Commission #2 - Tankini & Bloody Rose (onesixthwarrior)

Meet Tankini and Bloody Rose, two lovely (soon to be lovelier) belonging to Gdamron (onesixthwarrior). Tankini appears to be a normal skin side part factory painted Obitsu 27HD-F01 head. Yes, I know which sculpt it is by looking lol. It's pretty easy esp since i've worked with so many Obitsu heads. The request is to keep the basic features but make her look more realistic and get rid of the neon pink lipstick. She can have some light makeup as she is a bikini model!

Bloody Rose is a Takara CG head. I'm not sure which version she is as there are several but neither Gdamron nor I are very fond of the factory faceup. I have nothing against dramatic makeup but there is no nuance to it. Her character is supposed to be a sophisticated assassin with a masters degree in forensic science (very useful degree for an assassin). As you can see, blue eye shadow and gothy lips do not spell sophistication. From what I can tell she does have a very nice sculpt. The sculpt itself looks a bit East Asian to me but I think her character is Caucasian.

Since these are factory faceups, I will need to clean them carefully with acetone before I can take a good look at the sculpts. I'll update again tomorrow...probably with sketches. Tankini needs to be done first to participate in a contest.

7/17/2011- So I have cleaned both heads twice with a little bit of acetone using q-tips and a small brush for hard to reach places. When using acetone, make sure to quickly wash off the acetone thoroughly after you get the paint off. Leaving vinyl in acetone can damage the head.

The Obitsu head is indeed the 27HD-F01 and cleaned off very easily. I like her side parted hair and I wish Parabox would sell those as well. Bloody Rose is an amazing sculpt and as you can see she definitely has an Asian look to her. (she actually looks a lot like me but with a bigger nose lol.) Because of the fine detail in the sculpt it was harder to get all the paint out. There is some residue left after her water and soap wash but I will get it off in a bit. (the streaks of white are not scratches. I don't use anything hard to clean the faces. Only q-tips, brushes and cotton pads.)

One thing I noticed about Bloody Rose other than the red tone of her vinyl is that there are some defects to the sculpt or casting under the paint. I will point these out later but they are small enough that they will not affect the faceup at all. Her skin is really pink which I noticed when I first saw her. I think this may be from age? Looking at the underside of her head I notice that there is a slight un-eveness to her color as if parts have bee faded. I'm not sure why this is or why the head would be pink since red pigments are usually a lot more unstable than yellow pigments so things usually turn yellow with age, not pink.

Anyhow, I will paint Tankini first since her design is more straight forward. BR will need to be rewashed and sketched out before I start on her.

7/19/2011- Heads are now completely cleaned with one last wash using Winsor Newton Brush Cleaner. I have made up some sketches of the direction I want to go in and am awaiting approval.

In a previous conversation, the owner had said it would be nice to keep Tankini's big eyed cute look, so here she is with softer more realistic look. In general the direction is toward a natural minimal makeup look for both. I decided to give Tankini darker lashes to make her eyes look even bigger and to fit her role as a bikini model.

Bloody Rose is a sophisticated and (in my mind) cold assassin. I've toned down her makeup a lot. If the owner wants a softer look from her, I will change the eyes a bit.

7/23/2011- I have finished painting Tankini. I want to send her out as soon as possible because I've taken so long on this commission. I think she ended up fairly close to the sketch. Her eyes are bigger than my usual style but I like trying new things. I prefer slightly smaller eyes though lol. More realistic in my opinion.

I have tweaked the sketches a bit to give BR a softer look since the customer would like ppl to feel empathy for her.

7/24/2011- BR is now finished as well but I have yet to take finished photos. During cleaning, I noticed her neck hole had a tear in it and dicoloration. GDamron has confirmed that she is an older head that is showing signs of age. Her vinyl has stiffened and dried a bit. Because of this there are slight imperfections in her sculpt which I can point out later. They aren't very noticeable unless you're the painter. For now here are a few shots of her after her paint but before glossing.

EDIT: lol..one of my friends saw the picture of the factory face upped BR and said "wow the doll on the right really looks like you! Is that a self-portrait."...

