I started another head while brainstorming for my own kitty BJD View attachment 278 Using castilene this time. Again solid wax but I was bit short on it so put wooden ball in there. I thought it would be easier to hollow out later on. Also heats up faster in microwave. I forgot I had the wooden ball in there one point so got the whole head melted, turned into hot chunk of wax. View attachment 279 View attachment 280 I got a lot more to go on this guy, but figured I would post the progress so that I would be more motivated to work on it.
dang son you weren't kidding when you said you had a knack for likenesses. really, really awesome job so far, I can tell who it is already (also I hope you hadn't gone too far on this sculpt when it melted, holy jeez I would have smashed everything)
Thanks Sailor!! Glad you are liking the progress so far. I appreciate your encouragement. As for molten wax, I have done that many times. I have even spilled lava hot wax on my crotch a few times. It was a sad and painful day; I could not ride for a while...
CASTELENE!!!? Really? lol i'm so jealous cause i have huge tubs of it i dont know how to use yet. Your head sculpt looks absolutely stunning. So detailed and realistic. looking forward to seeing more of your work.
Yes Castilene. Thank you very much for the compliment, Poochbot. I had mostly used sculpey before I had to switch to castilene/ modeling wax. I find it way easier to sculpt with it now. I miss old Castilene...It smelled minty and more opaque back then.... When Compleat Sculptor bought the right from the original maker, they messed with the formula.
View attachment 286 I did more to it. A good new friend of mine, PegasusxCroquet is sending me Soom 65cm torso as reference so I guess I would make the head fit to the body. I got more to do on this head....
Hot damn, you have an amazing talent for likenesses! Srsly, he looks SO REAL. The texture on his lips is astounding!
I am very interested in how you are going to mold it, and what material you are you are going to cast it in. (^_^)
Thanks for the compliment, HystericalParoxysm and blueberry-doll. Sadly I am not that talented; I just have patience. I did bit more to the head today. Figured I would exaggerate the cheek bone and the lips more. I have received some eye balls (8mm, 10mm, 12mm in diameter) along with Soom 65cm torso from PegasusxCroquet today So I made a hole to fit the neck and hollowed out the head to fit those eyes. Iris's size was bit off to me unfortunately...I ended up making a set. Just hand painted wooden balls and clear coated them. Good enough for what I am doing, I reckon... I will post pictures of the head tomorrow. Thanks for the encouragement folks.
My question is, what on earth more do you have to do on this head, because it looks flawless. god damn
Thanks Sailor! I always appreciate your compliment and encouragement!! As I mentioned in earlier post, I have worked on his cheeks and lips more. I also hollowed it out fitted my hand painted ghetto eye balls. And tried it on Soom 65cm body that a sweet friend of mine kindly loaned it to me. Darn the neck is slimmer than I expected....He wouldn't be able to take punches at all with the skinny neck..... I guess this is normal? Thanks for looking, folks!! I still got more to do on this guy- mostly fitting part-.....
Most dolls do not have precisely human proportions. Necks are longer and more slender, legs are longer, and they're not the usual human number of "heads tall." The proportions you have with your head on that body don't look crazy weird to me vs. other dolls. I think at least some of it is that your head has a very strong, squared jaw while most male BJD heads have a much softer jaw - it creates a larger difference in the sort of flow from head-to-neck when looking at it from the front on yours than normal, but it's not so terribly different that it looks strange, and once he'd be dressed (and have arms), I think it'd look fine. Carry on, you're doing an AMAZING job.
Hi HystericalParoxysm, thanks for the compliment as usual. I appreciate it. Yeah I realized those existing dolls have tendency to come with longer limbs. And yes Cillian Murphy has gill like jaws, which makes the neck look even thinner... I guess I could make the head fit to iplehouse dolls; they seem to have thicker, more anatomically correct necks... I will carry on, Thanks!
