Yet Another TBLeague Body Pale Repaint Experiment: updated with Part II (2.0)

Gub job!

And Christiano lost his shirt again.

Yeah, this is the most disappointing thing about TBLeague bodies, I hate how "gray" the suntan looks and they need to expand the skin tone lineup. I've been curious to try this but am still worried the the oils will ruin any clothing I try to put on the bodies.

Diana wrote:He looks great! Having another go at this was definitely worth it!

Thank you very much, I'm glad you liked it. I'm happier with this result, and applied an extra layer of salmon pink to version 1.0, to improve it (not shown, since these photos were for comparison between them).

skywalkersaga wrote:Yeah, what you did this time around seems to have worked a lot better is more convincing as a flesh tone. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you very much, I thought so too.

Ovy wrote:Gub job! And Christiano lost his shirt again.

Is that a thing, does he do that a lot? And thank you very much!

Kitsune1000 wrote:Yeah,  this is the most disappointing thing about TBLeague bodies,  I hate how "gray"  the suntan looks and they need to expand the skin tone lineup.   I've been curious to try this but am still worried the the oils will ruin any clothing I try to put on the bodies.

Have you seen the M30, their first male seamless body? That was quite gray by comparison. The later ones are more natural, although their "suntan" is actually quite dark, especially compared to their female suntan, which is quite pale (though obviously not quite as pale as their pale). They really ought to have more color options for both male and female figures. Do read through the various posts on the painting seamless bodies thread in the Tutorials section -- this and the gundam real paint markers are my favorite approaches, but they have limitations (limited blending potential, especially with the markers -- supposedly there are ways around it, but too complicated for me to try). Anyway, if you did your job rubbing in the oil pastels with the cosmetic sponge, and then washing off the excess (light wash with soap and water), and tested it (both to have no color transfer and checking if any spot on the body requires more oil pastel application), you ought to be fine. The "black" bodies I did when I was trying this first transferred color just a little bit to tight fitting elastic band areas of the boxing shorts (which is a very snug fit with a lot of friction involved), but it was partly because of my lack of patience in washing, applying oil pastel, and washing again. Patience is not one of my many virtues. Still, if you do it right, it should not be a problem.

Looks great to GTF! Really good coverage.

shovelchop81 wrote: Looks great to GTF! Really good coverage.

Thank you very much, Alex, I'm glad you liked it. Even better coverage yourself with that Uruk-Hai body. As you requested, I transferred the relevant photos and notes to the Painting seamless body thread in the Tutorials section. Splitting up posts and integrating them in another thread is next to impossible (unless I'm overlooking some part of the solution), so I had to do it as a "quotation" from you (but it appears as if posted by me, unfortunately; all credit given tho).

Very nice improvement, GF! It is really encouraging how well these bodies take up paint. Given the ongoing problems of matching head and body color, this really expands our toolset.

Thanks for sharing.

GubernatorFan wrote:

shovelchop81 wrote: Looks great to GTF! Really good coverage.

Thank you very much, Alex, I'm glad you liked it. Even better coverage yourself with that Uruk-Hai body. As you requested, I transferred the relevant photos and notes to the Painting seamless body thread in the Tutorials section. Splitting up posts and integrating them in another thread is next to impossible (unless I'm overlooking some part of the solution), so I had to do it as a "quotation" from you (but it appears as if posted by me, unfortunately; all credit given tho).

LOL! Cheers! I didn't think the pics would move, I know they don't with copy or cut and paste.

GubernatorFan wrote:

shovelchop81 wrote: Looks great to GTF! Really good coverage.

Thank you very much, Alex, I'm glad you liked it. Even better coverage yourself with that Uruk-Hai body. As you requested, I transferred the relevant photos and notes to the Painting seamless body thread in the Tutorials section. Splitting up posts and integrating them in another thread is next to impossible (unless I'm overlooking some part of the solution), so I had to do it as a "quotation" from you (but it appears as if posted by me, unfortunately; all credit given tho).

Just noticed my stuff is still on your thread please feel free to delete it all, wait do I have to do it? Okay done it, I'm being a bit dense today!

Randam Hajile wrote:Very nice improvement, GF! It is really encouraging how well these bodies take up paint. Given the ongoing problems of matching head and body color, this really expands our toolset. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you very much. I'm glad it's helpful. We're all learning from each other, continually.

shovelchop81 wrote:LOL! Cheers! I didn't think the pics would move, I know they don't with copy or cut and paste.

No problems. Once you are in quote or -- for moderators -- edit mode, copy and paste works. The difficulty is to split a post in two, or to move it into a specific thread -- although one can make a post a separate thread or move a thread to another section of a forum (for example, from General Talk to Tutorials or Photo Stories, etc.).

shovelchop81 wrote:Just noticed my stuff is still on your thread please feel free to delete it all, wait do I have to do it?

Well, I didn't mind it, but yes, I forgot to delete it here. Now it is just in the Painting seamless bodies thread post.

The 2.0 body does look more natural, but 1.0 matches the head used. Both look good for matching their respective heads. (Now I’m tempted to try to match a body to go with the darker of my wife’s mini-me head that the custom painter did for me (interestingly, he didn’t want to paint the head to match the TBL Suntan that I sent him, because he felt it was too grey and unrealistic — which is why it of course doesn’t match any of the bodies that I have).

