We were able to stuff the doll in the last class and for homework, the students were to gesso, apply the stencil, and then paint the skin color in oil paints. Yes, the stencil shows up under the skin paint. If you try to add the stencil after the skin paint, it won't adhere as well because the stencil needs a matte surface to adhere to. Don't sand the gesso layer very much or you will loose the tooth to the gesso - just a tiny bit of sanding to smooth off the bumps. Think of panty hose on an unshaven leg - how the nubs of hair catch the panty hose. Then think again of freshly shaven legs, how smooth that would be for the panty hose to flow over when you pull them across the freshly shaven leg. The goal of sanding gesso is just to take off the nubs, not to take off the layer of gesso.
In the picture below, you can see the gesso layer is dry and I have trimmed my face stencil so there is not much extra vellum stencil paper around the facial details. This is so I can center it well and not fool my eye into thinking I have the face details centered when I really only have the vellum paper piece centered. It's sort of a built in method to get it right. I need those built in safe guards to help me because I am not a master doll maker! Leave the extra at the top, so you have something to hold away from where the iron will be. Those clover irons can burn fast - I know this from painful experience!
After the mini clover iron is well warmed up, I verify that I have the side with the ink on the stencil against the face and using the measurements in the instructions, I place the stencil where it needs to be and iron on the face details. Then I give that a bit of time to dry and maybe even spray a fixative over it. (depends on if it will be days before I get to paint or not).
The paints I use are Griffin Alkyd oils, and the turp substitute I like best is Turpinoid in the blue and white label. Be sure you get the blue and white one, not the green label as the green label is brush cleaner and will do nasty things like take weeks and weeks to dry. You can find alkyd oils at art supply houses - here is my local one that has them on sale. http://catalog.tsquareart.com/alkyd_colors-c-500_505.html?osCsid=3195f9d8212ce12497238de812f72adf As to what colors you need and how to mix the colors - see Gail's hints - oil paint section for this info.
The paint brushes I like best are 18/0 spotter for tiny lines, 20/0 filbert for an eraser (push paint around, not to apply paint with) and then for hair and other filling in, 10/0 round or liner for hair lines, and 1/4 or 1/2 inch flat for painting skin color or other filling in like hair area. I also gather the paint palette dishes (I love the frosting tops to the Pilsbury cinnamon rolls. They wipe off easy when you are finished and have a tiny lip to hold turoinoid. You can use any brush you can achieve a thin line. I recommend you practice with water on paper, so you can get a tiny line. If you need to, you can thin out your paints with turp and cut down your paint brushes with scissors until you can get that thin line. Plan b = if you still have trouble with getting the lines to your satisfaction, use the tiny filbert brush with just a tiny amount of turp on it to erase the area you are not happy with, or use the filbert to push the paint into the correct place. Keep the eraser filbert clean, wiping the paint off the brush each time and cleaning it often.
I also place in a handy spot, my rags for swiping the brushes and my clean and dirty turp jars. And it worked! The open window drew the kitty like catnip. She is anxiously awaiting spring too.
Green eye colors - looks grey on palette, green on doll eyes.
Here's what you need for shading - just follow the instructions in Gail's Charlotte doll pattern.
After face details go on, I let that paint dry well and then I do the shading. The reason you want to be sure everything is dry is so that the turpinoid won't take off or smudge your face details. I usually don't have much time to spend in the doll room each day, so the time inbetween works out for me. If you are in a hurry to keep painting, you can speed up the drying time with cobalt dryer. I don't like to have this stuff because it is highly poisonous and I have small grand children around, so I don't want to risk having it since there is plenty of time between painting sessions for me. Obviously you can also use non oil paints which dry very fast....but I don't get as good a face with these paints because the drying time is too fast for me. 
Here she is with shading around the face and nose finished. I still need to do around the mouth. I get a bit better at it with more experience. Doll making is like learning to make pie crust - it takes some doing it to get good at it. So your first dolls might not be as expertly created as the others are, but keep at it, you'll get there sooner or later. I find that developing those tricks to get it right really helped me over time. And every one has their own bag of tricks.
The last step will be to antique her with old village graining liquid in oil base, but this only after the shading is very dry - a couple of days should do it.
While all this dries, I need to pick out fabrics for her dress. In our next class, our very talented doll maker Barb will show us how to make doll parasols - open and closed versions. She brought some last week and they are so cute!
