Volks SD Make-up Workshop (L.A. Dolpa Report)

At the L.A. Dolpa, I took one of the Make-up Workshops (5:30 on Sunday), and thought I'd write up a brief report, since I know I was always curious about them before I'd experienced one!

I'll start at the beginning... First, sign up for the L.A. Dolpa itself--and for the Workshop. This was done on-line and I needed to commit to a payment by credit card, which wasn't billed until months later when Volks sorted out who was going for sure. It turns out that I think everyone got in who wanted to. At the same time, they had information up on the website. I needed to choose the Type of Workshop-- they had Maintenance ones for stringing and Make-up ones separately, and two different sessions/times. We also had to commit to buying a school head (A, open-eyed or sleeping, for this Dolpa) or not (it is an optional purchase--they also offered bodies and wig and eyes and face-covers). We had the option to buy either "Lessen ticket with Make-up Tool Set B" for $80, or without the tool kit for $40.

Make-up Tool Set B: included in “Lesson Ticket with Tool Set”

* Zoukei-mura Face Painting Brush 07
* Zoukei-mura Paper Palette
* Liquitex Acrylics - Make Set
* Draft Make-up Pen
* ZM Make Pastel - Base Makeup Color
* Clear Acrylics
* Acrylic Solvent
* Zoukei-mura Sponge Paper (#800-1000)
* Dollfie Sponge Cleaner - Pikatto Kirei Sponge (appropriate amount)
* Palettes (Circle plate) x2
* TAMIYA Finishing Abrasives (appropriate amount)

On Sunday, the registration for everyone is a half-hour before the Class starts. (They check that you're the right person and give you what you've paid for--the head and the tool kit.)

At this Dolpa there were a number of tables set up, about 8 people at each... Two were in each area, I think there were two areas. With a demonstration table for the faceup artist. We could sit at any table in either area. One area had Valico and someone else, but the tables there were filling... I went over to where Saifa was teaching with Mikey as translator.

I took some photos of the earlier sessions. Non-participants could sit or stand not far away--or even walk right up if they were very bold! Most stayed out of the immediate area, but you could see and hear quite a bit, even so.

Photo of Body Mainenance Class, earlier session--
07-11-ladollpa139z449 by aprilllee, on Flickr

Photos of Valico's Makeup Group, earlier session--
07-11-ladollpa132z600 by aprilllee, on Flickr

Showing diagram of where eyebrows and such should be on the face--
07-11-ladollpa137z600 by aprilllee, on Flickr

Anyway--back to my session... We all took seats at various tables and started unpacking the paints and such in the Tool Kits. On the table already were a box of tissues, cotton-balls, q-tips, tooth-picks and cups of water.

When the class started, Mikey introduced herself and Saifa, then called us up to the demonstration table.

The first step in this class (no diagrams for Saifa's group), is to take the Draft Make-up Pen (water-soluble felt-tip pen) in the Kit and lightly draw in the eyebrows. If we make a mistake, we can blot it off with water on a Q-tip. The felt-tip pen would bead up a bit or go on unevenly--Saifa was gently blotting it with kleenex tissues. The marks of the eyebrows were very, very light on Saifa's head. She was working on a School Head A, Sweet Dreams, and told Mikey that it would be a Girl. Suggestion: you can put little dots in first as guides for the height and ends of the eyebrows you want--and erase them until you've got it, and then slowly connect them. Saifa pretty much draws them carefully and lightly only once and doesn't go over the brows a ton of times like I had to!

So we went back to our seats and tried to draw eyebrows--which wasn't easy! Saifa easily got her nice, faint brows marked, but the pen would be light in some areas on mine or dark in others --and would bead or not go at all on parts where the resin was too smooth (un-MSC'd head--we couldn't spray inside! so no spraying at all during the class. Mikey explained that they always sprayed by big fans at the Volks workshop/factory).

Step 2: Paint the Eyebrows... We go up to the table to watch Saifa. She uses the Zoukei-mura Face Painting Brush 07. Mikey explains that they really like the 07 because it is thick enough to hold lots of paint, unlike a thinner brush (I know some folks from the earlier class who said they preferred to have a tinier brush because it was difficult to make fine enough lines--but I think part of that is just experience--although it IS a bit easier with a smaller brush!). She puts a bit of water in one of the Palettes (Circle plate) x2, (tiny metal circular bowls). On the Zoukei-mura Paper Palette, Saifa sqeezes out a tiny bit of light brown acrylic paint. In the little set is a bottle (same as the paint) of thinner. The paint is thinned down a lot and little test strokes are made on the palette--and they suggested, on the head cap, since you can tell how it goes on the actual resin better that way. Saifa makes fine little paint strokes on the eyebrows and shows the head around to us. Mikey hops in to show how to use the Magic Eraser to take off the paint if there's a mistake. She takes off part of the eyebrow Saifa painted...!

