Reed Plushie

This is my entry for *prismadragonfly's contest! It's finally finished

I'm so sorry it's so late! OTL. Thank you so so much for letting such a late entry be eligible ! Seeing the other incredible entries I'm not expecting to place, but either way I'm glad I entered . (Best of luck to everyone else who entered the contest!)

Alright, people, buckle in for a loooong artist's comment or turn away now .

I'm finishheddd! This...took...so long....
I'll get into the challenges, fun parts and things learned a bit farther on (sounds like I'm writing an essay not an artist's comment, doesn't it ?), but first a bit about the plushie itself.
He is a plushie of *prismadragonfly's awesome OC, Reed. My idea was to make him how he looks in this picture [link] , but I used this one [link] as well for those things that I couldn't see in the other image. He has a pumpkin trick-or-treating basket to make him more Halloween themed, but I failed to take a picture with him holding that OTL. I'll add it tomorrow, when I'm a little bit less tired...

The first image is a simple front on picture of him! If his eyes look a bit weird/bright red/glowy, it's just the camera's flash. They're actually clsoe to the same colour as his hair, only a little bit lighter and more brown. (I'm very proud of finding yarn and embroidery thread that much the colours Reed's hair and eyes are supposed to be so well!).
The second image I took before the first one, and also before I straightened out his hair. I thought the way he looks kind of like wind is blowing (or his hair is exploding away from his head?) was kind of funny, so I included that picture too XD. (It's 4:44 a.m.... What more needs to be said -_-'...)
Third picture, his back! There you can see my sad attempt at replicating the image on his Nightmare Before Christmas hoodie. I used my good friend Goggle Images to find some picture of Jack when I realized my plushie would be seen form the back, unlike Reed in the picture I was using for reference, so I'd have to draw more of Jack, like his neck. I mention this in the order of saying that I tried very hard to paint a good, accurate Jack Skellington. Now, I know I've said before that I fail at visual art, and some people have doubted the truth in that. Here is your proof. I stayed up late into the night (or morning, to be technically accurate) trying my absolute best to paint it nicely, and that is the finished result. Yep... Me and good painting aren't even in the same solar system -_-'. Well, I'm looking at it this way: my painting job might fail, but I tried my hardest and that's the best anyone can do.
Fourth photo is from the top to show the other skeleton arm on his hood. That little spit of white I accidentally got on the front of his hood is not very obvious at ll in real life, the camera flash just made it really glowy and noticeable...
And the last one is my attempt to show the wrist bands. They're actually a dark, shiny black, but the flash washed it out and made it look kind of ugly... Anyway, he does have little wrist bands, you just have to push up his sleeves or take off his hoodie to see them :3.
Oh, which brings me to my next point: all his clothes are removable! (Except for his shoes, they double as his feet ). I wanted to take a picture of him without his clothes (god that soudns bad...), and one of him with his hood down, but since the paint hasn't finished drying yet I couldn't XP. (That's what I get for doing things late...)
Anyway, I should have a few more photos to add tomorrow (if I have the time) or in the next few days. I might be able to use my sister's good camera then, and maybe even use my sister XD! (She takes much better photos than I do). Hopefully in the meantime everyone can get a good idea of how the plushie looks from these...

Moving on to the fact that I'm finished this project (yessss! ), I'm super happy for a few reasons.
First, because it's in time to actually be an entry in the contest! (Again, thank you so much, *prismadragonfly !).
Second, because it's the first human plushie I've ever made, so finishing it and having it look human (he does look human, right? I hope ?) is an accomplishment in and of itself .
Third, because now I can focus much more of my time and energy on NaNoWriMo! I might be behind now, but there's still plenty of November left and if I keep my spirits up and really go for it I'm sure I can catch up!
Fourth, because as soon as I'm done uploading this I can go to sleep XD. (So much for writing a bit before bed... 4:57, I'm hittin' the hay, November or not XP).

(No, the artist's comments aren't quite finished yet... I have a lot of comments to make about this, dammit XP).

The biggest challenge by far was the very broad challenge of making a human plushie. I had no pattern or measurements; the only thing I had as any sort of outline was a cheaply made L plushie I own. Taking into consideration that one of his legs was longer then the other and he had a few entirely unnecessary panels, that wasn't much to go on at all -_-'. So basically I was guessing and improvising the whole time . In some ways that was nice, as measuring and marking is normally one of my least favourite parts of making anything, but it did cause problems at times. Cut a piece that turned out to be too small when I started sewing it to something else, and I'd have to undo a bit of stitching and cut a new piece... That didn't happen much (fortunately), but in the effort to not have to get an entirely new piece I sometimes put things together in a way that wasn't completely ideal so I wouldn't have to waste fabric and effort... That in itself taught me a lot, I guess: how to make good estimates, when it was a good idea to take a measurement, how to fix problems as I went along, how to sew shapes into shapelessly cut rectangles, and more...

Another big challenge was painting! I haven't used fabric paint since I was eight, what with paint, pencils, and other difficult visual art tools becoming my arch nemeses, so I was very nervous about using it on this plushie. All I could think as I heal the brush was please, please, please let me not screw up too badly after the work I put into sewing this hoodie >.< I was as smart as I could about it, I took things slow, used paintbrushes, toothpicks and a bit of kleenex, and managed as best I could. By some miracle, I avoided making a smushy mix of black and white paint (painting on top of paint normally turns out something like that for me) and avoided getting any fabric paint on the leather couch or nice wooden end table. (I did get fabric paint on my hands, my shirt, a pair or scissors, a spool of thread, a needle, a coaster, the entire handles of the paintbrushes, multiple tissues, scraps of fabric, and my cat's fur. Those are not, however, the precious leather couch that I was supposed to avoid getting fabric paint on at all costs, so it's all good 8D).

I'm glad I got experience working with stretchy fabrics from my last couple of plushies, because I was working mostly with non-stiff fabric on this. (Especially the body, that fabric is pretty stretchy...) The materials, besides the fabric paint, didn't cause me much trouble (thankfully). The yarn hair was a little bit difficult, and I intend to go over the entire head with some good, meticulous stitches to make sure the yarn doesn't escape my fast, sloppier stitches from the first time around. I think it's fine or I wouldn't be posting this , but it's always better to be safe then sorry. I don't want his hair to start falling out if his hood is taken on and off a few too many times...

Another challenge was making the face. I'm not very good at embroidery, so I always stuff like that a struggle... Again, I just tried to take my time as much as I was able to (which, unfortunately, wasn't that much >.<, think before I did anything stupid, and try my best.

Something else difficult: the head! Hard, but I'm very satisfied at what I learned. In fact, I'm satisfied overall with everything I learned form the entire process. I feel as if I crossed a block I'd made for myself. Now I knwo that not only can I make random creatures, I can make human plushies! Who knows, maybe as I get better I'll find a market for taking commissions and making plushies of people's OCs ... I also realized that if I can make a human plushie, I can make plushies of /my/ OCs ! (That seems very obvious, but the idea only recently occurred to me XP). My very own Moordred plushie... Squee X3!

An-y-way, I am falling asleep at my keyboard and must finally finish this ridiculously long comment. (I hope dA doesn't put a word limit on these things, because I'm pretty sure I would have gone beyond any word limit by now XP...). My dad just got up for work, and that is not a good sign at all -_-''

Comments and faves are extremely appreciated, as always! Oh, and fellow NaNos, comment and we can be each others' moral support XD