Gothygaze

Long time no see! I'm editing some photos that a friend gave me tonight and this is the first one I've finished.

It's my really awesome friend Valerie, from my "going away present" shoot in September. As a final good-bye before I moved to Australia, a group of my friends came down to Texas for a gothic shoot in the woods. Courtney (click for her DA!) was kind enough to give me the photos on disc in January and I'm just now getting around to editing them for online posting!

I thought that this shot of Val was particularly nice and wanted to share it here.

Sources of Inspiration: Blogging

On a daily basis, I read quite a few blogs. Quite a few are lolita blogs. Some of these are personal blogs run by people I encountered one way or another on the internet. Others are professional blogs, pertaining to graphic design job markets and ways to market yourself. Yet more are creative outlets for artists I admire.

Here are three blogs that I read on a nearly daily basis and the reasons I read them:

Doodle Everyday
http://ilovedoodle.tumblr.com/
This is a blog all about getting that creative gush out and onto the paper as fast and as often as you can. Every day, Lim Heng Swee posts a drawing, print or doodle to the blog. That sort of dedication to regular, continued creative output is rather impressive (especially considering how often I know I run into an artblock, myself).

Visual News
http://www.visualnews.com/
This blog presents articles about up and coming artists, new exhibits and interesting techniques or movements. It covers pretty much every kind of art you could imagine, from graphic design to infographics to exhibits through experimental techniques and art theory. If it's visual, it fits and it's likely to show up sooner or later.

Flickr Blog
http://blog.flickr.net/
Just what it sounds like, the flickr blog is a blog consisting of photos posted on flickr by its users. Sometimes they highlight a particular photographer, but more often they choose photos that pertain to a particular theme or subject matter.

Sources of Inspiration: Amanda Rynda

So recently, I was browsing through Facebook when a fellow designer friend posted a link to Regretsy. Regretsy is a blog highlighting sellers on etsy who are somewhat less than what we'd call "good". So, expecting something horrible or at the very least, trite, I clicked.

Rather than something bad, I found something amazing.

Sources of Inspiration: Fairy Tales

Remember, your Fairy Godmother can give you riches and beauty,
but if you piss her off, she can also make you look like an ass (or a goat).

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful maiden ...

So begins many a fairy tale, and many a lolita's story. There are a lot of parallels between this fashion and the folk stories which still captivate children today. A lot of folk and fairy tales involve transformation, adventure, and magic. I've always felt that lolita has more than a little bit of each of those three.

Besides those factors, princesses (and common girls raised up to become princesses) have always been a popular topic in legend, and lolitas frequently seem to identify with them quite well. When I'm trying to come up with new ideas, I often turn to the volumes of fairy tales I keep on my bookshelves for inspiration. 

Sources of Inspiration: Photographers

Photographer: Viona ielegems
Website: http://www.viona-art.com/
Specialties: Portraiture (fairy tales, fantasy, alternative fashion)

Photo of the Day: Traveling Back in Time

Not even a ridiculous alice bow can make this book a fun read.

For this photo, I tried to get a ridiculous old-photo vibe going on with the image in terms of color, focus and all that good stuff. I think perhaps I went a bit overboard, but I'll go with it for now, because it actually suits the topic of the ramble I'm in the mood to write. I've been mulling over this a while now, and it's time to get it out of my head and into the keys.

I have a really bad habit of tearing myself up when I'm down. When I was in college, I used to joke with my friends that that was the only thing about me that would get up when I was down.

A lot of people respond to stress and pressure that way, by beating themselves up over what they can't fix rather than trying to fix what they can. They become pessimistic, reactionary. Lately, I'm trying to be more positive and avoid the pitfalls inherent in my my present situation. Unfortunately, I have more time to think than I'm used to, and keeping busy non-stop can be exhausting.

Sources of Inspiration: Music

Photography and lolita both require a heavy dollop of creativity just as a matter of course. I find a lot of inspiration from many different sources, but I'm incredibly fond of having music going in the background when I'm working on things. It makes the time pass more quickly, and gets the juices flowing.

The only time I'm not listening to music is when I'm talking to someone, because that's just rude.

I recently rearranged my furniture in order to plug an old, broken laptop into my stereo. It makes things really convenient, as I can turn on Pandora and let it run without having to get up to change CDs the way that I used to. Since I'm also fond of a wide variety of genres, Pandora is a great option for finding new music to listen to. I'm sure that most of the internet is aware of its existence already, but if you don't have an account with Pandora and are looking for some new tunes, I highly recommend their service.

In this entry, I'm going to talk a bit about music I like to listen to when I'm working!