Painting doll faces, tips and tricks

After sculpting the doll face y'all're happy with, there's another hurdle to overcome - bringing it to life with painting. I come across some doll makers and students of mine struggle with this. Painting could make your sculpture look livelier, more than realistic. And so how to reach that? Today I desire to share some tricks which will make painting doll faces easier and more fun!

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Layers

It doesn't matter what dolls y'all pigment or what supplies you lot use. The principal rule is to pigment in layers. This prevents the sculpture from looking apartment and maintains the depth of color. To paint in layers, you should use translucent paint as China paints for porcelain dolls, or soft pastels and watercolors for resin, air-dry dirt dolls. The primary goal is to build up the color with each layer and let the previous layers smoothen through. Sealing each layer is also crucial. If you lot're painting porcelain dolls, fire every new layer of Red china paints in the kiln. To paint ane face, you might need 6-eight layers total. If you're using other mediums like soft pastels, seal each layer with matt spray varnish. This way, the color will get brighter, and you lot won't lift previous layers when painting on height.

Eyes

What helped me paint more lively and realistic eyes was understanding that every eye has an illuminated and shadow area. Study illustrations and photos of eyes to see how shadows and highlights create depth. Drawing tutorials can exist helpful with that too!

Here's where the painting in layers helps a lot. I start with a base colour of an iris. With each layer, you tin can develop the makeup of the doll too. Or add shadows and deepen the peel tone around the eyes.

Photo on the correct: Steve Jung Art @stevejungart

Add together a black student most in the middle of an iris. It can alloy into the shadowed area a footling bit. Paint in small strokes or even dots to create an intricate texture of an iris.

Photograph on the right: Steve Jung Art @stevejungart

Remember that the lower part of an eye will ever be brighter than the shadowed top part. With that in mind, add some highlights and burnish the eye colour using lighter paints. The darker profile around an iris will make the eyes pop.

Photo on the right: Steve Jung Art @stevejungart

Eyebrows

The main outcome I see with the painted eyebrows is not trying to define individual hairs and ignoring the direction they're growing. I constitute these magnificent charts that testify how intricate the eyebrows can actually be. I'm not saying to paint every little pilus individually if your doll is pocket-size, but attempt to include specific brush strokes to mimic the hairs.

Photo: MAY beauty academy and Pinterest

Yous can get-go by adding a soft shadow where the eyebrows volition be. This volition aid to define the shape afterward. Invest in a very thin, long bristles brush. It helps create very fine brushstrokes that look only similar individual hairs. Layering the hairs - define the eyebrow. When painting the hair, start at the root from where it would grow, and with a quick but intentional stroke, pigment to the direction it's growing.

Lips

When painting lips, I similar to start with a general color and shadows. Remember that the upper lip will be darker because it's in the shadowed area. It should happen naturally if you've sculpted the upper lip protruded enough. But you can add deeper colors also to enhance that characteristic.

Photo on the right: Pinterest

When adding highlights, imagine where the low-cal hits the lips. It'due south always on the upper lip nearly the cupid's bow and the lower lip in the middle. I like to add some highlights around the corners of the lips too. Painting in small strokes can raise the natural texture of the lips, so consider adding strokes where you tin.

General blush

General blushing can give a lot of definition to the confront. At that place are no hard rules on how to do it, merely I like to add some color to the shadowed areas and somewhere on the cheeks. Then I usually utilize chroma around the optics, under the lower lip, around the ears, olfactory organ, and temples. To keep things natural, don't overdo the color. I observe that two layers are generally enough to build upward the definition.

I promise these tips were helpful. I'll make certain to exercise a full tutorial in the future, simply for now, keep experimenting and remember - ever paint in layers!

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