I'm making my own dolls. Help and suggestions please?

Your dolls aren't bad at all! They even stand on their own, and seem to pose good! You just have to work on proportions and refine them a little with some sanding or blushing / take some more time making them smoother when sculpting them.

Your boys all seem to have really "flat" bodies. They could use some "flesh" around their torsos, thighs and butts. Try to look at some photos of real human bodies in a drawing book or on the web to study human anatomy.

For any help with sculpting, there are lots of pics of other people’s dolls here on this board, just browse through all these posts and look at the artist’s in progress pics for ideas. I myself posted a tutorial all about proper super sculpey (or other similar polymer clay) use. ^_^

 

Try a finer grit like 500 to 800, and WET SAND them (run under a slightly running facuet) so the sandpaper won't load up with clay dust in like 5 seconds. That means you'll need to get some waterproof sandpaper (just go by Home Depot or whatnot and ask, it's not a rare item). :grin:

You saw me at Otakon? I was in Artist Alley with Arwen and Nixie at my table (Custom elf head on DD2 body with blue dreads, and a from-scratch custom blue fox doll). ^__^ Was that me you saw? It was cool to meet people there in Artist Alley!

 

Wow, I just looked it up on the Home Depot website, and they list a (big, expensive) box of 600 wet/dry sandpaper from Norton "The Norton Group (Norton Abrasives) 25Pk. 9x11 In. 600A Durite Sanding Paper Model 6000764"
or a smaller box of "The Norton Group (Norton Abrasives) 5-Pk. 9x11 In. Wet Sanding, Super Fine Model 6000103"--they don't give an actual grit for it.

Give the 'help' desk the model number & see if they actually have the stuff; they might just be ignorant of their stock.


A different place to try is an automotive supply shop that sells supplies for body work. Cars don't end up with great huge scratches after their dents have been fixed, so they have to sell some reasonably fine sanding/buffing stuff. Call first, I think.

Ann in CT

 

I found 400 grit at a local ACE hardware store. It is oddly expensive for sandpaper though, like $6 or something? And with sculpey, you can refine and refine your sculpture until you get it right. Bake it, and add more or carve it away. Speaking of carving, another way you could remove fingerprints and those sorts of things is with an Xacto knive. Use it to gently scrape an area, being sure to keep it slanted (if you hold it too upright it'll nick the sculpture all up). another importand thing to know is when you add sculpey to baked sculpey to make sure the baked part is free from dust and dirt. I've made the mistake of applying sculpey to a nearly freshly sanded surface, and cried in despair when it easily came right off after that part was baked.