Making Aspen the Dryad, part 2

This is a kind of post-dated post. A lot's been happening in my life and I've gone Pro as an artist so things have been rather hectic for 2017! But I did finish Aspen and she's such fun to play with!
Here's how it went.

After my thumb healed I was able to finally do her blushing. I went for a very simple and dramatic faceup, with greys and browns. He skin has been painted and blushed, with those little marks on it that birches and aspens get. I made those dimensional by using a little grainy acrylic texturing gel.

Then it was just a question of popping her wig on... and she was done! She's a ton of fun to photograph and her body takes some getting used to in the posing department but I love her expression.

I probably won't bother making clothes for her. Trees don't wear clothes! With Autumn coming up, I will need to finish her other wig- the golden Aspen in full glory!

PSA- why you NEED a proper respirator when spraying Sealants or paints.

Dear friends, Let me show you guys why respirators are VITAL no matter what you are spraying.

I have a shop where I do my spraying work. It has a filter and a fan that sucks the air out of the spray chamber, filtering as it goes.




This is a few sprays of a paint onto some doll parts. You see that square in the wall? That is the filter. It was white when I started this. That is what was pulled out of the air while I sprayed, the can was never aimed at the filter. 

That's what ends up in your lungs when you inhale aerosols. it just shows up here because I was using a paint which has a strong color.

Please, PLEASE use a properly fitted and rated respirator. You only get one set of lungs.

Amadi gets Aesthetics

Remember my Simply Divine Harlequin, cast for me in Cinnamon? I showed you pics when he arrived, and I put him onto a Pale Tan Dollstown 18 male body. The combo is beautiful. Such amazing artistry in both sculpts and the styles complement each other perfectly!

So I finally found some days in late summer that weren't humid...Sort of. The American Rockies are really dry year round, but get thunderstorms out of nowhere in the afternoons of August. Humidity can really ruin your day when you're spraying aerosols, especially any kind of sealant. It can really cause problems working on Tan resin, because if humidity causes the sealant to lighten at all, it shows up amazingly well against the darker color of the resin.

The first time I tried to seal the body for blushing, I was using Citadel Purity Seal, and I did not know that outside my shop, a humid front was moving in ahead of some clouds while I worked. Rocky Mountain storms are notorious for stealing a march on you. They can come out of nowhere in less than a couple of hours. I am a Native Californian, and still not used to this! You'd think living here in the Rockies for four, almost five years now would have taught me to never trust the radically changeable weather. I need to check outside every hour or so when I work with Sealants in the Rockies. I know this now. I learned it the hard way when the Citadel clouded up on me. It looked like powdered sugar sprayed across the resin. I ended up having to scrub it off the resin.

That took me the help of another doll-hobbyist, many ounces of Windsor-Newton Brush Cleaner, and several DAYS of hard, hard scrubbing. Citadel does not let go in a hurry. Be warned. Ugh. It does Not like humidity At All, and will not be removed without a fight.

So when I came back to try sealing this doll again, I brought back my old favorite, Testor's Model Master Flat lacquer. It's comparatively cheap, it comes in adorable little bitty cans, it was the first faceup sealant I ever used, and it hasn't failed me yet! It also seems to tolerate a smidgen of humidity better than Citadel did, 'cuz I used to use this stuff in a coastal California town, and it has to be practically raining outside for humidity to affect it.

After a wall of text like that, you didn't think I'd leave you without pics, did you? Here he is!

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

Mod Project- Minifee Muscular Girl, Part III

 Doll Nudity Ahoy! NSFW.



This is part III of a project. 
Part II is here. 
Part I is here.

Now that I have moved into a place with a yard, I can spray sealant whenever the weather permits. This let me get on with my Minifee mod project.

(Good News: Gradually I will be moving my studio operations here to my home, and when I have an In-House studio I get a LOT more work done.)

 I was able to blush Moira and give her the scars appropriate to someone who fights. I got her a head set at last, and those got faceupped to match. She is a Minifee Mirwen sculpt. (In this pic her chest piece looks like it really doesn't match the rest of her, but that's an optical illusion- only her bust does not match, and it'll be under clothes.)

