Face Ups. GREEN FACE UP'S
I am so insanely angry and pissed off right now. I mean slamming doors angry, throwing stuff around, screaming and stamping angry child tantrum kind of angry. I want to break things. I AM SO ANGRY.
So, yes. We all know about Anton now. My secret scaled head, modded Ricky Eluid which has been both my pride and joy, long term unfinished project and hated , unfinished dissapointment. We all know about Anton's non-modded Ricky Eluid head. We know he's had several face ups. Not all have worked. One did, I was happy. He was wonderful. So I though - now it's time to get his other head painted. The scales were applied by the wonder otepoti. She painted them black for me, because I hadn't decided on the rest of the face up. On reflection, I should've got her to do it. But hindsight is always 20/20.
I hunt around DoA, I find a bunch of people I want to do it, but they're either unresponsive, or fully booked. I finally get someone agreeing to do it, and then once it's all pretty much finalised and I ask when to send it, she dumps on me that she's fully booked for these slots and doesn't take reservations. Out of principle I decide to go against it - I've had my share of flakey face up artists (bare in mind all this hunting is over several months). I try LinnyP again. She, thankfully, agrees! I've worked with her before. She was great. I love her work.
Now, I don't know if the tale that follows is a one off, but from this point in, things start to go wrong.
The inital talks via email are great. I think I was pretty eloquent. We discuss ideas, she's excited about doing something different, despite the fact she's bringing a halt to her face ups, but she's still eager to do it. Here's the description of what I want from Anton's scaled face up...
"Oooh he does! I've never seen slayers but I'm totally surprised at how alike they look. I'd love for the scale to be black, kinda black mamba (snake) look. (He's meant to be a dragon hybrid thing) Yea - I want the base of his face to be natural. I'm not sure about the eyebrows, actually. I'd really like to see any ideas for eyebrows that you might have (a quick sketch would be awesome!)
What I'm really aiming for is a the idea that he's been caught "mid change" between a dragon and a person. So any ideas are welcome!" That refrence is to a dragony type character from an anime called Slayers - I've never seen it but she sent an attached image of a lovely dragony type boy. I still have the attached image in my emails. I also offer to send off his painted head as a refrence, as I want them to look like they are the same person. (As they are.) She says this is all great.
A couple more emails back and forth, and I send the heads off. I sent them off on the 16th of May. She gets them the 17th. Our conversations started on the 14th. After recieving the heads she noticed chipping in Anton's painted head, and offers to spray it for me. I say yes please. Brilliant. I hear nothing for a week. I send an email. She says Anton is going pretty well. But when she sprayed the painted head it kind of dissolved all the MSC and ruined the face up. She offered to give me a new face for free - I said that's great but it's not your fault, so let me pay you at least something? She insists no. Fine. I ask if she can still make the orginal head have the eyelashes she had in. She says...
" his eyelashes are fine i removed them with ease so i can reuse them for you, unless you would like new ones applying :)
i should hopefully have some picture for you tomorrow :)
drom lynette
"
Well, brilliant I think. This was the 25th of May. Fast Forward to the 11th of June. I've HEARD NOTHING. I've emailed her again, and I get pictures of what she's done so far on the scaled head. These were the pictures.
Excuse the size. I ask for the eyebrows to be darkened, mentioning I love the darkening around the eyes and the shape of the brows. I mention I can't wait to see what she does with the scales. She replies...
" wonderfull :)
i was a little worried as my style of painting isnt the same as the original artist who made your nondragon boy, i shall start my work on him now so i know they are the same ^^
yes i can add more shading easily to his eyebrows, is he black haired naturally? as they are darker than i usually do them :) "
Bare in mind I sent her Anton's dark wig and his dark eyes. The WIG is black. Right, ok I think, maybe the wig has just been set aside and forgotten about. I remind her yes.
Fast forward to the 1st of JULY. I ask her how she's getting on, and when I'll get them back. By this point I'm worried that something has happened to her, or something has happened to the heads and she's lurking, or she's scarped with my heads. (Out of character, but I still worry.)
"hi susi.. sorry for the long wait,
this is one of the reasons im having to stop taking on commissions, i just dont have alot of time anymore with my job >_<
i cant stand letting people down and making them wait
heres some pics, i hope you like them both"
Fair enough, I look at the pictures.
Green Scales. I'm so blown away by the green scales I think that maybe it's the camera. And the crappy lighting. I barely notice the other face up, but I do ask for the eyebrows to be thickened. And the scales to be painted black,. I worry, internally, that I didn't specify scale colour. I KNOW now I did - I keep all emails as a precuation. She says she'll get right on it! Not issue. Great. By this point I'm feeling kinda bad that I've been pestering a busy person and after all his time I'm still not happy with the face ups.
Right.
