Decision Made! and some thoughts on Recasts

I apologize to you all if I've been going on too much about how long it takes to paint faceups or body blush. It's mainly because I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle with the widely accepted notion that artist overcharge for their services when in reality we really make very little.

This is also an issue that applies to recasts where those who own and buy recast accuse legitimate doll companies of overcharging for their dolls. Artist who produce the dolls you fall in love with deserve to live above subsistence. We deserve to be able to pay medical bills, own a pet and care for it, live in a decent sized apartment (not in the basement like me) with windows and one day have a kid. I can't do these things unless I work for commercial jobs. It's a very very sad world where you only get paid if you can sell a mass produced product.

So, I will stop talking about my pricing dilemma and just post my prices. My work speaks for itself and if I get fewer commissions, I get fewer commissions.

Thank you all for being understanding and for putting up with my whining.

Much love,

Invie

Dollshe - Pure Body for Jo with Time Chart

I don't normally get a lot of request for body blushing. Mostly because it's hard to maintain and can chip easily at the joints. However, I do love the look of a freshly completed doll.

Meet Jo's Bernard. I completed three faceplates for her including an OE and SP pair that are the same character and a modded SP Bernard who is his own character. The body I blushed belongs to the freckled OE and SP pair.

The body is freckled to match the faceplates on areas of the body that are most exposed to the sun including the chest, upper back, arms and lower legs as well as the hands and feet.

NWS after cut.

Last Week of July To Do List

I've been a bit behind on commissions due to non BJD related issues. However I am not super far behind so I should be able to finish everything by mid August I hope. I'm stuck away from my home and studio during the day (family related) so there is no way to get much work done this weekend.

This weekend
1. Start and finish This Alice's hands
2. Start and finish Doll Chateau Hilary hands
3. In the middle of Iplehouse Doria commission for Denise

Coming Week (7/22-7/28 Mon - Sat)
4. Start and finish Minimee Adriana Lima commission
5. Clean and faceup puki puki Sugar and Ruby
6. String up Dollshe Bernard and photograph
7. Photograph Wilde Imagination Parnilla

Week 2 (7/29-8/3)
8. Clean and paint Parnilla
9. Start and finish Diana's (she sent the head after several months!) Dollstown girl.
10. Start August commissions including Julie's Bernard & Kathy's DC Jodie.

Whew...I hope I will be able to stick to this schedule. The last week I've been to the vet for three full days. Dealt with a drain back up, plumbers and cleaning during which time I didn't shower and hosed myself down in the backyard with a hose (yah.....water was not draining fast enough.) And this weekend I'm taking care of things at my mom's and sister's place so a full week of not being able to work.

I already have two ppl in August but I will take four more to fill out the rest of the month.

EDIT: I almost forgot the pandas. They are so close to being done as well. I will also be finishing up some 1/6th commissions as soon as possible. I will have to point out that at the moment I'm not making much money at all so I have to consider putting commissions on hiatus and working on an animation reel to actually be able to pay bills.

Minor plumbing issues

I live in the basement of a fairly old house. Sure to some plumbing issues, (nothing got wet) I've been a bit busy.
My 20 year old car also developed
Gastronomic lymphoma so I've been to the vet almost all day for three days this past week. As such while I'm not behind, most of my clients won't have their dolls finished until end of July.

I well email everyone separately.

Where are they now? February - May 2013

Hi Everyone! At long last, I'm back though I still only have limited access to the internet. I of the things I like most about faceup commissions is seeing photos of the dolls are dressed up and wigged. As you all are probably aware, my own poor dolls are sorely lacking in clothing so they are always thrown into fits of envy when they see their friends all dressed up.

So let's start with commissions from February:

I met Jo on DOA in the Granado thread and since February I've been happily collaborating with her. The first doll I painted for her was her beautiful French Tan Narae. Her name is Twiggy and she's been pampered with 60's styled outfits including white leather gogo boots!

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.