I managed to finish the last of the commissions I had and shipped everything out today. I feel accomplished! As for the FYI, I'm closing commissions until March. I'm going to take a break and work on some personal projects since my poor dolls have been neglected with old face ups that I could do so much better now! Anyway, onto the work from this week! First up is a Fairyland LTF Rolly VE faceplate from a friend of mine. She wanted me to paint her as a little goth girl, which I was happy to do. I think it turned out very nice. And then here we have the legs of my SO's Soom Ai girl. She's a red dear so red hooves it is. I was surprised at how few layers that took to build up. I only used about two layers of color to build up the red and another two for the hooves.
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2014 is officially over and it is now 2015. Wow, what a year it's been! This year I only completed 50 face ups (but I did a lot of body work too), while last year I did 56. That's okay, I still have a few heads with me to paint that I couldn't get to before my one week vacation. Either way, time to show off my favorite face ups for each month of last year! My doll family also expanded by quite a bit. I'm at 17 dolls right now and one of them needs a face up, and a few others need a redo.
The vacation was nice, I had a very good Christmas with my SO and her family. For Christmas dinner most of her family came over so we were at 25 people and I made 10 pounds of mashed potatoes. Not much was left over after that many people. It was all good. Anyway, here's to 2015 being a great year! I'm closing shop for the next week because I'm going on vacation to Florida to spend Christmas with my SO and her family. We're flying out tomorrow in the morning. I'm shipping off the last commission today during lunch at work (hopefully), though I should be able to just drop it off later in the box drop off as well. So nice to have a postage scale and know exactly how much shipping will be and then being able to pre-pay the shipping!
I'll be back on the 27th, so I should be able to do at least one more commission before the year is up. 2014 was a hard but good year for me. Anyway, I wish everyone a happy holidays! Sorry about seemingly disappearing for a few weeks. I got sick for two weeks with what started as a cold and ended up as bronchitis. I'm finally better now and managed to squeeze out two more commissions for one person. The first is a Lillycat Ninon in caramel and the second is a Dollzone Freddy-2 with modded ears. I've always wanted to work on a Lillycat/Cerisedoll! Just need them approved and then I'll send the invoice and mail them back to their owner. These are probably the last face ups I'll complete before I fly to Florida for Christmas with my SO's family on Sunday.
On, and as a heads up, I'll be raising my prices in mid January by $5. Anyone that's contacted me so far will still get the current prices if I've given them estimates, so don't worry current customers! It's been about a year since I've raised my prices, but I feel I've improved enough to warrant it at this point. I finally got around to documenting my 140th face up, which was another repaint on my partners Soom MD Shale romantic head. Last time I repainted him he ended up far too pink. This I think is the best face up on him yet! He's meant to be very pale this unicorn boy. He's actually a hybrid on a DC body with the Shale head and full Shale fantasy legs. He's really cool. I have some pictures of his full body on my flickr. I also hit another milestone with this face up. I reached 140 face ups since I started doing them! That means that it's time for another collage, it's been a while since I've posted one. I'm very proud of this accomplishment. I already have another commission with me and one more on the way to me as I type this. It's been frigid here so I haven't been able to work from home much (it's only been in the low 50s and mid 40s in the mornings).
I also have a job interview on Tuesday, so wish me luck! I'm hoping I get it because then I can quit the job I have now and move on to something (hopefully) better. Happy weekend everyone, even if it's only my Wednesday! I just received yesterday the head from the winner of my Tumblr raffle, it is an Impldoll Aldrich just like I used to own. He's a dragon (unlike mine) so he's going to be a lot of fun to work on. I'll get to use my shimmer powders on him. I was also contacted by a friend to work on one of her dolls. She'll drop him off with me on the weekend. Finally I'm starting to get commissions again, which is wonderful because I've been going through doll painting withdrawal. I did repaint my partner's Soom MD Shale again, but I haven't documented it yet. My partner also got her centaur's new body, so I had to shift the doll set up again. Sticking 8 MSDs into one row was a task and a half. See what I mean? The dresser is definitely getting too small at this point. We have another YoSD coming, but I know how to fit her into the set up. Also there's an SD floating head that needs a body, but I think I know how to get him in there too.
Only 2 dolls (MSD) are in a doll stand, everyone else is just standing on their own. Though the SDs are leaning against the wall for support. I've been sick as a dog since Saturday, but I finally feel better today so that's a good thing. That means I can finally mail out the last two commissions I had completed. Either way, I repainted my new girl yesterday and finally documented her this morning. She is a Limhwa Lily in normal skin. I'm really impressed with her posing, the MSD Limhwa girl body really is a treasure. It moves very smoothly and holds poses nicely. I haven't even really bothered to think about sueding her. Her buttlocks are a little finicky, but they do work to keep her sitting upright. Overall, I am very pleased with her.
Now for the FYI: I'm holding a free face up raffle on my Tumblr. The rules and everything are in this post. Since I'm all out of commissions I thought it would be fun to hold another raffle. I tend to greatly enjoy them. Either way, if you would like to try and get a free face up from me and have a tumblr, like and reblog that post! Well looks like I'm out of commissions again, but that's okay. My friend who wanted me to paint her DF-A Fox decided to sell the little booger instead.
All I got to paint now is my new doll that is coming today (a Limhwa Lily), and maybe redo some face ups on my own dolls, but that's about it. Val, my DZ Chen, is in need of a new face up, his is rather old at this point (it was #38). I'm at 138 completed face ups at this point, which has me really proud. I started taking commissions for face ups around end of 2011/beginning 2012. I feel pretty accomplished with how far I've gotten in my craft. Either way, if you need a doll painted, or a friend does, just send me a contact form, or an email, and I'd be happy to do so. I lowered my turn around rate to 2-3 weeks, though more than likely I'll get done sooner with your dears. I'm debating buying ad space on DoA again, it did help business last time. I'm back from my trip overseas to see my family and came home with treats, many experiences, and an awkward sunburn along my neck and chest from walking without sunscreen in Budapest.
