50–65cm Dolls *UPDATE 10/1* First project, 55cm GIRL DOLL [LOTS of images]

*Click to see newest update*

*sigh* so after going through this over and over again in my head and looking at various tutorials on the internet, I've finally made the first step that'll (hopefully) lead me to my selfmade doll

So far, she consists of nothing but a styrofoam skeleton but I'll be ordering some premix clay soon to get some flesh on her bony little styrofoam self... She's unnamed yet, but I was pretty close to naming her Snowwhite or something like that cause of all the styrofoam that was flying around here in my room, making it look like it had been snowing

But I'll wait until she's finished... then, she should tell me her name by herself ;-)

Well, here's the little introduction, I hope more will follow as soon as I get some clay over here ^^

(sorry for the blurry pics, my camera hates dim light -.-; )

---Umm, yeah, I've been told her feet and hands look way too small and I strongly agree, I like big feet! She's gonna have humongous ones ;-)
styrofoam block and sketches

her lil head ^^

bootie!

body


finished skeleton:

(I added some styrofoam cores for the arms, too, of course, and two little core parts for her feet...)

OMAKE:
ummm...yeah, that's what my room looked like after the styrofoam massacre ^^'


Well, I'll post about my progress asap (which I hope is soon ^^;; )

 

Hey guys! Thanks for all the comments!

I feel like an idiot cause I have to say, I completely forgot about this thread cause it didn't show up and I thought the mods deleted it cause there was no actual molding process going on yet

I think you might be right about the styrofoam leading to a massive kinda body...i made that experience when I tried out working the head...I might change it some, though I do want the doll to become rather curvy...

Another prob is the hands, which are a lil too small and I also might get some bigger feet for her...

Well, I made out a place where to buy the clay, but unfortunately, it got more expensive and I won't be able to get in until January, so I figured since I've never done any sculpting before, I should try out with plain clay before I waste the expensive stuff

Soooo, I guess it's updating time for now...

If you feel like it, you can check out my rather weird first attempts



ummm.... just ignore these two, I just cramped a lot of clay together and but it on the styrofoam core... it looks rather caveman-is to me.... with that brow and huge nose and all


continued in next post...

 

Well, the next thing I did, I squished all that clay together to get an halfway even tone to it...

then I tried again.

As you can see in the pics, I had a lot of trouble shaping the mouth and lips... I went through all kinds of different attempts, but I hardly ever liked how the profile turned out, so I kept trying and remolding...







And now, I'm at a stage where I'm kinda happy with the face (I changed some more things that can't be seen on those pics yet) and I removed the styrofoam core from inside...
I think I'll have to work on the styrofoam, too. The head just looks way to watermelon-y to me

I post some pics of the current state soon!

 

ChaiBebe: You never know, you might as well just try it out on less expensive stuff first also, it doesn't have to be perfect, but it's a lotta fun

here's some newer pics of the head... still haven't managed to get the real clay to work with ^^;

I worked on the mouth and I reshaped the chin area so the profile turned out better.

Actually, I already removed the styrofoam core you can see in the pics... and then I squished the head till it didn't look like a soccer ball anymore
(I'll definately have to use a different core for the actual head )

 

Hey Mimous, thanks for your comment!
Yeah, I might change the nose and eyes a bit on my actual sculpt (now that I got money for january I can get my hands on some actual clay )

Well, I cut the head open, pretty much, to get the styrofoam out. I pretty much took off the headcap, as with bought dolls. Then you can try to pull the styrofoam out. YOU HAVE TO WRAP SOME KIND OF POLYTHENE FOIL AROUND THE STYROFOAM before putting the clay on! Or otherwise, it's going to be *prett* hard to get the styrofoam out..... if the opening should be to small or whatever (the headcap that you toook off was to small or whatever) and you don't get the styrofoam out like that, try cutting it inside, so you can take small chunks out one at a time...

Hope that helps

 

Thanks, Arekya!

I'd like to see your attempts on sculpting when you get your boy Keep me updated about that!

 

So, yesterday I got the premix clay I want to work with, and though I should be learning for my Physiology exam, I started making the pixie head for my doll

I hope you guys like it so far, I still have to work on it, but I thought I'd show you the progress so far ^^

 

Hey there, I got yet another update: I got the body so far, in a rough state, though... still gotta work on the details and at some point, get the joints done somehow ^^;

 

Thanks, Xyria ^^
I got the flu right now, so I won't be able to work on the doll for a while, but I'll keep the thread updated as soon as there's any news

 

Thanks Bruny!
Right now, I feel as if a bus ran over my head
But I managed to work on the doll a little bit today, I worked on some details and made her boobs smaller, they were too big for my taste

 

hi guys ^^ I thought I'd post a little update.

So far, I have reduced some of her boobie size, finished most of the joints and sanded her a bit... currently, I'm working on the hands and feet (took me a while to get here cause I didn't have any wire which I need for support)...

here are some progress pics:
before sanding + without joints:



after sanding etc:


all taken aprat ^^;

torso:


bootie ^^

head + NEW! now with ears ^^;;:

 

@BabesbyBarb: I know, before I started, I looked at other artist bjds... and especially at the not-so-professional ones ^^;
Because I knew I couldn't make a perfect one or one that is nearly as good as the other artist's around DoA, but I wanted to try just for the fun of it.
And I must say, it's a great feeling to create something yourself, out of nothing but an idea ^^ So I can only recommend starting your own project! And keep me updated about it!

