My Lovely Lagoona Blue

Lagoona in progress... some shading

Customizing my first Monster High doll was so much fun that I just couldn't stop working on her throughout the weekend. I sat and carefully colored small areas with pastel and colored pencil, slowly building up the colors and shading... then putting her down for a while... staring at her... then picking her back up for more.

I spent some time online browsing images of customized MH dolls, especially Lagoona Blues, to see what details I liked the most... and made mental notes on how I wanted my Lagoona's face to look.

I eventually decided to keep her look very serene by keeping the lines and colors a bit soft, with blended shades of blues, greens and black. I'm not quite ready to tackle a re-root, so I wanted to keep the colors in the yellow/green/blue range to go with her hair.I also opted for adding back in her freckles and additional texturing along her hairline to help add to the undersea creature look.

After spray matting her body, I added some freckles and bluish blushing to her upper body. I also painted her nails black and teal, with some shading on the knuckles. Her belly button got some attention and more of the spotty texture was added to her belly. The final step to customizing her body was to add small aqua blue nipples and some shading under her breasts. It's funny, because years ago when I first got into Blythe dolls, I found painted nipples to be a bit disturbing and just didn't "get it" at all... but somehow these MH dolls seem older than Blythes (who always look very young to me, no matter how they're dressed and made up) so it just makes sense to me now.

After adding white acrylic highlights to her eyes I gave her a final coat of MSC Matte. I knew I wanted her to have some natural highlights on her upper cheeks and in the arches of her eye brows, so after glossing her eyes and lips I added just a touch of gloss to those areas as well so that the light will hit and give true highlights.

Now she's all done... just waiting for me to create some sort of clothing... perhaps something whispy and light that will still show off her belly. Overall, I'm in love with my new doll. I had so much fun customizing her that I literally cannot wait to do more!

I Took the Monster High Plunge

Lagoona Blue (Dance Class) BEFORE

Ever since the Monster High dolls came out I've pined over them, but held back because I'm a Blyther and previous attempts at collecting other dolls (i.e. Pullips) just didn't do it for me. BUT after obsessing over amazing custom MH work over the last few weeks I finally gave into the urge and got myself a lovely little Lagoona Blue (Dance Class version)... and I love her!

As soon as I got her deboxed, I stripped away the clothing and started imagining what kind of customizing I'd like to do... that was yesterday. Before the end of the night I had already wiped her makeup away and given her two hair washes. Today I got out the MSC and started working on her with chalk pastels, colored pencils and acrylic paint.

I've decided to make her eyes just about halfway open, looking to her left... slightly sad, but very soft and whimsical. I'm also considering some individual pieces of teal glitter here and there as shiny aquatic accents, but not totally sure on that yet.

Lagoona's stock paint mostly wiped away

So far I'm really having fun with this new doll and can't wait to get my hands on more of them. I will always love Blythe, but I can only customize my girls so much - and I definitely can't afford to keep buying more. Monster High girls are so much more affordable and I really love how each character has a different face shape, different features and of course the various fantasy skintones.

My Lagoona isn't done yet - these are pics of her progress so far and of course I will be posting more as I go!

Ready for her first spray-matting with MSC!

Commission for a Friend

I'm so excited and I wish I could post photos, but the custom doll I'm having commissioned for a friend is total surprise and she doesn't have any idea it's being done. What I CAN say is that it's a Monster High doll, so if she reads this I think she'll suspect it's for her.

I stumbled onto a wonderfully talented MH customizer who just happens to be a Blyther as well - so as soon as the doll is done and sent, I'll be sure to post pics and info as well as links to this awesome artist's ETSY and website!

Even though I'm a Blythe-only kind of dolly girl, I'm becoming more and more interested in the MH dolls - especially the amazing customs out there. They're SO much more affordable than Blythe dolls, so I'm toying with the idea of getting a used one to try customizing myself. I love their cute bodies and wonder if anyone's managed to get a Blythe head to work on an MH body? Of course the skin colors are completely different than the more natural tones of Blythe.

Anyways - the special little MH custom is just about done and after she gets here (and I have myself a quick little photoshoot) she'll be shipped overseas to her new mum. Then I'll finally be able to post pics! I can't wait!!