First of all, you have to remember that the danger when you make pixel shading is that you can't smudge things. You can make an illusion of smudge thoug. The point is to make gradient of colors. For that and for creating your own blush or eyeshadow palettes the best thing to begin is to use a program as photoshop. I know photoshop costs a real fortune. That's why you can search for a program on internet. There are millions of them! In my case, I use Serif Photo Plus 6.0. There's a link at the bottom of the page to the site where you can download it for free.


To make those palette just use the airbrush tool, reduce the pressure, choose a color of blush for example and click on the face of the doll you have copied and pasted there. If you like the color, it's perfect. If not, there's our best friend named Cancel! Just try agian changing the color or the pressure. Then, copy this doll piece with the color spot you like and paste it on your paint page. Take the color pickup tool in paint and select the colors to make yourself a gradient palette. Easy right :D


Now that you know how to make the palettes you need you can start your face editing

The first thing you have to do is to make the skin. If you are new at dolling then start with a normal pale skin color. My favorite skin color palette for beginners is the normal color of Moe's bases at DHF. The one I'm using for this tutorial looks pretty similar.

This is the face I'll be using for the Tutorial. It's the one I use the more often on my dollz. It comes for Fainelloth Dolls.

What you need for now is the color palette you want to put for her skin. You'll need 5 colors for DHF and Fainelloth's bases but don't forget to look at this before making your palette. If you want to try with other colors, I have skin colors palettes you can use.

Now instead of losing your time changing all the little pixels for the right color and having the possibility to make mistakes I'll show you an easy technique.

First, click on the color pickup tool. Then click left on the darkest color of the original base. Second, still using the color pickup tool, click right on the darkest color of your palette. Your color selection should look like the one above.

Now select the eraser tool. It is suposed to be the color of your palette's darkest shade. Then click RIGHT *Don't forget to click right, if not it won't work* on your base and make as if you were erasing but still clicking right. The color of the base is suposed to change for the color of your palette when the eraser passes.

Do the same thing for the other colors simply changing the colors with the color pickup tool.

Make yourself a palette for the lips color. A good thing is to make a page of a skin color with your Photoshop-like program and just make a spot of color with the airbrush tool but with a good pressure (75% for example). The last color of your palette has o be very pale compared with the other colors. This will be your blush color.

Now make the blush. Even if you want to make a girl looking natural, the blush is good to use. It gives a look to the doll. It's little details like that that make all the difference. Just put some smal lines of the last color of your palette folowing the face shape.

Now, using the darkest color of your palette, draw the lips. All of them. Using the blush color, make the corner of them.Don't put this color under the lips. She'll look like an ugly Angelina Jolie.

Use the second color of your palette and make the highlight to give volume to the lips. Some people have a bigest lip on the up side. If you want to give this effect, make the down lip paler. If you want to give the opposite effect, make the up side lip paler. Just remember that for the lips the darkest = the biggest lip. In my case I have to make some volume on both of the lips. It'll look more realistic.

You now have two possiblities: gloss or no gloss. If you don't want gloss, use the third color for the next highligh. If you want some glossy look, use the blush color. The contrast will make the lips look shiny. If you want her to have lips in a shape of heart put one pixel of the blush color on the top lip.

This is an example from a close view. When you make a doll never forget to go look as often as possible the full view to see if there's anything to change.

Here's the natural look (left) and the glossy look (right). You now have some lips :D

The first thing you need is the palette for your eye color. You sualy need 3 colors. They need to ahve a good contrast but don't forget that if the palest color is too pale, the doll will look blind. This is often the danger with blue eyes.

Just change the eye's color. Follow the shades of the original base.

Do not panic now! What you have to do is erase the original eyecolor. The eyes are the most difficult and long step, follow what I say and it'll be fine. By taking out the colors, you won't have chances to leave some useless spots of colors. Only keep the shape of the eyes.

