Papier Mache Repaint

This is an updated post - I found an image from this post on Pinterest, which did not lead to my site but to a spammy site that had copied my image... so I thought I would explain a bit more about the process and put in a new graphic.  I had painted this poor dollie head about 5 times.  Here she is in the state she came to me....this is NOT my painting...

OR

I felt obligated to help her.
I knew she could be better than the way she arrived at my house.
Below is what she looked like finished (she's been sold).

I got this papier mache head in a trade

from a doll collecting friend. She had been repainted.
I decided to try repainting her myself.
I sanded the head, and then applied Fresh Start Primer.

She had an orange peel texture which I did not want to remove.
So I did many coats of the fresh start primer to level out the surface.

This was one of the first repaints.

I didn't like her worried look,
so I gessoed over her again.

Gessoed/primed again.

And here is where she has ended up after several tries.

I thought I was done
and actually WISH I had stopped here!

On the right is her little sister.
I couldn't resist trying to add a thing here or there
and then she went back to blank.

and finally here...


Even if she's not perfect,
she's better than she was!