Well, I was at the Cambridge Doll Show a few weeks ago, and who should I spot, but a beautiful Peach/Gold Lisa for sale. Like, what were the chances?

I've never purchased any Iplehouse dolls in their PG resin before, since it tends to make my older Real Skin dolls look 'green' beside it. But the doll was so beautiful. She was an older version in their original PG resin, which had a lovely translucent quality. And she had the make up from their Addiction series. I couldn't resist.

She's going to be a Medieval teen, helping Naomi around the house. I had one Medieval gown available for her to wear until I make her something just for her. And I tried on some wigs to see what I liked best...

This one from Iplehouse was a nice style and colour, but was way too long with way too much hair.

The mohair wig was a better length, but also had too much hair. So I'm going to have to make her a new one, just for her.

I'm her fourth owner, and somewhere along the line someone made a mess of her eyelashes. There was quite a bit of glue showing, so after taking these intro photo I was going to see if I could remove it. Then I figured there was too much risk of me making an even worse mess, or ruining her lashes altogether, so I just took my thinnest brush and ever so carefully touched up the glue spots with paint to hide them. So they are no longer visible.

Today I'm starting on her new dress and wig.

the Final Look Behind the Scenes

11/29/2022

The last two Behind the Scenes from Happily Ever After?

Waking Up Human

One of the last scenes in the story, and also one of the last ones to be photographed, was the morning the spell was broken and Adrian and Lucy were human again. So that meant setting up Kassia and Adrian's bedroom set once again. I had photographed all the earlier bedroom scenes for the story months ago, but forgot about this last one. Thankfully I always take a photo of every set, print it out, label and file it for future reference. That way it's easy to know how to recreate it.

When I had painted and dressed the Lucy cat figure two and a half years ago, I was thinking way ahead, and made her a mini version of an outfit that I had in MSD size - exact same fabrics, and the same plaid. That way I could have at least one other cat, other than Kassia and Adrian, appear in human form at the end.

Epilogue - Having Kittens

I had wanted to show what happened to Rags, the cat, since he was an integral part of the beginning of the story. I figured with him having gone to live with the Wizard and his two female cats, that his male instincts would kick in, and after spending a year with them there had to have been at least one litter of kittens. If not more. But how to get a lot of kittens?

I considered sculpting them, and even pulled all kinds of photos of cute kittens in all kinds of poses. But that was going to be a LOT of work!! Then when I mentioned it to my sister, she said why not just Photoshop them in?

Well, I'm not that good at Photoshop. But then I got an idea. When I received Rags, the artist also sent along a small curled up cat figure. It was small enough to be a kitten, and was painted exactly like Rags. So I had my kitten. I would need the corner of the Wizard's study, so set it up. I didn't need the whole set, just the one small corner....

Then I posed Willie and the cats, and the ONE kitten, set up my camera on a tri-pod, then without moving the camera, I took a series of 'identical' photos, moving the kitten around...

I took six photos in all, each with the kitten in a different position. Then it was easy to just clone the kitten and a bit of it's surroundings into the first photo. Having taken the photos this way meant all the lighting, including the shadows, on the 'kittens' would be perfect.

I impressed even myself, and then thought I'd really like a photo with different poses, so did the entire thing all over again....

Then after I cloned the kitten from each photo into the original one....I realized that I'd forgotten to put the basket in the cubby in the background. So had to shoot one more photo with the basket in it, so I could add that as well - to both this photo and the first one.

It was a lot of work faking all of Rag's kittens, but a lot easier and faster than if I'd tried to sculpt them all. Especially for just a few photos. It was a great new photo trick I may have to use again some day!

So that brings us to the end of all the Behind the Scenes photos from Happily Ever After? To revisit them all, from Chapter One to the End, you can go to the album in Favourite Photos 2022...

Behind the Scenes in Happily Ever After?

Still More Behind the Scenes

11/28/2022

Continuing on with the Behind the Scene shots, this time from the final chapter....

the Queen Travelling

I wanted to illustrate parts of Kassia's back story, which started with her mother's love of travelling. I figured as Queen she would need a sizeable escort, but I only had one JID guy to be her knight, so that meant using some FIDs as well. I try to avoid using the two kinds together, since they are different aesthetics, but I didn't have any choice.

We took them all to a little trail down near the lake. Then after doing a rough posing, I got down on the ground to take photos, and had to direct Jan to make any adjustments...

I had put the two FID guys in the back thinking that with their smaller heads they'd look like they were further back. But now I think it might have worked better with them up front. Then the FID's heads would appear larger, and the JIDs smaller, evening them all out.
Something to try next time.

In the Garden

Whenever I'm taking doll photos down on the ground...in 'public'....

There's always the chance someone will come walking by....

the Fairy Court

I needed to shoot a Fairy Court, but had no idea how I was going to get across the feel of an actual court room. I figured, with it being a Fairy Court, it would be outside, likely in some spectacular garden setting. But how to make that look like a courtroom? It was September and my garden's days were numbered, so it was then or never. So I did the best I could.

