Lovely Patsy Veterinary Set Makeover

Lovely Patsy Veterinary Set

After sharing photos of my Lovely Patsy Chef with members of my doll group and mentioning that the doll reminded me of someone, one member commented that the doll reminds her of Michelle Obama. I agreed, but the chef has brown hair.   Because of the nose shape, I also now see Karyn Parsons of Fresh Prince fame in the chef.

To possibly transform the doll into Michelle Obama, I visited a different Family Dollar and purchased Veterinary Lovely Patsy because of her black hair.  Intentions were to change the doll's eyes and restyle the hair. This would be my first complete eye makeover. Scary idea it was, but with a five-dollar doll, I only had that much to lose.

Before sharing the process, I took photos to illustrate her original hairstyle and sparsely rooted hair.

Original hairstyle: two side sections pulled up into a ponytail, the mid section of which is attached to the lower section by a rubber band to create a second ponytail. 

Before removing the lower rubber band, the rooting was examined.

She can wear her hair down to cover the bald spots or in a ponytail.  An inch trim of the ends made them even.

The Eye Repaint:

The original eye paint was removed with fingernail polish remover.  A smaller area for the eyes was next painted with ivory acrylic paint.

With black acrylic paint, a circle was drawn in the center of the eyes and a dot added to the center of the circle with the same black paint.  Next, the iris was colored in with a dark brown color pencil.  I avoided the use of paint to darken this tiny area because getting the paint in the desired area would be too tasking.  The eyes were lined with a thin layer of black paint and full upper and partial lower eyelashes painted in.  I used a combination of a toothpick and the tip of a sewing needle dipped in paint to line the eyes and add the eyelashes.  The strokes are still wider than I desire.  With the proper tools, a cleaner look could have been achieved.  The eyebrows were also painted over with black paint, again using a toothpick.  I was going to stop with the above image on the right, but her eyes were missing depth.

The irises were widened with additional black acrylic paint and the glimmer in her eyes created with additional ivory paint added to the upper right corner of each iris.  The eye color was sealed with matte varnish.  I did not apply varnish to the eyebrows.  There was a small dot of discoloration on the side of her right eye that I colored in with black paint to create a beauty mark or mole.

She doesn't look like Michelle Obama, but...

...her eyes look much better and more realistic (for my first attempt) than they did before.


What to Wear:

She definitely needed an upgrade in her original clothing.  First she tried on a blue Barbie ensemble and settled on another Barbie fashion as illustrated below.

This short blue dress shows too much of her super thin legs.

She looks better in this slightly longer red dress, which I accented with a sheer ribbon to create a shawl wrap.

As a final touch, her ears were pierced.

The next time I repaint eyes, I will have a better understanding of the process and use better painting tools to achieve an even more realistic-looking eye.

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Before even attempting this repaint, I studied the diagram of hand drawing eyes shown here and viewed the following video.  Neither was followed precisely, but both gave me the necessary information needed to proceed.



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