Monster High repaint: Third time's a charm!

A couple of months ago, while browsing the internet, I came across the magic world of doll repaints.
Specifically, ball-jointed dolls. And even more specifically, Monster High Dolls.

As an adult, I never thought I could have an interest in fashion dolls, but seeing all those beautiful pictures of repaints (and re-roots), I got excited and, as with everything new arty-crafty I see, I just *had* to try it for myself!!

So, I ordered a cheap Monster High doll from China. Or, so I thought, apparently the cheapest ones are the same price, here -- and mine came without a box and shoe-less!! But, since it was just for a test I didn't mind.

And so, when my doll came, after a month or so, I set to work researching on what I'd need and got all sorts of paints, pencils and varnishes.

I decided to take a before picture, to remember what I ruined - heh.

Her factory paint and clothes.

I read the paint is easy to remove with acetone, or nail polish remover. Since, I had some nail polish remover which, as it says on the bottle, is suitable for artificial nails, I decided to use that.

See the remnants of gold dust over her magically disappearing eye.

I used a few cotton buds with nail polish remover and scrubbed until she became the faceless one.

When I started it was kind of scary how her face became smudged, and I feared I'd never manage to clean it up. The gold dust over her eye was mixed with some glue or something like that and needed even more scrubbing and even then the gold dust would just stick to other places in her face.

But, some washing with soap fixed that.

Even without eyes it's like she's staring at you.

And, voila! I had a blank canvas to work on!

I applied a layer of matte varnish on her face to protect the plastic, before starting the painting.
Soon, I started painting the outlines of her eyes and eyebrows and coloring in her mouth with some colored pencils. I didn't have anything suitable, so I shaved a bit of the red colored pencil and applied it on her cheeks and nose as blush.

Unfortunately, my first attempt didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, so I decided to clean it up and start fresh.
But, even though I was careful and tried to protect her face, the blue I had used on her eyes leeched into the plastic and stained it.
Oh, well, at least it's in a place well it will be covered up!

For my next try, I decided to use watercolor pencils. In most tutorials I've read people use watercolor pencils, so I thought I'd give it a try, too.
But, I'm not used to them (I'd never used them before) and the face came up smudgy and weird.

It was worse when I tried to apply varnish -- I had gotten a brush-on varnish and, my god, her face was coming off.
So, scratch that, let's try again!

Third time's a charm though, because I'm satisfied with how it turned out for my first doll. I used acrylics and a tiny brush and instructions I found in a wonderful tutorial here. Obviously, the artist there is much more skilled, but the instructions are great and even a newbie like me managed to make something presentable. :)

I must say, I like those eyebrows!

And this is the final result! I used the brush-on varnish again on her, but even though it was supposed to be matte, it turned out shiny. So, I borrowed from my sister's husband a matte spray varnish specifically made for plastic figures and hopefully soon the shininess will be gone!

As you can see, I also made her some clothes, and a matching belt and headscarf.

What is not pictured is her blue right hand. I tried to make sleeves out of the dress fabric, but... as I was trying to get the sleeve over her hand I realized the blue had rubbed off on it and apparently it won't wash off...

I'm now thinking of getting another doll to try and put to use what I've learned on this one.
Until then, hope you enjoyed mine and Ms. Draculaura's trip through repainting. :)