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Picture of the Week Award ~ January 17, 2010

Posted by KentrunK Saturday, January 16, 2010 0 comments

A classic beauty for this week's Picture of the Week Award is a repainted Scarlett "Return to Tara" doll from the Tonner Doll Co. Her hair has been restyled and the gown is a OOAK creation by Alana Bennett of dollfashionsbyalana.com. The photographer/repainter is Boots Villavecer from the Philippines.

When I find a candidate for the Picture of the Week I always send several questions for the artist to answer. Boots was very generous with his time and response so I am going to paste his response here.

I am no professional so I don't have much equipment. The doll here is a repainted Tonner Scarlett "Return to Tara" doll. The hair has been adjusted. The gown is an OOAK creation by Alana Bennett of dollfashionsbyalana.com. It is inspired by a gown worn in Scarlett the TV series in 1994. It is originally in "blue" but via special effects has been made green -- Margaret Mitchell's favorite color. All factory paint has been removed and I used what I call my special brush from Noel Cruz himself who encouraged me to pursue repainting. Just a Canon Digital Camera IXUS B515 10 Megapixel Camera. I don't use flash, because that creates shadows at the back of the doll. I always use the "portrait" function on the camera and from there, control the exposure because the lights can often be strong. I have 2 table lamps that can be angled as lighting sources. For the backdrop I use large clamps to hold a cloth on the photo. The cloth must slope down have no wrinkles or folds (depending on how the kind of effect you want). If you want some draping soft cloth is preferrable. I don't have a tripod so I have to have a really steady hold on the camera, but that's actually easy with the camera I use.

Thanks to technology, one can fix the photo using Photoshop CS3. I use "dodge" tool to highlight dark shadows; "burn" tool to darken the areas in the background; the "clone" tool to add details, and various tools under the "Filter" tools to create the brush strokes, the additional lighting. The magic is in a Filter tool known as "Liquify". Here you can fix the hair and the gown if there are unwanted or desired things you want to enhance.

My real name is Boots Villavecer, from the Philippines. 44 years old, working as a Creative in an advertising agency. I spent 5 years in Publishing and during free time would practice photo-editing for 13 magazines. Among them being fashion and beauty. My website is: http://www.soultalk777.blogspot.com.

Congratulations, Boots, on the Picture of the Week Award!

Tonner Scarlett: Doll Fashions by Alana Bennett

Posted by KentrunK Monday, May 11, 2009 0 comments

This is one of my favorite gowns by Alana Bennett. Posted earlier (around last year) but now with another re-repainted Scarlett.
Multi-layered tulle edged with lace inspired by the white gown worn by Bette Davis in the film "Jezebel".

"Hustle and Bustle": Doll Fashions by Alana Bennett/Tonner Scarlett OOAK

Posted by KentrunK Monday, May 4, 2009 0 comments

The wonderful experience of an OOAK gown is its journey from concept to final product. Here Alana Bennett wonderfully creates a gown inspired from Victorian photographs of gowns of that era. The bustle can be detached. It has 2 bustles filled with soft material and accented with small rosettes of white in between each bustle. A nice touch by Alana. The sweeping train opens up to a pleated fan at the base of the train. The skirt was hand embroidered by Alana, again using her touch of blue and white floral designs. Alana surprised me here with little insets of beads sewn into the gown. The beads are similar in color to the blue bodice. The bodice has the bell-shaped sleeves with insets of soft lace which gives a perfect accent to the doll's hands. The low V-neckline is fringed with soft blue tulle and accented again with ribbons on the shoulders and a purple rosette at the center embellished with a nice green ribbon. I carefully ironed the dress. This, by the way, is a 4-piece ensemble: 1) Bodice 2) Skirt 3) Bustle train 4) Pink tulle
undergarment to give the skirt volume. This undergarment has been fringed with ruffles and is gartered (I'm not sure how to call it) at the waist.

The doll is a basic Tonner Scarlett. Factory paint has been removed and the face repainted and blushed. I can't say I'm a professional repainter but this repaint makes me happy. I repainted this doll a long time ago and (in the process of learning new stuff about repainting) repainted again. This time, the tearducts (and what arduous task it was to paint them) had been added, brows softened from the harsh lines of before, lower lashes and lower rim of the eyes have also been retouched. The lips is repainted with crimson red acrylic and accented with darker shades on the sides as well as a even darker shade to separate the upper lip from the lower lip. The eyes are the hardest of all I believe. In those are 4 colors of acrylic layered on top of the other to create depth -- I hope! The doll's hair are 4 rolls which have been tied separately then pulled up and trimmed to leave a crown of rolls on the dolls head similar to Scarlett's hairstyle in the end scenes of Gone with the Wind. The hair is set with gel and patted with hairspray.

