Aesthetics of February 2016

Still a week of February to go, but I won't be finishing any other heads this month, so I'll just post this now when I still remember to do so ^-^ I have a steady stream of commissions coming in and slots have been reserved for March as well so this year is looking good so far!

First up there is a Soom Clozel, one of the most popular of the newer Soom ladies. I think at least? She has nice features, a cute nose profile, but the lips aren't quite as nice as on Topaz, which she most resembles imo. I was commissioned to do an Andrejaesque (the reference face-up was a blue one Andreja had done on a Clozel) face-up in tourquoise tones as she is a water goddess or something. A mother to the Luts Berry centaur I did last year, in fact. The two have similarities in their face-ups, but the colouring is different :)

Then I got to do two Fenys, the normal and the surprise head. The surprise head was commissioned to be cheerful and redheaded. I've done a Necy Surprise before in Cream White, you remember Spica's Remy, right? Well, the feel is about the same, but the look is still different here. I used more natural tones and did some freckles on the nose. The ears were blushed orange-red-black because the character is a fox.

The normal head is a more reserved character with black hair. I used colder tones for both the cheeks and the eyes. And if you really pay attention, the blushing is at a different spot than in the surprise head ;) In the surprise head the cheek blushing is at the cheeks' low point, whereas in the normal head the blushing is on the high point. It makes the surprise head look a bit chubbier, or like the cheeks are wide with smile. Hopefully at least! :D

You might also notice that I've done eye creases in both Teenie heads. I have avoided doing them for a long time since I haven't mastered making them smooth. But it is the next "level up" I can gain so I just need to take the bull by the horns so to say. It was pretty easy to do for the Fenys, since there are shallow indents on the upper lids in the sculpt, so I could just follow them and be sure that they would be somewhat symmetrical. I could then concentrate on the technique to make them look smooth and like they had be drawn with a brush instead of a pencil (which I used). I'll pratice on some Teenies first (maybe redo Hani's face-up once again) and once I gain more confidence, I'll start doing them on a regular basis.

Then I also got to redo Saburou's face for Deary. For reference, below is the old face-up:

You can easily see the improvement in 2,5 years, right :D My lashes are thinner and longer and I have gotten much bolder with blushing. And I changed the way the eyebrows go, I think the upwards angle makes him look more like the asian nemesis that he is. I hope Deary agrees!

Sabbe is kind of a kindred spirit to my Fyrd, and now that I look at the face-up, there are actually a lot of similarities in the colours I used XD I wanted to have a bit more red in the eyeliner, but I didn't manage to get the result I was rrally going for... I might have had to use actual pencil to make the red bolder...

On the blushing: this sculpt has very strong features, so to make them more apparent, I used heavy blushing around the face, on the cheekbones, the sides of the mouth, the chin etc. Photos eat away most of it, it is much more vibrant irl. I'm just hoping it will make the head look more lifelike. I had gotten so used to painting only stylized dolls, it was quite refreshing to paint a more realistic one. I would really want to be able to do skin rendering and creases and such, but in most of the face-ups I do, they would look out of place. Well, I have a forte, and it is not realism, but cute Teenies ;) I can't blame customers going for someone else to get good realistic face-ups, where they'd get their money's worth.