About Mannequin Makeovers

Ever since I was a small child, I have loved drawing and painting, and I've always been able to produce portraits to a pretty high level of realism. Many years ago, as a hobby, I hand-painted collectable fashion dolls to make them more lifelike. Although much smaller than mannequins (about 16" / 40cm tall), these doll 'repaints' taught me valuable lessons in applying portraiture to 3D objects. Then one day I came across an old, badly damaged, armless mannequin with chipped paint and a broken nose, but she had a beautiful, realistic face and a nice figure - I wondered if I could bring new life to something so much larger than a fashion doll.

Short answer: yes, but it wasn't easy. I had to face several very important differences: The paint I'd been using was acrylic and came in tiny bottles, and my brushes were very small and fine - perfect for tiny detail on a head smaller than a golf ball but useless on a human-sized head. Also I definitely didn't need a magnifying glass, and whereas with dolls I was only painting on facial features, mannequins usually require their bodies to be completely repainted, and that takes a lot of paint! Also, mannequins are BIG. Yes it's obvious, but it means they can't just be popped in the mail, so actually getting mannequins (never mind finding them) was never going to be easy! However, in spite of the challenges, and after a lot of trial and error, I now pride myself in the realism and beauty I am able to achieve with transforming mannequins.

It's still just a hobby for me, for a number of reasons (I am busy with other things, they are expensive to buy even before I do anything to them, supplies and packing materials are expensive (especially strong boxes!), they take a long time to transform, they take up a lot of room, they are a nightmare to pack, the buyer market is small, etc. etc.), but every now and then I sell the ones I've transformed to make room for new models. If I have any for sale, you can find them here.

To get an idea of how much work goes into each mannequin, and how different they look compared to the original mannequins, take a look at my Before and After page.