Aneirin- Saint to Monster, part VI

This is part 6 of a series.  (Other posts may contain Anatomically Correct Doll Nudity.)
Part 5
Part 4
Part 3
Part 2
Part 1

Well, it's been a long haul, and the most intensive modification I've ever done, but he's pretty much finished.

 I went back and did more contouring to his faceup, and an absurd number of coats of Tamiya spray enamel to the lengthening mod I did on his neck. He has two pairs of ears so far, the Shy/Sad/Sleepy ears, shown above, and his regular Upright ears. I mean to make a few more pairs, but those will be further projects. These are his minimum needed ears. (not a phrase I ever anticipated typing...)

 Here is his full body glory! (but this was before I added color to his nipples. Oops.) I may be adding more color to his claws on his feet, since they don't photograph like I blushed them. He does stand on his own pretty well.

 

Here he is all finished up and wearing his little raggedy kilt wrap. People on Den of Angels commented that he looks confused about being indoors. he does look quite baffled by walls and carpet, when his preferred home is a forest. I can't wait to get him outdoors for some photoshoots.

Thanks for following along! I really appreciate everyone who's been following this whole long escapade! 

Aneirin- Saint to Monster, part V

It's been a long term project, but we're almost there!

 (This post and the links below are likely to contain Anatomically Correct Doll Nudity- NSFW or for especially shy people) 


This is part 5 of an ongoing project.
See Part 4
See Part 3
See Part 2
See Part 1

I've been very busy but I've had snippets of time here and there to work on my dolls as art therapy against depression. It helps. 

Here's what Aneirin's leggies look like now!

They've been  bulked up with Apoxie Sculpt, sealed, and sprayed with Tamiya paints. His hip sockets, which were prone in testing to chipping, have been sueded with actual leather pliver suede. This helps him to stand pretty well by himself.

Next he'll need body blushing. I was gonna do some of that today but the weather turned out too cold.

I also made him a raggedy lil' skirt cloth thing to wear. He's not big into bothering about his clothes.

I remade his wig, because the poofiness was bothering me. This time I made a "hard" style cap and applied the little yarn dredlocks to that.

His new hairstyle is a lot of dreds with the top half of them tied back. I also started his faceup in this shot. Just some basic contouring and color. His ears will get done when I do his body blushing. He looks weird without his eyebrows. So:

All that's left to do is a few more touchups and then to get this boy body-blushed!

Next part! 

Part VI

Tiarnach- Melancholy

Tiarnach is a Soom Chrom head on a Granado Nuevo body,

and he's surprisingly good at looking melancholic.

Aesthetics by me.

"I aten't Dead". Dolly Plans as they stand now.

So I've been off this blog while the school year kicks my butt. So much has happened this 2014 that it's hard to fit it all in. I will now attempt to anyway.

Personal news:
I have moved to a House, and my downtown art studio is being moved to my home. Now I'll have a room for dollies sewing and photography, and an outdoor studio for sculpting, modding, armoring, leatherwork, woodwork, casting, prop making and other messy pursuits. There will even be a ventilated Spray Booth for Safe Faceups in any weather! Right now I have the indoor Craft Room half set up, and it's been SO much easier to do things in there.

In June, I finally figured out what's been so wrong with my health, probably for years now. I am diagnosed Non-Celiac Gluten Intolerant. Making the change to eating totally Gluten Free has been a daunting, life altering shift ,and I've been taking it pretty hard, but I'll adjust eventually. I am trying to find a balance that will work for me, with ways to make vegetables my number one food pyramind base when I hate them so much. Uck.

Dolly News:
Some dolls have been let go, and some new faces have come along!
Sir Malcom, an Iplehouse SID hybrid from the Court group, and Fiachra, a Nobility doll hybrid, have both been sold on. Their characters are not fleshed out enough to justify me keeping such a huge bulk of costly resin around.
I posted my work on Moira, my new FL Minifee Mirwen mod, earlier this year.

 I have also acquired a longtime Grail dream, a ResinSoul Ju head on a Soom Adamelli/Shale body with clear "crystal" hooves.

