Sculpting Complete Newb Interested in Making Doll

My primary advice is just to get out there and sculpt your heart out! Pick a few things you'd really like to learn and just go for it! If you're into making dolls, definitely start sculpting studies of the human figure until you feel like you're really understanding how it works.

It takes a little bit to understand how to work your material of choice, and then to get a feel for how to shape 3-dimensional objects and understand their volume. If you draw or paint as well, it can be helpful to do pencil or pen studies of what you want to work on to explore planes and shape breakdowns to make the sculpting easier.

Use references! References are the best tool to learning how to draw or model anything!

There are lots of Youtube channels that do tutorials and demonstrations of how others work, which I find both helpful and inspiring!

Like Sculpting the Face, Beginning in Clay Modeling, Basic Techniques, Sculpting the Planes of the Head and Sculpting Body Parts Using A Template!

The most important two bits of advice I've got though: having fun and playing IS a viable method of learning, and don't wait until you think you're "good enough" to start something!

It's wonderful and a good idea to practice and do sketches and studies, but ultimately the BEST way to learn is to just do it and make mistakes! If it doesn't come out the way you want, the beauty of it is that you can always do it again!

As for BJD-Specific Tutorials and Processes, check these out:

Making My First BJD Doll
Sculpting A BJD From Air-Dry Clay
Making Viola

 

Glad I could help! I know it's overwhelming without a few starting points, so hopefully this gets you started having fun and learning sculpting!

 

I am in the process of writing up a bit of a primer guide for sculpting, but I haven't finished it yet.

MercutioEx's tips are really spot-on - I wish I would have had them when I started sculpting. I was in the same boat; I haven't really had any kind of traditional art training, but I wanted to make a head. So I just kind of started by mashing a bunch of clay around until I had rough shapes, then spent a looooong time trying to figure out how to go about refining things. Like I had no idea for most of it (lots of trouble taking off the headcap, no idea how to start making eyelids, a series of adding/replacing/repositioning/completely re-making ears, all of which took me way longer than they probably had to). I did eventually find tutorials for myself, but a lot of them I discovered after I had already figured it out.

Just for a quick tip on sculpting tools; I mostly started with just my fingers, but I found that small tools were a godsend! So honestly, look for an inexpensive manicure/pedicure kit! Cuticle pushers, under-nail cleaners, scrapers, etc; are all small sizes so they work nicely. I have a cuticle pusher that I never used on myself, so I conscripted it for sculpting - I would say I have used that tool specifically about 75% of the time.

 

I've worked in sculpture for a very long time and can add a few things here, so here goes:
If you can, get a book on human anatomy for the artist. I love the one by Stephen Rogers Peck I think his name is, it's my Bible when I draw or sculpt. Study it.
Practice deconstructing things in your mind and turning them in to their most basic shapes. This is especially important, I think, for BJD making. Look at a head and think, what parts of this are basic shapes? Then roll a sphere or make a pyramid or whatever and mesh them.
Bigger is easier. Start big. Trust me. Tinies are cute but they're toooo tiny for a first sculpt.
Play around with things you have in your house to use as sculpting tools. Forks, spoons, cups, plastic Easter eggs, etc. are all good ideas for bjds in my opinion.
Start with cheap clay and go to the fancy stuff. Studies are very important to sculpting, so make them in Play-Doh and take a bunch of pictures so you have a reference!
Sculpting is a ton of fun once you get the hang of it. If you want really good base skills, enroll in a ceramics 101 class at a community college or even high school. It'll teach you a lot.

 

If you are really bad at making stuff with clay, using 3d printer and program can be your answer. I used sculptris for practice.

 

Last night I dreamed I was taking a sculpting class, so ... @Witty Katts, thanks for the question, and everyone else: thanks for the helpful and kind replies!

 

You can check out Juliana LePine Sculptures on youTube. She not just sculpts a head but talks about face anatomy and it's really helpful and understandable for a newbie.

 

There's a lot of good tutorials on youtube like this and this and this