Belated Workspace Wednesday! Eleanor's Faceup (Fallindoll Rabi)

Eleanor, a Fallindoll 27cm Rabi

So, this is what I worked on most of yesterday :D.  I knew I wanted to try something a little over the top with both Rabi (newly named Eleanor) and Force, but I waffled a bit over which direction to take.

Eleanor here isn't completely finished, she'll be getting some custom made eyes, a new outfit, and still needs lashes, but the majority of the work is complete :).  I airbrushed her body in a flecked agouti coloration with little black spots and gradient hands, legs, and ears.

Die cut vinyl detail, drawn in Adobe Illustrator.

I designed the vinyl appliques using Illustrator and exported them to my die cutting machine's program.  Drawing these designs would have taken forever, wreaked havoc on my poor hands, and still wouldn't have been the effect I wanted.  I measured the different areas of her face to get the spacing and layout correct.

Her hands and feet have already chipped a bit of the paint with movement, which is to be expected.  I'm thinking about going back over them with my black Plasti-dip spray since it worked so well the last time I used it on a doll.

I'm super happy with how she turned out :).  Force (yet to be named) will be completed in the same fashion with different designs (more lace like, in cream or white), which I'm still working on.  I hope you guys enjoyed!  Thanks for reading :D.

Fallindoll Rabi and Force Ball Jointed Doll Review

Emory over at Junkyspot.com recently got Fallindoll's new Rabi and Force (27cm) in stock and I nearly broke my neck ordering these two.  I missed out on Hujoo's fennec fox, Penny, a long time ago and I wasn't about to let another slip through my fingers!  I couldn't resist Rabi, either, I seem to be amassing a collection of bunny themed dolls.

Adorable little boxes!

Honestly, I don't keep up with the BJD community as much as I used to.  I only get snippets and photos from those few I follow on Tumblr who also collect and customize.  I'd never even heard of Fallindoll until I got the newsletter from Junkyspot saying they'd come in stock.  If you get a second, definitely check out their site.  They have quite a few ridiculously cute offerings.  I've also got my eye on their vinyl Panda, which is akin to dolls like Wonder Frog and Tokissi.

Anyway!  On to the review!

I ordered Rabi in Light Grey.  The information for Rabi is conflicting on the page, the first notice says they take 16mm eyes, which is likely just a typo.  They actually take something more like 12 or 10mm depending on the dome.  High domed eyes would look awkward in Rabi, her eye wells are not very deep or rounded.  I have plenty of other girls who can use the pink eyes I ordered so I just gave her a pair of brown glass eyes I had on hand.

Holy crap, that's cute.

I -instantly- fell in love.  I mean, jeez, look at that face *_*.  Feel free to use either of these headshot photos for your own mock faceups, if you'd like!  I haven't decided exactly how I'll paint her yet, but it'll have to wait until we get over the flu epidemic going on in our house right now T_T.

Force is equally adorable.  I love how mischievous she looks!  The 16mm eyes fit Force perfectly and I'm glad, I really wanted a golden color for her :3.

Ready for all kinds of shenanigans.

So yeah, they're friggin' adorable, but what about their function?  Both of these dolls are constructed from super durable ABS plastic.  I prefer it in my BJD's because I'm not exactly the most graceful creature on the planet.  The one thing you might be astounded to know is that these cuties pose like pros.  I've owned a ridiculous amount of BJD's over the years from pretty much every brand you can think of and I've never, ever seen dolls pose like these two before.

The roombox their standing on isn't even remotely level.  It's propped up on my quilting arm for my sewing machine lopsidedly.  It took about five seconds to get the one legged poses level and sturdy.  There are notches on the inside of their ball joints which 'click' into place for different poses.  You pose them and they... just -stay- that way.  It's crazy and I wasn't expecting it at all.

I mean, holy smokes, that's ridiculous.  Their legs are able to fold up flat against their thighs or out to the side suwarikko style.  Their torso can be moved forward, backward, side to side, and it just holds in place like it doesn't even care.  Their joints don't jerk or slip out of place and that just boggles my mind.  I have several other ABS dolls so I was expecting them to perform in a similar fashion, but no, these are hands down the sturdiest BJD's I've ever owned.

My complaints are few and won't matter after I'm finished customizing them.  The headcap was a complete pain to remove.  I had to insert a butterknife between the gap and gently wiggle it out.  I don't expect to be removing it very much once I finish painting them, but it's something to be aware of if you like to reposition your eyes more than I do.  It's also virtually impossible to position the eyes inside the head with wax or tack while the strings are around the pegs which connect the head to the body.  If you have a full stem eye that extends too far, you also might run into issues with the strings knocking your eyes out of place, so stick to half round or acrylic stems that can be popped off.

