Painting Freckles

Enki, I know this is an old post but eep, your girl is stunning! What company made her, if you don't mind me asking? Great job on the freckling, I think it looks very natural

 

Definitely the splatter method. Just make sure that you cover up your surroundings and eye make-up (if there is any)

 

Thank you for this tutorial. I am getting ready to face up an Impldoll Kane, and to me, he just looks like he would look great with some freckles! Thank You again!

 

What a beauty!!!! She is so pretty!!!

 

He's gorgeous!

 

So beautiful! Great job! I want to create freckles on my doll. Yours look real, very natural, very beautiful!!

 

He looks like a real red head! Gorgeous!!!

 

You have created gorgeous face ups and Fabulous Freckles!!! I love what you did!

 

WOW!!!! Sooo beautiful!!! Really really lovely!!

 

Thanks for the, uh, coverage.

I'd add some advice:

Look for a lot of reference photos of people with freckles, from light freckling to very heavy. Look at those under a little higher magnification, zoom in, in Photoshop or Paint Shop to see the patterning. Try Wiki too. IIRC, there's an article on freckles. Actual freckles are tiny dots or ovals, usually, but to do them in scale on a doll, they're basically dots.

They are generally in a light tint and a dark shade of the same hue (color), and that matches closely with the person's other skin and hair colors. Some freckles will be slightly bigger or darker; others will be lighter or smaller. But they should be well defined and they should be very random, not regular.

A watercolor pencil or acrylic paint should do it, seal beforehand, seal after once you're happy with it, so it won't be too shiny.

Colors should range toward a golden yellow-brown in yellow ochre or in raw sienna; coppery rusty red-brown in red ochre or burnt sienna; olive-like raw umber; dark brown burnt umber; or hues toward pink/rose maybe alizarin crimson...maybe; and so on. Do what looks and feels right for the character.

If you want something more fantasy-oriented, then cool greys or warm greys, from neutral black and grey and white, to off tones with blues, purples, greens, or brownish greys would all work -- when done carefully to match the look of the character. One possibility is to test on the sole of a foot and clean that off, since the color of the resin or other surface will influence how the newly added color looks.

Also, though new freckles will be better defined, older freckles will fade, or, like with a tan, freckles can fade without enough in the sun. So the suggestion to apply a Q-tip or other tiny blotting / fading method makes sense, then apply new freckles over that.

 

I do not have the patience for endless dotting so I'm going to be experimenting with toothbrushes. Should be interesting?

 

I think the toothbrush method is the way to go.

 

I've used the splatter method on all of my freckled dolls. It's easy to do over a default faceup or as the last layer of your own faceup. I just dilute the paint, usually about 2/3 water and 1/3 brown paint, and dip a large brush or toothbrush in and flick it on a sheet of paper until the size of the splatters look right, then onto the doll's face from about 3 inches away. My examples:

 

I used a very small round brush and various shades of brown pastel (the darkest is a ashy brown, the lightest is an orangey peachy colour I use for normal blushing). I only put pastels on the tip of my brush, and just dab them on the spot I want. If they're too dark, I use a large brush to lightly sweep the spot to lighten it. For a few freckles, I made them slightly darker by twisting the brush to get more pastel on the spot. I did this in 2-3 layers until I was happy with it, haha. You can't see most of it, but if you move to view your screen at different angles (like from a low angle), some of the "hidden" freckles can be seen, which is what makes the faceup look more natural, especially in person, I feel. I've not tried using paints for freckles though...kind of prefer the easy I can remove pastels, haha. I had a lot of fun making the freckles, and I realise I did some on his ear lobes too, haha.

Oh yeah, and I found watching makeup tutorials for people useful for how to paint freckles too. Here's 2 I like: ONE, TWO.

 

Used inuchick's tutorial from the second page to paint some freckles on my white skinned boy's shoulders and face. Had trouble with my 18/0 paintbrush being too large, so I used a toothpick instead. Also finding a paint the right shade for white skin was a bit hard, I ended up using an acrylic paint by ceramcoat, I have forgotten the name of the shade but will edit this when I get home and can check.
EDIT: The name of the paint color is AC Flesh. I watered it down quite a bit and dabbed the freckles with a paper towel to lighten them still.

 

I also used inuchick's tutorial from the second page, and I really love the results! It was lots of fun. Thanks so much for the fabulous tutorial inuchick!