-___-

I did say the sculpt looks a lot like me...but srsly....I remind her of a blue eyeshadowed tranny!!!

EDIT 2: I tried to take some better photos, but I lost the day as I was busy cat sitting and working on take home work. As such I wasn't home all day and I only ended up taking these bad photos of BR before packing her up to be sent out tomorrow. I was too tired to set up lights and such so I just turned up the ISO....baaaaaad idea. Well lesson learned and I won't do it again.

New Section for W.I.P.

I am in the process of reorganizing my blog a bit so I can have links to galleries and etc. The first new page I have been updating is a W.I.P. log for Commissions. When each commission is finished, I will create a post of it and remove it from that page. If anyone wants their commission to remain private, just let me know and I won't post it.

You can find the page here. ^___^

Discovered e-mail issue

Hi everyone. Today I just discovered that I might have inadvertently blown some ppl off. Apparently some commission e-mails may have gone straight to my spam box. I randomly decided to check my spam box today and found an e-mail from a prospective client dated June 22! It's been almost a month and I never replied to this person because I never knew I got an e-mail from them. Because g-mail deletes any spam mail over 30 days old, there is a good chance there were more e-mails from ppl I didn't respond to. If you are one of them, pls don't feel like I just ignored you. Do resend your e-mail and if you had wanted a discount slot, let me know. There is still one available. I will check my spam box from now on just to make sure no one gets overlooked. Sorry again.

Friends on Forums

As you guys know, I am going through a rough time. My friends are very supportive and I am happy to say that even though I have only joined the doll community a few months ago, I have found some very wonderful ppl. I received two different packages from ppl I met through the doll community containing gifts.

The first package is from Spears. She is the owner of Feng Pei who was actually my first completed commission. This is what I found...

Isn't it wonderful? She sent me a Japanese style table and some cake & cookies she made herself! If you click on the picture you can even see the cake crumbs she made on the plates. So detailed. All the happy face cookies really did cheer me up when I saw them. This is actually the first doll furniture and food I own. Thanks so much!

The second package was from cirquemom who I met on the Dollieh Sanctuary form. She is one of the senior members and has a lot of experience. When she mentioned she had a free Obitsu head to give away, I jumped at the chance and happened to be the first one to respond. Of course I only expected one head but this is what I found...

!!! Three heads and one of them is a resin head. I was flabbergasted. She didn't even ask me to pay for shipping. Look! There is a big painted eye head for me to play with. It's such a cute sculpt. It is the 60HD-F06W which is a lot cuter in shape than the 60HD-F01. The great thing about this head is that you can purchase it separately in Normal Skin unlike the F01! I think with such a cute shape I have to do a cute cute girl with huuuuge eyes. Maybe she will be a fox spirit. ( I didn't take a photo but htere is a very cute little obitsu elephant on the back of her head)

The other Obitsu head is the default 50cm head which I've been very curious about. It is very similar to the Designer head except that the eyes are different shapes. I was surprised to see it was so much smaller than the 60cm heads. Here's a pic with a blank Gretel head for comparison. (that isn't Cerise but I might mod her to be a sleepy eyed Cerise.)

Tiny right? It is really MSD sized. It has a cute :3 face. I wonder if the designer head is like that too. It seems I might have a devilish nekomimi in this one ^__^.

The last head is a resin SD sized girl head from ledolls.com I think. Limited Edition Dolls. I can't find any info about her but her sculpt name Bridget is engraved in the back of her head. She has a very sweet gentle face. I wrote Cirquemom to be sure there wasn't a mistake and she told me to feel free to reface her!!!

So yes a lot of very nice things have happened! Oh and yes, I was runner up in the Junky Spot Mini-me contest! So unexpected. My favorite to win did win as well! Check out Trethowan's awesome entries here. My favorite is the lying down one. I'm not sure what I won but I'm excited!

Little Monica Miyo Contest

Hey guys! So there is a contest everyone can enter being run by Little Monica. I mostly know the company for their very sweet YoSD sized dolls but they also produce beautiful SDs and MSDs. My favorite SD from Little Monica is Chloe. She is one I fell in love with a long time ago but I cannot afford an SD right now >__<.

