My doll in progress (Update!!! comment please! )

Alright! So, I didnt use an armature, too used to not using one to start now, and I havent made much progress on the new head, but I think it looks very nice so far! Tell me what you think!

 

I had to start over.. will put pics here when I can

 

Yeah.. didnt know how to use one, or even what to use, I agree it'd have been a LOT easier.. But her face has developed a LOT from what it was lat night.. merely a egg shape with a head cap line drawn on ops:
I am trying to make her torso now.. and I can say that, from how big her head turned out, she'll be a LOT bigger than I anticipated.. gonna make the torso and then head back to Micheals for more sculpey, sandpaper, some elastic string, and maybe a can of base paint and some sealers... If I am very very polite possibly some acrylics and brushes for her first faceup, and a large wig I can chop up to make a wig for her... I will be working on her non stop this weekend, and with as much progress as I'm making.. I know I'll have her body and upper legs done by tomorrow night, at the very least. I plan to bake her head today, and if I get the base pant and sealers, I'll do that tonight, too. I cant afford to buy any real eyes as of yet, so I'm just gonna grab a cheap bag of solid colored/white marbles and paint some for her, real quick ones.

I agree what she looks rather ethnic, though really it wasnt what I had planned (nothings turning out how it was planned, lol), I think she'll look really nice when i'm done. The face is resting right now while I am building her upper torso from the neck down. I also have her left upper leg done, and it's setting as well. I made the threading hole pretty big, and it's very smooth and uniform too, yet still thin enough to not compromise the intergrity of the arm. I did it pretty ghetto, using the drill-like tool on both ends at first and then smmothing it out by using an unfolded paperclip to go all th way through, and spinning it a bit to make it bigger, then, upon deciding it was still too sketchy, I murdered a blue gel pen with a thick ink tube and pushed that through it, and I used it to match the joint up to the leg, too, so if you remove the pen you can see perfectly through the hole.. I'm glad I am not having problems with that part of things, hehe.

 

Well.. I was browsing and looking at her face, and.. I decided it's way too guy-ish for my tastes. yes, a wig would've accentuated a lot and it could've been fixed in the sanding... but.. I decided to try it now. And I'm VERY happy. I took a little off the chin, shortened and widened the head a bit, and removed the lips to be replaced with thinner ones, which is what I am doing now, because.. well, I wanted her to have a very slender, delicate profile, and that just wasnt it. I'm glad sculpey is such a versatile material. The head is now closer to what I wished it to be, and hopefully after sanding can be exactly what I wanted. let me say, however.. Making a ball of clay large enough to start the torso from is A MAJOR PAIN because sculpey is so difficult to warm up in large amounts..

I will post pics of the new face as soon as I get the lips done though

 

well it caved in after I remade it so.. I have nothing. x_x will work on it tomorrow

 

I never had white sculpey.. I worked with the super sculpey too much and the next thing I knew I was holding a mushy ball of clay in my hands.

Now I cant even seem to get past making it into a ball, kind of disheartening to fail four times and get nowhere.

 

Last update for tonight!! Decided I want to be able to freely change her ears so this is the final head, and I will make ears later and bake them and then glue them on thick wires to make headbands, like Chii ears but not as cool. Though, she would make a cute little kid-ish persocom, wouldnt she? I think that since the face is so young looking, I'll need to adjust the body to fit. Slim and lanky, like a little kid that hasn't quite caught up with her growth spurt yet, so cute, hehe. *is in an awesome mood cause she finally finished the face*




















Some might be blurry but I dont care! Shes SO cute, it just makes me happy that I've gotten this far. Will be working on her all night and day so expect another update tomorrow!!

And, her name is gonna be Mikayla

 

well, I'm doing the best I can. Wednesday I should have her at my dads, so I will try to use his camera, its much clearer. Really the pictures look much better if they're just smaller.. they actually make the head bigger onscreen than in real life. I'm going to bake her and sand her today... priming and such will be done at a later time due to lack of paint, but it needs to be done since she got kinda dirty in my room >.<; had her on my shelf next to my incense burner and didnt know the ash spread that far out.... But it's alright, nothing major.

I did a sketch for the body last night *didnt feel like staying up* and really I think it does help alot, it's just hard to put the drawing to scale. I mean, shes so much bigger than I anticipated ops:

I know it's hard to see with the camera but really in real life shes quite smooth. The lighting isnt so good at this table and, as you said, my camera sucks. I need to adjust the hole for her neck joint ever so slightly before shes baked, since it's a bit off center right now and that makes her head sit a bit tilted, which, while cute, should not be the only thing shes capable of. I plan to use an armature for the torso parts, since with my design the upper torso will be much shorter than the lower, and I hope I can get some better pics for you guys soon. It just seems like the camera makes all her features so drastic..

I did some slight, final adjustments to her lips cause, as you can see in the pics, they got a bit smushed when I was hollowing her out, and while I couldnt do anything to make them wider... I did manage to give them a bit more depth, which I think is better than nothing.

Will type more later cause I gtg to school now.

 

You were supposed to actually say something, silly >.<;

 

=P go look at some of the other dolls here, you wont be saying that anymore ops:

 

Pics of the torso! It needs to be hollowed a little more but I am letting it set until I try anything else.




















There is a piece of foil threaded through the hole going between both arms, just to show that its there. hopefully I can bake them both tonight.. but I have a feeling I wont get around to it.

 

I promise she'll look much better after sanding n.n
And my dad's friend works in plastic, all I have to do is ask REALLY nice to get a few extra resin copies if you'd really like her.

