☆~~ Granado Doll Discussion Part 18 ~~☆

Ahh he looks so cool!
Oh that's a pretty good turn around. So here's me hoping it'll be quick

 

Hello all, I never ordered from Granado before, but Cain Wood Spirit really catched my eye. Now I have a question regarding the face up option - is it possible to get the face up in the promo pictures, or is that only for the promo pictures? Thank you!

 

If you scroll to the bottom of his sales page, it says that they do not provide service for that particular faceup - but they tell you to get directly in touch with the commission artist who did it, through their IG: ara_dolls.

 

@celga Thank you In Germany we have a proverb, it translates roughly "Those who can read are having a big advantage" ^^ Should have looked more closely!

 

Congratulations @AllyCat! Granado has a decently fast turnaround time compared to some other companies, and their customer service is always amazing should you need to contact them regarding estimates. The only thing that slowed down my latest order from them was the lockdowns in china and suspended shipping - totally out of their control!

 

welp, I've ordered a Cain Wood Sprite head in chocolate fingers crossed that Granado's chocolate resin is a reasonably close match to the special dark brown resin LoongSoul used to cast their Black Dragon (and also that this head is larger than Black Dragon's, or I'll have 2 heads with the same too-tiny-for-my-taste issue...)

 

I've been calling him Shi or 10 since he is Granado V10. He needs a new name. Although he looks like a 10 to me.
Shi by SteamWitch, on Flickr

 

Definitely a 10! Maybe Romeo?

 

@Ashemanu LOL! And lucky for you, that artist appears to be in Germany. If you decide to go through with it, no outrageous international shipping costs!

 

@celga Ashemanu and me actually know each other in person
We have met each other several times in the past on our local meets (when we still had them).

I have to admit, I am still a little surprised how Granado decided to handle this. The original idea was that I paint the heads and they get sold through Granado, but now they used them as photo models and decided to keep them...and told people to reach out to me, even though I don't have the capacity eek
I also don't know how the face-up they actually offer will look like. Will they try to emulate mine? Is it something completely different? I think they should have shown a photo of the face-up you get when you purchase a "basic" one from them, so buyers won't be confused.
I have to admit I am a tiny little bit relieved because it's been over a year since I've painted them, and I feel I have grown since then as an artist again, and it's the usual dilemma of looking back at your old works And also, usually it's me who handles my face-ups last and packs them up. I was so paranoid between me sending them to Granado and a potential buyer getting them something bad would happen
But at the same time, I had put in so much care to make them nice for potential buyers...I don't know if Granado might change their mind if someone asks them to purchase the specific model on the photos? I painted eight heads for them, so six still haven't been shown by them.

Also, here are the photos I took of the two Cains back then. I had envisioned them as twin brothers, one a vampire and the other a vampire hunter. The hunter actually thinks his brother is dead and doesn't know he's alive as a vampire
Here's the hunter, or the "regular" Cain:


And here's the vampire, or the "Wood Spirit", they now released:

Spoiler: pic 2

 

That is, without a doubt, the greatest coincidence that I have ever seen on DoA. You do absolutely amazing work - those heads are just beautiful! I'd love to see the missing ones. Honestly, I'm a little disappointed in Granado, though - shifting gears on an artist without telling them what's going on seems kind of unprofessional to me.

 

Thank you, thank you!

And I'm not angry with them or feel like they pulled the rug underneath my feet.
I had talked to them when the first Cain got posted and I was surprised it wasn't a OOAK sale for the painted head. Apparently Crocus had a hard time giving away the head again
They did ask me whether I'd rather prefer for them to sell the head instead of keeping it for themselves, and I told them that I'm flattered Crocus likes him so much and that the heads are theirs to do with as they please.

To be fair, I can understand it. If I'd be a sculptor and a faceup artist would paint my work in a way I really enjoy for my sculpt...I'd also would like to keep it! Hell, one of the heads I painted I nearly didn't want to send back to them

I don't know if they will keep this up for the remaining ones too though, or if he will keep some of them and some will be sold. We'll see!

