Materials materials for an entire doll?

Yay! another person making an anthro . I'm excited to see your progress since I love anthros and am making one of my own. I'm still pretty new at this, my first doll is about half finished, but I thought I'd try to answer with what I've learned so far.

Ok, so, list of ingredients:

- Clay - This will be down to what you prefer using. Most people seem to use paper clay, which is nice because it's air dry and easy to sand and add on to. Personally I opted for using super sculpey because I'm too impatient to wait for it to dry and it's a clay I'm already comfortable working with. Anyway, do some research around the forum and decide what type of clay fits you best. The doll I'm working on is about 35 inches and I used one 1lb box of super sculpey, I imagine whatever clay you choose that amount ought to be sufficient.
- Joint balls - For these you can use wooden balls, beads, styrofoam balls, pretty much anything that is spherical and the right size for the joint. You can even make your own using molds made out of junk clay or buy 3d printed joints from www.shapeways.com. Some things to consider: If you plan on baking your work at all you won't want to use styrofoam as it will melt and produce fumes. If you opt for wooden craft balls be aware that they tend to be made out of incredibly hard wood and really hard to cut grooves in (I learned this the hard way >.< )
- Sculpting tools - Whatever you feel will help you get the job done. I can't say too much about these since all I really use as "tools" are a steak knife and a pencil, but those work for me.
- Sanding materials - You'll want a decent collection of sandpaper in verying degrees of roughness, a pack of steel wool helps tremendously for working with irregularly shaped pieces, and if you want to make your life really easy, consider getting a dremel (if you don't already have one, and they can be a bit pricey, but honestly they're a lifesaver and so worth it)
- Something to make a frame out of - This can be styrofoam, aluminum foil, straws and dardboard. Whatever will give you a rough inner frame to put clay on and then take out so it's hollow.
- Metal things - You'll need one large S hook for the head and four smaller one for hands and feet. You will also need some magnets, depending on style you're going for two or four for the headcap and two for the tail if it's going to be attached by magnets.
- Eyes - One pair in the size that will fit your doll. These aren't completely necessary but they help a lot in making correctly sized eyewells versus using balls or beads.
- Primer - Something to prime your doll with so you can see all the imperfections and know what to work on and sand. I use rustoleum automotive primer in gray and it's worked fine so far, but there are many options to use in this department.
- Elastic to test string your doll with.
- Protective equipment - A mask to use when sanding, gloves if you're dealing with something that may muck up your hands.(don't sand without a mask on, I don't heed my own advice on this way too often and it just makes your entire respiratory system feel nasty :P)

Those should be all the basic materials you should need to sculpt your doll. I won't get into casting since that is something I haven't even tried myself yet so I only know it from reading about it and watching videos.

As for where to start, honestly, it's best to just begin sculpting and see how it goes. Don't be nervous, sculpting is very forgiving(compared to other art mediums such as drawing, in my opinion) and you you can pretty much change and fiddle with anything you don't like by either sanding or adding more clay. You will need to decide If you want to sculpt your doll in parts or sculpt it whole then cut and joint. I started with sculpting in parts and honestly, sculpting whole seems like a much better idea as it takes a lot of adjusting to make everything symmetrical when all you have is a bunch of clay cylinders. You may also want to check out batchix's videos here -> http://www.youtube.com/user/batchix ... she does an excellent job on explaining how to start sculpting a doll and it's really what made me want to try to sculpt my own. But mostly just take some clay and play with it until you have something you are satisfied with, then ask people (here or people you know) because constructive criticism is really indispensible and it really helps to have another pair of eyes look at your work and catch inconsistencies you may have missed. Hope this helps, and good luck!

 

First here is link to thread on the form with a list of tutorials, quite useful.
http://www.denofangels.com/joints/s...oll-Tutorial-Links-(checked-links-2012-01-23)

List of item that I use when making BJDs:
-a scaled drawing: To make sure everything is the desire scale.
-Clay: I use paper clay, since it is relatively inexpensive. I prefer air dry clay.
-a cup of water: helps keep the clay moist when working with it, but be careful with the amount water. It can turn your project in a slimy mess.
-sculpting tools: I use basic set of clay tools, plus flat and round toothpicks.
-ball joints: I make them by mine by hand. Often rolling little balls of clay and sticking them on a round toothpick. Which doesn't make a truly round joint but it works.
-S hooks: You will need 4 smalls one( for the hands, and feet), and one big one( for the head). You can make them by hand using wire, and pliers, but I don't recommend using paperclips as S-hooks. They do work well for test stringing. I recommend making the hooks out of jewelery, or telephone wire.
-Faceups can be found on Den of Angels,but in general they are MSC/Testers, Soft pastels, Acrylics, water pencil that don't contain oil, and watercolors.
-face protection: especially when spraying MSC that stuff smells really bad. I remember correctly I needed like an N95 with organic vapor filters.

There are also some books on bjds, but most of them are in Japanese.

 

I am currently working on a fox too. Mine will be more of an adult and not as cute as yours (planning on some epic boobage). I will be using a styrofoam core, wooden joints and papier-maché (not paperclay, I use this powdery stuff that is basically just grinded rough paper and dry glue. Mix it with water and you'll get a dough-like substance). Not quite sure yet what I will be using for details (face, hands, feet), probably epoxy sculpt.

The others already have already suggested pretty much everything you need to know. But if there is anything specifically fox-ish that you are struggling with or if you are using the same materials and encounter a problem, feel free to PM me and maybe we can help each other out. )