I'm incredibly happy with these guys, they're so completely adorable.  I'm really looking forward to finishing them and taking photos, especially now that I know they pose so incredibly well.  Thanks for reading!

Custom Fashion Doll Repaint Commission: Lucy Liu for Seanan

I don't get to do realistic dolls very often, but I do enjoy them.  I'm so happy with how this doll turned out.  I'm always terrified of flubbing repaints like this.  Lucy Liu is one of my favorite actresses, and I'd hate for a repaint based on her likeness to turn out as more of an insult, lol.  She's an Lucy Liu (Alex) doll from Charlie's Angels that Seanan commissioned.  I believe the inspiration for this repaint was Lucy's character, Dr. Joan Watson, from Elementary.  Seanan transferred the original head to a  much more articulated Fashion Royalty body.

 A photo of the original doll, from CelebrityDollMuseum.com and my completed Lucy Liu repaint.

I tried my best to capture her features, she really is such a beautiful woman.  She has such cute little freckles <3.

 

 I had a lot of fun working on her, it's always nice to be able to paint unique dolls :).  Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!

Workspace Wednesday! Three new Monster High Repaints, Modifying Clawdia Wolf's Toothy Grin

I usually post an update every Wednesday over on Tumblr, but I've been so busy the past couple of days, I wanted to take a moment to go a bit more in depth with the new doll projects I'm working on.

NO PICTURES D:!  We haven't got our faces on, yet!

You might notice that Clawdia here is looking a bit different.  That's because I wanted to try removing her teeth with the cut and superglue method which has always been popular with Barbies.  I loved Clawdia's character and her doll is absolutely fabulous, but dolls with perpetual open mouth smiles are unsettling to me O_O.  Speaking of Elissabat and Draculaura, I posted a comparison video between the two over here on my Youtube channel, confirming that they are two different sculpts.

THE STUFF OF NIGHTMARES

NO, NOT EXACTLY, BUT EQUALLY TERRIFYING O_O.  This was a moment in the removal process that I found particularly hilarious.  I was laughing so hard, I messed up the first time trying to bond the lips back together with glue.  Sorry, Clawdia.

This is the video I posted for the method I used, though there are plenty of other tutorials available on the web:

Basically, you're just cutting out the teeth with an exacto blade, evening out the opening, adding a few drops of super glue, and then pinching it shut until the glue cures.  Then, you'll end up with how she looks in the first photo above.  One thing I need to recommend is that you use a craft blade instead of the straight blade I had to make do with.  I've lost my darned Xacto and have NO idea where it disappeared to.  It was too late to go out and find a new one, so I grabbed the blade from my scraper.  Kids, please don't ever use sharp objects on your own, always get a parent to help you!

I'm very happy with the way she turned out and can't wait to finish her makeup.  As I mentioned in the video, I ended up with a bit of discoloration from the glue (turning white as it cured) because of her dark skin.  This didn't matter to me, as it was painted over, but if you're planning on keeping her lip color, you might want to think about touching it up afterward :).  Thanks a bunch for reading!  Clawdia and Elissabat's customs will be available in my Etsy shop a little later this afternoon!

Monster High Repaint Highlights of 2013, Taking a look back.

Two posts in one day!?  I know, it's craziness.  I was in the middle of migrating my files to our cloud storage and came across all of these photos of repaints from the last year.  It didn't seem like so many until I found myself staring at the hundreds of photos in my folder.

I really worked hard on coming up with a definite style this year and though I tend to deviate from the norm from time to time, I'm pretty happy with how far I've come.  In those folders, I also found pictures of some of my very first Monster High repaints...

 My second Monster High repaint and my most recent.  Three years apart.

I remember being pretty happy with this Gloom Beach Clawdeen when I finished.  She was the second Monster High repaint I'd ever done (from 2011), and the first doll I'd painted in years since taking a break from the hobby ages ago.  I was seriously out of practice, but the job market was absolutely horrible and I was grasping at straws trying to find some way that I could contribute monetarily.  So, I began customizing dolls and toys.  I enjoyed it and people were buying my customs. 

I was so elated that people out there liked my artwork enough to buy it that it fueled me to keep going.  It wasn't a fast or easy process, Monster High was quite new back then and the dolls were so hard to find in stores.  I've met so many amazing people and the community has just been fantastic overall.  Of course there are trolls sometimes, but the good infinitely outweighs the bad. 

I'm still far from finished and nowhere even remotely close to perfect, but I'm content?  I think that's the best way to put it.  My techniques have changed, my materials changed, even the way I approach a repaint has changed.  Three years can really make a difference.  Thank you guys for sticking with me through the awkwardness :).  I hope this year's repaints will be even better than the last!

