Extreme Customizing Pt 1 (Working with what you got)
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...most of the 'extreme' part happened before I got the doll, I admit.
A bit over a year ago I ended up getting a batch of really nasty damaged doll heads. Sadly, this was the least damaged of bunch. I've been gradually working to repair them, because a) I like a challenge and b) if they're already ruined, I don't feel bad for doing more risky customization.
The first step with any kind of situation like this is to see what can be salvaged, so I stripped off multiple layers of paint to see what was underneath.
The head was pretty gouged and stained under all the paint, and the mouth and nose were...something. Ok, I think to myself, I can sculpt a new mouth. What do I want to try? Well I've already done vampire mouths and open-mouths and smiling mouths... but crazy smiling mouths, not friendly smiling mouths. Why not try that?
Unfortunately, the state of the rest of the face made it pretty impossible to use a 'natural' base, and I was already planning to do a charity raffle clown custom for PUDDLE (doll convention) so I though I'd do it white and give her a cute stylized clown face.
Problem with clowns? It doesn't matter how friendly they're supposed to look. They will still give you nightmares.
I even added some nice friendly eyebrows, like so:
...still terrifying. At this point I stopped trying to make it cute. Obviously this is an evil clown doll that will do bad things to you while you sleep. Why deny it?
I knew what type of eyelashes I wanted, but I couldn't quite settle on the style, so I drew some on in paintshop to help me decide before I painted them on:
Most people seemed to prefer the first and third options. What it came down to was that I plan on giving the doll a diagonal banged bob as a hairstyle (I'm going to make the wig) and I thought the up/down eyelashes would go best with that style.
Now... eyes. I've been wanting to do a swirly hypnotic eye for a while on a doll. If any doll will look natural with it, it is certainly this sweet little killer. FX paint gives it a natural 'glow' (no photoshop).
Naturally, there's still a lot left to do. Wig. Costume. Settling on the other eye, which I don't think I'll be able to do until I get the wig together. That will be Chapter 2!