how to add hair to a Doll

Adding hair to your art doll is fun! There are many ways, and many materials to do it.
This is a very simple and cute tutorial, using textured yarn, enjoy!
Leave me a comment in the channel and thumbs up if you like it!

June, July, August...

Well, this summer was extremely hot, and as i decided in january, i have spent all my time dedicated to painting this year.... but I am feeling the "make a doll bug" again, and most likely will get all my doll making goodies and go for it lol :oD

For now, I want to share an adorable tutorial for a bunny doll. Isn't is an adorable face?

 

It is in Russian but can be translated or simply look at the photos and follow steps HERE

BJD doll tutorial

I found this beautiful ball jointed doll tutorial I'd like to share:

Click HERE to see the article in the magazine and have fun!

I'd love to hear from you! Don't be shy, drop me a line :>)

How to add arms

This is an easy and fun tutorial on how to add arms to a doll.
My model is a fabric doll made by JasmoonButerfly
The arms are paperclay, but they can be polymer as well, just make sure you make some little holes when you are sculpting them.
 You need:
-A doll and her limbs with a perforation
-Beads a bit larger than the holes in the limbs.
-Strong thread.
-Large needle.

We start by getting a strong thread or floss. In this case I am using gold acrylic floss, and tiny beads in a color coordinated blue.

Insert needle from the back, pull out from the shoulder area.

Pick up the bead and and push the needle through the doll into the other shoulder. Make sure they are even: 

Pick up the other bead, push thread back ion the hole, and insert in the shoulder towards the back again.
Make a good knot and add a bit of glue.

Here she is, all dolled-up.

Thanks for visiting, don't forget to "follow" this blog to be notified of ore tutorials and fun doll pictures!

Doll eyes

I personally like to buy my eyes, but I have done some myself in the past. Hard to guess the right size for me! It is still fun to experiment but in my case I end up making the doll's face according to the eyes I already made, not the other way around :oB

Anyway, here is a fun tutorial on how to make art doll eyes, by Granet. You need to click again in the image so it blows up to a large readable size.

Here is another different way, using clay and paint. very cute, click HERE

And a more simpler style by "the drunk gnome", also with clay, HERE

And last but not least, Misty Moon Creations shows how to make dolls eyes HERE

Hope you have fun experimenting with clay!

Video Tutorial

This is a very nice tutorial video AlouaisA aka LoveLingZ


Includes the beginning of armature, eyes and hands sculpting.

Talking about photos

When I paint, I scan my art most of the time, or tape a direct and even picture of the canvas with nothing else in the image.
But when it comes to dolls, it is much better to find fun angles, props, good light, and almost like a painting, you have to find the right position in "thirds", meaning, divide in thirds with imaginary horizontal and vertical lines:

 ...And place your doll (or main object in the photo!) on the two thirds to left or right. For a composition, it is more pleasing to the eye and gives you more space to play with if you .
Just practice a lot, if you are like me that wants everything pictured right in the center :oD

And a different photo with props, and placing the doll on the third side, but I think there's too many things to distract the eye:

Cropping the image a little, makes the eye go to the doll easier:

Have fun practicing!

Face tutorial

This is a larger head made of polymer. Really cool video:

Painting faces

This video HERE is for painting a face by Celycom from NIADA, very interesting info for any kind of sculpting.

It is just a part of the whole video, but you can see enough technique.

And HERE is another painted face technique by Patti Medaris Culea, completely different approach.
 
Are you ready to start your witches? October is around the corner!
How about a Dia de los Muertos doll?

Diapers!

How to make adorable  doll diapers by Skip to my low, which by the way is full of great projects!

It is so simple, you can adjust the size, and of course chose some colorful fabric to personalize it.
Leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you :oD

How not to take photos

This is a re-post from my main art blog, but fits better in a doll blog :o)

This is  Timmy. He is a tiny 5 inch polymer baby, and he went visiting places playing the touring baby blog with a mouse, a piggy, a frog, and another baby.
This is a WIP picture before curing the clay:

Taking pictures of your dolls is a whole different art. It requires creativity, and some camera knowledge. I don't  claim to be an expert at all, but I know what not to do ;o)
As I was taking pictures of this polymer baby, I came across all the problems in the book: bad  lighting, shadows, bad angles, weird background... and also an unwanted visitor (aka my cat Panzón) and decided after several "photo bombs" that I needed to post them in the blog. Here you go:

Baby looking in the wrong direction.

Weird lighting and shadows. Needs cropping.

Light is too sharp . Goofy cat in background.

Total fiasco. Bad shadows, blurry. Photo bomb cat.

I cropped the best picture of the sesion, and this is the result:

Much better, and ready for his 5 States tour. Ta ta for now!

Sculpting a baby tutorial

This beautiful slide show has been on for a while, but it is always great to see it again!

Image from her video

Follow the link to see the video on sculpting a baby's head by the talented Cheimarie.

Polymer button/doll tutorial

I found this super cute tutorial. It can be made as dolls, or as buttons:

Click on the links to see the beautiful Matrioshka doll buttons First, Second, Third steps, by Galago.

Doll wig video

I have not done any dolls for a long while, but I want to share more great tutorials, this one made by Catz. The actual tutorial starts after a minute in the video:



I have not tried this method, and it probably wouldn't work with a tiny doll, but seems like a good way to have a removable wig with easy to find parts from the house. Maybe the hair extensions can be replaces with sewn material, like yarn, mohair, etc.

Doll Hair

Fun tutorial on how to make a wig for your doll with faux fur



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Cute tutorial!

My friend Mary posted a super cute tutorial to make a doll head, which was taken from an article in Portuguese, but just by pictures you can figure the steps, plus Mary explained very nicely. THis is cold porcelain but any clay really, can be used.

Click to see her blog