Ash gets some new lips

Last night I was banished from the computer (or "dolly porn" as Mr P likes to call it!) as my big photo heavy downloads were causing problems in Mr P's epic World of Warcraft raid, so I decided I'd do something with my Blythe in bits. My intention was merely to sand matt her so that when I was in a customising frame of mind she'd be all ready to go, but once I'd finished I decided I'd try to learn (or improve at any rate) how to paint lips.

Lips are really really hard for me. I can't paint or draw in 2d, so naturally doing something three dimentional that's about half an inch long is a bit of a stretch for my extremely limited talents. For once I didn't get frustrated and quit but just kept on rubbing out my mistakes with isopropyl and trying again. And again. And again.



My first attempt at lips was on the Basaak and was a total failure. I used pastels to colour the lips first (and tbh, they looked quite good at that stage), then I attempted to seal them with a clear gloss lacquer and ended up with...well that.


Lip attempt number 2 was on Ash, again I used pastels, but this time I didn't seal it. This time I ended up with them looking kind of undefined, and still not great.

On my third and fourth customs, I chickened out completely and just sanded carefully around the stock lips!



Lip attempts five to twenty something were on Blythe in bits. When I went to bed last night I had achieved this look and was pretty pleased with it. Then when I woke up this morning, I thought it was quite horrible really, and took it off for yet another attempt. Unfortunately I ran out of daylight, so I can't show you how they look at the moment. I ended up going for a much more understated look.

Then I looked at Ash and thought I'd see what I could do with her and came up with this.



The pic is not the greatest as it was taken late this afternoon, but you can see the difference. I'm quite happy with them now...for the time being at least!

So far the best technique I have managed to come up with (without the use of MSC, which apparently will make it all wonderfully easy) is this. I tip a little water based gloss into a tiny container (I use a bottle cap), add the tiniest drop of paint - like on the end of a toothpick - and mix. Then I build up layers of colour until it's the intensity I want and finish with a layer of clear gloss. The advantage of using the water based gloss as opposed to the lacquer is that if I'm not happy with it it's pretty easy to get it off and start again. Which is good because if I was having to sand off my mistakes poor Blythe in bits would have no lips left by now!