commission stuff!!

Almost shocking that I'm making a post in the same month as my last one, isn't it? I've been working away at my faceup commission business at Darjeeling Aesthetics for roughly two years now, and I'm impressed at how much I've progressed in the time I've taken to really improve my skills. Just look at my first and most recent faceups on my own LittleMonica Sophia!

Good lord look at those messy lines and that eyebrow...

At least the eyebrows are even this time! And the eyeshadow is much cleaner without those unfinished white lines.

Things are going pretty well for me but I think I still have a long way to go. I'm very glad that I've made some friends in the hobby whom I admire for their skills! In fact, I'm about to go into a faceup trade with one of my favorite faceup artists in the USA, mil-mascaras :) I finished working on her Nine9Style Bunny Nine Potpourri and I've just sent her back with my blank Leekeworld Corin head. I can't wait to see what she does with it!

Star child Potpourri!

I've never been able to do a single faceup I liked on that Corin head, so hopefully after Minda works on it I'll finally be able to work on a look and buy her a body so she won't be a detached head anymore. Here's DJ signing off with a bunch of thank you notes!

 
Thanks for all your support! 我會繼續努力的!!

❤　ｋａｉ

summer update

It's been a really long time since I last posted = =; Summer at home has been extremely relaxing and I basically haven't been doing anything besides commissions, drawing, and playing games on my PC. Most recently I went ahead and made a TATA order for some doll lashes and some shoes to replace Porii's pair that I lost while traveling around at Fanime back in May.

Took a couple quick snaps with my dad's camera. Here they are with new faces and new lashes! :)

For people who might be new to my blog, this is Polaire! She's my newest doll (arrived March 7th of this year). This is the 5th(?) faceup I've done for her, there were 2 that I did since the last time I posted a picture of her face, but I quickly wiped and redid them for various reasons. I added more detail to her brows this time and changed a little bit of the blushing. But other than that, she's just a slightly improved version of her previous self.

And here's my cute baby Lenoire. She's been with me for a year and a half now, and she deserves a much better faceup than what I did last time (I used slightly damaged leftover lashes for her previous faceup...). I think she looks a lot better with thinner, slightly arched brows and fuller lips. She's also retained her freckles from last time!

August commissions are piling in and I've got a couple bits of business with an interview and a collaboration with a doll convention :) Time to get back to work!

❤ mura

lenny's makeover!

After maybe about 3 months of deliberation I decided to wipe Lenny's old faceup and give her a new one with freckles! I still feel a little bad about it because I commissioned Eludys to do her faceup twice since I messed it up the first time and I wasn't confident in my faceup skills at the time, but it's already been a year and I feel like my skills are adequate enough to justify the money that I've... wasted... by wiping off Eludys's hard work... OTL

Without further ado, here's the new Lenny, now complete with freckled cheeks! I've taken to calling her wonderkid/dork extraordinaire so who knows where I'm going to end up going with that. I'm planning on buying some of those round bottlecap/Harry Potter frames for her too.

Both my girls now have faceups by me. When I get home in a few weeks and reunite them, I'll be taking pictures of them together for more promotional images for my faceup shop! I'm excited. I'm also excited to finally afford that SWITCH Shiho I've been eyeing. I really can't wait to do the faceup on that one =3=

❤ mura

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

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

Doll Chateau Ada for caffeinated-cake

I'm happy that I'm finally making progress with my faceup skills and business! I need more practice and examples for my portfolio, so I offered two free BJD faceups this month as a promotion. Someone was kind enough to let me use their DC Ada as a practicing tool, and here are the results!

I still need to work on my confidence with brushstrokes, but hopefully I'll get it eventually...

❤ mura

corin faceup #2

I had a little bit of spare time yesterday so I decided to give my Corin practice head a new faceup (with freckles and eyelashes this time!) (●´∀｀●) I know the eyebrows are a little bit uneven, and I still need to work on defining the lower lashes a little more, but I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Critique is encouraged! In other news, I finally set up my faceup shop's Facebook page with a new banner and pictures. Feel free to check it out~

My flight leaves in 4 hours...

❤ mura

monster highs

I've been surprisingly busy this summer practicing my faceup skills ヾ(´A｀)ノﾟ But I have to say I'm glad I've improved! I've been mostly working on Monster Highs since I bought a ton of them from Target right before I came back home, but I'm hoping to get some BJD heads to practice on so I can continue to work on my brushwork skills. Here's a few pictures of what I've been occupying my time with:

They're all available on my Storenvy (which kind of serves as my gallery ehe). Additional pictures can be found on my faceup shop tumblr! In other news, I'll be in Hong Kong until the 6th of September so I'll be seeing you guys then! Hopefully I get to buy some stuff for Lenny from the doll stores in Mongkok (｀・ω・´)”

❤ mura

first commissioned faceup!

