She's Strung!

Despite the missing hand that's still drying and the horribly fit joints, I have to say she's coming along quite nicely.  Once I give her a good sanding and everything starts to fit snugly (which will probably take umpteen hours) I think she will be a great first try at creating my own ball jointed doll.  I can't believe she can stand on her own two feet.  I can't believe I made it to this point.  I can't wait to paint her brown!

 

 "Can you do something with this arm and my hand lady?"

 

I love the poses that you get with double joints, if I could just get them right . . .  

 

Stay tuned.....

Getting Closer!

So I'll get back to posting the 100 days of art which have turned into 240 days, I've stopped counting . . . and blogging about it, but you know me.  Creativity comes in waves and so does blogging in my case!  So I'm skipping all the stuff that I need to catch you up on and showing what I'm currently working on instead. 

Anyhoo, I am pleased to report that I have picked my doll back up and am now closer than I have ever been before.  I've been craving a new doll and my favorite artist hasn't offered a new YOSD so I've been impatiently trying to by the time until she does.  I've even contemplated buying a MSD doll, even though that's not my preference.  I have my eye on one in particular but I don't have any money to buy her, so the yearning has forced me into create mode.  Can't find one or buy one so there's nothing left but to make one and I've been doing, just that!  I started messing with her last night and I almost have all of her limbs strung together for the first time EVER!!!!  I had to patch up a few mistakes that I made because I'm heavy handed and ruined a few pieces that's why she isn't fully poseable yet, I'm waiting for her to dry so I can sand and pull her strings tightly, but here are my progress pics.

 Looks a little creepy like this, but I'm excited to have all of her limbs together... almost.  Remember last time you saw her she just had one leg?  Next time you see her she'll have a full body, all limbs intact!

 

Waiting for the balls on the feet and hands to dry so I can pull her together.  The good thing about paper clay is that I don't have to bake it, but I still have to wait for it to dry before I sand and tighten her up.  I refuse to remove the string to do all of that because I want to see her together and threading that string is . . . let's just say, a lot of cursing is involved! 

 Don't laugh at my homemade s hooks, crazy looking peanut joints, and funky hands, lol! 

This process takes so much patience and finesse, I don't know how doll artists do it.  I'm sure seeing the finished product is worth the pain, but MAN it's hard to get through the bajillion steps without wanting to pull your hair out!  Very tedious and tormenting, especially when you don't know what you're doing and you're just making it up as you go along.  What I wouldn't give to go to a workshop given by an established bjd artist who knows what they are doing!

So this girl is a very rough draft, with very amateur joints, and s hooks, and all the rest of that good stuff that I had to figure out on my own.  I have no idea what possessed me to take on a task like this, but I am pleased with myself for getting this far.  This is definitely a craft that you learn by doing.

While I was waiting for pieces to dry, I sculpted another head.  I think I might be getting a little better at that too.  Check her out.  She is another character from my graphic novel.  God help me when it comes time to sculpt her body.......

 I surprisingly got it pretty even all around for the first time and was so proud of that small feat once I cut her head open.

 I think I like her better without eyes.  I just need to find the right pair.  These are substitutes. 

Can't wait to sand her down and see the diamond under the rough.  Let's see how long this burst of creativity lasts.  

Update: To Catch A Fire

Okay, so I had the baby boy, August 4th, 6lbs 13ozs!  Totally cute, keeping me up, spoiled rotten, brothers and sister love him, got my body back, slightly sleep deprived, but unpregnant, yey me!  I'll put up pictures at another time, because I'm here to talk about the progress that I've made on my bjd sculpt.

So I was totally bummed out because I'm seeing all these wonderful artists who are sculpting dolls and making progress and I haven't made any.  I keep researching and seeing all their beautiful dolls, getting so jealous I could hardly stand myself.  So two things in particular lit a fire under my butt and I have finally gotten back to work and decided that I'm not stopping until I have a doll.  I don't care how long it takes me, but every free moment I get, I am going to see this through!  I want this too bad not to bust my butt to get it.  So yes, I now have a high schooler, a middle schooler, an elementary schooler, a preschooler, and a newborn, but I'm going to somehow find the time to fulfill my dream of making this doll dag gone it!  I'm determined!

So I mentioned that there were two things that inspired me to just do it.  First, I stumbled across this doll artist who has made the cutest little brown girl!  Her name is Lidia Snul and her sweet little Kroby made me want to finish my own brown girl so badly!  She is so unique and amazing.  Then, my girl LB put up a foot sculpting tutorial on her blog which is also totally awesome.  Lauren does an amazing job describing her methods and makes feet that look so yummy you just wanna lick the computer screen!

