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hat_plays_dollsOkay, so virtually every Monster High doll I get, I get Because Reasons. Sometimes those reasons are things like "Hot damn, so-and-so's getting a doll!" or "At this point it's just weird not to have a Main Character," or "Curvy doll curvy doll curvy doll! Okay so she's a squid I don't care look at her HIPS!" or, sadly, "Oh, hey, what's-her-face is on super-clearance." Occasionally, though, the Reason for getting a doll is something like...
"Welp, Prom 2014 and CreamoDreamo's art made me ship Jackson/Toralei, I guess I need a Toralei doll now."
Or
"... How did Mattel find out about Aerocorn because this Zombie Unicorn looks like her alternate-universe son, I never posted any of that fic because I never finished any of it..."
Or
"Wow, this Puff Pink gal sure makes cute art and whoops now I need Bonita and Wydowna."
And since I've re-written my thoughts about eight times, let's just skip straight to the inspiration and what I did Wednesday night, which was this:
Okay, so, Bonita didn't get a lot of character development in Freaky Fusion (there was too much going on, honestly, which isn't an excuse, it just means they needed a tighter script), but that's okay in that it leaves her wide open for fan characterization-- and Puff Pink did more to develop Bonita than Mattel found time for.
One of the things Puff did was use Skelita to help Bonita get in touch with her Hexican scaritage, and that stuck with me. When I was scouring eBay for a Zombie Shake Purrsephone head, I ran across a lot of four dolls-- ZS Purrsephone, Fusion-Inspired Frankie, Ghouls Night Out Ghoulia, and a wingless, ponytail-holder-less Bonita. I figured, okay, I'll see if I like the Ghoulia (I do, she lives here now), use the Frankie to test some yellowed-hair whitening ideas (an overnight soak in blue fabric softener AND an hour coated in purple brassiness-reducing shampoo don't touch saran hair, more's the pity), and do some paint shading on Bonita's body.
They arrived and I had to re-root Purrsephone's bangs, which had been cut off, and fix up Bonita's hair, because her antennae had come off at some point and been superglued back on. "Hey," I said to myself, as I was also very relieved I had half a skein of RestoreDoll platinum hair sitting around from my Tonner days, "didn't Puff Pink have an antenna issue with her Bonita?"
And despite my baity Bonita's wonky hairline and crooked, glued on antennae and tiny lip rub, I kept thinking about, well, about the interpretation of Bonita that made me go "Dangit, now I need a Bonita."
So I dropped her a line and busted out the paints.
There are a few details I didn't get quite right-- the yellow swirly should cross up over the teeth-smile, and the wings on her forehead-butterfly are a little different than I painted-- but I think I did okay for not having the reference in front of me. The painting desk is halfway across the room from the computer, and I just had my reference image up on the screen since I'm running low on non-black printer ink.
The paint around her eyes is a little thick because-- well, honestly, I was bad and used all my paint straight out of the bottle, but also because I was freehanding and painting over her glitter eyeshadow (which is why I added more glitter, to hide that chunkiness). Yes, it is in fact easier for me to dab tiny drops of paint between individual eyelashes than try to paint eyelashes on my own. Eylashes are hard and I suck at them. I didn't change the color of Bonita's lips, but I did line them in black and add the teeth-lines, and I did mess up and shape her nose makeup more like a sinus cavity than Skelita's little black rhombus because I only had my Collector's Skelita handy, and she's got hell's own nose rub.
So, things I did 'wrong' here: all my paint is straight from the bottle, and so is my sealer. I should probably have used a more matte sealer, but I'm not as bothered as I could be, and if it bothers me in the future, that's a good reason to fix her nose and her head-butterfly. I didn't have my reference right in front of me. And I didn't start with a top-quality doll-- Bonita has a slight case of wonk-eye and her hairline is far from perfect, even with me filling it out with a few knot-method strands.
Also I wish I'd grabbed Viperine's makeup kit for this pic.
But things I'm really proud of: I did her all in one sitting, using only six colors of acrylic paint. Everything is freehand, I didn't pencil out any plans or anything, just kept leaning over to check my reference pic over my shoulder. I really like how the dots around her eyes turned out, and the flower on her chin (which took two tries, I kept painting it and going "Okay let's do the swirly bits on her forhead" and proceeding to stick my thumb in the flower). Bonita's got really good bone structure for this makeup type-- the grin and the yellow swirlies on her cheeks are as close to symmetrical as they are because she's got such a nice jaw. ... And frankly, starting with a slightly-wonky doll meant that the pressure to be perfectly symmetrical was off. Besides, she's not for sale-- she's mine, freaky flaws and all.