You will now need another palette. The eyelashes. If the first color is the Paint's black color, the doll will look like she's wearing some makeup. If you want a natural look, use dark brown for brunettes or a blondish color for pale blondes or redheads. Don't use the haircolor palette! make one or use one those I have there.

Take the first (darkest) color to make the shape of the eye. That's simply the edge of the eye. This step is when you can make some edits as asian eyes.

Use the second color to make the eyelashes. make them simple and not longer than 1 pixel. If not she'll look like having mascara all over the eyes. No eyelashes on the bottom of the eye, this color is too dark for that.

Here's what you are suposed to have now. Now the point is to make a fake smudge to the colors. That's where you'll use what I call an eyesahow. That means you can add colors if you want. For now, I'll use a natural brownish color for the tutorial.

Here's my palette. If you want to try with colors, the technique is exactly the same. I have some palettes of eyeshadows that you can find in the tutorial page. If you want to make is even more crazy you can mix 2 color (green and blue, purple and yellow). The color "rules" for makeup on dollz is exactly the same as in real people. Magazine are good inspirations too.

Select the first color of this new palette and fill the spaces between the eyelashes. They'll look softer and longer like that and it will reduce the contrast with the skin. If you're making a really dramatic makeup, you can use this color to add a pixel to the basic eyelashes. It's good to give an effect like Audrey Hepburn's eyes. You can also make the corner of the eye with this color. Just take a look in full view to see if it's too dark. If so use the second shade.

Select now the third shade of your palette. With it, fill the part of the eye closer to the nose. It's simply to smudge the color but if you are using a color, you can make yourself a really bright color and use it there to make the eyeshadow contrast. You can also make some kind of pale eyeliner effect. Add a line of this 3rd shade under the eye. It's a really bad idea to use a dark color to make the eyeliner; the doll will look like a raccoon.

When I was talking about the raccoon look this has a bit of it too XD This is a good example of a moment you'd better go come take a look in full view.

Select the last color of your palette. This has to be the same color as the darkest skin shade. Make a line under the rest of the eye to complete the smudge and "destroy the raccoon". Make a 1 pixel line on the exterior side of the eyes to smudge perfectly the eyelashes.

And it's done...you have completed your eyes :D

This might not show but this is the most important part of the edit. The eyebrows make all the difference. It gives the emotion of the doll and it's a touch that gives a realistic look to the face.

Make a palette for the eyebrow's color. Again, you can use the program to make a gradient that will fit with the skin color. Caution: If you're making a black haired girl, don't use pure black as the darkest color and remember that a paler black is not grey in this case. The easiest thing is to do is to make dark brown eyebrows, it will look much more natural. Same thing for redheads: they don't have red eyebrown, they're usually blond.

As we did for the eyes, we have to erase the basic eyebrows but we don't want to lose the shape of the original ones. Use a Paint color that you won't use on the doll and fill the eyebrows. At this step you can make the doll look more angry or sad by the shape of the eyebrows. If the inside point of the eyebrow goes up it will give a sad look, if it goes down, the doll will look angry. If you put one eybrow up and the other down, she'll just look surprised. But remember that too much is like not enough so control yourself with the eyebrow moving thing.

The best thing when you're dolling is to have references. For the yebrows, it's a bit difficult to explain so here's a reference of Scarlett Johanson to see how the eyebrows are shaded.

Use the darkest shade and make the inside corner of the eyebrows. Don't make a full line, go pixel by pixel. If not it'll look like a line, not an eyebrow.

Now use the second color to fill all the Ms Paint blue color you had.

Here's what you're supposed to have now. It looks realistic but again, we'll have to make a fake smudge.

Use the last color and add some pixels to smudge the inside corner of the yebow. Not the outside corner! It'll make huge eyebrows, wich is absolutely not gracious.

And there we are: you ahve now completed your face edit! Bravo. As a final touch, you can add a small highligh between the eyebrow and eyelid. It will make a beautiful contrast. Now have fun with this tutorial and the best thing to do is experiment until you find your own style.