Progress of a Doll’s Face

Here are the steps towards a finished hand painted face on one of my molded doll heads, made with my original sculpted moulds.  The last picture shows all the color ways worked out, yet not with the final sharp crisp details that will bring her face to life.  I’m saving that face photo for when I reveal the completed doll, with her felted wool hairstyle and unique clothing and accessories.

This first photo shows the sculpted face with its organic cotton jersey skin stretched over the mask:

Next I apply multiple coats of a tinted acrylic medium that contains fine marble dust to create the texture I desire while still allowing the ‘skin’ to retain some flexibility.

I build up multiple layers gradually allowing for complete drying between layers.  After these base layers are completely dry I rub the powdered Faber-Castell polychromos pigments into the doll’s face. This is my preferred medium rather than painting on her skin tone.  I believe it gives her a translucent complexion and creates vitality.  

As I work, I occasionally lightly spray the face with a matte sealant to preserve the work thus far. This allows me to remove future layers if I am unpleased with any step in the process.  I use a 000 sized brush and Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils to create the facial details.  

Here she is, one last step for final sharpening and defining of her facial features, nearly complete.

Best Friends with a Norwegian Forest Cat

This is the doll I’ve been dreaming about for a few weeks. I’ve finished sewing the body and the arms, and all have been tightly stuffed with a non-allergenic doll filling. I need to stitch the fingers and wrist dimples, then attach arms to the shoulders at each end.

The face masks for a young girl and a long-haired cat have been cast in Paperclay, cured and had organic cotton jersey stretched over the masks for ‘doll skin.’  The masks are attached to the body and ready to have a skull created from the excess cotton jersey. This is stuffed to give the dolls a more lifelike profile. I usually prime and seal the cotton jersey before I attach the face mask to the doll, but today I’m getting all of the stitching done before I begin any of the wet processes.  I’m always trying new things and changing up my production process to see if an innovation gives me a better end product.  

I just finished stitching and stuffing the ‘skulls’ and decided to attach the arms now, too. I’ll be honest; there’s a very good chance I’m going to regret that decision. The arms may end up in my way while I’m painting but they may give me a more secure ‘hold’ for the more delicate features.  We’ll see. The benefit I’m assessing by attaching the face masks before I begin painting them is that the cotton jersey becomes like fine glove leather after it’s been primed.  This makes it paradoxically tough to sew through yet easy to tear when I sew it onto the doll’s body. I’ll let you know on a future post how these experiments in production turns out for me. 

I’ve shown this photo on an earlier post. These are the textiles I chose for dressing this doll.