Tiny Death

Work has been sucking the life out of me these days. For the last two months one person or another has been gone, either due to vacation or personal emergencies. In a four person dept, this is kind of like hell. I've had a lot of stuff of my own to do, and then I have to cover most if not all of a coworkers work as well. So I've had a lot of days like yesterday, where I went home and sat and stared, instead of doing things I should be doing, like getting ready for Dollism or finishing up Alex III's tattoos of doom. I have had no time for fun things at work, like photos or blogs. I kind of caught up today however, so a quick update.

Alex III
He's actually almost finished. I have to do the rose on his arm, and blush him and that's it. Oh, and one of his three pairs of hands and his feets, because for some reason I save those for last.
Then he shall be sat on my shelf for the next week until I carefully wrap him up in scarves and shirts and put him in my travel bag with Alex I (who's been naked for a while now XD). I don't intend to put clothes on either of them until I'm in the hotel. Hopefully they'll make it without too much damage. I'm really not hopeful. Sitting naked on my shelf Alex I chipped his arm. >:O

Now for my most unexpected bit of BJD news.

By some stroke of uber-luck, I won the Paper Doll of Your Doll contest on DOA! I'm still surprised tbh. I put mine up early and there were quite a few posted after that I thought would win over mine. I really loved the other two winners as well, so yay for them!!

So I'm super-excited to say I won the Doll Chateau Faust generously donated by Denver Doll Emporium! I really can't believe it, I've never won anything as amazing as a doll before! And really, he's blank, WS and Doll Chateau with a little pouty face. He couldn't have been more me if he tried! lol

DDE (as fabulous as they are) shipped him out to me on Thursday, and he must have sprouted wings to get here so fast, because I had him Saturday morning, just in time to go to a Doll Meet!

Here's my little Faust, all nekkid and blank!

 

This crappy photo is the only one I have of him from his box opening day. He didn't stay like that for long...I stripped Baby Alex out of his striped jumpsuit (he was in Jail. Don't ask.) and put it on him because it's massively huge and literally the only thing that will fit his fat butt. I tried a couple wigs on him, and went with the second one -- the mohair wig from FL that came with Latte (full set Rose) that I hated on her. On him it's perfect. I also pulled out a hat for him that I happened to have, luckily, because I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do with him -- Chibi Skullface!!

When I had found out I'd won, I had sort of been thinking of what to do with him, and it seemed appropriate. I had wanted to wait until I had him to really make up my mind, but he was doomed the second I saw him. Skullface won him, so I figure it was meant to be anyway.

Sunday I was playing with him, and mentioned to my Roommate that he would go to Dollism, even if he was blank...and she twisted my arm and made me give him a faceup.

It took me a few minutes to come up with a definite plan, but once I had it, I couldn't not.

 

JACK!! I was trying to think of a way to simplify and cute up Skullface, and who's a better simplified skull than Jack?! Of course I had to watch Nightmare while working on him (and Alex. I swear he's taking me the rest of my life).

I freaking love him. Unlike big Skullface, his hand is actually finished, but it's the only part of him that is XD I had drug down my Jack Skellington action figure and the way they did the hands was so easy I went on and did it quickly. Yeah. It wasn't easy. Chibi Skullface has tiny little hands, and fused-together fingers.

 

He's so chubby!! X33 and he poses really well. He stands like a rock in several positions and is really well balanced, sits great, slouches like a pro. His arm joints work really well. I seriously adore him. And how crazy is it that I had that hat?! lol

He only has this one thing to wear. My Roommate made it, copying the other one I have. Since it's Baby Alex's, I had sewn bunny ears and a tail too it, so it wasn't really skullface appropriate. The new one has no bun parts so it works better.

 

He could not channel Tim Burton more, I think.
I'm hoping she'll make him a shirt and shorts. He needs this shirt, for obvious reasons. I figured he'd hang out with the rest of my "dead" dolls, but chances are he's just going to lurk after Chibi Alex, and be the creeper that his big self is. Only cuter.

I'd like to give one more giant THANK YOU to the Den of Angels Mods and to Denver Doll Emporium. I loves my creepy bebeh.

He needs a better, more in character photoshoot now. Dark and creepy. But not. And someday I need to take a pic of the other side of his face XD

Paper BJDs?

I have been massively busy since Thursday.

First, Thursday, Ghost finally showed up!!

 

Ghost is the Dollzone Carter my best friend ordered in February for my Birthday in April. Lol. Happy Birthday to meeeee! Late! But still awesome!

I love him. He's adorable and weird, which is how I like my dolls. He's keeping the grey hair, and will wear mostly black, white, grey and natural colors (cause he's a ghost). I want to order him a couple more wigs - and then for now that's it. I have 4 dolls that I need to faceup at the same time, him, the two Boo's and my DZ Star. None of that will happen until after Dollism.

