I don't have new work quite to post yet, I'm waiting on some eyelashes to arrive that seem to have gone missing in the post sadly. I really need them too to finish up a commission and be able to send it back to the client.
Anyway, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holidays! In my family we celebrate Christmas, so Merry Christmas to those that are so inclined! Also I'm still open for slots for commissions! If you want a slot for January, please don't hesitate to send me a message on my contact page. I'm always up for new challenges and work with all sizes and themes!
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I managed to get wickedly sick last weekend and spent some time recovering while also running errands for my family. But I am now well again and able to post my latest face up on a Soom MD Wolf Knight R (human) head! He's in normal skin, and I gave him a generic pretty boy face up as he's for sale from my wife (I'm handling the sale though as he's in my possession at this time). Anyway, onto some pictures! He's a handsome head, but my wife is reshelling the character into a different head, and will be getting his twin down the line too. It's easier to make twins with a more readily available head. We're keeping the body at least though!
Anyway, I have commissions trickling in again, one just arrived all the way from New Zealand! I still have a slot open for November if anyone is interested in a face up from me! Though I do have an FYI: I'm flying for a week to Miami, Florida in the USA to see my wife for Thanksgiving. So obviously in that week I won't be producing any new work. I'm excited to see my wife again! It's been a little over a month since she had to leave Austria. My family and I are continuing the battle to move her here with me! That's all from me for now, until next time! Since I currently have nothing to work on commission wise, I decided to whip up a natural girl face up tutorial for the site There be Dolls. It shows my method of working, and isn't the only method. I meant it as more of a starting point for people to do their own natural face ups. I'll later probably do a tutorial on how to apply eyelashes to dolls as it seems to me a lot of people struggle with it. I've made one in the past for DoA, but I wanted to do it again with new pictures. Either way, please go on and check out this tutorial! I might even finally continue on my face up guide book. I really need to finish that poor thing... It's not like I don't have time now! Also, I'm still open for commission! Please don't hesitate to send me a message on my contact page! I'm happy to work on all legit dolls.
That's all from me for now. Until next time! Since I have nothing to work on currently, I decided to paint one of my spare heads, a Dollzone Minas in normal skin pink. I've had this head in a drawer since 2016 and never bothered to do anything with it. I decided to give her a nice natural face up to list her for sale. A close friend of mine already snatched her up! Without further ado, onto some pictures! I'm really happy with how the face up turned out, and I tried out some of the lashes I got ages ago. They are huge, probably too big for any sculpt with eye sizes below 18mm! Minas takes 16mm eyes and they are gigantic on her, but not terribly so. I love how her lips came out. In the Dollzone promo pictures she has really dark red painted lips. It's pretty, but I feel it overpowers the sculpt a bit.
Now for the news! I wanted to give a shout out to legit BJD interview blog called There Be Dolls! It has artist interviews, tutorials, and you can sign up as a member and send comments to others on there. It's run by a local collector here, and I can't wait to read the next interviews! That's all from me for now, until next time! My wife and I arrived in Austria a month ago and finally were able to get some sort of WiFi figured out for us. Turns out that the internet and phone cable in our apartment is busted and the rental managers are allowing us to have it fixed on our costs. Nice, huh?
Anyway, our stuff, along with my face up supplies, are finally set to arrive in Vienna sometime early/mid week. I've been running around here like crazy getting all our ducks in a row. We've hit a few roadblocks, but those will be obliterated soon enough. The cats have settled in well into the apartment as well! I've been itching to paint dolls again, maybe once everything arrives (dolls included) I will finally repaint Mort, my Dragondoll Cheng. He's had the same face up since early 2012. His face up is the oldest of mine still around at #20. I've never been dissatisfied with it, but he deserves some love! Oh, and Susi, my April Story Betty, needs a new face up and her tattoos. Booger chipped her face up already! Good thing I was never entirely satisfied with it. The painted eyelashes always bothered me. Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to do commissions by September again! I'm itching to work again! Until next time! I managed to complete another face up this last weekend while also packing up the apartment/our life. We've made great progress in the last 3 days. But anyway, the face up I did was on a Doll Chateau Zora in the old white skin. I was given artist choice, so I used a warm toned color palette. Anyway, onto some pictures! I decided to go with a gold theme for her and mimic the embossing on the body with the painting. I'm rather happy with the outcome! I really like the gold theme I got going here. I didn't paint the body, but the client was fine with that. It would have taken too long. In other news, packing is going well. It took 4 of us 2.5-3 hours to pack up all of my wife's and my dolls. We have 28 dolls between us, of which 12 are SD and larger (from 58cm to 100cm), 6 MSD, 7 YoSD, and 3 tinies. Only one doll is getting to stay out and not travel per shipping container, which is my DC Snow Nymph. She's coming on the plane with me! This is what 28 dolls getting ready for a huge move look like. Three bins, and countless pieces of bubble wrap later and they are all secure and ready to go. Mel looks very smug up there. Our stuff is getting picked up for the shipping container on Friday. We got this!
