Large Doll - Part 5

I have been busy on the doll project this week.  To begin, I'll add a quick recap of the project so far. 
I cast a paper mache' head on a Styrofoam head, then removed the head from the mold.  I had to take the cast piece off in three pieces, which I put back together and added more layers of paper mache'.  The next step was to build up the facial features, which took several days.  That brings us up to today's blog post.  Readers can go to my blog and view previous posts to see the step-by-step pictures of the process.


This past week I started painting the head.  I have never found an acceptable flesh color pre-mixed.  Many of the colors are too light and pink or have too much of an orange or reddish tent.  I try to mix my own colors to get the flesh color I want.  However, I am rarely satisfied with the result.  The problem mainly is that human flesh is not one color, some areas are darker or redder and there are shadows that change the temperature of the color.  The other problem is that most acrylic paints dry darker, but some dry brighter than they are when wet.  It may look as if I have the perfect color mixed, but one dry it turns out to look differently.  I have to tell myself that this is only a doll, and good enough will have to do.  I am making a doll, not painting a masterpiece.

The first paint on the head was a coat of medium thickness opaque gesso.  Paper mache' is not a smooth medium.  Despite being sanded, there will be some areas that are not entirely smooth.  In some ways the rougher texture actually helps the face look more authentic.  A completely smooth plastic face never looks real.  The thick gesso helps fill in some of the pits left that remain after the head was sanded.   The gesso also creates an opaque layer that covers up the printing on the newspaper that was used to make the paper strips for the paper mache'.

My first color mixing attempt was a little darker and had more sienna in it than I wanted.  That was okay because this was only the base coat.  I mixed a second color adding some pinkish white.  The mixture looked dark when it was wet, but dried lighter than I had anticipated.  I spent a few minutes debating whether to give the paint a third try, but ultimately decided to work with what I had.  It was not that far off, and I was worried about making things worse instead of better.  Besides, I was using up quite a bit of paint in the process.

When I mix paint for a large piece like this head, I mix up a large batch of paint.  First off, I do not want to run out of paint in the middle of painting the piece.  Since this is a mixed color, my chances of reproducing it close enough to match are slim.  Also, I need to have enough paint to touch up any painting errors made while painting the features.  This means I may have to plan on keeping the paint around for several days.  When I am finished painting for the day, I spray the paint liberally with water, cover the paint tray in plastic wrap, and keep the whole thing in a plastic bag.  The paint will stay moist for several days.  I spray it each day to make sure it stays wet.  Trust me, you will need it sooner or later.

So after the base coat and the final skin color, it was time to paint the features and highlights.  I added some pink color to the cheek area.  I found that the color wanted to stay darker in some areas where there were a few pits.  To address that issue, I dry brushed the color on the cheeks and then wiped it with a damp paper towel.   I kept dry brushing and wiping until I had an even layer of color on the cheeks.  I am not sure that it will show up as well in the photos as it does in person.

I spent some time debating on the eye lashes and eyebrows.  I had originally considered purchasing a set of false eyelashes and cutting them down to fit the project.  I decided against that because it might look odd to have eyelashes, but painted on eyebrows.  So I ended up painting on the eyelashes and eyebrows as well.  The eyebrows were the real nemesis.  I would paint one and the other would be off.  I'd correct that and then the other would look wrong.  The eyebrows were too light or too dark.  I think I must have painted in the eyebrows about four or five times.  That is when the reserved flesh color really came in handy.   Finally, I had to decide whether it was time to fish or cut bait on them.  When I had them to a point that they were good enough I decided to quit, even if they were not how I wanted them to look.

The painting was finally declared complete.  I still had to put a couple of coats of sealer on the doll.  The photos were taken before I added a satin sealer.  It came out okay.  I admit I was sweating that a bit.  Once, long ago, I had a project and the sealer for some reason was not compatible with the black paint, even though it was made by the same company.  It stripped the black paint off the project.  Unfortunately, I could not remember which type of sealer it was, a varnish or an acrylic sealer.  I have a number of sealers in the studio and I was worried about the project surviving intact.  It would have been frustrating to have to start painting all over again.  Fortunately, the sealer worked perfectly.  At this point I am calling the head complete other than the hair.

Readers might notice that the head does not have any ears.  I did not add them to this project because the planned the hairstyle will cover the area.  The styrofoam head I used as a base did not have ears.  I would have had to build them on after I removed the head from the mold.  The cut to remove the cast piece from the head would have sliced through the ears, making for a difficult rejoining of the sections.  Once the hair is on, you will not notice that they are missing.

The doll looks a little strange being totally bald.  Her hair will not be added until later in the project.  Readers may remember that while creating the sun bonnets for my scarecrow centerpiece I made one that was too large for that project.  At the moment that bonnet is covering the bald head of my doll.  It is a little large, but I could see it working in a project of similar size.  Perhaps at some point I will make a doll head centerpiece that features that bonnet.  It is not what I had in mind for this project.

One little curiosity came up on this project.  You might notice it in the last photo.  The cast head is about half an inch shorter than the head it was cast upon.  The face is a little broader that can be accounted for by a few strips of paper mache'.  You might wonder how this might have come about.  It is because in the process of removing and re-attaching the pieces of the head.  As I mentioned earlier in the project, the paper mache' pieces tend to bow inward or outward when removed from the mold.  Flexing the pieces to make them line up again changed the shape of the head.  The head is rounder rather than narrower.  It is not a game changer for the piece, just something that made me take notice.

Readers might remember that one of my goals for the year was to try to create a Halloween piece each month.  That might have been a bit a bit ambitious.  I finished January's piece at the beginning of February.  I have been working a my February piece, but I suspect that it will carry over into March.  It is good to have a quick project to work on while carrying on a long term project.  It keeps me from getting bored with the piece.  My next blog post will be about my February Halloween piece.  Check back on next Sunday afternoon for that blog post.