A Quick Introduction to Painting Faces

by Carlota

This is a real simple and quick introduction to painting faces, because I've had so very many emails about it.

My advice is to simply paint over what is currently on the doll. Start small: change a doll's eyes or lip color. Once you're comfortable with the feel of the brush, move up from there.

Below are a couple of really quick pictures my friend Bruce snapped with a digital camera. Unfortunately, I don't have a "before" and "after" to show what a difference these simple changes make in a doll.

	Touching up the eyes Here, I fill in the eyes a bit to be a nice, full green.
	Touching up the lips I generally fill the lips in in quarters. First, I do the lower lip from one corner to the middle, then the other corner to the middle. With practice, you can color the lip in a single, smooth move.
	With the upper lip, I tend to start in the middle and move out to each corner, especially to get those slight tips at the top of the upper lip.
	Touching up the eyebrows Sometimes, darkening or lightening the eyebrows can really change the aspect or liveliness of a face. Start from the center of the face and work outwards.

Paints and Brushes
I generally use Liquitex (brand) or Golden (brand) Acrylic paints. However, the paints I used above are generic acrylic paints I picked up at a fabric store. You can mix the paints to achieve the color you are looking for, or thin them with water if the paint is too thick. You can also mix the paints with texturizers for interesting effects. Stay tuned for upcoming painting guides!


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