 Here's a close look at that faceup and her hand with all the little scars and nicks on it.
The only thing I've left undone is to give a touch of satin gloss to her fingernails and lips, and that's because I don't have gloss here. I'll have to fetch it from my downtown studio.

 Here's the full effect of head finally on shoulders! I am so excited to finally have her in one piece! I was worried the head wouldn't match the dynamism of the body, but I think the Mirwen sculpt's strong brows and resolute expression make it work.
(Yes, I know her breasts don't match the resin- I got it as close as I could, and gave her a hint of nipples so she wouldn't look too weird to me, but she's never gonna be in shoots fully topless so it doesn't matter that the paint is not perfect.)

 Here's how she looks so far! I've made her a burnt orange tunic and these little cropped short pants. I tried to make her some shoes but I am not happy with the results yet. Besides, she needs boots. I'll have to make them myself because no one sells what I want her to wear. Sigh, story of almost all my dolly wardrobes. I think this here is what she'd wear while she's working out- just pants and her 'bra' top.

Annnnnd that's as far as we've gotten! I got her sword from eb@y, if anyone is looking for similar.

So far she lacks eyes and wig, but there's a Doll Fair coming to my area soon, and while it's mostly traditional vinyl and china dollies, in the last few years there have been a few people selling BJD things and supplies as well. I'll take her to the Doll Fair with me and get her some eyes and hair. I love the thought of being able to try wigs on her before I buy them. Some looks will just not work for her. I am imagining her with probably brown hair, but we'll see.


Update!

 I made these shoes a few years back for my Medieval Reenactment hobby, and I wear them all the time for comfort. Since they are quite simple in structure, I opted to duplicate them for Moira to have some casual footwear. (*history soapbox* These are often called Ghillie Brogues or "bog" shoes, and are a very simple shoe of a type worn in many parts of Northwestern Europe, from the early Dark Ages all the way into the mid- and even late- Medieval period.)

 Here they are on her feet. I took Moira with me to a local Doll Fair to get her a wig and some eyes, and our matching shoes amused several people.

And here she is! I did not expect her to end up with this hairstyle but I tried the wig on her and it was just right. It's a Monique "Alexis", and I think it's a 6-7, snug fit. It needs some product on it to smooth flyaways but I do like it. Her eyes are glass 12mm Greens of an unknown brand, I think the dealer said something like "Anna Tina"?


 

 That completes her modification! Someday I'll do another Project post set when I make her some armor.

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.)

Waiting for Dolly Weather

I used to live in Southern California, and I never realized until moving to the Rocky Mountains how much I took the frequently nice weather for granted. What, you ask, does this have to do with Ball Jointed Dolls? I shall tell you.

To paint/blush a bjd, you need nice dry weather so that the spray sealant can be used without clouding up or flaking once it's dry. The Rockies have lots of that dry weather, right? In theory.

Yes, it's usually drier than the back of the AA Wagon up here. You can dehydrate things just by leaving them out on a plate for a few hours. I have to buy body lotion as a necessity, like soap and shampoo... BUT the factor that slows me down is that stuff won't quit falling from the sky!





When I got here in late Winter it was snowing, and I knew that would clear up come Spring, so I waited, took pics of the dollies in the snow, and enjoyed the stuff. I never had snow around when I was a kid, so I think it's pretty fun. Now that it's supposed to be Spring, and the temperature is over 50 F outside, so I can go out without freezing- Yes, I'm a Southern Californian- it's quit snowing and started raining... and raining... and raining. People up here call this climate a desert. I call Shenanigans. I'm from SoCal. I know deserts. A desert never has rainfall 5 days out of 7 for nearly 2 months straight. A desert never has steady flooding and dams being stressed and reservoirs filling. "Desert", my little pink foot. Hah.

When it's raining, I cannot go outside to do resin sanding and carving. (Which needs to be done outside, equipped with a respirator, as the resin dust is messy and bad for you) I can't spray any sealant, since with all the moisture currently in the air outdoors, the sealant will cloud and ruin my blushing job. It's dry as ever indoors but you can't use the sealant indoors, obviously- Fumes.

The only thing to do, it seems, is sit back, do dolly sewing and take photos, and wait for the rain to stop and Summer to come.