✿ Mmmuguet's Miscellany ✿

15 hours ago, mmmuguet said:

Thank you! That's high praise coming from you, because you were one of the inspirations for me finally giving it a real try; I love how crisp and clean your faceups always are, and was impressed by how many fun head options it opened up for you to work with (⸝⸝⸝;ᴥ;⸝⸝⸝)💛 I can't wait to see your newest! Maybe I'll eventually be brave enough to try acrylic too lol.

Also who needs art studio space with a vent hood when there is ~window~ and ~toilet/floor~

Oh, I'm feeling super honored by that, because to myself my faceups don't feel particulary crisp or clean at all with how many wobbly lines and asymmetry there is in them. （´∇｀''）(Haruka is very forgiving in that regard, because one side of his face is covered by hair anyway, haha.) But I do love all my boys even with their little imperfections, so it makes me super happy that you like them that much.

A blank DDH-27 made its way in the post to me, so I once again returned to my reliable ~𝓯𝓪𝓬𝓮𝓾𝓹 𝓽𝓸𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓽~ for another whack at things, and I'm really proud of it!

I wanted to lean into some heavier blushing and thicker brows than my last two which I think worked out nicely, and I'm fond of how the uwu mouth came out.  I used some gold powder at the end which gives a nice warm shimmer to compliment the overall color.  I'm calling the head Franz, since it just gives me Franz vibes.

You can see the sparkle here ✨.  I popped in the default eyes that came with Vivian, and they work well!

And here they are with a wig I had in my stash~

I used watercolor pencils and pastels again; working with pencil definitely takes a few more layers than paint, but I'm liking how it gives me a few ways to work the color and depth.  I have some Imomo heads on the way to play with because I'd also like to try doing an open mouth mod but I'd rather sacrifice an inexpensive head for that haha B')

Franz looks so lovely waow waow!! I think you have a great knack for color and gradients and such. I get by with my own faceups, but they are quite difficult for me still. It’s lovely to see what people with more intuition can do, so I look forward to your future faceups ^^!

Franz looks so cute! Well done! The way you have the eyebrows gently fade out is perfection!

Long time no post!  Been pretty busy in the process of switching jobs (well, same place but different unit) and binging HM Winds of Anthos in my free time haha.  I finally got around to tossing the Imomo heads I played with on Otto's body for some quick shots~

I need to pick up an Imomo body or two so the noggins can graduate from boxtown, but unsure of when I'll get around to it as I'm prioritizing my Maydoll layaway and my Dream Choice baby I just paid for (⸝⸝´◡`⸝⸝).  I also wasn't sure if I'd even keep them or just sell them off in the end.

Since the heads were cheap, I used them for practicing some carving mods!  I had some mixed successes, but I learned a lot from the experiments and had fun with it.

Experiment 001) Mie Head :: trial run for sanding down sculpted lips to a smooth surface!  I also softened the nose a smidge.  This was surprisingly more work than I expected, and if I were to do it again I'd adjust how I graded my sandpapers during it, or maybe do some careful carving first.  I got the surface pretty smooth, but you can see some light scuffing in spots if you look closely. 

I wanted to do a gentle look with some darker tones, so I used mostly cool greys and some blue-grey overlay on the gradients.  There's white pearl shimmer along the cheekbones, and some highlights done with pearl paint.  I also glued on a lil star glitter flake for fun~  The ear tips have soft blushing to match the eyeliner colors. 

Experiment 002) Miko Head :: trial run for minor mouth opening, which is not terribly noticeable from this angle haha.  The pouty mouth was so cute I didn't want to disturb it too much, so I just opened it a little bit for depth and now it's a little 'o'.

Lewk-Wise I wanted something warm and woodsy, and initially I was going to do more red tones and shoot for an amanita mushroom style.  I just started winging it with the eyeliner shape though, and it ended up veering away from the original plan a bit into this.  I actually really love how it turned out!  Doing a graphic eyeliner shape was interesting.  I went with fuzzy dot brows since I thought they wouldn't take away from the eyes, but they have a subtle white swirl to mimic the swirl on the cheek blushing.  Near the end I decided I wanted to play with my gold paint, so I added some small dots to catch the light and some other little bits n bobs because I have no self control B).   The ears have gold on the tips!

