Post by Lizardbreath on May 31, 2013 23:07:18 GMT
Hello everyone!
So, I have amazingly convoluted project ahead of me, which involved turning an Abio Angel Ba into a creepy, underwater/underearth-ish type demon lord called Chaotic Blue. I have no idea what the final result will be - or even what it will look like in concept yet - but I did have an initial face sketch to work off of, which included a weird crustacean-y headdress. This tutorial/workthrough/thing will also probably work for making the skull headdresses like the ones found with Soom's "Chalco" and "Coquina" dolls.
So, without further ado, here's the first bit of the massive project: Chaotic Blue's headdress.
Here we have the doll, the concept, and the translucent sculpy I'll be using to make the actual organic bit coming off of Chaotic Blue's forehead. I ended up modifying the initial design a bit in order for the doll to actually be able to wear the headdress.
First thing I did was cover half of my Ba's face with aluminum foil - very Lady Gaga, I know - in order to both be able to remove the sculpy from her face easily while still being able to use it as a base, and also so that the sculpy wouldn't lose its shape in the oven while baking. I used more foil than I originally intended, because it wouldn't stay, but that ended up being a good thing in the end!
Pro tip: If you plan to add fur or yarn or feathers at the end of the project, make sure to use many layers of foil. This allows for more room to add on to, and still have it fit your doll.
Time to start sculpting! Since the original design shows something that can be divided into five organic-looking shapes, I started with the middle one, and added one "leaf" on at a time. I wasn't really worried about accuracy or smoothness or anything at this point, since in the end it's supposed to look kind of creepy, and any imperfections would add to the effect.
Pro Tip: The texture created from pressing sculpy into crumpled and flattened aluminum foil looks a lot like uneven scales! Perfect for dragonskin armor, among other things.
Here we have the rough shapes laid out. Notice that I didn't 'correct' some of the weird bumps and scratches in the forms, since they are supposed to be organic and creepy looking.
Here's a close-up comparison between the concept sketch(pardon the "Deep Blue," it is supposed to be "Chaotic Blue") and the skull-thing. Since Chaotic has another set of eyes, and I really didn't feel like modding my doll that much, I carved two small eye holes into the sculpy with a toothpick. Later on I made a set of eyes to replicate the ones she already has by pushing black and silver sculpy through the eye-holes, scraping away the excess, and then cooking and glazing them, and sticking them into the holes with high-temp hot glue.
After it was cooked, you can see how amazing the translucent sculpy looks when backlit. This is exactly the effect that I was going for, since in the original concept, this was supposed to be part of Chaotic Blue's head structure. After it was baked, and before the next step, I sanded out some of the weird edges and bumps. It still looks organic, just not as messy.
Here i've added a couple layers of color to the skull, using light blue and dark blue watercolor pencil, and dark brown pastel brushed on. There are a few places in which the hot glue I had to use to keep the side-bits from breaking off took to the color really well. A happy accident, since it adds to the odd appearance of the mask.
Here's the really fun bit. I found this really weird looking yarn at Joann Fabrics, and got about two skeins because it was on sale. I only used one of them for this project, but this type of yarn is perfect for the otherworldly tentacle-things that replace Chaotic Blue's hair. So, I picked a length that I liked, measuring from the front of the doll's forehead, where the headdress would be, to about the middle of her back. I cut the entire length of yarn(which I believe was only about a yard or two) into strands that length and...
... I started gluing them to the mask with high-temp hot glue. I ended up using all of the strands, so that her entire head was covered(mostly), in an alternating pattern: when I realized that this first row wasn't really enough, I added in another row above it, in the spaces between the strands of yarn. This method ended up working really well, but also caused the skull to not fit quite as well as I thought it would. Next time: seam allowance. Also, in this picture, you can see how the eyes got put in through the back of the eye-holes.
And here's the finished product! As you can see, the piece that is supposed to lay flush with her nose actually sticks out a bit above it, but overall look is quite similar to my original concept, and I was very happy with it!
Here's the view from the back! Notice that it actually doesn't quite cover all of her head, but the likelihood that this particular perspective will ever appear in any picture besides this one, is very slim indeed.
And finally, for when Chaotic is feeling kind and generous, it can be worn farther back on her head to expose her kind and generous looking eyebrows.
And that's that! If you have any questions, comments, or criticisms, please feel free to voice them.
Also, if anyone has any ideas about what I should do with the rest of this particular character - in particular, should I add lines to her face like the ones in the sketch? - feel free to voice those as well, because I don't have a full-body concept yet. XD
Thank you for reading, and see you around!
