Creating an OOAK Doll - Part 2

Part one is here.

So, this is where I left it.

From the side the head looks too short. So I need to add a jaw.

I make a thick sausage of clay. Roughly the same length as the head and a third the width of the face.

This sausage gets added to the lower part of the face - it will be the edge of the jawbone and chin.

I use the side of my knitting needle to smoosh the new clay into the base shape.

Here's a little nose. At least, it will be a little nose...

Looks kind of like a skeletal Muppet at this stage.

Starting to blend the nose in. Still keeping everything pretty rough.

I also smooth and refine the jaw shape as I go. But not much, I find that over-working the sculpt before I'm happy with it hamstrings me a bit, and I don't let the doll's "personality" come through. (What an Arty-farty thing to say)

I make a small disc and cut it in half.

I place one of the halves where the doll's upper lip is.

That gets smoothed right up into the cheeks/cheekbones.

Then I shape the lip a little. Is for fun.

A common "mistake" is to treat the lips as if they only extend to where they change colour, and sculpt duckface lips.
The lips are the inside of a flat, doughnut shaped muscle. The top lip starts at the nose, then changes direction at the lip-line and curves back into the mouth.

The other half of the disc gets rolled into a wee sausage and placed directly underneath the top lip.

Then I smooth out and down at the ends, but keep the shape of the added clay under the bottom lip.

Adding a teeny ball for the chin, and two elongated pancakes for the nasolabial fold.

Which then gets a rough smoothing.

Now I fill the eye-sockets with balls of clay. I find this is easier if I reshape the balls into eggs/teardrops and insert them point first.

I blend the new clay in again.

It's important to constantly look at the sculpt from different angles, otherwise I end up with this.
I find that I often get caught up in the creativeness of sculpting and forget to pay attention to how the overall face is looking. Now is a good time to stop, switch that Left-side of the brain back on, and look for areas that, well, suck.

And add more clay (or remove some) to even up those discrepancies.

Then I absent mindedly re-arranged the features into a smile. I worked for about ten minutes before thinking "Crap! I forgot to take more photos!".

Tomorrow I'll add eyes to it, and the day after - hands!