The World of Doll Repainting

The World of Doll Repainting

Christina Grba, Contributor

Doll repainting, (or doll customizing), is a hobby/career that people all over the globe enjoy. Doll customizers buy used dolls,(or they use their old ones), and they completely change them. For example, let’s say you take an old monster high doll, cut off all her hair, replace the old hair with new hair, remove the factory paint with acetone, and repaint the face in your own unique style, creating an entirely new doll. That’s the basic description of doll customizing, but there’s so much more to it. Artists such as Youtubers Dollightful, Moonlight Jewel, and Poppen Atelier get old dolls and turn them into a popular cartoon character, a celebrity, or a character that they created themselves. For example, 2 months ago, the Youtuber Dollightful created a Goatman custom doll for Halloween. This doll had insane body modifications done to it. Dollightful resculpted the Goatman’s face, painted his body, modified his legs, and created everything from the fur on his body to the mask with LED lights on his head.

An image of Dollightful’s Goatman doll custom

I first came across this art form when I was scrolling through Youtube back in 2016. The first doll customizing YouTuber I ever watched was Hextian. I watched his Teen Titans Starfire doll repaint. I saw how he took a standard Ever After High doll and turned it into something beautiful. After that, I started binging doll repainting videos and eventually got completely sucked into that world. I saw the many different styles of repainting and I saw the wonderful creations that came out of all the artists’ hard work. I’ve seen Naruto doll repaints, Steven Universe doll repaints, BTS doll repaints and so many different kinds of characters. I eventually got into the hobby and experienced for myself the hard work and creativity that goes into doll customizing.

A picture of Hextian’s Starfire doll repaint

Depending on how big the doll is or how many details you want to add, the doll can take 2 weeks to 2 months to finish. Its a lot of work and it always helps to sketch out the design you’re going for before you start customizing. I’m going to end the article now before I start rambling, but doll repainting is an amazing art form. I’ll put the links to all the customizers I mentioned below, along with the link to the videos. I also recommend you visit these channels if you want a more in-depth explanation of doll customizing. They’re all very talented and I definitely think you should check them out.

Google|Dollightful

Google|Hextian

Google|Poppen Atelier

Google|Moonlight Jewel

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