Experiment 003) Apsu Head :: I destroyed this one unintentionally loool ╮(°◡°)╭.  This head was going to be my eye-mod and mouth opening head, and I got the eyes how I wanted, just a bit of a droop!  However, the mouth opening was originally supposed to be much closer to the default shape.  I slipped while carving though, and had to mod larger.  I redid it several times to try and salvage the shape, and threw together a quick mouth piece.

I was honestly going to toss this head because it went so wrong, but I figured I'd do it up with the other two anyway and just roll with the punches.  It was already looking SUS from The Accident, so I just went ahead and made it MORE sus.  It couldn't go any worse than it started, so I just tried lots of things for the hell of it hahah.  The eyeliner is thickly glossed with holo flakes, and I used a thick mixture of mica/glitter/gloss to see how 3D I could get on the head for the tears.

Out of the three, this one is most likely ending up in the dumpzone or the re-do bin.  It's so far from what I had intended but I don't hate it as much as I did when it was first getting worked on.  It definitely needs a better mouth insert though, since this one was really quickly cobbled together as a void filler.  I'd also probably work the tears more to sit on the inner waterline, which is an easy enough fix.  Or I'll just wipe it and do-over entirely (I'll probably keep the pink theme though, I like the way it looks).  I'd be more inclined to keep or work on it with a different mouth, but this noggin is entirely trying to make lemonade out of some wonky lemons.

I adore your faceups! They look professional-level... so unique (can tell it's your style), but so incredibly detailed and well-done! I love the gradients and the way each face is different. The character personalities come through. Well-done!

These look incredible, honestly it feels like the work of a very seasoned faceup artist. I especially love how smooth your gradients are and there is just a very good sense for color in these. Even the "failed" experminent looks pretty charming in my eyes.

Gets me in the mood to work on some heads as well, but the humid cold autumn weather and life being busy has been playing against me.

I love your faceups so much. You're so creative with them and the gradients are soooo smooth!

 

8 hours ago, MoiBakaDesu said:

Gets me in the mood to work on some heads as well, but the humid cold autumn weather and life being busy has been playing against me.

The same for me actually, seeing pretty work sure is motivating

On 10/23/2024 at 6:08 PM, ZodiacMoon said:

I adore your faceups! They look professional-level... so unique (can tell it's your style), but so incredibly detailed and well-done! I love the gradients and the way each face is different. The character personalities come through. Well-done!

Aaaa thank you!! It's such a nice compliment to read that you can see my style coming through on them!

On 10/24/2024 at 2:25 AM, MoiBakaDesu said:

These look incredible, honestly it feels like the work of a very seasoned faceup artist. I especially love how smooth your gradients are and there is just a very good sense for color in these. Even the "failed" experminent looks pretty charming in my eyes.

Gets me in the mood to work on some heads as well, but the humid cold autumn weather and life being busy has been playing against me.

TYSM!! I feel like I'm learning a little more with each go, and definitely have the most fun with thick gradient liner.  It just has a lot of potential!

I'm running into the opposite problem here, by the time my Maydoll Serval is here it'll probably be too cold to work on their head 😭.  It's gonna kill me just looking at a naked noggin.

On 10/24/2024 at 11:17 AM, Kissamaagi said:

I love your faceups so much. You're so creative with them and the gradients are soooo smooth!

 

The same for me actually, seeing pretty work sure is motivating

I really appreciate this, ty! 💗  I have to thank the many wonderful artists here for inspiring me to finally give it a go again after so many years!

