"Grey Lady" Gets Her Man

The Grey Lady Gene Marshall doll was featured in a design contest held at the November, 2007 Gene Convention in Pittsburg, PA. Entrants were required to create a fashion for Gene using only shades of gray so that she would appear to be a 3D image from a black and white movie. Contestants did not see the doll until the event when they were given the doll to dress. Wayne Nilson was one of the talented designers.

Grey Lady Gene became one of the most sought after Gene dolls ever produced. Last September (2014), one sold for $2027.02 on eBay. 

Yesterday Wayne posted photos he called "Grey Lady Gets Her Man," showing both a Grey Lady Gene and Trent! 

 I asked Wayne to explain how he painted Trent. Here is his response:

Well, the most I can say about Grey Trent is that he was done using ordinary acrylic paints.  You need those, a good variety of brushes, some color sense and a steady hand.  That's really all it takes.  I only painted his head and arms up to the elbow.  No need to do any more than that because it won't show.  I did seal him with a coat of Mr. Superclear when I was finished.

He's been on the back burner for a long time.  I'm very happy to finally have him finished.  So is Gene.  She was quite lonely.

 He made it sound so easy that I might try it on a doll that isn't too important first.

Have you ever painted a doll?

Picture of the Week ~ Wayne Nilson

Today our photo is of the beautiful Zita Charles by Wayne Nilson aka Wayne in FL. She is the Zita from the Stardust Convention collection known as "Hostess With The Mostest." The original dolls looked like this:

Wayne restyled her hair by removing her white streak and moving the position of one of the curls. She is wearing an Ashton Drake fashion called "Pin-Up" with shoes by Integrity.

Wayne said:

This was a very simple set up using 2 pieces of white foam-core board, one overhead spot light and a beautiful satin boudoir seat made by a fellow collector, Jay Aastrup.

I use a Canon Powershot A570 camera. I think digital photography is a godsend.  You can literally take hundreds of shots before you get that 'perfect' one, all at no expense.  I always use 3 or 4 spotlights to light my subject.  I never use the camera flash.  Because it's so hot here (most all of the time), I never take pictures outside in natural light.  I always manipulate my pictures in Photoshop to correct lighting or color problems, to remove any stray hairs, sharpen the eyes, mouth and any other elements I want to stand out.  I use very few, if any, props.  I feel they distract from the main subject matter.