Souldoll Vito (50cm) Discussion - Part 4

@Iron_Dog - I don't know anything either sorry. Maybe you could try to remove just the really bad parts of the face up with very very lightly sanding (then touch it up and reseal it) instead of the whole thing? But I haven't seen it so it's just an idea.

 

@xyuemoto I'd be very hesitant to sand him. I have zero face-up skills (nor the ability to learn them) and no sealant. The blushing is all over his face (forehead, cheeks, nose, chin) as well as his ears. That's why I say he looks like he's gotten a nasty sunburn. I strongly suspect that when his proper wig arrives, the colour of his wig is going to make the visual worse as the wig is dark burgundy, dark purple and dark blue. Mostly complimentary colours to orange but really not the look I was aiming for.

 

@Iron_Dog - Oh, sorry then. He will probably need to be completely redone then. I guess I don't know what a really bad sunburn looks like.

 

@xyuemoto no worries. Sunburned dolls are not really a thing. Or at least I don't think they are. If I'd known he'd be this heavily blushed, I'd have gotten him blank (and saved some cash) and just sent him out for a face-up later.

If it was just over his cheeks I could probably grudgingly live with it. But it's his entire face that has this orangey blush. I have a Warrick (Souloid Phiel Gold) and Eilam (Vito Rail) with the default SD face-ups and neither of them have blushing as heavy as poor Belial. I don't know if that's because both Eilam and Warrick are WS and a lighter touch in general was used for them because they're WS and it would be easy to give them clown make-up with blushing.

 

I wonder if is the colored skin or Berial's style. My sandy human Berial has dramtic blushing. I just put him away to see if I would like it better when I wasn't surprised! I guess it's time to get him out again!

 

Dramatic is a good/polite word choice for the blushing. I can't promise good pics as I have stuff to do when I get home from work that cannot be put off (laundry room machine fight, go!) and the lighting in my apartment is made of fail even at the best of times. But I'll try to capture the overdoneness.

 

Here's the pic of the blushing on my Berial. Bear in mind that the lighting is crud and my camera likes to autocorrect the colours to be what it thinks things should be. The colours are sort of close but the grey of his resin and the blushing is easily 2 levels darker than what is showing. Unfortunately, I can't Photoshop my way out of a wet paper bag with a hole in it so I can't correct it to the full darkness of his resin and the orange-toned blushing he's got going on.

Belial by ID Locke, on Flickr

Note: The level of darkness on his ear tips is about right for the level of darkness on his face. Yeah, it's that heavy.

 

@Iron_Dog - The sculpt is really cool but I see what you mean. Maybe you can find an artist who is skilled enough to remove it but leave the parts that you like?

 

I'll be asking around. I am friends with a talented artist locally and there's another local artist who I've commissioned for work before that did a stellar job bringing one of my guys to life. I'm resigned to needing to have him wiped and done over again from scratch. My challenge then becomes seeing if I can find someone willing to replicate the eyes and lips that SD did and leave off the sunburn blushing.

 

I have taken off bad blushing (Volks) on a face and removed many other partial faceups. you do need to commit to removing all the color from the cheeks up to the lower eyelashes, but it can be done and be invisible.Your guy doesn't have color going up into the lashes, so it wouldn't be a problem. the trick is to blend the old fixative layer with the new layer of paint. sometimes the sealer is shinier than the paint.

if that's too extreme, some pastel powder used like regular makeup on the cheeks can work too. using a very pale mix of white or very pale pink and whatever shade needs lightening. a soft brush dipped in pastel, shake a bit, apply to cheeks, rub into resin with finger or cotton tip swab. you can (without using fixative) get color to stay for a quite a while using this method. (be sure to cover their clothes in case some powder falls on them.

depending on the quality of the pastel, you can blush a doll using the brush and fingertip technique and it will be semi-permanent. I use this and acrylic paints for body blushing. pastels are softer, more subtle. if the resin takes the pastel well, you can remove some of it with water and swab, but some of it will stay.

let us know what you decide. I think he'd be easy to fix.

 

That sounds really interesting. Do you put a base layer of msc first, or use nothing at all but the pastel? Does it rub off on their clothes eventually?