 Isn't she darling? I made her a wig after a few false tries. Somehow the braids  kinda make it. I've always loved the Ju sculpt. I had to blush her to match her snowy RS resin to Soom's ivory, so I hope her head will mellow out soon and make that color match a bit easier. Maybe I can put her head under a UV lamp to hurry it along. I've done that with other resin- doesn't harm it a bit.

This is Jules! He and his gal-pal Freckles have come to live with me! They are sharing a Pukifee body. I finally have every body size of FL tinies, so I can craft reliably for each of them! Jules is a Juri '11 Multihead, and Freckles is a Zio Multihead faceplate set (Not shown, obv.)

Dolly Plans:

Remember this guy? Aneirin is my Dollshe Saint frankendolly mod, and I am so excited about finishing my outdoor Studio because I will finally get to really get busy with sculpting and modding in a work environment designed for that! I want to finish Aneirin so badly. He and a few other half done mods that really needed the right facilities will finally get my attention.

Sculpting! 

All I can say is those of you who have been wishing there were more >Size 0-2 dolls available out there... Well, start saving your pennies because I have planz.

Things the doll hobby does not have much of: Dress size 14-16 Ladies, in SD or MSD size. Men who have any body fat whatsoever- I don't mean obese, I mean not-shredded or lean. Mature faces. Mature MSD faces.  All in skintones from white to pink to tan to black, heads separately available from bodies, multiple hand options, multiple bust options, possibly even multiple limb options.

If those things interest you, watch this blog.

If, on the other hand, you are a recaster (thief) or recast supporter (buyer from thieves), get lost. You are not welcome here until you quit giving thieves money for stealing.

The White Faun- experiments with Angelina Fibers

This is my Soom Adamelli, an MSD sized doll with clear resin hooves. She doesn't have a head yet but I'm awaiting a Resinsoul Ju head with long elfy ears. She's going to be a pale forest fae, ethereal and feminine.

 I'm experimenting with making her clothes, after failing to find anything for sale that would work for her. This garment was made with Angelina hot fuse fibers. I will try again once I get more fiber, but this is a cool looking start, I thought.

So far she has no name.

Not Ded. And some New Stuff.

So... whatever it was I was sick with was mostly brought on by a stress reaction. Hopefully if I take things easy and work on being calmer I can recover. I'm doing much better now, so I've been able to work more on Dolly Things, hence we have Updates!

Tiarnach (my Soom Chrom/Granado Nuevo body hybrid Elf Prince) is finally Blushed and Faceupped! (Yes, that's a word now.) The resin match of Granado's Pinky NS to this Soom NS is pretty good, blushably close. (There's another new word I may use again- Blushably.)

Aneirin - Saint to Monster, Part IV

  (This post and the links below are likely to contain Anatomically Correct Doll Nudity- NSFW or for especially shy people)
This is part 4 of an ongoing project.
See Part 3
See Part 2
See Part 1

I've picked up with this project again, so there'll be more added to this post over the next few weeks as I update.

I got the right paints to go over my modifications, and I've been sanding the mod work carefully, so this evening I put on my mask and did some spraying. The grey is a surprisingly close shade to match the grey resin. Blushing will even it out. The off-white is called Racing White, but it seems to have gone on sort of... glossy, so I'll be trying another lighter coat later. I've also been doing some adding bulk to the thigh parts.

Update, Oct 20

Here's a shot of the built up thighs, in the rough stages:

On to Part 5!

Aneirin- Saint to Monster: Part III

As of April 2013 (just posting this here now!)

This is part III of an ongoing project.
See Part II.
See Part I.



Post contains Anatomically Correct Doll Nudity

Been working on Aneirin's wig. Felt cap, fancy yarn, hand-stitched a loop at a time to the cap. Certain yarns give the effect of messy dredlocks.

Practice shots with those ears of his...

I also worked on adding some better locks to his joints so that he'll be able to stand unaided. Balance is pretty tricky on them big ol' legs.

This is a pre-existing lock at the knee joint, but those little points were not high enough for the fit I wanted, so I added to it.

I built these ridges on the fronts of the hip parts to stop him pitching forward when he's standing. They will get sanded and smoothed like the rest of everything I've modded.

