Day 3 progress on Art and Magic Air Dry Paints

Remember that the paints...and their name...are all in the testing stage.

Stephanie Sullivan is the creator of the doll colors for these paints and is still coming up with an appropriate name.

They will probably be called:

Art and Magic Water Borne Air Dry Paints

As I mentioned yesterday, I was concerned that there was too much retarding fluid in the paints.  

After talking with Stephanie Sullivan, she corrected me that there were only three colors that she sent me that had retarding fluid and we came to the conclusion that I was using too much water.  She had not really used any water with the paints when she did her test head.  

So I went back to the drawing board with my doll and used the paints with just a few drops of water in some and Liquitex Ultra Matte Gel and a few drops of water in others.

You see, all paints have characteristics and all paint pigments are of different intensities.  

Some require more thinning and slowing down of the drying process than others.

These paints behave just like LDC paints but Stephanie and I concluded that they are NOT the same paints.  Stephanie purchases the colors from France~they are French made paints that have been around since 1955.  The LDC paints, I am quite sure, are German made paints and purchased from Germany.  The color pallets are completely different, however, each brand of paint have very pure, lovely colors.  I always liked LDC paints over the Genesis Paints colors.  And I feel the same about the Art and Magic paints.  

I have no fear of these paints fading or rubbing off.  They still will require a curing time but Stephanie tells me that after just 24 hours, she found it impossible to remove the paint without the use of a paint remover.  

The doll has developed quite some shine on the same area's that LDC paints will shine~the fingers and toes and some high spots.  The good news is, with the recent discovery of using Folk Art Glass and Tile Medium as an air dry matte (either before painting or after painting once the paint cures~it can lift off the paint if applied too soon on air dry paints) these problems can be quickly resolved with much less work than applying Genesis Matte Varnish. 

So I found the Art and Magic paints to need much less thinning than the LDC paints and I progressed much quicker with my doll yesterday.  Today I just have to do her veins, nail tips and one final tone color (which will tone down and blend her red some).  

Then I think I will start another doll~a boy this time~ and see just how long it takes me to basically reborn him using mostly the pre-mixed colors.  

Not that this is a race, but those who are brand new to painting a doll find it very frustrating if it takes too long to create a nice doll.  So for these first two dolls, I am working with the first time painter in mind as I evaluate.  Then I will move onto a Master Artist Series doll. 

So here is how Ashleigh is looking now:

Have a good Wednesday!!