Sculpting a Small BJD Head in Paperclay

Today we have a video demo from ShirwillJack showing how to sculpt a small BJD* head (hollow).  She refers to this as a "paperclay" tutorial but in dialog says she is using "Premier" (LaDoll) clay.  They are both air-dry but not exactly the same.  "Premier" is a stone clay, not paperclay.  However, "Creative Paperclay" works well for modeling BJDs and is frequently used by doll artists.  This is a good example of using the "add-on" method for sculpting with air-dry clay, where wet clay is applied to dry clay (re-moistened).  If you think you have to rush with air-dry clay, think again.  Note:  You might want to pause video in the speeded up segments.  Sometimes it's just a little too speedy to see what's happening!

How to Create a Clay Unicorn

This is a step by step tutorial by IndigoOcean to create a realistic unicorn (or a horse if you prefer).  Tutorial is in PDF format and includes lots of photos.   The artist takes you all the way from concept drawing, to creating an armature, sculpting the horse/unicorn, creating a mold and casting the sculpture.  You can skip the mold creation/casting process if you prefer, it's not a necessary part of this tutorial.  Just create your own one-of-a-kind sculpture instead!

Because the artist plans on creating a mold, he is using Plasteline clay, which is an oil-based clay which does not harden.   The Plasteline figure will be discarded after casting.   The author says:  "I'm not narrowing down the materials too much. The actual sculpting medium you use is entirely up to you, and this tutorial will focus on my process more than anything. I sculpt using many materials- polymer clay, air-dry stoneware clay, wax, plasteline, paper clay, and epoxy putty- but for all of them the techniques used vary little. This tutorial centers around designing, sculpting, molding, casting and finishing a piece."

Spoon Doll ~ Fantasy Figure

Hildi, a 22" spoon doll by Studio Willich

Here's a great tutorial from Studio Willich showing how they make spoon dolls (updated).   Spoon dolls are simply sculptures that start out with a wooden spoon as armature, as shown below.   I don't often feature polymer clay tutorials that have to be converted to use air-dry clay, but

Sculpting Head and Face for BJD

~ click photos to enlarge ~    

Linda Macario, the Italian doll-maker, has written a wonderful tutorial for creating the head for a BJD (ball-jointed doll) .   LaDoll air-dry clay is suggested.  Creative Paperclay would also be suitable for this project.   Lots of photos demonstrate how to sculpt the Styrofoam core, apply the clay, model the facial features, hollow out the head & insert the eyes and also create the head articulation.

How to Create This Art Doll including How to Sculpt Head and Build Body

Paperclay doll by Oksana Dyachenko

Excellent, detailed tutorial for creating a mixed media art doll by Oksana Dyachenko.  Some interesting and unique techniques shown that I've never seen before.  Creative Paperclay is used to sculpt head, hands and feet with abundant step-by-step instructions for modeling face and hands along with painting details.  This is a very long tutorial with lots of steps and lots of photos.  You'll probably do best if you follow along one step at a time.  Don't skip around ....you might miss something important.  There's really a lot of information in this tutorial!

Sculpting a Heron

Believe it or not, this beautiful Heron was sculpted from a gourd.   Actually it's made from several gourds that were carved, assembled and detailed with air-dry clay by Phyllis Sickles.   Phyllis shares her clay+gourd process in this series of step-by-step photos for "Sculpting the Heron".

Modeling a Simple Doll Face

In this video, Christina Albuquerque of Brazil shows us how to model a simple face.  This cute doll head has an easy 'button' nose and the eyes will be painted on after clay dries.  Learn this basic face first and then you can customize with different expressions. Christina starts with a ball of cold porcelain that is the same size as the Styrofoam ball that will be