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The Glues and Goos are the final step in creating a lifelike reborn baby doll. First, I glob a ton of glue inside the hollow vinyl head to seal the hair. This way, the hair can be washed, brushed and styled without pulling out. I also glue the eyes in place as well as a magnet for the pacifier. Next, I glue the eyelashes and seal the eyelids. This clear coating helps prevent moisture from getting inside the doll while creating the beautiful appearance of moisture. After a half day in my dehydrator, this little lady will be ready for picture day! I'm making great progress on Alaina Grace's micro-rooting post-relocation. I love rooting those delicate hairs of the hairline. Rooting over the painted hairline gives a gorgeous 3D effect. I'm also loving those little curls! What a cutie! Got a lot done. Still got a long way to go. I'm rooting right along! Baby's exhausted and artists' hands are sore, but we had a very productive day rooting. I finished up the top of the head where the hair is thickest. I even rooted the hairs such that they would create a cute little puff right on top, just like a real baby (see images below). Her hair is super soft and sweet wet or dry. Looking forward to her getting more hair soon...once we've both recovered. ;) With her her hair growth pattern painted and set, we're now ready to start Alaina Grace's rooting. She has sandy-brown hair like her mom and dad. I like to root in strips from the hairline to the crown. The back of the head reminds me of a pie chart slowly approaching 100% as we go. :) This is my first time working with the gorgeously wavy, luxuriously fine APlusMohair. She's going to look beautiful! Every good process has guidelines. To ensure that my rooting looks just like hair growing out of the baby's scalp, I'm happy to invest a day in planning out where these little hairs are going to go. I carefully plot out the hair growth pattern from crown to hairline. A truly realistic baby should have at least one swirl at the crown. Lightly painting that swirl helps me angle each hair in the direction that it naturally grows. At the same time, I paint the hairline. Even mohair is not as fine as the tiny baby hairs and peach fuzz on the baby's forehead. So I paint those hairs for a lifelike look. They are a little hard to see right now, but I'll go back and darken them as needed once the rooting is done. The beauty of realism as an art form, especially with respect to these lifelike baby dolls, is that you always have access to a live model - yourself! LOL After Alaina Grace's interim review, I decided that her palms and soles needed a little more color. So today, we added a little more blushing and a little more creasing to those areas. Very happy that now she's as pink, as blue and as brown as I am! LOL Time to start charting out her hair! But first, one last hug before we get back to work. :) When the painting is all done, I love to do a small photo shoot to inspect my work. Here at CustomDollBaby.com, we call that the Interim Review. I like to make sure that I love the painting before we begin rooting because its hard to make major painting changes conce the hair is in place. She's absolutely lovely overall. Her complexion, her mottling, everything is adorable. And she looks so much like her daddy! The only tweak I'd to make is on the hands and feet. They're a little pale in some spots. But a quick wash of a diluted blush will fix that! Otherwise, she's perfect!
Here are more Interim Review photos! As we approach the end of Alaina's painting, we begin to fill in some of the tinier details. With the beautiful outline we created during the shading and creasing steps, we're now ready to fill in Alaina's plump little lips with a glossy, translucent pink color. We'll keep adding coats of this color until we've reached the right shade. I'm also starting to shade in her tiny finger and toes nails. Instead of painting the whole nail the same color, I actually like to create a lavender-pink sunset behind her little half moons...it'll make more sense when you see it. Trust me, it's really cool. LOL
One more Gold Wash brought our baby to a nice, warm golden brown complexion. Now its time to start the detailing.
From there, I created a fleshy mixture to color the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet. So cute... As the shading on little Alaina got darker, the rest of her looked whiter. I don't mean Caucasian - I mean, White.
To warm our little girl, I did what I like to call a Gold Wash. Some Raw Sienna and little touch of Yellow brightened her complexion without making her darker. I really love seeing that golden tone in her skin. I might do a few more of those before we start the blushing. Reborn baby dolls at CustomDollBaby.com are created to look just like real, living babies. To create the appearance of soft, pump baby skin, I carefully and strategically shade the doll and darken the creases. This took many layers of dark brown and purple paint, but was well worth the effort. I love those kissable finger tips! Pretty, pretty girl! I love how lifelike her skin looks!
We finally completed all of Alaina's "under the skin" painting. Now it's time to add some skin! For African-American babies, I rarely use the premixed colors (e.g., Flesh 02, Flesh 03, etc...). I instead prefer a custom blend of Raw Sienna and Burnt Umber and Blue. This gives me much more control over the baby's complexion - especially if the baby has gold undertones. (Check out today's Pro Tip for more on Premixed Flesh Tones.) Since Alaina is light-complexioned like her daddy, I only needed two layers to capture her skin tone. Now it's time to do some shading! If there were any vampires at my house, this is the part where they would start to get hungry. LOL To further create Alaina's lifelike look, I painted blue veins on her head, hands and feet. They look a little scary when wet, but once they're dry and cured, you can just barely see the faint blue veins - just like a real baby. Creating a lifelike baby of your own? Check out these Pro Tips for Lifelike Reborn Veins. Alaina's mommy told me that she wanted her baby to be "as lifelike as possible." So we are going all out on the painting! I always start with a Flesh 08 base coat. This gives the vinyl a nice even skin texture and helps the layers that follow to "stick" better. Once the base coat had cured and cooled, I began Alaina's mottling.
Mottling is the process of adding multiple layers of patterned colors to create the appearance of blood flowing under the skin. I use a modified version of the painting recipes used by Cutie Pie Productions. For toddlers or Collectors dolls, two mottling layers provides the right amount of color. But for this lifelike little newborn, we're doing all six! Once the mottling is done, we don't stop there. To really create the appearance of blood flow, I'm going to paint her veins. I'm excited to announce that I am starting Miss Alaina Grace. Alaina is being created in memory of a precious baby who sadly left this earth far too soon. Alaina Grace is based on Chanel by Donna RuBert. She has sweet little lifelike hands, with all the fingers separated, and kissable little curled up toes. She'll have pudgy cheeks and her Daddy's hazel eyes. I'm very much looking forward to this beautiful lifelike baby doll. Here are her "Before" pictures! |
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Reborn Doll ArtistHi! My name is Kim. I am a reborn artist based in NC. I have been creating dolls since I was a child. I discovered the art of life-like baby dolls in 2011 and have been reborning ever since. Archives
December 2016
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