Esthetics Pointers on body blushing please?

I don't think I have good close ups of any of my dolls with natural-blushed-nails that isn't total crap, but here's are two not too crappy but not great. I only use acrylics for the white detailing, the first doll is 60cm and the second one is 40-ish-cm.

Spoiler: 60cm Doll

Spoiler: 40cm-ish Doll

1. I usually do 2 to 3 layers of fixative before finishing up/calling-it-done, and adding gloss.
2. & 3. I usually only use acrylics for line work, that includes the nail-detailing. For blushing I use pastels, on the nails as well, but I use acrylics for the white details, like nail tips and "moons."
4. The explanation is that the fixative didn't cure well over the areas that had the watercolor pencil. I have heard of it before, but I'm not sure what people have done to fix it, as I don't use watercolors.
5. Wet wipe as in the stuff that has clorox, disinfectant/alcohol? Then yes, that would remove all, not just the fixative.
6. It is safe, as long as you also removed all the color/pigment. Otherwise, if just the fixative was removed but there are still traces of pigment in that area, you'll see staining once you remove the whole body blush.
7. I usually shave my pastels into a palette and mix them to get the colors I want. I like realism and a bit more subtle blushing on my own dolls, so I always aim for less saturation. Although I kind of love body blushing, so I kind of overdo it sometimes.
8. I never used this, as I have read on their website that you need a thinner for it to be diluted, as it is acrylic resin based, and not water based. Which is what I prefer for removable paint work on my own dolls.
9. Yes, if you want to match the body and face, you would have to go with brown-toned body blushing.


Sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes, I should be sleeping at 2AM, but nope... Hope those help and good luck! (:

 

Hi Siara, Enzyme,

Siara, for a first effort I am impressed. That was a tiny little guy you worked on.

Enzyme, your work is AMAZING. Who knew?

I have an Iplehouse Cordelia that needs a faceup, and just the little bit I know tells me I can’t do this myself and get the result I want. It takes skill and practice. A lot of practice. I think I’ll just stick to the sewing part.

 

• Do I need to spray more than one layer of sealant after body blushing and before glossing?

Yes; similarly to starting, you should do 2-3 layers of sealant when finishing up.

• My white watercolor pencil didn't seem to leave any pigment behind. Is this just because it might be bad quality or am I doing something wrong? Should I make the white lines with acrylic paint or get a better pencil?

Since you didn't specify, and basing this on what your photos looked, I'm assuming you did this all in one go, only sealing at the start and end. If that's correct--that's why you had trouble. The pastels (which you were a bit heavy-handed with) filled up the "tooth" of the sealant, so the pencil had nothing to grip against and any pigment it did leave just blended in with the pastel. Build your layers a little more slowly, spray a layer of sealant between each one, and then another one before doing anything with watercolor pencils.

• The nails were colored with pastel. Should I color them with acrylic paint next time or is pastel fine? The gloss seemed to lighten all pastel though.

Pastel is fine, just be sure to seal thoroughly before glossing.

• What could explain the lightening of the pastel and smearing of the water pencil when glossing? I used the recommended Tamiya X-22 clear gloss on this attempt. Perhaps more seleant layers on top of the blushing?

Again, yes, you need to seal more before glossing; I'll have some more notes on your additional questions.

• What could have caused the sealant to be totally removed near the nether region? Are three base layers not sufficient? I did use a wet wipe to remove excess gloss, could that have caused the complete removal of the sealant? It's really disheartening and my biggest issue.

It's your "wet wipe." Whatever type of "wet wipe" you used, it contained a solvent that stripped the sealant and blushing back off. Do not use anything like that on your doll! For excess gloss, a low-lint paper towel or q-tip (water only!) is sufficient to remove it.

• Is it safe to leave that little spot of bare resin open? I'm a little worried about staining although I'm not going to blush over it again. The little one is going to be clothed all the time so it won't show at all but I'm worried if it can have negative consequences (paranoia).

It's just bare resin, the same as before you started blushing. That said, depending on what was in your "wet wipes," you may want to lightly wash those parts with water and plain Dawn dish soap to remove any residual chemicals that might damage the resin over time. (As an aside, since you didn't mention it, be sure before blushing to wash in the same way to remove oils from your hands, dust, and any residual mold release or resin dust from casting.)

• How does one get a proper color of pastel? I have a basic set but I find each base color either too red or too pink. Are there special pastels in colors suited to skin or is there an easy way to make your own preferred color?

I don't know why everyone is so obsessed with buying pastels in sets; you'll never get good colors that way. Buy open stock singles in the actual colors you need instead of sets that are going to have mostly colors you'll barely, if ever, use. You can blend them, but I find it the most straightforward to just get the right color to begin with. I've never seen a set that fully intersects with my basic colors, and that group of colors cost far less than any set. (Stick to good brands, too--Schminke, Rembrandt, and Panpastel are all solid options. I personally favor Panpastel, since they're brush-ready in the package and don't require any shaving. Be sure to get only chalk/soft pastels, as well, not oil.)

