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).

The small black doll is made by Jackie of Plain-n-Simple 

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!