So after watching that "fifty leven" times, it was on and poppin!  I sculpted my feet, which kind of look like chunky troll feet to me prior to sanding, but I'm hoping once I sand them down, they'll look more humanly.  I was totally avoiding feet until Lauren made this tutorial so I'm just proud that I attempted to make the little suckers!  They are cute in their own little troll like chunky way.

Before baking

After baking

Oh yeah, and you've never seen the working sketch that I'm basing the sculpt off of, here she goes:

I also decided once matching up what I had with the sketch, that the face needed more work.  Well, everything needs more work.  So I added to the top of her head, gave her more of an eyelid and added some of that fatty meat above the eyelid.  I also added more meat to her nose and her lips.

Before baking

After baking

So there you have it.  She's coming along.  I am so happy.  Sleepy, but happy.  Now I'm working on the legs, which I've cut in half and added the hip joint.  I need to refine that and make a peanut joint, which will take some time because I have no idea what I'm doing.  I bought some really fine sandpaper and I'm ready to smooth her out so she looks prettier and so she can "show me what's she's workin wit"!  So stay tuned and wish me luck, because as you can see, I've got a lot on my plate . . .

 

I get tired just looking at the picture, lol!

To all my fellow artists, thanks for the inspiration, keep on keeping on so I can stay motivated to do the same!  Peeeeeeaaaaaacccccceeee!

BJD in progress: Part 1-Very Rough Draft

So I mentioned that I love ball jointed dolls and that it's my lifelong dream to create my own dolls based off the characters in the graphic novel that I'm in the process of writing.  Well, shout out to Lauren Brevner, my new "brainstorming buddy", who has inspired me to have at it again.  You should totally check out her blog, she's amazingly talented and in the process of creating an epic ball jointed doll as we speak.  Her progress has inspired me to "Just Do It!"

I started this laborious, time consuming, and at times downright daunting journey back in October when I decided to create a ball jointed doll based on the main character in my book.  I sculpted five heads out of Living Doll Sculpey and only one came close to looking similar to my main character "Israel".  I used this clay because I heard it was good for making dolls, but mainly because it comes in my complexion, Terracotta Brown.  Let's face it, when you're looking for ball jointed dolls, ethnic ones especially, are hard to come by.  In fact, there are few beautiful dolls period that represent girls of color.  Since my main character is loosely based on me, I wanted her features to be loosely based on me at her age, and I'm a proud terracotta brown!  I always grew up wishing there were more dolls that looked like me, with hair and features like mine.  Maybe I would have thought I was more beautiful back then, instead of comparing myself to the dolls that I played with who looked nothing like me.  So now, it is really important for me to expose my daughter and other little girls to more variety and diversity in the story book characters and the dolls that they grow up with.

Back to the heads, which ended up turning into eight heads, then I threw one away because she was just that ugly . . . and then there were seven.  But this one head still remained the best out of seven.  here's Israel, the chosen one, or should I say, the chosen head, in her rough stage.

Now I don't have any idea what I'm doing, I'm just feeling my way through all of this.  I'm reading books here and there and looking at tutorials but I'm clueless when it comes to bjd sculpting.  It's not really something you can learn by reading or watching, you can only learn it by doing it, experimenting, failing miserably, and pressing forward.  I'm all for experimentation, but I'd rather take a master class!  Hence the reason why I neglected her little head for months.  But that hasn't kept me from adoring all of the wonderful artists I have come across in my research, who are attempting and pushing through the pain of figuring it out.  I'm constantly looking at their photos, saying "I wish I could do that someday!"  Then came Lauren.  When I saw what she was working on, I finally buckled down and said, "I have to do this, NOW!"  All it took was a little motivation and a lot of inspiration.

I am now pleased to report that I have more than a little rough head.  I now have a rough torso, two rough arms, and two rough legs!  Holla at your boy!!!!!!!  Here are the pics of my progress.  She needs sanding, and I still need to sculpt feet, hands, and the (dun dun dun: scary music) dreaded ball joints that I have no idea whatsoever how to make.  But I'm determined to figure it out!  Enjoy the flicks and let me know what you think.  Then say a few prayers, cross your fingers and toes, send me good cyberspace vibes,

and just maybe . . .  maybe I might end up with a real working ball jointed doll . . . eventually.  

Keep hope alive!

"See ya next time, maybe then I'll have hands!"