Sculpting HOW to sculpt

Good for you taking the first plunge! I really want to try it myself, but I've been so busy and it is an intimidating project.

Here's what I suggest first off: look for tutorials on Youtube. There are some amazing videos showing a "unimpressive round ball becomes beautiful face" process. Even tutorials on 3D modeling a head can be helpful because the process isn't that different.

Secondly, study facial anatomy. There are excellent books on the subject, but you can also find plenty of information online with details on bone structure, facial muscles, etc. That may seem like overkill, but understanding the underlying structure can really help build your confidence in sculpting.

And thirdly, use references! As an artist, I use references constantly and plan to do so for my sculpting as well. You don't need to copy a single face. Maybe find a couple of photos (or good drawings, if you're going for a less realistic style) of people who resemble the character you want to create. Try to find some profile shots as well as three-quarter and front shots so you can work around the head. Otherwise you can end up having the front look great but the profile doesn't look human

As to sculpting mediums, the majority of bjd artists I've seen working on new heads and bodies use La Doll clay. This is an air dry clay a bit similar to Creative Paperclay, but it is finer and easier to work with. I've used it myself and hope to continue with it in the future if I don't go the 3D modeling route.

If it helps this is a head I worked on using La Doll clay (it's far from good, but it was only my second attempt):

Spoiler: LaDoll head

Bakhita WIP by StellaMarigoldArt, on Flickr

Also, unless you are going for a particularly small size, you may want to try working larger than the head you posted here. It will be easier to see the shapes and to add details, and it may also be easier to hold the head while working. Plus (if you intend to sell your work) I have seen many more independent artists selling 1/3-size heads without bodies than the smaller bjd sizes.

Also (again) if you make a head in a "too large" size for your plans I've discovered that you can get it scanned by someone and turned into a 3D model, which can then be re-sized. How cool is that!

And finally, practice makes improvement. Don't be disappointed if your first heads don't match your vision Everyone has to start somewhere!

 

I am absolutely nowhere near a professional but I am in a ceramics class for college currently. I keep messing up because of the wetness of the clay.
It has different stages. Too wet, for example, and you won't be able to carve into it easily. It just won't sculpt right and it can collapse, depending on what you're doing. Too dry and it'll start cracking when you try to do anything. Try looking up "stages of clay" and seeing if that helps solve some of your problems. (Even if it doesn't, it's still important to know. More experienced artists, please correct me if I'm wrong on anything!)

 

Are you using sculpty?

 

My go-to advice is to plit the broblem up into smaller parts.
In this case: You are sculpting a head for a doll out of paper clay.
Pick one or two to focus on at time and forget about the other fo a bit.
Sculpting: You could practice sculpting in general. Faces ar complex, so perhaps ease into it doing simpler shapes to begin with, train your hands and eyes to work three dimentionally. You can do this with the paper clay to get to know that material better, but you could use other materials as well.
Head: A mix of looking up human anatomy and studying stylized faces in art can help a lot when it comes to nailing down how a head works and gwat it is supposed to look like. You cand hope to reproduce something you don't know the shape of, after all. You can practice by drawing heads from differnent angels, doing quick sculpts in modelling clay (since it's reusable, it's cheap in the long run and it takes the pressure off.)
Doll: If your goal is a finished head for an actual doll you are going to have to take that into consideration right from the start. What body will it fit on? Head back or faceplate? Is it a one off art doll or do you need it to be possible to cast later? When making a doll part it is useful to stop thinking about it as a pretty face on a generic headshape and think more in terms of a mechanical part that needs to fit other parts (that just happen to look like a human when put together).
Paper Clay: This is an air drying material so you will have a limited time to work in each session/layer/area or however you chose to split things up. You are probably not going to be able to make an entire head in one sitting, so experiment with what sort of workflow that works for you. I don't have a lot of specific advice for this since I usually work with bakable polymer clay, but I learned from my papier mache ork that keeping parts as hollow as possible (without them becoming so thin that they became brittle, of course) was a great way to keep drying times down. It also helps for avoiding cracks. Open interiors and working in thin layers worked best for that. Learn how to work with cores, if you are not already.

So a few (admitedly rather uneducated) observations from your picture:
It looks as if the clay layer is rather thick. Is there a core in there at all or is it solid clay all the way?
A core works as a place holder for the main cavity of the head and saves a lot on materials. It can be made in a precise shape and that helps a little with maintaining the overall shape of the head while working. Placeholders for the eyes can be set directly into the core and sculpted over and around to help with both positioning and to keep the amount of work that later needs to be done on the inside of the eye wells.
A common set of sculpting stages could be as follows:
*Make a core with eyeballs attached.
*Roughly sculpt the faces understructure on top of that, it doesn't have to be a realistic skull, it just needs to do the job of covering most of the core and establish the jaw bone, brow riges, base of the nose and so on. Refer to basic anatomy, allow for stylization. Leave the core uncovered in the back of the head to allow for shrinkage. Allow to dry.
*Roll out a piece of clay and drape it over the face, making sure to push the air out as you go to avoid trapping it. This puts "skin" on the "bones" of the previous layer. Cut the eye openings, allow the placeholder balls to peak through. Now you have a very solid base for sculpting and refining the face.

There are many other ways as well, of corse. Don't be scared to experiment and find methods that works for you and your chosen materials. You can also look through older project journal threads here in the doll making section, a lot can be learned by looking at what others have done before. Paper clay is a poular doll making material and the process is similar enough between brands and types.

Best of luck to you.

