Beautiful Eyebrows and Murphy's Law

Almost everything that could go wrong has gone wrong with my learning.  I just have to take it with a grain of salt.

Finally, Gracie Rose and Raine Eden got a better set of eyebrows.  I removed the eyebrows and repainted them until I was finally happy with them.  What a pain but I was delighted to thin the eyebrows out and paint the tiniest of strokes, but I realize I do need to go even thinner most of the time.   I had to be careful because removing the eyebrows, though I did not remove all layers of paint, it did make the vinyl a bit shiny.  So afterward I had to take care to apply a couple layers of Genesis heat set matte varnish mixed with baby skin and a touch of blushing rebaked in my NuWave oven.

I cut one of my paint brushes down to where there is only a small amount of bristles. I might cut it down even more but at least I got a desirable effect as it was.  I found that thinning my genesis heat set paints down and using Eyebrow Brown with Vein Blue.  I think I mixed about 3 Eyebrow Brown  / 1 paintbrush dabs of Vein Blue paint into a small amount of paint thinner and it did not take much to get a tiny amount of what appeared to be black.  I later used more of my brownish hair color with a touch of blue to give the eyebrows a more brown appearance.

I had painted them before without the blue and though the paint was brown, the eyebrows on Celeste came out yellowish.  Putting the blue in was an important part of making the eyebrows look less yellowy.  I painted a wisp of a very fine line from the middle of the brow to the end of the eye. Then I proceeded to make v shaped arrows towards the end of the eye leaving only a tiny line at the end.

Then I made lines from the bottom up to the top of the brow in the side of the brow that was the thickest and I curved the ends of the line towards the bottom of the brow.  I also put in a few of the tiniest wispy lines at the front end of the brow to make it look as if a few got away, giving it a natural wispy look.

It was not easy and I removed them again and again until I got them right.  After like 20 times I finally started to get them right.  I noted the angle is important or else they do not look right.

So I made the mistake of putting Gracie Rose's eyelashes on too early.  Now I almost feel it should be the last thing I do.  While redoing her eyebrows with my heat gun (small heat gun) because I did not want to mess up her eyes or eyelashes in the oven, I made the mistake of melting her eyelashes down to nothing.  I ended up having to pull the remainder off and clean the eyeballs off.  I may have either cracked her eye slightly or got an eyelash stuck in it.  You almost can't see it.

I will list the doll as is since it's my first  release.  I can't replace the eyes at this point as they are glued in.  They still look pretty darn good and I am going to put crystal clear resin in them as I planned originally.  She will be ready for auction after that.  I will notify the new owner that she has a slight defect in the eye and a tiny defect on her doeskin body which I found on the body after it arrived.  I was kind of upset about it.

Raine Eden with new eyebrows.  Painted them differently this time and they look good.   Raine Eden was painted with Baby Skin x2 dabs and Brow Brown x 1 dab mixed in to the Baby Skin.  It gave her a slight olive look.  It was worth a try to change the color of the original baby skin a bit.  I put in her Pabeo eyes, the blue ones.  They are so cute!

 

  

 Gracie Rose with new eyebrows shown below.  I don't know if you can see the problem in her eye.  But it is barely noticeable.  At this point I pulled her eyelashes back off and cleaned the eyes out.  I also toned down the lips using the Baby Skin color from Genesis Heat Set Paints.

One other problem I had is when putting on the head, the strings did not hold the head on so I had to go find a kit that had the zip tie parts and borrow one zip tie for the head. 

Pretty Pabol Eyes For Gracie and Raine and New Goodies for my babies...

Hi Reborners and Reborn Collectors,

I spent all day at the physical therapist and then at Target.  Luckily my knee is slowly starting to feel better and I have been able to walk through a store today without needing a handicap ride.  I am only 50 and pretty young looking but around Thanksgiving and then again at Christmas I injured my knee by falling.  At Christmas I hit it square on the concrete.

For several months I could barely walk at all.  Not to mention my back.  It's been hurting for years but I just found out there was something wrong with it called Spondylolisthesis where one of my vertebra is slipping forward and pinches the spine nerve and sometimes makes it very hard for me to walk and also causes other strange issues.

