I have been reborning for approximately 3 years, not sure how many dolls I’ve made in that time.
I’m guessing around 40.
I still don’t feel as if I’m very good at it and am thinking of giving it up. Obviously I have improved from the 1st one I ever made, although I can’t help but feel I should have improved more.
My question to all you talented ladies is how long have you been reborning for? How long do you think it took until you made a baby you thought was realistic?
Over 15 years.
I was doing this when Bountiful baby had the original forum. Lol.
I STILL improve with each baby. An artist never stops learning.
Post some pictures. I would love to see your work. X
Thank you, oh you’ve been doing this for quite some time lol. Here are some pictures of my latest dolls. Most recent starting from the 3rd picture .
xxCuties.
My question is. What do you want out of this art? Your dolls aren’t badly done. I will say they look a little…flat. To me. They need more varied tones. When doing a reborn you want to kind of exaggerate things. Blue. Purple. Ect
But you can improve. You have a great starting point.
But my question is. What do you want? Do you want to be a prototype quality artist. Do you just want to make pretty babies?
So many people think they can jump into this and make gorgeous babies from the start. But you have to pay your dues. As it were.
And ask yourself if you are willing to take the time to improve or if reborning is just not that important to you.
Your babies are cute. You can do it if you want to. 
Thank you, I normally do 3 or 4 mottling layers. I’ve found in the past when I’ve done more the baby looked over painted? I hope that makes sense.
I still struggle with creasing. I think I should have mastered it by now but I find it really hard. I’ve watched lots of reborn tutorials on YouTube x
I want to learn to paint better. I would like more realism but I don’t know how to get there if that makes sense?
I mainly do washes and flesh layers, mottling and blushing. I totally agree they look flat… I have tried adding more layers but then I feel like it looks over painted. I strip it all off and start again.
I completely understand the art of reborning takes a long time to master. I could never learn to get to prototype standard. I would love my babies to have more realism though x
Can I see some of your babies please? xx
I agree with maybe adding more blue and purple to create depth! And maybe even more blushing and mottling? What kind of skin layers are you doin? I think your dolls look good! You could also try switching up what colors you use for some layers?
I’ve been an artist for 7 years and my painting is ever changing! Each doll I paint with slightly different colors
They are all beautiful they look so real looking. Can you recommend any YouTube videos? Or do I need to figure it out for myself lol?
For instance when I do mottling if I make it darker and more pronounced I think it looks to exaggerated. If I make it lighter I think it lacks realism. When I do blue shading I’m never sure if it’s to blue or not enough.
I’m sure if I keep practising I will get better, at least I hope so lol
Thank you, I vary the skin colours, sometimes a mix of 08, 06 and a little yellow. Or brow brown plus a little yellow. I’ve also used the primary method which I think looks quite nice. I normally stick to 3 mottling colours, Blue, purple and red. Can I see some of your babies please?
I’ve been painting dolls for several years now and am never satisfied either. I okay with never being a prototype artist, but always experiment in an attempt to improve. Sometimes I want to try something so badly that I can’t wait to finish the baby I’m working on in order to conduct my experiment!
Have you seen Kim at customdollbaby’s reborn with me videos on YouTube? Excellent place to start.
My mottling colors are all over the place, so are washes. I don’t think I used flesh tones on any of these. Most had around 5 mottling colors, but Joseph had more. I will sometimes do multiple layers of the pinker mottles and hit the bigger creases at the same time to soften them up so it’s not like skin color straight to loud crease. Undertones are done early and I add to it later if I need to.
Thank you, I feel exactly the same I want to get better. Yes I’ve watched custom doll baby she is very good. I think part of my problem is confidence to experiment with different colours. I tend to stick with pretty much the same colours for mottling and blushing ect. I am definitely going to get more adventurous x
I mix my flesh colors with red blue yellow and white
Aww there beautiful. Love your Levi, its one of my favourite sculpts. Yes I’ve added red and yellow in my flesh layers. The last time I added red though I think I added to much. I find the white goes chalky if I add any. Perhaps I put to much in xx
Pretty sure I’ve never added blue to my flesh layers. What blushing colours do you use?
I absolutely adore your work, Jayk.
I use red blue and yellow to make a flesh color so I can control the color better than using a brown or a premixed flesh 
Levi is my favorite too! I’ve made at least 10! My blushing colors is BB’a light red color mixed with a little bit of white to be a link color, I do a few thin layers of that and then do a little bit darker mix of the red
I’ve never mixed the primary colours together to make an earth colour. I have repeated layers of the primary colours though, I got a nice skin tone for Fei Yen using that method.
I normally use the premixed lip blush and nail for my blushing colour x
Thank you.
To be honest. I’ve never even looked at a tutorial. I started back when we took dolls from Wal-Mart. Stripped them. And painted them with stencil cream paint.
Then I graduated to Genesis. Lol.
To be fair tho. I’m artistic by nature. I’ve done candle making. Sculpting. Plaster sculpting. Canvas painting. I.have cast things in plaster and painted them. Ive done fabric painting. Latch hook rugs. Ceramics. Ect.
What you need to do is just play with it. Get a test head and just play with color. That’s how I learned what worked best for me. Dont be afraid. Just play with it.
You can do it.