3rd July. I am understandly fed up waiting for updates. I send another email asking about the heads, and when I'll get them back. I get a reply, with "finally some decent pics!"
Pretty shadowy pictures. Scales look black. No eyelashes, but I don't mention it. All looks ok. Dissapointed that Anton doesn't have more scales, after all, thats why I was so fussy. I wanted some more painted on scales. But by this stage I just want the heads home as I'm going away soon, so I ask her to seal them and gloss them. These pictures were the last I have heard from Lynette, despite asking when she was going to ship them.
Today I wake up, wander downstairs and find a "sorry we missed you" thing from the post office. I head up to collect it. It's Anton. YAY! I think, over joyed. I rip it open in the car, and I am very dissapointed. Here are *my* pictures. And these faults are obvious, they're not like they only show up in bright light when your close up.
(Excuse the size, I feel they emphasis the faults.)
Green painted scales. It is sticky. So Sticky, in fact, that the kitchen towel the heads are wrapped in HAS STUCK to it. I haven't pulled it off yet, I'm scared too.
UNFINISHED black scales. Still green, too. Can you see the black pencil marks that were the "repaint" ?
More "repaint."
Again.
.....My doll is still GREEN. But this is NOT THE EXTENT OF WHY I AM ANGRY. (Although it is the major factor.)
Uneven eyebrows. Her pictures didn't show this. Maybe I'm nit picking at a free face up, (but again I did offer to pay) but I've been through SO MUCH stress with Anton's face, this will not do. I'm so dissapointed. Anton is my favourite character out of all my dolls, he's one of my oldest and his face is *so* important. His lips are dissapointing too.
Please also note, NO EYELASHES. The attached kind. Now, where are they? I paid for them. I liked those eye lashes. Now they're gone, probably binned.
.....
Anton is still green. I've calmed down writing this now, got everything all laid out in my head. But I don't know where to go with this now. DO I ask for a refund? Or a partial refund? I'm going to have to send Anton away to get done AGAIN. The scales at his eye are green, painted on, and sticky. I will not be able to remove those without ruining the rest of the face up. Also, his ears are dirty. I'm pretty sure he wasn't sparkling clean before I sent him, but a quick wipe would clear that away.
I am dissapointed. I am sore, I am angry. My doll is not what I wanted, after nearly two months of waiting, ANTON is still green. He looks a mess. He's unfinished. And whats more, I need to live with this until september, because I am not happy sending him away when I'm away on digs and won't be able keep an eye via emails and what not.
This is so frustrating, I am actually crying a little bit.
Fucking Green Doll.
So, yes. We all know about Anton now. My secret scaled head, modded Ricky Eluid which has been both my pride and joy, long term unfinished project and hated , unfinished dissapointment. We all know about Anton's non-modded Ricky Eluid head. We know he's had several face ups. Not all have worked. One did, I was happy. He was wonderful. So I though - now it's time to get his other head painted. The scales were applied by the wonder otepoti. She painted them black for me, because I hadn't decided on the rest of the face up. On reflection, I should've got her to do it. But hindsight is always 20/20.
I hunt around DoA, I find a bunch of people I want to do it, but they're either unresponsive, or fully booked. I finally get someone agreeing to do it, and then once it's all pretty much finalised and I ask when to send it, she dumps on me that she's fully booked for these slots and doesn't take reservations. Out of principle I decide to go against it - I've had my share of flakey face up artists (bare in mind all this hunting is over several months). I try LinnyP again. She, thankfully, agrees! I've worked with her before. She was great. I love her work.
Now, I don't know if the tale that follows is a one off, but from this point in, things start to go wrong.
The inital talks via email are great. I think I was pretty eloquent. We discuss ideas, she's excited about doing something different, despite the fact she's bringing a halt to her face ups, but she's still eager to do it. Here's the description of what I want from Anton's scaled face up...
"Oooh he does! I've never seen slayers but I'm totally surprised at how alike they look. I'd love for the scale to be black, kinda black mamba (snake) look. (He's meant to be a dragon hybrid thing) Yea - I want the base of his face to be natural. I'm not sure about the eyebrows, actually. I'd really like to see any ideas for eyebrows that you might have (a quick sketch would be awesome!)
What I'm really aiming for is a the idea that he's been caught "mid change" between a dragon and a person. So any ideas are welcome!" That refrence is to a dragony type character from an anime called Slayers - I've never seen it but she sent an attached image of a lovely dragony type boy. I still have the attached image in my emails. I also offer to send off his painted head as a refrence, as I want them to look like they are the same person. (As they are.) She says this is all great.
