Alice in Laceland

“We're all mad here.” - Alice

Aren't we all ? We live in a crazy little world. We come across billions of people - some we like, some we dislike, some we hate, a few we love. And by the end of it, all you need is those few. :)

Moving on, lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn (or thread) in an open weblike pattern, it is feminine, elegant and beautiful. I've been on the perfect lace dress hunt since forever and I found this dress in a little boutique in Bandra. The length, the fit, the soft material - everything felt perfect & it had to be mine! I'm really happy with the photographs (thanks to the sister!) which explains why this is a photo heavy post.

The whole idea of this post is to bring out a fictional character being lost, a princess in a dungeon or a happy teen who has just found some freedom. It's on how you look at it, initial idea : giving it a naive look. :)

 

Photographs - The sister

 Dress - Bandra, Necklace - Accessorize, Socks - AJ Store

Since it is my summer break, with lots of time on my hand, I was wondering if you'd like any tutorials ? Leave a comment if you're looking for something specific ! :)

Until next time,

Bises :*

Chubby

This image cannot be used without the permission of the blog owner.
To view better quality/more detailed image, click here.

Chubby - that's what I decided to call her half way through the illustration. I had sketched this last year but decided to go digital a week back. I started off with the intention of learning new techniques of rendering and the process was a lot of fun. This time, I avoided using flat tones, wanted to show dimensions and I'm satisfied with the outcome. The awesome part is, while working on this, I learnt a lot of new techniques that I could apply elsewhere. It was important to stick to one style of rendering so I avoided mixing more than 2 styles but learnt a lot anyway!

Rendering : The skin rendering wasn't too difficult, it was really easy in fact. That went pretty quick. I played really safe with the clothes (as you can see!), tried avoiding multiple folds and kept it simple.
The bunny puppet & the ice cream, I tried showing a velvety texture for the bunny puppet but it isn't too evident. Though the ice cream was a lot of fun! I found a photoshop brush that gave the rough texture (if you view the original version, linked above, you'll see).
My favourite part was the hair ! I searched high and low for good hair rendering techniques, but none really matched the style I was using. So i tried a lot of combinations and tada! It took a LOT of time - since there are many tonal values there, but worth the effort. (I've always feared hair rendering, but I feel more confident now!)

Concept : While drawing it, Chubby totally resembled baby-me. I always wore my hair like that to school, my school uniform was of the same colours too! Okay, no, I didn't ever have those innocent eyes. When I'd walk, my pigtails would always fly (this is an exaggeration of course). The hands. Confession time. I wasn't in any mood to do the perfect hand anatomy, so I wiggled them to avoid detailing there :D
PLEASE don't skip the band-aid on my right knee (view in the link above) -- which kid doesn't have scrapped knees ? But I was an extreme case there, I tripped over hair clips too.

Background : I chose green because it seemed to be one colour that was enhancing the illustration (stuck to cool colours). While flipping through various illustrations for inspiration, I came across THIS . The simplicity of the background was fantastic so I used the basic idea of using a specific shape/style. I kept it simple and added depth by shading a few boxes.

I'd love to hear what you think of this! :)

Until next time,
Bises :*

How to : Reduce the size of an MP3 file.

Why ? - So I can download it via e-mail on my phone. Because my phone (Blackberry Bold3 - which isn't shitty,just FYI) doesn't download beyond 5MB. 
Why can't I connect my phone to the computer and transfer music ? - Because, I'm scared the virus will transfer too, inspite of no virus being there. 
So for all the paranoid noobs out there, I'm sharing this tutorial with you. So you don't feel like a noob. You're welcome.

My awesome best friend Andy (from Andeart) decided my noob-ness had to stop. He made this tutorial (its so easy! I'm addicted to reducing music files now!) and I have to share it with you! 

How to reduce the size of an mp3 file.

-From your friendly neighbourhood Andy.

Disclaimer: This procedure is only how I do it, and there are many other [possibly more efficient] ways to do the same. I just find this convenient. And also since I discovered doing this by myself.
Also, this tutorial is made on paint, and colours used are chosen for comprehensibility over aesthetics. Red circles indicate clicks. Blue circles indicate areas to watch out for.

Also, I used Word’s preset format styles for all the text. Easier.

Also, I hope I got every step covered here. Just ask if there’s any confusion.

Step 1:
Open VLC player.

Let’s wiki-attack!
VLC media player (also known as VLC) is a highly portable free and open-source media player and streaming media server written by the VideoLAN project. It is a cross-platform media player, with versions for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, BeOS, MorphOS, BSD, Solaris, iOS, and eComStation.

And hopefully, you understood just the first sentence there. Barely.

Step 2:
Click on the ‘Media’ menu button at the top-left.
From the menu that drops down, click on ‘Convert/Save…’


Step 3:
A window titled ‘Open Media’ should pop up.
Click the ‘Add…’ button at the right, as shown below.

Now would be a good time to grab a coke. Don’t hold yourself back. You know you want it.

Step 4:
Choose the original track you want to convert.

In the example, I chose an mp3 file called “13.12.10.Rewrite3”. It’s 11.2 MB, and though it fits on my phone, there are some shitty phones [read: blackberry] that can’t handle files beyond 10 MB. WHY?! Smh

Time to reduce the size. Choose the file, and click ‘Open’ as shown below.
 

Rewrite 1,2,3… Just perfectionist traces.
Just audio tracks I compose. Just a little off-topic bragging. Moving on…

Step 5:
As you can see, the file is now there in the space shown.
Now click on the ‘Convert/Save’ button right at the bottom of this window.


Step 6:
A new window titled ‘Convert’ should pop up now, as shown below. Here, click on the ‘Browse’ button [shown] and specify your output file, i.e. what you want to save the converted file as [name, basically].


Step 7:
A ‘Save file…’ dialog box will open. Choose your destination area [I chose my desktop here], and type in the filename you want [I named it “xyz.mp3” as shown]. Then click the save button.


Step 8:
You can see the output file name in the text area now. Next, click on the profile drop-down list, and scroll down to ‘Audio – MP3’. Click on this option.

Step 9:
Once chosen, click on the little spanner/screwdriver button to the side [circled below].



Step 10:
In the ‘Form’ window that pops up, go to the ‘Audio codec’ tab first. Here notice that by default, the sample rate will be 44100 Hz [blue circle below]. This doesn’t really matter, just informing.


Step 11:
Change the sample rate to 22050. Then click the ‘Save’ button on the same window.


Step 12:
You should now be back on the ‘Convert’ window. The work is all done. Now just click the ‘Start’ button [as shown].


Step 13:
All the windows except the main VLC window should close.
Watch the blue bar shoot forward. This is your cue to sing Bubbly.


Step 14:
Voila!! I have the original song saved on my desktop as an mp3 file named “xyz”, and will you look at that? IT’S ONLY 5.63 MB!! That’s half of my initial file size! This is unbelievably awesome. I can now store any number of songs I want on my phone. Heck I can now start downloading gay random shit like fashion commentaries, and move them to my phone. Unicorns.


Tip:
In case the final converted file is not small enough [I prefer them petite B) ], then in step 11, choose a lower sample rate, i.e. lower than 22050. Cheers. Bon appétit.

Thank you Andy! Andy-facts : multi talented [illustrator (the girl in my header!) , graphics, sings, plays more an one instruments, IT student, high jump champ, sweet & mean at the same time :D]  Follow his Facebook Page Andeart to see view his work.


Hope that was helpful !

Until next time,
Bises :*

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