Step two, face up!

More on the monster high doll I'm customizing, she's a Vampire girl from one of the Create-a-Monster kits.  I already opened her eyes, but before I can put eyes in her it's face up time!

I already cut the head open at this point to remove some of the excess vinyl from the inside of the eyes.  I have to cut a 'head cap' out of the head so that I will be able to insert the eyes later, unfortunately there's no other way, but you have to make sacrifices to gain!  You want to make sure that you're finished cutting the vinyl before you start painting, otherwise you might ruin the face up and have to start all over.

I'm using the same techniques I would for a BJD, just on a smaller head and Vinyl!  The first step is to do some natural blushing.  Monster High dolls come in all sorts of weird skin tones, but you can be creative with what blushing colors you want!  I went with a fuchsia for this doll, but you could do anything from violet to red and have it look nice and natural enough.  I blush areas like lips, chin, ears, below the cheekbones, underneath and around the nose and the inner corners of the eyes.  Again though, just do what you feel like!  Sometimes simple is better.

I added some white highlights between this and the last photo but didn't end up taking a photo before I went ahead with the black paint.  I didn't do the white so that it's very noticeable, but to create some contrast.  Sometimes with strange skin tones I find it really makes the face pop if you add white to areas like the bridge of the nose, above the cheekbones, above the eyebrow ridge and just where the chin juts out.

With a little extra blushing and hair details like eyebrows and eyelashes!  Now it's ready for sealing and adding eyes! :)