Little Miss

Before I left on my trip, I started on a custom order that I agreed to do awhile ago. I didn't get very far before I left, so when I got Emilio up on Ebay, I went back to work on that one. I finally finished the head for her late last night. She is now patiently awaiting her limbs so she can finally go home to her mommy who has been waiting so long for her. She is much daintier looking than Emilio... it is fun to put her head next to him and see the difference. It looks like a 5-6lb baby next to an 8lb one. My nephew, (the one that I used the pictures of to sculpt Emilio), was an 8 pounder, so I guess that seems right! :) This newest little one does not have a name yet, so I am just calling her "Little Miss".

I will post pictures soon....

Introducing Emilio

After a two week vacation, I am back with a new listing on Ebay... my first in a very long time!

Please welcome Emilio...

His auction link is: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190314649612

A Series of Unfortunate Events #2

In continuation with the post that I just made, my second series of unfortunate events was in relation to the mini baby I have been working on. When I realized I was getting nowhere with my large head, (and fast), I decided to get back to work on my mini. I worked two days on a set of arms that I thought were some of my best yet. I put them in to bake and set a timer for fifteen minutes and when the timer went off, and I went to take them out, I was stunned at what I saw. Black tips of fingers, dark brown skin in other areas... blackened elbows... it was awful!! All my hard work gone! I could not figure out why they had burned like this. I have never burnt any of my sculpting before. It has happened to so many of my fellow artists, so I knew it was bound to happen to me one day... but why that day!? :)

I finally realized that I had set the oven to 375 instead of 275. I have been baking a lot of bread and cookies in the last few months, so I think being away from my sculpting while doing my resins... and only baking items that were always set to 375, I just automatically set it to that without thinking. Needless to say, I won't do that again!!

After a few days work, tonight I finally finished arms and legs for this little guy and I just pulled them out of the oven a little while ago. I am anxious to paint him and put him together. I made very newborn looking limbs for this one... working from pictures of my nephew to go with the head I made from his pictures. The feet and hands are more wrinkly than my usual... quite cute! I hope he turns out like I have him in my mind.

Anyways, I thought I would share a picture of my poor boy with his "unfortunate" limbs. :(

A Series of Unfortunate Events

It is just after five in the morning and the sun is already rising. I still have not gotten used to the sun coming up so early and staying up so late in the day. It was only yesterday that I realized it is now light until about 9 at night here. I love having so many hours of sunlight. It is a shame though, when you still haven't gone to bed and the sun is already on the way up! :)

My series of unfortunate events began with working on a large head for hours on end to the point that my fingers and hands were actually cramping... to come out with a face like this...

Only to decide I didn't like it, and change it to this...

Only to yet again, decide I did not like it and change it to this...

Then I tweaked it a bit more to this...

and finally to this....

At this point, I still had to finish putting that eye on the left side in and get the cheek to match the other one, among a few other things. One day I woke up, looked at it, and decided it was just not realistic enough and destroyed the whole thing. What a waste of many long days of work that was!! Now I look back at some of these pictures and wish I had kept features from all of them. :)

From Small to Big

Just thought I would check in since it's been awhile. After sculpting my last little head, I kept wishing it was lifesize. Probably the fact that he looks like my nephew did at birth did not help! :) So off to work I went on a lifesize head. I am at the point now where I cannot count how many times I have resculpted the face on this one. I have realized no matter how hard I try, I cannot replicate something I've already done! Going from a sculpt so tiny to one so big is also a challenge in many ways.

I am finally making good progress with this head though, and am hoping that in the end I will like it enough to have it reproduced into a kit doll. I will keep you posted as I finish up this head. I hope to finish it this week, but if I change my mind again on the face then it definitely won't be this week! :)

Tuckered Out

After studying MANY newborn pictures of my nephew at various angles and an infant skull I have here, I think I have corrected some of the things that I had done wrong in previous sculpts. I think I have improved on the general head and face shape of a newborn with this sculpt... beginning with what the "skull structure" would be underneath and the various muscles, tendons, and fat pads associated with a newborn.

I had intended on creating a little girl, but this one has proven to be boy all the way. I guess studying all those boy pictures did rub off in another, unintended, way! :)

Here he is, just cured, no paint...

Happy Easter!

Now that I have hosted Easter dinner and all is calm again, I can return to my sculpting. I had started on a new head last week, but it was turning out smaller than I had wanted this one to be... so I started anew today. I am working on one that will be about 9 inches and will list it for sale on either my website or Ebay. I have not decided where yet.

I have an idea of what I would like this one to be like when it is done, and hopefully that idea will surface in this clay. :)

I will write again when I've made some progress.

Happy Easter!