Welcome Tanner!!!

I was finally able to get my hands on a blank kit in order to pursue my goal of reborning my own baby doll! I fell in love with Tasha Edenholm's "Tanner" kit and had to have him. So far the first name name is sticking with him, it is very fitting. :) (He is not reborned yet, obviously)

Unfortunately he has yet to be reborned, he doesn't even have his eyes yet.. But I am hoping by September I will everything I will need in order to start painting him and making him life-like. :) Even though he is still only a blank kit, I couldn't wait to put him together and try the clothes I had set aside for him on! He is going to remain dressed up and put together until his eyes and the paints come, and I can start working on him. 

I also got him a belly plate, which I am very excited about! I plan to make him a VERY newborn, I have been doing lot's of research on making him as close to "just born" as possible with paint techniques, so I also plan to make a fake umbilical cord that will magnetically attach to his belly button. 

His mouth will also be magnetized with the same strong magnets once I order them, that way he can take a pacifier magnetically and I won't have to deal with putty or some other difficult way of modifying one to stay on. 

I'm thinking of either dark blue/gray eyes or dark green eyes. I definitely want semi-dark eyes, nothing too light. I would like hazel, though I'm not sure the site I'm ordering everything I need from will have that color. So it will be between the dark blue-gray or the dark green.

I have not decided when I will attempt to root hair in this little guy, it looks like it will be such a tedious and intimidating job to perfect, so that may or may not happen anytime very soon.. I would love for him to have very fine, straight newborn hair... Nothing too thick or curly.. And I have a feeling getting a head of hair like that as a beginner is going to be very challenging.

Ultimately, what I'm HOPING to somewhat achieve with the painting is something similar to this below...
(This is also the "Tanner" sculpt, and was reborned by someone else, NOT me! I wish I could do half as good a job as this artist did, but I will be lucky if I can achieve even 5% of what this person created, lol) --

 

The hair is also exactly what I'd like to have on my Tanner at some point, but I would want a much lighter brown than this baby-doll has...

Even though my little guy is not yet reborned, I am just so thrilled with him and I cannot wait to undertake bringing him to life, so to speak! :) I'm so happy with him, even as a blank kit that I've only just put together temporarily. I know I am going to be painting him as a beginner and I have done all of the research that I could (still am) to prepare myself for the task in order to do the best that I possibly can on him. I'm not expecting to do even half as good a job as the above photo, I just hope that I can meet a personal standard that I just want him to resemble a newborn in my eyes. :) 

Hopefully I can start bringing him to life in the next three or so weeks-- Until then, I am still just so happy with my new little guy! 

                            ~ WELCOME MY LITTLE TANNER JACOB! ~