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When is a hero not a hero? When she’s Arora Arum!

Arora Arum is our hero Dream Angel when she’s not Dream Angel. At first, an ordinary school girl attending high school and getting good grades. Of course her life changed when she got the power to become Dream Angel.

Arora Arum

After high school, Arora turned her attention to being a full-time superhero. Unfortunately, this meant setting personal goals and ambitions aside for the most part. It also meant setting aside seeking a job, since a fight could break out and she’d be late. Fortunately, her self defense experience and friendship with local martial arts dojo owners means she could get a job as an instructor without much trouble.

She’s a bright, artistic type of girl, so when she’s not out pounding bad guys, she’s drawing, painting and even training with her retired wrestling champion father.
Having a wrestling champion father and police lieutenant mother, she’s been well trained all her life in self defense. Add in training with the tiger people as Dream Angel and she could handle most situations without transforming reasonably well.

Arora is named after the goddess Aurora, but her name is spelled differently on purpose. Her last name is also Latin for gold, making her literal name Golden Goddess of the Dawn. This ties in to her power as Dream Angel, but it also led to teasing in school.

Although she didn’t pay much attention to most of the teasing and the teasers eventually gave up, one refused to stop teasing and bullying. Gina SweetFace bullies Arora about everything she could think of every time she sees her. Even after graduating high school, if Arora found Gina anywhere, the bullying would resume. Despite never formally graduating high school, Gina bothers Arora more than Nyxus ever could.

Arora’s quiet charm and fun-loving nature earned her many friends even as Dream Angel. Her debut appearance in comic books is as Dream Angel in Dream Angel #1, available in the shop. Also in the shop, you’ll find Arora Arum as a plush action figure. She waits only for you and loves hugs. Will you give her a hug?

What’s a leading lady without her best friend? Here she is: Elizabeth!

Clever, quick-witted Ellie, short for Elizabeth, is a fun girl to be around. She might sometimes play a harmless prank, but always in fun so no feelings are hurt. Usually, her little pranks are in fun to get Arora laughing.

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The two girls are complete opposites, but get along perfectly. Arora tends to like spending a day at the mall mostly window shopping to unwind, Ellie would rather be outside in the fresh air and sunshine, but goes along with her best friend anyway. This isn’t to say they don’t switch off.

Generally, both girls would rather be at an easel than anywhere else. Both have artistic tendencies and find painting a very soothing activity. Both are peaceful girls, but neither wants to see or be bullied. Both will come to the defense of a bullying victim if they should see it happening. Being bullied doesn’t happen often and the bully more often takes to their heels and leaves in disgust.

Ellie also has a leaning toward science. She enjoys exploring old ruins and is sometimes found helping scientists at dig sites. While she enjoys finding interesting artifacts, she enjoys just as much sketching them or taking photos. Sometimes to take a break, she’ll do a painting of the dig site. More than once, the newspaper has bought these paintings when something significant is found.

Ellie’s name holds some meaning of its own. Amphitrite, if you follow the mythology carefully, is the wife of Poseidon, god of the seas. Since water has healing properties, she has healing power as Teikou no Senshi. This makes her both a perfect opponent for Nosos and Nosos’s primary target.

What do you think? Is she an interesting character? Her comic book debut is Dream Angel #1, found in the store. Also found in the shop is her plush action figure who loves hugs.

Tough leadership: Torakatai

torakataiTorakatai means “tough tiger” and as his name suggests, he’s a tough tiger. As if the scars wouldn’t give that away, right? He fought hard for the rank of village leader and has yet to find another to challenge him for the right. Victor of many battles, excellent leader and in top condition.

He was wary of Dream Angel when Virgo introduced her to the village and with good reason. He’d met Nyxus some years before and her promises of keeping the Sunless Mountains untouched proved false. Nyxus came in later destroying homes, entire species, ruining water supplies, and chasing off critical food supplies for many. He knew who to blame for the famine in his village, but was still careful when the strange orange clad winged girl was brought to him.

