Muse mockup

 

Ignore the odd angle on the hair compared to the face. I just wanted to see if it could work. I do think that this might actually work better than the Saka head, because it will be larger and a bit more mature. I already have a modded Shinydoll Thaasa body I can steal for the head (if I get the head separately). 

I actually just went searching for height comparisons between Shinydoll and Zaoll, only to realize I have access to both in person and had actually answered a request for that comparison myself at one point. XD 

After seeing my own results, I do think ideally I would like the Zaoll body at some point. I'd need to mod it, but almost all of the bodies that all of my iterations of Aura use are modded girl bodies (he's much more soft and androgynous than most male bodies I can find are). 

--

Going to attempt to redo or modify mini Aura's faceup later. I'm a bit intimidated because I have not been having great luck with using the 70% alcohol for faceup wiping, and I cannot find 90% anywhere...

more clothing stuff and a possible new doll project

 I decided to try redoing the robes for mini Aura's outfit. The red felt too overpowering, so I decided I'd try it in white. I have a moderate to severe fascination with brocades, so it is not a solid white (like perhaps it should have been).

He is super not-photogenic right now. I'm hoping the wig and eyelashes help, but I may have to give the face up another go. The outfit is pretty much done though. Except now I'm debating if the collar/tabard needs to be another color to stand out more. Or maybe have a border color. 

I think I also need to stop attempting blonde eyebrows. They just don't photograph well, and poor Aura looks like a ghost. 

I'm really excited for him to get a proper wig, though. I think that will help a lot. 

In other news, I've decided I want dolls for Aurelien (my FFXIV version of Aura, who has developed into his own character) and Varis. In order to get the height difference correct, Varis probably needs to be like 75cm and Aure needs to be like 50cm. 

After searching for a couple days, I mocked up a potential faceup on Souldolls' Saka. 

I'm still debating on if he looks tooooo young. But I think it could work? The other strong contender was Zaoll Muse.

Here is an image of what I have drawn him looking like. ^  

Perhaps I'll test a mock faceup on Muse tomorrow to see if that looks closer. My last resort is making an attempt at modding/sculpting/3d modeling something that is closer to how he looks. That is the route I will likely go for Varis since I have not been able to find something that I feel works right for him.

an attempt at mini Aura's clothes

 I'm pretty bad at getting dolls, giving them a face up and getting them their proper hair and then letting them sit around in half-done clothes for all eternity. I have a few with proper outfits, but they're usually the ones where I was able to find something for sale that matched what I was going for. If I have to make something, there are about 1 of 3 ways it tends to go: 

1) I am too intimidated by the very idea to even get started. 

2) I make an attempt and end up hating it. 

3) I get a couple parts of the outfit done and run out of steam. 

Part of the problem is that I design things that are way beyond my skill level, so when I decided to make clothes for teen Aura, I set about designing something a little more simple. 

It's already a bit of a struggle to sew in 1/3 scale, but I figured it was worth a shot. I actually made patterns for once. I'm really bad about just eyeballing something and winging it with my sewing. 

Anyway, I wasn't careful enough to make muslin prototypes or anything, but I did try to be careful about my measurements and sew slowly. And it's not perfect, but here is what I have so far: 

 And here is a detail shot of the middle part: 

I'll probably redo the collar/tabard part because that part I did not measure and I ended up with some frayed edges because I didn't leave enough seam allowance. Other than that, it came out reasonably well, I think. There were a few parts I had to sew by hand, because they were just too small for me to feel confident doing them on the machine. 

I'm also considering doing the outer robe layer in another color, because I'm not sure about it. But we shall see. Thinking about maybe swapping to a white main robe and red accents. 

It is also a possibility that I'll be happier with this ensemble once he has proper hair. 

I still need to finish the edges on the red robe. I'm not sure if I want some trim on that or not, so I'm leaving it for now. It doesn't seem to be in any rush to fray, so that's good at least. 

Since I actually made a pattern for this, I'll likely do something similar in a different color scheme when I get a body for teen Cail.

Body Mods

It's been a very long time and I've started doing some stuff again. 

Can't recall if I mentioned this but I decided a long long time ago that MyDolling Heeah would be a great teen Aura but they didn't sell the heads separately. And then when they did their discontinuation sale they did sell them separately so I grabbed two so I could make Aura and Cail. 