 

Okies, right now I am at my dads so I can't take pictures, but I promise I will monday so dont worry!
I finished hollowing the torso and and currently sanding it.. my dad says the breasts are too big >.<; I think he should see some of the Volks 1/6th scale dolls then! But really, they wont stand out too much under clothes. It's just the nudie-ness that makes them look big. I'll probably end up sanding them down anyways, to get a better shape.
I've sanded the head a little too, and already know that this isn't going to be the only head for this body. I'm worried that after making the lower torso, since in sketch form it's pretty big, the head will look too small. I'm also regretting putting the flair on her shoulders, but, I can always cut it off I suppose, or make a separate torso part. I'm kinda wondering how I should start her lower torso. The top is going to round off so that she has mobility in her torso joint, and shes going to have a bit of a tummy, too. Just enough to be cute, though. I kinds wish I hadnt told my dad about it, because it bothers me that he's seeing it naked. Like he expected me to sculpt it with clothes on or something >.<;

Oh well, I'm going to start on the lower torso, hopefully it looks alright and I can get started on the limbs, and by monday or tuesday I should be harassing my grandma to go to Micheals, then jo anns fabrics, and then to order me a bunch of pastels online.

 

Finally! an update.
Well, the old headcap broke, plain and simple. I tried attaching a loop and stringing it with all the stress on the headcap... BIG no-no. So, I made a new one, fits much better, gives a more natural shape to her head, and supports the odd stringing system to devised. When her headcap had broken, I was experimenting to see how she posed, and pulled the string through her eye sockets, just so something would hold her head down. I realised that if i could find a way to disperse the stress more evenly, she'd be fine, since this method worked quite well. So, taking a HUGE risk... I hand-drilled two holes on either side of her head, and looped the string through them in a way that, when pulled taught, would run through a groove on the headcap and hold it in place, as well as hold the head firmly onto the neck. I didnt take any pictures of how its strung itself, but you can see in the pics that I am NOT holding her head on, which is like a breakthrough for me. It isnt posed very well, but.. my hand was cramping XD

So anyways, on with the pics! you can also see the lower torso, which I think it a tad too thin... but, maybe its fine. I am just gonna sand it and continue working on her limbs, it can be fixed later at any time I want, so, no worries.

 

Yeah but unfortunetly only realised that after I'd baked it. I may try to cut them off, I've got to do a lot to the hips and torso to make them more functional, but as it is, currently, the arm is mobile enough for most posing. The ball joint is big enough to allow it to be almost straight out to the side, and other than going up, it provides decent mobility. When I first went into this I was more running blind than anything and the torso was one of the least thought out pieces. It was late at night and I wanted to get it baked and over with, and with the modifications that have been made... its not as immobile as you think. The hips need quite a lot of work though. I couldnt do so much with them because of the 'lip' on the edge of the joints, when it was soft, because whenever I cut through the lip it'd just start ripping it away instead of cutting. So now I have a lot of adjustments to make. It will be a bit difficult at first to get the ball joints to fit in there.. right now they may be too big but I think they look right. I am using SOOM bodies as a model from now on, I just hope that the lower torso isnt too late to save.

Regardless... this is my first doll and I am not trying to make it perfect. It is kind of an experiment, and though in the end it ends up being just as expensive for my parents and grandparents as buying me a normal doll, they believe that it is worth it because it is a learning experience for me. So essentially, I have a free liscense to try anything I want as long as I am making it myself. I will stick mainly to polymer clay for a while but I will also experiment with air dry clays and the like.

Dont get me wrong, its not that I am not trying, because I am. But I know that some things on this will not work as well as the real dolls, and I am not attempting to achieve that level until at least my second or third doll. The second one is actually already being planned because although I am not finished I can see a lot that I could have done better. Unfortunetly, since a lot of the things are already baked nearly to the point of being burnt, there is not much I can change in this stage of the game. And then of course, once shes done, theres the fact that I can't sew for my life ops:

I can already feel the bond that most doll owners speak of though.. Imperfect as she is, its very nice to see her head and torso strung so that she can sit and curiously look up at me all on her own. I cant wait till I get her limbs done either, since I really need to see how it all fits together before I make any rash decisions and start changing stuff. And, though its sort of odd, her imperfections are kind of a bit of her personality, as well.

 

Well last night I made a lot of changes and decisions about my doll.
Right now she isnt smooth enough, even if I gave her a base coat she'd still look rough and unprofessional. So, I'm going to use gesso on her. I'm going to buy that today. I also filed off EVERYTHING on her chest, and it is now, basically, an armature. I will re do her collar bone, make her breasts smaller and more natural, and, of course, the shoulder caps are gone ops: sorry! Also, seeing it filed off, the lower torso looks way too big, so, I am pondering going with a three part waist, making a small squished oval for the midsection and then a lower hip sculpt that resembles Seol-a from Dollstown. Due to the change in size her arm may also need to be filed, but really, that isnt much of a problem because I was considering changing the elbow joint, anyways.

So I have a lot of plans for my doll. I will need to buy lots more sculpey at the store to do all this, however, and will probably be staring at the dollstown seol-a page forever while I am sculpting her new three part torso. I think that it would work much better, however, and really I can change the torso to about anything I want if I just sit and file a little. The gesso, while maybe not as rock hard at the wood clay you mentioned, I know from past experience is VERY hard when dry and applied in layers. I used it to coat a plaster mask in last years art class and, though it increased the weight by about 2.5 lbs (big mask and a 3/4 inch thick layer) I have dropped it MANY times and its not gotten a scratch... So its quite durable. I also like it because it is very easy to sand and, as seen in fancyboots' leibchen, gives a very nice finish.

So that is basically the direction I am going in with my doll.