Dyeing How to change a skintone of a doll without dyeing

That's a very common method of color matching. In fact, my modded MnF Shiwoo just got back from Chi No Tenshi Aesthetics, who matched normal skin to Doll Chateau green:

IMG_3020 by Wolfie, on Flickr

IMG_3051 by Wolfie, on Flickr

 

I've heard of people using chalk pastels to change resin colors! I've never tried it, but it is another option! You just put the pastels on the sealed resin like you would body blush, but you put the pastels everywhere!

 

Painting is usually done by airbrush because with a paintbrush it is very difficult to get a smooth surface. It is seldom done to a whole doll because almost instantly the paint rubs off at the joints. You can limit this a little with techniques like sueding the joints entirely with something soft like flannel, but rubbing will rub your paint off. It's why dyeing is so common. If you want a doll dyed but cannot do it yourself you can commission someone else to do it for you.

 

Using a sponge is almost as good as an airbrush when done well.

The strength of acrylic paint is that it is 1) removable (if you make a mistake), 2) more controlled than dyeing, and 3) more even then pastel.

As @Rosslyn mentioned, however, the weaknesses (compared to dyeing) are that 1) it is removable, so if you make a mistake on the faceup that goes on over the paint, you will have to start over with both the acrylic paint resin matching and the faceup when you remove it (dye will not come off with the common paint solvents used to remove acrylic paint on BJDs), 2) it chips (particularly at joints, while dye will not), and 3) it makes the resin opaque (so if your doll's resin has any sort of glow to it or translucency, you will notice a difference between the resin-matched part and the doll).

Chalk pastel works too, but it is better for very slight color corrections (fixing undertones) because it takes care to build up the color in such a way that it doesn't look blotchy (with pastel).

 

Seconding sponging. Hybrid life is so much easier if I only worry about getting the body in the color I want. Just no transluscent resins.

My dolls Niccolo, Nick, and Cecil are all painted to match their bodies. I find the easiest way is to brush watery paint on and then tap on it with a sponge to make the brush strokes less visible and do it in a few layers so any uneven textures even out a bit.

 

If you only want to change her head to match a body, that's MUCH easier to do with pastels, especially Pan Pastels as they have a rich color. Look into blushing tutorials and make sure you have the right breathing protection and you're good to go! The best part is if you don't like it, you can wipe it and try again.

I don't mean to say paint isn't an option, but getting it even and smooth can indeed be tricky. Just doing it on a sealed head means you can also wipe that and go again if you mess up.

 

Goodness, looking for blank head pics makes me realize how old my dolls are.

I'm a big fan of tan skin but I also keep wanting heads from studios that don't/can't offer darker skin tones. So this is like my life now I guess. lol

Nick & Cecil are painted to match Luts realskin brown for an SDF and JDF body.

20141011_175904 by Kaxen6, on Flickr 20161104_170003 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

Anna queen Laya v2 by Kaxen6, on Flickr faceup6 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

Niccolo is painted to match a dyed body because I bought a used SSDF body like a few months before Luts started offering brown and tan skin non-limited I used to paint his body and 300% do not recommend. It was a chipped up mess even though it took me like three hours to get rid of all the paint to dye him...

P1140138 by Kaxen6, on Flickr 2016-12-25_05-13-23 by Kaxen6, on Flickr

 

Yeah it's not fun and then the second it's restrung it's like... goodbye paint on all the joints...

 

Pastel is actually a very effective way to match just a head. Here's an older shot of one of my girls on her original (hybrid) body, and a newer one of her wiped and on her new body, which is a very similar color to the old, and nicely shows off how poorly she matches both of them without blushing:

 

I may have to resort to this method if I get frustrated enough with my head-hunt. Otherwise, it seems like I can find a sculpt that looks like I want but not in tan, or like what I want in tan but has too small a neck opening, or meets the prior criteria but is sold out/was a limited/special event piece, or the company just plain doesn't sell heads separately... picking one that works and just painting the darn thing may ultimately end up saving my sanity (and my wallet).

 

I've seen people doing airbrushed paints but I didn't think you could get such good results with a paintbrush! Definitely trying this

 

Has anyone used this technique to paint a light tan head to a paler colour?

 

I'm also going to use the video's technique to match a NS minifee head to a NS kid delf body. I'll either make a new thread and link it here or just make a post here when it's done.