Paint-Matching Dolls - An Ongoing Experiment

[WhiteDove01s]

Wheee! I said I'd post this when I finally had one success, and my last string of test results came out a match, so, folks, here's the Mad Scientist with some details on the latest experiment.

I'm trying to match skin tones for dolls with acrylic paints, just for those times when it might be necessary to paint part of a doll to cover a stain, to cover sculpt modifications done with all-purpose caulk, or just because I have to paint a head to actually have it match a body.

My first test subject was a Palm Beach Always Dressed Barbie, with the purple painted on bathing suit. This matches the skin tone of the blond Fashionista Barbie in the purple dress, and possibly also other Barbies I am not sure of, as I am no expert in Barbies.

I thin my paints down a lot, but I keep them very carefully the same ratio of paint to water-and-Liquitex-Flow-Aid so that my pigment proportions are consistent and reproducible. After all, an experiment is worthless if you can't reproduce your results. I keep the pre-thinned paints in dropper bottles so I can mix them by the drop for small test batches. I use Liquitex Basics acrylic paints.

One issue is that the red pigments want to air-dry a little faster than the yellow ones and this could cause streaking or color variations in your work. I advise dabbing the paint on with a sponge and then drying with a hair dryer held far enough from the doll not to cause the paint to make runs or drips. Drying the paint faster in this way prevents any pigment separation.

Based on tests, and checked under several different kinds of lighting including full sun, the paint match for Palm Beach Always Dressed Barbie in purple bathing suit and other dolls of the same skin tone is:
6 Parts Cadmium Yellow Light
5 Parts Red Oxide
8 Parts Titanium White
1 Part Neutral Grey 5

Here's an example test on the doll leg. Most of the area below the seam is not painted. Above the seam is. At one point near the middle you can see some brushstrokes/paint edge. In the upper right you might barely make out some of the color separation I mentioned, in this case caused by drips because I had the hair dryer too close.


... now I have to decide whether my next test subject will be Fleshtone Obitsu or pale-variant LIV Alexis... At least I can now finish Alya's faceup as I've successfully painted over the caulk used to remove the Barbie-Grin from her headsculpt.

Alya before, with a non-matching paint over the acrylic latex caulk work.


Alya now, after area around mouth painted with matching paint.


Anyone else ever do this, or want to try to beat me to a match? XD

[WhiteDove01s]

I generally dislike doubleposting, but there haven't been replies here yet and I have another match. If people would prefer I quit babbling and put this on a website or something instead, please let me know.

Obitsu fleshtone was a difficult match as I had three slightly varying 'samples' to work with. The soft plastic of the hands and the hard plastic of the rest of the body were slightly different in tone, and the heads I'd bought and never used were a bit darker than the rest - more a match for LIV Sophie than the body

I decided that if I could get a tone that looked like it matched/was made for the body I'd call it a match and I think I have a success. Below is a de-smiled Fashionista Barbie head completely painted and stuck on a Fleshtone Obitsu slim body. It's actually the same head that originally came off Alya's body above.

Dyna's just trying to hide his face because I haven't done any of the rest of his faceup yet.

This batch was:
20 parts Light Portrait Pink, 1 part Cadmium Yellow Light, 7 parts White

[yarwel]

I think this is a good place for your experiments.
This way it's easier for us all to see what you're doing.

[WhiteDove01s]

This way it's easier for us all to see what you're doing.

Yes, I've been told before that that's probably for the best. Although, I really don't think the paint will explode. Or catch fire.

... Wait, did you mean that in the 'needs to be kept under observation' way?

Just kidding. Next test subject will be pale variant LIV Alexis (Making Waves, to be specific). She does have a lot of variants, but Denia needs her faceup finished...