Nylh's dolls : Mew & Tew

The Mew and Tew Project:

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MEW

Second outfit
First outfit
First makeup
Mew, now in color
fixing the hips and coating tutorial
Now with hands
Standing
One knee left
Joints
This fuzzy thing is supposed to help me ....
The Beginning

TEW

Now fully coated
Coating time
Stringed
Hands and feet
The face
Body comparaison
Torso and hips
What the .... ?!
Styrofoam step




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As this thread as been splitted you might see photos of my other projects. If you want to see more go to their own threads :

Mew and Tew
Nohema
Ningyo
Arcadie

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The Mew Project:

11-06-07:
This time I've waited a bit before posting, trying to work the more I could on her.

Started on october 25th, I'm pretty pleased having managed to work so quickly on her even though it's far to be perfect. But at least 10 joints are working well (she will have 14 joints ). Her shape is a bit odd compared to other dolls. She has a rather big head, a tiny torso, a huge bum and pretty long legs. She reminds me more of a kind of fantasy creature than of an anatomically correct human ^^;

Some photos of the process:


The most annoying part I guess, I just hate to sand that thing.


Adding plastiroc clay and making it dry. As you can see it wasn't really round


Cutting the torso joint and adding shape to the arms


She can stand pretty well.


leg and arm joints


Ahah... she looks like a monster ^^; but it was funny. I did the head in two steps, first, putting the nose, lips and eyes in place and let it dry completly before going further. There's no chin, no cheeks, just the basis.




Second step was to make her look less ugly and more asian looking....

There's not of work left but I might be able to cast her (well, I hope so...)
For now I need to work on the ears. I think I will make her sets of ears like cat, elf or gelflin ears .... but firt of all I really needs to work on her hands and sand the rest of her body. There's also the second leg joint to make but I'll be helped, I already almost ruined her second leg cutting the joint too high, so I prefer to wait a bit and be helped by my father.

So that's how she looks like now

 

Ailieru, kuraiangels: The hips joint is not only due to the gothic lolita book I have, I just love this kind of joint, I prefer it to the common "leg inside the hip" one. It give a more curvy look to the doll in my opinion (she is like the third doll I sculpted that has that joint) Though the gothic lolita book was interesting (I just love those books) it wasn't really helpful. I prefer Yoshida Style BJD making guide. It's pretty good to make you understant every steps in the ball jointed doll creation. Side note, Kuraiangels, you must be a seer because the gothic lolita book wasn't on the photo though it was on my floor when I took the photo XD

twigling: Thanks, I'm not sure if she needs more forehead or not, of course the wigs she can try are a bit to big on the top but I love her flat head. I think I'll try to see that when I'll work back on the head, for now I need to work on the second arm joint and the hands X_x

zidora: When I did the face, I remembered someone on DOA did a "skull" head with the position of the eyes, nose and lips so that he could sculpt the face over it without symetrical problems. I just tried to do the same but adding more shape to have a better idea about how the face would look like. I think it worked but not sure it's the good method for all the face sculpting....

Mumb@: Thanks, but before thinking about the makeup I really need to finish her and cast her ... Mmmh.. maybe for Christmas XD (( that's what I said for another doll project last year ... ^^; ))

anya_vegas: Just keep trying ^^ I sculpted around 7 / 8 dolls before succeding with this one. Just keep trying and never give up (even when you want to throw your doll by the window .... )

Okay, and just for the fun

 

angmasuzy: I didn't meant to give you hiccups XD But the first photo of the face looked really strange (even more in real that on the photo). Now her face is done she is a way cuter

Mumb@: That's hard to work with a cat like that sleeping on your tools. You feel guilty making him go away ....

Darken: The posing is not so bad. Of course it's less good than on casual thigh joints but mostly because I need to work a lot more on it. I think I would need to make the two ball joints a bit rounder forward to make her sit better.... or not. It's not so easy to find a good balance between esthetism and poseability.... But if she can stand and sit with not too much problems I think it's good.

 

What I love with Mew is that she can be cute and ugly at the same time. Depending on the light her face is pretty different.
Now the last joint to make will be the right leg one, I'm working on the second elbow joint.
I'll need tiny S hooks but I can't find them, they are always too big -.-

 

Thank you. ^^
I've managed to cut the second leg yesterday so now there's not much left to do about the joints. I will also need to put gesso on her to smooth the surface a bit more and after, I'll think about casting ... if I manage to find tiny S hooks before to be sure she can stand well when stringed

Hermionegranger, kisaki_kun, it's not the Gothic Lolita bible extra but Yoshida Doll making guide, a great help to understand all the steps in the doll making. There's often discussions about it in the workshop.

 

Thank you

Well, you can't really see it but I worked on her, I swear ! XD



Now I can string her arms. I really need tiny S hooks now.

 

Okay, now she has all her joints done, I need to work on a better mobility... But at least she can stand and sit. that's a good beginning.
I need to work a bit more on her arms too. I'm not sure if she is good or bad, I'm a bit dissapointed by my skills today.

Some photos to show you how she looks now. I took them yesterday by night so the light is pretty poor.