My SO and I visited Austria, Hungary, and Serbia. She didn't like Serbia much (the amenities weren't the greatest, i.e.: the outhouse for a bathroom), but she loved everything else. It was her first trip to Europe and across the ocean. Her favorite part was all the food. It is nice to be back home though and in our own bed. So much nicer than a pull out couch for 2 weeks. It was comfortable, but still it's good to be home. The kitties missed us a lot and greeted us with a chorus. Either way, that means I'm open for commissions again. I still have a few left over that I'll hammer out this next week. It is official, I'm going on my first vacation today in almost 2 years to see my family in Vienna, Austria. I'm taking my fiancee with me, and she's never flown international or really left the country before. So she's excited as am I. I have a couple of things I need to work on, but they are on hold until I return on August 2nd. I extra bought a new camera for this (just a small Nikon CoolPix point and shoot) so we can take lots of pictures. I may or may not post them to Flickr, and perhaps the best here. One last picture of all of our dolls as we bid them farewell for two weeks. Two dolls aren't in the picture because they are floating heads. One has a body on order and the other does not.
Our two kitties are really confused as to why we've both got suitcases. We have some friends taking care of them in our absence. Bye everyone! In a week I'll be flying to Austria to visit my family there. I'm taking my SO with me, which'll be the first time they meet her. We're very excited, and a little bit nervous (for various reasons). I'll be gone from July 19th until August 2nd. What that means is that I'll be trying to get what commissions I have on me done and sent back to their owners. I only have 2 more on my right now, which I'm hoping to knock out within the next few days as long as the weather cooperates. I also need to return a friend's MH girls that I've had forever. Anyway, onto the new work I have to show! This week I worked on a Doll Family-A Aurea in white skin. I'm starting to get better at painting white skin dolls. They are tricky because I want to make them lively, but not so much that they don't match their body anymore... It's a conundrum. I think I finally figured out the magic pastel layering combination. He is meant to be an ice/snow elf and belongs to a friend of mine. Her commission is two part, because she got the DF-A event fox as well, so I need to paint him as a lynx pretty much. Either way, I had to keep him pale to make sure he looks frosty. I also have a picture of him with his default face up next to my face up. The default face up was very pretty and well done, but it simply wasn't my friend's character, so she asked me to repaint him for her. She ordered him blank, but MoC accidentally ended up with a face up-ed version. His face up did come off fairly easily at least, only Mystic Kids face ups. I swear MK uses the sealant of gods. I should ask them what they use...
I decided to offer my services to repainting Monster High Dolls. I know I've only painted 3 so far, but I feel I do a good enough job of them to offer them as a commissionable service. I even added a section in my examples for them. Either way, I finally finished a commission for a MH doll for a friend. She has a lot of them so she didn't mind me taking a long time on them. I still need to work on my eyes more for them, this time I only used pastels and watercolor pencils straight up. Normally I paint the eyes, but I'm still experimenting with repainting them. I do have 2 MH dolls myself, one I already painted, and another who I'm now itching to strip and repaint as well. Here are the detail shots of the repaint above: I personally am not a collector of MH dolls, but I sure appreciate the variation from sculpt to sculpt. They all have slightly different features which is really neat. I'm glad I got a tip from an acquaintance on how to easily remove the factory paint job. W&N brush cleaner really works wonders on them and doesn't melt them!
Oh! I'll also be holding a free face up giveaway on my facebook page, so keep your eyes peeled for that post. I have 2 commissions left to do and I'm determined to finally get them done! Once they are out of the way I'm going to be fishing for more commissions. They've been really slow again.
I might buy ad space on DoA again, that did help me get more commissions. I just need enough money for it. The last time I did it I bought it for 2 months, which cost about $90. I made it back in commissions pretty quickly though, so I can't complain. My two commissions consist of a Hujoo Nano Freya in grey and a Dollmore Dona. Both are ABS plastics and tiny, but the Dona is a mature tiny so she's going to take much more work I think. Either way I look forward to it. I know, I know, I should have gotten some of these done a while ago, but things have been rather crazy here. I finally had some downtime today and managed to do a face up. Now I only have 2 commissions left. First up the finished pictures of the Withdoll Angela in rosy brown. She's meant to look like a mix between a night elf and a drow. It was quite the challenge to work on that resin color, but I'm overall happy with the end result. And then here we have a Dollzone Moon, who is a really cool little hybrid. Her owner has her on a Doll Chateau Alberta body, and with the head being so big (it's meant to be YoSD) it works great on it. I can't wait to see her put back together again.
Also some FYI. My schedule at work is changing to earlier. I'll be working from 6:00am to 2:30pm Wednesday through Sunday. That is really nice for me because then I get to work on other things in the afternoon, like face ups! I managed to get one commission done, a face up and body blush with a tiny tattoo on a Hujoo Nano Rabi. She is super cute, and my new way of working made the detailing much easier. Sadly my grey didn't want to stick to the ABS very well... See? Teeny tiny shooting star tattoo on the back. I recently got a new micro liner brush and it is amazing for eyelashes and minuscule detail work. The Hujoo Nano's are only about 12cm big, so you can imagine this body his very tiny. Another commission arrived on Monday, a Fairyland MNF Juri 2013. She's very cute and I'm glad I got to see one in person. Either way, today is my birthday so I won't be working on dolls today. I'll be celebrating my quarter of a century milestone. Thanks for understanding! |
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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