Hey everyone! In case you didn't know, I actually run a very small Monster High repaint and BJD faceup shop called Darjeeling Aesthetics. Today I just completed my very first commissioned faceup on a Resinsoul Xu for a dear friend of mine. I've been practicing a lot on my Corin head and I'm glad I can finally put my skills to use for something other than my own practice heads  :ﾟ｡+━ヾ((○*´∀｀*))ﾉﾞ━+｡ﾟ:

Here's my pic spam:

Critique is heavily encouraged! Please let me know what I can do to improve my skills and grow as a faceup artist! Also, I still have a few slots open for July so please send me a message at darjeeling.shop@gmail.com if you're interested! This is probably the last month that I'll be offering $15 faceups so hurry hurry (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ

❤ mura

my first faceup!

I'm back, everyone! It's probably been a month since I last posted anything, so sorry for the wait! I've been busy with school and my side project, Darjeeling Aesthetics. I recently received an MSD sized head as a trade for a faceup on a different doll, so I finally got to try my hand at painting a BJD. I think she's pretty cute, but what are your thoughts? Name suggestions are also welcome/encouraged ^^

BEFORE:

AFTER:

 

 
❤ mura

faceup photos ♡

I just got photos of Lenny's faceup from Eludys today! I'm so happy she agreed to re-do Lenny's faceup after an unfortunate accident that happened in December... I'm just so happy to have my lovely girl back :) I think her eyebrows and eyelashes are little darker this time, but her faceup still stays very true to her character. I'm excited to see her again!

❤ muramin

face-up materials!

Why hello everyone! I've gone about making silly decisions with my money before, but hopefully this is one that I won't be regretting. I've been playing around in the realm of Monster High repaints for a little over a month now, and I'm only just realizing how limited I am in materials. I don't even have acrylics aside from this old bottle of black paint from when I used to take art classes! I painted the eyes with pastels mixed with water, and it somehow miraculously worked out alright. If you've seen the Draculaura and Lagoona Blue(s) floating around my tumblr, you'll know what I mean.

 

I need a better lens. Seriously. Anyway, the reason why I picked up Monster High repaints is because I'm aiming to do BJD face-ups someday. Today I've decided to get myself a full set of proper face-up materials, including thinner brushes, ZM UV Cut, and Tamiya acrylics. The grand total comes to roughly $43 USD including shipping to my school, but I hope it's worth it! I'm going to have so much fun trying to figure out how thin I'll need to dilute my paint for eyelashes...

I've reserved a spot for my future face-up shop already. Prices and policies are up, but it's probably going to take at least half a year before I decide my skills are good enough to open. When it does open though, I'll start by taking Monster High customs first. I'll probably open up some free BJD face-up slots to build my portfolio later, but that's a long way down the road.

❤ muramin

face-up favorites

I feel like I'm just going to be blogging about things I wish I had while I wait to be reunited with my doll at the end of this quarter (end of March! such a long wait...) Since Lenny's waiting in line for her face-up to get redone, I guess I'll just make a nice long list of face-up artists that I like. I'm trying to learn how to do face-up work by experimenting with Monster Highs, but I'm going to need a LOT of practice before I can reach a skill anywhere close to any of these people's...

Volks Lorina by c a r o l i n e* on Flickr

Viridian House: one of my all-time favorites, but something I'll never be able to afford. I remember seeing her MNF Shushu a long time ago on deviantArt and just being shocked that the Shushu sculpt could actually look that soft and beautiful. I especially love the heavy blushing, baby lips, and delicate hair strokes in the eyebrows.

chloe+sleeping by Rakeru Space on Flickr

Rakeru Sensei: I love her work, I really do. The soft features, light brushstrokes, and well-defined eye creases on her face-ups are really charming and work on a wide variety of faces. I feel like she has a very similar style to superstar face-up artist Andreja, but for a much lower price. She's based in Spain, which is a little intimidating for me since I'm afraid of customs, but I might commission her for my next doll's face-up.

Fairyland (mnf + feeple) by ::suite~ah on Flickr

MOtomi Polkka Field: momochu's skill is very evident in her work (she's worked with HimiMO Antiquity). I mean, look at all that intricate brushwork! Everything is gorgeous, from the well-defined eyebrows to the sharp little lower lashes. While I admire her technique, I'm not a huge fan of one of her "trademarks" - the dark line in the middle of the lip doesn't really quite fit in with what I'm looking for.

F60-Chloe by Xhanthi on Flickr

Jointed Love: Another one of my favorites! I originally wanted Xhanthi to paint Lenny's face-up, but the waiting lines were just so long... What I really like about Jointed Love face-ups is the individual character they give to the dolls. The technique is wonderful too, but what attracts me is the sort of a sweet but sassy feel the looks give off. 

So many choices! So little cash! What do?

I doubt anyone even reads my blog, but for those of you do, let me know your pick in the comments section below! :)

❤ muramin