Jay asked on this [Recoloring With Ink] post how many layers of ink I applied to get a nice coat on the doll's faces. It's been a long time since I inked a doll and I couldn't remember exactly. So here are two attempts that I did today:
This is a single layer of ink over an existing screening that took maybe 3 minutes. I did nothing to her left eye (facing you) and nothing to her top lip. Her right eye has one stroke of black over the upper eyelash. Her brow bone has one stroke of sepia that was immediately shaded and smeared downward using a dry paint brush. Her bottom lip has one stroke of magenta that was shaded upward using a dry brush.
A single layer is very subtle but you can still see a difference. The more layers you add, of course, the deeper and richer the color. You can use a dry brush or dry q-tip for shading. If you don't like it, you can use a wet q-tip to remove the ink, but you have to do it quickly.
Next I'm going to do a complete repaint using my half Bratz face that lost its screening in 100% acetone. Although you can get [white ink in a bottle] or a ["ivory" ink pen] (scroll downward at the links), I've never purchased or tried any, so I'm just using plain white paint for the eye whites. You can put this on with a brush or sponge.
Except for the white in her eyes, everything else is strictly ink. I used black, sepia, green, dark yellow and red. This took me about an hour to do. Yes, I know it's very sloppy, but I never said I could paint or draw a straight line, for that matter. 0.o This is multiple layers (3-4) of ink blended with a dry brush. The dry brush technique isn't a necessity, because you can blend the different inks with each other just by stroking one layer over the other.
From a distance, this repaint ain't half bad, so imagine what you could achieve if you have a steady hand or can actually paint. The best tip I can give is to create highlights by stroking a light color over a darker one. It will take away some of the color underneath leaving you with a gradual blended change. Also, clean off the tips of your pens by stroking over a piece of white paper until the true color shows. Otherwise, all that blending will leave you with messy tips.
Hope this helps ^_^.
Before I even start this post I'm going to tell you upfront that you can skip everything I'm about to do because you can buy really inexpensive hands at [MonkeyDepot.Com.] They are even having a sale on some of them today.
I have never purchased these hands or used this company so I have no idea about their product quality or customer service. The company has been recommended to me by other bloggers though.
With that out of the way, if, like me, you wanna be a little crafty now and again or you are even cheaper than myself (if that's possible) then read further.
These are the variation of hands used by Power Team: full flesh, fingerless gloves and heavy duty work gloves. Unfortunately, probably 99% of them come ready for heavy duty. I've attempted three methods of replacement for this, the first of which uses the actual work glove itself.
I used an exacto knife to whittle down the glove and shape it into a hand. A metal finger nail file sanded away some of the texture. Because there is a molded strap decoration on the glove, I cut above it which revealed a square portion of the peg that is visible when you insert the hand. I'm painting it anyway, so I didn't care. Cut below that strap if you don't want the square peg to show.
I applied three coats of gesso to cover the black (white paint is fine if you've no gesso). After painting it I thought that might be too much gesso and I only did one coat on the second hand. Nope - three coats was the right amount. I'm horrible at mixing paint so I messed around with the colors above to try and get a good match. I didn't really need the dark brown at all.
All that gesso bulked up the hand and took away a lot of the definition between the fingers. I should have whittled away more from the hand and shaped the fingers as well. I did that on my second try and it looked more hand-ish, instead of like a fat meat puppet.
Granted, it's not cute, but at least is not a black glove anymore. I wouldn't zoom in on it but it's fine from a distance - a distance far far away, lol.
The left hand, with its one coat of gesso, is not as smooth as the right. I used matte varnish on both hands and it gave them more of a shine than the doll's flesh has. Eh, neither one is going to win any prize but if you like to sculpt, sand and paint this might be the method for you to try.
I consider this next method a complete failure. I just wasn't digging it. The idea had merit but because of the material, it's not going to work well in the long run. I'm showing you the photos anyway, though. ^__^.
I used a rubber Ken hand for this because it's nicely shaped, the coloring is a decent match and I had a bunch laying around, so what the heck. What I wanted was to have a single hand/peg combo. The problem is that Ken's rubber is very soft and at some point the peg is going to twist off and get stuck in the arm hole. This gave me a another idea though.
Still using a Ken hand, I cut off the exact amount I needed with my easy cutter. I used small scissors to start a pilot hole and then dremeled into the wrist. Big Lots sells the perfectly sized bamboo skewers that will fit snuggly into a Power Team arm. Put a dab of glue in the hand hole if it's a loose fit. Insert the bamboo between the two, cutting it at the end going into the arm until you get a snug seam. This works quite well. Sure, the hand's not articulated at the wrist, but neither was that glove.
If you have something metal or harder, of course it's going to last longer than the bamboo, but for something cheap and easy to cut, it's darn good. It looks way smaller than the Power Team hand and isn't as defined, but it's better than a thick glove. And, if you don't like the look of the cut...
... give him some watches and junk. Of all three tries I rather like this one the best. Even with having to use a drill it was still the fastest and simplest. I know that Monkey hands would be even simpler, but I enjoyed fiddling around with these so it was worth it to me.
Velcome to my laboratory. *said with a European accent and the proper amount of sinister inflection*
Okay, it's more of a craft station, but I still give it the lofty title of laboratory because I'm fanciful like that. ^__^. I wasn't using this computer desk for much but it has so many roomy areas that I decided to store doll parts, cardboard and the like within it and underneath it. When I have to drill, clamp or chop up anything I do it here. I let things dry here too because it's 3 rooms away from my regular desk so I don't have to smell it.
All my extra spare heads get separated by Liv, Cleo Bratz/Moxie, Jade Bratz, Barbie/Clone and Males. There's really no reason to keep them in jars as opposed to dumping them all in a box. I just like the way they look. 0_0. Don't judge me.
On either side of the desk I have these pull out drawers for bodies. Boys on the left, girls on the right. As you can see, the girls far outnumber the boys. I suppose I could keep the heads on their bodies, but I don't see them as a whole doll. They were intended for parts so I feel the need to separate them. *shruggies*
This little bin holds parts that are in the process of being experimented on. You've seen those heads in my previous post. I'm going to leave them out of the jars for another month to see if they shrink any more.
The power team guy is holding up his hand because it's been freshly painted and varnished and I'm waiting for it to dry. From a comment that Georgia Girl made, my next project is to "get rid of the black gloved hands." I have two more options I want to try, but what I've managed so far is not looking cute!
