faceup practice

I've been doing a lot of Monster High repaints/commissions lately so I thought it would be nice to retry doing BJDs for awhile. I've realized that I still have a lot to work on... I still can't seem to paint even strokes and my pastels are still pretty blotchy, but it'll all come with practice (hopefully). Anyway, I decided to something a little different for my practice head since it's a new year, and here she is!

Some people might not agree with me and how I did the eyebrows this time, but I really like this look on Corin. I might actually consider getting her a body sometime. If anyone knows a good resin match for Leeke NS '11 please let me know in the comments!

❤ mura

taobao finds and updates

Hey everyone! I've received news on my Promise of the World order. After some help from another DoA member, it appears that my order has been found and already shipped by the company on December 25! According to the tracking number I was just given, the parcel has actually just arrived at my campus, so I'm very excited to open/review the goods come Monday :)

I've also been scouring Taobao for goodies for my incoming doll and I have an excellent find I'd like to share with you all~ Check out these lovely eyes from Fairy Woods! These are some of the most high quality glass eyes I've ever seen and for a very low price as well. Unfortunately I believe this is a preorder page, and the current preordering period ends on January 6th. Hopefully there will be a new ordering period soon, because these eyes are just too beautiful to miss out on.

It's not very apparent in this picture, but there's glitter in the pupils. Almost gives them a magical girl sort of touch =3=

Here's another example of Fairy Woods eyes! These don't have sparkle in them, but the detailing in the iris is amazing up close.

I hope your 2014 is going well so far!

❤ mura

new doll coming soonl!

My goodness it's been a month and a half since I've last posted here! Season's greetings to all of you even though it's already almost the new year =3=

Good news: after doing all those faceups, I finally gathered enough money to order my next doll! Everyone who's supported me along the way, thank you so much for helping me achieve my goals ^^

The order page says it's currently in item processing and Little Monica has already posted a notice saying that items ordered during the winter event period probably won't be delivered until sometime in February. It's going to be a pretty long wait...

Bad news: awhile back I paid for an order from what I thought was a neat little shop called Promise of the World. They have such adorable clothes! I even made a post about them here. All the images are gone because I think they changed their address to promiseoftheworld.com awhile ago. Unfortunately, even though my order status was changed to "delivered" on November 18, I still haven't received my package and the seller/admin isn't responding to my messages. I'm not the only one facing these problems, either. Some other folks on DoA made a huge group order and they haven't received any of the items or any correspondence from the seller. We're all hoping that they're just backed up on orders and are slowly working their way through them but with no communication this is very hard to confirm. I'm hoping for the best...

❤ mura

finalizing doll plans~

Long time no blog, everyone! College barely gives me enough time to do the things I enjoy, but I'll make do for now. Anyway... I've been reaching new goals with my faceup shop and I might finally have enough money to order my next doll this Christmas! I've been waiting for well over a year and switching back and forth between several dolls, but I've finally made up my mind to do this.
The doll I'm getting is a LittleMonica Sophia and after this round of commissions, I'll have roughly $500 out of the $624 I need to pay for her and ridiculous EMS shipping to the US.

I haven't quite figured out a good style for her yet (I'm kind of stuck between posh girl and Harajuku "neo gal") so it's going to be a while before I can get her a decent closet. As for wigs, I know I want to get her something in a mint green color, but her hairstyle really depends on what kind of things she's going to wear. I'm not sure which of these two Leekeworld wigs I like more, but there's plenty of time before the DoA group order ends, so... (if you have opinions you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them, though).

❤ mura

faceup progress

Ever wondered how faceups are done? I took a bunch of progress shots for the faceup I did on my friend's SDMB Minoru Kamimura, so here goes nothing! The lighting changes with each shot and that bothers me a little, but I'm too lazy to go back and fix the colors...

The pastels and basic paint is already laid down here.

Painting finished and ready for final seal!

And here's the finished product with gloss and lashes!

I'll be taking better photos for my Flickr and faceup blog when it's actually light outside and I can get some nice natural lighting. See you next time!

❤ mura