Painting Reborn Baby Dolls - Stage 2 - Adding first layer of blushing

Most instruction have the flesh paint applied first, but with this doll I am adding a first layer of  light blushing.  This will be under the flesh tone.  I also add the veining prior to adding the flesh.  This seems more natural to me.  I vein with the Secrist Authentic Reborn cream paints. The veining color is pre-mixed and no thinner is required, giving better control. On larger dolls like this one (31-inch Tibby),  I only add veins at temples, wrist and ankles. They are applied with a very thin bristle brush and blotted to fading.  You only want a vague resemblance of a vein to show.
The blush I use is Bountiful Baby pre-mixed Warm Blush and just a touch of their premixed Lip and Nail Blush. The Warm Blush has a lot of brown in it making the color look a lot like dried blood, so I have found for a more alive look I add just a little touch of the Lip & Nail Blush to add more red to the skin.
 This paint mixture is thinned to a very thin consistency, so thin you can see through it. There are various ways to apply- sea sponge, foam wedge sponge, mushroom sponge to name a few. With this one I used the sea sponge. To get the best effect you swirl  a small mop brush in the prepared blush mix and paint a surface of the sea sponge (this is the same technique I use for the other sponges also). Blot the sponge lightly around the head and limbs at random. You will see splotching of the paint, if it is too dark- thin your paint: if it is too light - add more paint to the mixture. The thinner will flow over the vinyl and also give a blushing glow to the skin. I always start on the back of the head to get the right effect and color before going to the face. Let the parts dry completely for several hours. After drying completely bake in a 265 F degree oven for 8 minutes. I use a NuWave oven and set the power setting to # 7 for 8 minutes. The color of the blush will be lighter after baking.  This is a picture of a wet just blushed head. looking closely you can see the veining and the blushing. I will add the Flesh tone next- watch for my next blog.

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Ovens used for - baking your Reborn Babies- to set the heat-set paints.

In between each layer (application) of paint the parts should be baked. There are exceptions, (such as touch-ups or creases, nails etc.,) to this rule that we will explore later during one of our painting sessions. Finding the right oven for this was a real challenge for me. I found many suggestion on Reborn Doll forums. It is advised against using your oven that you use for cooking family food. The vinyl gives off fumes and could contaminate your oven. Before I heard that I had used my oven, but found it did not hold temperature at 265 degrees F which is the desired baking temperature.

Convection ovens are recommenced by many. I found that most of them were too small. The oven needs to

be a large one, with the inside at least 16 inches wide and  12  inches high to accommodate the dolls parts. Although many people seemed to have success with their convection holding temperature, I did not!  I would preheat to 265 degrees F, but when the vinyl parts were inserted - the oven would cool down at least 100 degrees. I suspect it was the air blowing over the cool vinyl bring the temperature down. You are suppose to bake for 8 min., in this oven it took 4 minutes to come back up to 265. So I started to preheating to 365 to try to compensate, that did hold the temperature better, but also scorched by towel I had under the vinyl part to keep them from having contact with the medal tray. Parts in contact with hot medal will destroy the vinyl.  One day  the towel started to smoke and almost caught on fire.  So you need to be very careful with a convection oven even if it holds temperature. Never leave it during baking!!

Then I heard about the NuWave Infrared oven.  I have found it works really well, with
some manipulation. I guess nothing is perfect.  This oven blows a constant heat at the set temperature, So it is instant heat, you do not need to preheat (although I do just slightly). The only problem is the timer is digital and setting 6 is for 255 degrees and 7 is for 275, with no in between.  I use the setting 7 when I place the parts in and when my oven thermometer reaches 265,  which means the air temperature in the oven has now reached 265.  this takes about 5 minutes. At this time I turn the oven off and let the parts sit in the oven for another 3 minutes. This usually works well.
 Although one time the holding temperature dropped to fast and I decided to restart and must have put in the wrong setting and before I knew it I had melted the dolls face.  And this was my last bake on the doll.  Boy was I up set, so lesson learned not only don't text when you drive- don't text while you are baking dolls either. 

Painting your Reborn with different types of Heat Set paints

Many different mediums may be used to paint your doll. The three that I use are all heat set paints. Heat set paints requires each layer of paint to be baked at 265 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 minutes to cure the paint on to the vinyl before going to the next layer. Some dolls could have as many as 8 or 9 layer or as few as 3 or 4 layers.  The paints I use are Authentic Reborn pre-mixed colors by Secrist Doll Co.; Genesis custom pre-mixed paints by Bountiful Baby; and Genesis heat set colors that need to be mixed to create the proper color.

Authentic Reborn pre-mixed are heat set paints and come in pre-mixed complexions of Peaches and Cream, Strawberry, Vintage Rose.   They require no thinning with Mineral Spirits and are designed to be transparent creams.  These are very good paints for beginners taking the guess work out of how much thinner to use. The Paint is spread as a very thin layer on glass pallet and the flesh and blush is applied with various sponges.  For veins and creases a brush is used. These paints were designed for the Secrist vinyl doll parts, which is a darker Peach color.  This is the only paint I used when I first started adding additional enhancements to Secrist Apple Valley Dolls that are pre-painted at their factory in Michigan. This paint is easy to use, but the flesh tones do not give the best flesh effect in my opinion. But I feel the two colors in the picture to the left:, eye lid purple and vein blue work best around the eyes and to give dept in the shadows, so I use these on all the dolls.

Bountiful Baby pre-mixed paints are heat set paints that shades of Genesis paints have been blended to achieve the color tones that BB feels best suits Bountiful Baby vinyl. Mixes include flesh, blush, a darker blush also used for lips and nails, and creases.  These paints do need to be mixed with an odorless thinner such as Turpenoid. Each paint application  is thinned to various degrees of thinness depending on the layer and effect you are to achieve. ( I will have more about layers and thinning in an up coming blog on Painting).  This is the medium I use most often for the Bountiful Parts and for the Lee Middleton doll parts. Although I do also use the Authentic Reborn paints around the eyes and their cream blush as my last blush on the Bountiful and Middleton dolls. The BB blush is actually a blood color and dries slightly brownish like real blood does. In my opinion that leaves the baby looking too brown so I add the last layer of blush from the AR blush to give a rosier complexion and brighten, making the baby look more alive.

Genesis heat set paints come in standard colors that you mix together to create the shade and the effect you want to achieve. That mixed base is then thinned with an orderless paint thinner. I use Odorless Turpenoid that I get from my local art supply store. Mixing the colors and knowing how much thinner to use becomes a challenge but with practice it can be mastered.

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