These are sooooo cool!! They’re great not just in paint application (which I rlly respect getting that nice!!) but in concept. I think your use of glitters & such shows a fresh approach to faceups! 
 

my personal favorite is the first one. I ghhh *grabby hands*

On 10/27/2024 at 11:09 PM, Yami Usagi said:

These are sooooo cool!! They’re great not just in paint application (which I rlly respect getting that nice!!) but in concept. I think your use of glitters & such shows a fresh approach to faceups! 
 

my personal favorite is the first one. I ghhh *grabby hands*

Thank you! 💛 I need to get a gloss with more reliable anti-yellowing, because I really want to play more with heavy glitter application since it looks neat irl~

I can't take much credit on paint cleanliness, I'm only just trying tiny bits of it at this point haha 😂  I'm still not brave enough to use it for full liner, so I've been doing everything with watercolor pencils so far!

nyooooom drive by dumping some snaps 💨

My Melody.C preorder came in recently, and I'm so in love with this pile of frilly goodness (❤ω❤).  I immediately threw the cream set on Narcisse, and I'm surprised how good they look with pink because I really didn't plan to have them wear this color!  I'll have to put it into their personal palette more in the future~

I also got two of these sets which I was really excited about because I missed their preorder on Anubisdolls originally!  I'm saving the cream colorway for my Dream Choice (who is hopefully assembled this weekend! 💖), but this one was perfect for Otto (⸝⸝´ω`⸝⸝).  I decided to borrow some of Yuliy's hands to finish off the lewk, and I officially have to revise Otto's style preferences to include fancy nails.  I have a few claw hands for him because he's my lil beast prince, but I meaannnn, fancy claws work too!

you're doing great sweetie 👁️👄👁️📸

Oooh, love them! Narcisse does look wonderful in pink, and fancy claws definitely work. 😄 Can't wait to see them in Otto!

Hope your Dream Choice arrives soon! Exciting!

Delighted to introduce my lil job-swap gift to myself, Hesperos, a Visuadoll Moegi!  Hesper for short~

They were a nostalgia-treat for my brain; I remember Visuadoll's blip on the doll radar back in the day when I was still quite resin focused.  I was randomly browsing Mandarake because my favorite pre-sleep activity is window shopping on maximum brainless mode, and I was INSTANTLY scrambled when I saw the thumbnail for a default set Visuadoll Moegi, it shot me right back.  I couldn't get them out of my head, and the price was right sooooo-

Upon arrival, I wasted no time beheading and cleaning 👁️👄👁️👍.  The original body is essentially scrapped and chopshopped, taking the pieces I can that were in good enough condition for experiment pieces or back-up bits.  I bought a new Obitsu48 body with an S chest for him instead; I preferred the visible hip bones on the body compared to the other sizes, and the S chest is perfect for the very androgyne look I wanted for them.  The default was an enormous pain to remove, but I did it!

Original: suuuuper nostalgic to me, it's very oldschool but not something I wanted.  I do enjoy the early 2000s Custom House Dollmaster movie energy it gives me tho.  Middle is the naked head, and without the dated makeup it's such a classic sculpt!  Beautiful features.  Finally, my refreshed take on things~ I tried a few different brows for expressions but these felt safest and looked best.  I thought I could do thicker liner originally, but when I had the head in hand I realized there wasn't much lid space for it and it'd look weird if I went into the crease, so I stuck to a thin upper liner.  Kept the lower portion short and extended a bit in order to emphasize the sculpt's droopier eye shape - keeping the liner halved let me build up some nice blushing on the lower eye for a tired look.  I ultimately ended up lightly glossing the lid and eyeline, but keeping the lips matte since there's shimmer on them to add interest.  I probably could have gotten the lashes a bit crisper, but I'm not unhappy with things - I honestly really love this makeup and it helped them come together for me very fast! I'm so in love, even if my phone camera refuses to focus on the eyes lmao TT💕.

The one thing I noticed on the sculpt is that the eyes are uneven, one is a bit smaller.  This makes fitting eyes kind of wonky.  I trimmed the eyecups a little bit because I was getting paranoid squashing the head while trying to pop the peepers out over and over to sit them the way I wanted haha (the head definitely feels more flimsy to pressure than my other heads).  So the eyes don't sit perfectly, but well enough for a subtle side gaze~  He's wearing 16mms which are the default, but I feel like they're a squidge tight.  I might try some 14s at some point, but the headcap sucks to take off so meeehhh.

I bought 2 wigs, but when I opened the wine colored one I knew it was gonna be the one.  It's perfect for him!  A pain in my ass to keep from flyaway bits, but it's the perfect color.

