Zemeno Dark Fairy Figurine Repaint

As anyone who might visit my tumblr at any given time will probably notice, I have a decided weakness for gothy, emotive camp.  

Even before I discovered the world of BJDs, a friend gave me a little Zemeno figurine for Christmas.  Although I had seen such fairy figurines before, I thought that their appeal for me had died sometime around my eighth birthday.  On the whole, this remains true.  However, this Zemeno Dark Fairy Figurine came opportunistically packed with a black and purple flier advertising a number of other fairy figurines.

I had never heard of Zemeno.  They had an underwhelming web presence at the time, so all I knew was that I had seen one of their dark fairies, and I knew where my friend had made the purchase.  This last point acquired additional interest because, amongst the fairies advertised on the purple flier, there was one who, as a tiny printed facsimile, reminded me of an illustration by Edmund Dulac of Scheherazade.  

I went to Millenium, gothic kitsch central, and inquired about the figurine shown in the flier.  Lo and behold, the lantern fairy with the headscarf was available (her company name is 'Eclipse' and you can see her at La Table Ronde's appropriately camp website).  I recall feeling utterly scandalous as I left the store with my lantern fairy; no decent young adult in Art School ever purchases such tacky things, I thought.  Then there was the price.  These were the days before BJDs, and I performed all manner of mental acrobatics to impress upon myself that spending $30-ish on the lantern fairy would not entirely condemn me to the ranks of the hopelessly dissipated and debauched. 

When I returned home and inspected my dissipated indulgence, I discovered that the mass-manufacturing process had not been very kind to my fairy.  Part of her face was globbed onto her headscarf in the manner of a pancake.  The paint around her eyes was not very precise either.  Not having any other suitable tools, since Art School was determined to make me a large-scale painter of Edifying Post Modern Art, I used a sakura fine-liner to fix the pancake face and badly painted eyes.  At least, from a distance, she looked respectable.  However, I was never completely happy with her face.

So, a number years later, I find myself in the heat of procrastination and academic despair.  I take the lantern fairy down from her post, am appalled by the company face-up, and feel a sort of pity for my inexperienced, fine-lining self.  It then occurs to me that I have since painted on somewhat similar objects that cost a great deal more.  I can hardly imagine making my poor fairy look any worse.  So I decided to try giving her a sweeter, more gothic pin-up inspired look. 

What I discovered in the process is that her forehead is strangely bumpy.  I also found an inverted bubble in her nose, which I was only partly successful at filling with acrylic paint.  She's about 10 inches tall, so this makes her my smallest face-up to date.  I used only arcylics, which is another reason why she is not quite as subtle as my BJD face-ups.  Maybe in several more years, I'll have improved sufficiently to do attempt another repaint.  For the time being, I think she looks tolerably better.

She has azo red on her lips, raw umber and mars black on her eyes and eyebrows, titan buff on her nose, and ultramarine blue in her irises. 

As always, thank-you very much for reading! 

* * *

Box-Opening: nYID Emilia

After spending the night before last in a sleepless state of anxiety over whether nYID Emilia would arrive and what she would be like, the package arrived.

My excellent assistant, Mr. Black is helping to unwrap the box.

A first glimpse at all the treasures!

The box of clothes and the wig.

The inner box.

The nYID boxes are all glossy and snazzy compared to the EID boxes, but somehow, they feel a little more fragile.

With the lid taken off, I could see the nYID manuel for restringing, the CoA, and Emilia's head.

Another shot of Emilia in her box (sorry for the blurriness).

I took her out of the foam cushions and began to unwrap her packing.  Her peach-gold skin looks like some kind of hideous pink against the green blanket-- I can say this is not a very accurate representation of her real colour.

Detail of her blank face and shoulders.  

Inside her head-cap, which I think shows the peach-gold colour a little bit better (though in all honesty, this is kind of a magical colour that seems to change dramatically depending on the light and colour context).

A partial shot of the after-math:

After this, I started to work on her face-up.  As I may have mentioned, this was the first time I had ordered a full doll blank.  Initially, I felt concerned that I wouldn't be able to enjoy the experience.  There have been two (or three) box-openings that disappointed me hugely because the doll arrived with a face-up that I did not like.  Based on these precedents, I expected the worst.  

Instead, it simply felt as though the doll could not properly arrive until she ceased to be blank.  I did not even bother to try her dress and wig; all that I could think about was giving her a face.

So, I raided my art and face-up supplies and set to work.

Progress: basic blushing.

Progress: eye-brows.

Progress: more stuff done to eyebrows and blushing.

Progress: for how long can I avoid painting eyelashes?

Progress: I continue to avoid painting eyelashes.

By the time I finished the face-up, the sun had long set.  Only then did I try the outfit.