Stryker2011 wrote:The 2.0 body does look more natural, but 1.0 matches the head used. Both look good for matching their respective heads. (Now I’m tempted to try to match a body to go with the darker of my wife’s mini-me head that the custom painter did for me (interestingly, he didn’t want to paint the head to match the TBL Suntan that I sent him, because he felt it was too grey and unrealistic — which is why it of course doesn’t match any of the bodies that I have).

Thank you. Admittedly, I was using the different heads as reference, so no wonder the outcome is a bit different. But the first body, especially when properly powdered, ended up a bit too light in my opinion. Now I may have fixed it, but still a bit different from the second. I'd be interested to see how that goes. Do experiment with a single pastel color first, if you can -- you might get lucky. And remember the protective powder makes things look ever so slightly paler. Have you given some thought what body might go with the Naomie Harris head sculpt? If left bold, perhaps an S25B might work, but if hair is added maybe something bigger. S23B? Whatever Knight of Fire is? Of course, they would have to be repainted.

Thanks so much for detailing your successful experiment. This is gonna be really useful to me. I'm gonna try to get the same oil pastels you posted here, as soon as I find it on an asian store that ships to my country. The abusive taxes from US imports make the final pricing astronomical, just prohibitive.

When comparing Version 1 with Version 2 the first one looks kind of chalky.

FreakinLobster wrote:Thanks so much for detailing your successful experiment. This is gonna be really useful to me. I'm gonna try to get the same oil pastels you posted here, as soon as I find it on an asian store that ships to my country. The abusive taxes from US imports make the final pricing astronomical, just prohibitive.

Thank you very much, glad you liked it. And that it will be useful. Also remember to check the Painting seamless bodies topic in the Tutorials section for other oil-pastel-colored TBLeague bodies (usually for African figures, but also sci-fi ones like Darth Maul and Yondu; also did an olive green body for Gamora, but it may be in other threads). I think any oil pastels (that are not marketed as water soluble) should work, but if you found this package for sale you will know exactly what you will get. I'm not sure whether the colors are named the same -- and whether the same names designate the exact same color across different products. They seem to be a little harder than the Staedtler ones, so be careful with the application; if you feel you need to do so, heat up the pastel stick before applying, and again as needed. If you are working on a TBLeague body, generally you can afford to be fairly brave with the pastel and the make up sponge; with Jiaou ones the surface is very fragile, you might end up with a visible scar.

Theboo-bomb wrote:When comparing Version 1 with Version 2 the first one looks kind of  chalky.

I agree completely. Admittedly, I was trying to match slightly different head sculpts. Also, version 1.0 was the result of trying to blend three different colors, in which the lightest and coolest color went on first and is perhaps the most prominent. It ended up a bit too light or chalky for my taste, especially after applying the protective powder. I have since tried to mitigate this a little bit with more application of salmon pink -- which is the only color I used on version 2.0, but at the same time still aiming at a slightly lighter body to match the reference head sculpt. That said, I'm not wedded to either head sculpt, and the experiment wasn't designed specifically for them.

The body I dyed in the Tutorial thread (the Royal Defender body — I believe is the S23B) is the one the head was specifically made for, but I imagine you could use whichever one you want as long as it isn’t too small.

Stryker2011 wrote:The body I dyed in the Tutorial thread (the Royal Defender body — I believe is the S23B) is the one the head was specifically made for, but I imagine you could use whichever one you want as long as it isn’t too small.

Thanks for the advice. I have a spare one of those to color, and it makes sense, given the actress' physique. I just happened to have an S25B and the bigger-breasted Knight of Fire ones handy, so when I tried the head on them, it left me wondering which (if either) was ideal. But I was already thinking of giving S23B a try, after I looked up more photos of the actress.

Well, I was going for a more muscular look since the character I’m making with it is a “Fighter,” so I wanted the head to be appropriately scaled for a muscular physique.

Version 2 Looks great! How well does pastel hold up to handling? Do you have to be careful so that the new color doesn't rub off or smudge all over the place?

Brilliant work Ian!

Stryker2011 wrote:Well, I was going for a more muscular look since the character I’m making with it is a “Fighter,” so I wanted the head to be appropriately scaled for a muscular physique.

It makes sense. But I think it also tends to match fairly closely the actor's physique, except for being glamazon tall.

csyeung wrote:Version 2 Looks great! How well does pastel hold up to handling? Do you have to be careful so that the new color doesn't rub off or smudge all over the place?

Thank you very much, Craig, I'm glad you liked it. It holds up just fine, provided one has rubbed it in properly with the make up sponge and given it a gentle wash after that to get rid of any loose stuff. You can test to see it does not transfer (a give away is seeing a little bit of color in the water when you wash it). Once you powder it up, it feels just like the original powdered up body. Tight fitting clothing that rubs against the surface naturally has a greater chance for color transfer -- in principle. But normally that is minimal or non-existent if you have done it properly.

BAMComix wrote:Brilliant work Ian!

Thank you very much, Dal, I'm glad you liked it.