66cm+ Dolls My first BJD head

I am stupidly excited to post here. I was going to join the Joint, about a month before it was announced it was merging with DOA, and chickened out because I hadn't sculpted anything. I was planning to, I'd bought some paper clay, and a few more tools (I already owned some used for modding dolls I already owned), but I wasn't ready to start actually sculpting.

After a couple intensive (for me) mod projects I thought I might give it a try, and on a whim while waiting for the milliput added to a mod to dry, I started my first head. I call him Lump. He has a real name, but I have put off using it....because if he never worked out and had a name I'd feel terrible. So for now he's still Lump...because that's what he was.



Yeah.
I took a lot of progress shots. I mean really. I won't terrify everyone by putting them all here (and I put every one of them on flickr). And he got better. *cough*







Ok so about here I thought I might actually manage to make him a working head. I feel lucky that while these threads were being built we had the one in the celebration section - I was able to ask questions and get a lot of help from people who actually know what they're doing. I have no idea. I haven't sculpted a thing since college and we never made anything with any sort of details. I got some great advice about clay and switched brands so he's a little blotchy. The stone clay (which I think is just finer paper clay?) is much better to work with! I had an easier time with it than the paper clay, which sanded fine, but came off in chunks when I tried to carve it.



Creative ways I had to place him to dry...



I turned weird.

I carved a neck hole. It was fail.



But an ok start! My plan was to hopefully make him fit a Dollshe Classic (the "new" rerelease from years ago) body. I have a small horde of Dollshe heads and looking at their holes there was no way it was going to fit...but I tried anyway. Eventually. So far the back of his head isn't even off yet.

Oh wait, there it is.



This was one of those bad moments when I wondered what the hell had I done.

Ugh.



First fitting.



I had to dismember the Joker since his is the only Classic I own without a neck mod. The s-hook wouldn't fit through the hole, so I was just holding it on by hand. Not the best way, but it gave me an idea....





...and the idea was that it didn't work at all. *screams*
After comparing him to Jokers head (Ringdoll Norman Dark) I decided it wasn't as bad as I thought it was, and decided to add more to the back and carve out more in the front (and back) to see if it would sit on the neck better.

Which I think is a good place to break...

 

Wee! Lump; the continuation!

Along with fixing the neck hole, I dremeled out the head back so it's not so scary.



The new hole!



Looks like the old hole! It's not, it's totally different I swear.

Tada!



Fits! He's not very...good. lol
Don't look too closely at his eyes. So far I've done nothing to make them eye-shaped. Inside or out. But! He's on the body for real! Hooked in and everything!





So his head movement is actually pretty good, but he looks weird to me. I haven't fixed it yet, because all I can figure to fix him is to put the head back back on and add to the back of his head, then cut it back off again. D:
And I'm not looking forward to that at all.

So instead I kept refining his face.

added more to the chin (he needed that so bad)



Evened out his eyes so they're much less...awful.
They did kind of get bigger than I originally planned, but I like it, it works for him. (believe it or not I was going somewhere with this guy)



Some reworking of the mouth and added to his jaw again and this is where I left off.









Yes, I gave him a pencil faceup. I am dying to paint him and he's not even a head yet.

I've been busy and haven't had the chance to touch him in weeks, but hopefully this weekend I'll have some sculpting time! (also I have another mod to start, and what's funny is the first thing I have to do is remove the ears...).

So my future plan (which will hopefully be in a day or so) is to:
Add the mouth lines in clay. I figure since I would draw them on anyway I might as well attempt to make them for real.
Give him ears. I wasn't avoiding this because I was afraid to try them (though I do think they'll be hard), I was afraid I'd break them. I'm not gentle. But I guess they have to happen sometime.
Work on his jaw which still isn't even
Same with the temples
figure out his head shape. Bleh.
clean up the inside. I don't know how people get their hands in a dolls head to sand but I'm not finding it easy.
Make sure the hole works. And make an s-hook hole. Right now it's more like a tear I made when I forced the hook through.

Oh here's one that freaks me out - figure out how to attach the head back. I have no idea. I mean, at all. D: So far I don't know how to make it not horrible fitting and look good.