When he finally learned why she fights Nyxus, he began to consider helping, but his responsibility to the village didn’t give him much chance for thought. When Nyxus returned to the area to once again destroy and Dream Angel took a stand against her to help the village, he ordered his tiger warriors to back her up. Back her up they did, and very effectively as she had some fighting skill, that was clear to Torakatai, but she needed some more advanced training.

After that fight, not only did he accept her offer of friendship, but offer heavy-duty battle training. It was during this time that she found she could do different things with the feathers of her wings. Several of which have come in very handy.

Torakatai is also the one who introduced Ryu to Dream Angel during an especially bad crisis to which the tiger man had no solution. It was hoped that with Ryu’s magic a solution could be found. It was after some difficulty deciphering what the dragon had to say.

What do you think? Is Torakatai an interesting character? He makes his comic book debut in Dream Angel #22, which is available in the shop. Getting the books before it is highly recommended so the story makes sense. Also available in the shop is his plus action figure.

Katrilina the cat!

Katrilina has quite the history with the Dream Angel series. Today’s focus isn’t on Katrilina herself, though, but on her special ability: the ability to physically change into any cat in the feline family. Most notably, a lioness, leopard, panther and tiger.The focus is Katrilina’s feline forms.

katrilina catsOf all the 38 species of cats of the feline family she can become, these four are her favorites for their varying abilities. Strength, endurance, stealth and cunning, to name a few. In nature, these cats are far from cute and cuddly and Katrilina uses those abilities with great effect. Of course, which cat she picks depends on the situation and sometimes even who she’s with.

She’ll go with the tiger if she’s around Virgo, for example. Her favorite for going after Reprobates is the Panther. The winged creatures don’t like the black streak chasing after them. Her lioness will ground most Harpies if they’re low enough and for some of the higher up opponents, she’ll use the leopard to climb a nearby tree or even building ledge to leap and attack.

The one important marking all of Katrilina’s feline and even her human form share is a pure white tail. Nobody is sure why exactly she always has the white tail, but it is a very distinguishing marking. While it might sometimes be troublesome, she really doesn’t mind it too much.

What do you think? Are these interesting cats? Katrilina’s feline forms make their debut appearance in Dream Angel #1, which can be found in the shop. Also found in the shop are the plush action figures of her leopard, lioness, panther and tiger forms.

The over eager little brother: Keru

Keru FireKeeper is the always-eager-to-please younger brother of Virgo FireKeeper. Though he’s best known for getting into mischief, most times it’s harmless.keru

keruThis young cub brings all his effort to whatever he’s doing. Like any young boy, he also enjoys having unusual pets. Bitsy is his best friend, the problem is she’s a spider.

Between the two, they can get into a broad variety of trouble or get Dream Angel and her friends out of a broad variety of trouble. The mere sight of Bitsy causes quite an uproar among villains. Especially the vampire roaches. Since spiders naturally eat roaches, their instinct is to panic and look for a place to hide.

The Keres are none too fond of the young tiger and his pet as well. The sisters often let out a bloodcurdling screech attached to a scream of “KILL IT!” as they look for a place to get away from the spider.

In terms of mischief, Keru’s a master. Athalia’s the one who keeps him in check when his brother’s not around. A stern look from Torakatai usually sends him running back to Athalia or Virgo. He knows Torakatai is tough for punishments for the sake of keeping order among the tiger villagers.

Keru literally means “kick.” He likes to think it means he kicks butt. He’s still learning battle strategies and fighting techniques, but he’ll still fight off Reprobates. Usually, he stays close to his brother if he’s involved in a fight. Between Virgo and Athalia, he’s a moderately formidable fighter on his own.

Even Torakatai has helped train the young cub. Teaching techniques even his other two trainers don’t know. Virgo’s excellent with a staff, Athalia without a weapon. Torakatai is a master of many techniques and weapons.