 

Thank you for the info @petiteballerine . I really like the way his eyes and lips were done and would love to be able to keep that work. Hopefully, one of the artists I know/have used in the past can do what you describe. I'm unsure of how long he'll need to stay sunburned as I've got 4 other dolls that need face-ups (they're blank) and getting him with the default was to avoid having yet another doll in-house that needed to go out for a face-up *sigh*.

I am really glad that I went for the grey resin and the fangs head. The resin is a lovely shade of grey and the fang head is just so appealing to me. I do need to get him some eyes as nothing in my collection was really wowing me and the ones in his head right now are sort of Black Pits of Doom (tm). DollNorth is coming up very soon and there's usually a good selection of eyes from either individual sellers or from companies. I got an awesome pair of Maison eyes for one doll and a pair of "defective" eyes from Enchanted Doll (the colour is ever so slightly different between the eyes so I have a gorgeously subtle pair of hetachromia eyes).

 

@xyuemoto - the blush wears off after a while depending on how often it comes in contact with your hands, clothes. I don't use any fixative except for some shine here and there like nailpolish, etc. I have dolls from 2004 that are still just fine without it. Their resins ages a bit, but colors stay vibrant.
If you get the pastel into the resin a bit, it won't even rub off with water. (especially very dark colors or red) You'd need some soapy stuff or paint remover. I like very subtle blushing, so it works for me because it has soft edges. Every few years I can 'refresh' the blushing, but as I look at one of my older dolls, he still has pinkish/brownish shadows where they should be. I find that the pastels ground a bit to make powder allow me to blend them into the unpainted resin better than acrylic unless I'm going to airbrush the area, and that's more blush than I normally would do. (never mind a few dolls that are entirely airbrushed)

pastels used this way make nice eye shadow, too. less of a committment than airbrushing.

when I did comissions, I would seal everything matte, semi-gloss, etc.

@Iron_Dog - I really like the way they painted his mouth. there is a blank area between the sunburn and the grey. If you find someone who's done this before, I think it would be a relatively easy fix. meanwhile, a little pale pastel might tone it down.

 

@petiteballerine - Thanks for the info!

 

Here's a front on view of him. The colour in this one is way lighter than it is in real life. If it were actually this light, it wouldn't be too bad. I've sent some pictures out to a face-up artist to see if anything can be done.
Belial by ID Locke, on Flickr

I was surprised to see he doesn't have eyebrows but I like the way it looks for him. I have 3 other dolls with no eyebrows and like Belial, you don't really notice it at first. However, those guys are special cases as 1 has no face-up (and never will), 1 has a face-up via metal leaf and the other has a face-up via superfine glitter.

 

@Iron_Dog - I like how this faceup looks without the eyebrows. Eyebrows would probably drastically change the vibe of his face.

 

@xyuemoto Yes, I agree. He's a "soft" character (despite the fangs and unf! muscled body). He knows he is physically strong but he's been prevented from ever using that strength in any appreciable way. Most likely he never will either as his conditioning is too strong. His partner, Kai-Wen, is his opposite in a lot of ways and has a "harsh" look to him. I think they look good together. Unfortunately, the lighting today is horrible as we're currently under a heavy rain storm (which may change to snow this evening *shudders*) so I don't have any confidence in any photos I may take of them together.

 

@Iron_Dog - Hopefully the weather gets better so you can take some photos. I'd like to see them together.

 

Hi guys, I posted in the SWITCH thread but it's probably better to ask here. I have a short/muscular character to shell and I was wondering if anyone had a SWITCH head to try on the vito body to see how it looks proportion wise. Also to see how well the vito fit in amongst other SD dolls because I only have SD's. I have a SWITCH/Zaoll hybrid which I rather like already but I am really curious to see it for myself before I commit to buying the body.

 

What size of SD were you wondering about? I have a wide variety (all male) and could possibly help you out for proportions as far as heights together go. I don't have a Switch head though so can't help there.

I have SD dolls in the following sizes: 51, 52, 53, 56, 58, 60, 62, 65 and 70cm. They are from a wide variety of companies with some being rather buffed and some being quite sleek.