So there you go. My first attempt at making a head! Or anything at all! It's not terrible, I'm happy with where he is right now. Some of those middle pictures tho. D:
I think it's got a long way to go. Hopefully I can make him work.

Fingers crossed!

EDIT: omg he's still so crooked! haha *dies*

 

TFW you realize you have a lot more to do on your first head than you thought....

So I was inspecting Lump last night and realized that on a body, without being tilted forward, he'd be looking up. So I tried to add more to the back in hopes of straightening him out. Not sure this is going to work without doing the thing I really don't want to do, which is re-sealing the head back back on. UGH.







Years ago when I first had the idea of trying to sculpt a doll I was afraid the hardest part would be the actual working parts. The joints, the head back, the neck hole....and I was right XD at least I'm not on any kind of deadline.

 

Ha ha thanks! My roommate was creeped out by that too. I thought it was funny

 

Ugh ugh ugh

I did the thing.






On one hand this sucks so much, on the other he really really needed more back of his head. So I guess it's ok. As long as I don't kill him trying to get the back off again. I might dremel...which might actually be worse! but who knows.





Obviously he needs still more. But I want him to dry at least a little first. So back to waiting and watching clay dry.

 

As much as I was not looking forward to doing this, he looks a lot better.



I added more clay to round out his head. Both on the sides and (more obviously) on the top.



I'll sand him tomorrow when he's all dry, and see how he looks. I have a feeling I'll be filling in holes XD
Just sitting like that he looks like he might sit straighter on a body, but I can't find out until he's dry. Then more sanding.

I still think he looks better.... so much work though.



At least now I can think more about the head back, and how it will attach. I have no idea how to do it.

Also I finally tried to even out his brow which was not remotely even. I think I almost got it.



Tiny steps!

 

Lump had a mishap last night. I jumped the gun and started sanding him before he was totally dry and the lip of his neck hole cracked. Looking at the above pictures you can actually see where the crack would later happen. I tried to repair it but ended up just taking the whole thing off again and resculpting it.



Then I had to leave the room so I would leave him alone. His new head looks better though. Brows are still uneven.

 

Thank you!!
Ha ha now that his head is better shaped he could pull off a Captain Picard look!! maybe! XD

I'm not sure I can do them, but I have an idea how so I may give it a shot (I'm a little afraid to mess up his lips, I like them right now! lol). I did add some mouth lines at the corners, which I was hoping would reinforce his barely-there smile.

Thank you!!! *many hugs* Your taste is a little like mine I think, so I'm glad you like him! Are you going to post yours here too?


Well I've had some progress. I haven't uploaded the photos yet, but I worked on rounding out his head, sanding the neck socket and I tried him on the body again -- success! So far! It really works. It fits better with a deeper socket, and the shape of it must be better too, I thought he looked a bit big last time, but this time, he's perfect.

Then I added the smile\mouth lines. I'm waiting for him to dry again. This is worse than watching paint dry. Way worse. Might be a good time to Nano....

 

Progress over the weekend! But then I didn't upload my photos until just now.

Flickr is driving me crazy btw, I think they're making it bad on purpose so everyone will just upgrade...

Finally got it to work so here's some stuff!

first, nice, round, newly shaped head! Looks better to me!







As usual, not 100% perfect. But it's a non-issue at this point.

So I needed to see what he looked like on the body again, since I have messed with the neck socket and head size (putting him on a body is what made me see his odd proportions finally) - it's not perfect since I can't actually attach him with his head sealed up again, but





Looks pretty good! Better than it did! I'm not sure what happened, but I thought he was kind of big the first time....now I feel like he's way more proportioned. I should know however, that a lot of proportion is neck fit....having modded so many necks to better fit heads lol
So it might be the deeper socket that did the trick. Who knows. Who cares really, he works! yay! moving on!

This was my attempt at getting lines at his mouth corners. I think I accidentally made him less smiley....but I'm hoping I can fix it. Regardless I like this. Though from here I might have changed it a bit, I can't remember when I took the pic.



At this point I got excited about him and put a wig on...but I wasn't feeling it at all. I need to find a decent wig for him. I personally, will glue hair on when he's done (and cast, which is my ultimate plan) but not everyone does that, so, wig. I kind of thought he needed more forehead, so I went to instagram to get fast feedback (and did).