• How does one properly use Tamiya X-22 clear gloss? I just applied it with an itsy bitsy toothpick adding a little at a time because her fingernails were so small. Do I need to dilute it or use as is?

This may have also contributed to the loss of blushing--you need to use a brush, not a toothpick. Wooden toothpicks are great for removing blushing from tight spots in the sculpts, but not for adding to the blushing. Get a properly tiny brush or two, and practice a bit with it. Just use it as is, but use a brush.

• As you can see the body blushing and face-up differs quite a lot in color/shade. How does one make a closer match? The face-up is blushed brownish, is body blushing in a brownish color the solution to this? It seems like such a weird color to use on a pale NS doll.

A lighter touch and a closer shade to what's in the faceup will help it match, yes. Take the doll with you to an art supply store to compare the colors so you can find something that's a close match.

 

Congrats on your first blushing!
Starting out on a small doll can be tricky too!

If you are having a hard time getting your colors to be softer, you can also not shave the pastel dust off. Instead, just swipe your brush directly onto the whole pastel. This way you will only pick up a little bit of pastel dust. You can then swipe the brush onto the pastel again to get more pastel if you want to darken your colors.
Or if you prefer to shave the pastel, be sure to tap your brush off before using it on your doll, to remove excess pastel dust. I usually like to have a blank sheet of white paper that I can test my brush on to get excess pastel off and check the color.

I would also suggest having a very good light source when blushing or doing faceups. Dark working conditions can cause you to over blush. Then when you see the work under different light, it looks completely different to what you thought you were doing. I noticed that in your first photos, the lighting was rather dark, making the blushing look less pronounced. In the last photos, the light is more bright, and the blushing is more stark.
I actually make a point of looking at my faceups and blushing work under as many different lights as I can before sealing anything. For instance, I have my work light and do my work next to a large window. Then I take the piece I am working on and check under my bathroom light (daylight bulbs), and in different windows with bright light from different directions (west vs. east). It helps me a lot to get a better sense of what the colors actually look like and be sure that I am satisfied with them before I seal.

But I agree with the above, that it's best to work a little at a time, add color where you want the darkest color to be, seal, let it dry, add more color, seal, let dry, repeat. That way you can build the color to the intensity you want. It's easier to start soft and get darker than to have to try and clean up or remove pigment you don't want.

As for the gloss, I believe the Tamiya gloss is alcohol based (why it dries super quickly). So I think that in combination to using a toothpick, which is hard and more prone to disturbing the sealant underneath, is what caused your work to chip down to the resin. A soft, small brush is better to gloss with as suggested above.
It's also possible, that since the pastel was applied in a single layer, that there was just too much pastel dust for the last, single layer of sealant to hold on to, and might also contribute to why your work ran when it came into contact with the gloss.

Sorry that ended up rather long!
I hope that's of some help. I look forward to seeing your next blushing project.

 

That's a good point I forgot to mention... I always work under a pair of strong, daylight-spectrum lamps on either side of my desk, to keep the doll from falling into shadow while I'm working on it. Good, strong light helps with any art, not just blushing dolls; you're always more likely to pick colors that are too strong if you don't have enough light on your workspace.

 

Thanks..? Lol!

I don't have any actual tips I can offer, but I'm sure if you go to YouTube you'll find some tutorials on how to do body blush -- I'm sure everyone has different techniques that work for them. I've been blushing my own dolls from the very beginning, for over fifteen years now, but I suck at giving instructions/tips. I love working with Rembrandt brand soft pastels, because they are richly pigmented and easy to blend and mix with each other. I was (not to long ago) gifted tree pans of Pan Pastels and I have to say that while they are super richly saturated (more so than Rembrandt), they are a bit of a pain for me to mix and blend. I don't have any issues when mixing and blending Rembrandt ones, they are like paint to me; they mix and blend super smoothly on the resin/any-plastic, without the need to use anything more than a soft brush. The Pan Pastels need a lot more effort to blend, and a bit more skill to mix well enough -- I don't know that they were made to be blended, but the Rembrandt ones work really well when mixed together to create new colors, used straight from the stick or shaved into powder. I like mixing my pastels with white, to make the saturation a lot less pigmented, simply because I like less saturated blush and face ups, but a lot of people like working with the pastels straight from the stick (or so I've read). Good luck and hope you have fun! I love body blushing my dolls, when I was younger I used to redo it once every year -- now I'm a lazy-old-bum, so I haven't redone anyone in a long time. (: