Aesthetics Romantic Watercolor Sugar Skull

I have a million brilliant (to me, at least) ideas for my Fairyland Fairy Line Sia heads, so I'm just going to sort of put them right here and wholeheartedly invite any and all to help me sort through them and achieve them. This is my first project journal, so I hope it's worth a follow!

Long story: I missed out on buying a gorgeous calavera-styled doll and was super bummed, but then realized: hey, I do my own face-ups and I've got these Sia heads (one sleeping and one open-eyed) with no plans. Make ya own! Great idea! Then I stumbled upon this pin and thought: oh! what if the flower on her forehead were painted to match a flower collar like that one?! Brilliant! So here is a Pinterest album filled with both oil and watercolor flowers and reference pictures of flowers and wish-list items to inspire the soul. You'll find I love peonies.

Short story: I'm going to paint Sia (tentatively named Flora) up with a romantic, watercolor sugar skull theme and make some things for her too, like a wig, and a flower collar. Other things may occur to me (flower crown, maybe?), but this is a good start. I've never painted watercolor flowers (or any flowers, as I recall), so I don't know whether that's the way I'll go or if I'll revert back to pastels and watercolor pencils. If you have tips and tricks for me, please share! I'm sure I'll try several things that won't work, but I'll keep at it until I have her.

Here she is with her current (fresh, even) face-up:


Sia by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr (Sorry, I have no idea why she's sideways. She's not on Flickr!)

Face-up Materials:
-Citadel Purity Seal
-Sennelier soft pastels in various colors (may need to get them in floral colors instead of just the peaches, browns, and pinks I have)
-Prismacolor and Derwent watercolor pencils
-a cheap pan of caked gouaches in basic colors (might have to spring for tubes of gouache)
-Tamiya gloss
-Pearl-Ex pigment powders
-eyelashes

Wig materials:
-fiber (TBD)
-dye?
-glue
-wig-cap material

Collar materials (all things I will need to get, probably):
-silk flower
-elastic or ribbon
-fastener of some sort

It's summer and I live in the midwest, so the humidity will likely hold me back. It's been really mild so far, so I hope I can get quite a bit of work done yet!

 

I'll be right back with my messy sketches with their messy notes. Here's the sleeping head I'm going to start with:


Sia by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr

The first step will be to remove this brand new lovely face-up, lol. I did it myself and I was just playing around, so I'm not too sad. Her new face-up will be amazing! You will be seeing more pearlescence in the sugar skull, promise.

 

Thank you, @Joy LaBelle and @borxanne! Here are some (really) rough sketches of what I'm thinking. Think pastels, gold outlines...like fine china, I suppose.


Face-up concepts by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr


Face-up concepts by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr

I'm trained as a pencil and pen artist, so naturally I made these sketches in un-editable ink. Apologies for the x's and the general mess, lol. I hadn't drawn them with the intent to share! I don't know exactly what I'm going to do for the petal shapes around the eyes. That will be a constant work-in progress until I get something on the face that I like, I think. If you have any inspiration for me, I'm all ears.

I have one face-up holding me up a bit at the moment (can't decide what color to make her eyebrows!), but I'm going to clean up the sleeping head and cross my fingers for continued low humidity this week.

 

Thank you, @fourmist!

She has been cleaned and sealed and I did a little sketch of all the things I want directly on her face before I paint the skull part just to be sure it'll all fit. I think it will. The detail between the eyes and down the nose may need to be shrunken or edited, but I'll sketch everything back on after I lay the white down (later tonight, maybe!). I know it's hard to see. :P I tried to edit the photos a bit to make them a bit easier, but...white pencil....


Head sketches by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr


Head sketches by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr

My other face-up is nearly done and taught me a few things about the gouache consistency I need for smooth, opaque application, so I'll get started on this immediately. Two warnings: 1) I love to over-document, so expect a bunch of pictures showing not much change, lol. I'm hoping my over-documentation might help people who want to learn more about face-upping or just want to see how different people do it. 2) I'm a really slow face-upper. I do a million layers and tweak tiny things between them, so it might take a couple of months, but I'll get her done.

So the next step is to paint most of her face white. I haven't decided what the step after that will be...but I'll let you know when I get there.

 

Thank you @Mardala and @Plucifer! I'll be honest, sugar skulls weren't really on my radar until I started watching a few well-known face-up artists who have dolls painted that way or have painted them as commissions. My love for the traditional art is definitely growing as I do a bit more research and basic looking-about. I'm excited to put my own spin on it.

I started painting Flora's face white last night. I put too much water in the gouache, so it's more of a wash right now than a paint job. :P I'll try again tonight for a fuller cover.

 

Thanks @darling_ja! And welcome, @TatsuKitty!

I have a skull shape painted at last. It turned into a much bigger ordeal than I anticipated. :P Though I have a pan of caked gouaches (like what you used in elementary school), the white that came with it is in a tube. I watered it down a little and had a mess on my hands. It wouldn't go on smoothly, consistently, or opaquely. I had clumps and thin spots. When I went back over the thin spots, naturally (because gouache...), the paint came up again instead of covering over the spots. So, in a huff, I washed it all off and boldly pulled out some white acrylic I had laying around. It worked! I did several very thin layers to minimize brush strokes. The face is textured, unfortunately, but with as many sealant layers as I tend to require, I think the texture will not show in the end product. I hope. Fingers crossed.

If anyone knows how to paint big sections like this without leaving brush strokes (and without an airbrush) please let me know!


Flora by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr


Flora by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr

I washed off my really helpful pencil marks, so the shape on the left side is a little off, lol. Nothing some creative outlining can't fix, I think.

I don't want to write a novel here, but let me tell you the next step: I've been watching watercolor flower painting videos like a madwoman, so I'm going to give it a go tomorrow (if the weather will let me seal first). My main concern is that a sealed bjd head is 1) not paper, so won't absorb the paint/water in the same fashion and 2) not flat, so might send paint running in rivulets everywhere. It's not like I've never used watercolors on a doll head before, but I'm really unsure if I can achieve what I want in the way I envision it. I've been watching the videos thinking, "Oh! Piece of cake! I can do that." My heart says I should maybe be a little less sure of myself, lol. We'll just see about that.

 

Welcome and thanks, @HoneyRyder! Here are some more hopefully helpful pictures.

I'll just post the first and the last. There are 4 more on my Flickr account. This first one is me just messing around to see if I could get the forehead flower shape right. I did it upside-down, so had to wash it off and start over.


Flora's Face-up by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr

This next one is the result I've just sealed! I started with something like the pale tone above and gradually added darker layers of the same pigments (the violent purple and pink in my watercolor kit) on top as they dried. As I waited for them to dry, I painted the dark grey acrylic eye and nose bits. The forehead stuff was supposed to be messing around while waiting for the flower to dry too, but I love how it turned out, so it's for realz.


Flora's Face-up by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr

Please ignore my horribly wobbly outlines, if you visit Flickr. I keep telling myself they will be covered by borders. That's what I'll try to do. The nose part won't get a border, though, so I may have to go back in with white paint or something. I don't know whether to paint inside her nostrils, lol. Mainly I don't want to be the one to have to clean the paint out of her nostrils later...but it does look funny, doesn't it?

Next: more painting (probably those borders, the eye decoration that I finally figured out, and I want to add a couple leaves to the big flower), then blushing and the other usual face-up stuff.

 

Hi all! Sorry for the silence. ALL THE THINGS happened in the last two weeks: I got sick, got busy, went out of town, it got insufferably hot AND stormy/rainy, I have school things to do, and I'm also lazy because it's summer break. I'm a woman of contradictions! I have a new layer to share, so I'll be back in a jiff with that. It's been sealed for a week and is ready for more work, I just have to find a little bit of time today to do it! Thanks for hanging in here with me.

@HoneyRyder, I do have a Queena! She's much less fanciful, but she's lovely (and my first doll, so my favorite ). She's my profile pic, actually! Here's a link to my Flickr (you should be able to get to it by clicking on any of my pictures in this thread) and my Queena's album.

 

Thanks you, @Lisa_Alisa!

So, I forgot to take the last photo I promised you, but I do have photos of the latest work! She's sealed again and has been waiting for more attention for at least a week. :P


Flora's Progress by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr


Flora's Progress by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr

As you can see, I added the lavender-ish flowers beside her eyes, did a rough outline of her skull, added some flourishes here and there, and started with the normal pastels portion of her face-up. The grey bits still look rather rough. They don't look that bad in person! I don't know yet how I'm going to clean them up...outline them? Just carefully paint around the edges? I just don't know. I have to decide soon, though.

Next step: some more pencil work. I'll get her eyebrows mostly done and start working around the eyes to add creases, liner, maybe lashes already too, etc. I'll strengthen the flourishes I've already drawn. The outline will be painted over in gold, but I think I'll sharpen it up a bit anyway. Someone may need to remind me to blush her ears. I noticed as I was watermarking these photos that they weren't blushed yet, lol. I just know I'm going to forget!

Finally, I went to Michael's and got a huge deal on bunches of fake flowers!


Flora's Progress by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr

The pink daisy up top was only 99 cents, so that'll be the one I take apart first to experiment with. There's a gorgeous pink peony in one of the bunches that will probably be the finished collar, but many of these flowers have a lot of potential.

Until next time! Hopefully that's not too long from now.... :P

 

Thank you, @lishelove! I think those flowers are my favorite part too.

@Twillow, that's a good idea! I like it solid as it is, but I'm always happy to experiment (especially if it'll clean up my mess!).

 

I haven't don't anything all month. :P But I did receive some clothes for her, so I test-drove the unfinished head on her body. Me likey.

Test-driving the WIP face by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr

 

I'm just about to start her open-eyed head, so you aren't late at all, @thessalyrose! It sounds like a thing that would work! Many layers of sealant have evened out the texture, so it's not a big deal in the end. I might give it a shot. I would just be afraid of removing too much and/or the previous layer's sealant. I think I've solved the messy lines (which really only showed up in pictures, oddly enough) with watercolor pencil, so you're right on.

I owe you guys pics! I'm a sparkle layer and gloss layer away from being finished! If only it weren't so humid. :P

 

I used just pencils for the details! I just got the white layer down on the open-eyed head, so I might try the sandpaper. I think I figured out the problem, so I'll expound for a moment, lol. I use just a little bit of paint in a pallet (or this time, just the cap of the paint bottle). It went on perfectly smooth and very thinly and got a bit more textured as I progressed until now I have the same issue (not quite as bad) with the open-eyed head. So, I think the paint was drying on the pallet and that's what caused the texturing. Next time, I'll refresh the paint from time to time or just dip my brush straight into the bottle.

Okay, now for the fun stuff! The sleeping head is finished! She's adorable, but I'm going to make a few changes to the open-eyed one. Here is one last process photos because I got behind and I haven't had the sunlight for finished shots. I'm afraid I'll disappoint @MirthMaven and @pepperonipizza with the sparkle, lol. It was a pain in the butt. Took three times for some reason. It's just on her eyes, but it looks perfect. Here she is pre-sparkle and gloss.


Flora by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr

 

Finished photos!


Flora by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr

Flora by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr

I hope you can kind of see the sparkle in the second picture. On the outer corners of the eyes and the gold outline of the face. It isn't as noticeable as I'd have liked. :P There are just a few things I'm going to change on the second face-up:

-eyebrows: they look a little sloppy. I have a tendency to combine two or three styles and this is the result, so I just have to pick one style and stick with it, lol.
-forehead flower: I have a sketch of an open one that looks really cool, so I thought open-eyed head = open flower.
-sparkle: there's not much I can do about the face-outline. Maybe make it a little glossier. I do have a different purple (dual-red/purple for my own notes) that should work a little better. It certainly worked better on my DZ Dale. I have a couple different golds, too, but I liked the antiquey look of this one.
-glossy eyes?: normally (since I have only done open-eyed face-ups), I gloss the whole eyelid, but I thought it would look weird on this head, so I didn't. The gloss would also bring out the glitter a bit more. I'll undoubtedly gloss the whole lid on the open-eyed head, but I don't know if I should do it to this one or not...

A final thing I've started to change already is the way I'm sealing the head. This head is SO grainy. It feels like sandpaper. I think I seal too much and hold the can too close to the head, so I'm trying not to do that with the second head. It feels a bit better already (though it's insanely humid and I haven't been able to do anything for a couple week.s :P). I'm hoping it'll even out my pencil lines a lot. They got awfully grainy on the first head.

Final thoughts until the next update: I think I want to make her a black wig with brown ends. Thoughts? Suggestions? I haven't made this a firm plan yet. I still have to decide on a fiber and figure out the best way to dye it. I'm experimenting with wig caps (only in my head right now), so I can't yet decide whether to do hers the old-fashioned way with a hard-cap, or experiment with hers too. Hmmm....If you want to see glamour shots of her with a wig on and looking super adorable, clicky herey.

Until next time!

 

I have been on the fence about the pink in the eye, but your description makes me feel much better about it. . I did gloss all the black around the eye, though you can't really tell from the picture, lol. I'm in the Hardcap Wig thread all the time. It is SUPER helpful. That's how I've made wigs in the past, but now I'm thinking about making a silicone cap and rooting it so that I can style it up or down or however without worrying about glue showing or gluing hairs in all the right directions, etc. Thanks for the angora thread link! I'll check it out!