Iplehouse designed a stunning ensemble for their lady-- I feel incredibly lucky to have this outfit.

The purple is a beautiful, rich hue in person, and the jacket of the dress is rather swoon-worthy. 

Here is a first shot of nYID Emilia wearing her opera gown.  I am focusing on her hands because their aesthetic beauty is likely to have an edifying effect on even the most casual viewer.

And here she is!  I realize the face-up is not 'professional-quality' and that my technique has still many improvements to make, but considering that I have not yet seen any Emilia's with custom face-ups for inspiration, that the weather was very inadvisable for face-upping, and that I had never painted on this colour of resin before, I will admit myself to be pleased with the result. *puffs*

A quick close-up to deflate my ego >.<

Thank-you very much for looking!

* * *

Notes:  On the whole, I am impressed with nYID Emelia.  Although I did not have particularly low expectations for Iplehouse, Emelia is even more lovely in person than I anticipated.  As I worked on her face-up, I kept finding nuances in her sculpt that surprised and delighted me.  

The nYID body is wonderfully curvaceous and has many improvements from the EID female body.  I am so glad that Iplehouse changed the elbow joints.  They also made some kind of gear-like joint in the hips so that the nYID girls can sit straight better.  I had a bit of trouble with making Emelia stand, but I think this had a lot more to do with the weight of her wig and elaborate bustle-era dress, than with the doll itself.

* * *

Building A Mystery

On Friday, my order of wigs and eyes arrived from Luts. Afterward, I felt just reckless enough to take a swing at Chrom's face-up.



About about half way through the process.



All finished!



As desperately as I wanted a Chrom, once he arrived, his default face-up troubled me.

I used to love everything about that face-up, but the more interesting things that I saw other people doing with the sculpt, the less I cared for the default.

In person, the problem was even worse: for as skillful as the artist was, and as lucky as I felt to have a soom limited face-up, to me, he just looked angry all the time. I would glance behind me to see him, and think: Yikes! Why is he so upset?

I also could not think of a name or much of a character for him. He was still so much a 'Chrom' from soom. All of my other resin people have some literary connection and most of them have a song that I associate with them. It may sound a bit silly, but I like how those things give one a sense of character.

So at last, while working away on the face-up, I was listening to grooveshark, and there was the song for my Chrom. It was not at all what I expected it would be.

Shortly thereafter, I decided that, for extremely convoluted reasons, Eric would be a suitable name.

And here he is:








* * *

Box-Opening [Buddydoll Raphael Semi-Elf]

An Epic Tale of Eyebrows.




Please also disregard my inability to spell ^.^; I was rather excited.

Mr. Black, a raven, has placed himself beside the box and an accompanying white package, which I assume contains a blank head.



A glimpse at the minimally styled, but ever-so-functional, inner box.








The mysteries begin to reveal themselves.

Behold, I give you, firstly, ten miniature toes!




Mr. Black compares his feet with those of the new arrival.




Beyond the green cushion.

I discover that the blank head is in the main box, which makes me very curious as to the white package.




The contents of the white package: two pairs of beautiful eyes. Buddy-doll does not even sell eyes!

I think they included these to make up for some unnecessary shipping fees that I paid.

I am extremely grateful to have them :-D




Sexy boots and cards.




The elegant Mars head.




Wigs.




I confess, there is a reason why I took careful pictures of all the extras. The reason is slightly tragic.




Having by now had my first glimpse of my new doll, I was, of all things, trying assiduously to avoid looking at him.

As though his face would magically fix itself, if I gave it enough time.




Something left me completely cold.

I had requested a custom face-up. I sent Buddydoll a very clear picture of what I wanted, using a lightly photoshopped version of their own pictures, and included a list of the changes I made.




They said they could do the face-up I had requested.

But the face-up I received looked very different.

It is by no means a completely unattractive face-up, but I had such a definite idea of how he was supposed to appear, that I could hardly stand to look at him.




When I tried the blond wig on him, the change in his appearance put me seriously Out Of All Good Humour.




I then took his head off, and began to contemplate drastic, uncharted measures.
(Yes, I did flip out a bit ^.^; )

My first doll had revealed her name to me the instant I saw her face.

This person would not take to a name.

I felt such despair that I became brave. I did research on DoA and began to alter his face-up.



In my panic, I turned the bathroom into an art studio.

(What?? Good God, why the bathroom!? It was convenient... and I cleaned thoroughly afterwards... *mumbles excuses*)



For the next six hours, I was engaged in trying to make him look tolerable (to me, anyway).

I had so hoped that I would be able to practice face-ups on the blank head before attempting anything like this.

But finally, well... I freely admit that the company face-up photographed several hundred times better.

At least now, however, his eyebrows are approximately the silly shape that they need to be, and I can love him as he deserves.




And I discovered that his name is Marlowe.




* * *