Esthetics Body blushing strung/unstrung dolls?

I could have sworn I had answered this in another thread not too long ago, but the search fails me at the moment.

Anyway, there are pros and cons to each method, and sometimes you also have no real choice but to do it one way or another.
I have done both in the past, either because the design (of the paintjob or the doll) forced me to, or because I was lazy/it was easier to do it a certain way.

When you keep the doll strung, you skip the agonizing restringing part later which can also minimize potential damage.
However, you have to handle the whole body while painting, which depending on the size can be HORRIBLE. I made his chest scar without unstringing him, but he's 73cm and weighs a ton



I had to wedge the body between my legs while working and it was just super exhausting.

In the next case I simply could not take apart the legs or tail because of how FL had them strung. I was forced to work around all the little moving parts. Since I tend to use masking tapes and foil to cover areas I do not want to spray, this meant I had to do this while the legs were strung...horrible. It was also hard to navigate with the airbrush and make sure I hit all the spots and avoid hard cut-off where parts overlap.



You CAN keep parts strung, but it means you have to handle the whole piece and need to very carefully mask off anything you don't want to seal or paint. If you already know you just want to do a small area (like just collarbone and nipples), that's fine. Just use some wrap to cover up the arms/stomach, and tape. Just be prepared for it being a bit difficult to work around on.
If it's a large scale thing and/or extensive paint job, take it apart. Restringing might be exhausting, but it makes working and sealing easier when no parts block each other off/you don't have to wrangle the complete doll the whole time.

 

If you end up not wanting to blush whole body/just want to do details and tattoos, you can also use brush-on sealant (Liquitex Matte varnish applied with a makeup sponge is the most popular choice for that) for the small areas. That way you don't have to unstring but also not worry about spraying the wrong areas or getting sealant in-between joints. That's not a very good solution for blushing an entire body, but just to throw an alternative out there.

 

I feel like this got asked a lot, in the earlier days. I probably responded to all million threads about it, and it's now probably all merged into one giant post somewhere...

When I first started doing shading/blushing on my first BJD, eons ago, I used to unstring the doll -- my first two were 60cm tall. I used to redo the work every year. Then when I got my largest doll, at a tiny 67cm compared to other dolls made nowadays. I was too lazy to do each part separately and started doing it all strung together. I still had to take the doll apart to clean and redo the blush work obviously, but I find painting the whole body all at once more satisfying.

I am an old-scrawny-old-fart (old x2 to get my point across!), but I still find doing the shading part with the doll strung together, to be more relaxing to me. I also feel I can get things to flow and blend nicer that way. Also, the areas that don't get sealed are areas that are under a joint anyway, so to me there's no point in getting worried about those not getting covered with fixative or masked. They'll be the first to get damaged if covered with fixative and painted on, so there is zero point in my perspective.

It is easier with smaller dolls, but even as a weak old fart, I still will redo my heavier, taller BJD (one day soon) all strung together, again. I'll never go back. Unless. I hit my head real hard and no longer remember my own personal preferences. lol! (:


Edit to add the last doll I blushed, it is a bit of cheating because he's 28cm tall. But I would have still done the shading fully strung even if he was 70cm tall.

 

When I painted my Rafayeh, I left her strung. I had an s-hook mishap the very first time I took her head off, and she was so tightly strung that I needed backup to pull and hold the elastic tight enough that I could reseat the s-hook without it escaping into her neck again. It was a nightmare I didn't want to relive any more than necessary!

I didn't use any pastels to blush her, only acrylics, so the blushing process was super easy, even when I had to hold her to get the paint in just the right spot. And I didn't have to worry about knocking any parts together while restringing (potentially chipping her new paintjob) because, well...I didn't have to restring!

I also didn't notice any difficulties posing her after the coats of sealant I did. No joints sticking or stiff elastic (well, stiffer than usual) to speak of. I don't think I sprayed enough sealant to even begin to cause that problem, so as long as you don't work in a ton of layers I don't think sealant getting on the joints or string is a big deal at all.

 

I'm going to agree with the others and say it depends upon the size of the doll (and your arm strength).
I blushed my Iplehouse Aaliyah HID while fully strung, and hoooo boy she HEAVY. It doesn't seem like much at first, but the longer you hold that body up in the air...


However, with smaller dolls (49 cm and under), I actually prefer to blush while the doll remains strung because I want continuity in the color. For example, I'm going to be blushing a dyed Resinsoul centaur body - I want to deepen the gradation of color from the pastel blue to a darker blue (and maybe some purple at the bottom). Leaving the body strung will make keeping track of the gradient easier - and it's nowhere near as heavy as some of my big girls.


Now, when it's time to blush my Miracle Doll 68 cm bodies? Oh, yeah - they're getting unstrung. No way am I manhandling those resin beasts all in one go (Miracle Doll resin is THICK).

Also, when you're blushing something like hands, it's so much easier to remove the hand from the body. I must have flipped the hands around 360 degrees trying to paint those teeny tiny fingernails.

The other issue that I haven't seen pointed out yet is sealant pooling. If you accidentally spray too much sealant, it can pool under joints. (Ask me how I know!) If the doll is unstrung - no problem, wipe it up. But if the doll is strung, you may not find out until you go to move a part, and ew, what's all that gunk under there?