Advice on Customizing dolls

I've come a long way since my early days customizing dolls (2yrs ago). At first, it started out as a past time for me, but now, that's all I seem to do. I absolutely love these little girls, and bringing them to life is just icing on the cake for me. But it wasn't always this smooth.

I started out by making mistakes after mistakes, but eventually, trial and error is what got me to perfect my skills.

If YOU are thinking about trying your luck customizing the little girls, there's a few things you should know before you start.

First. You need alot of patience. For people like me, that need immediate results, this is the most challenging part. I have thrown away many a dolls simply because they didn't come out the way I expected, and in the time I expected. Now (2yrs later), I just sit back, listen to music, hear a book, or occasionally lift my head up at my phone to watch a movie while drawing, carving, and sanding.

I work on one part of the doll, and only concentrate on that part in order to focus better. Also, I always start out by drawing in what I want the features to look like before I start to carve them. In other words, if I am working on the lips, I only concentrate on the lips. Every so often, I will get up, take a break, come back and look at my work again from a different angle before I move on to another part.

I draw, carve, and sand...in that order.

Another thing that helped me was purchasing a "faceplate lot" to practice my carving techniques. I believe it was a "lot" of 10 faceplate. I practiced just about every night, until I became more confident with my skills. In my defence, I feel I had a big advantage because my background is in art, so drawing facial features just came natural, what didn't come natural was the carving, and sanding, as I was used to painting on canvases, and with oils.

Second, it's very important that you get the proper tools.

You will need:

• Carving tools
• Sanding tools
• Pastels
• Blades
• Sand paper/sanding blocks
• Paint brushes
• Qtips
• Watercolors
• Oil pencils
• Dimensional gloss (optional)
• Mr.Super Clear
• Small toothbrush
• Disposable cup
• Toothpicks

Most of my tools/supplies were purchased from:

www.blytheeverafter.com

www.michaels.com

Blythe customization - Sophia

Blushing Process for "Sophia"

At this point, her face had already been sanded down, as well as her lips/dimples/nose/philtrum, and chin.

She is now ready for her blushing.

First, I applied one coat of pastel sealant. I let it dry completely. Then I applied white pastel powder all over her face. I use this as a base so the rest of her blushing goes on smooth, with an airbrush look. More sealant.

Then I applied her first layer of pink blushing on her cheeks, and eye sockets. Then, dipped my brush into a sienna watercolor and flicked the brush to allow the color to spray on her face randomly. More sealant.

Then I applied color to the inner parts of her lips to give them depth. More sealant.

Then I repeated all my blushing steps for her second coat.

Then I applied paste, and 2 different glitter dust to her eye lids, and I let dry for about 1 hr. At this point,  I also applied her new eyelashes.

Then I reattached the eyes to her face plate.

And here she is all done!