In the Garden III: Luspira

Who guards whom?

Luspira and her guardian, Satin.
Or should that be the other way around?

Satin: BW CP Nanuri 07

So, it was time for Satin - Luspira's blind guardian - to get his mods and face-up today, in addintion to Galhaia's new face-up!

Eyes opened a little wider using Dremel and fine sandpaper.

Basic yebrow shape blocked in with Inscribe pastel using a sponge applicator; basic lip blushing added with a round filbert brush. You can see his little fangs very clearly here. :-)

Eyebrows shaped using watercolour pencil; liplines added in pale pink watercolour pencil. Light blushing round eyes, nose and on lips using Inscribe chalk pastels.

Lower eyelashes and eyeliner defined with watercolour pencil; further blushing round eyes and on lips with I Kan Dee iridescent chalk pastels.

White watercolour pencil gives further definition to eyebrows and is used to add lighter liplines.

The fangs are picked out with white acrylic paint, and Windsor & Newton Iridescent Medium applied to top eyelids before a coat of gloss varnish is applied to eyelids and lips.

Light brown eyelashes complete the face-up.

So here he is complete, with 16mm glass "blind" olive eyes and a Monique wig in platinum blonde - that won't be his default wig and eys however, as I have a Monique joJo wig in Strawberry Blonde and Auburn on the way, and eventually he will have 17mm Masterpiece Eclipses. I will be ordering his Fantasy Doll body in a couple of weeks' time.

It's all about the elves!

Today has been all about the elves - specifically Lysande, my modded BW CP Vampire Elf Yder, and Nimue, my modded Obitsu Gretel elven sorceress!

First up is Lysande. I'd never been 100% happy with his eye mods; I did them with a rather cheap Maplin Dremel-copy, and whilst it was only my second ever effort at opening eyes, Perseus (my first) had gone far better.

This is Lysande as he was:

And this is how he is now:

His eyes are currently 17mm EyeCo silicones, but now I've opened his eyes up more I am going to be getting him a 19mm set so he shall be looking less "startled"!

Next up is Nimue. It's been a while since my little elven sorceress had any love from the camera, so it was her turn for a photoshoot. :-)

Nimue was one of the first Gretels produced by Parabox, a good year before the optional pixy ears came out; I modded her elf ears myself out of Fimo Doll Clay. Her face-up was also done by me.

Both Nimue and Lysande feature on my Commissions page; updated photos are also up on the Gallery.

A Work In Progress: Luspira (modded MNF vampire elf Shiwoo girl)

Yesterday I opened up the eyes of the sleeping MNF vampire elf Shiwoo head that I received as a Christmas gift, and today I did the face-up - the next stage in bringing to life Luspira, my little werewolf girl.

I took photos at each stage so you can see how I currently do face-ups.

This is how the head looked before I started work on the face-up:

I discovered whilst opening up the eyes that the left eye socket on a sleeping MNF vamp elf Shiwoo head is ever so slightly lower than the right - which means that even when you've got the eyes opened up evenly (confirmed by comparing the apertures from inside the head), the eyes will still look slightly uneven because the right eye will have more upper eyelid than the left eye. It is more obvious due to the small size of the head, but will be far less obvious once the face-up is finished. Opening the eyes is made a little more tricky due to how thin the resin is behind the eyes on this particular head mold - slowly and carefully does it.

Blank head with eyes in


Base blushing:

After spraying with a base coat of Testors Dullcote, I apply chalk pastel blushing, including the basic shape of the eyebrows (I use a blend of Inscribe chalk pastels and I Kan Dee metallic chalks). Here, I've used a size 4 flat filbert brush to apply blushing to lips and eyes; I then used a small cosmetic sponge applicator to apply light brown pastel in the rough shape of the eyebrows before neatening up lines by tapping with a kneadable putty eraser to lift away excess blushing. Then I spray with Testors to fix this layer of blushing.

Eyebrows and lower lashes:

Next I define the eyebrows and draw on lower lashes with light, fine strokes using watercolour pencils (here, I've used three shades of brown). Luspira is going to be a werewolf, so I've applied dark eyeliner extending down below the inner corners of her eyes with soft dark Derwent Graphitint watercolour graphite pencils in Cocoa and Black. I've also applied light lip lines with a dusky rose watercolour pencil before fixing with another layer of Testors.

Highlights and glossing:

Here, I've applied further liplines with a white watercolour pencil, picked out the little fangs with white acrylic paint using a 6/0 brush, and added silvery highlights to the upper eyelids and inner corners of the eyes with Windsor & Newton Iridescent Medium before a final coat of Testors. The face-up is completed with a layer of acrylic gloss on the lips.

Finished result:

The head completed, with eyes and eyelashes.


Wearing a Tinybear mohair wig in Midnight and Black.







Now all she needs is her body...!