  I obtained Soom wrist parts for long fingered Soom hands! He won't be using his default Little Monica hands that came from that company with his body. They're cute, but hardly right for him.

I have dyed his pinky white Little Monica body parts, so that they now match the more greeny-yellow Dollshe and Soom parts. I used a bit of Rit Liquid Lemon Yellow and a lot of Rit Liquid Apple Green. He's still WS, just a different tone now. Here's an undyed LM hand in pinky white against the newly dyed midsection.

So now the white resin all matches, with one ironic exception- The neck and chest part. It's the right tone but not quite deep enough to match the head, so it'll get some blushing to make it match perfectly.

Advance to Part 4!

Aneirin- Saint to Monster, Part II

This is Part II of an ongoing Mod Project.
See Part I

Update! 4/12

Had a stressful month so far, and having this project to work on is good therapy.

Here's an example of the progress on the ears. They start out rough (Left) but I can get them to look smoothly sculpted by sanding them (Right). Later they'll get smoothed even more.


To get the proportions I want, I am shortening the calf section of the legs by a considerable amount.

Each leg piece gets a section cut out of it in the middle.

I am saving the original socket so that it will still fit on top of the foot part. I've joined the pieces back together after taking that middle section out.

The joined sections have to be smoothed out inside so that stringing won't get caught on it.


Then the outside of the joined parts have to be smoothed over too.

I tinted some white Apoxie Sculpt with acrylic paint to get it roughly the shade of the grey resin. That'll make it much easier to blush over and smooth into a nice finish later. (The top one hasn't had Apoxie yet, the bottom one shown has) The Apoxie cements the joined bits and makes them look like they're supposed to be this shape and size. Once it cures, I'll be able to sand it so that it looks much better.


Work also progresses slowly on the knee joints, but there's nothing much worth photographing just yet.

More later!

Update, 2/13

Today I drilled the holes into the headback for magnets and glued them in. They may get a very thin layer of Apoxie and then paint over them.

I'm also still refining the ears, but they got drilled for magnets today too.

I've been sanding and cleaning up the reconstructed legs and still working on the knees. The thighs also need added bulk next.


Update 2/15

I did a test stringing today. It might be a while before I am able to work on him, or it might not, but before I get much further I needed to see how his weight sit on his joints.

Good thing I did, too, because he still can't stand by himself yet. I think some adjustments and tighter stringing will fix the problems easily though. He's starting to look like himself.

He can do the Soom Crouching Pose at least. He's a long way from done but he's showing promise at last.

More in Part III.

Aneirin- Saint to Monster. Work in Progress

(Post contains Anatomically Correct Doll Nudity)


I finally got my Grail Dollshe Saint heads... and then had no idea what to do with them. No character concept I tried would fit, so I thought maybe I should Mod Them. I did a sketch of the head with big wide ears, and suddenly a concept and a character just sort of dropped on me, demanding to be shelled as a doll. So here he is, and boy, is this gonna take work.


(Yes, that's my actual handwriting. Yes, I am a grown woman. -_-;; This is why I type.)

Aneirin is this monster critter who lurks through the forest by night and strangles his prey with his long strong fingers. He's kind of a bogeyman, frankly. He has pale skin, possibly matted dreds for hair, and wide faun-like ears, but no horns or tail. He's got big gargoyle feet.
I have seen one doll hybrid somewhere that was vaguely similar in shape to this, which is probably where my subconscious pulled the idea of the general silhouette, but this doll will look nothing like that one, trust me.

I'll be using a set of Saint heads, probably some Soom Monthly hands, and Soom Monzo feet. I'd always loved Monzo feet but never had an excuse to own any. I found a body- Little Monica Harmony A type, which has beautiful musculature and jointing that I like. I plan to make several changeable sets of magnetic ears for this guy so he can show his moods.

Steps:
Acquire parts- waiting for the hands

Body
-Sand all seams- Working on these as I go.
-Carve new knees to fit Soom Monzo Legs- partway done
-Alter wrists as needed to fit Soom hands- Not needed, got the right wrists.
-Mobility mods on LM body?
-Apoxie: Lengthen neck a smidgen.- Done
-Apoxie: Modify legs a bit- Done
-Apoxie: build up thighs to have more muscle and bulk
-Apoxie: possibly build up arms, etc for more muscle definition?- Nah.

