Bringing Your Baby Doll to Life - Part 5

Welcome back! Today, I'm sharing pictures of how I painted Kaylee's creases and wrinkles.

Mix your crease and wrinkle paint in one of the wells on your porcelain (or aluminum...no plastic!) palette. I'm using Genesis Heat Set Paints. Darken your blush color mix with some of your Burnt Umber. This will deepen the tone of your paint. Stephanie Sullivan suggests adding a bit of Dioxazine Purple 04 to cool the color.

Mix your crease and wrinkle color on your palette.

I use my 00 round brush to apply this color to the creases and wrinkles. Use a scrubby brush to feather and blend the edges.

Apply crease and wrinkle paint to the inside of the nostrils.

Apply crease and wrinkle paint to the inside of the ears.

Use a scrubby brush to feather the edges of the crease and wrinkle paint.

Apply paint to the creases and wrinkles on the hands and arms.

Apply paint to the creases and wrinkles on the feet and legs.

Bake at 265 degrees Fahrenheit or 130 degrees Celsius. Allow the parts to cool completely before proceeding to the next step.

If you are interested in an in depth look at color mixing and reborning, I highly recommend The Art of Reborning II - Painting with Genesis Heat Set Paints. (not an affiliate link)

Bring home one of my precious angels! See Baby Keri's Auction and My Babies on Etsy. 

Bringing Your Baby Doll to Life - Part 4

Welcome back! Today I'm sharing more pictures of Kaylee, my current baby doll in progress. I apologize for the photo quality. I am saving up for a good camera. I hope you still find the posts and photos to be helpful.

After baking the first blush layer, let the parts cool completely. For the next step, we'll be adding the second layer of foundation paint. Lightly moisten the end of your cosmetic foam wedge with odorless thinner (I use the Mona Lisa brand). With a 1/2 inch Maxine's Mop, apply a dot of Flesh 07 and a dot of Flesh 08 to the sponge.

Genesis Flesh 08 (left) and Flesh 07 (right)

With an up and down pouncing motion, apply the paint to the doll, reloading the sponge when needed. Try not to over-blend the colors.

Apply the second foundation layer using Flesh 07 and Flesh 08.

 

 

Bake the parts at 265 degrees Fahrenheit or 130 degrees Celsius. Allow parts to cool completely before continuing.

Next, we use our blush color mix to apply blushing details to the head and limbs. Look at pictures of real babies to get ideas for blushing your baby doll in a realistic way.

Add blushing details to the head with your Maxine's Mop.

Add blushing details to the limbs with your Maxine's Mop.

Bake the parts at 265 degrees Fahrenheit or 130 degrees Celsius. Allow the parts to cool completely before continuing.

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If you are interested in an in depth look at color mixing and reborning, I highly recommend The Art of Reborning II - Painting with Genesis Heat Set Paints. (not an affiliate link)

Bring home one of my precious angels! See Baby Keri's Auction and My Babies on Etsy. 

Bringing Your Baby Doll to Life - Part 3

Now it's time to apply the first layer of blush to your baby. For Kaylee, I'll be using a peaches and cream tone for her blush. Mix the blush using odorless thinner and Genesis Pyrole Red 02 with a bit of Pyrole Red 05 to deepen the color a bit. Add a bit of Genesis Burnt Umber to tone it down and a very small touch of Phthalo Blue 03 to cool the color.

Use a 00 round brush to mix the blush color for your baby.

 With a 1/2 inch Maxine's Mop, apply a dot of color to the end of a clean cosmetic foam wedge and apply the blush with a pouncing motion onto the head and limbs. This can be as dark or as light as you want. You'll be adding another blushing layer later on in the process.

Apply a dot of paint to the end of a clean cosmetic foam wedge sponge.

If you are interested in an in depth look at color mixing and reborning, I highly recommend The Art of Reborning II - Painting with Genesis Heat Set Paints. (not an affiliate link)

Bring home one of my precious angels! See Baby Keri's Auction and My Babies on Etsy.

Bringing Your Baby Doll to Life - Part 2

Our next step in bringing Kaylee to beautiful reborn life is applying the first foundation layer of paint. I use Genesis Flesh 08 mixed with odorless thinner.

Mix Genesis Flesh 08 with odorless thinner (I use Mona Lisa brand.)

Apply the thinned paint to the end of a clean cosmetic foam wedge sponge.

Using a 1/2 inch Maxine's Mop, I apply the thinned Flesh 08 to the end of a clean cosmetic foam wedge. With an up and down pouncing motion, I then apply the paint all over the head. Keep pouncing and adding more paint to the sponge until you have a nice even coat.