 

kisaki_kun, first of all I need to cast her once, then I'll try to think about selling her if there's an interest, but I doubt I will. French tax system is a bit complicated and it's rather expensive too X_x

Sharonpixie, I used Plastiroc, it's an air drying clay too. I have never found Ladoll in my town (not even sure I can find it in France) but new time I make a doll I'll try to get Ladoll and Formo clay. Plastiroc is nice but a bit weak sometimes.

Mumb@ her arms can stand poses, not her legs yet ^^;



I haven't found tiny S hooks but I used paper clips and hair bands to string her arms and hands.

 

Thanks Nana, the hands are not that pretty in real, I broke several fingers ^^, but I'm quite happy it looks like hands

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I have cut the head but can't remove the eyes yet, I'm afraid breaking the head as the eyes were already in when I sculpted it. But well, with time and patience it will work.
I've worked on the legs a bit more but it's not done yet. I need to sand. And now she has tiny ears.




Today was Gesso time

I found a better way to apply the gesso than with a brush ... with my fingers ... Well, I had gloves but it was pretty dirty. I like the way it looks after using gesso, it's better than white primer.

with and without gesso:



I need to let it dry before sanding

 

Thanks Patl you're lovely. I think that this time I'll finished one of my project. Moonchild, that's a word that really suits her, her face is so round ^^

I don't think I'll cast her, I'm too scared to do it, I don't want to ruin everything. Maybe later when I'll feel more confident I'll cast her. But for now I need to sand and sand and .. er .. sand again.




I used a mix of modeling paste, medium mat and acrylic paints to coat her. I think my brown acrylic paint was a bit too old, it has a weird reaction witht he modeling past and didn't mixed well.... But I like the texture it gave her, not too smooth.




The head and the top of her legs are not totally well sanded (in face the upper part of her legs aren't sanded at all so you can see the difference between the coats ). Her arms, feet and hands are done too but I couldn't find thin elastic to string her. I think I'll suede her with white felt kips to avoid scratches in the gesso coat.




I'll makeup and blush her soon, I'm so excited .... I will also have to sew for her and that will be less easy than on "common" dolls....

Edit: Some more photos with her arms :

 

Ooooh ! Thanks Ladybug_123, that just what I needed. It's so difficule to find S hooks here, making them myself will be a great help.

One more photo for today, just to show her makeup. I have stringued her with the elastics I use for my hair, it's not really good because it makes her be too loose but she is strung anyway ^^



This one is a bit odd because she doesn't seem to have eyes ^^;

 

Thanks for your lovely comments.

Ruko Hanaji, I love those kind of joints but they were not so easy to do, I'm pleased it turned out so well.

BrightSuzaku, in fact she is not so rough, it's mostly a problem when I mixed the paint that gave her all those tiny spots but I guess that to make her look better I would have to sand her and use another coat of gesso, but I'll do that later, maybe.... I like this kind of unusual shape, a really thin waist and a rather bif bottom, just as old fashion and corset ... or just like my unoss ^^

aroa678, you seems so enthusiactic that's nice. I might try to cast her, but before I would need to practice. I'm not against casting her, that would be stronger than airdraying clay. The main problem is that even if I cast her, I'm not sure I would sell her, her joints ar far to be perfect so it wouldn't be nice to sell a doll with joints problems. For now I just don't know about casting and selling (selling would mean paying taxes to French Government to be allowed to sell things ... too complicated and expensive -.- )

 

Dybbuk, she is made out of Plastiroc covered with a tainted gesso coat. Plastiroc is a european air drying clay brand but next time I try to make a doll I will try Ladoll and Formo I think.

ashburyblu, yes as you can see on the first photos of this thread I used styrofoam . It's a way easier to sculpt the body if you have a good shaped core.

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New updade, I've managed to sew a bit for Mew, her body shape is so different from all my other dolls it was not so easy to sew for her. I redid her pants like 4 times before making a not too ugly one.

 

Yep Ladybug_123, I managed to do the S hooks myself, it was easier than to find such tiny S hooks. I think I'll try to sculpt a second one to go with her, probably an asian looking boy but with a less round bottom XD

Jenny-Rose, I did the googles myself, it's not really well done but I'll try to make better googles next week.

Some measurements for those who wondered :

Height: 33,5cm
Head: 16cm ( fits unoa wigs pretty well ^^ )
Eyes: 12/14mm
Bust: 13,5cm
Waist: 10cm
Hips: 18cm
Foot: 4,4cm

 

Just a random photo to show you my next project. Working on Mew's boyfriend as I don't know when I'll be able to cast her ^^



He would be around 36cm tall but he is nameless.... I can't find a cute name for now

 

Juste because it was funny to make a photostory of their first meeting.....

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Mew: ....


Mew: What the ....


Mew: What's that thing ?! *pokes*


Mew: *pokes* *pokes*


Mew: *pokes* ugly thingy ...


???: *chomps* >.< you were as ugly as me a month ago !!

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Randomness I know, I've worked on him, I think the best to me is to do the same hips joints than Mew... probably because I can't di good inside hips joints ^^;
He will be a two or three jointed torso, I don't know yet, for now I'm working on the hips, that's the most important part.