In the third and last installment of our interview with Esthy, she tells us about naming her BJD girls and creating their face-ups.
BJDmagazine: How do you select names for you characters? Do you give a lot of importance to the name?
Esthy: Most of the time, I don’t select a name for them until their customization is finished. This way, I can stay much closer to their personality. With few exceptions, give them real first names. When I don’t, it is because the character is completely identified by her name. Belladone (deadly nightshade), for example, is a poisoner; and Nini P’tit Cœur (Nini Little Heart) is a circus artist.
My Lati dolls all have the names of cakes and sweets because they are in a world apart from the others. They are not even in the same glass case. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with Poudre and Chloé (in reference to Mylène Farmer’s song) even before they arrived.
Names are rather important because they more or less define the character.
BJDmagazine: Do you do the face-ups for your BJDs? What guides you in your choices?
Esthy: I just try to give a face to my doll that I will like and which will bring out the doll, that will make me love her. A doll without a face seems to me to be perfectly insipid and uninteresting. I like faces that have a lot of dimension and are very blushed. I’ve made a lot of progress since my first face-up five years ago. In order to evolve, I listened to and accepted critique. I learned to use different materials, I tried new methods to get better results. I try not to fall back on what I know. I try to constantly reinvent myself, to not always do the same face-ups. To make progress, I also relied on the precious advice of some of my talented friends.
BJDmagazine: In all your face-ups, the eyes are delicately made-up with iridescent powders, eye brows are barely visible.The mouths seem to attract attention, and become responsible for the emotion. Why? What is your secret for mouths that are so alive?
Esthy: I also have dolls where the accent is placed on the gaze, it depends on how the sculpt inspires me. But it is true that I love pastel colors, soft, which can create a big contrast for example between large dark circles under the eyes and a well worked mouth. I like BJDs when they have beautiful mouths that are well defined. Plump mouths are even better. For me, the most beautiful lips are those of the unoa Lusis.
The fuller the mouth is, the more details one can paint and the more one can work on the volume. The final touch, gloss, is absolutely indispensable. The brilliance gives the pout, the smile, a more intense expression to the doll. I like dolls with beautiful mouths and nice cheeks!
BJDmagazine: You like freckles. How do you make them so delicate?
Esthy: I adore freckles, they can give so much personality to certain dolls! I make them with very diluted acrylic paint to keep a transparent effect, which I think is very important. I dilute the paint more or less, according to the effect I desire. I then try to place them in the most appropriate locations for the doll and the expression I want to give her.
BJDmagazine: What are your inspirations for face-ups?
Esthy: Like everyone, I have favorite BJD makeup artists. Even though I adopt techniques used by multiple face-up artists, I don’t inspire myself from any one artist in particular. I attempt to do something that seems more or less realistic, even if the sculpt of the doll isn’t at all [realistic]. I love the transparency of the faces and the soft colors of the magnificent paintings of Mark Ryden, but I also love the the delicacy of the features of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. I like the faces of some artists’ dolls, like the dolls of Julien Martinez, Lillycat, Nicole Marschollek and Anne Mitrani. I like many things, but I always try to be original and to only dig into my imagination. Even so, I know very well we are always influenced by someone else, whether we want it or not.
BJDmagazine: You do face-ups on commission. Is it very different for you to paint one of your dolls or to paint for a commission?
Esthy: It depends on what I am asked to do. I don’t accept commissions for work that is completely different from what I normally do. I try to redirect people towards artists that can better match their desires. For my work to succeed, I have to like the doll and the face-up concept. It is always a delicate thing to do a face-up for another person, especially if you don’t know them personally. You can’t always be certain that they will like the result, and the photos sent are not always faithful renditions of the final result. My biggest fear is to let down the person who put their confidence in me. But doing face-ups on BJDs is a real pleasure for me, I love doing it. I like discovering new sculpts, and nothing is more gratifying than when a person is happy with the face-up I did for their BJD.
BJDmagazine: “Poudre”. Could it be you, playing with flowers, jewels, and make-up?
Esthy: Poudre is a little doll that is a little bit of a mascot for me, she incarnates my vision of femininity. I like to wear makeup and put flowers in my hair but I could certainly find bits of myself in each of my BJDs. They are the incarnations of what I love, admire and even fear. I think I have a rather whimsical and dreamy personality. I am fascinated by many things, I love to be filled with marvel and to make discoveries. I hope that I will stay like this for the rest of my life. I hope that I will find many things that will inspire me and that I will like and will allow me to improve. I cannot conceive of this passion without evolution. I think that I would have gotten bored had it not been such a great source of creativity.
BJDmagazine: Is there anything else that you would like to share with our readers?
Esthy: I would just like to say that if you want to do things that you have never tried to do before, do it! Don’t be afraid of having to try again and again, of searching, of not having the right techniques…because you can learn all of that on your own. Have fun, that’s all that counts!
| You can find Esthy on:
Her Blog: http://esthyswonderland.blogspot.com/ |
We want to thank Alexandra Dlugy-Hegwer for her translation.
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~BJDmagazine
You might also like these related articles:
- Interview with Esthy, a French BJD Photographer (Part 1)
- Interview with Esthy, French BJD Photographer (Part 2)
- Interview avec Esthy, Photographe Française de BJDs (French Version) (3/3)
- Interview avec Esthy, Photographe Française de BJDs (French Version) (2/3)
- Interview avec Esthy, Photographe Française de BJDs (French Version)(1/3)
