I knew Derwent had several watercolour pencils but I assumed they were all the same (a mistake I won't be making again.) These ones I could buy individually and went for about $2.60 AUD per pencil. The pack of 12 was $38AUD but I'm not really going to be using everything in that pack so thought getting the colours I wanted was a better way to go. I will probably add two or three more colours to this range.
When I got home, I tested them out and the difference was massive to what I was using before. Better pigment and performance and I can actually see the pencil lines at last. So obviously, I had sealed the head enough, it was the pencils that were giving me grief.
So I wanted to go a step further and experiment with these new pencils on one of the heads to see if I could get "pastel like blushing" just using the Derwent pencils. Here's how that turned out:
I basically "coloured" lightly and then used a q-tip to kind of blend the pencil strokes until they were smooth. I actually liked how it turned out. I'm going to be using acrylic paint to do the actual eyes this time around. I picked up some super fine Tamiya brushes last week which will come in handy.
I did draw eyes on her but ended up wiping it away and didn't much like it, which is a great thing with watercolour pencils if you make a mistake, just dip your q-tip in some water and rub gently at the strokes you don't want. You don't affect or lift the sealant underneath. Error erased.
I don't know if it makes a difference but I use distilled water.
While I was out anyway, I picked up some smaller bottles of Liquitex Matte Medium and Varnish to test it out and see how it goes. I'm curious.
Comparison with my Vallejo bottle. Although my Vallejo was $7AUD compared to one bottle of Liqutex going for $18AUD.
Last but not least, saw this vibrant blue yarn and thought it might work for Shiva's hair. On the second picture, you can see I've started to separate the strands and it looks so much like hair and feels really soft like hair too!
Now I just need to check out some tutorials on re-rooting MH dolls with yarn. I figure once the head is re-rooted, I can gather it together and do a light dread on the strands and tie with one of those jewellery rings.
That's a great idea to use yarn for shiva's hair~ she has such complicated braids it seems!
ReplyDeleteYour vinyl head practise is making me really want to have a go at it too! I've never tried fully painting the eyes and everything and it seems like a lot of fun! Yeah, I think quality of materials is really important! For my watercolor pencils I use a caran d'ache set (for coloring, not for dollies though) and they're really vibrant and soft and lovely!
I've been looking at cosplay photos of Shiva as well to see how people have actually done the hair when they cosplayed her. I'm going to use leather for the bindings in her hair and I managed to find a tutorial last night on re-rooting with yarn. I just need to get rid of her current hair and clean out the glue from inside her head. She's one of the dolls with really gunky tacky hair from glue seepage from inside the head so I had to change out her hair anyway.
DeleteOh you should totally give it a whirl Irene! I'm finding it's a lot of fun. I did the whites of her eyes last night and today I think I will work on liner and refining it a bit more. I've watched so many tutorials on eye painting on dolls that my head is spinning!
Hi Alasse,
ReplyDeleteGood to see you stocking up your supplies, the Derwent artist quality water colour pencils are great and so far my favourites (I have three boxes of pencils). It's always best to use the best pigments you can afford, with pastels too (I prefer Schmincke myself) the better the pigment, the better the result achieved. If you ever have trouble finding supplies, try Artstore online, they are based in Melbourne but have a good range.
That yarn is really quite whispy, it will be interesting to see how the reroot turns out using it. It's very pretty, almost like gossamer. :)
Hugs,
X
Our local art store sells Schmincke as well but I ended up getting Art Spectrum as that's what I used last time I attempted playing around with face ups. I might see about getting three sticks of Schmincke next time I'm in there.
DeleteThanks for the heads up on Artstore Online. I have bookmarked that. I was looking at their prices and boy, their prices are so much less than the prices at the local art store! Everything regional seems to always be pricey, maybe the cost of getting it up here. We had to stop ordering a specific primer at my last workplace because the cost of freight to get it up here was double the price of the actual product!! Yikes.
I have to be careful with this one. I don't think it'll break easily but I have heard of yarn breaking during a re-root so I think it might depend on the thickness of the strand I use. But isn't is lovely? I really love the softness and how it does actually look like hair strands.
Oh you found liquitex so easy that's great!! I've heard a lot of good things about tamiya brushes too, though they don't sell them here (what a surprise lol).
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found better pencils! the quality of the products can make a lot of difference. I use standar acrylics, but I want to try with better ones eventually, maybe that will help my lashes to look better.
That yarn looks very nice for hair! I've never seen doll hair made out of it I think, so it will be super interesting to see that! The color is great for Shiva as well
They never used to sell it here either and I didn't even buy it from any of the local art stores here (of which there is a total of 2). They don't stock them. I found this to my surprise at the local Toyworld. They have a hobby section again they are slowly restocking. That's where you can find all the Tamiya range of paints and gloss, brushes and they even have a Tamiya airbrush for sale. Apparently they get a lot of people who paint model cars which is why they decided to re-open the hobby section again.
DeleteI use Jo Sonja acrylic paints and I find them quite nice to work with. My dad (who makes artificial eyes for people who have lost their eyes) uses this when he makes his acrylic eyes and paints in the irises. Sometimes he has to match their existing eye and he has found those paints give really nice realistic results. The eyes Dad makes for people are indistinguishable from a real eye.
I've seen a gorgeous repainted MH boy done with yarn hair cut into a boy style that looked stunning. I actually didn't realise it was yarn until I read it in the description!! I think you find the yarn use more with the fashion doll lines rather than bjd lines. At least from my experience.