dye project and face up test

I was browsing pictures on tumblr in the bjd tag and saw someone with a tan IOS Infernale head (I didn't even know he came in tan but he looked great!). Anyway I realized that I regretted getting him in WS (the main reason I did was because the hands I'd been saving for him for YEARS were in Soom's CW)

So I decided I was going to make him more in the NS or tan range. This presented an interesting challenge since I've never dyed a WS doll before (well not a full doll at least and not a natural skin color). The first run he came out very purpley and I had to go out and get more dye in tan and yellow to try to balance him out. The body is honestly pretty uneven but I'm hoping that with some creative blushing I can make the parts a little more cohesive, and the next time I get it in my head to do something like this I'll know to err on the side of more yellows.

Also did more body switching and Avelarion ended up on one that was too pink for him so I used my light yellow and tan mix to bring his body into a more mid range peachy tone to match his older head better. Normally I don't really care about resin match as long as whites are with whites and peachy tones are together, etc. but I figured as long as it was there I might as well.

Don't have any pictures of that. I figured I have other pictures of dye attempts up on other entries and boiling water and slippery resin pieces are already a potential disaster waiting to happen without adding a camera to the mix.

I did get this one before shot of Istthraen's head and body disassembled though:

This is before round 1 of dyeing. There are no pictures of the purple monstrosity. The dye also mixed really unevenly the first time so he had all these dark 'veins' and he legitimately looked like someone who'd had their circulation cut off.

I keep getting distracted. Not sure if I mentioned yet that I decided to give both of them new face ups as well. I guess that only makes sense with Istthraen because I had to wipe him in order to dye him.

I ran into a tutorial by Bluoxyde that mentioned that it's a good idea to use a mixture of warm and cool colors because the contrast helps them stand out more, so I decided to attempt to apply that principle to my next face up attempt. I was going to start with Avelarion but I got a bit ahead of myself and accidentally started before his sealant had dried, so I had to wipe him again and start over. I decided to do Istthraen while I waited on that.

It's less dramatic than the last one I gave him but I'm actually really pleased with it. Was hard to photograph though. I gave it a try but it's late and there's no sun and all the lights in my house are so yellow.

I was lazy and just didn't even bother wiping the tongues from his first face up. I feel like they work fine though. The eyebrows are uneven now that I see them in photos but he covers half his face with hair anyway so I'm not that bothered by it.

Avelarion will probably have to wait until tomorrow to get a face up.