 

What are you using may I ask?

 

It's in the fourth sentence of their original post.

"Maybe it’s the type of air clay I’m using? It’s Creative Paperclay."

 

Well, another common beginner trap is to over plan and never get around to actually make anything and you've dodged that one beautifully.
Getting used to the clay sounds like a plan!

 

The dolls I have hand-sculpted in the past have been out of Creative Paperclay like yours. I remember that wetting your tools really helps during sculpting; it keeps the clay from having that spongy sort of feel to it. Don't spray it with a spray bottle because it will become weird and slippery; only wet the tip of the tool when sculpting. I also would use a small, short brush (not quite a "bright" size but can be a worn "flat" type brush, softer is better) to smooth out sculpted areas. You can easily tell when it is getting too wet if the whiteness of the clay starts to come off in the water, like you have made slip.

I would also take a ball of clay out of the package and let it sit out while I was working. It gets a little better to work with after it has sat out a little while but you have to keep poking at it/kneading it, otherwise the outside will just get kind of hard. Usually straight out of the package I find it a little too wet, but it doesn't take long for it to get to a good consistency, maybe like 10-15 mins.

On the planning side, I found it immensely helpful to draw out the doll first. I purchased grid paper and drew my doll on it. One sheet I did a front view, and one a side view, taping an extra sheet to the bottom if it wasn't long enough for how tall they were. This way you can make sure everything is the same size both when drawing it AND while sculpting, because you can just place the pieces on top of the paper to see if it's proportional.

To get the proportions correct, just make sure the drawing is correct on the front and side view. I think you can find free proportional drawings online (I remember I had a book by Andrew Loomis on human anatomy and I think his drawings are easy to find because they are older and possibly public domain. You can image search "Andrew Loomis Proportions" and some useful drawings will come up). This should be a good starting point. If the drawing is correct, you will have a much easier time sculpting. It's essential to plan out the doll with a drawing that is 1:1 to scale of the doll you are making and will save you a lot of time.

Also just as a general comment on sculpting... I have three handmade dolls and I don't consider any of them to be good despite them being in proportion and generally okay. I kind of want to just throw them out but it feels too mean, so they sit together in my closet and remind me to practice art. I was really happy with them at the time, though! I just have another 10 years of general art improvement under me now so they just don't feel as good to me now.

 

Oh, I just saw this post of yours. What I did with mine, under the advice of a website that no longer works, was to sculpt it over a form (I think I just did aluminum foil) and then, once dry, cut off part of the head and re-attach it after removing the inner foil part.

For making the eye wells, I actually bought an eye sizer tool from here. This helps you make a shape for the eyes, and also lets you know what size the eyes will have to be.

 

This!
It's a good thing to be proud of what you've done, but it's also a good thing to look back every now and then and see how you have improved.
Just the other day I was looking through finished original doll parts. (I keep them to be able to remake the molds as they wear out.)
Among them I found a head I had completely forgotten about. I had primend it in an attempt to sort out the last defects, but never actually cast it. I remember likeing the over all head, but there were problems I couldn't put my finger on at the time and I ended up sculpting a new head instead. I am glad I did, since the replacement head is one I am currently very proud of, but we'll see how I feel in another decade.
Anyway, the interesting thing is that now when I look at that old head I can see right away what the problem areas are and I can see what it would take to fix them. I couldn't at the time. I knew enough to see that it wasn't "good enough" to cast, but I just didn't know what specifically was wrong with it.
I think it's a good idea to save a few older art pieces, if nothing else to have something to look back at and see how we have since improved.

 

Try to understand the figure by its un-composed- self elements and proportions in the head and the body the planes are essential.

Spoiler: HEA PLANES

The body its the same, boxes and lanes accommodated

Spoiler: body

NEW masters academy have a few courses about scoulture that are really good.

When I am confused about a sculpture I make the skeleton an put the muscles over it, it helps a lot to understand what are you doing an why.

LEARN to sculpt is a long process but the most important thing is just do it constantly

Spoiler: Skeleton

 

Also keep in mind that all air dry clay shrink. Some less than others, but all of them shrink, while polymer clay doesn't. Personally, I started practicing sculpting by making anime style figures with homemade air dry clay (cold porcelain), even though my goal was making my own bjd

For one, it's a lot cheaper to use homemade clay so I don't have to worry about how much clay I have left or how much it's going to cost me on the long run. I'm just goofing around and learning techniques. And two, I get results faster. My adhd brain takes its payment and enjoys it enough to keep me going. And three, I'm still learning to sculpt a person, but without worrying about jointing and mechanisms and body engineering. I will have to learn at some point, but I prefer taking it step by step. Learn to enjoy the process and the result will come naturally

If you'd prefer working on your bjd right away though, I recommend starting with pieces like the bust or the hips. You can familiarize yourself with your tools and material while making a part that is bigger, simpler, and more forgiving than the head or the limbs

Here's a website that details the sculpting process of an artist. It's in Japanese but the webpage is old and basic so google translate works well enough. 初心者のための球体関節人形の作り方

Hope this was all helpful to you

 

My advice is to always use something as a core for your sculpture, so it doesn't blob and deform on itself. For the heads, I use styrofoam or rolled up aluminum foil balls, always making them smaller than the head you're trying to do.
Another advice to you is to have patience, especially with air drying clays. You'll never be able to finish a piece on a single day. For an example, you'll work on covering your core on the first day, wait for it to dry out, build up another layer on your second day, wait for it to dry again, and so on..