Custom Monster High CAM Vampire Repaint, Tess

Tess is a custom repainted Monster High CAM Vampire girl.  She features a custom made dress by DollsAhoy! and Tibetan lamb's wool hair.  She's available for purchase over here in my Etsy shop.

I wanted to try a few different stylistic techniques with this girl.  I usually draw a much bigger, darker, and solid pupil, but I've recently become a fan of more softly blended eyes.  I think it gives them an almost glowy, dreamy look :3.

I also tried a softer look for her lips.  I gently blended the lines up and out and added soft, subtle touches of darker pigmentation.

The Vampire mold is usually harder to work with for me.  Once you remove the default paint, the sculpted eyes underneath are farther apart than the paint indicates.  In the past, my Vampire girl repaints ended up looking angular and harsh, but I wanted a much softer, sweeter look for this repaint. What do you think?  Did I manage to make her look sweeter than my other vampire girl repaints?

I'm working through a backlog of base-color painted dolls at the moment so I can get on with the newer goodies I've recently found (Clawdia, Elissabat, Gigi!).  A lot of times, to optimize my airbrush usage (since it can be a pain to clean), I line up about five or so blank girls and give them their shading, eyeshadow, and lip colors so that I can come back and add the details when I'm inspired :).  I hope you've enjoyed this girl, I really love the way she turned out.  Thanks so much for reading!

Custom Repaint: Stella, the Monster High CAM Ice Girl

The Ice and Blob Girl has been my favorite release in the Create a Monster series to date.  I really loved their translucent bodies and vinyl.  They are both among my favorite Monster High girls to repaint.

The wigs were even better, imo, with these girls than the previous releases.  I was a huge fan of the vinyl wigs, too, and I loved the fiber for this one in particular.  When boil straightened, they become so soft and feathery, perfect for texturing the look with a razor cut.

This girl arrived without her default hands, however.  She was part of one of the multipacks from Costco, so it's just a packaging fluke.  Luckily, I keep a stash of all kinds of different parts and gave her these awesome purple gloved hands as a replacement, since they match the outfit I wanted to use :).  The pegs for these hands are smaller than the wrist of the CAM girls,  since they were intended for a regular release Clawdeen.  I don't know why Mattel wouldn't just make them all the same, but who knows?  I adhered them with a bit of flexible E6000 and they still have their up and down motion as well as a bit of rotation when twisted gently.

Stella is available over in my Etsy shop.  Thanks for reading!

The Mushroom Girl: Kinoko Juice Kiki

A very, very long time ago when I was almost brand new to the idea of doll collecting I stumbled across one of the cutest, most stylistically sculpted dolls I'd seen so far.  Unfortunately, at the time, there was very little information about the doll, it took me a great deal of searching to even figure out what the name was, much less the maker.

Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that not only were these dolls sold exclusively in Japan, they were also hand made and sold in limited quantities at very high prices.  At the time, I gave up on ever finding one for sale in the US, much less being able to afford it on the secondhand market.

That little doll was Kinoko Juice Kiki and I'd wanted one for as long as I can even remember.  A few months back, I stumbled across a Japanese auction for a dirty, damaged, and long neglected Kiki.  I didn't care and I bid immediately, hoping like hell not to be outbid.  To my absolute disbelief I won!  Three weeks later, she arrived and I couldn't wait to get to work.

I did not take progress pictures, as there are certain proprietary aspects of the doll that I wouldn't want exposed to anyone looking to copy.  Specifically the unique, handmade eyes that a copy would not arrive with. 

She arrived with a laundry list of issues that needed to be fixed.  Her eyes, which cannot be replaced, let alone even found on a secondhand market, were my biggest issue.  The material was cracked in one eye, right through the iris.  I have no idea what the artist uses to make them, but I filled it in with UV cured resin to blend the distortion created by the crack.  I ended up with a barely visible line and a few air bubbles, but I am very happy with the result!

Her default faceup wasn't salvageable, so I repainted her as close to the original style as I could, with a few subtle changes.  Her headcap was also stained pretty badly.  When I sanded the stains away, I discovered that she had yellowed pretty badly.  So, I took a magic eraser to the rest of her body and she cleaned up surprisingly well.  One of the connections on her hand had been worn almost completely away (or it was broken and sanded, I couldn't really tell), so I had to resculpt the piece back up to fit into her wrist with epoxy.