I needed an extra big space, so we moved the patio table into the middle of the lawn. Then Jan hauled out an old counter top to lay on top of the table to give me a bigger surface. Then for the 'garden' perimeter we set all the baskets of million bells around the outer edge on the tops of big garden containers standing upside down on the garden benches.

It was a bright sunny day, and the backyard was in dappled shade - which makes for bad doll photos - so after setting up the scene, I needed Jan to hold the big beach umbrella so the dolls would all be in solid shade...

With flowers on three sides and the garden curving around the background I put together a court room using all kinds of furniture and props. Then I positioned all the dolls.

I'd pose the dolls, take some photos, change their poses, then take more photos.

It was nice that I could take the photos from several different angles.

But it took a long time to shoot all the different scenes....

Even More Behind the Scenes

11/27/2022

I had forgotten to post all these Behind the Scenes photos from Chapter three after finishing posting that chapter, so am continuing to do it now.

the Ice Falls

Back in February we took a day trip up north specially to take some photos at an ice falls near Parry Sound. The ice formations are everywhere up north on all the highway rock-cuts, but this one particular spot is on a very quiet driveway to a summer camp that's closed in winter.

I had packed two separate sets of dolls, each with their own horses...

First I took the photos of Baron and Rex...

...and then the ones with Kassia and Adrian...

I had planned on taking some more photos of them in Terrance Barrens on our way home, but we hit an icy spot on the road, slid into a ditch, and spent the next couple of hours waiting for a tow truck to pull us out. By then it was dark, so no more photos.

Visiting the Wizard

This was the classic case of having to move the big table in front all the way towards the set window to make the space on the left look bigger, so I could fit everyone in at the table in the background, and have them all appear in the photos. Note the dowels across the top of the set. Those were movable so the things dangling from them, like the solar system and lights, could be moved over whenever needed.

It would have been impossible to get all four characters in the same shot if the table hadn't been moved to the side.

More Photos in the Snow

This past winter I discovered a nice trail very close to home, which has a huge block of concrete in front to keep vehicles out.

But it's perfect for posing dolls on top of for photos. Then with the dolls elevated, I don't have to get down in the snow...

So that's it for all the Behind the Scenes from Chapter Three. Now for Chapter Four.....

More Behind the Scenes

11/26/2022

Continuing on with more Behind the Scenes photos....

In the Scillas

Every spring I like to take several sets of dolls to the field on the town-line which turns blue with millions of blue scillas. I'll position the dolls, get down on the ground, and then direct Jan to make any adjustments...

Then it's all about cropping in close, and avoiding having that little house in the background...

Then with the dolls in another spot along the side of the road...

Taking good doll photos is all about camera angles and cropping in to get the scene I want...

Christmas

Decorating the castle interior for Christmas...

With no dolls in it, it could almost pass for a real room...

Then with the set pushed into the bay window for some natural light coming in through the set window...and Kassia and Adrian 'decorating' their tree....

Behind the Scenes

11/25/2022

Now that we've come to the end of the story, it's time to share the rest of my Behind the Scene secrets from all the various photo shoots where I actually remembered to take photos....

Evening Banquet

One of the most important aspects of doll photography is the lighting. This scene for Chapter 3 after Kassia was human again, living in a castle full of cats, was taken way back in October of 2020. It was supposed to be evening, and to get that kind of lighting, I need to take the photos in the morning, with the dining room table rotated and pushed away from the window. The set curtains need to be drawn to hide my French doors.

My dining room faces west, so there's less light coming in in the mornings. Then with the candles, the lighting on set is perfect for a scene that's supposed to be taking place in the evening...

Horseback in Autumn

I wanted to show the passing of time throughout the story, so took photos in all four seasons. There's a short dead-end road up in the country north of here where I liked going to take doll photos.

I'll set up the dolls, then get down on the ground to take their photos, and if any adjustments needed to be made, I'd have to ask Jan to do them for me.

It's important to take the photos at the doll's eye level in order for forced perspective to work...

Unfortunately this spot is no longer usable. They are building a brand new city up there from scratch, and the entire area has been built up with hundreds of new houses. Progress, I guess?

Epilogue

11/24/2022

So everyone finally had their Happily Ever After. The Sleeping Beauty woke up, along with everyone else in the castle, and after their initial excitement, the two little Princesses begged to go back to their daycare. The last of the three brothers who had been turned into a raven, was back to his human self, but had so enjoyed the freedom of being able to travel, that he packed his bags and set out to explore the rest of the world. The Frog Prince was his human self again, and immediately had the castle moat filled in.

And whatever happened to Rags, the cat?
Well, he never came back. He had made a new life for himself with the Wizard's two female cats.
Willie would come by for a visit and check in on him from time to time.

"Wow, Rags!"

"You've certainly been busy!!"

And everyone lived happily ever after...
the end

* The entire story is in Favourite Photos 2022, so you can revisit it at any time....

Happily Ever After? A White Cat Sequel

Happily Ever After

11/23/2022

With everything they had been through the past year, Adrian had come to realize exactly what Kassia had felt like all those years she had been a cat. He had a whole new appreciation for his beautiful Princess...