That Sylvia Ji link!!!

 

Thank you so much! As many face-ups as I've done, it may sound silly, but lips are the one thing I think I've finally gotten the hang of, lol.

 

Thank you so much, skyealloway! I don't blog anymore (though I should), and i suspect that's why I'm rambly, lol.

Thank you! I really love her so far too. I just picked up the open-eyed head again and hope to have some progress to share soon! It was extremely humid/rainy for EVER. And now I'm in school hitting the grindstone to get my dissertation done, so I've been busy, but weekends have been pretty nice and I'd better take advantage of them while I still can!

That said, I might be moving on to wig and outfit stuff since winter approaches swiftly in these parts. I've decided what I want the wig to look like, but haven't decided how I'm going to color whatever fiber (another question to answer soon) to achieve that vision....

 

Thank you, @Akiraniu!

A bit of news: I had made a bit of progress on the open-eyed head, but was getting gloopy paint again. Side note: I tried evening out the rough patches with a multi-surface nail file, but it didn't do anything, much to my surprise. I think acrylic paint it just too plastic to be filed? I don't know. I'll try proper sandpaper if I run into the same issue. Back to the story: I realized I am amazingly stupid using only a dry paintbrush to paint with! Super dumb. I have wiped the open-eyed head and sealed it so I can start again. This time with a bit of water! And some guidelines like the first one. Got a little cocky the first time and ended up with some weird shapes. Such a buffoon....I hope to make All.The.Progress. this week and next (fingers crossed the weather holds!) so she can be done-ish by Halloween. So, no pics, but soon!

 

I have pictures, but I'm lazy about getting them from my camera to the computer to Flickr....So I'll write this and edit to add the photos when I get home.

When we last left off, I wiped the poor girl and started over with a bit of water and a wet brush to even out my acrylic application. It worked MUCH better! She's adorable. I have a patch that could have used another coat of white, but her wig will hide it. My uneven lines between the grey around the eyes and the white face aren't nearly as bad as they were on the first head. They still need some touching up, though. She looks like an adorable panda girl right now and I sort of want to leave her that way, but I won't, haha.

I have started the watercolor flower on her forehead a few times. Here is one of the iterations I wiped:


Flora by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr

I actually regret wiping it because I think it could have worked out in the end, but the new iteration looks pretty good too. So far, anyway. Let me tell you more than you ever wanted to know about watercolor painting on a doll head. Of course, you're probably here for that very reason.... Anyway, as you can see, I'm taking a bit more painterly approach to this. I've been watching Jay Art Watercolor videos and have done a water color painting on paper (of Iron Man! So cool!) to really get a sense of what I'm doing. Watercolors are really fun to play with! Here's the problem: doll heads are domed and they are not made of paper, so many of the techniques that work fantastically on paper just don't work quite as easily on a doll head, BUT they can be done...sort of. I wiped this flower because I used too much water on my brush and I painted on all sides of the curvature of the head (maybe you can see the water pooling on the lowest points). I had to keep rotating the head while I waited for the paint/water mixture to dry (because doll heads don't absorb the moisture) so that the pigment wouldn't settle in those lowest points. Not ideal.

The solution (so far) has been to use a bit less water in my brush (more pigment) and focus on smaller (flatter) areas. So, if I have remembered to photograph the current iteration and uploaded it below later this evening, you will see that the lighter, purple shade is only applied in one area of the head. I could hold that area (mostly) flat and avoid the pigment pooling where I didn't want it to. I'm going to keep adding sections and colors until it looks like a flower. I hope it'll look like a flower. :S It's a bit uncertain now....


Flora by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr

 

Photos are a day late, sorry! Up now.

 

Well hello hello again! Just popping in with a note to say I've been really bad about 1) working on poor Flora and 2) taking pictures when I do! Nice weather has snuck in for a visit this weekend and now her open-eyed head is almost done. I'll try to remember to get some pictures tomorrow and post them. Her face-up should be pretty much done Sunday, I think. She's such a cutie. I need to order alpaca for her wig. It was sold out last I looked, so there may be a delay on that front, in which case I'll move on to her flower collar or something.

 

Here is her almost-finished look. I've started the final steps (gloss and shininess!), so she'll be done in no time!


Flora by Bunnies and Bettas, on Flickr