I finally managed to finish the Ringdoll Fat Happiness and get him approved by the client! This past week was crazy with work and appointments, but I finally had some time yesterday to paint him. Without further ado, onto some pictures! For some odd reason my black paint didn't want to show up on him very well. I swear that I did give him painted eyelashes!! He still turned out cute at least! He was certainly a tough commission for me as I had to sand him head to toe and then dye him, which I'd never done before. I don't think I will offer dyeing as a service though, I'll just stick to small mods, piercings, and face ups/body blushes of course. Either way, he's done and ready to go home! Either way, I'm hoping to work on more stuff today once I wake up a little more!
Now for an FYI: I decided to close commissions until the new year because I'll be in Florida with the inlaws from December 26th through the 31st, so I'd rather try to get through the ones I have now before I leave than take on anymore and make the clients wait an extra week. Thank you to everyone to make the year nice! Until next time!
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Oh man this week was hectic, emotional, and overall exhausting. Either way, I made it to the weekend and once the sun is up and it is a little warmer I will work on the Ringdoll Fat Happiness.
He came to me with a previous uneven dye job so I need to clean him up before I can re-dye him and give him a face up. I gave him a rub down with rubbing alcohol, but he will need quite a bit of sanding to get clean. Once he is done I'll be at 280 completed face ups to date! Anyway I should be able to get him done this weekend (finally), so I'm re-opening slots again now! I already updated the front page of my site, but I wanted to give a shoutout here too. So if you're looking for a face up/body blush/fantasy blush, send me a message through my contact page! I actually finished this face up on Sunday, but I'm only getting now to posting it. This time I got to work on a Withdoll Elf Hunter Emma in grey-UV skin. That resin has a slight translucency about it, it's very pretty! Without further ado, onto some pictures! I was asked to do purple smoky eyes, black lips with gold flecks, and white eyebrows and lashes. White eyebrows are always such a challenge for me, even though I like the end result! Fantasy colored resin always provides me with a learning experience since I have to use different color palettes to make them look natural. Always a fun thing for me though!
Now for the FYI. I intend to reopen commissions at the end of this week. I'm almost done with all that I have to do currently (just got the Ringdoll Fat Happiness left, who needs a dye job and a face up), so I'm just about ready to take on more! Keep your eyes peeled for the announcement! Until next time! This weekend I managed to finish not one, but two face ups! They're both from one client and I have one more to do for them before I'm fully done with the job. I worked so far on an April Story Lilian and a Doll Love YiYi. They both are supposed to be rather cute, which I was happy to do! Anyway, onto some pictures! First up is the April Story Lilian in normal skin, which is also the first April Story doll I've ever worked on. The sculpting is very nice, though she does have some very prominent canine teeth. Not that they're ugly or anything, they're just much more forward than the rest of her sculpted teeth. Either way, she was lovely to work on. And then here we have the Doll Love YiYi in normal pink skin. I really like her cute little smile! She came with a chipped default face up, which is why the client wanted me to redo her for her. Basically the guidelines for her were pink and cute. She fought me a little on her eyelashes while painting them, but I won in the end!
Now for the FYI: My hours are going to be increasing at work, so I'll have less time to work on dolls as I'll be working more. That means I may have to take on less commissions, but we will see. One of the 3 receptionists (including me) is going on maternity leave by the end of this week, so I'll be taking over some of her hours. It can also mean that my turn around time for multipart commissions is going to increase as I'll have to figure out how to manage my free time all over again to divide it into chill and commission work time. I just figured I'd give you guys a heads up! That's all for now from me, until next time when I have more to show! I did it guys, I reached my goal of 250 completed face ups! And it was on one of my own dolls, my Dollzone Chen in normal yellow skin. I'm so thrilled that I reached this milestone as I've been a face up artist for about 4.5 years at this point. I've grown so much in this craft, it's amazing to look back. Anyway, let's get to the pictures! I like his eyebrows much better again this time around than last. Last time they were so... expressionless? I'm also much more pleased with his blushing. He looks like he's rolling his eyes, that was not intentional. It's kind of funny how his color seems to be different in each photo, but I promise it's the same head each time! He's on his 4th face up, and it's my favorite so far! Since I reached a milestone, it's time to post my collage again! It's been a while since I've posted my face up collage. It's gotten quite massive at this point! My poor photoshop file takes forever to open! One day I swear I should print it as a blanket or something, not like that'd be creepy or anything to have a blanket of a bunch of heads!