The head does look a bit big for the neck, but maybe because i think its a really manly head and personal would like a bigger neck more broader But then again i have a small long neck and my friends a short necks.
Thanks for the comment _Yuuki_. I prefer thicker neck and broader shoulder for this guy. But like HystericalParoxysm said, hope he will look fine at the end with clothing and all. Haha. I have short and thicker neck, too. Also a bigger head. I have never been knocked out because of it. Oh bike wreck knocked me out once... Oh one question for folks here. Should I make a hole for a magnet? I noticed many manufactured one have magnets in them to hold the head cap on. Thanks!
Yes i do think you are right, with the howl body the head would more in proportion and nobody will think of it as small or strange. I have a elfdoll msd girl with magnets on the face plates and the headcap, and i love the system ( except that one time my face plate dropped on the ground because of the magnet that became loose, elfdoll has a awful glue system). I think its easier that way too change face plates, i have two for my elfdoll girl, without have too do much work.
Noted, _Yuuki_ I will try to fit the magnets in finished heads. I am starting to think I should start nuther head while I have this torso, making it better fit proportion-wise. Any suggestions?
I would suggest Chris. Pine, Evans, or Hemsworth for a next head. I really like this head! It is unfortunate that it does not fit quite right on the Soom body. Not an impossible proportion though. Many owners of MNM type sculpts are fine with ignoring a bit of a skinny neck. But there are more options all the time for bodies with thicker necks if you want more realistic proportion.
Thanks for the comment, Miss_Pygmalion. Haha I see you like Chris. I don't think I have seen Pine being done so I might consider sculpting his head. I liked him in "Smoking Aces". Oh how about young Chris Walken?
I was just about to finish the whole thing and I dropped it. Punches into the wall and 70 minutes later. As you see, I shaved off the brows. They were for reference anyway. Neck hole is 3.2cm in diameter. This is how I ended up parting. I am gonna put a magnet in it. I forgot to put a hole for the magnet on the bottom part. It had the hole before I dropped the darn thing... Well, I am done sculpting this guy. Thanks for looking.
How awful that it dropped, you did a amazing thing fixing it! The inside look great too, really helpful for a newbie like me thank you for posting it!
Thanks for the compliment, Morgan. I looked through your site. I used fuse, too. I liked it. Too bad they quit making it. I am a newbie too, _Yuuki_. My cats have trained me to fix a lot of stuff over years. Hehe.
I am a Fassbender fan. I knew I should have known this face! It was bothering me that I didn't. He looks great!
I am utterly in awe of your skills. I don't even have any nitpicks or any suggestions on improvement because he is -so- perfect. Even the texture of his skin looks realistic. And now I will go weep into my beer because I will never be that good of a sculptor.
Thanks for the very nice compliment, HystericalParoxysm I am feeling warm and fuzzy...Maybe that is from the beer I am drinking...The texture is not hard to put it in if you use those modeling wax. All you need is a sanding pad, an alcohol lamp/torch and maybe sawing needles. I am sure you can sculpt better head in no time with some practice. Oh Are you a beer drinker? What kind of beer are you drinking?
Do you realise you'll now have to sculpt a body to match!? - Because I will be truly amazed if there's a body out there that's as well-sculpted as this head! ) Is he primed? Will you lose some of that detail if he isn't yet? Or can you cast him from the wax without priming?? Super, super work!
Hi, aneemal Thanks for the compliment. No I did not realize that I have to sculpt a body to match. I don't know if I want to sculpt 1/3 body...Will be too much on the plate for me...However, there is a talk with my mentor, Sailor that sculpting a 1/4 scale couple together. She is an awesome sculptor and got expertise on ball joints engineering, that I completely lack. Oh wax don't need to be primed. Hehehe. I like modeling wax because you don't need other material to finish the original. Thanks for looking and encouraging words, folks. Might add other head sculpts in the near future. Suggestions are welcome!!
Thanks for the compliment, cloudedmind!! I started on 1/4 BJD but I will take suggestions on head sculpts.
