66cm+ Dolls Garrett & Ramiro

Well, it appears to have been a long time since I started out on this journey. Being my ADHD self, I got a lot started & nothing finished. As a result, I’m shutting down most of the sculpts for the time being, and concentrating on just two.

These are the sculpts of my characters.

RAMIRO: I intend to make just a head for Ramiro, as it should be easy enough o get a body for him in the 60-65 cm range. So far he’s got most of his head & head back done, requires refining, sanding and magnet placements. I want to get him ready to cast in the summer when I can open the ‘workshop’ (garden shed full of resin & spiders).

GARRETT: I’ve changed my approach with Garrett. His head is sculpted in super sculpey, not paperclay. I also want a head cap, not a faceplate system. At the moment, he is one piece & I've not cut his head cap. It’ll be a learning curve. He needs his face finished & ears made too,

I also want to sculpt a body for him, as no suitable body exists. This will be a huge challenge, as I’ve never done it before & his body type (heavy/slightly chubby) is going to make articulation a challenge. I want to get his head near done before I work on the body so that I can keep everything in proportion. He also needs to be big. I mean BIG. 72+ cm. His character in the stories is described as being around 6’3” so to keep in scale with my other little guys (Ramiro being the smallest - he’s tiny) I need to make sure he sticks to scale.


Challenges will be keeping motivated & on track. I’m in the final part of a master’s degree while working full time, so time is tight, but I hope to be free of uni by the summer & able to indulge in dolly making more!

Photos of current progress will follow...

 

Progress on Garrett. This is not his current state as I’ve worked on him since. I’m putting this up so I have the proof that he’s entirely my work! ^_^

Not sure if I’ll keep the slightly off centre smile. It was intentional, and I love wonky smiles, so maybe it’ll stay...

 

Unless someone beats me in the five years this’ll take,

He won’t be really fat, but he will certainly be more rounded & softer looking. No visibly defined muscles. I’m yet to find an SD Male without defined abs. I just want him to look like he eats a bit too much.

 

Feeling annoyed at my lack of skill, I did a progress shot of the original sculpt I did, and the latest work on Garrett.

This has cheered me up and convinced me I’m getting better. If I keep learning, it’ll be fun to do another comparison in a couple of years!

 

Many thanks! And don’t be scared: give it a go. Lots of people here are very supportive & will help you out. My first sculpts were horrendous, sometimes I still feel rubbish but the comparisons allow me to see that progress is being made. So jump in if you want!

 

Thanks. I made some changes to him today & I’m hoping to bake the sculpey & make a cast to work on further. I don’t want to cut this model to make a headcap. I think I’d rather keep him solid & cast him to work on hollowing.

 

Really? Thanks. XD The character is grown up physically but still a bit cheeky & boyish in personality so I wanted to get that in the sculpt.

I’ve done some more work on him which I’ll post when I return from a business trip.

 

This is where they are at present. Ramiro is a bit of a mess... I have to rework his eyes and respray with primer. He had several eye incidents where parts cracked away, unfortunately. He has a head back, but it needs neatening & finishing. I’m probably going to rework his eyes again because I sculpted him s while back and they’re very amateurish!

Garrett had one side more complete than the other. His right eye looks small because I’ve added clay to shape eyelids but not started the shaping part yet. He has no ears either. I originally planned to cut this sculpey head to make a headcap, but I’m terrified of destroying him. I’m considering making a mould of this head once I’ve finished and baked him, then working on casts to finalise and create head caps etc.

I’m holding off on the body until I’ve got Garrett’s head nearer completion, because the body is primarily for him so last thing I need is to get scale or fit wrong! His head will be the basis for the body measurements.

(Please excuse the slightly distorted iPad photos. I plan on taking some slr photos when I find the camera’a battery charger...)

 

Actually close to being happy with his mouth. The problem is still getting symmetry in his eyes. The nose will be easier to fix in afterward, but I need to get his eyes spot on or the whole thing’s a waste of time. Still, I’m very happy with the progress I’ve made from my first distorted heads!

I must keep going. Determined to get this one finished and cast! XD

Edit: well, he’s in the oven for first baking! Then I can work on his ears & further refinements before the first moulding!

 

Yup, this project is still underway. My university course finishes in 3 weeks. So after April, I’ll have far more time to devote to this!

 

I kinda got sidetracked by creating mini Ramiro. He’s 1/6 scale, but is currently a solid resin cast and I need to figure out how to hollow him. I may need to completely remove the back of his head and recreate it in milliput or something! Photos incoming.

 

Little Ramiro in various stages... problem is, the white casts are solid. I need to hollow him out!

Doing it this way wasn’t the smartest but I sculpted him as an action figure head but all the bodies are too muscular so figured I’d try a bjd body & making a proper bjd head. So haphazard dremelling time!