Anyway, I'm expecting some more commissions soon so there'll be lots of new work again! Until next time! Sorry guys, I haven't been able to work on commissions for the past week or so because my mother had surgery and I've been staying with her to help her and my stepdad out during her recovery. I don't know yet when I'll be able to get home again to finally work on commissions. I haven't even had the chance to work on my own dolls! Anyway, I am going to try to get some work done, I don't know yet when I'll be able to resume my own life again as the recovery is going slow for my mom. I've been slowly going insane not being able to be creative and work on dolls. Oh! I did raise my prices a little for body blushes as they are time consuming and take up a lot more materials than just a face up, so I increased the price by $5 on those services. In happier news, I'm almost at my goal for this year already, which was to get to 250 completed face ups! I'm right now at 247, and I have heads to paint at home, but no opportunity to work on them yet... I will end this post with a picture of my doll Melody. The sunrise made her look like she was on fire.
Until next time, and thanks for understanding! Technically I finished this face up yesterday, but I didn't get around to posting it here until now! This time I got to work on a Luts Senior Delf Juniper in normal skin. The owner had her sent (along with a friend's doll, they ordered together) directly to me from Luts to save on shipping. I'm really looking forward to working on the second doll too as she's a Japanese ghost. Anyway, onto some pictures! She was a fun gal to work on, and the clients were nice enough to provide me with eyelashes and face masks. Not that I mind grabbing into my own stock as I provide all sorts of eyelashes for free, but it was still really nice! This head also bitterly fought me on painting her lower eyelashes, but I prevailed! And just for something fun, a friend of mine on Facebook asked to see face up improvement collages, so I redid mine that showed my first three compared to my last three. It's always fun to see how one improves! I've definitely stepped up my eyebrow and eyelash game! I was pretty terrified of eyelashes when I started, and usually avoided doing them if I could. Now they are some of my favorite things to do along with eyebrow detailing.
I switched from watercolor pencils to paint in that time. That alone bared some challenges to learn a new skill set. I'll openly admit that my first face ups after switching from pencil to brush were awful. Getting good liner brushes definitely helped as I only had a short tiny detail brush at the time. In other news, I'll be experimenting with some different sealants, such as Citadel Purity Seal and Army Painter Anti-Shine Matte Varnish as it's getting harder and harder to find MSC for a good price, or at all. All my usual sources only have it in gloss or for the cost of my soul. I still have like 3 bottles of MSC, which I'll continue to use for commissions, but on my own dolls I'll try out the other sealants, to test how I can work with them. That's enough from me, until next time! No new work yet, sorry guys! I worked 6 days last week and had a ton of doctors appointments on top of it, but this week I have most of my afternoons free so I'll be working on face ups again! Anyway, I did do my year in review thing a while ago. Here are the stats from the previous year: Total face ups I completed in 2015 was 60, not counting fantasy parts or body work. I didn't do any face ups in June as I was moving, and in December I only did one face up, so picking the best was very easy. These are all my personal opinions of course. It was a hard choice picking just one per month.
Currently I've completed 227 face ups to date, with 12 of them being from this year. My goal for this year is to get to at least 250 completed face ups, though from the way I'm going I might raise that goal to 275! Zephyra will get redone before I even know it. She is my Resinsoul Ai, who I redo every 100 face ups as she was my 1st, 100th, and now 200th face up. I always keep the style the same, just to see how my skill level improves. That's all from me for now! Hopefully I'll have more face ups to show soon. I did get a bunch more stuff to work on, so it's time again for me to paint my brains out! Happy new year everyone! I made it back to the USA roughly a week ago and jumped straight back to work at my day job. I just got done with a 6 day work week. That was exhausting! Anyway, I put live my new prices, a $5 increase for each size, and I decided to charge extra for fantasy face ups again as they do take me a lot longer than a basic/natural one. I also changed that I'll ask for half up front for payment, and the rest when I'm done and have the work approved. I also offer layaway for jobs totaling a minimum of $100. Now for the WIP. I did find some time to finally get working on the Doll in Mind Rain USPS lost for a while and arrived late to me. I'm not done yet, I'm about 2/3 there though! Things I still need to add with him are red to the eyebrows, eye details, and robins egg blue coloring to the outer corner of the lips. I'll be able to work on him more tomorrow, today I'm too tired after working again.
My wife and I arrived safe and sound in Vienna two days ago after a long, but fortunately uneventful trip. Yesterday we bought a 9 foot (3 meter) tree with my dad and decorated it too. It's a beauty! Here's the tree (and my wife) in all its glory! It's covered in ornaments and chocolate. Yum! We're celebrating christmas tomorrow, which means I have to wrap gifts today.
