Lilith & Tidam (70cm Interchangable Body)

I'm currently working on sculpting my first doll, who I am actually hoping will double as two! *crosses fingers*
My plan is to sculpt two heads & make one base body with interchangeable components (Chest and Hips) to make the body double as both female or male as desired - hoping if I can get them cast and sell them, buyers will have the option to order as either male or female, or an option to order all parts and have the complete interchangeable body.
One head shall be named Lilith and be modeled on the female type body, the other head shall be named Tidam and be modeled on the male type body. Designs below~~



Currently, I have mostly completed the head sculpt for Lilith, progress of the head in the following stages with diary notes during the process ^^


Sculpting Diary: Lilith
Post No.1
(20/06/2016)
I don't know where the drive came from, perhaps from doodling her design at work and figuring out more about her character, and how she would fit with the rest of my characters - but the clay had been sat in my cupboard waiting for the day for me to finally give it a go and try sculpting for myself!
In my head, things ran a lot smoother and I thought it would be easier than it actually is turning out to be, not that I thought it would be a walk in the park, haha! Before I could start, I created a base mold and stuck two beads into it to create the empty space that would be the eyes.
However, after applying the clay as I did - I lost where I'd put them! Smart of me...
But I managed to take a guess and find them with more ease than I expected, however, it's clear to see I spaced them rather far apart, which I made note of to fix at a later date.
After almighty orb had dried, I added the rest of the head base and tried to get a basic nose and mouth attached - honestly? She looks a lot like mash potato and looked a lot better as just an orb with far spread eyes! But I've decided it best to keep working on it, smoothing as much as I could before drying so I could try to refine by sanding later.
Should I successful end up with a sculpt I am happy with, at least I can look back and compare her to how hideous she is at the moment and know it was worth it.
Just need to keep going until I get it right!


Sculpting Diary: Lilith
Post No.2
(21/06/2016)
As stated in the previous post, I left Mrs Mash Potato head to dry so I could attempt smoothing her out by sanding her down and its clear to see (I think) a MASSIVE improvement, she actually looks more human.
Her eyes, brows, nose and lips definitely need more work but I'm pleased with the defined cheek bone I have created, though, sadly - still need to get the other side of the head to match. I am focusing on getting one side how I like before hopefully mimicking the look on the other half of her face.
Currently she looks much like Two Face.
It is probably also very obvious that she doesn't have ears yet... I know I am going to struggle to do these and have opted to finish her face completely before adding the ears on, if my some miracle I got the ears right, I'd hate to mess them up while fixing her eyes etc - so ears will be one of the last elements of the head that I will work on before priming.
But I feel I have already come a good way in this project - but there is definitely a lot further to go and a heck of a lot more work to do!


Sculpting Diary: Lilith
Post No.3
(24/06/2016)
Having settled on what the face shape was going to be of the head, I then went about trying to sand match up the second side, this was much slower progress as I had to keep comparing at multiple angles and still I feel I have a lot more work to get the face more symmetrical!
But I took a break from matching up the two sides of the face to pay some attention to the lips, shaping them more and hollowing out some of the space between the lips to give her more of a slightly opened mouth look.
Overall - I have a lot more work to go, a lot more refining to do but I have a strong determination to get it right!
I have now written a check list to mark off things as I work, so I feel more accomplished as I keep working on her, and remember all the work I still have to do, maybe I'll finish her in a few months if I'm lucky~


Sculpting Diary: Lilith
Post No.4
(28/06/2016)
I did a lot more sanding and trying to match both sides of the face, ignoring the small details such as shaping the eyes etc for now. I also added on the back of her head, trying to get a smooth shape for her overall head shape in order to saw it off and create a better fitting head cap. I have a lot more sanding and smoothing and evening out to do before I get to that point - her head is a little lumpy currently when seen face on.
I am pretty happy with the overall shape of the mouth and nose, both still need a small amount of refining to get them to look more even. However, I'm not too sure how I feel about the eyes - I might fill them in and completely recreate the shape and brow line as my next step.
I am pleased with the profile off the head, I like how she has more of a hooked nose which I hadn't planned on but found myself liking it. Face on I think she looks a little odd, but it might just be because she is still without ears.
But I am enjoying doing all this work and hope I can improve!


