MSD Female Elf - First ever attempt!

I've been lurking here in the forums for a while now so I thought I begin my little progress post of what I've been working on this weekend.
I began sketching her format Thursday and have been working this lovely elf since friday. She is based on World of Warcraft's night elves. I really love their look, I thought it would be fun to re-create the super long ears and unique facial markings. I'm not sure if I'll make the enormous eyebrows yet though!

This will be an MSD size girl. My blueprint is a 41 cm doll but we'll see if it comes out that way!

So here was my 1:1 blue-print I know I won't be sticking to it exactly but I like to have my general idea of proportions especially!




Next came the core. I made it from a wire armature covered in aluminum foil and then wrapped in packing tape to make a slick surface to make the core removal easier.




I blocked the body out doing some detail work on the legs but none on the torso. I figured I do the torso details after I removed the core just in case I broke something.




So I let the whole thing dry until it was just hard, not comepletely dry! I had ALOT of issues with cracking and it just kept doing it! Any ideas on how to fix this? I realize that there will always be some cracking but I didn't guess it'd be to this much of an extent!



Now I brought out my lovely exacto knife to cut her legs off! I used the lid off a class jar to create the cut lines.



Then I blocked out the head and the arms! None too pretty yet.



Her arms are just clay over straws right now I just wanted them to be blocked out.



Last but not least I've begun work on sanding her legs! They're looking much better I think! My only issue is still the cracking. Hopefully though once I prime and paint it they won't be visible. I ended up filling the cracks with resin and then popped them in the oven because the resin I have expands with heat. It seems to have worked but I still worry about the integrity of the doll, SUGGESTIONS are greatly apprieciated!




WAYYY MORE WORK TO COME! PLEASE CRITIQUE AND SUGGEST!!

 

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