Today we'll be going to a Christmas Market and having a grand old time. Either way, while I'm galavanting in Vienna, Austria I obviously can't work on commissions. I didn't even bring any dolls with me as I didn't want to deal with lugging one around the airports internationally. I'll re-open shop and commissions once I'm back in the US in the first week of January. Happy holidays and a grand new year if I don't post again before then! I finally managed to finish up the Doll Chateau Beatrice. She turned out super cute and pretty in my opinion, and the owner loves the work as well. I've gotten through a good chunk of my commissions at this point, which is good, because I'll be heading off to Austria on December 20th until January 2nd (though we'll probably arrive closer to January 3rd as we're landing shortly before midnight...). Anyway, onto some picture! I'm very happy with the end result. She's such a finicky little thing to get to stand as she doesn't have ankle joints. The S-hooks are in the knees and elbows, so her posing is a bit limited. Now for the FYI.
I'll be raising my prices in January. I'll also be charging extra for fantasy face ups depending on how long the work is going to take. I'll still have a flat base price for basic face ups/body blushes, but if you need anything added like scars or tattoos the price will reflect that. Freckles are included in the basic face up price. The reason behind that is because it can take me many more hours to get a fantasy face up done, sometimes it'll take 6 times as long as a basic face up. In the end it doesn't even cover the cost of materials what I charge. Those who I've already quoted a price don't need to worry as I will not be changing my already existing estimates. I've painted this doll four times already, because with each redo I improved and figured out something new skill wise and wanted to update the face up. The doll I'm talking about is my SO's Soom MD Shale in cream white. He has white blonde hair and the main reason I redid him this time was because I finally figured out how to do really light blonde eyelashes and eyebrows. Anyway, onto some pictures and then I'll explain the FYI! Here you can also see how I've progressed at painting him. The second face up I gave him I was learning to use brush rather than watercolor pencils and it wasn't very good... but the third time I had improved already and by the 4th he's looking pretty good!
Now for the FYI! I'm getting married this weekend to my beautiful and wonderful SO who I've been with for over 4 years. We've been friends for a good 7 years and roommates for 5.5 years. I'm so happy I get to call her my wife this coming Sunday. What does that mean for you guys? Not much really, other than that I won't be able to produce a face up easily this week due to being in full on finishing up wedding preparation. There will be at least some pictures I'm sure I'll post once the festivities are over. My dad and uncle are flying in from oversea's to attend. My sister sadly can't make it, but I'll be going with my SO to visit her and my family in Austria for Christmas (which means I'll be closing shop for the month of December). Anyway, enough blathering on my part! See you next time when I have more to post! Thanks for sticking with me! Due to working two jobs and doing face ups as well, there's going to be some delays in getting the rest of my commissions taken care of. I'm very sorry for this! I usually just do part time hours at my morning job, but I worked full time shifts several times this week, and the days I didn't I was working at my afternoon job. That one I work at less frequently, maybe 2-3 times a week. I also work Saturday this week, giving me a 6 day work week. Next week I have to work both jobs every week day. Oof... that'll be rough. Anyway, I did manage to get one more face up done this week in the morning. It was a simple one so it went quick. I worked on a Soom FCE Thera in bronze skin. I just love the Soom bronze resin tone, it's such a lovely and rich color. I was asked to put white freckles on her, which proved to be tricky and took 2 tries, but in the end it worked out. I'm also really proud of her eyebrows!
This also marks my 199th face up, which means that now I'll have to redo Zephyra, my first resin doll, to mark the occasion of 200 face ups! She was my first and 100th, so it's only fitting she becomes my 200th one as well. Thank you for being so patient with me getting new work done slowly. You guys are really the best! That's right, today is my birthday once again. I also officially raised my prices for any new commissions I pick up.
I have all of the heads and bodies now on me that I was waiting on, so this week I'll be a busy bee painting them all! Some are already in process, but most I still need to start on. Last weekend was Anime Detour (my first convention ever) so I wasn't able to work on anything. At least the weather is going to be super nice this week so I can work on things after I get home from work. Just not today, tonight I'll be celebrating my birthday. Thank you to everyone that's commissioned me in the past and currently, you guys really are the best. Here's to another successful rotation around the sun! I haven't raised my prices in over a year, so it's time to do so. I feel I'm improved enough to do so. I'm only going to raise my face up and body work prices by $5 each. I think that's very reasonable.
Those who I've already quoted are still going to get the quoted price, so no need to fret if you are a current customer and in the middle of commissioning me! Also I started a new job, so now I have weekends off again rather than Mondays and Tuesdays. Such a strange concept to me after almost 2 years of my life! I'll be going to Anime Detour this weekend, so I'll be sprinkling in face up work in the mornings and evenings as long as I'm not too brain dead! I'm filled on commissions at this point, but my wait list is open as I clear them out. And the last bit of news I got is that my birthday is next week! Right on April 1st. Yes, I'm an April fool's baby (there is a joke behind that but I'll spare you the details). Good thing I love terrible jokes! |
Iza's Face UpsWelcome to the blog area of my site. Here you get to see my progress shots and the such of what I work on. Also I post news here. Enjoy! To Do List:
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