Heads
- cut and sand off regular ears- Done!
-drill holes for rare earth magnets-Done!
- glue in magnets and cover them and smooth the area
-sculpt sets of monster ears - Partly Done
-drill ears to hold magnets, and glue magnets into ears so they work with head magnets- Done!
-cover and smooth magnet holes on the ears.

Aesthetics
-cover all mods, smoothing, sanding and painting.
-Sueding- always a Must. Wiring arms.
-body blushing, blending grey legs with pale body
- faceups
-make the wig


Update 1/11



I have finally combined the head with the body. It is a lovely sculpt. I think I'll be adding a bit of height to the neck just to give him a more inhuman and elegant shape. He is a bit on the bobblier side than what I prefer, but adding neck length will help that, and he's not human anyhow. Edit: I am getting different heads for this, in White Skin, but the same Saint.

Testing out the fibers I will be making his wig from- I like the greens and blues against his copper eyes.

Update, 1/16

Got the legs! Here they are, and I will be getting fancy on the knees here to make this combo work.



As you can see, the LM body has knees designed almost exactly opposite to the Soom grey legs I want to use, so I'll be more or less making entirely new knees. The angle will need to be set carefully so that the doll maintains a good center of balance over these digitigrade feet, but I think it can be done. I'll be cutting the LM leg a little higher up, where the width of the LM thigh matches the Soom leg better.

I am altering my mod list of steps up there at the top of this first post accordingly as I figure out each of the steps this project will take. Stay tuned!

Update 1/21
I have figured out a few things, so for the next while I'll be working on the body until I get the rest sorted, and believe me it will take some work!

Here's a ridiculous but useful shot of how the torso looked before I started to do anything to it.


Then today I worked on defining the muscle a little bit more, particularly underneath the pecs.


Those of you who are shy of body parts, avert your eyes please...

The Little Monica body is nicely sculpted, but it had a pitiful representation of what ought to have been anatomical bits, so I am attempting to give him a bit more dignity and realism. I've never understood why a sculptor can include the nuances of musculature, and then stick on an oval dot and call it genitals. I don't care what size they make them but the attempt should be made to get them to resemble actual parts.

I carved the knees away from the thighs to give them the right proportion of length to the grey lower legs, but as I compare them to the lower legs, I think I am going to use Apoxie Sculpt to form the new joints. Then I'll be adding bulk to the thighs, in the style of Soom's Chalco legs.

More to come, of course. When, I am not sure.




Update February 8th.

I've done some work on the Saint head and faceplate set, and started the rough sculpt of the monster ears. The original ears got sawed off neatly.

Here's a shot of the faceplates, de-eared and smoothed out. The sawing took moments, the sanding took hoooooooours. Uf.

This is the neutral-pose set of ears, made out of Sculpey polymer clay. They need refining and sanding of course, but this is the rough shape. Eventually they'll be much smoother and sleeker.

Updates continue in Part II!

About Tiarnach

Tiarnach
Click on the "About" Label for more of my characters and info about the dolls that portray them!

Tiarnach is one of my Court of Dun Elisedd group, but he's an unfinished doll currently in need of a better version of his faceup.

Company and sculpt: SOOM Chrom head/ Granado Nuevo NS body
Height: 65 cm?
Resin colour: NS
Modifications: Hybrid.
Faceup: Me
Eyes: Custom by Shelley
Wig: Mohair shown, made by me.

Name (and nicknames): Tiarnach, Prince of the Wildwood, Lord of Shadows, The Blood-Drinker.
Age: ancient.
Birthday: unknown
Family and/or relationships: He is madly, obsessively in love with Siofra. He only wants her, she wants whoever she fancies today. This causes him no end of angst and frustration.

Occupation: Dark ruler of the night? Harassing these upstart Men and their petty Kings and Lords who think to tame the land, etc.
Pets: A young monster he keeps collared by magic.

Personality: Vindictive, jealous, clever, possessive, malicious, passionate, poetic, observant.
Hobbies: Frightening Men, drinking blood, working dark magic, lurking through the night looking for fools who don't have the sense to stay by a fire and bar their doors.

