First thread away from the newbie forum! I'm currently planning (and then starting, and then trashing, and then re-starting, and then trashing again) a project. I've done 3D modelling until I'm sick of it, and I wanted to use my hands for once, but oh, that resize tool ... ! I decided to work on a character from a comic/novel project that has had the same treatment to begin with; I wanted to mix my own cartoony drawing style with what seems to be a fairly standard BJD style (I've always totally lusted over Luts dolls in particular), and referenced the body models heavily in my planning. The plans that came out are as follows: View attachment 629 First sketch - two different types of hips temporarily until I can fiddle about with these physically to see which I like the workings of best! View attachment 630 Full plan with "inner blobs" - where the polystyrene and tin-foil will go! XD View attachment 631 Close-up of the head. I'd love some pointers on where to go with the plans! No issues with hard critique. I'm not too keen on the bodily proportions, but I'm starting on the head just now in Fimo (it's similarly blob-like to the rest of the images), should hopefully be able to update soon with some in-progress photos. The ones I have just now can be summed up with the word "lump".
Progress ... The "skull", before first bake. View attachment 632 Hollowed out and, urm, terrifying. View attachment 633 Blocking in details. View attachment 634 I'm referring to this as Voldemort Deluxe. Still lots more to go, a d it's going slowly, but I'm enjoying it so far!
looks promising! what I suggest is that you really work on getting good symmetry even in this rough stage. If you pay attention to it now it'll save you a good amount of work and frustration and adjusting and re-shaping later! (Still working on my first and second head but this is a lesson I have already learned the hard way, haha) The forehead looks a bit on the short side of the spectrum but it's not cringeworthy (I know I've done worse) curious to see how you will advance!
Hey, good start. Not an easy job to start with. But you seem to have the art skills! Good luck translating the drawing in 3d!
Haha, I read through this a couple of days ago and realised that I had just been expecting I could mirror the sculpt at the end ... =_= Maya and Zbrush have spoilt me. A bit more progress! View attachment 637 View attachment 638 View attachment 639 I -think- his brows were looking too high/forehead too short because of how I was planning on doing his eyelids and brow one ... I hope it's a bit better looking now? The nose is really annoying me, symmetry was NOT happening. Lips are obviously not staying like that, I just wanted to get something solid baked on that I could sculpt on top of! I'm not really loving the overall texture ... I've been going over and "crumb coating", as I'm referring to it internally now, with a very light layer on Fimo once what's underneath has been baked, but I'm still struggling to get it smooth. My acrylic nail emery boards aren't working as well at filing as I had hoped. :/ May test run some very fine sandpaper on a spare lump. The first layer of torso has just come out of the oven, so more progress soon! I balanced the head on top and it looked far too lollipop, I'm hoping that this will work better once I've added a bit more muscle mass though.
Update - starting to work on the body, which is turning out to be much more difficult than I expected! Second try at the body as the first just wasn't happening. I'm quite liking blocking out shapes, baking and then using that as a solid base to work upon further. My fiancé is starting to get a bit confused about all the Fimo body parts lying around - he's compared me to Dr Frank N. Furter. I'm okay with this.
Your 'blocking' method is solid-- imho it's the best way to sculpt! otherwise one tends to get lost in details. RE your earlier post if you use a mirror to literally mirror your sculpt you will have an easier time keeping everything symmetrical. You haven't posted a picture of the head straight-on but it doesn't look too off to me. Anyhow I keep a small handmirror at my desk for this very reason. My husband when we first met thought it was a bit odd too but he's come around to the idea of always having little disembodied limbs everywhere
Using mirrors sounds like a great idea! I guess you'd probably need something to mount the piece upon while working if you were to use it while sculpting? Admittedly there was a reason for not posting a straight-on photo: the lighting in our office room is awful! But, there's enough morning sunlight at the moment, sooo ... Symmetry isn't entirely happening, though I'm quite happy with it being a little bit off it definitely still needs work. I'm going to re-do the ears, as they're too small and too high, but I'll wait until once I've had long enough away from it to have fresh eyes. (Speaking of eyes, ordered and in the post~! Dark blue Excited to receive them!)
Updaaaate~! I've not done anything in a while as, urm, his abdomen completely caved in while baking. u_u; Putting him back together so as to not waste clay at the moment, but just hoes to show that removing the internal props too early is a mistake. Getting there, though! I need to work on his joints, as they don't really slot together properly at the moment, especially his his and elbows but aside from that, he's probably about 80% done? He's quite tall!
Wow, he's looking really good! I'm so jealous of your ability to sculpt a whole body, I'm still afraid to move-on to that part.
Very slow reply on my part - sorry! But thanks! To be honest I put off sculpting a full doll for a looong time as I was nervous about making it work, how to fit it together, wasting materials, etc. I ended up just decided to dive into a full body rather than trialling it, which was maybe a mistake, but one I'm learning from. I've finally managed to get all pieces so that they're solid and baked, so here's my first ever attempt at stringing a BJD together: None of his joints work very nicely, and his torso is just a bit weird, so still a lot of work to be done to finish, but I'm enjoying it!
I think he looks pretty good so far. You have the general proportions down nicely and the general shape of the limbs is good. Don't worry about slow progress. This kind of thing takes time. Especially the first time. And as you start to work on getting the joints to work the way you want them, well, that has to be allowed to take its time. Keep the string tension loose while testing. Things that works and are stable when loose tends to work even better when you string the finished doll tighter and things that doesn't work loose will tend to get worse, so it is a good way of checking the joints. Also, polymer clay can crack under heavy tension, so to avoid accidents, it it is good to keep the string loose and unstring when you are not actively checking the joints.
