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Painting and Dyeing Dolls by Dolla
Let's see... business stuff first.
These are the tips and tricks that I have tried. They work for me and not necessarily on all dolls. I take no responsibility for any damage to dolls or other items by trying these tips.
Dyeing Dolls
I use a mixture of black, brown, yellow and red. I think I used too much red though because I got sort of a purple color so I need to remix. You'll have to try it on paper or a trashed doll. Use liquid rit dye per instructions. I just put the doll in face down and kept pushing her down with a plastic fork until she was the shade I wanted. Then rinse until the water is clear. Lay her down to dry which takes about 24 hours.
I dyed the doll in one of those $1 store plastic shoeboxes. Don't forget the rubber gloves.
Painting Dolls
You'll need to mix the same colors as above until you get the correct color. I use a soft brush and put loads of paint on the brush. Then I paint and dab and pat the paint onto the doll's face until the brush is practically dry. I do only about 1/4 of the face at a time.
Start at the back of the neck to get your motion down. Then do the forehead and move down a little at a time. I make sure all of the brush strokes are gone before I start the next section. The patting motion will ensure you don't have brush strokes. I can only describe the patting as short brush strokes in a patting motion.
One you have painted the whole thing then go over it again with a second coat and maybe a third in the patting motion and this will fill in any mistakes. I use any acrylic craft paints I can find - Apple Barrel, Aleenes, Liquitex, etc. There are also matte varnishes made by the same folks. Apply it the same way as the paints. I do about 3-4 coats.
Also for painting dolls I would get a paint extender to keep the paint from drying fast and also a fabric medium which makes the paint more flexible and permanent. You can find these at the same place as the paints - Walmart is my favorite. Also Ames, JoAnns, Michaels. These are mixed with the paints (on a palette). Sometimes I mix my varnish in too.
Some folks have painted bodies. They use an artists primer called Gesso by Liquitex (Walmart or Michaels). It looks like white paint and also comes in black. They then seal the paint with Modge Podge (matte). I have now tried this and know that I need to do the Modge Podge routine immediately after the paint dries or you'll get nicks in the paint.
I hope I helped. I think I like just painting the head and putting it on a black body. I can control the paint better than the dye and the paint isn't permanent until dry. This makes cleanup easy too.
Can you tell I love this stuff?
This page shows some of my painted and dyed dolls. http://dollasdolls.50megs.com/superstr.html
;-Dolla