 I got my skin tones confused and ordered them in a light tan instead of what I thought would be the more translucent resin, so I was a bit frustrated and put them in the head cabinet for years. 

 And then a couple weeks ago I threw one of the heads on my Dollzone Annie's body to test the fit and gave mini Aura a faceup. 

 

I went searching for a body I would like for him and ended up rather impulsively deciding that the Unoa Elder body was what I wanted. So I acquired an Unoa Elder Belia. It's been a long time since I've seen my Unoa Xyle's neck joint so I forgot that they had WACKY necks that don't work like normal bjd necks, so I was struggling for a few days with what to do. 

I wasn't sure I wanted to mod the neck because if this plan didn't work out I'd have messed up the body. And I also didn't want the Belia head to not be able to attach to anything. 

So I spent 3 days or so trying to mod the Heeah head to fit on the Unoa head back. And I FINALLY got the fit just right, only to discover I hadn't mixed my epoxy properly and it was all mushy and just oozed off. 

I wasn't enjoying the process anymore and didn't want to keep trying to make the head fit right when it clearly just did not want to cooperate, so I broke down and decided to do some neck mods after all. I decided to cut the neck off just below the weird flanged part at the top where the Belia head back fits and turn that into an adapter piece for the Belia head to fit on other bodies. And then I cut off the top half of the Dollzone neck to turn that into the new top of the Unoa body's neck. 

This is the Belia head and head back on the Dollzone body. If I decide she will stay on this body long term I will likely epoxy the neck piece in place. I'm still debating. It's an older body and not the most aesthetically appealing to me, but it poses well and is still quite functional. It will largely depend on how much clothing she ends up wearing, I suppose. 

And this is the upper part of the Unoa body with the Dollzone upper neck attached. The epoxy is still hardening, but afterward I will sand it smooth and blush it to match. It is just a little bit longer than I wanted it to be, so the Heeah head sits higher on it than is probably ideal. I'll test the fit with clothes before I do more mod work though, since Aura tends to wear high collars and it might end up being handy that his neck is overly long. 

It seems I never posted this but I started it last week.

Trying to sell things

I started a new job last August and ever since then I haven't had nearly as much time for doll stuff as before. So I'm trying to make myself sell a bunch of things. It's hard because I'm not sure how much is stuff I'm not using because I've been busy and adapting to a new routine and how much is stuff I just don't have any interest in anymore.

I did manage to list a few things for sale. Some of the things I did not manage to list that I think maybe I should were my Unoa Xyle and my Cerisedolls Lyse. I haven't really properly named either of them, given them any sort of story, or done much with them. Have made them clothes but that's about it.

Instead of taking sales pics I somehow just ended up taking silly pictures of Lyse and editing them. Fun times. Not super productive but oh well.

I should make myself choose one of them to keep and list the other (or list enough other comparable items).

New Wig for Aura (test)

I really liked Aura's old wig but unfortunately the colors were not accurate to my mental image of his character. And since I had some spare golden blonde colored yarn lying around from making a wig for Ezreal, I've been toying with the idea of making a new wig for Aura.

Yesterday I decided to go ahead and go for it.

The major downside of not being able to find the right color in the same brand I was using before is that this brand doesn't allow me to make my strands as long. It's an acceptable length but not quite as long as I really wanted. The other down side is that it's not as smooth. It has a little bit more of a frizzy appearance, which isn't bad. It's just not quite as silky smooth and shiny as the old wig was.

But the color is more accurate. And it was either this or start seriously considering making the mixed yellow-blonde and white his canon hair color. Which could have had interesting melodramatic backstory stuff to go along with it, but I just wasn't sure I wanted to go that route.

I had to use the cap from a spritzer bottle dealy and glue strands onto that in order to get Aura's hair even close to long enough in the back. I've considered having him cut his hair shorter in Legion but it's not set in stone yet and  I think I'd still prefer that doll Aura have his traditional hair even if I did go that route.

