Dollieh Sanctuary

I repainted my rapunzel barbie (piece of crap never worked when I was little...Mugged it for Haruka when I got her.) today and painted tattoo's on it. Just trying to get a feel for it. This is my first time stripping it of paint with nail polish remover...Or stripping ANYTHING of paint....I know I stained the head I think it was the polish remover. It has ace tone but it was died and with other stuff so it took awhile to get both irises off and it really went around. I think I could've done better as far as stripping it went. I also had a lot of trouble with the first layer. I mixed it with water like a lot of tutorials say to and it just didn't go on. I didn't use a lot but it kept sliding off so I whiped it and tried using straight acrylic and well....Here it is. I'm proud of it for my first shot but I know I can do better when I get more practice. So...Tips, critiques all wanted.

I didn't repaint the lips so....Here it is.



Tattoo's...I tried to do a kanji for ice but I don't recall it's exact look so don't hold me to it. And a flamel but that one failed.

The pentagram turned out okay.

I would recommend getting the nail polish remover without acetone; I've noticed that acetone just causes the paint to smear around. Depending on the paint used by the manufacturer, you can also use just plain rubbing alcohol to remove the face-up.
I would also recommend giving her some eyebrows, or, if you did, making them just a little darker.

I was actually gonna go for pure acetone because I saw another tutorial somewhere stating that non-ace tone will leave me rubbing it off forever. I was thinking I needed to use something else like cotton balls. I'll try the rubbing alcohol next time.

I wasn't going to give her eyebrows I was actually gonna whipe her again eventually and my hand is so shaky I can't get much of a straight line out. I practiced on paper too...

congratulations on your first repaint!

If that brush on the left in the pic is the one you used, I'd suggest getting a smaller brush or plucking most of the hairs out of a small brush. It looks like you were having a bit of difficulty getting a fine line.

If your hand is shaky hmm... did you try working close to your work surface? Like holding the doll head braced against the table with one hand, tilted inward so that your other hand can be braced up to the wrist on the table as well. You'll have to position a light source so you can still see well in this position.

It is the one I used. I have other brushes in the set so I'll see if there's a smaller one or I'll pick a few up or pluck some of the hairs off. I really was having a hard time getting a fine line and I wasn't even using the brush for the eyes. I was using a wooden skewer cut to pencil size.

I did work close to it I had the doll in my hands (couldn't pry her head off. It was one that if you pulled on a string hair went up or down and her head was stuck tight.) but I was just impatient...I didn't let the black paint dry before I added the color.

Here's a tutorial that shows painting the black for the eyes first then the white and color. http://www.figurerealm.com/viewcustomtutorial.php?id=40


Here's my first Barbie redo. I used a color pencil for her eyebrows (also for her lips) which helped make it easier for me to keep them straight.

Thanks Gift! I took a look at it. I'm gonna try again tomorrow from scratch and practice.

Definitely keep on practicing, and please never give up. I had a moment where I wanted to give up doing repaints but I powered on and got a lot better.

Yep, it's like catshem says, there's no substitute for experience! The more you do it, the better and faster you get.

Not bad for a first!

Also stay away from pure acetone, it'll melt vinyl. You're better off scrubbing for a long time rather than destroy the whole head. Also use non-colored nail polish remover, or 90% isopropyl alcohol with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser for cleaning. That gets things off fairly well.

As the others have said. Keep on practicing and maybe try a smaller brush. I have horribly shaky hands too so I try to hold the brush as close to the tip as I can get away with, or I just use watercolor pencils.