I have been doing the whole Physical Therapy thing and I am thrilled to say I am seeing great improvements.  Last time I went to Target my daughter made me use the handicap cart.  Ugh so embarrassing.  Being able to walk through Target made me very happy.

I was happy to go to Target because most of all I wanted to go through the baby clothes and see if there was anything good on the sale rack.  I did pick up the cutest pair of bunny slippers.  I dared not leave them there as they were the last pair.  I am glad I bought them and now I just want to wear them but they are size 0-3 months so I guess I don't get to.  They are soooo soft and fuzzy!  I can't wait until one of my reborn babys can wear them.

I also picked up some of the cutest hair bows and clips.  Ohhh weee am I excited to get my girls hair rooted.  Then again I don't know if maybe I should practice painting hair on one of them.

I decided to put Celeste in a box for later.  She is not worthy of adoption so she will be saved for a practice doll.  I feel her skin was too dark and her brows too thick and so she is not going to be going home with anyone.  I also very much did not like the light brown hair color from Ruby Red as I feel it is way too reddish auburn and did not match what I was wanting for her.  I am disapointed at the loss of cost on the mohair but I am just feeling like it's not that high quality for the price they charge.  I am thinking of only ordering high quality yearling mohair or equivalent.  Remember I said my standards are high.

With regrets I will be redistributing all of the clothing I have purchased to the other two reborn babies until such time as I get another Celeste to paint.

I am not sure if the lip color on my girls is too red but I honestly did not put that much color and yet they came out very red.  In fact I just outlined them and brushed inward and still they look too red, I must need to think the paint out more.  I am not sure what to do about it except to leave it as is.  They look precious anyway but I was concerned she looks like she is going to a Christmas Party. I guess it's important to go ever so lightly in each step.

I really need to keep practicing baby doll eyebrows.  I guess I need to slant them more horizontally than I did but it's a learning process.  They look better in person than they do in the photos.  I think I may redo them, I am not sure if I can without ruining the doll.  I may do another layer of paint over them to get more angled brows.  Update:  I removed the eyebrows and am going to make another attempt to paint them.  Scary!!!  Pray I get them right.

And here you can see her pretty eyes.  I chose the brown Pabol Eyes.  I am going to try the acrylic tears that Custom Doll Baby recommends.  I hear some of the other products have a shelf life that can expires and possibly ruin your doll.

Gracie got brown eyes and Raine got blue eyes.  You can see the Pabol eyes closer up in some of my past posts.

It's easy to say I can do better at reborning than that other person but yet when you reborn, it's a lot of work with sometimes unexpected results.  It's a lot of steps that must be taken carefully.  Any one step can ruin your reborn doll.

Have fun with your reborn babies and give them a kiss from Grandma Kimmie.

Kimberly
Snuggle Babies Nursery

Painted Eyebrows on Gracie and Raine

Hi all,

Well I ended up just painting my eyebrows for the time being.  Granted they look a little too perfect.  But they are ok for now.  I practiced painting like at least 200 eyebrows or more on parchment paper.
It did help.  My two reborn dolls Gracie and Raine look pretty good.  Though I do think they look a little bit too pretty.  I will practice more to get a better newborn brow.  I need to find pictures though to practice from.

So Gracie got brows...

 

And  Raine got brows...

 

It will have to do for now until I can practice more newborn brows.   Please leave you comments.  I can always use tips and tricks.

Celeste got thrown in a box for later.  I almost finished rooting her but she is way too much of a practice doll.  I will buy a new one later.

Have fun reborners....

Kimberly

Snuggle Babies Nursery

Reborn Eyebrows Make Me Want To Cry

Ok so it turns out eyebrows are exceedingly difficult so far.  I tried rooting them and pulled them all out.  I ended up painting them and then re-rooting them again and still they look too dark.  Back to the drawing board.  How about just painting them. 

I may end up ordering another Celeste or just giving her to my grand-kids if she looks too funky.  Can I cry now.  After all my work I am thinking of redoing a new Celeste!  It wouldn't hurt anyway, now painting the dolls takes me less than a quarter of the time the first one did. 

