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hat_plays_dollsGooliope is a great toy, I love her to bits. Sure, I wish the other MH dolls were as poseable as she is (as much as I wish they all had hands like River's), but it also kind of makes sense that she NEEDS the extra flexibility to fit through doors and hallways that are too small for her because they were scaled for Deluxe Class and she's Ultra Class.
But even more so than most MH dolls, Gooliope's accessories needed paint-- they're SO BIG, comparatively, that they just looked kind of flat.
Okay, so, my long shots aren't fabulous because they're basically in front of an open window at night. I don't actually have room to set up a Proper Photo Backdrop AND a Paint All The Things area at the same time, but here's Gooliope with minimal modification. This pic WAS taken after I added a little bit of gloss to her drips, painted her underwear (that dress is SO flyaway), and painted her nails (they're sculpted, so I couldn't resist).
I also washed and restyled her hair. Just restyled-- warm wash, deep condition, comb while wet and hose down the ends with spray gel, scrunch to separate, and leave in a breeze to dry. The curl at the end of her bangs is more thoroughly gelled.
Accessories Before! I like these, they're cute-- her headband is calliope pipes and keys arranged in a grinning monster face-- Okay, you know what, let's look close at the headband.
Before-- SUPER cute but kind of a blob of gold.
Work in progress-- I did a wipe with an antique gold and then painted the filigree pattern on the 'face' and the faces and holes on the pipes with a 'tarnish' metallic I gooped up myself, which is basically three colors of metallic paint (I think it was gold, red, and green), some extra pearl lustre medium for good measure, and enough black to make it black-ish.
And after! Basically the only real difference is a coat of varnish-- technically matte varnish, even though it's all shiny. Why matte? Because I have four kinds of varnish-- matte, satin, and gloss 'craft' Delta varnish, and Liquitex matte artist's varnish. The Delta varnishes are always fairly shiny on vinyl accessories (I mean, gloss is glassy but they're all shiny), though they DO stay true to finish on hard plastic accessories (like some purses), while the Liquitex varnish is actually matte whether on vinyl or hard plastic (but you will want to thin it 50/50 with water; it's meant for paintings so it's kinda thick straight out of the bottle). Back when I did Tonner doll repaints, that was the go-to finish.
Gooliope's epaulets have a spiderweb motif and a collar with a tag reading 816 in digital-clock-style numbers (basically 1337speak for BIG) and...
Orb-web designs on top. This is a very stiff piece that doesn't like to bend with Gooliope's shoulders gracefully and tends to spin, so best to rubber-band it down.
WIP on my messy hand and...
Top view. My initial shading on this one was in antique gold, which didn't do much as a wash but did knock things from 'bright gold' to 'rich brass.' Then I did a second wash with my tarnish paint that actually brought out the details. The collar needed to stand out, so I hit it with black paint.
And my camera gave me issues so there's a corner of the paper towel visible, but! Numbers are painted in tarnish, studs in a bright gold, and...
Everything got hit with matte sealer. I considered using my Proper Matte on the collar but in the end I just left it all shiny, because why not?
Goolipe's earrings are either very decorative gears or very small wagon wheels.
Either way, painting them was straightforward-- antique gold wash for brassiness, tarnish wash for detail, and...
Matte sealer for gleam but not shine.
But I know the jewelry isn't really Gooliope's main attraction. CHECK OUT THESE SHOES. Cherry red with a black skullette and dry-brushed skeleton carousel horses. They're enormous and fantastic and I took pictures from several angles but they're kind of boring as Before pics so I'm going to link them:
Facing Out | From the Front | From the Side
I didn't go into the shoes with too much of a plan besides 'break up the red.' First thing that HAD to happen was repainting the horses themselves-- base coat of antique white, then a heavy-handed dry brushing in cream, then a light dry brush in white, to make them look Actually Bony. Painting the pole gold for brass was a no brainer, if tricky behind the neck, but I was surprised to spot the bridle!
Facing Out. I won't say I improvised the rest. I could've left the platform red, but bare plastic doesn't always hold metallics well-- going black let me do the gold detailing in one coat instead of three. The rest of the black was a matter of flow, and the red and white stripes?
Mostly to match the red-and-white striped swagging in Gooliope's skirt.
I love the way the heel-cups turned out, they look like those non-jumping shell things in a carousel. Stripes in white, beading in bright gold, gold details in antique gold with a coat of bright gold over them, for depth, and I did the saddles in a darker red and dry-brushed on bright gold. Most of the shoe is in my Liquitex matte, but I did hit the saddles and all the gold detailing with my regular matte sealer, for difference.
I also completely did not realize how much of the red I'd painted over until I got them on Gooliope's feet. I blame the red insoles fooling me.
These took basically two days to paint, mostly due to drying time between coats.
I'm not pleased with this shot, but-- Gooliope after! What I really like is how everything ties together. Nothing she's wearing is a flat expanse of color, so it actually goes with her dress.
And a headshot! A slightly dim headshot, my lighting didn't want to cooperate with me tonight for some reason. The calliope disappears and you can see how her collar needs to be secured, but you can ALSO see the detail in her collar... and in her headband, even half-lit.
And randomly-- yes, sometimes I DO use my finger to wipe paint instead of the paper towel before dry brushing, why do you ask?