@Bruny:Thanks so much I'm about half-done with the hands and going to work on the feet in the next weeks, then I'll have to get me some modeling paste to cover the whole body and then sand, sand, sand ^^;

 

Thanks Dianna... I'Ve been working on the hands, and they turned out being too big for the body ^^; I'm not sure if I'll just keep it like that (I think it's kinda cute) plus, the mechanism of the hands, hooks and all is pretty tough to make.... ^^;;; Took me a while till I figured out how I'd attach the S-hooks etc. ^^

 

I'm sure the book will help you a lot... I'd say if you're used to work with polymer, you should try it that way first... but then again, airdry clay might work just as fine for you if you try it ^^;
I looked at tutorials on the internet before I started, that's how I decided which way to do the core etc.
Now with the head, I'd rather have it devided into headcap and rest of the head instead of just front/back halves...
I had it in two halves first, when I removed the styrofoam core... but I put them back together and made a headcap...
the problem is with stringing, you need the neck hole in the head to hold the end of the string inside the head... if the head is in halves, removing the back part of the head (f.ex. to change eyes) would mean the neckhole would open up, too and couldn't hold the string anymore...
I hope you can halfway understand what I mean... my English used to be better ^^;;;
anyways, as long as the neckhole doesn't get divided, you can divide the head in any way you want...

 

Thanks, Nivine! I'm not sure if I can fix this, but maybe I can sand it

BabesbyBarb: I think making "channels" for the string instead of coating a styrofoam core might also work out fine... anyways, you'd have way thicker "walls" of the body, making it more stable and heavier... I have considered doing it this way with my next project, or at least make smaller cores and adding more clay...

 

With a two piece body, you could do it in one piece first, put the channels in and bake it, you could saw it in two later on... though I dunno how well you could do that with polymer clay...
Then you might have to sand/scratch some clay out of the upper part to allow mobility.... I did the torso in 1 piece first... next time, I'd probably do them separately, though ^^;

 

The other day, i tried to string Ecile (that's her name now ) ... it turned out the "channels" in her arms and legs were too narrow, so that the elastic didn't go through properly >.<
But I managed to string her for the time being ^^;
Unfortunately, one of her elbow joints broke in the process.. -___-

@nivine: I also sanded some of the head so it would look more natural, like on the picture you postet... thanks for your help ^^

As always, sorry for the bad pics, I'm a horrible photographer ^^;;;
and sorry for the messy background, too O.o

profile:

with Lori's (my T. Bee-A's) stolen wig ^^

body shot:



*cute* pose ^^


theatrical XD :

OMAKE und size comparison:

Lori:
that's MY hair!

 

Thank you, Indigo and Shiro
I hope I'll find some more time to continue working on her soon...

 

Hey Ciantha! No problem, I hope I can help you out ^^
I was using LaDoll Premix clay... yeah, it was really easy to use even for me, who didn't have any experience with sculpting at all ^^;;; if I wanted to blend things i.e. add a nose, it wasn't hard at all, you just stick it there and smear the edges. If the surface where you want to add something is dry already, you just add water to the surface and to the thing you want to add (i.e. nose) and stick them together, smear the edges etc.
That went really well, even if I had to add something after a few days, when the body was completely dry already.
Plus, when the LaDoll Premix clay is completely dry, it's not super-fragile, it's rater pretty sturdy... the complete doll fell off my desk once and nothing has happened (not even a finger breaking off or something).

 

Here are some news concerining my girl Ecila ^^
I changed a lot about her since my last update...
First, I pretty much destroyed all of her head except for her face, so I basically only had a faceplate left. I did this because it bothered me that her head looked so huge, and I wanted to achieve a more realistic look...
So I completely reshaped the sides and back of the head and worked on the face as well, especially the eyes.
I'm still not happy with them and I will yet again reshape them these days
Besides, I also redid the joints in her elbows and knees. Instead of ball joints added to her forearms and lower legs, the joints now consist of separate double joint parts.
I changed the torso also, since I didn't like the aesthetics of the torso joint ^^;;; Instead, I tried to shape a torso joint as the Buddy Dolls or the MNF A-Line bodys have... which was more work than I thought at first... I didn't have a saw, so seperating the bust part from the rib cage was more tiresome than I had imagined DX
I also changed the hip ball joint, since the ball joints were too small and therefore, the tighs were too narrow also...
I mixed some acrylic paint into the modelling clay because the stark white started to annoy me, but my first attempt was waaay too pink (you can clearly see it on the picture XD ) She now has a more narural-looking skintone, but I haven't managed to make pictures of that yet...

Right now, I'm still working on the knee joints, since they still tend to bend in, so I can't get her to stand.
I think I've found a way to take care of that, though... so I hope I'll be able to fix that ^^;;;
She still doesn't have feet or hands, so I also have to work on that... ^_^


Her head, though it looks different by now. I have changed the look of the lips since.


torso, yet unsanded


PINK PANIC XD


Tanks for watching ^_^

 

Thank you, muse ^^
Yeah, I named her after a dear friend of mine who I get to know while I was living in the US for a year... I think it's a very feminine and soft-sounding name, and it was one of my favorite names even before I met that friend of mine so I knew my first BJD had to have that name ^_^

 

Awww, thank you, monkeuchi!!
You should try to redo your project... Sometimes I'm angry and unhappy about my project, too... but it's still a lot of fun to make it, even if it has its flaws... So you shouldn't give up on your project