Amalina
Born Tuesday, July 7, 2015 Weighing 5 lbs and 5 oz Check out her album at: /lifelike-reborn-samantha-donna-rubert.html
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For CustomDollBaby.com, Amalina ushered in many "firsts." As you know, she's my first commissioned doll with skin texturing. While I was rooting her eyebrows, I decided she would also be the first Custom Doll Baby with rooted eyelashes (just on the bottom). I usually paint the bottom lashes, and glue the top lashes. But the blonde is so fine, I decided to give rooting a try. Can you see them in the photo below? They look just as good as the lashes on the strip! :) I'm feeling very pleased with how this baby is turning out. Finally wrapping up the hair. Once the rooting is complete, I like to thoroughly inspect the hair and re-root any areas that may have pulled out or otherwise seem thin. Looking good! If you've been reading my blog for a while, you may have noticed that I'm not a huge fan of varnishes. The doll vinyl is so smooth and soft when painted, I don't like adding anything to it that changes the texture. Well, Amalina's dad is the first person I could not successfully talk out of getting skin texturing, so here we go! I must admit, he's changing my perspective on the whole concept. Especially in the elbows and knees, it looks awesome! I might be going back and adding texture to some of the dolls in my collection! BeforeShe's got a tiny bit of sheen from repeated heating and cooling of the vinyl, but a nice finish overall. During...The varnish is sticky, and as it starts to dry, it becomes chalky - so I gotta work fast! After, aka, the Awesomeness :)Beautiful, subtle and lifelike. I actually did a few more layers after this to really bring out the texture. :) I really like the matting effect of the varnish - it gives her that soft powdered look.
This may be the beginning of a whole new world of texturing for me! Well, I don't know if its exactly 75%, but if you divide the head in quarters from the crown, I'm about to start my fourth quarter! Normally, I trim the hair as I go. But I'm having so much fun with this mohair, that I'm going to leave the length until the end. :) Amalina is a bigger baby is now and she wears her hair like in the picture above. I think it would be so fun to get some photos with her longer hair. I love that little ponytail! The back of the head is much less complex than the front from a rooting perspective. The front hairline has a lot of nuance in terms of the hair direction, color and how it frames the face. In the back, I have to make sure I properly meet my crown swirl, but otherwise the hairs are pretty much going in the same direction. :) Buckle up and let's root! Due to unusually high order volume combined with usually long business interruption (1.5 month move), I'm doing a lot of Marathon rooting these days. I just wrapped up the gorgeous Alaina Grace. Now it's Amalina's time to shine. Amalina is a portrait doll based on a picture of a real baby. Like her namesake, Amalina will have baby fine peach-fuzz hair, making her one of our Premium Dolls. Her hair is so fine and soft that I'm mixing it with blonde near the hairline to get that perfect peach fuzz lanugo look. I'm enjoying her long hair for now, but we will need to trim it down before she goes home. :) Painting is a lot like writing: when you stare at your own work too long, its difficult to see where you can make improvements. The Interim Review at CustomDollBaby.com helps me get gain a third-person perspective on my work by studying photos. Posting the pictures online and on Facebook also allows me to poll other collectors and artists for feedback as well. ;) Its all part of my quality assurance program! Today was Amalina's Interim Review. Up close, far away, in bright light or shadows she's gorgeous! Amalina passed her Interim Review with flying colors! I'm glad I spent that extra day on little touch-ups. They made a big difference in helping her look like a real live baby. :) We'll be rooting soon! Now that Alaina Grace is ready to go home, I can turn my attention back to Amalina - who is also going home soon. I have to say that it is refreshing to go back to painting a piece that I haven't looked at in over a month. Seeing her with fresh eyes made me want to do some touch-ups - a little blush here, a little more blue-wash there. Once I was happy with the touch-ups, I went ahead and finished those tiny remaining details - finger nails and lips. Interim Review coming soon! Unlike the previous blush washes, accent blushing brings out the super cute rosy areas on a baby by strategically highlighting certain spots such as the knees, elbows, cheeks and toes. I'm using a custom blushing blend to create gorgeous highlights on Amalina's portrait doll. I'm kinda on a roll with this "vlogging" thing, so I hope you enjoy the video! (I actually get really, really sleepy when I watch this video. Am I exhausted from a hard day's work or preparing to become the next Bob Ross? LOL) As the proud new owner of one of those fancy smartphone tripod contraptions, I'm now excited to offer Work in Progress videos! Here's how we did Amalina's blush wash on her arms and legs (I hope I'm pronouncing her name correctly!): This second blush wash further brings out her complexion on her arms and legs. Once everything is just right, we'll begin accent-blushing: adding darker blush colors to specific areas for added cuteness. :)
But after years of studying other dolls and real babies, I now see creasing and shading as an opportunity to really add the "wow" factor to my dolls. As you can see, its totally worth the many hours spent painting each of these tiny details.
For Amalina, I created a custom purpleish-pink blend for her shading. Shading adds depth and dimension to the baby's skin. Then I added a little more blue to that mix to get her dark-purple creasing color. Painting the creases creates the illusion of depth, making the baby's wrinkles and skin folds look real. Two layers down, several more to go!
Now that we've perfected our beautiful mottling and veining layers, its time to bury all that under the skin. LOL I'm adding numerous flesh tone layers to Amalina's doll to give her that perfect peaches and cream complexion. I've done so many layers now that I've actually lost count, but we've still got a few more to go! So far, looking good... As the late, great Michael Jackson would say, "Don't stop till you get enough." I certainly take that to heart when I'm painting the "under-skin" layers. I don't stop till the baby truly looks real. To make Amalina as lifelike as possible, I continued to add layers of blood red, purple, green and even yellow. Once I was happy with the mottling, I started to paint her veins. I'm quite picky about my veins, so do check out my Veining Tutorial for more on how it is done. :) Once those layers have been cured and had time to set, I'm going to do a little more blue shading in the hands and feet till they look just right. Then she'll be ready for her flesh tone layers. Last week, Amalina started her journey to life-likeness with a nice, boring Flesh 08 base coat. :-P The base coat creates a skin texture on the vinyl that makes all layers that follow look better. Today, she began her mottling. Mottling is the process of adding beautiful textures of reds, blues, greens and purples to the doll to create the appearance of blood flow under the skin. So far, she's three layers in and looking great. At least three more layers to go! I'm excited to announce that I'm starting Amalina! Amalina is a Portrait Doll Baby based on a picture of a real baby. She will be created from Samantha by Donna RuBert. Amalina's doll will be 22 inches long. She's made from Bountiful Baby's super soft BabySkin™ vinyl with a very cuddly doe suede body. I love how this doll captures Amalina's sweet demeanor. She also has super cute little wrinkled feet with all the toes separated for an even more lifelike look. Looking forward to bringing this little one to life! Check out her "Before" Photos: |
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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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