The contest is to promote Little Kitten Miyo, an LE Honey Harmony sized doll with a cute kitten aspect. To win some fun prizes all you have to do is find the 8 differences between two pictures and post your entry somewhere on the web. Then comment on the contest page with a link to where you posted your entry.

Here is mine.

Here's the link to the contest page. Good luck everyone. You only have a day or so to enter. Sorry for the late info.

For a look at some cute comics featuring Miyo, check here: 1 2 3

Double Booked

Augh, I have never made this mistake and I never saw it coming but I managed to double book myself by mistake. The mistake literally took a second to happen. On Monday this week I got an e-mail from Company A about putting me on hold for next week. I had previously interviewed with Company B but had not heard back from them about whether they really wanted me to work with them. So as I was about to hit the send button to say yes to being put on 1st hold with Company A, the nice lady from Company B called and asked if I was free this week starting Tuesday. I said 'Yes' as I remembered what I was doing and hit send on my e-mail!

Needless to say that was a move made without thinking and although Company A has put me on hold without calling back before, this time it didn't happen. I tried getting out of it but Company A said they needed me because I was one of the original animators on the project they need revised. Company B meanwhile turns out to be a 5 week job.

I stressed about it the entire week while working for Company B (I was sculpting and painting heads for them all this week) and tried to get Company A to accept a replacement for me. They finally said they were booking me and I had to tell Company B ( who is under pressure and needs everyone to be working and cooperating) about what happened. Everyone at Company B is very nice and were so kind to work out a schedule with me so that I can work during the weekends and at home during the next week or two. It will be hard but I don't want to let anyone down. I will still be working on commissions so don't worry. I know some ppl have deadlines to meet for their heads so I will be diligent.

As for my dad, we went to the doctor today. His cancer marker count has risen and we will have to see if he responds well to the new medication. I am wishing for a medical miracle. He is so tired these days and has no appetite but he is being brave and even forcing himself to eat food. At least he isn't nauseous so he can keep his food down. It's just a matter of eating enough to keep his energy up. After these two jobs I am hoping to take a break to spend more time with him. Perhaps rent or buy a wheel chair and go on day trips since he doesn't have the energy for extensive walks.

Junky Spot Newsletter

I made it onto the Junky Spot newsletter! I remember when I got my first newsletter, I thought it would be nice to be on the side bar since Emory will post pics from the forum to show what ppl do with dolls they purchase from him. I just never really considered that I might be on it.

I'm right there with the cute chibi Ivan!

I'm not affiliated with the store in any way. I just purchase my Obitsus from Emory because it's cheaper than anywhere else I can find, besides which Emory is super nice. A link to the newsletter is here.

Another reason to order from JS besides the shipping and free candy is that Emory gives away free stuff every week in a picture contest. Of course since he runs a store, you can only enter pictures of dolls you buy from JS. You can see some pretty awesome contest entries on the JS Facebook. I haven't entered that many but mainly because I don't have time. It's also pretty hard to win because there are very talented ppl out there so sometimes I am scared away. I will however attempt to enter more of them.

Big Brown Eyes

I'm not a fan of brown eyes. Not that I have a preference for eye color but in general I find brown eyes to be a bit boring because I have brown eyes too. I do try to keep the heads I paint varied and those who have brown eyes look good with them. This time around I think the brown looks good but I think the previous big heads looked a bit more alluring to me because of the more interesting eye color.

This is the last big painted eye head I have for now. I will get a painted eye big Obitsu for myself one day but it'll be a while yet. Hopefully ppl will want to get some big 'Bitsus painted but most ppl like the eyeball heads. Considering that you can get several painted eye heads with different expressions, I hope painted eye heads become more popular. You can't change the eye color easily, but you can change the expression!


EDIT: Lol, I noticed that in the last three weeks I've painted a lot of brown eyes due to the JS contest. I really like how Chie came out so I guess I don't find brown eyes that boring.