Also the other ones can be seen here:
https://at.tumblr.com/in-tentationem/the-last-months-i-painted-eight-different-heads/12uox51yqgjy

https://at.tumblr.com/in-tentationem/the-last-months-i-painted-eight-different-heads/gczfwva70r3g

https://at.tumblr.com/in-tentationem/the-last-months-i-painted-eight-different-heads/6rgyzi4690gl



The kintsugi Noah was actually the one I would have loved to keep

 

@Ara Hello again
Yes, your work is truly admirable! Really love your face ups. Still deciding if I should go for him or not. I would have loved a picture right from the front, for some reason those are almost always missing. And I am very much not sure about the size. 74cm is alot, my biggest dolls are ID72s, and I am not getting any younger. Handling that weight wouldn´t be exactly fun.

I looked at their face up options, the realistic one seems closest. But as Ara said, you cannot be sure what you will get in the end. So it´s a choice for the brave

 

74cm is a lot of doll. My largest are 71cm and that's a lot to me. I also never thought I'd own dolls that large. To be honest I never thought I'd own SD's (or have as many dolls as I do). I've been subjected to size creep and after a bit, the extra size doesn't seem that bad. The only slight issue I have with my biggest guys is being able to string them tight enough but that's also a combo of their size and a recent hand injury that has left me with what appears to be permanently reduced mobility and weakness in 2 fingers.

But because I am a resin-in-the-form-of-dolls addict, that will not be a factor in keeping me from getting any size of doll that makes my heart soar. It'll be more challenging but what's life without a few challenges?

My favourite size (currently) is 50-ish cm boys. I have quite a few of them and I love that they have features of both MSD and SD sizes as far as weight and maturity goes. I'd probably fling money I shouldn't at Granado if they brought back the 53cm size (I have a 53Lucifer in syringa).

 

Hey dear, hope you're doing well still
And thank you, things have come quite far within the last years and since the early commission days on the Dollicted.

I can actually help you with the front pictures, I always take a blank one before I start painting a head to have the option to take a "before/after" comparison later:



Also, this is the two photo models painted from the front:

Spoiler: more images

The heads are definitely pretty big, which is another reason why I'd rather not paint those face-ups again and again. Painting that full beard on the first Cain was so bad, my wrist started to burn and I had to take long breaks in between sessions
There's a reason default face-ups are usually somewhat simple with the line work, if an artist had to re-do this for every head sold...

He's very pretty though, and supposed to be a brother to Enoch...who is by far my favorite Granado still.

 

@Ara Thanks a ton, that´s exactly what I needed! Helps me alot to decide! Well, all the beard effort on Cain was certainly worth it

 

@Ara Enoch is my favourite too! I didn't know cain was supposed to be his brother but now you mention it, I can totally see it!
I adore that line work you did on Cain! Looks amazing!
I think I'll need to do something similar for my Dark Lord Enoch!

 

@Girrl 75cm Noah, and theoretically Cain, are definitely bigger than many newer LoongSoul sculpts. Can't say about Black Dragon, but to give everyone a reference, Noah here (holding the glasses) is already at the back of the lineup and he still looks visibly bigger than LS ZhuZhao (foreground, with the "skunk hair").


HBD Queen by Yela Gatchalian-David, on Flickr

Furthermore, when I took Noah to a meet, he pretty much towered over every other doll attendee. I'm one who's used to lugging around huge hunks of resin, and he still gave me two sore arms the day after.

 

are the head circumferences between your Noah and ZhuZhao about the same? because Black Dragon is only 19cm, which is basically a minifee head, on an body with shoulders about as wide as 2 minifees...

 

ZhuZhao is around 21cm (the same as Iplehouse Scarlet in the middle), while Noah is around 23cm. The pale SD girl in the foreground beside Noah is around 19.5cm. IMHO, unlike LoongSoul's aesthetic which seemed to have stretched a doll length-wise without changing the head size, Granado is more balanced in proportions all throughout. A big bod to match a large sculpt, essentially.