Customs, How long does it take?

[Izrabeth]

It takes me a lot of time to complete one too (and I am never happy of the whole result).
Between my job and the other things I have to do I almost never have the time for ponies
Actually I have 5 ponies around since august...and I don't really think I will complete them this month
I know I can finish a custom in a day as I did it twice, but I must work only on it and nothing else and burn a Sunday, must be in the mood...which is rare. 
And I am also the kind that starts several projects at once as I get bored really fast... 
but..hell, I don't care, unless it's for a swap or a commission I have my times 

[reyl]

I can do one or two in a week if I have all the materials I need... from baiting to fixing hair. But I rarely do that. I tend to create in fits and spurts. So I'll make a whole bunch one month, then get anxious or feel uncreative the next month. Swaps help sometimes, but other times make the anxiety worse... Especially if an idea is not flowing. A friend asked for a last minute commission last week, and I have one more day to finish these two ponies. The bait prep and re-hairing was relaxing, but now I'm stressing about the paint. It's really something that takes inspiration and is hard to rush. Usually I just keep a bunch of baited ponies around and when inspiration strikes I whip something up. It's much harder to go the other way and find inspiration on demand.

[MnDancer]

For me, every pony is different. I can finish them rather quickly but I have to be in the right mood. If I'm not, nothing works right and everything ends up wrecked. And swaps. Swaps and their deadlines insist I finish on time. I have some WIP that are years old though. They need hair and clothes. In fact I have several who just need their hair styled.....

^ This!
It certainly depends on mood, how much free-time I have, and difficulty level of the custom. The G4 Moon Dancer I made, I was able to complete, from start to finish in one day, but by the same token, I have some that I started 5 years ago and still have not completed. I think right now I have at least 10 works in progress.

[okiegurl1981]

I seem to take forever to finish up ponies. Especially personal projects!  I have some that have been sitting around for almost a year waiting on me to finish them.  Hopefully, now that I'm caught up on all my commissions, I can get some of those personal wips done.  And, as NoDivision said, faster is not always better.

[Miserati]

My work time just ultimately depends on how motivated I am. I do work almost every day but I still have a bit of free time where I'm home alone with nothing to do except work on stuff. It generally takes me about 2-3 days to complete a simple custom of just hair and paint.

My swap ponies get more work than anything and my favourite pieces have come out of swaps. These with sculpting or sewing can take nearly 2 months to complete, but probably only about 40-60 hours of actual work that includes making patterns, and redoing parts several times until I'm satisfied.

I'd say don't feel bad about working slowly at all. The people who can crank out projects one after another usually use recycled designs in their work. If going a little at a time makes you more satisfied with what you're doing, that's all that matters.

[babyprincess_sparkle]

Takes me months. Only because I work on atleast 3 at a time also having enough time is a factor, & I tend to be a perfectionist 

[Alatariel-Silimaure]

my timeframe varies based on complexity and how inspired I am to do it. I can crank one out in about 4 hours, and sometimes it takes me 6 months, it all depends :3

[keikokukien]

It takes me at least a month sometimes, depending on what the custom is. ; Typically, I have a few baits prepped and ready to go and I start one thing at a time. I currently have two trade customs started, two personal customs (that were temporarily put on hold because of RL issues), one for my sister, and one for sale. The personal ones have symbols and accents done, hair, and some progress on eyes. Most of the others are somewhere inbetween (headless, painted but eye and hair less, fresh FBR but otherwise nude)...Not really an assembly line, but more or less I get what takes the least time done first and then take a block of time for each pony to finish one part, so sometimes I can complete two at the same time.

...But I'm still super slow! 

[PonySeeker128]

I'm slow.. very slow. I'm very picky about how my work looks and I get very uptight if I am working on something and it doesn't look right. I have days where I start working on something and my painting is not going well so I don't push it and make just OK work, instead I try to work on something else and work on painting another day. It really depends on a lot of different factors. Obviously complexity makes a difference too.

I'm a stay at home mom with two kids, one is 1 and the other is 2 1/2, between their constant fighting, their needs, and naughty behavior I find myself up and down over and over again so my work time gets broke up A LOT. I can get the most work done on the weekends when my husband is home and can help watch the kids.

[Ellis1342]

To be honest I have quite the advantage over everyone. I am on disability so customizing IS my job. this last spring I was prepping for a convention and had about 15 customs going at once. Now to be honest they were all of existing show characters so I didn't have to worry to much about making up something new. I usually do things in stages. All the base coats, All the eye bases, all the cuties etc. I break most everything down in to stages.

Now as for the full size customs which require creativity...well I get a tad obsessive on that note. I get an idea in my head and I can't do any other custom until its finished. I just work at it for a couple hours and get it done. I have a huge work space and tons of lovely tools to use. I cut out a ton of time with the hair dryer and the air brush. Between the two of them FBRs and waiting for things to dry are nothing!

If I am not really fealing a custom or anything of the like It can take forever!! 

[Kitkumi]

I've not been customizing long, but I've found that I can finish a G4 in a day depending on what I chose to do with it. However, I have three sitting on my work bench that I started this time last year that aren't done yet, and one that has been sitting for well over a year (though it is a very complicated custom). A lot of it for me is just finding time to work on them, and even when I find time I spend a lot of time fleshing out the ideas I have so that I'm happy with the finished product.

[kezrob23]

I'm slow.. very slow. I'm very picky about how my work looks and I get very uptight if I am working on something and it doesn't look right. I have days where I start working on something and my painting is not going well so I don't push it and make just OK work, instead I try to work on something else and work on painting another day. It really depends on a lot of different factors. Obviously complexity makes a difference too.

I'm a stay at home mom with two kids, one is 1 and the other is 2 1/2, between their constant fighting, their needs, and naughty behavior I find myself up and down over and over again so my work time gets broke up A LOT. I can get the most work done on the weekends when my husband is home and can help watch the kids.

totes agree mine are 2 and 4, my creative time is when they go to bed (normally around 9.30pm ) so i'm normally up till 1 or 2 am trying to do stuff. it's just easier when no one's screaming, crying, asking for drinks/food etc... i've been working on one for a few days now, nearly finished yay!! woulda been finished tonight, but i need something from my bedroom and s/o is noneyes i find it's the same with other crafts too, i love cross stitch and normally have quite a few projects on the go. i want to do them, i really do, but just can't be bothered getting everything out. but once i do get off my lazy bum i go like the clackers!!

[Ambar]

depends how complicated it is and how inspired I am. Some just take me a few hours and some others months

[deeleelambbaa]

with ponies that are going to be FBR'ed, I do a coat on one of them, then while that's drying, I FBR another one, and depending on how long it takes for the first to dry, I might include a third in the line up. And when I'm done with the third FBR, the first is dry and I can do a second coat of that. That way, I don't get bored of one pony, when I'm sitting down for a 4,6,or 8 hour session of pony time (which I tend to do, cuz it's so annoying getting all my supplies out for only a couple hours). This also prevents me from wasting paint, b/c I only pour enough onto my paint pallet thing for one coat-- no waste!

But ya, I totally understand where you're coming from. It is frustrating only having certain times to work on a pony and therefore taking forever to finish one. When I'm in school, a custom will take me months! I'm on break now, so I'm churning them out
Hope you value your customs more, though, having it take so long for each!

[AnnaPommes]

my zombie-poines always need along time to dry, so they take couple days. But even without drying, one custome could take me one to two days if i work all the time. i guess i am a bit slower than others