Fancy Heads

       There are things that generally I don't do with dolls. I don't like to make removable clothing because getting the fit correct can be tricky or impossible. I also don't usually like to do fully rooted heads because they take an insanely long time and are hard to do well. But I was contacted recently to make a couple of character heads and I was really into the idea. 

      The first head I needed to make was for an Elvira doll. Elvira has a pretty distinctive look and not just in her makeup. I knew that I would have to work in layers and have to hope that any styling products I used didn't do weird things to the viscose hair (like they usually do). Things I discovered; super cheap Aquanet is the hairspray to use for viscose hair. I have in the past used fancy Pantene hairspray. It does horrible things to the hair and basically ruins it. The Aquanet was basically amazing. I have never been so happy with that cheap hairspray. Other than when I used it to make Ethan's mohawk stand up. Proud days. 

     With a ton of work on both the hair and makeup I ended up with an Elvira head that was very close to the variety of reference pics I had. I liked her so much if the customer had not been happy with her I was going to keep her. I had no idea what I would do with her, but I would keep her. 

     The other head I needed to make was for Vampirella. She was actually so much easier to do. Not only is Vampirella different in many of the comics, there is also nothing super distinctive about her look. At least not in her hair or face. So I painted up a pale doll head with black eyeliner and dark lipstick and gave her a big, full head of hair with bangs. Done. Easy. It still took a long time because that much hair takes a long time, but she is pretty accurate to the reference as well. 

      So for the most part I won't make single items of removable clothing, other than cutting chaps or chinks, but I might once in awhile. I also don't often do just heads, or fully rooted heads, but I might once in awhile. Sometimes a project is intriguing to me. Though I am glad this one is done. I really had forgotten just how long it takes to fully root a head!