Hi, I'm Ghostdollie and I've benefited so much from all of you sharing your process that I thought it about time I delurk and show you mine, for better or worse. This first girlie is a doll I made for a stop motion music video. I did not get as far as finishing a headcap system for her. She was sculpted in paperclay, molded in Oomoo, and cast in Smooth-on of some kind. It's been 5 years and she has not yellowed one bit. Her jointing system was based on an antique doll and doesn't work at all. Instead, she's fully wired. One day I'll rework these joints and take them out of the dark ages.
unfinished pieces cont. Here are a couple more pix, plus a shot of my first head. I've made many dolls with this sculpt... males, females, rockstars and ghosts. I made it many years ago and he never had a proper body, just posable cloth ones. The problem is that I made it before I ever saw a real life bjd and his head is too big to fit into any standard bjd scale. Didn't want to do a fully sculpted body that had no crossover/hybrid abilities. I want to sculpt a new version of this head at a regular 1/3 scale.
unfinished pieces cont, cont. The next few are pictures of 2 heads based on my children. They both love cosplay and thought it would be fun to have dolls to costume in their cosplay characters. The heads are sculpted in paperclay. They have not been hollowed out yet, so have no functioning headcap or eyewells. I did these a year ago and had so much trouble with the symmetry that I abandoned ship. ( Actually, now I like them more than I did before and will finish and cast them after all) Also, from now on I'll handle the removing of the core, the engineering of the headcap and beveling the eyewells before getting into tiny details like eyelids. Paperclay is fairly delicate and gets really mushy when re-wetted (like during beveling), so detail can be lost.
unfinished pieces part 4 Here's a vampire I started long ago, but didn't finish because I wanted super long pointy ears and had too much trouble previously with air bubbles at the tips whenever I tried to cast. I've since gained more knowledge about mold construction, but it seems daunting. So my plan for the time being is sculpt the ears separately with little pegs, cast 'em then stick 'em into holes in his head. That way I can make him dragon ears or gargoyle parts or whatever. The full front pic is an excellent example of a serious symmetry problem. The fact that I couldn't see this until I looked at this photo is truly disturbing! This guy needs a ton of work.
unfinished pieces part 5 My current project is based on the idea of a Japanese ningyo. Many of them have very neutral features which work as a blank canvas for creating a character. I wanted a head that i can use as a base for depicting Korean mythological figures. I plan to have this one professionally cast so I can have multiples to customize a variety of ways. So, the problems of getting it super smooth, designing a functioning headcap attachment, getting the neck hole to work with existing bjd bodies, etc. come into play. In a way, this is my most simple head, but I'm trying to bring it up to a professional level of finish, not quite so homemade looking as the rest of my stuff. I'm finding it very difficult! This is the one I'll post most frequently about as it moves along. His name is DaeMin. These are early pictures. Now he has a smooth finish, working headcap, finished eyewells, and is getting his first coat of primer. Will post pix in his own thread later.
I like that there is such contrast in your sculpted faces. They all have such individual feels to them. I look forward to seeing how your new face progresses
Your vampire is incredible! All of your pieces are great but I think the vampire is outstanding. Thanks for sharing.