EDIT2: Ok, so my bf was a little sad when he read this because he has brown eyes too. I think brown eyes are fine in real ppl, I just mean that in an illustration/doll there are so many choices that brown (which is the most common color in humans) is kinda boring is all. Ok bf? Pat pats on head.

First half of July

Phew! July's been such a bomb. So many terrible things have happened including a minor physical assault ( I walked away with a few bruises but it's still disruptive and makes you feel bad. I didn't start it obviously.) and my dad getting really sick. He has been sick for a while and is undergoing chemo so of course there are complications. I hope the rest of July and the summer will be better.

So on to better things. I have many things to show but as usual I am behind on taking photos and blogging. I made a mini-me or rather two..kinda, to enter the JunkySpot contest for an awesome Doll Leaves doll. I was late to enter cause of stuff that came up and I ended up throwing stuff together two hours before the contest ended. I literally snapped a few photos and quickly composited in Photoshop between 10PM - 12AM last night. Things happen and in the end a contest is not very important. It was still fun to do and I see a bunch of mistakes in these that I didn't notice before but that's ok. I'll fix it later if ppl really mind.

So here are the three little obitsu faces painted on the 21HD-01N. Cute right? My friends all say the third one looks the most like me lol. I tried to make the mouths big and plump but still keep a nice balance to the face.


This Junky Spot poster is my favorite out of the bunch. I think you guys can tell why. I love the baby bitsus. Not very clean photoshop but on limited time that's to be expected.

Not my favorite. but bitty bitsu is sitll cute! Chie looks a bit weird though. She's my newest girl and hasn't had a proper shoot yet. She's on a 25cm body. She doesn't look like me because she isn't supposed to. There's no way I could fit my lips on an Obitsu sculpt anyway lol.

I made both of the little white dresses for the girls and my mom made the white dress I'm wearing for me a loooong time ago when I was 19.


Lol. Kinda hokey but lil invie looks like she wants a hug. Can you tell I don't live anywhere with a good view? I would have taken the picture in a nicer setting but since I was doing this all in my basement at night, this is what you get. I had to drop the background out since the ceiling is literally three inches above my head and it doesn't look good.


I'm embarrassed by the last two and I don't like them that much but I'll just throw them up. Shame be damned. Oh so photoshoppey with gradients lol. It is a nice picture of Chie though. I like the colors in the lighting.



I will do a better post about Lil' Invie and Chie with better photos. I hope everyone enjoyed these though.

Last Weekend NYC Doll Meet

Before this weekend starts, I just wanted to do a quick post about last weekend and the weekend before. I know, I'm so late.

So there was a bigger doll meet two weeks ago on Saturday that I was able to make. Usually I am not available because of familial duties but I was able to get there before everyone left. I brought my friend David this time since he is interested in minatures and such. There were a lot more dolls and the site was really nice. Here are pics of the ones that stood out. I didn't take that many photos because I was actually a bit overwhelmed and since I'm a bit shy, I was afraid to talk to ppl about their dolls. Trust me, there were some really cool dolls there.

Yes, the eyes really are glowing. There are LEDs in there and the owner wasn't around so I took photos lol.

Besides these I was able to get my grubby paws on a 5 star Aiden. The resin is really interesting in that it is super smooth to a shiny level and it is translucent. The one problem with this is that hybrids will be hard, but the doll was really cute irl. I believe the doll belonged to a girl named Eve but I'm not 100% sure.

I also want to post a little sneak peek at a new addition. I picked him up last weekend on Saturday and spent a nice hour or two with Jennifer (awesome person I bought him from) at Kinokuniya, the Japanese bookstore in NYC.


Not a very good photo, I know but he's so tiny it was really hard to focus the shot. Plus I has no tripod.

And lastly but not least, a shot of JunkySpot goodness. I got the 11cm obitsu of course and get ready for a mini me! (I have a character I call Lil' Wini, my alter ego who I will introduce here but this is not the same thing. Lil' Wini has a series of little cartoons of her that need to be drawn.)


See all the goodies? Thank you Emory!

Ok, to time go. Have an awesome 4th of July everyone.