Apply the foundation layer in an even coat. Use an up and down pouncing motion.

This layer forms the foundation for all of the other layers of color I'll be adding along the way. Repeat this process for the arms and legs. I don't apply this coat to the lips or nails.

Set the parts on the drying rack to allow the odorless thinner to evaporate before baking the parts.

Set the parts on the drying rack. Wait until all of the odorless thinner has evaporated before placing the parts in your oven. I prefer to use a dedicated counter-top oven (not a toaster oven). Remember to use an oven thermometer to ensure the temperature is exactly 265 degrees Fahrenheit or 130 degrees Celsius. Set a timer for 8 minutes.

Once the parts are baked, allow them to cool before proceeding to the next step.

Always keep paints, thinner, and other supplies out of the reach of children and pets. When using a counter-top oven, position it where children and pets cannot touch it.

Up Next: Applying the first blushing layer

Bring home one of my precious angels! See Baby Keri's Auction and My Babies on Etsy.

Bringing Your Baby Doll to Life - Part 1

Over the next several posts, I'll be sharing photographs of Kaylee, as I bring her to life through the wonderful art of reborning (sometimes called newborning).

Kaylee will be 19 inches in length when she is completed. She has 3/4 limbs, which means 3/4 of the arms and legs are vinyl, with the remainder of each limb being a part of the cloth body. I purchased my Kaylee kit directly from Secrist Dolls. Her eyes were pre-inserted since I ordered them at the same time I bought the kit. They are a lovely shade of blue.

Once I've selected the doll kit I wish to reborn, I like to give the head and limbs a gentle bath in warm water with baby shampoo bubbles. I then rinse each part inside and out with warm water and set them on my drying rack. This gentle bath ensures any smudges from handling at the manufacturer are cleared away before I begin painting. I love the scent of baby shampoo, don't you? Brings back memories of when my 12 year old and 9 year old were wee ones.

Washing vinyl head and limbs before painting ensures surface is clean.

Drying rack

Next, I set up my paint palette. I like to use Genesis Heat Set paints. Use a porcelain or aluminum palette when mixing your heat set paints. Plastic palettes will react with the heat set paints, so never use plastic palettes. Use wooden craft sticks to lay out your colors.

For more color mixing and reborn painting guidance, see Secrist's The Art of Newborning II: Painting with Genesis Heat Set Paints (not an affiliate link). Stephanie Sullivan, renowned reborn artist, guides you through the color mixing and painting process. I can't recommend this DVD highly enough!

Using a 00 round brush, apply veining using a very thin mix of Genesis Phthalo Blue 03, Phthalo Green 06, and odorless paint thinner (I use Mona Lisa Brand). Browse pictures of real babies online to get ideas and inspiration for where to paint the veins.

Veining color mix

Apply the veining on the head, arms, and legs. Blot each vein as you go using a clean cosmetic foam wedge sponge. You want the veins to have a barely there appearance.

Veining should be applied lightly to give a natural, barely there appearance.

Genesis heat set paints must be baked at 265 degrees Fahrenheit or 130 degrees Celsius for 8 minutes. I use a dedicated countertop oven for my reborn dolls. I set the oven to the bake setting. I like to use the "stay on" feature on my oven. I use an oven thermometer to ensure the temperature of the oven is accurate. The outside of the oven will get very hot! Use caution to avoid burns and keep the oven in a place out of the reach of children and pets.

Dedicated countertop oven and oven thermometer to ensure correct temperature.

Rather than placing your doll parts directly on the baking pan, first layer fabric napkins to protect the parts from being scorched. Set a timer so the doll parts are baked for exactly 8 minutes. Over-baking will ruin the vinyl.

Once all the parts have been baked, allow them to cool completely before proceeding to the next step.

Up Next: Foundation Layer #1

Bring home one of my precious angels! See Baby Keri's Auction and My Babies on Etsy.

Meet Keri ~ Precious Preemie

Meet Keri, a sweet little preemie reborn baby girl. Keri measures 17 inches in length and weighs approximately 2 pounds. She was weighted using fine glass weighting beads and high quality Poly-fil.

Her complexion is a beautiful peaches and cream. She has a tiny birthmark beneath her eye and another beneath her nose. So cute!

Keri began life as a Taffy sculpt from Secrist Dolls. Her hair and eyelashes were hand-rooted with blond Angelic Touch Mohair...so baby soft!

As you can imagine, many, many hours of loving work went into the creation of this little darling.

Want to bring this little darling home to stay? See Keri's eBay auction before she's gone!