I just do what the disembodied heads tell me

So for years now I've admired the character sculpts you see everywhere. You know the kind. The darling little fairies, the cute dolls, the odd and slightly creepy fantasy characters. I signed up on several groups on sculpting, read some books, started reading magazines on dolls, mixed media, art in general. Finally I decided it was time....

Trying to think methodically and logically (OK, I can hear the laughter from people who know me) I decided to do 3 heads, a round head, a wide head and a long head. This would give three basic face/head shapes, and a little experience with each.

I started with 2 styrofoam balls and a styrofoam egg, and began slapping clay on. I soon found out they had their own ideas about what they'd be....


HEAD ONE (Round Head)


This started as one of the round styrofoam balls. I squashed places in for the eyes, envisioning that it would become a Steve Buscemi type creepy yet sincere odd little guy. Here's the early stages:


So far so good, right? There's a nose, brow ridges, nice sockets to add bulgy eyes...

Moving right along....

Hmm, the eyes aren't quite as bulgy and it's not coming off quite as creepy as I....wait, why am I hearing whispers about eyelashes? Well, that could work, big creepy eyes, long eyelashes...OK, I'll go to the store. I need to get some nail sanding wedges anyway to even out the clay...

Well, this is definitely creepy - but maybe that's just the blank eyes. At this point it is starting to hint that it wants to be a girl. What? That is not what I intended! Stop that!

Oh, and that's the other two in the background, in progress. We'll get to those another day...

The staring, blank eyes were creeping me out, so in the middle of the night, I'm painting eyes. This is going further on the course that it wants every day. Definitely not looking like what I started out for!











At which point I have completely given in. I'm just doing what the disembodied heads tell me. And what's up with the beauty mark? I don't get them I don't do them. Sigh. Is anyone else being bossed around by stuff they make? I'll follow up when I've finished shading her lips, and she's decided what she wants for hair...