How to get in to customization??

So I am brand new to customization, I don't have a doll yet and I basically have no tools, like no brushes/paint/colored pencils. I was thinking of getting an imomo doll to start because they are on the less expensive side. But I have no idea what pencils or paints to get. I have done some research but many of the recomended brand are out of my budget. Since I'm not totally sure if I would want to continue doing doll customizations I'm scared to spend too much T_T but I also don't want to get something cheap that won't even show up on the doll T_T

If anyone has any tips I would greatly appreciate it<3

The most important things for doll customizing are a matte sealant, chalk pastels in brown, red, and pink, paint in those same colors, white, and black, a blushing brush, and a lining brush.

 

Volks sells a set of pastels that's got all the colors you'll use the most, is safe on dolls, and is pretty cheap. You use pastels to blush a doll just like you'd blush and contour your own face, and you use so little per doll that this will last you a very long time.

https://volksusa.store/collections/pastels/products/zm-make-up-pastels

 

Brushes are something you can get at any craft store (mine are from Walmart, lol), and for blushing I'd recommend getting one where the bristles are about the size and shape of your pinky nail - rounded at the top, and small, but not too small. The more bristles the better. For paint, you NEED a good liner brush. Any other brushes you get with it are just a bonus. If you get pastels from Volks, add the 02 brush from this listing to your cart as well.

https://volksusa.store/collections/paint-brushes/products/zm-br-cat

 

Paint is where most of the faceup happens - eyeliner and eyelashes, freckles, and painted shapes for cutesy looks are all paint, so it'll be the first thing you upgrade if you decide to get serious with faceups. You can use acrylic or watercolor paints, but acrylic requires fewer layers of paint and sealant to get a good solid color, which is important on vinyl because you want to use as few layers of sealant as you can - since vinyl is flexible, sealant and paint layers need to be thin so they will also flex without cracking. Cheaper acrylics don't cover the surface quite as well and may require more layers, but for a beginner, they're fine to use. If you can, find a bottle of acrylic thinner as well - thicker acrylic is harder to control, especially for fine lines, and it shows your brush strokes if you're not careful, so most artists thin their paints a little. Some acrylics can also be thinned with plain water, so look up the paint brand you're interested in to see if you need thinner for it.

 

As for sealant, Mr Super Clear UV Cut Flat is the top of the line and what I use, but I've also seen people use the ZOUKEI-MURA finishing powder spray from Volks and Citadel brush-on sealant. Sealant is used as your base coat, in between layers of the faceup, and as the top coat to protect your work when it's done. Do NOT cheap out on sealant. You will ruin your faceup if you use sealant poorly or use a poor sealant. MSC is sold at some hobby stores (if your hobby store sells Gunpla kits they probably have MSC), on Amazon, and on Volks's web store. Sealant typically has instructions on the can for how to use it, follow those religiously for best results. For your base layer especially, wait at least 24 hours after spraying before you start painting to give it time to cure. Pastels won't stick well otherwise. Layers on top of that need at least an hour to dry.

 

If you use a spray type sealant like MSC or ZM, you will also need respiratory protection. No matter what, MSC NEEDS to be sprayed outside (you can bring the head back in to dry after spraying), and you NEED to wear a mask while spraying. 3M makes great quality masks, go for one of their half-face respirators that use removable filter cartridges. N95 rated cartridges are the minimum you need, higher ratings are better. You could probably use disposable N95 masks as well, but the respirator is the safest thing to use. If you can smell the sealant, you need to change your mask filters. Absolutely DO NOT cheap out on this, your lungs are worth it.

 

If you need tips on how to paint faceups, Parabox has a few guides on their website, and there's some tutorials on YouTube and on this very forum that explain it better than me, but my personal recommendation is to study heads you really like and try to recreate them. My first faceup was my take on Smartdoll Resilient's makeup, but on an Obitsu Gretel, and trying to get the eyeliner shapes and colors correct taught me a lot. If you do this, definitely try to put your own spin on the faceup by adding elements from other heads you like, don't just copy a head 1:1. Why bother painting your own head if you can get the same makeup from an official source, yknow? 😆 But it's also good artist etiquette - be inspired, but don't copy directly!

1 hour ago, Oculae said:

The most important things for doll customizing are a matte sealant, chalk pastels in brown, red, and pink, paint in those same colors, white, and black, a blushing brush, and a lining brush.