Like what I do and want to help me feed my cats, but don't need anything I have for sale on eBay? You can always support me on Patreon or throw some change in my tip jar.
But even more so than most MH dolls, Gooliope's accessories needed paint-- they're SO BIG, comparatively, that they just looked kind of flat.
Okay, so, my long shots aren't fabulous because they're basically in front of an open window at night. I don't actually have room to set up a Proper Photo Backdrop AND a Paint All The Things area at the same time, but here's Gooliope with minimal modification. This pic WAS taken after I added a little bit of gloss to her drips, painted her underwear (that dress is SO flyaway), and painted her nails (they're sculpted, so I couldn't resist).
I also washed and restyled her hair. Just restyled-- warm wash, deep condition, comb while wet and hose down the ends with spray gel, scrunch to separate, and leave in a breeze to dry. The curl at the end of her bangs is more thoroughly gelled.
Accessories Before! I like these, they're cute-- her headband is calliope pipes and keys arranged in a grinning monster face-- Okay, you know what, let's look close at the headband.
Before-- SUPER cute but kind of a blob of gold.
Work in progress-- I did a wipe with an antique gold and then painted the filigree pattern on the 'face' and the faces and holes on the pipes with a 'tarnish' metallic I gooped up myself, which is basically three colors of metallic paint (I think it was gold, red, and green), some extra pearl lustre medium for good measure, and enough black to make it black-ish.
And after! Basically the only real difference is a coat of varnish-- technically matte varnish, even though it's all shiny. Why matte? Because I have four kinds of varnish-- matte, satin, and gloss 'craft' Delta varnish, and Liquitex matte artist's varnish. The Delta varnishes are always fairly shiny on vinyl accessories (I mean, gloss is glassy but they're all shiny), though they DO stay true to finish on hard plastic accessories (like some purses), while the Liquitex varnish is actually matte whether on vinyl or hard plastic (but you will want to thin it 50/50 with water; it's meant for paintings so it's kinda thick straight out of the bottle). Back when I did Tonner doll repaints, that was the go-to finish.
Gooliope's epaulets have a spiderweb motif and a collar with a tag reading 816 in digital-clock-style numbers (basically 1337speak for BIG) and...
Orb-web designs on top. This is a very stiff piece that doesn't like to bend with Gooliope's shoulders gracefully and tends to spin, so best to rubber-band it down.
WIP on my messy hand and...
Top view. My initial shading on this one was in antique gold, which didn't do much as a wash but did knock things from 'bright gold' to 'rich brass.' Then I did a second wash with my tarnish paint that actually brought out the details. The collar needed to stand out, so I hit it with black paint.
And my camera gave me issues so there's a corner of the paper towel visible, but! Numbers are painted in tarnish, studs in a bright gold, and...
Everything got hit with matte sealer. I considered using my Proper Matte on the collar but in the end I just left it all shiny, because why not?
Goolipe's earrings are either very decorative gears or very small wagon wheels.
Either way, painting them was straightforward-- antique gold wash for brassiness, tarnish wash for detail, and...
Matte sealer for gleam but not shine.
But I know the jewelry isn't really Gooliope's main attraction. CHECK OUT THESE SHOES. Cherry red with a black skullette and dry-brushed skeleton carousel horses. They're enormous and fantastic and I took pictures from several angles but they're kind of boring as Before pics so I'm going to link them:
Facing Out | From the Front | From the Side
I didn't go into the shoes with too much of a plan besides 'break up the red.' First thing that HAD to happen was repainting the horses themselves-- base coat of antique white, then a heavy-handed dry brushing in cream, then a light dry brush in white, to make them look Actually Bony. Painting the pole gold for brass was a no brainer, if tricky behind the neck, but I was surprised to spot the bridle!
Facing Out. I won't say I improvised the rest. I could've left the platform red, but bare plastic doesn't always hold metallics well-- going black let me do the gold detailing in one coat instead of three. The rest of the black was a matter of flow, and the red and white stripes?
Mostly to match the red-and-white striped swagging in Gooliope's skirt.
I love the way the heel-cups turned out, they look like those non-jumping shell things in a carousel. Stripes in white, beading in bright gold, gold details in antique gold with a coat of bright gold over them, for depth, and I did the saddles in a darker red and dry-brushed on bright gold. Most of the shoe is in my Liquitex matte, but I did hit the saddles and all the gold detailing with my regular matte sealer, for difference.
I also completely did not realize how much of the red I'd painted over until I got them on Gooliope's feet. I blame the red insoles fooling me.
These took basically two days to paint, mostly due to drying time between coats.
I'm not pleased with this shot, but-- Gooliope after! What I really like is how everything ties together. Nothing she's wearing is a flat expanse of color, so it actually goes with her dress.
And a headshot! A slightly dim headshot, my lighting didn't want to cooperate with me tonight for some reason. The calliope disappears and you can see how her collar needs to be secured, but you can ALSO see the detail in her collar... and in her headband, even half-lit.
And randomly-- yes, sometimes I DO use my finger to wipe paint instead of the paper towel before dry brushing, why do you ask?
Like what I do and want to help me feed my cats, but don't need anything I have for sale on eBay? You can always support me on Patreon or throw some change in my tip jar.