Saifa mixing the dab of paint with the dab of thinner on the pad of paper-palette. You can see the little water dish and the tiny bottles of acrylic paint in their little cylindrical packaging. There's a tissue by the head fro blotting and a Q-tip, also for wiping/blotting. The black pen there is the Draft Makeup Pen described earlier--
07-11-ladollpa178z600 by aprilllee, on Flickr

Saifa keeps the brush tip very pointed, here she's doing test strokes on the head-cap--
07-11-ladollpa180z600 by aprilllee, on Flickr

They suggest we brace our hand against the head using our pinky-- or whatever is comfortable--but it helps to guide the brush-strokes to be braced in some way--
07-11-ladollpa181z600 by aprilllee, on Flickr

Mikey--translating and talking, I think she's also talking about bracing the hand--
07-11-ladollpa182z449 by aprilllee, on Flickr

Joking about something!--
07-11-ladollpa183z600 by aprilllee, on Flickr

More serious... concentrating on those tiny, light brush-strokes on the eyebrow--
07-11-ladollpa184z449 by aprilllee, on Flickr

Make sure you turn the head to position it correctly for the strokes--not make the strokes fit the direction of the head...
07-11-ladollpa185z449 by aprilllee, on Flickr

Here's Mikey with the cut bit of Magic Sponge--ready to wipe off part of Saifa's carefully painted eyebrows!
07-11-ladollpa186z600 by aprilllee, on Flickr

--CONTINUED---

 

Showing what was done to everyone (sorry for blur!)--
07-11-ladollpa190z600 by aprilllee, on Flickr

As before, we all go back and have a really tough time making those brows look right! (Well, I do, anyway!!!) It's hard to keep the paint the right thin-ness to get those nice light strokes. I try on the headcap... it takes some scrubbing with the Magic Sponge to get rid of the marks!

-Step 3: Eyes... Painting of the eye-liner--also with brown. And lashes underneath. Saifa squeezes out some pink acrylic. It is also thinned with a dab of thinner... And brush strokes tested on palette... They say to use the side of the brush to get the pink on the inside of the eyelids--top and bottom.
07-11-ladollpa191z4449 by aprilllee, on Flickr

Rinsing out brush in water, dabbing on tissue--
07-11-ladollpa192z600 by aprilllee, on Flickr

07-11-ladollpa193z449 by aprilllee, on Flickr

Moving the head to the right position to paint the eyes--
07-11-ladollpa199z600 by aprilllee, on Flickr

Step 4: Lips--also in pink. Mickey and Saifa suggest outlining the lips first, then painting in the center. When dry, fill in lip-lines if you want lip lines. Either lighter color or a darker color.

Step 5: We cannot do because it involves the spray fixing (not allowed in-doors)... Mikey just says to do short little arcs--spray-spray-spray-spray-spray... Very lightly so you don't glob the spray on and melt the paint! Keep can one foot away from the surface/head. And that's all--Let dry, maybe 3 seconds to 3 minutes, depending on how humid the air is.

Step 6: Pastels for cheeks and eyes. Saifa picks out a strong pink for the cheeks. She cuts the sandpaper supplied on our kits down to a tiny square and grinds the end of the pastel lightly until there's enough to shake off onto a new sheet of the paper palette. She takes a cotton ball and fluffs it up, breaking it up a little so it's fluffier, and dabs it in the powdered pastel.
07-11-ladollpa205z600 by aprilllee, on Flickr

Saifa lightly brushes on the pastel... using the cleaner side of the cotton ball to wipe off the extra powder and smooth it in--
07-11-ladollpa206z600 by aprilllee, on Flickr

She's using purple pastel, here, making the powder and shaking it off the sand-paper bits onto the palette--for the eye-shadow--
07-11-ladollpa211z600 by aprilllee, on Flickr

Mikey showing how to use the pearl powder to gloss-up--or make iridescent-- the eye-shadow--She's putting it under the eye-brow and down towards the tops of the cheeks.
07-11-ladollpa213z449 by aprilllee, on Flickr

There isn't any Pearlescent powder in our kits, but they say we are free to try their samples... Again, just a tiny little dot of it on the palette... using the cotton-ball to apply. They have different colors of Peal powder.

