So I've been wanting to make a bjd for literally years now (you can tell because I joined this forum in 2008), but there was just something about the engineering aspect that I couldn't wrap my brain around. I finally found a tutorial that explained how to build a head in stages, so I decided to try it. So far, I'm pretty pleased with how it's turning out. I'm working in polymer clay because it's what I'm comfortable with. First I sculpted a flat, masklike face. Then I applied it to the front of a ball of foil and sculpted a head behind it. Next I cut open the head cap and removed the ball of foil. Next I will sculpt the ears and the neck joint. Meanwhile, I've done a ton of sanding, carving and adding to make her as symmetrical as I could. She's still not very symmetrical, but I'm happy enough I think I'm nearly done tweaking her face. Oh, and my oven was broken for about three weeks, so when my husband finally fixed it, naturally the first thing I did was pop my bjd sculpt in it to cure. We're not quite sure yet what went wrong, but somehow the oven got much hotter than it was supposed to, and the result is my poor sculpt went from a light pink (mostly beige Premo, though there was probably some Super Sculpey in the mix) to completely black and brown. She's not crumbly, thank goodness, and I plan to gesso her later for smoothness, so I wasn't completely devastated. I decided to keep going and to name her Calico, in honor of her new coloration. So here are some pictures. I'm in love with her left eye (on your left), and since I took the picture I've improved the other one greatly. She's going to be about 30cm tall, but she takes a size 7 wig, so she might be a little top heavy, like Soom's Modigli. But that's okay with me; I kind of like that look. Immediately after the conflagration. She looks kind of happy in this picture. Don't ask me why. The facets on her forehead are where I carved some clay off to improve her profile. I hadn't sanded it smooth yet in this picture. After a lot of sanding, cutting her head cap and adding eyes. Eyes make a huge difference, don't they? These are 12mm, I think. And in profile, sort of. She has a fabulous profile. I'll post more pix as I get them. She's currently in the oven curing a thin layer of clay on the inside of her head, which seemed like the best way to get rid of the nasty texture left behind by the foil armature.
Your doll is simply A- dorable! uhh, I'm sorry but would you mind explaining how you uploaded your piqs, because I'm clueless...
So far, your doll's head looks very good. What kind of ears is she going to have? And.... if you don't mind me asking..... which head modeling tutorial are you using? @MetudeLotus Pix are uploaded to an image site, like Flickr, ImageShack, whatever. To show an image in a thread at The Joint, you place the URL of the image between IMG tags which are enclosed in square brackets, something like this: [ IMG ] http : / / flickr dot com / image dot jpeg [ / IMG ] without all the spaces, of course, and with the actual URL of your image. Note that there are two IMG tags, and the second one has a forward slash in front. Both IMG tags are enclosed in square brackets. Hopefully helpful. (^_^)
It's this one from Dolly Daydream. Although looking back on it, I see she didn't cut the head cap but sculpted a head without a cap, then added the cap in later. Which might have been smarter than the way I'm doing it, since my head cap is really gappy and I'm not sure how to fix it. Not, like, you can see light through it gappy, but enough so it doesn't look nice. I'm sorry if you were hoping for a how-to-sculpt tutorial, but I didn't need that since I've sculpted lots of ooak dolls before. I took a poll of my friends and they all think Calico should have elf ears, but I'm thinking human ears. I don't know. I've been working really hard on this sculpt, carving and sanding and adding new clay, and it's all because I'm procrastinating doing the ears. I will work up the nerve to make them eventually. It's not like I don't know how to sculpt ears. That tutorial I linked also has her painting the doll with gesso to smooth her out, which I'm planning to do as well. Does anyone know what the gray stuff is I've seen people on this forum use for that purpose? Here are some new (unfortunately blurry) pix: The differences are pretty subtle, but I made her eyes more symmetrical, filled in her upper lip a little, sanded her brow line some, etc. Here you can see pretty well how much the head cap gaps. I think I'm going to cover it with plastic wrap and add clay to the upper cap, then squish them together and see if that gets me a better seam. Showing the neck socket. I sculpted her initially without one, then carved a hole to match the bead I'll be using in her neck, and added clay to cover the socket. I cut a cross shape initially, thinking that would help her tilt her head sideways, but then realized that was dumb because my resin bjds do that just by having a rounded s-hook or ring inside. So I filled in one arm of the cross and I plan to fill in the other. I just adore her profile. Except her upper lip; something went wrong there. But I love the sweep of her forehead and nose. She has a lot of little divots and valleys to fill in, but otherwise the actual sculpting part is pretty much done. I just need to fix the joint socket and add her ears.
She's looking great so far if you ask me! Choosing between elf and human ears is a dilemma though... She'd look nice with either. Not much help, I know! XD The grey stuff people are using is probably Mr. Surfacer, if you mean the grey spray-paint? I own Mr. Surfacer myself, but I personally dislike it, so I went and bought myself some gesso paint and have been using that ever since. I feel like I have better control over the gesso, than I did with Mr. Surfacer. but that doesn't mean it won't work for you, so you should probably try it out yourself. ^^
Thanks for the input about gesso, Aminoff. I was just reading your thread, and I think I will be very careful to sand her before I paint. I was hoping the gesso would reveal flaws I can't see in the black clay, though. I showed her to some friends on another forum and they wanted elf ears, so I gave her elf ears. I love how the first one turned out, but the second one is merely "okay." I will sand it some more to make it work, though. So, voila! Calico's first ear by TeaRoseArts, on Flickr and Calico's second ear by TeaRoseArts, on Flickr I think I will do a little sanding and then progress to her body. I want to get a move on.
Love her so much!! And the elf ears are a great touch. I think the lip looks odd from the side as well... perhaps it curves down too much? Like maybe there should be a more drastic slope under the nose so the upper lip turns up more? Just a thought Great work!
No problem, glad I could help. ^^ And yes, sand her veeery well before going onto gesso, I have learned that much from rushing with Ask. ^^; And I love those ears, they look soooo adorable!
