 Finished up my partner's Dollzone Fei this morning.
Now all he needs is his wig, eyes, and clothes! Currently I have no other BJD things to work on other than personal projects that I'm putting off for now. I've been contacted to paint another Freya in grey this time, and I'm seriously considering getting paints for my airbrush to do the white on her. She's meant to look like a tuxedo cat, and since I do everything with pastels it would take forever to build up the white intense enough. I have a coupon for Michael's so I could try and get some.
In exciting news, someone asked whether I used an airbrush to paint my last commission. That got me super excited because it can be hard to gradate pastels as smooth as an airbrush. I also mailed her home yesterday. I really need to ask people to send me owner pictures to stick in that section of my website. I love to see what dolls look like with their bodies since I normally only get the heads! Also my SO just got a new doll yesterday, a DZ Fei. He completely surprised us so he doesn't have any of his stuff yet (we stuck random eyes, a wig, and some clothing on him). He was very loved by his previous owner, I had to unstring him and give him a thorough bath. Also his stabilizer had gotten loose so I glued that back in place. And just to reiterate, I still have my special going on until October 31st. Everything is at base price, so if you want fantasy work and the such, you pay what I'd charge for simple work. 
Finally finished working on the Freya and took some decent shots of her. Good thing I have a natural light lamp because the sun isn't even up yet here. I sent pictures to the commissioner, and she loves her so she'll be going home today. I didn't blush the wrist or ankle joints because it would chip and rub off instantly. Also Hujoo Freya's feet are annoying to take off. Glad I'm done with her and I'm sure she'll be well loved back home!
I'm stopping here tonight until I hear back from the commissioner. Her tail is the same color gradation as the rest of her colored parts. I was asked to blush her like a red point siamese.
This is what my work table looks like right now. Random body parts hanging out on hemostats waiting to dry before I keep going. Once I get done blushing and putting her back together I will spray her whole body down with MSC (again) to make sure she stays as she is.
FYI, having multiple hemostats is awesome. Just saying. I'm slowly updating the pictures in the Examples section with my logo on them. It's going to take me a while because I don't have the PSD files anymore of those images so I have to completely redo the collages of my work. I've decided to always stick the logo in the right upper corner to keep things consistent. I have an incoming commission, a Hujoo Freya in white. She's going to look like a red point siamese, so body blush plus face up. it's going to be fun. I also have some MSC coming on Thursday since I'm down to about two half cans. That's not enough by any means. It's enough for the Freya at least. On a completely unrelated note, I finally figured out a way to attach my DZ Chen's tail to him without drilling, glue, magnets, or tying it to his belt/pants. I stuffed the string the tail is on into his hip joint, it's quite solid. 
I'm too sexy for this world.
You keep telling yourself that Val...
I photographed the ZM ears I've blushed so far. They're blushed in the same manner because they were for the same doll, but when he upgraded to larger ears I didn't bother wiping the little ones. 
ZM Small Kitty Ears
ZM Large Fox Ears
The large ears are actually a reject pair. The mold was breaking at that point so I got them for free. All I had to do was clean them up and glue in magnets. The inside of them are really porous, but that's okay. I love them either way, and so does my doll Val who wears them. The picture below (as lousy as it is) shows how large the ears are. He is a 70cm doll, and very pleased with himself. 
I'm too handsome for this world.
I'm pretty much out of heads to face up since none of my other dolls need a new face up. I do have one more floating head, but he needs scars modded as well.
I'd love for some commissions to come my way, I'll be raising my prices once I hit the one year mark for the opening of my customization service. I feel I've improved enough to do so. I've also decided to hold a special in my shop again. This time no extra charge for fantasy work since it's the month of halloween! So all face ups of all types are at base price ($15 for YoSD, $20 for MSD, and $25 for SD). That honestly is a steal because some of the fantasy tattoo work I do can add up to $15 to the price for complexity. This ends on Halloween (October 31st). So contact me before it's over! I did it! The weather was finally warm enough that I could finish this face up. I'm really proud of the fact that the tree was entirely painted with pastels. I'm terrible with acrylics and my trembly hands like to mess up, so I work with mediums I can easily fix mistakes with. Click on the images for a larger view. This head is an old Angel of Dream AiAi, who I hear was a limited elf eared head. I'm not sure on it though, so don't quote me on it please. I was given the head by a friend because she didn't want her. She got the doll for the body for another floating head she has. I didn't know what to do with her so I decided to paint her for BJDCollectasy's Autumn/Fall Face Up Project.
 I refined the head more by carving and sanding and beveled the eye sockets better with a new dremel bit so now the eyes look better. Sadly the mouth is crooked, so I'm just going to re-sculpt it rather than try and fix it.  I also stuck her on to an SD sized body (a DZ 58cm girl body), and I found that the proportions are really good. I am quite pleased with the results so far, but I have a long long way to go.
The doll whose body I stole was not happy, so nor was the one whose wig I snagged. Everything is back where it's supposed to be, so all dolls are happy again. I'm going to try and finish up the face up I was working on earlier today, the one with the tree on the side of the face. It's just waaaay too cold right now at 29ºF (-1ºC) outside. It's supposed to get to 50ºF today so I'm hoping I can work on it then.  Well, I took the plunge. I started making my own BJD. So far all I've got is the head. She doesn't have ears yet because I would like to try and attach them separately so they can move, much like bunny ears, but on the side of the head. She is SD sized, and wears 16mm eyes and a 7/8 wig. I tried an 8/9 on her, it was way too big. I finally got to use my new dremel to bevel the eye sockets. Sadly I do not have the right sized bit, so it took forever to even get to where I'm at. Now for some pictures: I'm rather proud of her already. It was a challenge getting the tinfoil out of her, and she cracked in a few places when I did that. Luckily I'm not one of those "First try is perfect!" people so I simply sculpted over the cracks and what not to strengthen the bond and baked her again. I only baked her 10 minutes at a time to avoid over baking her.
Angel of Dream AiAi - WS
I started working on the fall inspired face up yesterday, but I couldn't get done before I had to go to class, and right now it's too cold to work on the head outside (it's 37ºF).
So far I've only used pastels on the face up, the tree is even pastels, no acrylics for me because I'm afraid that I'll mess up and won't be able to correct the mistake. So glad I can just dip a wet brush in pastel dust and literally paint with it. The tree needs another layer of leaves and then I'll detail the eyebrows and eye lashes for this head. I wonder if I have any eyes sitting around that'll go with this head. Hmm... And I still really want my camera again, my friend's camera just doesn't do the dolls justice... 
Sielien BJD Concept
I decided to draw out what my Sielien might look like as a blank BJD. I'm going to contact a friend soon who makes dolls and ask him for advice on how to make this one. Click on the image for a larger view.
Currently I want to make her at 1/4 scale, which would still make her 61cm, so she can count as 1/3. I had fun deciding where to put joints in the torso. I eliminated the tail for this concept because I don't know how I would do it. Maybe I should have several tail options and attach them with magnets. I decided today to redo my boy Val who'd been my third face up ever. His eyebrows have bugged me a long long time, so after a year, I finally redid his face up. 
I think he looks much better now, I didn't really change anything about his face up, I simply "updated" by redoing it. He's not wearing his big ears here because I still need to blush them. I'll show a small before and after comparison of my third to my 38th face up. 
DZ Chen - Before and After Comparison
I'd say I've gotten quite a bit better, even if it's subtle. I can't wait to get my proper camera back...
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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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