Sculpting Diary: Lilith
Post No.5
(04/07/2016)
I think I am actually happy with her eye! (Singular - the other is back to a mash potato stage) And I have also fixed her lips a little more. In creating her eyes, I create a new brow line and bridge to the nose, hopefully this will show more when I have both her eyes complete - though I dread recreating what I have done. Slow and steady is all I can tell myself so I don't mess it up! But I'm excited to finish her eyes and get a better look at her overall and see if I have any more areas that need fixing before moving onto the dreaded ears.
I also need to sand in her jaw line a little more and make it more prominent but this might have to wait until I have removed from from the mold. But I'm pleased with my progress, and I think I am proving hard work is making a difference considering how she looked when I started!
I do look forwards to priming her in the future, having a colour will add more depth so I'll be able to better see the extent of my sculpting, as she is being white sometimes it's hard to see or photo the level of detail I've already put into her. But I am very into this project - I've never been that good at sculpting so admittedly - I am damn proud of myself at the moment!


Sculpting Diary: Lilith
Post No.6
(05/07/2016)
This was one of the parts I was dreading the most! (Aside from sculpting ears)
I had to carefully try and match the second eye and... They're not perfectly identical and probably would never be with my skills, but I am happy! No-one really has a perfectly symmetrical face anyway, I certainly don't so I'm not going to lose sleep over small differences.
But when I sit back and look at her eyes, I am happy, I never expected to get her eyes as neat and detailed as I've managed to on my first attempt so feel very proud of myself, I won't lie.
When sculpting the eyes, I found the best technique for me was to let her dry and carve out the shape I was aiming for. When I was happy with the shape and details I wet the area and let soak for a moment before using a flat fine detail brush to smooth it all out.
I also managed to bring out her cheek to match the other side of her face so feel satisfied with her overall face finally! So it's time for the next step!
Which is removing the top of her head for the head cap and taking her off of her base mold, I'm sure she'll need a lot of smoothing out but I'm feeling a little bit more confident now and think it'll be a small task in the grand scheme of things~ But when that's all done... The ears come ever closer...

 

Sculpting Diary: Lilith
Post No.7
(06/07/2016)
The hardest part of removing the head from the base was cutting the head cap off - in doing so I have sadly warped where the two parts connect and will need to fix this but at least have the full base shape for both! The cap is a little thinner than I expected but I planned to fill it in mostly and create a stamp of some sort inside so will get much thicker. The inside of the head was very messy and the glass beads in place holders for the eyes were pretty firmly stuck in, so much that one of them broke as I was removing them but thankfully none of the face was damaged in the process.
I then got to work filling and smoothing the inside of the head and thickening the head cap with wet clay so it was easier to work with. For now I have left to dry to further fill and smooth and create areas of attachment for both the head cap and s-hook.
She is very near to completion but I will look into more tutorials for guidance on how to successfully sculpts ears. I'm unsure whether to go straight in and just try sculpting onto the head or sculpt separately and attach later, may have to flip a coin!


Sculpting Diary: Lilith
Post No.8
(08/07/2016)
After the head cap was filled and smoothed, giving it an even thickness all the way around, I played around creating a stamp of sorts inside, engraving in it LPoR for Little Piece of Resin and the name Lilith as this is the name of the head sculpt. The engraving turn out pretty neat I feel, I copied the text style for LPoR from a logo I created and hope to use to represent any sculpts I create and tried to write Lilith in a basic as a font as possible. I may be getting ahead of myself design things like these as I'm not confident many people will be interested in my work but I suppose it's for me at the end of the day~
Being up late one evening after my girlfriend and friends went to bed I found a small drive to attempt an ear, looking into tutorials from various artists though in the end just put a picture of an ear up on my screen and decided to give it a go! I decided to make the ears separately for ease as it took me three attempts to get something that I feel is good enough and looks enough like an ear, creating the basic shape and poking in the details before trying to smooth them out a little. The next morning I reflected the design as closely as I could to make a second ear and left the pair to dry. Both need smoothing an refining and generally more before they're ready to be attached but feel I have taken a big step in getting them complete as well as the overall head!
Once I was happy I'd made a good start on completing the ears, I went about finishing the head cap, filling the gaps to get it to sit against the head neatly, using clingfilm as a barrier so I wouldn't end up just 'gluing' the parts back together again. It was a quick task and has been left to dry before finishing it off and moving onto creating the neck and s-hook holes.