Hesper drip check ( ◔ᴥ◔). 

Plonked on the desk, feeling awkward for having an itty bitty head compared to everyone else.

tl;dr I love Hesperos

Oh what an intense cutie! To me he has the semi-real yet still very bishounen anime look of like, Final Fantasy boys.

7 hours ago, mmmuguet said:

Delighted to introduce my lil job-swap gift to myself, Hesperos, a Visuadoll Moegi!  Hesper for short~

They were a nostalgia-treat for my brain; I remember Visuadoll's blip on the doll radar back in the day when I was still quite resin focused.  I was randomly browsing Mandarake because my favorite pre-sleep activity is window shopping on maximum brainless mode, and I was INSTANTLY scrambled when I saw the thumbnail for a default set Visuadoll Moegi, it shot me right back.  I couldn't get them out of my head, and the price was right sooooo-

Upon arrival, I wasted no time beheading and cleaning 👁️👄👁️👍.  The original body is essentially scrapped and chopshopped, taking the pieces I can that were in good enough condition for experiment pieces or back-up bits.  I bought a new Obitsu48 body with an S chest for him instead; I preferred the visible hip bones on the body compared to the other sizes, and the S chest is perfect for the very androgyne look I wanted for them.  The default was an enormous pain to remove, but I did it!

Original: suuuuper nostalgic to me, it's very oldschool but not something I wanted.  I do enjoy the early 2000s Custom House Dollmaster movie energy it gives me tho.  Middle is the naked head, and without the dated makeup it's such a classic sculpt!  Beautiful features.  Finally, my refreshed take on things~ I tried a few different brows for expressions but these felt safest and looked best.  I thought I could do thicker liner originally, but when I had the head in hand I realized there wasn't much lid space for it and it'd look weird if I went into the crease, so I stuck to a thin upper liner.  Kept the lower portion short and extended a bit in order to emphasize the sculpt's droopier eye shape - keeping the liner halved let me build up some nice blushing on the lower eye for a tired look.  I ultimately ended up lightly glossing the lid and eyeline, but keeping the lips matte since there's shimmer on them to add interest.  I probably could have gotten the lashes a bit crisper, but I'm not unhappy with things - I honestly really love this makeup and it helped them come together for me very fast! I'm so in love, even if my phone camera refuses to focus on the eyes lmao TT💕.

The one thing I noticed on the sculpt is that the eyes are uneven, one is a bit smaller.  This makes fitting eyes kind of wonky.  I trimmed the eyecups a little bit because I was getting paranoid squashing the head while trying to pop the peepers out over and over to sit them the way I wanted haha (the head definitely feels more flimsy to pressure than my other heads).  So the eyes don't sit perfectly, but well enough for a subtle side gaze~  He's wearing 16mms which are the default, but I feel like they're a squidge tight.  I might try some 14s at some point, but the headcap sucks to take off so meeehhh.

I bought 2 wigs, but when I opened the wine colored one I knew it was gonna be the one.  It's perfect for him!  A pain in my ass to keep from flyaway bits, but it's the perfect color.

Hesper drip check ( ◔ᴥ◔). 

Plonked on the desk, feeling awkward for having an itty bitty head compared to everyone else.

tl;dr I love Hesperos

He's resin right?

@PlasticJester He really does hit that sweet spot between styles! I'd love to see more semi-realistic faces in vinyl, but I recognize they're not the primary demand this side of the doll world lol.

@RozenGermain Nope, all vinyl!  The Visuadoll line is such a neat lil corner of vinyl because they have the aesthetic vibe of resin heads, but not the material.  The dolls came/come on Obitsu bodies.

2 minutes ago, mmmuguet said:

@PlasticJester He really does hit that sweet spot between styles! I'd love to see more semi-realistic faces in vinyl, but I recognize they're not the primary demand this side of the doll world lol.

@RozenGermain Nope, all vinyl!  The Visuadoll line is such a neat lil corner of vinyl because they have the aesthetic vibe of resin heads, but not the material.  The dolls came/come on Obitsu bodies.

Ohhhh I need to see their site or at least more of em!!!