Lip Painting at Puchi Collective

Lip Painting

Get smooth, even lips with a few inexpensive matrials and a little practice.

Tools needed:
liner brush - 18/10 golden taklon
Acrylic Extender (craft-store variety, any brand - also called float or blending medium)
Craft acrylic paint in your choice of colors to be mixed (flat, not gloss)
Interior/exterior craft varnish (gloss, satin, or matte depending on desired result)
pallete or jars for mixing paint
round toothpick
Mix your acrylic paints to achieve the desired color, then add a few drops of extender (approx. 4 parts paint to 1 part extender). paint should be the consistency of buttermilk and pool smoothly after stirring.
Lips are easiest to paint when you remove the body, but it can be done with the body still in place.We recommend painting over factory lips to maintain the shape. If the original lips are damaged or scratched, use your finest grit matting sponge to smooth the affected area, avoiding the “skin.”Begin painting by outlining the lips carefully. take care to maintain sharp points around the bottom lip and mouth corners. if you go outside the outline, do not wipe the wet paint. finish painting the lips and let it dry - you can correct small imperfections later.Create a pool of wet paint in the crease of the lips with a loaded brush, pushing the paint out to meet the edge. The extender keeps the paint “open” so everything blends together smoothly.if the paint is too thin and the original color shows through, wipe it off with a wet tissue. Add more paint to your mixture and start again.
You can gently tap the back of her head on a pad of paper on your work surface to level any brush strokes. If any bubbles remain, lift them out on the tip of your brush and tap again.look at the corner in this example - the slight thickness and texture of the lip paint will slowly flatten as the paint dries.
Let the paint dry. Ignore the dry times on the bottle - the amount of extender you added can require drying times of up to 12 hours. Once they’re dry, examine the edges and check for symmetry (hint: look at her lips in the bathroom mirror). Carefully refine the edges and sharpen the corners with a clean, dry toothpick.if you take away too much, paint a complete second coat on top of the first and let them dry again. If you decide you don’t like the color and want to start over, use warm, soapy water on a Q-tip to remove the paint. If the paint is stubborn, you can quickly wipe her mouth with Rubbing alcohol.
Once you’re satisfied with your paint job, you need to seal them to protect them from scratches and moisture. carefully paint over them with undiluted varnish using the same outlinging + pooling method that we used for the paint. (pooling prevents brushstrokes) Pop any bubbles and allow her to dry on her back at least overnight.
Here are a few samples of stock Blythe lips. Early BL and EBL Blythe lips varied from model to model - the example here is a Love Mission. Even Kenner lip shapes varied slightly from doll to doll. The effects of age give Kenner lips a satiny finish.

17 Responses to “Lip Painting”

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1JltohruSep 17th, 2006 at 10:32 pm

think i’m going to take the plunge… yikes! my first new lips

Thanks for the tutorial, as always
2JltohruSep 20th, 2006 at 2:28 am

alrighty! i’ve tried about 8 - 10 times with varying results.

a few questions if you don’t mind? *blush*

first of all, how easily does excess paint come off the edges of the lips when i finally get a basic shape i’m happy with? (i.e. should i really stop worrying about getting the shape super close to correct during the painting stage)

secondly, i’ve tried a few different acrylics (from high quality which i already had, to wal-mart stuffs) but am still having problems getting it to look smooth without having too much paint. am i merely going too slow? (i’m sure this is a distinct possibility!)

i’m getting better at painting the shape on, but still feel far from my goal.

any advice the Puchicollective gods can impart is much appreciated!
3MelissaSep 20th, 2006 at 8:23 am

Jackie:

1. excess paint comes off very easily when the paint is dry *if* you used the cheap acrylics like the kind shown above. use a toothpick and slowly shape the lips

2. add more extender to your paint. when you stir your paint, if you still see brush swirls, add a drop more until it pools on your pallette. Also, make sure your paint hasn’t expired. old paint will be clumpy or goopy.

3. keep practicing. I used to dread painting lips, but when you don’t put so much pressure on yourself (it washes off, after all), it gets much easier and less nerve wracking!
4JackieSep 20th, 2006 at 8:39 pm

great advice, thanks

i think i’m on my way to wanne-be greatness
5ChristaMar 10th, 2007 at 11:15 pm

WOW! damn i already painted … this tutorial would of helped a lot… well my customed lips are like sbl and kb mixed!
6katsolaApr 6th, 2007 at 8:29 pm

I just got my Aston Drake Blythe, do I follow the same method for freckles? I am already ready to take the plunge and customize her. I thinks she’d look cute with some freckles.
7MelissaApr 6th, 2007 at 8:36 pm

Hi katsola - you can use the same types of paint for freckles - acrylics with extender. try dotting it on with a toothpick.

I’m actually writing a freckle tutorial as we speak
8juliaApr 16th, 2007 at 1:34 pm

After the lips are dry, if you want to repaint a different color later, what’s the best way to remove the paint? Specifically, is there a way to do it w/o removing the original (factory) paint?
9Melissa K.Apr 20th, 2007 at 5:43 am

I have a question about freckles. Do I need to varnish them after I paint them on?
And if so, just a dot on each freckle? I’ve never done this before! Thanks!
10MelissaApr 20th, 2007 at 10:00 am

I would say that it depends on how much you plan on handling her. I don’t seal my freckles because I like them to look as flat to the skin as possible, but you could put a dot of matte varnish (if she’s matted) on each one. you could thin it with extender or thinner if you are worried about it leaving a raised dot.
11MelissaApr 20th, 2007 at 10:07 am

julia - if you haven’t sealed them, very hot water and soap will melt the acrylic paint off. becareful not to get her stock eyelashes wet of course.

if you did already seal it, you can try a quick swipe or two with rubbing alcohol on a q-tip. be warned though that the factory paint may be affected if you wipe too many times or take too long to do it.
12rtyJun 11th, 2007 at 9:27 pm

Thanks a bunch!
13rinchJul 1st, 2007 at 1:39 pm

Thanks so very much for taking your time to create this very useful and informative site.M
14BirdieJul 29th, 2007 at 11:32 am

I was wondering, is nail polish effective? I used it on another doll of mine last week and it seemed to work fine, however I’m too afraid that something harmful might happen if i use it on my blythe doll :
15BirdieJul 29th, 2007 at 11:43 am

Message got cut off . Has anyone tried using nail polish to paint a blythe’s lips? Was it effective? A friend of mine told me that it probably would not be a good idea to do it because it would most likely flake off, though she hasn’t tried it. My other non-blythe doll hasn’t had this problem.
16KatJan 29th, 2008 at 5:01 pm

Hey there! another little tip is that if youre not quite confident yet with painting blythe lips, you can practice with liquid brush eyeliner! just make sure you dont get the waterproof! it comes right off with the toothpick as shown above and dries in about 20 seconds. it comes right off with water too! the brush is abouth the same size, and is the same material too! Thanx!~
17Novelty12Mar 2nd, 2008 at 1:11 pm

Thanks for this! My new custom will have nice new lips!