Colored Heidi Ott Dolls

The problem (at least my problem) with Heidi Ott dolls is that these dolls don't come in a wide range of skin tones. For a while now, I have been trying to change the skin color of my Heidi Ott dolls, attempting to make them look vaguely Asian. I have been failing miserably in my previous attempts. I tried so many things to color them--ink, oil pastel, colored pencil, all of which led to undesirable results. I even boiled one doll in a fabric dye since I read somewhere that they worked on some BJD's. I wanted to spray paint them but the color I wanted was not available. Water based acrylic was not an option earlier since the dolls have a smooth finish, the paint will not adhere properly.

I tried the body blushing technique using soft pastel which started okay at first but since I don't want to end with just blushing, I tried applying more pigments (sealing after every application). As the layers of pigment became thicker, I find it hard to make the color even. The dolls ended looking like they're suffering from vitiligo.

All those attempts were time consuming and ended up disappointing but I was not going to give up just yet. Running out of ideas I decided to give it a rest. I decided to focus on other doll projects. Every time I want to try a new way of coloring them, I fear that it would end up in another mistake.


Last weekend, unable to do my planned spring cleaning because my back ached, I decided to sit down and give one more try in coloring my 12th scale dolls. Since the texture of the dolls have changed with the layers of pastel and sealer, I figured acrylic might cling to the surface better. I was right. And I was happy with how things turned out.

 

BEFORE

AFTER

The pale skinned Edeline (12 Dancing Princesses) doll serves as the baseline for comparison. For the male doll on the left, I used a mixture of white, burnt sienna and a small amount of yellow ocher. For the male doll on the right, a mixture of white, burnt sienna and burnt umber was used. The paint job doesn't look smooth which I really like. They don't look shiny and very plastic. The paint chips off in some jointed areas like the hip joint in one doll but is okay in another. I guess I have to apply a thinner paint and sealer. Or maybe I shouldn't bother since it will be covered by the clothes anyways.

This got me thinking. Remember the wonderfully poseable Barbie Fashionista body that came with a wide range of TWO colors? Maybe I could paint them as well so that I can rebody my other dolls. Edeline sure could use some poseable body. We'll see...