So, here it is. Finally Alana's dress arrived after 3 weeks of waiting -- or was it a month? Thats the hustle part of it. I hope you all like this little creation. Alana Bennet's site is http://www.dollfashionsbyalana.com She is collaborative and has very reasonable prices. Thank you Alana for making another dress for Scarlett!

Doll Fashions by Alana Bennett: Victorian Bustle Gown - Upcoming

Posted by KentrunK Saturday, April 4, 2009 0 comments

I had Alana Bennett do me another gown for the Tonner Scarlett. With all the costumes going around, I thought I might as well do something unique for the doll.

The dress is a pale blue and white 2-piece day dress or so (I am not sure). A friend sent me some pictures of Edwardian/Victorian gowns. I thought of combining designs to make the gown. I am not sure where she got the pictures. They must be from www. vintagetextile.com Anyhow, here are the pictures and the photo that Alana sent me of the gown -- which I couldn't stop turning into another portrait. She did wonderful embroidery by hand on this gown. So what you see here are derivatives from original pieces. The blue and white ensemble has been revised via photoshop to have lace on its sleeves. I also added a bustle to it. Alana said the bustle was detachable if I so choose to have the dress without it.

Can't wait to have it. In this life, we live for little joys. In Alana, I find more joy to fill up my little joys!

Photos coming soon (when the dress arrives)

DOLL PHOTOGRAPHY: Doll portraitures

Posted by KentrunK Saturday, January 10, 2009 0 comments

My Audrey Hepburn, shot with a mirror behind her, the line that divides mirror and wall was erased via photoshop. Additional shadows where also placed via photoshop. I thought photographing the dress and showing its back would be more appropriate, after all it is a Givenchy-inspired dress.

This is another gown done by Alana Bennett inspired by the TV Series "Scarlett" (Alana gave me additional gloves, hooped skirt, pantalets and a night purse with ribbon, that's how generous she is). The dress is actually blue. I changed the color in photoshop via the "Replace color" function. The background is a draping of multiple layers of tulle. The doll stands on a grey table.

This photo was taken today, beside the window. Here is where available light is used to shoot the subject. I added more light in photoshop thru the "brightness/contrast" tool, as well as enhanced the saturation of the color. Doll's hair has been photoshop-ed to take out flyaways (those little strands).

This is where it all began. I had one yellow light lamp source and nothing more. The Franklin Mint Scarlett has not been retouched. I wanted her seated with an overflow of layers in her gown on the floor. She reflects light very well.

This is my Timeless Treasures Scarlett by Mattel. She also photographs well. Light and shadow fall well on her sculpt. I added some "divine light" there thru photoshop. Notice that the draping of the dress as well as the accessories have been arranged to capture light and shadow.

Doll portraiture seems to be my favorite pastime. Not that I have too many dolls (they are very expensive and can take up so much space) mostly GWTW dolls seem to occupy most of my space and time. I knew for a fact that dolls may not last. Time will tarnish the pristine quality by which we came to first know them. So, by accident, while sick and bored I just snapped a shot of my Franklin Mint Scarlett. I had but one lamp, nightime in my room and the doll. I was surprised how this doll was able to reflect the light well. So I did a little more shots and came up with some interesting photos (in my opinion). From then on, it was a love affair with Scarlett as my favorite model (more so now because I have one which is articulated -- but not so much as to pose her a la Sybarite). Many people ask me about tips about how I shoot dolls, so let me share what I un-professionally know. I hope it will help.

1. PREP THE MODEL: Make sure hair and dress are in place. ?Have a little toothpick to push excess strands out. Fix the fitting of the dress too. Make sure accessories: earrings, necklace and whatever are all in place and complete. It may help to tape the necklace at the back so when you pose the doll, it doesn't move around.