Until next time! I've been (figuratively) sitting on new work since the weekend, but didn't get to posting a blog 'til now. I managed to finish up a face up, body blush, and fantasy parts blush on a LoongSoul White Tiger Ye in white skin. I was given artist choice to revamp the little guy. So I did a Lisa Frank inspired leopard boy. I'll go over the FYI after the pictures. Now let's begin! For some reason, LoongSoul didn't embed the magnets for the ears in the resin, so they have to be taped on. The spots all shimmer in their respective colors, and I brushed shimmer powders all over the fantasy parts too. He's radiant to say the least! I can't wait to see what the owner will do with him. Here's a full body shot of him with a (terrible) mohair wig I made myself on him.
Anyway, now for the FYI: It's no secret that I'm moving to Austria at the end of this month (June 26th to be exact). I'm shipping all my face up supplies and other items per shipping container. That sadly means that I won't be able to work on any dolls for about 2 months, because the time is 6-8 weeks. I'm only taking one doll with me to have while I get settled, the rest of them are going in the shipping container. I'll need to revamp some things on the site for that then, which I'll do once I'm in Austria. I might even change the layout of the website! I've been debating it a while now since I haven't updated the site layout in years! Anyway, that's all from me for now, until next time! I had a productive weekend, I got two commission face ups done! Now to get through all the others! But that'll have to wait as I'll be leaving for New York for a few days on Wednesday and need to prep a few more things. But anyway, I painted a Nefer Kane Mini-Lynn and a Fairyland LTF Rose. Onto some pictures! First up is the Nefer Kane Mini-Lynn I painted for a repeat client who I greatly enjoy working with. They asked me to make the blushing subtle, but with a childlike innocent expression. The head is also minuscule! A little bigger than a US quarter. It's always an interesting challenge for me to paint details on heads that small, but I did it! And the client is happy too, so success! Then here we have the second face up I finished this weekend on the Fairyland LTF Rose in natural skin. This face up was artist choice, with the only instructions being to keep towards a cool toned color palette. I had a lot of fun with the swirls. It's not often I get to do an artist choice, I always get nervous about them because I'm not sure if the client will like it. Fortunately they liked it a lot! I hoped they would as they are a repeat client and friend as well!
I can't wait to see owner pictures of both of these! I always love owner pictures, I don't get nearly enough owner pictures from clients sent my way to display on my website. Yes, this is a subtle plea to those I've painted dolls for to send me pictures! I like to display them with credit to the their respective owners. Now for the FYI: My wife and I are heading to New York this upcoming week to go to the Austrian embassy to submit her application for a residency permit. Things are rolling towards the big move. I'll be sad to leave as this has been my home for 17 years, but I think it'll be a grand adventure and a good change. That means also that I won't be able to get much done doll wise this week. We'll be gone from Wednesday to Saturday. We're staying with a friend of hers that lives there. Oh, also my birthday is coming up, in less than two weeks! I'm turning 28, so strange to think back to where I was 10 years ago. Not EVER going back to that, haha! I like who I am now, even if I haven't quite found my place in the world yet. At least I found a passion I haven't burnt out on or lost! Until next time! I've been back a few days now from vacationing with my wife and in-laws in Florida, and I think I've finally settled back into the groove of things. Work is a bit hectic with it being the new year (we need everything new from the patients), and my hours are still a bit crazy for another few weeks I think. Anyway, I did manage to squeeze out a face up and started work on a massive commission. The face up I did is on a Doll Chateau Andre in white skin, and the other head I started on is a Nobility Doll MNM Bill Kaulitz head. First up is a picture of the DC Andre. All I really have left on his face is gloss, and then I'll blush his body too. I started on that, but I haven't gotten far yet unfortunately. He's the brother of the DC Jakov I painted recently, the one with the black horns and wings! Then here's the Nobility Doll MNM Bill Kaulitz head. So far I've modded his eyes more open and gave her ear gages. That's the first time I've done a mod like that! Took a while to figure out. Finally I just carved into his ear and shoved the eyelet in and sculpted around it. The addition will be color matched as he needs to be color matched in general to a LoongSoul NS body. He's going to be Tom, Bill's brohter, hence why the eye opening mod (they are identical twins but have some differences). I'm planning on face upping my brains out this weekend!
Now for the FYI: I'm going to stay closed until I get through the large part of my commissions. They really piled up and I'm still adjusting to having less time to work on doll stuff. So the commissions have really piled up and I feel awful about that. So I'm going to play catch up. It's also been exceptionally cold here (-2F with a real feel of -19F on average), so getting to working on dolls has been a challenge. Thanks for understanding, you guys are the best! 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! 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! |
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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