Unfortunately, she didn't arrive with all of her extras.  Only one of the optional hands was included, but I don't mind a bit.  It's been almost impossible to find clothes and shoes that fit her, but YOSD fits pretty well, though a bit large.  The dress she's wearing in these photos was made by DollsAhoy and was intended to fit Blythe, that's how teeny she is.  Blythe pants, though, won't fit because she has much bigger hips and legs.  I had several pairs of the shoes she's wearing in different sizes (from trying to find something to fit Hujoo).  They're a bit long in the toe, since her feet are very round, but overall, it's as close as I think I'm gonna get.

I still haven't finished with her, but the process of working on her has been so fun.  Most of my BJD girls have arrived as 'damaged' or 'junk' items.  I really love restoring them back to their original glory <3.  I still have heads in storage that I've been working with on and off for a while that haven't been photographed, haha.

I'm so, so incredibly glad to have found one of these amazing little dolls.  She's definitely a grail of mine, if not THE grail.  Thanks for reading!

Tiffany Blue, Monster High Custom Rochelle Goyle Repaint

I've gone through a lot of 'favorite' colors over the years, but I have to say that 'Tiffany' blue has probably been the longest running obsession.  I've managed to incorporate it into almost all of my site graphics and logos, haha.  It's such a nice, bright color without being too overwhelming.  Rochelle is one of my favorite girls to repaint because of her hair color combination.   It's so cute, it's hard not to be inspired by this doll.  This particular girl is still available in my Etsy shop.

'Tiffany,' Custom Monster High Dance Class Rochelle Goyle Repaint

The Dance Class version of Rochelle is undoubtedly my favorite.  I love her bun hairstyle and the dance outfit she wears is just adorable (especially those shoes!).  This particular version was really fun to photograph, I tried out a lot of different ballet inspired poses with her.

I wound the strands framing her face around a few pipe cleaners with a bit of gel to give them a delicate curl, as though they'd fallen loose while practicing.  Her bangs were also trimmed and restyled. 

If I had one complaint about stock dolls, it's that bangs can turn out atrociously bad sometimes =_=;.  That and TINSEL.  Tinsel is the bane of my existence.  I still have quite a few girls waiting to be worked on, so keep your eyes peeled for new photos!

Dimensional Magic: Monster High Gil Webber Repaint

I finally had a chance to work on some long planned custom Monster High repaints this week.  A while back, I finally found the Target exclusive Dance Class five pack with Gil.  Gil is my favorite boy to repaint, I really love his sculpting and skintone.  It's just a shame that he's so hard to get my hands on!  This time around, I wanted to try out a couple of new techniques.

Custom Dance Class Gillington Webber, ~Sold

 If you take a closer look at this photo, you can see that the scales above his eyes are three dimensional!  This was achieved by using a special type of gloss varnish that dries with a raised finish.  It's called Dimensional Magic, by Mod Podge.  The formula applies a bit milky at first, but it dries crystal clear with a slight magnification property which really makes details pop.  You do have to be careful about air bubbles forming, however, but they're easily picked out with a dry paintbrush or popped with a toothpick.

 
I also treated all of his fins with the Dimensional Magic.  Untouched, the fins are cloudy and matte, but once the varnish was applied, it really brought out a wonderfully translucent, almost wet quality which I thought was perfect for Gil.  I really hope that some day he'll have a more widely available release, but for now I guess I'll just have to stick to getting lucky!

Lishe and Nina BJD Faceups for Rachel

With the sheer popularity of Monster High, these dolls are the ones I'm asked to work on 95% of the time.  I haven't met a doll I didn't want to paint, though!  A long time ago, I used to be an avid BJD collector (before I even knew communities and such existed) and would spend time painting my own dolls to get the hang of it.  They weren't the first dolls I ever painted, but, but they were close.

I'm always excited to work on BJD heads, it's a completely different process vinyl dolls and gives me a nice change of pace.  I painted this Fairyland Lishe and Luts Nina for Rachel recently as a commission and was very happy with how they turned out!

Custom Ever After High Raven Queen Repaint (And eBay Woes)

Hello there!  Hope everyone's having a good week :).

This time, I'm taking a little more in depth look at my latest repaint, Raven Queen from Ever After High.

           Before                                                                         After           

I am still enjoying working on these dolls very much.  Now that I've completed the current releases in their default hair and clothing, I'd like to branch out with complete custom versions :).  I wanted Raven to have a heavy lidded look with sultry, smoky eyes and dark coloration.  I still believe Mattel missed the mark when it came to designing the default makeup for these girls.  Their eyes are much too small for such round, large faces.

She looked like this for a while, due to some unforeseen sick/pain days ;_;.

Clawdeen, Raven, Maddie, Cleo with base colors.