 

 Speaking of Star, I bought the 5Star Tong Tong from DDE. It came Monday and now my little "dragon" has a body again! Only this time he's a demon. The horns that came with Tong Tong are perfect for him. I'm going to glue them to his head. I'm not kidding.
He looks fantastic right now. All the clothes that are too big for Chibs are going to him.

I worked on Alex III like a fiend all weekend, but he's not close to finished and the weather has been HORRIBLE. Hot and so humid you can't breath. I'm not taking the chance....he can wait. Not for long, but at least until this weekend. I have to finish him, he can't go out in the public half-done!!

I also cleaned my room. This doesn't sound impressive, but if you'd seen it, you'd know....I can walk in there now. I'm doing another wardrobe purge, along with some hats, shoes and other crap I don't need. Then a rearrange of everything so hopefully everything will actually have a place for a change.

Now for the fun part.

I woke up Friday morning to this. I'm not really sure why, but I became obsessed. I must have looked at all those examples for hours, no joke. I decided I wanted to enter, if only to make one, not really to win (though I'd take the prizes lol)...I was thinking of how I'd do Alex when I remembered I couldn't mess with him - III is apart, I is modeling, and the others aren't in a state to even look at atm.

Then it hit me. Skullface!!! I dragged him to work and took a million pictures of him Friday. Of the shots, these are the ones that turned out.

 

and

  

Which I thought were decent photos, but don't help when trying to make paper dolls :\

Because I was busy with a million other things over the weekend I didn't touch it again until yesterday (I was also busy Monday) when I took a million more photos.

Then it got hard. I went through all my pictures and pulled out the best ones of each part. For real, most all his parts are from separate pictures. I cut out the parts, sized and resized, and placed them all together in Photoshop. Some parts, like his head and bottom torso, are made of several photos.

This is the shot I used of his head

 

Part of his hair, and the hat are cropped out. I took both of them from another photo and merged. I also had to do that with his pants a lot. He's pieced together like a patchwork doll lol more than a paper one.

This is what I ended up with

  

 Each part is in it's own PS layer. This file is massive. You can tell he's made up of all different photos because each part is a different color XDDDD *fail*

Then I had to take him apart for the "layout"

Not too bad. But again, massive. I had this one merged to two layers, which was a good thing, because I couldn't print this on a regular printer. My intention was to split it onto two 11x17 sheets, but it was too big for that, and laid out wrong. SO I had to make yet another layout, or, 3 layouts, all 11x17 so I could place and print.

tada!!

 

 I think it worked!!

Here he is, all assembled, and giantly huge! PaperSkullface!

 

normalish, 

and not...so...

  

 lol

I almost wish I had done crazier poses to show how jointy he is. I used 19 brad-things to fasten him, and he's so tall the hat goes nearly to my hip when I hold him up. He's like, twice the size of the real Skullface. He's taped to the wall (you can see the tape on his foot. I'm pissed. I wish I'd seen it before I took the pictures). I put packing tape on him on the backside so I could stick masking tape to him and not damage him. I printed 4 out total, one on regular paper by accident, then three on card-stock. This one is just the card-stock version. The other two I laminated! When I get home tonight I'll start cutting and assembling. I didn't want to laminate the one I entered because I thought he'd be too shiny to photograph.

It's kind of dumb how much fun this thing is. I want to make more. I want to make even better ones! I have a list of things I'd have done better:

Make the black outline better, more consistent and on everything.
Make sure I know how all the joints will work, not just the last half (I got better as I went)
Add dots where the brads will go.
Cleaner pieces.
Better hair. And jointed.
Removable and jointed hat.
Better photos to start with.

It was always my intention to joint the hair, but my photos didn't match up in color or resolution, so I gave up. I think he's fine without. If he was even bigger I could joint the fingers and toes!! *dies*

I am really happy with how he turned out, regardless of what I'd do better. I'd love to make some of my drawings that I could sell at craftshows and stuff. That would be really awesome (guessing it wouldn't be quite legal to sell the ones of the dolls? Since I didn't make the dolls..?).

Anyway, I will call my first paper doll a wild success, whether I win anything or not, I'm thrilled.
Which is one of the reasons I used Skullface, since he was "born" for a DOA contest last year...and even though I didn't win he's been so awesome I'm thrilled. I never would have done that if not for the contest, and I love him! He still needs his one hand finished >.< but I think he looks good <3

Last one

 

Hee hee

Well now that that's done, I may have some time to sued and glue tonight, and maybe I'll get some pics of Star on his new body tomorrow. Or more of Ghost. He pretty cutes right now. I've got faceups and tatts to be doing...and can't do any of it due to weather....so might as well work on non-weather dependent things.

Have a great week!!