Working with Apoxie Sculpt SW, Doll #2.

LOL, I'm not really too sure how I get it this smooth, all I do is try to make it the shape I want while its soft and once it hardens I carve and sand it. More carving than sanding.

I figured out what I'm doing with my thigh joint, what I had originally planned didn't seem like it was going to work :pout , so I put the leg back together and I'm going to start again today on my new idea.
::Crosses fingers:: "I hope this one works." :p

 

Hope everyone had a good holiday season.

I finished putting away all my holiday decorations so I'm back to working on my doll now.

 

Haven't been feeling too great lately and it's slowing me down... :pout
This isn't really an update, just me playing around with stringing up what I can, to see how it looks and how it's moving.
Still have a lot of work to do, a lot of things still due to change, etc, etc...

Pictures.(Black dots for Photobuckets delicate sensibilities.)




My joints are kinda loose and slippery, he flops around A LOT. I don't know if it's the joints, or the clay is too smooth, or if he's top heavy, or maybe my "string"...which is elastic hair ties, for ponytails and such. :p
Maybe it's all those things together? :confused: I'll figure it out sooner or later.

 

Thanks for the advice everyone, it was very helpful.
Today I took the dremel to the inside of the chest and rib cage parts to lighten them up a bit. They were getting to be a bit thick and heavy. I'm going to do some work on the abs tomorrow so that part will be getting thicker too. :p

It's funny to me, I was looking at my old pictures of the body before I cut it apart, It looks so different now....Next time I'm just going to sculpt it one piece at a time. :dead


Thanks for your time and comments everyone it means a lot to me.

 

I ordered proper elastic today hopefully it's the right size
I guess I'll find out when it gets here.

 

Also I fixed his slippery joints, he has much more stability now.

 

Still waiting for the doll elastic...Just two weeks. :dead

Not a lot of visible progress but I've been starting to add back little details that I had lost and some new ones.
I'm starting to think that with all the movement I have in the torso that I wont need a thigh joint, or at least not a full one. :confused:

Sorry they're yellow, my old halogen light broke (broke broke, replaced the light and the fuse and it still doesn't work.) and I couldn't find a suitable/ affordable replacement...so I bought 2 regular desk lamps at IKEA. I can work with them but they don't photograph well.

Photos.




He's look'n so fine. I think I can see the finish line!...but it's still pretty far off. :arrr

 

Thank you every one, it means a lot to me that you like how this body looks and I'm going to keep working on him to be sure that it's movement and ability to pose is just as great.
I'm really happy with how he's looking and I'm enjoying working on him but your complements are the frosting on this cake.

 

Well the elastic showed up, it seems a bit thin. Next time I'll go a bit thicker but it is MSD sized so I'm going to give it a try next time I'm ready to test string him again.
I'm also getting ready to make another head soon, kind of tired of seeing another sculptors head on my body before I've even finished. I guess the novelty of it has worn off. =P

 

Today I started the base for a new face on the head back of Richard. I figured his head back was still good, why make a whole new one. =P
I also decided that Richard still had potential as a MSD, so I've started altering his face accordingly.
I'll post pictures once I have more to show (meaning, once I finish the new face. XD )

 

No eyes yet again, but I've got his face/head down to a good proportion. Eyes are next. :p

No eyes Richard.






And I was right about the thigh joint, so I've put his one leg back together. i am going to shorten his legs a bit now that there wont be another joint taking up length along his thigh.
I'm going to keep working to improve his torso flexibility, right now he doesn't have any twist for left to right, just up and down...I want some twist. :mad:

 

Camera phone picture of some test stringing I did last week.


I've put some eyes on Richard, he's looking pretty good. I think his head is going to be better suited to 6/7 sized wigs, and 11/12mm eyes.
I tested 13mm and 9mm masterpiece silicone eyes in him yesterday, 9mm was too small and 13mm didn't quite fit, even the irises were just a smidgen too big for his eye shape.
If you've noticed I haven't been showing his back much, I'm going to remedy that soon, today I'll be working to fix it up so its as much eye candy as his front.

 

Hummm... finding 11/12mm eyes might be difficult. I may try and make his eyes a bit bigger. :/

 

Pictures, OMG :XD
I've been backtracking a lot, I finally got fed up with my inferior handmade ball joints and bought some of those wooden balls. So I've been cutting him up and putting the wooden balls in and reshaping things around those.
I also moved ( / combined with another) one of the joints in the torso, so he's back down to a 4 part torso from 5. :p




the aforementioned torso joint, two are now one. The rib part and the upper stomach are now one big ball shaped piece, I still have to smooth it all out and make things pretty again.:dead

Richards head is almost done...Again.



AND the head I started when I was ready to scrap Richard. He's not done. :p





XD My husband has started calling my doll "Duke Nukem" (after the video game) because it seems like he'll never be done.

 

If it doesn't show, I'm having a lot of fun with my joints.

 

I feel like doing photos!!!





Sorry this one of his back is blurry. =P It's still a WIP anyway....