If it's appeared that my last couple eBay auctions have been wonky, it's because they have =_=.  I'm working on transitioning all of my custom doll listings to Etsy because frankly, I'm being eaten alive by eBay fees.    I post custom availability pretty much everywhere, though, so you should always be in the know of where they're listed :).

Custom Repainted Monster High Cleo de Nile and Ever After High Madeline Hatter

I finally got around to finishing my Madeline Hatter repaint!  It took a bit longer than usual because I had a specific look in mind for her :3.  I wanted it to be just right!  This repaint is currently available for bid or purchase on eBay here: Maddie's Auction

Maddie <3

Everything about this girl is just perfect for me :).  I'm in love with pastel colors lately (who isn't, right?).  I wanted her to have large, sweet, and curious eyes.  I kept the rest of her makeup color palette very soft, with pastel hues.

Maddie's doll is unique in one aspect that I failed to mention in my earlier review:  She's very tiny!  She's a full head shorter than the other girls in her line and I find that absolutely adorable.  Even in the Monster High line, the majority of the girls are the same height (save for Nefera, Howleen, and Twyla, but they are older and younger than the main cast).  I would have loved for Draculaura to have a height more representative of her character on the show.

Up next is a custom I created of Skull Shores Cleo de Nile, which I nicknamed Aria.  She's already been snapped up on the 'bay, but I wanted to go into a bit more detail because this is my favorite version of her that I've worked on so far.

Custom Repainted Skull Shores Cleo de Nile

First of all:  THERE'S NO !@#$%$ING TINSEL.  I absolutely loathe the type of tinsel Mattel uses for her hair (and Nefera's), it always becomes separated from the thread and ends up looking stringy and gross.  It's also a complete pain to sit there and remove each strand.  Why they couldn't just use the type of tinsel they root in Abbey's hair is beyond me.

All of the other girls in this line have some kind of skimpy bathing suit with a skirt type or pullover coverup.  I love Cleo the most because of her fabulous palazzo pants.  You don't need a skirt and a tiny bathing suit to look fierce :).

Ever After High Madeline Hatter and Raven Queen Review

It should come as absolutely no surprise that I'm a gigantic fan of all things frilly, floofy, and sparkly.  I fell hard for the Ever After High concept and watched their news like a hawk; anticipation doesn't even begin to describe how I felt.  I needed these dolls!  Briar Rose and Apple White, which have already been repainted and rehomed, were my first taste of this line and I was dying for more.

Maddie and Raven

I may be a little late to the game as far as reviewing goes, these girls have been out for a few weeks now.  However, I wanted to expand on the idea from the point of view of a repaint artist, and point out specifically the advantages and disadvantages of customization later on in this post.

The bottom line is that these playline girls rival the quality and costuming of limited collector dolls that fetch many times their price point.  Other than Monster High, I can't think of a single line that even comes close to approaching the detail and design of these girls.

Madeline Hatter has been the girl I was frothing at the mouth over.  Her pastel hair and brightly colored dress were absolutely irresistable!

She's also very tiny compared to the other girls in this series, which is just ridiculously adorable.  I'm a short gal myself, so consider me biased.  The tiny gold flourishes and little painted gloves with cuffs absolutely make me squee.

Raven Queen, on the other hand, is not having any of your shenanigans.  The feathery details of her collar are even antiqued and shaded.   The iridescent sheen to her bodice is very pretty in the light, I love how it changes colors against the black undertones.

Each doll comes with incredibly detailed accessories.  Their rings, however, are loose and very easy to lose (say, if you snip the elastic off when it's not completely unwrapped and it sends the miniscule bauble rocketing across your studio; not that I have personal experience of crawling around for twenty minutes on my hands and knees or anything...).  Their shoes, clothing, and jewelry are just flawless.  They're incredibly well made for playline dolls.  In regards to their predecessor, Monster High, the bodies are much thicker.  Esthetically, I prefer this look, it's more realistic to me, while still maintaining a 'super deformed' cuteness.

As for customization, I absolutely love their face molds.  While these dolls do use the same mold for each girl, their faces are wide, with large set eye areas and pretty, defined lips underneath that pre-shaped eye and lip color.

 Apple White and Briar Rose, makeup removed.

As you can see from the above photos, their eye and lip areas are much larger than the painted shapes suggest.  Also, their eye shapes are not defined as harshly as most Monster High girls, leaving much more room for artistic liberties.  This means that underneath those decals, there's a wonderful canvas for customization!

 Apple and Briar, repainted!

I enjoyed customizing these girls very, very much.  They are extremely versatile, regardless of having the same mold.  With that being said, I'm off to start work on Maddie and Raven and I can't wait to show you the results ❤!