Flora's design

Personally, I love all kinds of concept art.

However, I have read in more than one tutorial that the concept art should be without the indications of joints? Character, age, personality, clothing, hair and eye color, body style, and so forth can be indicated by a concept drawing. Once you have a good feel for the overall concept of your doll, working through the concept drawings, then make the working drawings with joint indications. The working drawings should consist of front and side views of the doll, and have shrinkage calculated, and so forth.

Having said that, I would like to say that I really like the above concept drawings! )
She feels like a woods spirit or sprite.

 

drawings

You can draw, and that is a good skill to have.
Drawing allows us to solidify the swirling ideas in our heads.
Once those ideas are solidified, then we can share them with others.
Thus, drawing is a form of communication. )
In a concept drawing, you are communicating what you want your doll character to look like.

A working drawing is more like a blueprint.
It can be used to design the armature of the doll, if an armature is used.
It also helps to make the original doll parts the right size, if any of the materials
you use shrink during the process of making your doll.
One way that helps getting a side view is by lightly drawing horizontal lines from the front view.
Then, make the side view, aligning the features from the front view, along those lines.
For example, horizontal lines at the top of the head, and the bottom of the chin, define
the length of one head. A realistic drawing of a human body is usually proportioned by
head lengths. So, for example, an infant may be only four heads tall, whereas a teen
may be seven head lengths tall, and an adult may be eight head lengths tall.
In this way, you can adjust the proportions of your doll at the drawing stage of development,
which is easy, cheap, and quickly done. Use tracing paper to make quick changes.

If the materials you use to make your doll do not shrink, or have minimal shrinkage,
then your working drawing can be the actual size of the finished doll.

However, if any of the materials you use to make your doll, shrink, during drying, or
during curing, like being fired in a ceramics kiln, then your working drawing should be
correspondingly larger.

I am not a great maths person either, but I can punch numbers into a calculator!

Here is how I use a calculator to figure out shrinkage.

First of all, with most commonly used art materials, the shrinkage is already known.
So let's say that the materials you are using have a total shrinkage of 20 percent (20%).
Total shrinkage may mean that the material shrinks 5% when drying, and another 15%
when it is cured to its final stage of hardness. 5% + 15% is 20%.
In a calculator punch in: .05 + .15 =
The calculator should give the answer as: .20

So you want to make a finished doll that is 50cm tall, and the material's total shrinkage
is 20%..... how tall to make the working drawing for the original sculpt?

I usually just guess a number and try it.
I'm going to guess the number 60 as a first guess.
On my calculator I punch in the keys: 60 X .20 =

My calculator answers 12.

60 X .20 =
12

20 percent of 60 is 12.

Next, how close is that to 50cm?
I punch in the calculator: 60 - 12 =
The answer is 48.
So my first guess is pretty close, but not quite enough.
My second guess is going to be a little bit more, like 64.

So now I do it again:
64 X .20 =
12.8
64 - 12.8 =
51.2

That is also close to 50cm, but not quite, so I'll guess again, with 62.

62 X .20 =
12.4
62 - 12.4 =
49.6

Now I'll guess 63.

63 X .20 =
12.6
63 - 12.6 =
50.4

Yay! You can make the doll in the working drawing 63cm tall, and if you follow the
working drawing when making your doll, the finished doll, after total shrinkage, should
be about 50cm tall.

As far as proportion goes, say you want to make your doll 7 head lengths tall (teenage)?
Divide 63 by 7 with the calculator.
63 / 7 =
9

You should make your horizontal lines 9cm apart, from the bottom of the feet to the top
of the head. Then draw the front view, then the side view. I know that my drawings are
usually in a continuous state of change. I draw lightly until I get it close to what I like.

Hopefully helpful.

 

the guideline tool in photoshop is super helpful in aligning side/front/back!

You can even extend some guidelines with the tool and get a great top view!