SEXY POSE TIME!!! XD




"Cat call" all you like, he's deaf as a post. XD

"Sorry ladies, I'm trying, but I'm a poor listener." :kissy

 

LOL, I've written notes all over this poor boy.
I'm working out his gaping joints and where I still need to add "lips" (or make them bigger) to stop his slipping. I'm working on tightening up other spots, I want his poses to look as seamless as possible. :dead
But overall I'm very happy with the direction he's taking and I've been motivated to work on him (even after my car totaling accident) much more and at a slightly faster pace.
I'm currently working on his new knees because I wasn't very happy with his old ones. I even got a new idea for how to joint them that I'm really super excited about. ::Crosses fingers::
I think these new knees are going to be great.
I've still been stringing him with the hair ties, I bought some BJD elastic but it just seems too thin and loose. So I have some more on order and hopefully it will be better, because it's a thicker size. :confused:
Enjoy the new pictures and thanks for all the comments! :XD

 

Shlimbo and Modelhorse, Thank you both.

I feel like I've been moving forward with this body, but when I look at the photos I posted the time before, there are not many visible changes, but when I handle him I can feel the difference. :p Who knew jointing would be so much work, everyone else makes it look super simple. :XD

 

Froddolino Thank you for such a great complement and in your own thread even. Wow, your super complement has me lost for words, so I will just keep up what I've been doing and hope you continue to enjoy my work.

 

LOL, fairysquisher, lets hope so. =P Thank you.
XD I like your screen name BTW, very funny.

(glances back at first post) "Whaaaa!!! the beginning of '09!!! LIFE! why you slow me down so much?!?" DX "I need to get a move on him."

 

I have that one, Fairies, and Good and Bad Fairies by Froud. Love his art, just beautiful and whimsical and so much fun to look at no matter how many times I see it.

 

"Sort of new" pictures ( why the heck not?) :arrr
Zombie walk...he's the slow type, but only because he has no feet. :p

I'm constantly stringing him up to test his movement and I've started to take pictures whenever I get something interesting or if I see something that needs work that I might forget about.




There's his foot, maybe it's weird but I'm really proud of his big toe. :XD (still have to do the other foot.)

All of his pieces so far.....

OMG! It's an EAR. :kissy I kept trying to picture him with something more adventurous, but in the end he gets plain old ears. :uhhuh


His expression is like "what are you listening to??"
I was going to do two ears at the same time but when I started on the second I couldn't place it right. then I realized I had cut his face plate crooked. So I had to fix that before I could do the other ear. :dead The ears may or may not be attached to his face... I really like the look of all the changeable ears that other companies are making nowadays.

 

Thank you, glad you think so. Poor boy has been through so much, at least he has something to show for it. :p

 

I started him in the beginning of 2009. :dead
But that same year I housebroke and trained my husbands puppy. Then we started looking for a house to buy, when we couldn't find one we both really liked we started building one and I spent a lot of time as go between for my husband and the builders, I also did all the packing by myself, then my first car accident (little fender bender), Chiropractor and Attorney and Insurance appointments >:O ( ...but that is where my "casting fund" came from ) Then we moved and I got more space and a nice big desk to work on and things have been going a bit smoother from then.
But now I have had another car accident which totaled my car >:O
So I have no car and I'm back to the Chiropractor/ Attorney/ Insurance routine and I have to find a new car. If everything works out this won't cost me anything and everything will be back to normal within the year, that's my goal/hope.

:kissy So my back and neck are all sore, my hands shake and I still have an open wound on my thumb from the airbag blister (I keep it covered while I'm working) .... but I refuse to be delayed anymore! I will finish this doll,....sometime this year. :XD

 

I just stuck it to the wet clay along his head back and snapped a pic to show its size, I hadn't noticed it was so far back. :p
It's made so that the front of the ear just barely overlaps the jawline. I'll take another picture once I finish the other ear.

 

Thank you,I am pretty proud of this foot.
About the clay. Sanding it smooth is pretty easy so long as it isn't too lumpy, which is also easy to avoid because as the clay hardens it gets to a point where you can't move it around much but it's easy to press details into it and make it so smooth it gets shiny. This is pretty much the last chance to make changes before it's hard.
If you change your mind about something big ("cough, man bits, cough" J/K :p ) it's easiest to remove it with a dremel, I use a dremel for lots of my changes. Once this stuff hardens it's really very hard, I do more carving and dremeling than sanding, sanding is kinda the very last thing I do to a piece. Also this stuff makes a crazy huge amount of dust, much, much more than super sculpy. Once your to the sanding/ dremeling stage use a face mask and etc. I've been torturing my poor little vacuum cleaner by running it while I dremel, after I carve or do any light sanding to try and keep the dust down. It'll make a huge mess if you let it. :XD
Other than the dust this stuff is awesome and I love working with it. I hope when you are able to try it that it works well for you.

 

Yes, that's correct. I think it yellows a bit, but it is Super White, it probably doesn't help that I draw on him too, all that smudged graphite can't be helping.

I don't know, never heard of it. :confused: But if it's working for you go with it.

 

I look forward to seeing what you make with it.
Ahhh, Thank you! I enjoy "talking" with you also, your comments always seem very genuine (not that others are not also genuine, they just seem more like courtesy/ routine.) , and I find that very uplifting.