This is how he looks right now. I do really like the color. I'm still debating on things like the length and less shiny aspect. One thing I definitely do like better is that it looks more finished in the back. No one ever really saw the back of the other wig, but there was a large amount of wig cap showing as well as the seams on the bottom length of hair. That always bugged me and was a large part of my motivation to remake the wig, actually.

face up time continues

I finally gave my Steve/Vince hybridbomination a face up. Which is not all that stellar because my airbrush was being a dick and his head is so small compared to what I'm used to but hey. It's something.

I wanted to take pictures but then he was naked and I own nothing that would fit him so I was going to throw him in the Bane coat I made ages ago but it's for SD size people and it was huuuuuge on him. So I decided to just make a smaller one. Cuz that's the only possible solution right? The temp outfit you're going to use is too big. Don't grab a different one. MAKE a new temporary outfit. So I threw one together and made 900 mistakes along the way but it functions so yay. It's a bit baggy because I'm lazy and don't like actually measuring or making patterns or even rudimentary markings on fabric so I just cut haphazardly in shapes that look right and start sewing.

And here is the result!

As an added bonus, you can see my oh-so-beatiful work area! Hooray!

He needs smaller eyes but I didn't have any. 

Aura gets a new face up and I really need to work on naming.

Let me start by saying I did nothing from my previous to-do post.

Sometimes when life gets into the sub-optimal range, I focus more intently on my 'productive hobbies' as I'll call them. Things like drawing, writing, sewing, customizing bjds, etc. Creative endeavors with lasting results.

Sometimes I dive into fluff hobbies, like MMORPGs or regular RPGs or other games.

And then sometimes I just do nothing even remotely worth talking about for ages on end.

That last one has been me for the better part of the last few months.

The seemingly neverending hunt for a job that is both long-term and pays well keeps me semi-permanently in this annoying mental state where it feels like something is just ever-so-slightly off. Even when things are going well, I can't quite feel settled.

There are lots of things I feel like I should be doing that it just feels so impossible to actually get around to. We're getting to the part where this is relevant to this blog. Bear with me. Or skip ahead. I'll start the relevant stuff with a picture.

Actually, I'll save the other stuff for my personal blog. Let's move along.

After the stuff that didn't get mentioned happened, I decided to shut down my computer for a while and do something productive because it's just way too hot in my room and I thought some time away from the computer would cool things down.

I decided to start by giving Aura a new face up. After drawing a picture of him (or starting to) that I was relatively happy with, I felt like his face up was just a little too subtle. It made him look a bit washed out. I usually avoid redoing anyone with facial mods because color-matching can be a pain and sometimes the paint doesn't dry evenly and I have to start over a zillion times. Fun stuff like that.

But I decided to do it anyway.

I mixed up a color that was just completely wrong at first. It looked purpley and weird. So I started mixing another color and this one came out too yellow. And then another came out way too dark. And so finally I decided to throw down some vague contours with the too-dark color and then do a very transparent layer of light pink over it. A questionable choice for resin-matching but I think it makes him look much more 'alive'.

Anyway did the regular stuff from there. Very out of practice so there were a few places where I went in the wrong direction color-wise, but I was being very subtle with my starting shades while I got back in the swing of things, so it was nothing I couldn't cover up or tone down with a different color.

He now does not match his body at all. But he never really did anyway. Luckily the only part of his body that shows is his hands. Well, feet too but only until I get him proper shoes or make some.

I photoshopped his eyes so they would be visible and then decided "what the heck? I'll just make them glowy too." I had some nice natural lighting and the stupid preview pics on the camera made everything look good and then I get them on the computer and the whole thing is bright orange and ridiculous. And color correcting is murder on eyes that are already barely visible anyway.

This picture gives a vague idea of how his face has changed. Tragically my camera was not cooperating well enough for details so yay grainy mess.

I also made pants for another one of my dudes. Who needs a name. I feel like I have something on the tip of my ... brain(?) but it just won't quite get out there. Sometimes I think I just like creating new characters more than I like fleshing them out...

Conveniently, none of the pictures showing his pants came out! But it's all just black, black, and more black anyway. So you aren't missing much. But I'm happier now. Because before he was wearing the rest of this ensemble with no pants. And it looked completely ridiculous.