I have certain standards myself of what kind of reborn I would put out.  The reborn doll would pretty much have to be perfect looking.  And she would have to be exceedingly life like.  I just think those expectant mommies and daddies out there don't want just a doll.  They want a precious little angel to spoil and have fun with.  If it looks like a doll, then it's a doll.  If it looks lifelike, then it's a reborn.  Reborns are meant to look real.  Reborns are there for therapy, for snuggling, for spoiling, for changing, for strolling, for role-play, and for collecting.  I personally think it's sort of like looking at artwork or like looking at something that would please the eye and give cuddly contentment. 

I will have to practice on paper over and over as far as painting those tiny little caterpillars.  I remember my mother who used to paint flowers on things.  She would paint flowers over and over on parchment paper for practice.  I would love to look at her beautiful practice flowers all day long.  It's gonna pretty much be the same thing.  Luckily I have three boxes of parchment paper from all my baking escapades.  I am a great painter too but I think I need to get an even finer brush or cut one down to be super fine. I just don't want my doll to look like Groucho Marx.  Update:  I cut one tiny detail brush down with a hair cutting scissors.  I cut a tiny bit of bristles off on two sides and it's pretty fine now which should help.  I was able to get fine tiny strokes but practice makes perfect and practice I will.

Needless to say I have heard the hooked needle is much better for eyebrows and rooting than the barb or regular rooting needles.  I am not sure because I have never done it until now.  I don't want my babies looking like corn beef and hash.  How will I ever perfect eyebrows without ruining a bunch of dolls.  I guess by going very, very slowly.

I am trying to keep costs down so should I order the hooked needles.  I am going to anyway just because it will help my hair rooting look better.  Especially if I get the 42G needle size.  I have been using the 36G and it is way too big, makes clunky looking roots when combined with the loop rooting method.  Ugh.  I don't like the bigger rooting needles but heard one reborner recommending them but wish I had gone with the smaller ones.

Those painted eyebrows look best to be honest.  Though I have seen a few dolls where they rooted the eyebrows perfectly.  Ummm that must have taken years to perfect.  I wonder how many doll heads those doll artists ruined to get there.

I am on a quest to find out if I can do better at painting or doing individual hairs with a hook needle which will catch and root one hair at a time.  And then there are prisma pencils.  Hmmm so many options.  Feel free to share your opinions if you want.  I tried my very expensive water color pencils and some colors worked and some did not.  I am not sure about the pencil idea.

I had to just show you guys this picture of someone's method; but maybe it works...I think NOT.  I found it on Pinterest...gave me a good laugh though.  Those eyebrows are scary looking.  I am glad God did not do that with mine.



I found this chart online;  I think this will be extremely helpful.






I also found this chart showing different eyebrow shapes; This could also give me help with a variety of different shaped eyebrows.  I don't want all my dolls to look identical anyway.




 And then I found this Simply Reborn 3D Eyebrows mini tut to add texture:







There are some who say you can add thinning medium and build up eyebrows before you even paint them.  That sounds scary to me.  But it would be worth a try on a practice limb if you had one.  Of course I don't have one.

Another cool chart from Silvia Creations I found on Pinterest:


Also I found this with instructions to paint the main points and then fill in with tiny hairs inbetween: This seems to be tried and true as I have seen a few people do it.



And then Kim at Custom Baby Doll has her own two part tutorial below (part 1).  She has a paint and then root combo which looks pretty nice.  She is very talented and her paint with rooting over it looks pretty darn nice.  She gets that rooting done at just the perfect angle where the eyebrows lay nicely and look realistic.




I think this gal Jackie Ortiz has it down for sure in the video below.  Her eyebrows are painted so very thin and real looking.  I love how hers came out, in my opinion they are exactly what I am looking for.  Since a reborn is an artistic creation, I guess it's up to you as the artist.



I may stick to painting eyebrows until I perfect rooting them. Let me know if you find any better tutorials I would love to try them!  I will post any pictures of my efforts in practicing painting.

Love to all,

Kimberly
Snuggle Babies Nursery