How to Model the Head of a Doll or Figure

Today we have another demonstration in a series of instructional videos from Marisol Romero about cold porcelain. Marisol Romero is a cold porcelain artist from Argentina, where this medium is very popular.

Many air-dry clay projects call for Styrofoam shapes as armatures for figure modeling  In the following video, while at a craft show, Marisol shows us how to wrap a foam ball and model the head of a doll or figure.  She also demonstrates her method for creating eyes, which are normally painted on.

Making Paperclay Doll Eyes

Eyes colored with pencils worn by Dollzone Leo

Author of tutorial says making Paperclay eyes for your doll is very simple. The eyes shown here started as beads of Creative Paperclay and were colored using artist pencils and acrylic paint.   A glossy finish was sprayed on.  These eyes were created for a BJD doll but could be used with any clay figure.  Read entire eye tutorial here.

Lots More Eyes to Paint

Source of this photo unknown

The other day we posted the steps to create 35 different eyes and expressions. Here's a bunch more ideas for painting eyes on your clay sculpts.

Painting Eyes Step by Step

Bunny (by Mary) with painted eyes 

Quite often, when sculpting clay figures, we decide to paint the eyes rather than using embedded eyes.  The following eye patterns show the steps to create dozens of different eyes and expressions.

Mrs Santa Claus demo

Cold porcelain video slideshow from Eliane Sol demonstrating each step in creating a Mrs Claus figure and box topper.  Many details are shown for shaping and painting the cute face.