What do you think? Is Keru an interesting character? He makes his comic book debut in Dream Angel #8, which can be found in the shop. It’s a good idea to consider getting the books that came before it so the story makes sense. Also available in the shop is his plush action figure.

Warrior of mystery: Techwarrior

techwarriorTechwarrior is a warrior of mystery, but then, what ninja isn’t? History shows that real ninja were highly skilled specialized assassins. Well, Techwarrior might not keep the assassin aspect of his real-world counterparts, but he is a highly skilled warrior.

Not too much is known about his background except that he’s a strong anti-virus living inside computers to defend them from attack. As the books quickly establish, he’s a strong fighter. Along the way, he enjoys making little jokes to help lighten the mood as well.

An important counterpart to him is Sensei the dragon, who is his mentor and trainer. Very fast and extremely agile, this dragon provides a great deal of guidance when things go wrong for our hero. Luckily, he also knows when to stand back and let Techwarrior do what needs to be done, as well.

Techwarrior’s other important counterpart, could also be part love interest… maybe. Aishi Teru is almost as skilled as Techwarrior himself, but what she lacks in skill she makes up for in cleverness. Her key weakness is snakes, though. Being scared to death of snakes (to the point of jumping into Techwarrior’s arms!) makes her very vulnerable. Her reason for this fear is quite tragic, though.

As Techwarrior might explain it, his counterparts are his heart and soul. Take away even one and he’s terribly restless and uneasy. Injure one and the injuring party had better be extremely careful.

There’s a hint of magic in Techwarrior’s world, but most of it is technology. Most of it is very sleek and polished, as well.

What do you think? Is he pretty cool? His plush action figure (both of them) is available in the shop. You’ll also find he’s got 5 books and a 5 book collection in the shop as well.

Doll to plush action figure: a journey

Not gonna lie: I’m a 3D artist, but there’s different types of 3D artist and dolls happen to make that list. Going from doll to plush action figure has been a journey, let me tell you.

Growing up, sewing was everywhere…

Just about literally. 3/4 of the family room was focused solely on sewing including monstrous (and old!) industrial machines. It was a world of “I can do that!” sewing, since the words “I can do that!” are what started most of it. Me, I was less fond of sewing dolls and doll clothes back then.

Then, much like now, I wanted to make clothes for Barbie-scale dolls. To me, they were just the right size to suit my ability and to be fair, they won their share of blue ribbons at the county fair. I also loved making stuffed animals and yes, my bed was more stuffed animal than bed with over 150… ish. Including the 101 stuffed Dalmatians (because I adored that movie and loved discovering the book!) Back then, I didn’t design my own, though.

Fast forward many years later to…

My loving comic books and trying to make them by hand. The one struggle I had (aside from proportion and shading in drawing my characters) was keeping their design consistent. Somehow, I always had trouble using the same colors for characters each time I drew them. I could have drawn up character sheets like for animation (which I very much love!), but I wanted something… 3D, to guide me. I hunted down a simple doll pattern and set to work making little felt dolls of every character in my roster.

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5″ tall felt Dream Angel doll

On a silly whim, I posted them on Facebook and got a lot of “that’s adorable!” type comments. This got me thinking about selling them alongside my books, which were just getting started at the time.

Well, the felt was fine for my own reference, but not so good for kids to play with as they read the books (or have them read to them). It wasn’t washable or very durable. And so, the bigger 10″ dolls were created.

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10″ Arora Arum who could change outfits to become Dream Angel!

At 10″ tall, these could have outfits that could come off, making them more versatile. They were cute, but somehow, didn’t seem quite right as companions for the books. More hunting for patterns later and I found what I wanted on Etsy from Prairie Crocus Studio. These are fascinating dolls and a good size for easy enough construction and dressing.

By this time, I was just getting into needle sculpting. The 10″ dolls were, sadly, the guinea pigs for this learning process and frequently ended up with faces that were lopsided or looked like they were sucking on lemons!