I have started nuther head... I got tired with playing with 1/4 dude and needed something else to look at....
Mads Mikkelsen! Argh your skill at likenesses makes me burn with envy... as does your impeccable taste in who to make.
Man, you are pretty good at guessing whom I am sculpting, HystericalParoxysm. It is not even half way so figured no one would guess it right this point. Thanks for the compliment always!! I appreciate it. Anyone can be good at likeness if you do them quite bit, HystericalParoxysm. Actually I was suggested to do Mads. Haha. I have no idea which actors BJD community like...
Good lord, that is insanely great work! Srsly, just..... DAMN. I think I preferred the slightly parted lips look of the previous version though - looks like you've closed his mouth between then and now. There was something more... active, I guess, about the older version - less accurate and detailed, certainly, but the shape of the mouth made him look like he was on the verge of speaking, I think? S'weird... But your sculpts have such life to them, I hope that makes sense! I could probably get you some screencaps from Hannibal, if it'd be helpful.
Thanks for the compliment, HystericalParoxysm. Your stock is getting pretty high in my book. I have to buy you drinks some point if I get to meet you. Yeah, I have been playing with the shape of his mouth since his mouth is pretty distinctive, upper lips sticks out like a duck's bill. I am actually aiming for bit younger version of Mads than Hannibal that he is playing. But I will take any help. It is hard to find his profile pictures that he isn't covering part of his face, not too dark, and no having facial expression.....
Thanks, HystericalParoxysm! I reworked on it many times since then. I think I can still improve it. I am kinda tired of looking at it for now. So go back to my 1/4 guy.
You are simply amazing. Even the look in his eyes is perfect - something in between skepticism, sorrow, and intrigued. The corners of his mouth and the wrinkles around his eyes... GAH! So freakin' envious! Don't suppose you'd be looking for any suggestions on who to do next? I can think of some great faces that I'd love to see your interpretation of.
Hey HystericalParoxysm Thanks for the kind words as always! I really should buy you drinks for all the encouragement you have given me. Yeah, I would love your suggestions. I like to do a person that hasn't really been done.
Hey Switchum, I've got a question. Can I have the measurements of Hannibal's head size and eye size? Skull width and eye size would do! If you're up to it, iris diameter would also be very helpful! I sculpt 1/3 but I'm having some trouble determining what size eyes I should be using for semi-realistic sculpts. I tried 10mm and they seemed too big, 8mm and it felt too small, even though 8mm is very very close to real 1/3 scale! I can't figure out if the problem is caused by anatomical mistakes or the way I draw "semi-realistic". Halp!
Creepy head with your cat! I'm afraid that's the first one I don't recognize! And if you're ever in the Netherlands, hell yeah you can buy me a drink - and I'll buy you one too, for letting me look at such fantastic work. I am utterly in awe of your talent and it's a honour and a treat just to get to see what you're working on! I'd love to see you do Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Iwan Rheon, Zachary Quinto, Misha Collins, or James McAvoy. I may have an embarassing amount of reference pictures of the latter four of those, if you are at all interested.
The head is bit shy of 8cm x 5cm I used typical 10mm doll eye balls, yeah its iris is big and outta proportion but it is a doll head, after all. I have been told that there are tons of different kinda doll eyes so I should not worry about which size I gotta stick to. I made the eye sockets big enough that they would hold as big as 12mm You can always make eye balls in your liking.
Hey HystericalParoxysm The head is tooned up Nosferatu that I sculpted many moons ago. My cat, Squeak sat next to it like she hunted and killed it so I took the picture of her. Yeah I will look you up if I ever visit Netherlands. You do the same if you visit the US. Man, you are making me blush. I am not that great...I am trying to be better each time.... Thanks for the suggestions, I am gonna do some research on them since I recognize only two names.... If I decided to do one of them, I will hit you up for reference then. Looking for decent reference could be really time consuming sometimes...