Sculpting Diary: Lilith
Post No.9
(15/07/2016)
My task now was to finish off the head cap, create a crevice in which the head would sit on the neck, and finally attach the ears!
After setting up the dremel I got to work smoothing the inside edges of the head cap before using wet clay to add in areas for the magnets to be drilled in to attach the head cap to the head. I mirrored areas into the actual head and after it dried started working on the dip for the head to sit on the neck. I first created the s-hook hole and tiny dip for the hook to sit in inside the head. After I was happy with that I started working around and sanding the dip. It was very time consuming and feel needs more work, but shall leave until I have completed the body so I can more effectively fit it onto the neck.
Once done with these parts I got to work on the ears, preparing to attach them! I had to remove them from the base I sculpted them on and then sand them down to smooth, making them thinner and less bulky. After I was happy with this I wet the back of the ear and mapped out where on the head I wanted them to sit, wetting that area and using fresh clay to attach the ears - smoothing it out and blending them into the head. This took several attempts to get the placement and angles right, but after a whole afternoon working on them I was finally happy! I smoothed down after they dried and feel ready to prime her and see what areas might need more work~


Sculpting Diary: Lilith
Post No.10
(22/07/2016)
To prime her I used Mr Surfacer Primer - and what can I say? This stuff is amazing and she already looked a lot smoother than I expected from one application! It does also help highlight areas that need more sanding or work etc. I got to work smoothing her out and used a small amount of epoxy to fix one of her eyes where there was a slight chip. Once I was happy I sprayed her once again and I am very pleasantly surprised with how she has turned out! While I still have a bit of work to do with her head cap, I feel I have taken a massive step towards having her complete, the head cap simply just needs a little more smoothing on the exterior. I haven't primed in the interior of either yet, saving the primer for when I get to work on her body, considering the inside the final steps of completing her as a full doll. But on a whole her head is done! She has a face!



The final image of her at current! I already want to go back and improve things but have decided on completing the body first before make improvements to the head as I'll be able to better fix things when I have them to play with together and gage how they work in my sculpt. Only after I complete the female form of the sculpt, then I'll sculpt the male chest and hips before finally working on Tidam's head, with all six of his eyes...

The last time I tried sculpting was back in secondary school and I was awful, but modding dolls has helped me understand the medium and working to the scale of BJDs a lot more and feel I've made a massive step compared to my school years! Least - I hope it's an improvement xD

Currently I have started work on the hands for the body - it's very slow progress but I'm keeping a diary of the workings too and I'm hoping to finish them and the feet before the new year... Getting the fiddly stuff out of the way first before I'm hoping to power through!

 

Thank you! Her nose was a little unintentional, I started sanding it now and was going to flatten it more, but couldn't bring myself to, I liked it has a bit of a hook to it so it stayed ;D Thank you for your lovely words too! ^^

 

Aaah! You are too kind!!!
For Lilith, I'm hoping to sculpt her chest and hips with those patterns as holes so that her middle section/stomach can either be another colour resin or, as I'm really hoping, clear with flowers suspended in the center - may not make it available to everyone if people do become interested in her, it's mostly for my own character and I'm not sure how well it'll turn out... but we'll discover - if it's successful hopefully I can offer a limited range with the clear stomach and the rest will have a standard chest/hips without the engraving (I think ahead of myself a lot ^^;;; )
As for Tidam, he's just got paint on him, he's based on the Bunyip from Australian legends so he's got a bit of tribal ceremonial paint on him x'D

 

Thank you so much! What I was hoping for, smaller eyes and a hooked nose - why not ;3

 

Thank you so much, I need to do a little smoothing around her nose still I've realised but I'm pleased with the shape so it's staying ;3

 

Thank you I'm trying my hardest to try make her a little different to the typical pretty female face bjds... Hopefully she'll still be pretty but maybe a little quirky

 

Thank you so much! It means a lot as your sculpts are gorgeous and I'm so in awe of your work I still think the head cap needs work so I'm reworking it little by little to neaten it, but hopefully it'll get there ^^

 

It's been a while, have a new job and only have one day off a work - between working on commissions I've managed to start on doing more work on this project - I want to finish her by the end of the year!
(All diary posts are copy/pastes from my Instagram - I don't know why... I like the format?? ^^;



Sculpting Diary: Lilith Revisited
Post No.11
(06/12/2016)
After a long while away from having worked on this head, I have taken a small amount of time on to continue work on her as I have come to realise I have a few changes I need to make and a few things I can do the improve the head overall.
Ive started with what is probably a small thing in the grand scheme of things - but this head cap really needs some work, I’ve started by adding on some guides to hold the cap in place better but intend to fit them better after it’s dried and smooth out the inside of the cap more as well as fill some of the gaps around the fitting that have occurred due to sanding. While the head cap isn’t a massive part of the doll and will be covered by a wig, it’s bothering me and I know I can make it more professional - so this is my current task!
After I’ve completed this, I intend to work on the head hole that will sit on the neck to make it smoother and a better fit to the average SD neck size for potential hybridising? I also want to smooth some more of the facial features, there are some points around the mouth and nose I think are a tad too bumpy and might be very obvious when cast so want to make sure I get her right.
It’ll be tedious and long winded but needs to be done! Hopefully her head will be finished before the new year~