I should really go through and sell more things. But I might wait until this WoW kick settles itself out. I'm not even playing the game or anything but all I want to do lately is work on characters from it. Don't want to sell off everything not WoW-related and regret it horribly later.

a list of things to do

Been trying to sell some stuff on DoA that I just don't do anything with anymore. I've somehow accumulated a mess of bodies and heads that aren't seeing any use and that I have no plans for...

Anyway, I'm a sucker for trades so when someone offered me a trade for an old Domuya Flexi-body I couldn't say no. I got some jointed hands and a Little Monica head out of the deal. The hands were mainly what I wanted, but they offered the head to avoid adding any extra funds on their part and I accepted. The head is actually really cute in person. I'm not entirely sure what I'll do with it, but for now it's on a spare body looking pretty cute.

The jointed hands are in a light tan color so my best options for usage were Orkas and Shinozaki. Orkas wears gloves so it felt like a waste, but they fit well on Shino and the color is actually a decent enough match to the tan I dyed him.

It's dark out today so my natural lighting shots actually came out worse than my indoor lighting ones. Lame.

Anyway... I wanted to make a list for myself of things to do.

SO!

Firstly, I need to update my doll list with some new pictures for some people and some first time pictures for others who aren't listed there. I removed some who are no longer with me already.

-Id needs a new photo. He is currently being portrayed by a Dollsbe Raspberry.
-Defliel needs a new photo. He has gotten a new face up since the last one. 
-Statik needs a new photo. He has had mods done and gotten a new face up since the last one.
-Loren needs a new photo and some proper clothes. Has had a complete mold switch since last one.
-all the tinies need profile photos (Aura, Cail, Theo, Liss, Vaith)
-Ezreal needs a profile photo.
-my as-yet-unnamed Unoa Xyle needs a profile photo and new face up.
-my as-yet-unnamed Batchix Dark Elf needs a profile photo and pants.
-my as-yet-unnamed Bishonenhouse Vince/Steve hybrid needs a face up, clothes, and profile photo.
-my Elfdoll Tasha (tentatively named Ellana) needs a profile photo and pants.
-my Cerisedolls Lyse (tentatively named Clarice) needs a profile photo that isn't naked.
-my as-yet-unnamed Soom Amber needs clothing and a profile photo.

And as I mentioned in a previous post, I really need to get around to giving people names and characters.

I live!

I went a little mad with power and set up a domain name and wordpress sites for all my blogs (including this one) but after getting the others formatted the way I wanted I haven't had the energy to get around to working on Mein Kohl 2.0 just yet. So I'll just go ahead and post here for now.

I haven't done a whole lot in recent history. I went through a brief period where I was very tempted to just sell pretty much all but a few especially emotionally significant dolls and just be done with the hobby. I was not in an especially great place emotionally. Also I just haven't really had a proper fandom in ages to inspire me to do things.

But um... despite being really inactive and unmotivated in the hobby, I kept having people wanting to buy things I hadn't bumped in ages. Or do trades.

And then Selly got me to try playing League of Legends. And it was fun to have something new to do that had all kinds of cool character art and I sort of got hooked. In a fit of insanity, I decided to make my Unoa Xyle into one of the characters. But then, as I thought about it, I realized he just didn't have the right expression or posture or anything.

But one of the heads I'd been trying to sell for ages did so I gave it a new face up and a custom wig and after a few days of being unsure if I could get used to the head having a new character, I officially took down my sales thread. I have no pictures of that, sadly. Well I do but they're bad so we're moving on.

I also ended up with another Elfdoll Tasha. I had one years ago and sold it after deciding I just couldn't figure out what to do with it. So this time I thought I'd just avoid the issue I had before (which was that I didn't feel like it was pulling off a feminine enough look) and make the head a boy. Well, I messed up when painting around the eyes and rather than redo the face up, I just did some weird eyeliner stuff and ... long story short, I sat the head on a male body for like... a day maybe and didn't like it. And I tried it on a female body and felt like it fit so much better.

So she got a custom wig (I decided on electric blue for some reason) and I also made her some eyes because I didn't have any in the right size and color.

Right now all she has is an outfit I threw together from spare pieces. I don't have any spare girl clothes really. I need to start naming people and not just making up parts of looks for dolls that are just hanging around. I don't know why I keep doing this. XD