So, I have amazingly convoluted project ahead of me, which involved turning an Abio Angel Ba into a creepy, underwater/underearth-ish type demon lord called Chaotic Blue. I have no idea what the final result will be - or even what it will look like in concept yet - but I did have an initial face sketch to work off of, which included a weird crustacean-y headdress. This tutorial/workthrough/thing will also probably work for making the skull headdresses like the ones found with Soom's "Chalco" and "Coquina" dolls.
So, without further ado, here's the first bit of the massive project: Chaotic Blue's headdress.
Here we have the doll, the concept, and the translucent sculpy I'll be using to make the actual organic bit coming off of Chaotic Blue's forehead. I ended up modifying the initial design a bit in order for the doll to actually be able to wear the headdress.
First thing I did was cover half of my Ba's face with aluminum foil - very Lady Gaga, I know - in order to both be able to remove the sculpy from her face easily while still being able to use it as a base, and also so that the sculpy wouldn't lose its shape in the oven while baking. I used more foil than I originally intended, because it wouldn't stay, but that ended up being a good thing in the end!
Pro tip: If you plan to add fur or yarn or feathers at the end of the project, make sure to use many layers of foil. This allows for more room to add on to, and still have it fit your doll.
Time to start sculpting! Since the original design shows something that can be divided into five organic-looking shapes, I started with the middle one, and added one "leaf" on at a time. I wasn't really worried about accuracy or smoothness or anything at this point, since in the end it's supposed to look kind of creepy, and any imperfections would add to the effect.
Pro Tip: The texture created from pressing sculpy into crumpled and flattened aluminum foil looks a lot like uneven scales! Perfect for dragonskin armor, among other things.
Here we have the rough shapes laid out. Notice that I didn't 'correct' some of the weird bumps and scratches in the forms, since they are supposed to be organic and creepy looking.
Here's a close-up comparison between the concept sketch(pardon the "Deep Blue," it is supposed to be "Chaotic Blue") and the skull-thing. Since Chaotic has another set of eyes, and I really didn't feel like modding my doll that much, I carved two small eye holes into the sculpy with a toothpick. Later on I made a set of eyes to replicate the ones she already has by pushing black and silver sculpy through the eye-holes, scraping away the excess, and then cooking and glazing them, and sticking them into the holes with high-temp hot glue.
After it was cooked, you can see how amazing the translucent sculpy looks when backlit. This is exactly the effect that I was going for, since in the original concept, this was supposed to be part of Chaotic Blue's head structure. After it was baked, and before the next step, I sanded out some of the weird edges and bumps. It still looks organic, just not as messy.
Here i've added a couple layers of color to the skull, using light blue and dark blue watercolor pencil, and dark brown pastel brushed on. There are a few places in which the hot glue I had to use to keep the side-bits from breaking off took to the color really well. A happy accident, since it adds to the odd appearance of the mask.
Here's the really fun bit. I found this really weird looking yarn at Joann Fabrics, and got about two skeins because it was on sale. I only used one of them for this project, but this type of yarn is perfect for the otherworldly tentacle-things that replace Chaotic Blue's hair. So, I picked a length that I liked, measuring from the front of the doll's forehead, where the headdress would be, to about the middle of her back. I cut the entire length of yarn(which I believe was only about a yard or two) into strands that length and...
... I started gluing them to the mask with high-temp hot glue. I ended up using all of the strands, so that her entire head was covered(mostly), in an alternating pattern: when I realized that this first row wasn't really enough, I added in another row above it, in the spaces between the strands of yarn. This method ended up working really well, but also caused the skull to not fit quite as well as I thought it would. Next time: seam allowance. Also, in this picture, you can see how the eyes got put in through the back of the eye-holes.
And here's the finished product! As you can see, the piece that is supposed to lay flush with her nose actually sticks out a bit above it, but overall look is quite similar to my original concept, and I was very happy with it!
Here's the view from the back! Notice that it actually doesn't quite cover all of her head, but the likelihood that this particular perspective will ever appear in any picture besides this one, is very slim indeed.
And finally, for when Chaotic is feeling kind and generous, it can be worn farther back on her head to expose her kind and generous looking eyebrows.
And that's that! If you have any questions, comments, or criticisms, please feel free to voice them.
Also, if anyone has any ideas about what I should do with the rest of this particular character - in particular, should I add lines to her face like the ones in the sketch? - feel free to voice those as well, because I don't have a full-body concept yet. XD
Thank you for reading, and see you around!