Sculpting Diary: Lilith Revisited
Post No.12
(24/12/2016)
Small update just to demonstrate how the head cap sits now. It hold on place a lot better now but there is still a noticeable gap around the edge of where it meets the back of the head which needs improving on. I also need to sort out the appearance of the interior of the head cap to smooth it out and make it more ‘professional’ and finished looking, so not much of an update - still got a lot of work to do~~



Sculpting Diary: Lilith Revisited
Post No.14
(11/01/2017)
Finally been working on these ears! Smoothing them and resculpting some of the interior. Also smoothing out the face some more to even out the surface. Think I’m ready to spray with primer again and see what needs working on next~



Sculpting Diary: Lilith Revisited
Post No.15
(25/01/2017)
Sand and prime, sand and prime. I’m stuck in a rinse and repeat cycle of working on this head. The ears are looking a lot better now, I’ve also been working on the dip for the join to the neck, but it’s all turning into small improvements which are time consuming - but needs to be done!
Hopefully next update she might be finished and I can continue work on the body!



Sculpting Diary: Lilith Revisited
Post No.16
(01/02/2017)
With lack of time to continue sculpting I took some time to investigate the pose mechanics that the head currently has - when attaching to a Ringdoll 60cm Female body I fast realised the dip in which the neck connects to the head is still far too shallow as even with a shorter neck, you can clearly see the rounded top of the neck when moving the head to pose it. Aside from this, the head still has good movement and ability to pose, but simply just looked odd due to the amount of neck on show and height of the neck.
So while I believe I have finally got the face and ears to a point I am happy with, I now must focus more on creating the jointing point and focus on the mechanics for possibility to hybrid as well as hopefully making it easier to pose the head when I finally sculpt the body due to already having a point of experience with comparing it to its movement on other bodies etc
It’s a long and slow project and I’m sure to find more I wish to fix in the future, but I am determined!

 

(I had also started working on the hands)



Sculpting Diary: 70cm Body Post No.1
For some bizarre reason in starting to sculpt the body I have focused on doing the hardest areas first - I suppose to try get them done and out of the way before focusing on the main bulk.
So my starting point in the body sculpt was to make these very creepy wire frame hands, which I do think look very sinister! I had to twist wire around itself before starting to pose and shape into these vaguely hand shaped frames. It was very awkward to arrange the wire into hand-like shapes and to get the size correct I had a set of hands which I measured against hoping to get it right before creating the pose I wanted to sculpt on top of.
I plan to build up the clay around the shape before carving and sanding to shape and create rather skeletal/boney hands - remembering I’ll have to compare the hands to the head I’ve created to make sure they’re all in proportion to one another - it’s a long project but I can’t wait to see if I can do this!
So safe to say I’m in the very early stages and I have a lot of work ahead of me - but got to start somewhere!



Sculpting Diary: 70cm Body Post No.2
And then I created meat clubs - they look nothing like hands. But like when sculpting the head I know I’m creating excess just to sand and sculpt the shape I’m aiming to get as an end result. Yet, I’m still very aware of how ugly they are at the moment!
I plan to shape and texture the fingers first one at a time before working on the palms etc in hope I’ll pick up a few detailing techniques along the way as I experiment so that I can create fine vein textures along the back of the hand.
Once all that is complete I’ll work on creating the ball joint and s-hook area. But the hands I fear are going to be a very long project, with shaping each finger, adding texture and nails, then knuckles and vein lines - can’t even draw hands and I’m going into this having never tried sculpting a hand before ever, it may end up being scrapped and restarted but I’ll keep trying until I get it right!



Sculpting Diary: 70cm Body Post No.3
Having left the clay to dry out, I resumed to working on the hands, sanding down the fingers and starting to shape them. In the shaping, I want to make the hands look boney and long - it’s very slow work, so far I’ve only got one finger to the state I want it to be in minus further detailing and refining.
It doesn’t look all that different to the meat hands so far, just thinner, but with more work I’m hoping to eventually get some hands that I can be proud of, but that’s a very long way off! Eventually I’ll get there - I hope… the next step is working further on the fingers to complete them to a state I’m happy with before working on the thumb and the overall hand shape and textures.
Just got to keep going~~



Sculpting Diary: 70cm Body Post No.4
Progress is VERY slow, but the fingers are starting to take shape. The basic shape, length and position is all there, just need more refining and details, including texturing the joints and creating finger nails.
The thumb and palm etc all still need more clay adding and ire sculpting work to be done, and the other hand is still an unsculpted lump of mess, but little by little they’ll start to take shape - hopefully.
Not much more to say about them other than I have a lot more work ahead of me, progress is very slow!