Blog Archives - Iza's Face Ups

Merry Christmas!

12/25/2012

Merry Christmas everyone (or whatever else you celebrate this season)!

I already celebrated Christmas yesterday because that's what we do in Austria, we celebrate on the 24th of December rather than the 25th. It was a nice evening, my dad cooked and afterwards we all played Uno. I got second place surprisingly. I was losing pretty bad for about 5 rounds. By the end my sister and I were trying to get as many points as possible, simply so the game would end. She lost in the end.

I hope everyone is going to have a wonderful day today, with lots of love and happiness!

FYI - Gone until 01/06/13

12/21/2012

I'm leaving in just a few hours to fly to Vienna, Austria to spend the holidays with my family there.

There will not be any new doll stuff on this site while I'm gone, but I can still answer questions and comments because I will have internet.

I wanted to thank everyone that's commissioned me this year, you've helped me improve tremendously in my craft. Thank you, I really mean it.

Here you can see my very first face up commission compared to my last one of this year. Even here you can see how much I improved, especially with eyebrows. I never documented the first face up commission properly, and it's been wiped at this point so I'm going to redo her once I get back.

Either way, happy holidays everyone, and see you in the new year!

New Face Up

12/19/2012

I managed to complete another commission yesterday, an Illusion Spirit Annabel. That leaves me with only one commission left which I'm hoping to work on this morning.

The Annabel, named Kes, belongs to a very good friend of mine and she loves the way she turned out. She's going home today with her.

This was the first head I worked on that had teeth. I was asked to keep her very light and ethereal because she's an ice princess. That's also why she has snowflakes around her eyes.

On Friday I'm leaving for Austria for two weeks, so I'm glad I almost got all of my commissions done. Only 1 more and I'm free!

Free until I get back that is.

Nah, I love doing face ups. It's so much fun for me and I love seeing peoples happy reactions when I show them what I've done with their dolls.

FYI - News

12/16/2012

I only have two commissions left to work on, both are local so I won't have to mail them. One is a dyed RS Ju and the other is an IS Annabel. Both belong to friends of mine.

Once I'm done with those I'll be free to go to my vacation in Austria. There I'll be visiting my family who I haven't seen in a year. Sometimes it sucks living on opposite sides of the world. Either way, I'm leaving on Friday, a day earlier than I thought. Good thing I checked my ticket again. Sadly I'm booked on my least favorite airline (United) for the three flights there. Bleh. At least I have plenty of time between flights (5+ hours).

When I get back from Europe I'm going to open slots again for commissions, and I'm going to hold a free raffle for one lucky person. The other slots will be as per usual. Though I am raising my prices in January as I've mentioned before.

FYI + Face Up

12/13/2012

I've almost completed all of the commissions with me currently. I only have two left which I'm certain I can knock out before the 21st. One head I had started on but my pastels wouldn't stick no matter what I did so I'm going to have to start over on it. It's a dyed Resinsoul Ju. The other head with me is an Illusion Spirit Annabel.

I completed a two part commission today, though I did most of it yesterday. Today all I had to do was gloss and attach eyelashes. I just sent off pictures for approval so I'm waiting to hear back from the commissioner.

5Star Doll Emma

She's a cat girl, and I followed as closely as I could to the mock up I was provided. I tried to get the markings as symmetrical as I could.

And here we have the ears. This was a fun commission to work on. I hope the commissioner likes the completed face up as much as I do!

BJD Face Up WIP - 5Star Doll Emma

12/12/2012

Yesterday I started working on a commission, a 5Star Doll Emma who is going to be a cat girl. I sent some WIP approval images to the owner and I was told that the markings are great and the only thing to change is to lighten eyebrows. Good thing that's no trouble at all.

Here are the progress shots. I'm glad to have gotten the markings as symmetrical as possible. She's a cutie, I just wish I'd been sent with the eyes for once I'm done. Oh well, it's okay, I just prefer taking pictures with the eyes in for documentation.