 

splatter with airbrush method, I just quickly got any boo boos with a q tip. The thing about freckles is they should not be symmetrical or perfectly grouped, or all one color that's what makes them look fake. Also remember they are sun damage, so they should be on the skin where the sun hits

Annowre by stellamaris61, on Flickr

 

Personally I use a sponge, one that is semi fine
my result looks like this

I find greater control with a sponge and it create a richer texture, if you look at real photos of freckles they sort of look like they are on different layers and they are variously coloured and painting them with sponge help me get that complex look

 

THank you for the great tips ^^ i was lookin for advice on how to do freckels for a while now cant wait to see how it turns out

 

ohh so this is what i would do to make cute freckles. Thanks for the tutorial i wish i could try this I really think freckles are cute!

 

[obnoxiously large pictures, I'm sorry]

Making my humble contribution to this thread! This is Honey. He's my first go at a face up + body blushing. He's heavily freckled. I mixed different hues of brown soft pastel and water then flicked it on him with a rough bristled brush. Some splatters look like plain ol' splatters, but some turned out pretty okay. You guys be the judge!

 

Um whoa, never thought I'd develop a thing for freckles but there are some amazing freckled beauties lurking in this thread! Thanks for all the tips everyone!

 

^_^ Make sure your heavily freckled beauties don't end up in the sun. They'll turn green. I should know. It's what my uncle looks like when he comes in during the summer.

Seriously, thanks for the tips and photos. I'm thinking of giving my boy freckles across the ridge of his nose. Was playing around with his face and Photoshop and got this. If I can pull it off, what do you think?

 

I will back up the splatter method. I have since wiped them off, but I did that method once for my boy, Kadan, and they looked very, very nice and realistic.

 

I used the splatter method with Sid, and it works really well, especially for bodies- and he's entirely covered. I still need to clean up a few of Sid's, but I adore the way they look on him.

 

I'd do what others have suggested, using watercolour pencils. Then perhaps wet the end of a cotton bud (definitely not too wet or it might run!) and dab it on very lightly.

 

How far away should I be holding the brush for the splatter method if I'm only choosing a very small area? I want freckles across her nose but I'm worried about getting them all over her face. It's a MSD sized doll if that helps.

 

You could always wrap tissue or something around the parts of her face that you don't want covered, then just splatter the exposed area. Usually a few inches away works well.

 

I don't know if anybody has said this yet, but I do my freckles with pastel dust on a fine brush

 

I just use the toothbrush like many people here told me to xD It turned out great. must be careful that it doesn't look like water splash too much though.

 

I tried my hands on the flicking method and I gotta say, I love it. I thought it looked too random at first but I had a movie playing for background noise and they showed a closeup of a freckly face and it was spot-on ... I foresee a lot more freckled dolls in my future!

I also "enhanced" some of the freckles (because I was happy with the amount of freckles after two rounds of flicking but wanted some to be darker) by dipping a toothpick in the thinned paint and on the freckle I wanted to darken. Pics as soon as the weather permits my craptastic old point-and-shoot to pick up details.

 

I used a watercolor pencil to individually dot freckles. I then used a q-tip to dab/water down the freckles so they blended in. It took me 2-3 hours or so, but I am happy with the result. I wanted the freckles to be specifically along the cheekbone only, so the splatter technique wasn't the most viable.

Desperate Measures by AmberLeighsBJDs, on Flickr

Desperate Measures-22 by AmberLeighsBJDs, on Flickr

 

Depending on the type of freckles needed.
Simple freckles across the nose area I'll just use a color pencil in two tones of brown (One light one darker) and simply draw on the freckles in various sizes and not too systematically.

If it's full face/body freckles I use a spray bottle.
I mix water and water color in light tan/tan and simply spray it generously on the wanted area. It's no harm to "overdo" it because if any specks become too big or in any other way flaws the look, a damp q-tip can easily remove and/or mod the freckles.
I tend to use the color pencils to intensify some of the specks though

 

I personally use a very sharp watercolor pencil and let the freckles vary in size

 

thanks for the tutorial ^ -^

 

Oh this is so pretty! I love it a lot, it really suits him, I especially love his back, it turned out wonderfully~

I love seeing all these freckled dolls, freckles really are my weakness, they're just so beautiful.

 

I can't wait to try my hand at freckles! Most of my dolls have red wigs and I love a redhead with freckles. Thank you everyone for all the great tips and pictures. Very informative and so many ways to get the desired results.

 

this is really helpful! thank you!

 

I realize this is an older thread, but had to comment a very large THANK YOU to everyone who contributed. I am nervously awaiting warmer weather to add freckles to my Bianka who still has her default face up in near perfect condition and this settled my nerves immensely.