How Do I Customize Dolls?

If you've ever asked yourself this question, this is for you!

Doll customizing can be surprisingly simple. Only a few basic tools and art supplies are needed.

The most important thing is choosing a doll you like! Many people love using Monster High and other vinyl fashion dolls, while others prefer to customize ball-jointed dolls (BJDs). There are also a variety of BJDs made with both vinyl and resin, and each has its own unique properties. The process of customization is roughly similar across both resin and vinyl, although as you practice, you will come to be familiar with the differences between various materials.

What Supplies Do I Need?

The actual most basic supplies you need for doll customizing vary a little bit depending on if you're using a vinyl fashion doll or a BJD. You'll need the following regardless:

Acrylic or gouache paint
Acetone (acetone based nail polish remover will usually work)
Paintbrushes
Varnish or sealant--more on this in a bit
Gloves

These tools are the absolute bare minimum in terms of supplies to customize a doll. Here are more supplies that are optional:

Soft pastels
Micro craft swabs
Watercolor pencils
False eyelashes

Once you've gathered your supplies, you can go ahead and prep the doll.

How Do I Get A Doll Ready For Customizing?

If you're using a new, unpainted BJD, great news! All you need to do is gently wipe the face off with warm water, then dry it. If you're using a fashion doll with factory paint, this is a bit more complicated. Here's how we do it.

First, remove any clothing or accessories. If you're going to reroot the doll's hair, you can go ahead and cut it off now. Wash the doll in warm water, especially if it's a secondhand doll.

Now, dip a paper towel, tissue, or Q-tip in acetone, and press firmly to the factory paint. This can take some practice, but after some work, you should have a blank slate to work off of. Wash the doll in warm water again to remove any residue that might damage the doll.

In the case of a BJD, removing the head is typically as easy as removing the head cap, twisting the S-hook, and pulling. However, for fashion dolls, this might be a far more difficult task. Soak the head and neck of the doll in very hot (nearly boiling) water for a few minutes. Once the plastic has softened, wrap the head in a towel to protect your hand and pull it off the neck peg.

It's not 100% necessary to do a doll's face-up while its head is off the body, but it does make it far more convenient and easy to work with, so I'd strongly recommend it.

At this point, you can go ahead and do the reroot for your doll if you're using a fashion doll. I like my doll's current hair, so I'll simply wash it and mask it off to prevent it from becoming dirty during customization. If you'd like to know how to reroot a doll's hair, please check out this video. If you're using a BJD, go ahead and skip this step and we'll talk about wigs later.

Now that your doll is nearly ready to customize, let's talk about sealant.

What Sealant Should I Use?

There are a few options. The most common sealant is Mister Super Clear Matte, which is very durable and watertight. It adds a lot of texture to resin or vinyl and is considered indispensable for face-ups by many artists. However, it is extremely toxic! If you choose to use Mister Super Clear (MSC), it is imperative you wear a respirator and gloves. Please be careful with this stuff. If you'd prefer to avoid it, regular matte varnish will work fine. I've also heard that miniature sealant, like the kind used for Warhammer, works well, but I've never used this. These are much safer to use, but do not provide the same texture to the doll. As such, watercolor pencils and soft pastels may not adhere to the doll's face as well as they would otherwise.

I have always used MSC, and will continue to for this tutorial. If you'd like to avoid MSC for the obvious health risks, make sure to thin your chosen sealant or varnish with a little bit of water as you work to avoid it becoming clumpy.

MSC has a few quirks. First of all, you should aim to use it when the weather is below 60% humidity and when the temperature is between 50 and 70F. This isn't necessarily hard and fast, as I've used MSC in 40F weather and when the humidity is closer to 70%, but it's good to keep it in mind. Using MSC outside of its proscribed temperature range can cause it to cure incorrectly, leaving it tacky or causing it to dry cloudily. In general, cool and dry is king for MSC, and MSC should always be used outdoors.

Now, if you're using MSC, go ahead and spray your doll's face liberally. Make sure that if you've kept a doll's rooted hair or rerooted her hair, you've masked it off with scrap cloth or plastic wrap. You want to apply three to five coats of MSC, waiting at least thirty minutes between layers. The more layers of MSC you spray here, the better your pencils and pastels will adhere to the doll's face. Don't forget to wear gloves and a respirator.

The Face-Up

To begin the faceup, begin by blushing the doll with pastels. You may find it easiest to take a sharp craft knife and scrape pigment off a pastel onto a piece of scrap paper. Gently apply a small amount of pigment to a brush, then tap the brush onto the face. It can help to look at makeup tutorials to determine what colors look good with what resin or vinyl tones and where to apply them. Typically I like to blush the cheeks, forehead, chin, nose, tips of the ears, and the jaw. For the body, blushing joints and pulse points can add a lot of vibrancy to the doll, but I’d recommend starting sparsely and building up, as a little goes a long way.

Once your blushing is complete to your standards, seal the doll with MSC again, then you can begin going in with watercolor pencils. If you don’t have watercolor pencils, feel free to skip this step, but it does help. You can add the first shapes of the eyebrows, eyes, lips, and any other face details here. When the colors stop building, seal the doll again and add another layer of pencils. Once you’re satisfied, seal the doll for a final time, then you can add any depth or opacity required with acrylic or gouache paints. I like to add some thicker eyelashes, more opaque eyebrows, and a bit of color to the crease of the lips here, as well as any freckles or moles. Make sure to water down your paint so it’s thin and goes on smoothly. It’s ok to take a few layers; it’s better than glopping on uncut paint and losing the beautiful sculpt of your doll.

Once you’re totally satisfied with the faceup, seal it with MSC again. Once it cures, you can add any glitter or gloss varnish you’d like. Some people love adding these to a doll’s eyes and lips for vibrancy. Use school glue to add glitter in a thin layer. Varnish should be cut with water.

Finalizing Your Doll

If your doll is a BJD, at this point you can simply pop the head back on the body. You can insert 3D eyes with eye putty or acid-free sticky tack, dress up the doll, and slip on the wig. If you have a fashion doll, this step is a bit harder. Heat up the doll’s head and the neck peg. Once sufficiently softened, very carefully squeeze the head back on the doll. Try to avoid touching the face-up too much. At this point, your doll is free to dress up and accessorize as much as you want.

To style a doll wig, typically all you need is a fine-toothed comb, an eyebrow brush with bristles (not a spoolie), and a little water. Get the brush slightly wet and shape as desired. Keep in mind shorter doll hair tends to be quite poofy as there's not much weight to it. To trim, I use embroidery scissors. Some nylon doll hair can be exposed to heated tools. Be sure to double check which kind you have before applying any kind of heat, as you may melt your doll's hair!

For links to wigs and clothing, check out my page of Taobao shop links. If you want to sew your own doll clothes, check out my page of doll sewing patterns. For more tips and tutorials, including videos, check out my page of resources.