Short blogging hiatus

Hi everyone, I have a few posts I want to make but I am currently without internet.

I will be doing another how to prep soon to show everyone the products I use. I will also at some point be testing out new varnishes to see how they stand up.

Pricing Dilemma

Anyone who starts a business out of something they love will run into this problem. How much should I charge?

I come across a lot of ppl who say

1. They wish they had the skills to make a living as a faceup artist.
2. They wish to become a good faceup artist and never charge more than $100 for their work.

I would like to think that most of the ppl who say something similar are probably teenagers because it is very hard to do faceups full time and if you are good, charging less than $100 is not going to be enough  because here are things I am considering when I think about how much I should charge.

1. I spend more than 5-6 hours on a head during the entire process including communication and packing.
2. Materials are expensive.
3. I want to eventually report this income on taxes when it is high enough to report it because, guess what. At some point I will retire and the SS benefits and etc is important. As a freelancer the taxes are about 1/3 of your gross income. So if I charge $99, that means I really make $66.
4. I want to keep my prices as low as possible.

So addressing these things I also want to point out that I spend a lot of time on each faceup. My style fluctuates depending on what the owner wants and I have a great respect for the sculpt. As such I don't have a template that I follow for every single head I paint and as a result I spend more time on each head. I know a lot of faceup artists like to say they have a particular style and they won't stray from it. That's not how I work. I like to approach each project separately and create something that fits the character so that when someone looks at a head I've painted, they see the character, they see the sculpt, they don't see that the work has been painted by so and so because it looks exactly like all the other heads that so and so has painted.

Some ppl think that because someone else is good at something that it takes them less time. The truth is that the opposite is true. While someone who is experienced can make quicker decisions about something, painting is a manual, physical work. You can't rush that. It means that someone who is good at doing faceups sees more mistakes or more details that make a good faceup and they take a longer time to add these details in or to fix mistakes. I like to spend time during my work to really look at a head to see if everything is harmonious. My entire effort is put into making the head look 'natural'. This means I spend hours staring at a head again and again at each stage of the faceup to figure out how I can make it look good and when I say hours, I mean I spend 10-15 minutes staring at the head after it's blushed, another 10-15 minutes after I've adding another layer and etc. This adds up to a lot especially if something about a faceup is bothering me or doesn't feel good enough to me. Of course some heads can be painted a lot more quickly because everything falls into the right place but I usually do spend about an hour if I add up all the time I spend just staring at a head to make sure it's going in the right direction.

While it would be easy for me to think of a price that would be fair to me, it's a completely different matter when I take into account what ppl are willing to pay. I'm also not very well known so starting out I have much lower prices than is reasonable for me. 

I will be raising my prices in the future to over $100 so I am writing this to let ppl know why. I shouldn't feel guilty because it's not unreasonable given the time I spend, material costs and the quality of my work. But I do feel guilty because in our culture, ppl don't feel like they have to pay for art and because there is a lot of complaint in the community about high prices for faceups. I also don't want to cut out the ppl who really can't pay for a high quality faceup, which is why I have my lottery.

For now I will be raising my prices to $45-80 in June but please don't be surprised when it goes up even higher. I am still keeping my prices low right now because I am not very well known but I think my work speaks for itself and as with anything in life, it is worth saving up for.

I will be raising my prices again in August to $55-100 for faceups. My body blushing prices will also go up. 

How To Prep.....Buff

Hey everyone!

So I find that I like to write informative posts more than just posting pretty photos. I think ppl find that more interesting as well. I've been wanting to do a few how to posts so I will start the first one. I know everyone likes to see a how to paint tutorial but I think it's best to start at the ground and do some How To Prep tutorials first because before you can paint, you need a good surface!

In a perfect world we can skip the chores and get right to the fun part but perfection isn't interesting so we have to do chores. The finish of the resin does not indicate poor resin quality. It's just a matter of the type of resin used and the type of mold release and additives. Even reputable companies produce shiny resin that is not ideal for paint. Shiny surfaces tend to be very smooth while the velvety textured resins have a bit of tooth to them that allow paints to grip on more securely. Companies I have come across with very smooth resin surfaces are, 5stardoll, ResinSoul, ImplDoll and surprisingly, Elfdoll and Alchemic Labo Unoa.

So what does shiny resin look like?

Varnish Test #1

Since I started offering body blushing, I've been worried about varnish strengths because I know that body blushing often rubs off. I don't think it's fair for me to offer a service if I cannot provide customers with something that is as durable as possible. I still don't recommend full body blushing because torso joints are especially prone to rubbing and flaking but I think that chest blushing, manicures and pedicures will last reasonably well.