Either way, I will continue working on her this morning once I get up again. Right now I'm simply up because of some minor back issues.

FYI - Snowed In

12/9/2012

It's that time of year where I'm left wishing I had better tires on my car. I tried to get to my day job today, but my car wouldn't even get out of the parking spot because the mini plow at my apartment complex plowed me in. I also have no shovel to get myself out with. In other words, involuntary snow day for me up in Minnesota.

Also I have to go in and help my mother with data entry at work either on Monday or Tuesday, so I won't be able to work on commissions again until Wednesday, maybe Tuesday morning if I'm lucky. Sorry about the delay you guys, but face up-ing doesn't bring me in enough money to live on, hence why I'm a part-time janitor while being a student as well.

I'm also thinking of raising my prices every 4-6 months by $5 at a time. The first price raise will be in January.

In other news, I did manage to finish up a three part commission yesterday.

Here is the DZ Yuu with his growing in facial hair. I'm rather happy with how he turned out, he didn't even fight me on the eyelash application. He put them right in for me.

And here we have the ZM Large Fox ears I painted. I will be sending the DZ Yuu and the ZM Small Kitty and Large Fox Ears back tomorrow. Hopefully I can get to the post office.

Face Up WIP + A bit of News

12/8/2012

I have quite a few things on my plate right now, but I'm about 50% done with what I have to do. So far I've gotten one face up 95% done and a pair of ears 100% done.

DZ Yuu

Dollzone Yuu

I was originally done with the face up, but when I sent pictures for approval I was asked to add a small growing in mustache to the upper lip. So I'll take his eyelashes off again and add the mustache to finish him up. That should be easy.

Before and after comparison.

Here is a before and after picture. He had the fullset DZ Yuu scar face up. It took forever to get the paint out of the eyelid creases, but after 30 minutes or so of scrubbing he was clean and ready for a new face up. It's amazing how different a face up can make the same doll look.

ZM Small Kitty Ears

This is the pair of ears I finished. That's all done with pastels, no acrylics or airbrush used. The ears were originally a creamy white. I still have another pair of larger fox ears to blush for this commissioner and then I'm done.

I also have another head to face up and a pair of ears to blush. It's a 5star Doll Emma with ZM Small Kitty Ears.

Then I have another commission arriving, an Illusion Spirit Annabelle. She's going to be a snow princess so she'll be fun to work on.

FYI Minor Website Update + News

12/7/2012

I "upgraded" the website to a little bit of a different layout. It's hardly noticeable, but the menu and headers are different now. The navigation is the same, so I didn't shuffle any of the content around.

In other news, I have two commissions with me right now (DZ Yuu, ZM ears, and 5star Emma) that I'm hoping to work on today. I'm soon going to head out to college to do so since it's too cold to work from home. I really like having a spray booth at college I can work in, that way I can keep my face up shop open all year round without having to worry about the weather.

Also it turns out I'm leaving on the 21st of December for Austria to visit my family there for the holidays. I won't be taking a doll with me, my family there doesn't understand them really, and I can only take one suitcase and one carry on. Hopefully flying won't be a nightmare. I'm booked on my least favorite airline and have three flights to and three flights back from Austria. Last year flying was a nightmare where I got stuck in customs for 3 hours and missed my connecting flight. That suck

FYI - Incoming Head + Owner Picture

12/3/2012

I have a head and some fantasy ears arriving today, and I was finally told what my friend wants for her RS Ju head she left with me. So now I have two commissions to work on that are (almost) with me.

Another commission is being mailed to me today so she'll arrive either on Wednesday or Thursday.

And to reiterate I am going to be gone from December 22nd until January 6th. I'll be in Austria visiting my family for the holidays.

And last, but certainly not least, I was sent some owner pictures of a recent commission, the Doll Chateau Bella. She's absolutely stunning put together. I love seeing owner pictures!

I was given permission to post the pictures to the website, and I simply had to share this one for sure. It's my favorite out of the lot because I very rarely get to see the whole body of a doll I've worked on.