Ask Debbie Thursday!

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So what's going on in the nursery?

Today I should be able to finish rooting prototype Isaac  :)  

I've processed a little bit more mohair and will be adding it to my Artfire store this morning.

I am very excited to begin the test paint baby next week.  

And silicone prototype Rio has arrived to the nursery!!!  

HE is a beautiful kit!  Boy do I have a lot of silicones here to get busy on with three more full bodied mini's on the way!  That makes SIX of those, 2 Preston's (one is an Artist Proof/Prototype, the other is a bonus twin), 2 Dawson's (one is for the artist, Rachelle Ferrell herself),  1 Precious by Lilianne Breedveld, and the prototype Rio.

Weee dogs!  I better get busy!

A body can make all the difference in the world!

I had two dolls in my collection that still needed body changes from the originals that they came in.

I don't change out all the bodies on the dolls in my collection, just the ones that really are not right.

Like these two.  

Little Annie came to me a couple of years ago...Oh I love her so much but surly hated her body!

I attempted to re-weight it but it just never was right.  Her arms were too long as were her legs and everything just hung and moved wrong.

Here is her original body:

I ordered a new "Chelle's Body Pattern" body from Janie and got her placed on it.

this is MUCH better!

Her legs look a little short in that view so lets see her dressed:

I love it!

The other baby is a mini silicone doll that I reborned earlier this year.  

Here is her original body:

This body was too long and her arms and legs were too long and dangly as well.

Again, I ordered the same style of body from Janie.

I am one very happy collector!  

And when I make dolls for other collectors, I really work hard to see that the sculpt has a body that fits it well.  

It really makes a difference! 

Warm wash fix on baby Jena

I made this portrait baby of my grand-daughter, Jena, years ago.

The sculpt is an Antonio Juan "Lillian" doll.  The vinyl was horrible to work with as it was a dark orangish-brown.

She photographs VERY well but in some lights, she just looked "cold" and pale.

And of course, since she photographs so well, you cannot see it really well but look at the lighter parts of her forehead.  You can see it there. 

Here is what I did to her.  

I took her apart and applied a warm color wash. 

I mixed up even amounts of brown, red and yellow ochre, of course along with Ultra Matte Gel and water.

I applied it wet with a mop brush then pounced with wedges.

On some places on her face, I did two layers but later found out that on the center part her face (nose, upper cheeks and around her eyes) she was too warm and looked a little orange so I did a purple wash in that area.  That fixed the problem.

Here she is now.  Look again at what were the lighter spots on her forehead.  They are no longer cool and pale looking but rather warm and flesh-looking.

It's subtle but to me, made a big difference in her overall.  

I am very pleased! 

Veterans:

I fixed a problem on a DVD student's doll

Now, before you all get ready to send me your dolls with problems areas, know that I do not normally do this!  Hahahaha

But one of my DVD students had gotten to the point of utter frustration with her dolls eye brows.  

She had done them and re-done them and was ready to throw in the towel.

Upon viewing the pictures she sent to me, I thought that the doll just needed a few black strokes to the brow line to better match the dolls hair, so I told her to send the head to me as she was just too "done" to try it herself.  

When the doll head arrived, I could see there was more to the problem that I could see in the pictures and I could see why she was so upset.  

*I* was worried that I could not fix this problem:

The problem was not to the brow strokes at all, they were quite lovely!

The doll was quite lovely!  I can't remember how many dolls this DVD student had painted, but she has just begun in the last year and I am SO impressed by both her painting, rooting and attention to detail.

Awesome!

The problem was the missing paint above and below the brow and the tawny/orange/brown tint to the perimeter of the brows.

What was I going to do?!?!?!? 

I will do anything to avoid having to remove paint on dolls when I am working on them just for this reason.  This is not an easy fix for me.  I would rather strip the entire doll and start over than to fix this kind of a problem.

But, I took about a week to think about it and here is what I came up with.

Using all Art and Magic paints, I first applied two layers of a purple wash using a sponge cloth to tone down the tawny colors.

Using the same purple, I used a brush and applied stroked "lashes" to the brows (avoiding the middle of the brows) to help refine and tone down the tawny colors.

I did the same exact thing with blue:  2 layers with a sponge cloth then brush strokes into the brows themselves.

This is how she looked after those steps:

As you can see, those colors started to tone down the tawny/orange/brown tones both above and below the brow and into the brows themselves, bringing out the brown/black of the brows.

Then I did a layer of light flesh mixed withe some cream yellow and applied with a sponge cloth.

I did the same with plain cream yellow.  

I felt that those two colors were a bit warm so I changed to a light flesh mixed up pretty thick and applied that with a sponge cloth.  

THAT did the trick on the vacant spots above and below the brows.  

Then since these colors had minimized the actual brows some, I touched them up with a brush and

dark ethnic paint.  I really just re-followed the pattern that my student already had painted on.

I was SO thrilled!  I really did not think I could fix this problem but look at her now!

I have allowed her to cure for several days and this beauty will be traveling home on Tuesday  :)  

Sharing my collection Friday~Gender change!

As you know, sweet Noni May joined my collection a couple of weeks ago.

I have longed for a toddler sized boy and had toyed with dressing Noni as a boy just to see.

With her mounds of red spiral locks though, I just could not think of changing her into a boy because I love playing with lots of hair and bows!  

Like this:

 

However....

I need some darker, bolder colors to compliment his tones and hair color but I do believe we do indeed have a boy.  

I think his name is Norman Axel Rodney Henshaw.  :)

Prototype Isaac is painted :)

I am just delighted with how this little guy turned out!

I was feeling like he was a little "cold" in color.  With the help of a reborning friend, I was guided to mixing up a new color in the pallet that I've not used before, a nice warm wash.

It was PERFECT!

(For any paints that are used, mix equal amounts of red, yellow ochre and brown plus mediums)

This little man will get hair.

There were no new questions for the "Ask Debbie" page...pretty quiet week out there!

Have a great day!