A couple more emails back and forth, and I send the heads off. I sent them off on the 16th of May. She gets them the 17th. Our conversations started on the 14th. After recieving the heads she noticed chipping in Anton's painted head, and offers to spray it for me. I say yes please. Brilliant. I hear nothing for a week. I send an email. She says Anton is going pretty well. But when she sprayed the painted head it kind of dissolved all the MSC and ruined the face up. She offered to give me a new face for free - I said that's great but it's not your fault, so let me pay you at least something? She insists no. Fine. I ask if she can still make the orginal head have the eyelashes she had in. She says...
" his eyelashes are fine i removed them with ease so i can reuse them for you, unless you would like new ones applying :)
i should hopefully have some picture for you tomorrow :)
drom lynette
"
Well, brilliant I think. This was the 25th of May. Fast Forward to the 11th of June. I've HEARD NOTHING. I've emailed her again, and I get pictures of what she's done so far on the scaled head. These were the pictures.
Excuse the size. I ask for the eyebrows to be darkened, mentioning I love the darkening around the eyes and the shape of the brows. I mention I can't wait to see what she does with the scales. She replies...
" wonderfull :)
i was a little worried as my style of painting isnt the same as the original artist who made your nondragon boy, i shall start my work on him now so i know they are the same ^^
yes i can add more shading easily to his eyebrows, is he black haired naturally? as they are darker than i usually do them :) "
Bare in mind I sent her Anton's dark wig and his dark eyes. The WIG is black. Right, ok I think, maybe the wig has just been set aside and forgotten about. I remind her yes.
Fast forward to the 1st of JULY. I ask her how she's getting on, and when I'll get them back. By this point I'm worried that something has happened to her, or something has happened to the heads and she's lurking, or she's scarped with my heads. (Out of character, but I still worry.)
"hi susi.. sorry for the long wait,
this is one of the reasons im having to stop taking on commissions, i just dont have alot of time anymore with my job >_<
i cant stand letting people down and making them wait
heres some pics, i hope you like them both"
Fair enough, I look at the pictures.
Green Scales. I'm so blown away by the green scales I think that maybe it's the camera. And the crappy lighting. I barely notice the other face up, but I do ask for the eyebrows to be thickened. And the scales to be painted black,. I worry, internally, that I didn't specify scale colour. I KNOW now I did - I keep all emails as a precuation. She says she'll get right on it! Not issue. Great. By this point I'm feeling kinda bad that I've been pestering a busy person and after all his time I'm still not happy with the face ups.
Right.
3rd July. I am understandly fed up waiting for updates. I send another email asking about the heads, and when I'll get them back. I get a reply, with "finally some decent pics!"
Pretty shadowy pictures. Scales look black. No eyelashes, but I don't mention it. All looks ok. Dissapointed that Anton doesn't have more scales, after all, thats why I was so fussy. I wanted some more painted on scales. But by this stage I just want the heads home as I'm going away soon, so I ask her to seal them and gloss them. These pictures were the last I have heard from Lynette, despite asking when she was going to ship them.
Today I wake up, wander downstairs and find a "sorry we missed you" thing from the post office. I head up to collect it. It's Anton. YAY! I think, over joyed. I rip it open in the car, and I am very dissapointed. Here are *my* pictures. And these faults are obvious, they're not like they only show up in bright light when your close up.
(Excuse the size, I feel they emphasis the faults.)
Green painted scales. It is sticky. So Sticky, in fact, that the kitchen towel the heads are wrapped in HAS STUCK to it. I haven't pulled it off yet, I'm scared too.
UNFINISHED black scales. Still green, too. Can you see the black pencil marks that were the "repaint" ?
More "repaint."
Again.
.....My doll is still GREEN. But this is NOT THE EXTENT OF WHY I AM ANGRY. (Although it is the major factor.)
Uneven eyebrows. Her pictures didn't show this. Maybe I'm nit picking at a free face up, (but again I did offer to pay) but I've been through SO MUCH stress with Anton's face, this will not do. I'm so dissapointed. Anton is my favourite character out of all my dolls, he's one of my oldest and his face is *so* important. His lips are dissapointing too.
Please also note, NO EYELASHES. The attached kind. Now, where are they? I paid for them. I liked those eye lashes. Now they're gone, probably binned.
.....
Anton is still green. I've calmed down writing this now, got everything all laid out in my head. But I don't know where to go with this now. DO I ask for a refund? Or a partial refund? I'm going to have to send Anton away to get done AGAIN. The scales at his eye are green, painted on, and sticky. I will not be able to remove those without ruining the rest of the face up. Also, his ears are dirty. I'm pretty sure he wasn't sparkling clean before I sent him, but a quick wipe would clear that away.
I am dissapointed. I am sore, I am angry. My doll is not what I wanted, after nearly two months of waiting, ANTON is still green. He looks a mess. He's unfinished. And whats more, I need to live with this until september, because I am not happy sending him away when I'm away on digs and won't be able keep an eye via emails and what not.
This is so frustrating, I am actually crying a little bit.
Fucking Green Doll.