The day before WonFes!
It’s 9PM on February 8th, in the production studios!!

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Everyone is hard at work while I prepare my expression!

If you’re unsure as to why I’m working on the expression the day before WonFes, it turns out that I’m being forced to complete it at WonFes!

If you missed out on anything, you can catch up on my expression painting escapades with these posts:
Painting a Nendoroid Expression Part 8: Applying the Gradient
Painting a Nendoroid Expression Part 7: Preparing to Apply the Gradient
Painting a Nendoroid Expression Part 6: Pupils and Shadows
Painting a Nendoroid Expression Part 5: Mixing Colors and Eyebrows
Painting a Nendoroid Expression Part 4: Preparing to Apply Color
Painting a Nendoroid Expression Part 3: Continuing to Paint the Eye Borders
Painting a Nendoroid Expression Part 2: Painting the Eye Border
Painting a Nendoroid Expression Part 1: Basic Knowledge & Tools

The paints you can see in the photo above are the different paints that I’ll need to use at WonFes, I quickly had to secure them before the event!

They are completely different to the paints I’ve been using up until now, so I needed to get a little practice in before the big day!
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Preparing to practice with the paints!

I was worried that this paint would dissolve all my hard work so far, so I quickly made a mock up version of what I currently have completed – the base color, pupil and gradient.

Somehow I think I’ve managed to get the gradient looking nicer on my quick mock-up compared to the actual version, but let’s just ignore that little fact for now and move on…
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Mixing up the paint to test!

I’ve been using enamel paints up until now and these definitely have a different feeling to them, but I’m sure it’ll work out! I’m told that these paints dry very quickly, and once they dry they do become a bit powdery.

They are however very safe paints, which is why we are using them at the event. They might not be ideal for expressions, but I’m sure they must have their own specific uses elsewhere.
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I’ll be adding highlights to this at the event!

The stare looks just as impressive as ever! I’ve worked really hard on this, so I’ve actually become quite attached to her now!! :P

I tried to add a little blush to her expression to make her look a little bit cuter, but it was much harder than I expected to get the balance right on both sides! I thought it would just be a few quick lines, but they actually ended up taking quite a long time… I was working on it until the last train!

Everything about this expression ends up taking so much longer than I expect!
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February 10th: WonFes!!

Now that I think about it, WonFes was already 2 weeks ago!
Time has been flying past far too quickly!
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My expression painting started at 2PM!

I really didn’t expect so many people to come by, a big thank you to everyone who came to watch!! I don’t know why you’d want to spend your time watching me, but it was an honor anyway!! ^^
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These were the tools for the day!

All I needed were paints, paint dishes and a a paint brush!
I also had a mirror with me to check symmetry!
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I had 2 and a half hours to work on it!

The monitor on the right has a close up on my hands so everyone could see exactly what was going on – it definitely helped to show off my incompetence, but at the same time it gave everyone a good close up on exactly what needed to be done, which was nice!

Before I started I was so nervous that I was drenched in sweat, but I slowly managed to calm down once I got started and realized everyone was there to watch over me, not judge me! Thanks again to everyone who was watching!!
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Completed the upper highlights!

Hmm, I might have made them a little bit too big…

But anyway, nothing I can do about it now, I don’t have time to adjust it any further for now, so I’ll just move into the lower highlights now.
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Mixing colors for the lower highlights!

The upper highlights were simply done with white, but the lower highlights (known as “crescent moons”) need to be a color similar to the base color.

Normally this would go in a cycle of mixing the color and testing the color until it was perfect, but because I don’t have that much time I’m just going to try this out and hope for the best!!
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Added in one of the crescent moons!

It’s come out far too white!! The color should definitely have been closer to the base color…

There is no time to rework it though, so I’m going to move on ahead once again! (This blog is a very abridged version of the work I actually went though… I needed to erase and redo the highlights a few times!)
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Highlights complete!!

At this point it was already around 4:30PM!! At this point I still wanted to add matte and more of a blush to the expression.

I actually went all the way out of the event hall to get the matte layer done, but WonFes seemed like it about to end, so I had to end my expression work for the day!
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On display for everyone to see!

The title of the painting at the event was “Painting a Nendoroid Expression: Final Part”, but it ended up not really being completed to the very end!

But everyone still gave me a round of applause, which really meant a lot to me! I was so happy I actually teared up a little bit! I’ll don’t think I’ll ever forget the way I felt having everyone applaud my work. Thanks so much everyone!!

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I made a few more adjustments after WonFes!

While I was working on it at WonFes the size of the upper highlights and the color of the ‘crescent moons’ were annoying me, so I decided to fix them up! I know she’s not perfect, but I think I’ve done the very best I can to make this Miku-san!!

While I was working on the expression I accidentally erased the blush a bit too, so I’ll need to rework that as well. I’m getting used to dealing with these silly mistakes now. :P

Tomorrow I’ll create the very last post in the series!

I’ll add a matte and complete the cheeks to finish up the expression!

It’s been a long journey!! I originally wanted to finish this in three days, and I simply can’t believe how long ago that was!!

I don’t think I’ve ever had such a long series of posts on the blog either! But I hope you’ll all read through tomorrow to the very end of the series!!
But anyway, that’s all for today!
I hope to see you all again tomorrow!! (・∀・)ノ゛