It was time to prepare Nareen for her new make-up and her body tattoos.
I dipped the sandpaper into a glass of water from time to time and sanded down the body, ears and face. This left grey stains on the doll so I had to wash it several times to see where more work was still needed.
The arms and legs now match the soft matte body much better.

Nero's last day has come... I'm a bit sad.
But it's for a good cause.

One of her cheeks gave me trouble. There were blotches of the old rouge that I just couldn't get rid of, but I kept sanding and sanding until it was better. Today it was so damn dark that I had to use a table lamp all day long to see anything. I am very afraid of all the stains and flaws that I couldn't see in the bad light. Lately there isn't any other weather than that though and I can't put the doll away until next summer!

Here's another photo taken directly beside the window. As far as I can see the face was okay by then.
I left on most of the old eye lashes and some of the old eyebrows to have a template.

First I took a black pastel chalk and scraped away some of it with a knife.
The eye makeup was made with a cotton swab because my cosmetics swab broke right away. -_- I will have to buy a new one to finish it.
The lips were also made with pastel dust. Here I used a brush and a bit of water to create a layer of black that is slightly translucent.

For the eye lashes and eye brows I used black acrylic paint. I also used it to paint some lines on the lower lip and to give the upper lip a deeper shade.

Her cheeks were toned with dust from a light flesh-tone colour pencil. I scraped it off with a knife and just used my finger to rub it lightly on her face.
The lips still need some finetuning because they're not symmetrical, and of course I'll have to finish the eye makeup. I really, really hope there will be a day with some decent sunlight soon so I can check for any stains that went unnoticed before the face gets a layer of matt varnish.

On a sidenote I ordered the wig today.

At last, a decent picture of the finished head. Today it was sunny so I got up early and finished the face.
I worked some more on the eyelashes and made them even longer, also put black on all of her eyelids. There's a hint of gold wax on her lids. The mouth was enhanced with some light gray to make it shiny and her cheeks are nicely pink now. The only thing that gave me trouble is the black eyeshadow. I don't know how often I had to sand it away again.

(Note from 2013: If you want to it right then first give the head a coat of Mr. Super Clear so the new paint - especially pastels - stick better. Later on you can seal the face between important steps. If you mess up afterwards you can wash off the pastels again without destroying everything you have achieved so far. Also, if a pastel colour isn't intense enough you can seal the face and add another layer of pastel on top for more pigments.)

As a last step I used a knife to fix the colour in the corners of her mouth. Then the head was coated with a layer of matt varnish.
Now I just wait for the new eyelashes to arrive, then the head can be completely assembled with eyes and everything.

Now it was time to take care of Nareen's tattoos.
After rummaging through my equipment I decided to try liquid frisket. This is rubber-like stuff that is usually used on water colour pictures to mask areas of paper, protecting them from taking on colour. It can be rubbed off with a finger when it's not needed anymore. With an old brush and with some pictures from the galleries as reference I painted thick outlines for all the tattoos.

At first I try to fill the tattoos with colour pencil shavings. It doesn't work. The cotton swab is too thick and spreads pigment outside the outlines. A brush with a little bit of water works better but the pigments are irregular and grainy. The edge of a paper tissue is too hard and rubs the mask off.

I give up on the colour pencils and take out the acrylic paints.
For the bird I use a bit of ivory and turquoise with a hint of flesh tone. For the pink tattoos I create a mix of crimson, flesh and ivory. The colours had to be thinned down with water to create a nice, smooth effect. Then I let it dry for 15 minutes.