Custom Doll: Elm

Hello everyone,
                             
I had been wanting to make custom dolls of some of my characters for a long time.  Previously, I had made a doll of Gletta Short a character from Eyes in the Night before this (I plan to post her customization in the future), so I felt I should make a doll of one of my other characters...

 I decided it was time to make Elm my dryad character, who appears often on my creative arts blog. She is a dryad with a magical singing voice, and her singing can cause magical things to happen. 

I started with this doll. I hadn't decided who I was going to turn her into at first. 

I was thinking perhaps Hazel from Heroes of Olympus, but then I decided she would be the perfect Elm. 

I removed her factory paint using nail polish remover 

(and rinsed her off under the sink afterwards). 

Then I began painting the area where her eyes had been white for the pupils 

and cutting her hair, as it was too short and not the right color. 

Then using a reference image I usually use when drawing her, I added more details to her face. 

I also  gave her yarn hair that matched her 

hair color, given that Elm's hair is black and the doll's hair had been brown. 

I then began by painting her right eye. 

I then finished the right eye. (But I don't have a photo of painting the pupil). 

I then made her chiton, I tried to make it look somewhat Greek like. 

Before                                                                                                                                                After

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Have you ever made a doll of your original character? 

-Quinley 

Custom Doll Project: Mermaid

Hello everyone,
 To start this post I finally figured out how to repaint a whole doll's face.
 I used an Ariel doll. At first I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with her,

but I started out by using non-acetone nail polish remover: 

( This type of nail polish remover is safer...even if your hands do get a little wrinkled in the process.) 

It took a little bit of work, but her paint started to come off... 

In the end I decided not to remove everything (partly because it was hard to get into the gaps and crevices, and plus I could just cover it up with paint) the next I did was to rinse her off with water from the sink and then I waited...

I came back after a few days, 

and I figured out what I wanted to do with her... 

(my drawing of a mermaid came from this post on my writing (drawing, and acting) blog) 

I decided I wanted to make her look a mermaid from my fantasy book series, All is Not Lost For All Will Begin Again. (This picture is what I had in mind when I repainted her.)

          First I made a outline with pencil (as I have seen many doll customizers do in their videos)

I  then painted on eyeshadow to her, and tried to make it stand out more than it had before. 

(I am not sure how well that worked though.) 

Then I painted in the white space and began working on her eyes.

The next thing I did was to start working on the scales under the eyes (This is common trait of mermaids in my fantasy story.)

I then repainted her lips.

As it turns out part way through the outline of the eyes didn't work, so I had to cover them up with paint.

I then painted the scales to be blue and green to match her eyes and eye shadow.

I then painted on eyebrows and added pupils into her eyes.

Next what I did was to paint scales around her ears (since I cannot exactly do the elf-like ears that have scales on them.) I also painted them the same blue and green colors but I unfortunately didn't take photos of that.
I also made the scales under her eyes look more scale-like.

After that I began cutting her hair since I wanted it to be a more natural red, as opposed to Ariel's red hair...

Once I had done that I began gluing on yarn. 

Until her hair was more natural looking. 

After that I realized I was not completely happy with her eyebrows, so I ended up coloring them in. 

I then drew scales onto her arm. 

Then I began working on her outfit, I used blue felt for her tail, and used silk leaves for her shirt. However I didn't take any pictures of that. 

But here are some photos of her tail from different perspectives: 

Before:                                                              After: 

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I was really busy with Camp NaNoWrimo this April,  which is why I didn't post very much, but I hope to post more this May. In the meantime...

Have you ever done a full doll repaint before? What's your favorite fantasy/mythical creature? 

-Quinley

Custom Doll Project: Titania

Hello everyone.
I thought I would share another custom doll project, which I finished.
In this doll project I didn't use a reference for how the character looks, though there have been multiple versions of the character, Titania, from Shakespeare.
I decided I would do my version of Titania instead of someone else's.
So let's begin:

This doll always reminded me of Titania, so I thought 

I would turn her into Titania, with a little repainting. 

(But with no nail polish remover, I have not yet figured out 

how to safely use it on a doll without accidentally removing a layer of plastic.

So if anyone has done this successfully on one of their dolls, I would love to hear about it

in the comments.) 

The first thing I did was paint over her lips, 

and make them redder. 

And then I took a gold paint marker, and began dabbing gold 

spots underneath her eyes. 

The next thing I did was to paint a crown onto her head, 

which was inspired Boudica. 

And took a white paint marker and covered over her existing irises. 

And then started making my own, which were in a different place 

than the original. 

Then I took a green paint marker which was more vibrant than her original eye color

and began painting it over. 

I then added in red parts at the corners of her eyes to 

make it look more realistic. 

The first time I added the pupils in, it didn't look right, 

so I waited for it to dry and painted over them with green.

I then painted on yellow and gold eye liner and eyeshadow. 

I then added reflections in the eyes, by adding white dots,

and made her bottom eyelashes more visible. 

Once I finished painting over her existing paint, 

I used Mod Podge to stop it from scratching off. 

I found out later, that the Mod Podge had a gloss finish, 

but it felt perfect for her, since Titania is an immortal fairy. 

Next I began working on her outfit, 

I used brown felt and began gluing on silk leaves and flowers. 

Next I glued on two pipe cleaners, and started adding on silk 

 leaves. 

While working on her wings I also glued on 

some sequins. 

And then I glued the wings onto her dress. 

Before:                                            After:

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Which character from A Midsummer Night's Dream is your favorite?

Have you ever done a full doll repaint before? 

Love, 

Quinley