Likes:  Other people's fear, old forests, dark places, windy nights, etc.
Dislikes: Cold iron and steel, whoever Siofra is flirting with, people who show him no respect, the New Religions brought here by men that teach them not to be afraid and not to pay worship to the dark.

Other/misc. Tiarnach is one of the fae, Prince of the Wildwood, and means to make sure these mortals know it. He wants a return to the days of fear in the dark.

The King's Wolf

from the Court of Dun Elisedd storyline...

His Royal Majesty Lir and Kevya the Wolf, his servant.

About Lir

Prince Lir


Company and sculpt: SOOM Lupin
Height: 63cm
Resin colour: NS
Modifications: Shortened neck
Faceup: Me
Eyes: Masterpiece Afghan 13mm
Wig: wool roving, made by Me

Name (and nicknames): Lir (the doll itself is known occasionally as Mister Scruffy)
Age: 23
Birthday: in the Autumn
Family and/or relationships: Father: Gahaeris (dcs.), Mother: Elaine (dcs.), Brother: Cai (dcs.), Sister: Elinore
Pets: A raven named Scratch
Personality: Calm, curious, mild, compassionate, soft spoken, introspective, capable of being brave
Hobbies: wandering, reading, studying histories and records,
Likes: Time alone or with close friends, long journeys, riddles and mysteries, books, his family
Dislikes: shallowness, rudeness, useless noise, flattery, cruelty
Other/misc. facts: Believer in lost causes, likes the Lady Rowena very much.
The scar on one side of his jaw was not given by some sworn enemy's cursed blade- it's the result of a fledgling Scratch the Raven trying to peck at Lir's eye. That's how Scratch got his name.
He calls his sister Elinore the pet name "Linnet Bird".

Short bio: He left his castle home, going out alone as he often did, but this time he stayed away for two years, chasing rumors of a hidden record, an ancient text. He found it, and followed the advice of a blind poet to sail to an island ruled by a cruel lord, where he rescued a slave who could read the words written in the book. Then he journeyed home, hastened on his way by rumors of war in his father's kingdom. Nothing could have prepared him for what he would find on his arrival.

About the Doll:
Lir is a sculpt called Lupin from a company called Soom, based in South Korea. Like most Ball Jointed Dolls, he was handcast in polyurethane resin from molds taken from an original artist's sculpt.

Lir was the very first BJD I ordered, and I found him by hunting through websites for a masculine yet young and handsome face on a sculpt. I didn't want another anime-faced "bishounen". (That's Japan-Fan talk for Pretty Young Man, usually quite androgynous and effeminate) Stylized Beauty has its appeals, but I prefer a certain amount of realism in faces, and manliness in men. I wanted to make dolls that were a bit different.

He's had that extra long Soom Super Gem neck shortened to give him the proportions I wanted him to have. The Super Gem body that Soom makes for their 63 cm male dolls is lean but muscular, a beautiful sculpt if not the very best at posing. He stands very well, even unsupported. I got him with the exquisite jointed hands Soom makes, and they are incredibly gorgeous in expressiveness and engineering. I can't imagine this doll without them, because they do allow him such a great emotive range, and he's an emotional sort of character.

When he arrived he looked like this:

Those incredible eyes of his are Masterpiece Eyes, in the color "Afghan". The faceup (BJD Hobby Talk for his face painting) is the faceup that I ordered him with, because at the time I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to do faceups myself. It was very nice, admittedly, but I decided I wanted eventually to do my own faceups, so later I repainted his face myself.
His wig I made by building a felt wigcap in the shape of the hairline I wanted, then gluing dabs of wool roving onto it a little bit at a time. Eventually he'll get a custom fiber wig that will be in roughly this same style.


This is how his face looks now. I did this faceup myself. Eventually I may redo it yet again, but this is good for now. He's wearing the same eyes as before, but this shot doesn't catch all their colors as well as that other one. The bird there on his shoulder is supposed to be his pet raven, Scratch. He's dressed in his rough traveling clothes.
I haven't done a shoot with him in a while, and I owe him one as soon as I finish his new courtly clothes.