Amanda's Interesting and Unique Job

Only a handful of people in the world

There are a lot of great artists out there, this is a fact. However, very few of them are trained to do this very specific job that @afturner does. Of course, this isn't hardly the only thing that she does, but it is one of the most unusual in my opinion.

In fact, there are only a couple hands full of people in the world who are trained to do this job, and they are almost all aware of each other. That job, specifically, is to paint and or design the faces of dolls made by famous toy companies around the world.

When we first met I went over to her place and saw buckets of blank doll heads and bodies, which I found bizarre until she explained what it was all about.

The thing that makes this skill so special and sought after is not only do you need an artist who has an insanely steady hand and immaculate eyesight in order to create insane levels of detail on a tiny head, you have to be able to copy it - exactly, multiple times.

Paint Masters

The larger companies generally need to get 3 exact copies of the same design made. One for trade shows such as Toy Fair in New York, in order to show the design to retailers.

Another to go to China, or wherever the factory is, to be used as a template to make lots more.

A third to go into a vault for safe keeping as a master copy in case it is ever needed in the future.

Paint masters have the highest standard of quality when it comes to face paint. These take a lot more attention to detail, and much more time to make than sample heads.

Sample Heads

Sample heads are much quicker to produce, and in my understanding are more like quick drafts if we want to make a comparison.

There are a few people in the industry who work on nothing but sample heads. I imagine some of them do it because they aren't skilled enough to do paint masters, while others have figured out that they can knock out a lot more of them and get a quick buck. That is just my speculation though.

Of course Amanda isn't just limited to face design. She also paints full figures. To be fair, she can really paint anything you ask her to, but I digress.

The Beyond Good and Evil 2 piece was sculpted by our good friend @steve.varner and painted by @afturner. It was a big hit at Comic-Con San Diego, where it was on display at Steve's Varner Studios booth. Amanda had a lot of fun working on this one. In fact, I think she much prefers this type of work to dolls.

One of the things that I really hate about this industry is that 95% of what you do, you aren't allowed to show anyone. And even if you could show anyone, you often can't tell them that you did it. You'd be amazed if I could show you some of the stuff she works on every single day. Stuff that is likely in all of your homes if you are a collector or have kids in your home.

Technically, you can say you've done something after it has already been released. The problem is, you have to do the research to see if it was actually ever released. Sometimes that can be tricky. A lot of designs never actually see the light of day! Often it is just best to wait several years before adding anything to your portfolio. Or in @afturner's case, she just doesn't really promote herself being that word of mouth is golden in this business.

In short, Amanda is the person you come to when you need it done professionally, quickly, precisely and right. As I said in the beginning, there are a lot of great artists out there, but much fewer that can take direction; and most importantly absurd numbers of on the fly changes and quick turn around. It takes nerves of steel that I certainly don't have.

I hope you all learned a little something new here! Personally, I know way more about dolls than I ever asked to know. But the whole process is actually quite fascinating. One thing that I have found especially enlightening is how cut-throat the toy industry is. But that is a story for another day!