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The very first Dream Angel using the new pattern and needle sculpting

Fast forward a lot of practice later…

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Arora’s head showing off makeup, face details and realistic hair!

And you get dolls with improved needle sculpted faces (I finally figured out how to fix the lemon face look!) and more detail. Detail that began to include makeup and realistic hair. Well, now these dolls are looking more action-figure-ish, aren’t they? By this time, stuffed weapons and other accessories had appeared with magnets in them and the dolls’ hands.

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A small assortment of the weapons and accessories the plush action figures can “hold” magnetically.

With the addition of makeup and realistic hair, they started to more closely resemble how they looked in the comic books (after a lot of improvement was made there, too!) Not forgetting the wire inside the dolls’ bodies and the “action figure” part of things is very complete. They started to look almost like they did in the comics, much like the plastic action figures we find commonly in stores.

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With dolls now more closely resembling their comic book appearance, it’s safe to call them “plush action figures!”

It’s been a journey, can’t lie about that, but along the way a lot has been learned. Most importantly perhaps, is that cutting a lot of small pieces can be very, very painful!

Catching up to present day…

We find a Cricut Maker in my sewing toolset and it’s definitely proven its worth and earned it’s place! By itself, it’s been a process to learn. As a dollmaker, let me share some wisdom: no soap on the mats! I’ve unfortunately learned this one the hard way! Why? Simple: most advice for the Cricut is for the paper crafting end of its ability and not for its fabric cutting abilities because until the Maker, it wasn’t really meant for cutting fabric. Sure, slightly older models could do bonded fabrics, but they weren’t really meant for it as much as the Maker.

It would be too easy to rave all day about how fast and accurate it is cutting out the tiny pieces for plush action figure outfits and accessories (and I’ve designed plenty, believe me!) but it’s better to get to the knitty-gritty: This thing is worth every penny if you plan to use it for doll making!

Now, don’t get me wrong: I’m not an affiliate for Cricut, I’m simply happy with the result of the machine that makes it considerably easier to cut the pieces I need for making these amazing plush action figures.

Going from doll to plush action figure has been quite the journey, but for all the ups and downs, pleasures and pains… well, it’s been worth it. These plush action figures are beautifully hand made with a great deal of blood, sweat, tears and love.

Legendary xinoeph: Nevyn WinterBane

nevynYou’ve probably heard of the legend of the Phonenix. The bird who burst into flames at the time of its death and rises from the ashes. Nevyn WinterBane is a similar bird. His kind does burst into flames, but not at the time of death. Instead, it’s a natural flame the bird can control as a means of defense.

Nevyn and his fellow Xinoeph were on “the list” of creatures Nyxus wanted to eliminate because she thought they were unnecessary. He was fortunate to escape the massacre, but not completely unharmed. He’d been shot in the wing and managed to hide in the brush until Nyxus’s hunting party stopped looking for him. What he didn’t know at the time was that Dream Angel and her friends chased them away.

When he cautiously came out of hiding, Teikou no Senshi coaxed him into letting her heal his wing. Fortunately, the bullet had gone completely through so she was able to heal him without any trouble. He’s been an ally of Dream Angel since the incident.

Nevyn and Akasha are a spectacular pair and when the two met, they became immediate friends. They quickly realized they had met Dream Angel under similar circumstances and had similar goals. While Akasha settled in a tree outside the Arum home so she could sound the alert if there was an attack, Nevyn chose the Amphitrite home. Aside from Elizabeth herself, he’s the only other living being who knows Teikou no Senshi’s secret. Or is he?

The two birds are excellent at conveying messages, flying reconnaissance and a number of other very helpful functions. Only harpies are even close to fast enough to follow them and they’ve become skilled at losing them in flight unless they want them to follow.

