Making the Head of an OOAK Doll

Here's the first sculpt a face tutorial. http://www.dollmakersdream.com/sculpt-a-face.html

This is the first one I'm following. Others say to sculpt the face separately from the head. I'm not sure of the difference. Part could be for incorporating separate eyes. Or maybe to use a harder clay for the head and a more translucent clay for the face. Or it could have to do with how the hair is attached. I have a lot to learn!!

I am using this picture for the model for my first doll-the mother. I will emphasize her dimples, slant her eyes more, and give her very big ears. After all, she is an elf.

This link for drawing a woman's face could come in handy for proportions too.
http://sharenoesis.com/article/draw-face/84

Another tutorial for making a head based on a Styrofoam ball. Warning. It's in Portuguese. http://oficinademodelosdid.blogspot.com.au/2008/09/como-montar-um-rosto-em-biscuit.html

This tutorial starts with a skull to create the head, and beads where the eyes are going to be. Then he creates a face on top of the skull. http://madsculptor.blogspot.com/2011/10/alice-work-starts.html

I haven't used any of these techniques yet, so i just don't know which is going to work for me.

Once I get this head started, I think this Fairy head tutorial will really help me. http://www.sculptuniversity.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63:fairy-face-tips-free-tutorial&catid=38:freebies&Itemid=75



I haven't see anyone talking about putting the head on a stick yet. I wish I knew...


This is a video tutorial of making a man's head, but it does discuss baking a piece of clay on a wire Armature and using that as a start. hummm.  This link is to six consecutive videos on the subject.

Determining Size of OOAK Doll

The first thing to do is to decide what size your doll will be, then determine what size the head will be.
This tutorial will help you with these calculations.
http://www.dollmakersdream.com/female-anatomy.html

"Dolls seem to vary from 6 to 18 inches, so I need to figure out a scale for my dolls. I'm going to use 10." That seems fairly standard, I want the big enough to be able to add a lot of detail, but not huge. First, I plan to make three. A mother and her two daughters. So the mother will be 10." The older, tall daughter will be 11" and the younger, buxom daughter will be 9." I'm starting with the mother.

"You can't really say that a female doll will be 6 inches or 12 inches tall, because every doll can be a different size. So instead, we will measure in "head lengths".

Depending what you feel is the ideal body proportions the female body can be 7 heads tall, 7 1/2 heads tall or 8 heads tall."

For this first doll, I'm going to use 7.5. http://www.dollmakersdream.com/female-anatomy.html

That means my heads should be 1.3" tall, an easy number to remember.

Review: The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory

I am currently reading The Lady of the Rivers: A Novel (The Cousins' War) by 

Philippa Gregory. When I read historical fiction, I always have to start researching the people and time. 

When I was a little girl, that meant pulling the encyclopedia down off the shelf and sprawling on the floor of our tiny library to read the facts about the people in the fiction. Today, we have so much more. I saw this on Pinterest yesterday.  It's the marriage of the heroine's daughter to the king.
My husband is always amazed at how much I know about the British monarchy. Of course, I am descended from an illegitimate son of Edward VII....