Been painting... shoes. Yes... shoes.

So a few weeks ago I was in a charity shop and the woman behind the counter was pricing up stuff that had just come in. In front of her were three (yes three) Monster High Gooliope dolls (who for those who don't know, is 17 inches tall and bright pink lol)
I was all "OMG GOO!" and the lady was a bit baffled my me haha. But she suggested a price of £3 for one and I was all "HELL YES"

I already had one at home, but given they retailed for about £30 new, £3 was a bargain.

I was going to repaint her, but I never could work out what to do with her so she's been sitting on my desk since.

Till last night I decided to have a play painting her accessories.

Monster High has these great shoe sculpts, but sadly they seldom bother to actually PAINT or even dry brush that detail, moulding it in a single colour so it's totally lost to the eye.
It's a real shame because the sculpting is incredible and Gooliope's shoes? They're awesome.
they have skeletal carousal horses for heels!

It took me all of today and a large chunk of last night, but I finally finished.
I also found her a jacket because her outfit felt unbalanced without one.

So here she is! or rather.. they... both Gooliope's for comparison!



The overall look. As you can see, the stock Gooliope just has these random shoulderpads and I dunno, it looks unbalanced and odd to me.



Speaking of the shoulder pads, again all this detail just lost. There's a spiderweb pattern across all the bits and the main collar has a little tag with 618 (big in a mirror) written on it. Sadly the numbers are REALLY faint, looks like they didn't survive the casting process so well. The 1 is almost totally gone on both collars, you have to squint to see any of the numbers.



Her shoes from the front. The original shoes are enormous and pink but there's all this sculpted detail. Studs, little swirls, skulls. It's neat.



And this is what took me like 6 hours. A teeeeny brush and a lot of patience. There's a few messy bits but overall i'm pretty happy with how these came out.

the stock shoes just have this random WHITE brushed over grey and it really hides all the horse detailing. The saddle, the pole, the bridle and all that are all just lost in a sea of white.
Also bones are totally not white, white bones bother me.
I purposely roughed up the paintwork on the horses, I wanted it to look weathered.

And now I think i've gone a bit loopy staring at shoes all day lol.

This is such an improvement! The paint job and the jacket add so much. The detail on them is excellent!

Also, now that I'm a grumpy, critical adult I really don't like the way so many dolls are designed to wear less. You know those shoulder pads aren't going to provide any warmth. Once the sun goes down or winter comes, Gooliope will freeze! So I definitely think you've fixed her look. It makes so much more sense for her to have a coat. I also 100% agree about missed opportunities in terms of the shoes. My poor Ratya's shoes are just a sad grey in spite of themselves.

Yeah, most of the time i'm too lazy and leave my MH dolls in their stock but I had a spare so figured "why not?"
I'm tempted to actually do it with a bunch now, Honey has incredible shoes that have freaking TEETH for instance, how cool would that be actually painted up?

But I do find certainly with the more recent releases a lot of the outfits feel... unfinished or incomplete. A missing belt, or necklace, or jacket. Sometimes it's a little thing and sometimes it's huge (like River's outfit being almost the exact same colour as her damn skin, why? WHY? she looks waaaay better in black).

Sometimes they just need a little tweak out the box, sometimes they're fine straight out, sometimes though.. and more often nowadays, they need a proper makeover lol.

But missing accessories drive me batty, because i'm pretty sure the dolls are probably designed with complete cohesive outfits and elements are dropped to save money, leaving the end design looking incomplete. It's so frustrating. Batsy for instance has no belt, despite CLEARLY needing one to cover up the ugly seam her stupid one piece romper has in the middle (why not just make it as a top and shorts? Rompers are for toddlers!)
There's a couple with low neck lines who desperately needed a necklace. Some who's shoes clash with their outfits (whaa?) and so on. It's crazy.
But I suppose that's the fun part isn't it? Making the doll BETTER hahah.

This.. may be my decent into teeny thing painting madness.

Oh no, not you too! I bought my partner Imperial Assault, a Star Wars miniature game, for giftmas and he's been painting miniatures ever since. There are little jars of paint and art supplies all over his side of the desk!

That Goo is such an improvement. The shoes look great, and the jacket is spot on. I can't believe you found her for so cheap. Score

thanks guys! yeah, the other two look to have sold now too.

My bargain yesterday was a giant plush Lalaloopsy by Build a Bear for £2 lol. They're £19 in BAB right now! and she's brand new! Gotta get her clothes but the nude doll is £19!

I love my local charity shop lol. I found a Tonner doll in there once for a fiver.

Your work on the new Goo is stunning. The epaulettes (shoulder pieces) look like they're supposed to now with the coat. And your painting work on the shoes is just stunning!  Not being a Monster High collector, I had no idea there was that much detail molded into the shoes.