I have a little concern issue with a lot of sculpted vinyl reborn kits. My concern is, aren’t reborn dolls are supposed to have every feature real babies have? Most sculpted reborn doll kit or reborn dolls in general don’t have the sculpted fontanel (Soft Spot). But I know Bountiful Baby’s realborns kits have them because they are scan from real babies as well Laura Lee Eagles, Bonnie Brown, etc kits. My whole point of this topic is that reborn dolls and kits are suppose to look real babies and they should pretty much have everything like every features real babies have. When I get reborn kits I always want very realistic details on the kit especially like realistic skull structure on the head like soft spots. I think that’s what most reborn kit sculptors are mostly missing is the soft spots.
There are all different kinds of kits. Some are very realistic with a ton of details like the Realborns and Cindy Muscgroves babies. Some have less detail but have really interesting expressions, open mouths, teeth, smiles. Some are a little or very dolly-esque meaning the emphasis is on cute rather than real. There are also a lot of older sculpts that were made by artists a long time ago who may have been just learning.
So many people like different things. A lot of vintage style artists like a more dolly doll. There are some collectors who don’t like severe expressions or babies that look a little too real. We are all a mixed bag.
You can also do a lot with shading to make up for missing detail.
True, Gabriell. As for myself, I think it is best for me not to try too a very, very detailed baby. As a beginner, I think it is best for myself, anyway, to get the major things down and then move on to the more realistic ones. But, as you say, we are a very mixed bag.
I actually sometimes enjoy doing older kits without detail because it’s challenging to make them look realistic. It pushes me to work harder with shading and other details.
Right on with the hands and feet. Can’t shade them into the proper size.
When I was first starting a few months ago, @Sony72 and others said to jump on in. That I’d get more experience with the detailed babies than only working with the simpler kits. It’s up to you, but the water is fine at the deep end!
as a toddler artist, I use the heads with limbs I love, and throw away bad limbs (MacPhearsons sell the limb packs for 50.00, worth their weight in gold, IMO) I refuse to reborn or sell a doll with ugly limbs LOL
I am doing Juliana by Ping Lau with Kenzie’s limbs. I am not a fan of her original soft vinyl arms and legs. I use GHSP and they don’t take paint well for me. The head is harder.