So, what do you think? Is Nevyn an interesting character? He makes his comic book debut in Dream Angel #7, which is available in the shop. It’s a good idea to get the books that came before it so the story makes sense. Also available in the shop is his plush action figure.

What makes 3D so difficult?

What makes 3D so difficult to handle is that it has a very steep learning curve more often than not. I’ve found people that assume because the computer does a lot of the work that 3D isn’t art and it’s lazy to use. Let me assure you: nothing is further from the truth!

True, some programs, like DAZ Studio or even Poser are good for beginners or hobbyists and make setting up a scene reasonably easy to do, but that doesn’t mean the rendered art will be good quality. Like pencil and paper, there’s basic techniques and much more advanced ones. It’s the difference between a stick figure with dots for eyes and a line for a smile and a fully detailed anatomically correct figure that’s nicely lit and realistic.

Anyone can draw a stick figure, but that much higher quality figure with all the details and lighting? That can take years of practice. The very same holds true of 3D art.

First and foremost, it’s very much art. If it isn’t, it shouldn’t be in movies as a special effect since it takes special effects artists to use it for movies. What are they using if it isn’t art? Secondly, it’s constantly changing and improving, so just because some amateur hasn’t yet mastered even the basics isn’t a reason to tell them to use pencil and paper.

Four years ago, I knew next to nothing about 3D art. I posed bald, nude figures in Poser with default lighting and painted hair and clothes in Photoshop. As I learned more, my methods changed. Figures began having clothes and hair, I began experimenting with lights and camera angles.

Being a 3D artist is a lot like being a movie director. You have to be able to work with all the various departments to get the scene just right. Actors, wardrobe, hair, makeup, lights, cameras and other things have to be prepared for the scene to be complete. Finding, creating and effectively rendering the scene elements is more complicated than some might imagine. Even when you think the scene looks the way you want it, it doesn’t mean the final render will have the desired result. That means post work, which can get almost as complicated as setting up the scene in the first place.

The truth is there’s a million ways a scene can go wrong. True, pencil and paper mean you can simply erase the part that’s not the way you want it, but what if it’s already inked? That means hours with white-out or something similar to correct the problem.

Lots of ways to mess up, lots of ways to create incredible art. It’s a matter of time, patience and a lot of practice.

Villain or not? Stygere

Stygere has got the longest fuse of the Keres. His mother and sisters are quick to anger, he isn’t. Instead, he stays angry most particularly at them, for all the arguing. He’s a dangerous enemy, but doesn’t often show anger toward the heroes. In fact, they have a suspicion that he wants to join them against his mother and sisters. He’s left clues to their plans that have helped the heroes out of many deadly traps.

He’s an enigma to the heroes, but among the many things he won’t admit openly is that he does want to rebel against his mother and sisters. Unfortunately, the few times he’s tried, they nearly killed him for it. So, rather than risk life and limb against them, he secretly helps the heroes without their fully realizing it. He’s considered donning a masked identity to confuse both sides. Unfortunately, he figures they’d recognize his voice and he’d simply be in greater trouble.

A small mystery that might nag at the reader of Dream Angel #2 and #3, is how Kaida knew Larissa was in trouble with Ker and several Reprobates. The heroes figure he was simply flying overhead and saw something that looked out of place causing him to land and investigate. What the heroes wouldn’t know is Stygere planted a clue. One that would attract the Pegasus centaur without anyone knowing. He also left an anonymous clue with the local police. Which is connected to the heroes’ communications thanks to Larissa. This, Stygere knows, and put to good use. It’s common knowledge the heroes and police are working together to solve crimes within the city. So he figures anyone could have left the tip and he wouldn’t get blamed.

He doesn’t want to openly help the heroes, so he flies under the radar with subtle hints and clues to tip them off. His mother and sisters are left frustrated when the heroes escape, but he’s secretly pleased.

What do you think? Is Stygere an interesting character? Stygere makes his comic book debut in Dream Angel #1, which is available in the shop. Also available in the shop is his plush action figure.