(I'm not as happy with her body shading, the fur went well but I think I need to tone down the bones a little.)
... If Puff ever finishes the series, I'm probably gonna need a second River.
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.
"Welp, Prom 2014 and CreamoDreamo's art made me ship Jackson/Toralei, I guess I need a Toralei doll now."
Or
"... How did Mattel find out about Aerocorn because this Zombie Unicorn looks like her alternate-universe son, I never posted any of that fic because I never finished any of it..."
Or
"Wow, this Puff Pink gal sure makes cute art and whoops now I need Bonita and Wydowna."
And since I've re-written my thoughts about eight times, let's just skip straight to the inspiration and what I did Wednesday night, which was this:
Okay, so, Bonita didn't get a lot of character development in Freaky Fusion (there was too much going on, honestly, which isn't an excuse, it just means they needed a tighter script), but that's okay in that it leaves her wide open for fan characterization-- and Puff Pink did more to develop Bonita than Mattel found time for.
One of the things Puff did was use Skelita to help Bonita get in touch with her Hexican scaritage, and that stuck with me. When I was scouring eBay for a Zombie Shake Purrsephone head, I ran across a lot of four dolls-- ZS Purrsephone, Fusion-Inspired Frankie, Ghouls Night Out Ghoulia, and a wingless, ponytail-holder-less Bonita. I figured, okay, I'll see if I like the Ghoulia (I do, she lives here now), use the Frankie to test some yellowed-hair whitening ideas (an overnight soak in blue fabric softener AND an hour coated in purple brassiness-reducing shampoo don't touch saran hair, more's the pity), and do some paint shading on Bonita's body.
They arrived and I had to re-root Purrsephone's bangs, which had been cut off, and fix up Bonita's hair, because her antennae had come off at some point and been superglued back on. "Hey," I said to myself, as I was also very relieved I had half a skein of RestoreDoll platinum hair sitting around from my Tonner days, "didn't Puff Pink have an antenna issue with her Bonita?"
And despite my baity Bonita's wonky hairline and crooked, glued on antennae and tiny lip rub, I kept thinking about, well, about the interpretation of Bonita that made me go "Dangit, now I need a Bonita."
So I dropped her a line and busted out the paints.
There are a few details I didn't get quite right-- the yellow swirly should cross up over the teeth-smile, and the wings on her forehead-butterfly are a little different than I painted-- but I think I did okay for not having the reference in front of me. The painting desk is halfway across the room from the computer, and I just had my reference image up on the screen since I'm running low on non-black printer ink.
The paint around her eyes is a little thick because-- well, honestly, I was bad and used all my paint straight out of the bottle, but also because I was freehanding and painting over her glitter eyeshadow (which is why I added more glitter, to hide that chunkiness). Yes, it is in fact easier for me to dab tiny drops of paint between individual eyelashes than try to paint eyelashes on my own. Eylashes are hard and I suck at them. I didn't change the color of Bonita's lips, but I did line them in black and add the teeth-lines, and I did mess up and shape her nose makeup more like a sinus cavity than Skelita's little black rhombus because I only had my Collector's Skelita handy, and she's got hell's own nose rub.
So, things I did 'wrong' here: all my paint is straight from the bottle, and so is my sealer. I should probably have used a more matte sealer, but I'm not as bothered as I could be, and if it bothers me in the future, that's a good reason to fix her nose and her head-butterfly. I didn't have my reference right in front of me. And I didn't start with a top-quality doll-- Bonita has a slight case of wonk-eye and her hairline is far from perfect, even with me filling it out with a few knot-method strands.
Also I wish I'd grabbed Viperine's makeup kit for this pic.
But things I'm really proud of: I did her all in one sitting, using only six colors of acrylic paint. Everything is freehand, I didn't pencil out any plans or anything, just kept leaning over to check my reference pic over my shoulder. I really like how the dots around her eyes turned out, and the flower on her chin (which took two tries, I kept painting it and going "Okay let's do the swirly bits on her forhead" and proceeding to stick my thumb in the flower). Bonita's got really good bone structure for this makeup type-- the grin and the yellow swirlies on her cheeks are as close to symmetrical as they are because she's got such a nice jaw. ... And frankly, starting with a slightly-wonky doll meant that the pressure to be perfectly symmetrical was off. Besides, she's not for sale-- she's mine, freaky flaws and all.
(I'm not as happy with her body shading, the fur went well but I think I need to tone down the bones a little.)
... If Puff ever finishes the series, I'm probably gonna need a second River.
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.