Here's my table and the second table beyond it...
07-11-ladollpa214z600 by aprilllee, on Flickr

Mikey said she likes putting brown shadow under the chin and at the back and under the jaw for boys. And maybe a little bit of pink on the cheeks.

Mikey and Saifa would walk around us while we worked and say very encouraging things! They were so sweet. (Well, Saifa would try and tell us encouraging things and give compliments--she was pretty good at it, although she probably didn't understand us at all!)

07-11-ladollpa219z600 by aprilllee, on Flickr

Step 5: Lip gloss-- they just apply it... There is thinner in the kit for the gloss, but they didn't use it, I think. It may be for taking the gloss off? They explained what it was, but like an idiot, I didn't write it down, so I've forgotten already. Suggestion for a thicker gloss: pour out dab of gloss, wait 5 minutes before applying, so it has thickened up a bit. Drying takes a long time--they often wait over-night for ONE coat. They said gloss will dry from the surface inward--so if you touch it before completely dry you'll leave little dents or finger-marks.

Most of the people had heads and the Kits. One person was just trying to touch up a head she owned that already had a faceup she wanted to keep, so she was working on that.

And that's it!!!

Mikey and Saifa stayed around for more questions at the end and to watch us pack up.

Mikey mentioned that they were thinking of starting an Advanced Level Makeup Class. I asked her what that would cover and she said they weren't sure yet! She said that the materials and methods used in THIS class were for very basic makeup that wouldn't last long. They do NOT use these materials OR methods for actual Volks dolls. ( !!! ) They use airbrush and different paints, Mickey said. I'm not at all sure how they'd do a workshop--but maybe just a demo with an airbrush??? I wonder what kinds of paints they use, then? I should have asked... but the class was breaking up and it had been a LONG day/weekend... Everyone was looking pretty wrung-out by then.

Anyway--that's my report! I hope it may help--although I really couldn't get good photos of every step!

 

Oh--forgot to add:

I do recommend the class! It was just fun interacting with the materials and seeing the demos and trying it out. It was fun hearing comments from others. I think everyone had new respect for people doing faceups!

I've done a few faceups and know how to airbrush... but it was still a lot of fun for me! Not ideal conditions for making a perfect faceup--but it was fun learning a few of their suggestions and techniques. I was particularly happy with the idea of the Pen for sketching in the eyebrows. I'd just used a regular pencil before--which is fine, but the pen makes a nice brown-ish shade that is better for warmer colors than graphite.

Other things were pretty self-explanatory, of course. It was still nice seeing it done. Loved seeing the tiny bits of paint squeezed out... Loved all the care they took--they were keeping things so nice and neat and not wasting a bit of material!

I'd be interested in taking the class again to see what other faceup artists say! It was a lot of fun. A bit stressful, too! It's hard to make nice-looking strokes with the brush!

Oh--one participant had a print-out of a faceup so she could refer to it. I thought that was a great idea. But most people were just practicing and even wiped off their faceups right away! It's really better to practice a lot, I think--unless the faceup happens to be great (which some were!)--in which case, they should be kept. There are always other heads to practice on, if that's important!

 

I suspect that they did NOT prep the heads beforehand with MSC... They were all wrapped up in the sealed plastic, for one thing... For another--it would take time and effort for them to do that, and they'd have re-pack them and all... And it didn't FEEL like there was MSC on it--but if it was a light coat, I'd probably have no clue. The pastel didn't stick all that well, too... so I was thinking that there was no MSC. Oh... and also--they said we should MSC the head before the Pastel Step, but we couldn't do it at the workshop because of the fumes... So maybe that's when they'd usually MSC the head???

Other people in the class had the beading problem. I think Mikey might have roughed up the surface a bit on someone's with the sand-paper, but I'm not sure, since I was busy struggling with my own head!

 

I've always wanted to know what happens in the Make-up classes. I could never find a report that told me enough about it, though. Good thing I had a chance to try it, myself!!!

I am totally curious about the actual Volks techniques! Also curious if they still use acrylics or something more resin-based, as paint???

The pen was just amazing! It's probably just a regular water-based marker--but what a great idea!

A layer of MSC would certainly help it stick and not bead... although perhaps it would also make it go on too dark? I know it was easy to wipe off without any MSC or "tooth" to the resin surface...