VARNISHES TESTED:

1. MSC (Mr.Super Clear) UV Cut Matte
2. ZM (Zoukei-Mura) Powder Spray UV Cut
3. Future floor wax. This is high gloss, plain acrylic gloss. Don't freak out.
4. Golden Matte Varnish with UVLS
5. Golden Matte Varnish with UVLS layered on Future
6. Liquitex Matte Varnish
7. Liquitex Matte Varnish layered on Future
8. Liquitex Ultra Gloss Varnish

Airbrushing vs. Pastels from my POV

I got my first airbrush about a year ago because I was tired of limitations set by pastels. I didn't like how the colors of the pastels would wash out when it was fixed or not being able to get bright opaque colors or white to show up. I was also interested in trying alternatives to toxic sprays since I have a little cat that likes to follow me around wherever I go. Before I bought my airbrush and when I was very low on income, I tried mixing an acrylic solution and spraying it with a spray bottle with a fine mist. It didn't work very well because the amount of solution it sprayed out was very heavy and would cause things to run. Trying a small misting bottle also didn't work well because it would clog and there was no good way to clean it.

I purchased Golden brand matte acrylic varnish with UVLS along with my first airbrush supplies so I started using that as I began airbrushing. My experience with airbrushing acrylics and matt varnish has been very good.

The pros of airbrushing:
- Smooth color gradations.
- Ease of applying dark/intense colors compared to blushing with pastels.
- Ability to apply colors lighter than resin color. (impossible with pastels)
- Resin matching mods.
- Ability to mask and airbrush areas of color for tattoo work.
- Switching to less toxic materials.

The cons of airbrushing:
- Lint is more likely due to longer dry time of mediums and varnish.
- Cleaning time required during and after work.
- Switching colors is not as quick and easy as switching colors with pastels.
- Materials are more expensive.
- For some ppl during the learning phase, there might be issues with applying something and not being able to erase it.

Example of pastel vs airbrushed faceup shows that results are comparable although it is a lot easier to get nice large areas of soft blushing with airbrush than with pastels.

Airbrushed:

Pastel + MSC/ZM spray:

Although is more time consuming (as Xhanthi can attest) to airbrush a faceup than to use pastels, I like the overall results and the lower toxicity of using airbrushed colors and fixatives. I can wear safety gear and spray outside but this is difficult when it is cold out or when it is windy. I don't have to worry as much about pigments losing intensity when the pastels are sprayed and I can mix my own colors much more easily than with pastels. On the other hand, picking lint out is a very annoying procedure. I currently wear cotton gloves that can leave lint so I am considering switching to nitrile gloves.

In regards to acrylic brands, I know the famous Andreja was also trying out alternatives to MSC around the same time. She uses Liquitex which I have also tried after I finished using my bottle of Golden because it turned out to be slightly cheaper. In the end, I actually prefer Golden Matte Medium. The reason is that it does not shine up as much as Liquitex can if I accidentally spray too thick a layer. However, this shininess shouldn't really be an issue if you remember to spray light coats 4-6 inches away from the resin surface with the Liquitex.

While I like Golden mediums better, the Liquitex varnish performs better than the Golden varnish. I will do another post on varnishes in a few hours.

Weekend update

I'm finally catching up a little on outstanding commissions but I still have a lot on my plate.

I have mailed out JanetT's heads! She makes great costumes so I'm interested to see how Pet and Maddy turn out.

I need to do final touch-ups to MayWong's heads as well as sand and prep some action figure heads. (sanding and prepping are terrible but necessary chores if I want a good canvas to work on.)

On Thursday I was stuck in Chinatown since my sister was really worked about the 20 yo cat. He's actually not so bad but since he is having a not so good reaction to the penicillin for his UTI he's been having some issues. (I've had him since I was super little so he's impt to me.) I have to take him to the vet again tomorrow for some follow up on the UTI. I've spent a ton of money the last two weeks on vet bills. My sister has no income and she is paying for her alternative medicine school and her mortgage from whatever savings she has so I can't really ask her to handle any of the expenses.

At any rate since I was stuck there I brought the watercolor pencils I had lying around to try them once again. I initially really didn't like them because of the graininess of the lines but on the soft vinyl the grainy look is not there. I think it is because the point sinks in more. However that also means getting fine and dark lines is harder. Overall I like them a lot more and will be adding them to my arsenal. I still finish with paint tho.

Petrucchio for JanetT

He took forever. Hah...That's what comes to my mind when I look at him. Mainly it's because there were many thin layers of paint and because of the facial hair and wrinkles. It's easy to paint a pretty face. It's much harder to paint a not so pretty face. Overall I'm pretty happy with him. It was hard because the face sculpt is for a child but he is in his late 30s to early 40s and has led a hard life.

Well, here he is....the one concern is that Maddy's  huge eyes and makeup overpowers him a bit.  We'll see what JanetT wants me to do.