2. HAVE A PEG: I always check glamour shots of Hollywood in the 30's and 50's. Also I research on Vanity Fair Hollywood. Just google it up and you'll find some interesting shots by Annie Liebovitz or Richard Avedon, Steven Meisel of Vogue. BE REALISTIC. When you look for what you want, be sure you're doll can adopt the pose. Make sure you have the background for it too. Do you need drapings for the back? Velvet would be good but make sure it contrasts with the hair and the dress. I use solid colors and drape that with tulle sometimes for drama. But a good solid background is okay.

3.LIGHTING : I have 2 lamps which I can angle well to create the kind of mood for the doll. I also have a board of aluminum foil (foil: smoothened, then stuck to cardboard) to create some reflections. I never use flash when I shoot as it creates harsh shadows which are for me, are not so nice for a glamour shot.

4. CAMERA: Can you believe I originally just used a 3.5 megapixel phone camera. Now I either use an IXUS digital camera or my new phone a Samsung 5 megapixel camera. The IXUS digital camera has a connection to the computer which allows you to view and download/transfer selected shots to your desktop or files. From there you can upload to your favorite site. SHOOTING THE DOLL means knowing her best angles. The Franklin Mint doll photographs very well. Tonner's Scarlett has to be angled to avoid the strong jaw. Shoot the doll like you're shooting a real person. FOLLOW THE RULE OF THIRDS. The Rule of Thirds is a rule that you never shoot the focal point of the photograph in the center. In my photos, I always try to put the face off center.

5. PHOTOSHOP: I learned photoshop when I was in the Publishing industry. I was Creative Director there but during my spare time would practice retouching photos of celebrities and socialites, beauty spreads, fashion spreads and even covers. I would encourage you to get a photoshop program for your computer because you can do a lot of retouching: You can take out backgrounds, put in backgrounds, fix the hair, clean up any little detail so the photo can be as beautiful as you want it to be. I use photoshop tools very minimally specifically, the "clone" tool, the airbrush tool, the liquify tool (ahhh many a skirts where fixed with that, waists made smaller too), and the filter tools: paint daubs, film grain, sketch, etc. You'll learn as you discover it one by one thru trial and error.

Well that's all for now. Happy doll photoshoots to you all!

Doll fashions by Alana Bennett: Jezebel Gown Recreated

Posted by KentrunK Friday, January 2, 2009 0 comments

I have always been enchanted by the virginal white gown worn by Bette Davis in her Southern movie, Jezebel. Its voluminous layered skirt edged with lace detail creates a cloud on which the bodice stands, fluttery shoulders of lace move down the front. I thought this a nice gown for Tonner Scarlett which I had just recently attempted to repaint. My best bet was one who loved GWTW dolls, enjoyed sewing and had the patience for detail. And so I found myself approaching Alana Bennett (www.dollfashionsbyalana.com). What you see are her re-creations of the Jezebel white gown. The layers are not as much but what is important is it captures the look of the dress. This is also my first repaint -- my first attempt. I repainted on the existing factory paint of the Tonner Scarlett doll. I had no 20/0 brush and no magnifying lamp. An very tedious task indeed. Doll in between legs, magnifying glass in one hand, paintbrush (the smallest available) was how the repaint was done. After this doll, I think I found the gumption to proceed with a complete erasure of factory paint on my next Scarlett doll. It was daunting considering the dolls are pricey. It was also very enriching, as you discover the process of repainting -- thru hit and miss. Well, here she is, The Jezebel White Gown by Alana Bennett! Enjoy the pictures.

DOLL PORTRAITS: Tonner Gone with the Wind Scarlett O' Hara doll Repainted

Posted by KentrunK Sunday, December 28, 2008 0 comments

The white gown you see in the previous posts worn by the Tonner Scarlett doll is inspired by the Bette Davis movie "Jezebel" and was recreated by Alana Bennett (www. dollfashionsbyalana.com). Alana is a talented doll seamstress who has done fashions from Gone with the Wind, Titanic and whatever you can possible think of.

The blue lace gown is another piece done by Alana. We thought of doing this gown from the TV Series "Scarlett". She not only added the gloves, she gave me pantalets, hooped skirt and a nice night purse to go with this outfit.

The Pink ensemble is the "Trip to Saratoga" outfit by Tonner worn by the doll which has been repainted. The purple dress is Tonner's "In the Mist" doll for their GWTW collection. I thought of putting the doll against the sad backdrop of Tara.

Hope you enjoy the photos!

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