Saifa had a very light technique with the pen, blotting any beading or dark areas... it basically left a very light guide for painting the brows--and made for an instant "shadow" to fill in very softly between the brush strokes. It was pretty cool... Like with the brush strokes, I think using the pen correctly probably takes practice!

 

I can't imagine spraying glaze through an airbrush, but then I usually go for the fine spray/detail type brushes that would clog in a second just contemplating something thicker than water!

I'm guessing you'd need more industrial type brushes that can handle thicker paint and isn't concerned with very fine spray??? Those shouldn't be too pricey. It's usually the air compressor that costs. Although some brushes ARE quite expensive... $300 or more. I bought mine for only $100 or less. Compressor was more for a silent one. But to practice, you can just borrow someone's brush and compressor and check it out... They aren't hard to use... just press and spray. But like anything, the control can be hard to achieve! I can't say I'm good at controlling my airbrush at all!!!

 

I saw you over there! I barely had time to go back and forth from my table to the demo table... I wish I'd had a chance to see what you all were doing, too... But really, it's a pretty quick class, considering all they were covering!

I'm wondering if ordinary water-based pens would work--or would they stain the resin???

Do they sell the pens separately at Volks??? I'd never heard of using them before--it was the most surprising thing about the workshop, really...

I wonder if they skip the pen or use something else for advanced? Or still used the pen? That mention of the advanced class has me so curious!!!
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Thank you SO much for a report from Valico's class. That's definitely another reason to repeat the basic class--hearing what other artist/teachers have to say!

I saw the eyebrow chart she had, but didn't hear what she said about it. I was thinking it was just about proportions and such--but talking about how the angles and placement affects the emotion is a great thing to consider. I know it's rather self-explanatory... I mean, we talk in terms of an "angry" eyebrow or "sweet", etc., but I know I wasn't consciously thinking about it as I should have been, when I was actually trying to work on it!

Love the details of technique!!! Of course, not everyone wants to do eyebrows like that--but it's a good thing to try and practice--and maybe make it your own if it's something you like. I can't quite remember the details of painting the brows discussed in my class. I think it was more just watching Saifa paint her nice clean strokes! But it's also likely I just can't remember... There was so much to take in.

I hope others in the classes will post more details like this!

Wow, crossed strokes for lashes! I need to go out and look at more faceups--I'm not sure if I've seen that before. It sounds great. It's stuff like that--learning to notice different ways of doing things, that is interesting... even if you never do it yourself--at least you can spot it on dolls and know what you like about a faceup or not...

Never thought about the vanishing-point thing, either... but it is a great way to figure out how to angle lashes.

I SO agree with this... on faceups (the few I've done) and just in painting ANYTHING...

Sounds fantastic! The gloss and pearl powder didn't take off the eyeshadow??? I would have thought a ton of spray was needed first!
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I'm glad it got aimee to contribute here. I was SO curious about Valico's instruction! I hope others will put in their reports, too. I have been DYING to know what was taught in the Makeup Workshops for AGES. I know I only absorbed/remembered/recorded so much... and others must have picked up more or different things. And I'd guess that every single class is a bit different--so there's a chance to hear something new each time... I just LOVE this stuff!

 

Wow, that all sounds interesting! I should have tried to eavesdrop on Valico's class while I was sitting about waiting... ah well. I'm hoping I'll get another chance to do so, someday!

I'm also hoping others will add to this thread. I'm not sure how many photos people were taking... it was hard to pay attention and do the class AND snap photos!

Hmm... I wonder if she was using it to dry-brush the eyebrows? (using less paint on the brush--where you can see the strokes of the hairs of the brush on each stroke, instead of painting each individual stroke with a wetter brush.)

I was tempted to take more photos of people and what they were doing, but some people don't like getting their pictures taken and posted, so I usually try to focus on other things.

One of the people at my table was just trying to fix the lips (I think) on her doll's faceup, but I think she just had to listen to the same things we heard and see if it applied to what she wanted to do. Mikey might have tried to help her out, but if so, I didn't hear what she was told.

 

I'd have to check on the exact prices, but the Heads were separate (around $300), I think we had to buy the little sets of materials to use--that was around $40 and $40 was for the actual instruction--if I recall correctly (I have a terrible memory!).

The classes have been offered by Volks at the NYC and LA Dolpas... for LA--the first and only so far Dolpa, which this original class review was about, and for the special Event in L.A. in 2009. Classes are held more regularly and for a longer history in Japan, of course.