The pics I posted





After getting some advice (which was, yes, more forehead), I grabbed my drawing anatomy model - Sven - to compare.



Terrible photos....my apt is so bad for any kind of light. Also no where without stuff to take a pic. BUT anyway Sven says yes, his forehead is way too sloped. Add more. Always listen to Sven. I started to use Sven as a model to build up his head, but then I realized it doesn't need to be totally anatomically correct anyway, because he'll have hair. Sorry Sven, back to the shelf with you.

I never took any pictures, so that's all I got. But hopefully when I go back to him he'll magically fit nicely in wigs and I'll be able to move on to something more fun that his stupid head shape.

EDIT: it has also occurred to me that the reason he looks so odd is that he has no ears. But to bad he's not getting them until I'm almost done.

 

@AirimirOfGondor thanks. I think he looks better now. I still can't decide if the head shape and size is right, but comparing him to other BJD heads, he looks about right at this point.

I'm trying to work up the courage to cut off the back of his head right now. I am afeard.

 

@AirimirOfGondor Thank you!!

Well I did it! This is my second time doing it and it wasn't any better than the first!! How the heck do people get the backs off so they fit nicely?? At least I might have a method to get them to fit now that it's over....but who knows if it will work or not?

Anyway, I have progress updates.

I did a lot of sanding this weekend.
I sanded his head. Then added more clay and sanded more.



At this point I was starting to get afraid of making him too big, so I compared him to several other companies heads (Iplehouse, Dollshe, IOS, Dollmore and Granado since I literally had them all on hand) and decided he was fine and done. I don't want to deal with it anymore. I tried a wig on him and I think, FINALLY, it looks ok. I mean, it looks terrible, but it fits him well. Sadly I have no idea what size this is XD



So I decided it was time.





I used the dremel this time. It was faster, but just as messy as the knife I used the first time.
It was also below freezing and snowing out and I did it anyway. I am not patient. I was very cold tho.



look at all that extra clay I added D:

Then I went back out and dremeled him out. Still cold.



So it's not great, but slightly better. Then I got impatient again and started carving with a tool.....but that was the last picture I took. I'll go back out with a different dremel attachment to work on it some more later.....



So he's apart again. Good news is, I can put him on a body now and see just what needs to be done....bad news is, I have idea how to finish the head cap. I mean, it doesn't fit because I can't cut, and I'm currently trying to get that to work....but ugh.
I think I know how I want to put magnets in....but that can't happen until the thing fits. Also I couldn't tell what was the top and what was the bottom....So people who will be doing this in the future - mark that before cutting it off!!! Last time I didn't have a problem, but this time it was almost impossible to tell. Hopefully I got it right because it's too late now. I added clay already.

My attempt at fixing this is to add clay to the back, put some wax paper on it, then smoosh it to the head and hope it fixes the fit issue enough that I can sand it down. We'll see.

After I get the fit issues worked on and the inside looking nicer, I plan on adding ears. He is at the point where i can't tell how he really looks with no ears. I have to see him whole. Plus I have three earless heads now and it's getting weird.

Also I bought primer since I was in a hobby shop buying MSC because why not? So when I get to that stage....someday.....I can actually do it. yay!

 

Spoilers! I mixed up the top and bottom of the head back XD
Tonight I got home and put them together and it was obvious which was which. I think I fixed it. Maybe.

 

Yay I can't wait to see your guy here. I've loved his progress. Ancient cats take a lot of time.
Oh I have that problem. I have a bunch of Dollshe bodies but only one that hasn't been modded. So he's sacred XD and the only one I can use to try Lump on. Nothing can happen to him!
but lol your cute waifs

Seriously I still don't know if I have it on right, but it's too late now. It's been fitted to work. I'm so close. SO CLOSE
but yay!! I'm so happy you like him. I have a few friends who say they want one but I think they're just being nice...I never know if what I like is going to be something anyone else does...

 

Thank you!
Yeah I took a million pictures XD first time mom and all.
There's even on (on flickr and possibly instagram) of the foil ball half covered in clay. It's possible I have gone over board with the photos. (and yet I don't have any of what he looks like now, which is the same, but with a nicer inside.)