 

Volks sells a set of pastels that's got all the colors you'll use the most, is safe on dolls, and is pretty cheap. You use pastels to blush a doll just like you'd blush and contour your own face, and you use so little per doll that this will last you a very long time.

https://volksusa.store/collections/pastels/products/zm-make-up-pastels

 

Brushes are something you can get at any craft store (mine are from Walmart, lol), and for blushing I'd recommend getting one where the bristles are about the size and shape of your pinky nail - rounded at the top, and small, but not too small. The more bristles the better. For paint, you NEED a good liner brush. Any other brushes you get with it are just a bonus. If you get pastels from Volks, add the 02 brush from this listing to your cart as well.

https://volksusa.store/collections/paint-brushes/products/zm-br-cat

 

Paint is where most of the faceup happens - eyeliner and eyelashes, freckles, and painted shapes for cutesy looks are all paint, so it'll be the first thing you upgrade if you decide to get serious with faceups. You can use acrylic or watercolor paints, but acrylic requires fewer layers of paint and sealant to get a good solid color, which is important on vinyl because you want to use as few layers of sealant as you can - since vinyl is flexible, sealant and paint layers need to be thin so they will also flex without cracking. Cheaper acrylics don't cover the surface quite as well and may require more layers, but for a beginner, they're fine to use. If you can, find a bottle of acrylic thinner as well - thicker acrylic is harder to control, especially for fine lines, and it shows your brush strokes if you're not careful, so most artists thin their paints a little. Some acrylics can also be thinned with plain water, so look up the paint brand you're interested in to see if you need thinner for it.

 

As for sealant, Mr Super Clear UV Cut Flat is the top of the line and what I use, but I've also seen people use the ZOUKEI-MURA finishing powder spray from Volks and Citadel brush-on sealant. Sealant is used as your base coat, in between layers of the faceup, and as the top coat to protect your work when it's done. Do NOT cheap out on sealant. You will ruin your faceup if you use sealant poorly or use a poor sealant. MSC is sold at some hobby stores (if your hobby store sells Gunpla kits they probably have MSC), on Amazon, and on Volks's web store. Sealant typically has instructions on the can for how to use it, follow those religiously for best results. For your base layer especially, wait at least 24 hours after spraying before you start painting to give it time to cure. Pastels won't stick well otherwise. Layers on top of that need at least an hour to dry.

 

If you use a spray type sealant like MSC or ZM, you will also need respiratory protection. No matter what, MSC NEEDS to be sprayed outside (you can bring the head back in to dry after spraying), and you NEED to wear a mask while spraying. 3M makes great quality masks, go for one of their half-face respirators that use removable filter cartridges. N95 rated cartridges are the minimum you need, higher ratings are better. You could probably use disposable N95 masks as well, but the respirator is the safest thing to use. If you can smell the sealant, you need to change your mask filters. Absolutely DO NOT cheap out on this, your lungs are worth it.

 

If you need tips on how to paint faceups, Parabox has a few guides on their website, and there's some tutorials on YouTube and on this very forum that explain it better than me, but my personal recommendation is to study heads you really like and try to recreate them. My first faceup was my take on Smartdoll Resilient's makeup, but on an Obitsu Gretel, and trying to get the eyeliner shapes and colors correct taught me a lot. If you do this, definitely try to put your own spin on the faceup by adding elements from other heads you like, don't just copy a head 1:1. Why bother painting your own head if you can get the same makeup from an official source, yknow? 😆 But it's also good artist etiquette - be inspired, but don't copy directly!

OMG Thank you so much for this, this is such an amazing guide with so many resources!! I didn’t even know about the respirator so that’s really helpful!!

i think imomodolls are a great way to start customizing since they seem to be budget friendly. im currently working on 3 projects for these type of dolls right now actually.

from what i heard, watercolor pencils are also a great tool to use for faceups. as long as it isnt with oil, i think you should be good. i have a couple of watercolor pencils but i can happily check what brand these are later today. 

I Started 20 years ago, -2001 - first, because i was dissatisfied with the Middling Quality of my first-ever Anime Doll's included Clothing,

the first thing on my docket being figuring out how to find her better Lingerie.

From there, i found a Wedding Dress for her, and clumsily adapted it to fit;

and then, i fell in love with the look of Ballet Sippers... and resolved to figure a way to find or make a pair for her,

resulting in finding some suitable fabric, picking up the thread and needle for the first time in my life...

and mainly Self-Teaching, over the Aughts-onward, to sew scratch made Lingerie and full outfits in a general 1/6.

most of a Quarter-Century later, i'm still at it... coming Full Circle in 2024;

15 hours ago, Matcha said:

i think imomodolls are a great way to start customizing since they seem to be budget friendly. im currently working on 3 projects for these type of dolls right now actually.

from what i heard, watercolor pencils are also a great tool to use for faceups. as long as it isnt with oil, i think you should be good. i have a couple of watercolor pencils but i can happily check what brand these are later today. 

Do u mean that I can draw the eyelashes/blush lines with a watercolor pencil instead of painting? Or should I get both watercolor pencils and acrylic paints? I read in a youtube comment that watercolor stains vinyl too but idk how reliable that info is lol-

In my experience watercolor pencils are very likely to stain vinyl, even if you apply 2-3 coats of sealant beforehand! (You can see how bad the staining can be in my post here)

That's not to say you shouldn't use them... I still use them for sketching myself, but I do so knowing that I might have to deal with stains in the future. With less rare/expensive heads like Imomodoll it sometimes makes sense to risk staining if it means the faceup process will be easier. It's just up to your personal preferences. I've heard that plain graphite pencils can be used for sketching and don't stain, but I haven't tried it myself. I HAVE doodled directly on vinyl heads with a graphite pencil and it could be easily erased off, but idk personally how it behaves long-term.

Personally I like the look of acrylic paint, since it gives a sharper and more uniform finish than pencils alone. I've found using high flow acrylics (like Golden) is the easiest. It comes pre-thinned, so you don't have to worry about buying paint thinner. And it's not that expensive, a bottle will cost around $5 and will last forever. I used to HATE acrylic paint, but I was using the thicker heavy body stuff.

As for brushes, I've gotten by pretty well with cheap makeup (for pastels) and nail art (for paint) brushes from aliexpress.

 

6 hours ago, 0bsequi0us said:

In my experience watercolor pencils are very likely to stain vinyl, even if you apply 2-3 coats of sealant beforehand! (You can see how bad the staining can be in my post here)

That's not to say you shouldn't use them... I still use them for sketching myself, but I do so knowing that I might have to deal with stains in the future. With less rare/expensive heads like Imomodoll it sometimes makes sense to risk staining if it means the faceup process will be easier. It's just up to your personal preferences. I've heard that plain graphite pencils can be used for sketching and don't stain, but I haven't tried it myself. I HAVE doodled directly on vinyl heads with a graphite pencil and it could be easily erased off, but idk personally how it behaves long-term.

Personally I like the look of acrylic paint, since it gives a sharper and more uniform finish than pencils alone. I've found using high flow acrylics (like Golden) is the easiest. It comes pre-thinned, so you don't have to worry about buying paint thinner. And it's not that expensive, a bottle will cost around $5 and will last forever. I used to HATE acrylic paint, but I was using the thicker heavy body stuff.

As for brushes, I've gotten by pretty well with cheap makeup (for pastels) and nail art (for paint) brushes from aliexpress.

 

I see! Thanks for this information and photos of the how the staining looks!! It’s helpful to hear that acrylic paint works better if it’s thinner. Your doll looks rlly cool btw  

Side note, a lot of smaller cheaper fashion dolls use vinyl for their heads. So in some cases you can test stuff by taking say an unwanted Barbie head (or what have you) and use it to test reactions between paints and vinyl, as some glosses and paints can become oddly sticking on some forms of vinyl and plastic. Now that's not a universal thing as different doll companies do use different vinyls, but if something reacts to Barbie or stains her, it's likely it will also react that way on the more expensive doll you are wanting to custom. Also learning to repaint smaller fashion dolls can help you with working on bigger dolls. I started customizing fashion dolls and action figures as a teen and many of the things I learn repainting/heavy modding those have helped me with understanding how to mod BJDs and Vinyl dolls.

On 1/8/2024 at 6:11 PM, 0bsequi0us said:

In my experience watercolor pencils are very likely to stain vinyl, even if you apply 2-3 coats of sealant beforehand! (You can see how bad the staining can be in my post here)

That's not to say you shouldn't use them... I still use them for sketching myself, but I do so knowing that I might have to deal with stains in the future. With less rare/expensive heads like Imomodoll it sometimes makes sense to risk staining if it means the faceup process will be easier. It's just up to your personal preferences. I've heard that plain graphite pencils can be used for sketching and don't stain, but I haven't tried it myself. I HAVE doodled directly on vinyl heads with a graphite pencil and it could be easily erased off, but idk personally how it behaves long-term.

Personally I like the look of acrylic paint, since it gives a sharper and more uniform finish than pencils alone. I've found using high flow acrylics (like Golden) is the easiest. It comes pre-thinned, so you don't have to worry about buying paint thinner. And it's not that expensive, a bottle will cost around $5 and will last forever. I used to HATE acrylic paint, but I was using the thicker heavy body stuff.

As for brushes, I've gotten by pretty well with cheap makeup (for pastels) and nail art (for paint) brushes from aliexpress.

 

thankfully i was reading this just in time, i was planning to start using the ones i bought recently for a faceup too actually. wouldnt want to stain my imomodoll head.
is vallejo model paint good as well? i heard of liquidtex as well.