Before you do the eyes, and eyelids, get all the surrounding areas worked out. Eyesockets, brow ridge, cheek bone, bridge of nose.

The eyes are really one of the last things I do because there's so much surrounding it that if I do the eyes first and then these other areas I'm making more work for myself than I need to.

 

But definitely use eyelids. I've seen some character figures and dolls without eyelids, they look all stunned and startled. Add a half circle of clay-skin and just cover half the eye and all of a sudden you have a sultry look. Use crescent moon shapes and do upper and lower eyelids and you got a squint, add a furrowed brow and crows feet at the outer edges and you get a pretty menacing look.

 

The eyes are the windows to the soul. When you do eyes remember the reflective glint in the iris, it'll go through to the pupil sometimes. Make sure that glint is going in the same directions on both eyes or you get a "London-Paris" look where the two eyes are looking in different directions.

 

Look at your doll's eyes in the mirror, it'll show you if they look off in any way. When you work on your doll's face look at the eyes with the top of the head towards you, like you're looking at the head upside down, lying down, you'll see if the eyes are at different elevations, that's a bust.

 

Ok... dig it

 

See the width of the eye?

 

The two eyes are separated with the width of one eye. That's the measurement I use.

 

From the inner corner of the eye to the start of the eyebrow is ONE eye width apart.

 

From the inner corner of the eye going down to the outer edge of the nose is usually one eye width away.

 

From the outer corner of the eye to the temple is one eye width away.

 

That temple is in line with the end of the jaw.

 

Use the width of the eye as a measuring rule of thumb when you're doing doll faces. But put that eye in after you form and shape and prepare the space around it first.

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First of all GREAT SUBJECT CHANGE EVA!!! \(*o*)/ ATTA GIRL.... got to
validate folk's efforts, especially with changing subject lines.

Now....on to the post.

Curious Viva la Eva George IS at it again and she asks....

1.  Okay, how do you do that measurement with your foil skull eye
sockets?  Do you measure that out or just play with it after you
have clay on?
+++++
You "eyeball" it. LOL Oh I couldn't resist and I'm not sorry. I'll do
it again so I'm not apologizing for Pun-ishment. You can tell I got a
full 8 hours sleep, huh?

No it's true, you are "guesstimating" general eyeball size, so you are
eyeballing it.

When you're using a skull form like you are this eye socket is going
to be larger than the viewable eyeball when the face is made. Look at
the skull pictures on your foil head page, there are two large
pictures of the human skull under your picture there.
Biz-Archive/MSAT/ClayArt/Swap/Faces-nonswap5

The space on the skull where the nose bridge is located is half the
size of the eye sockets on the skull.

Trick of that is we are filling in that socket with an eyeball, then
covering that with eyelids.

That finished eyeball is the width I'm talking about and it's a
GENERAL rule, not a hard and fast rule. Some folks have close set
eyes, some have eyes that are set wider. But generally finished
eyeballs with lids are one eye width apart. The width of the eyes that
are on that face.

Exception ... babies. Babies have almost Adult sized eyeballs in those
sockets. Therefore even though the face is smaller the eyes are HUGE.
The iris and pupil of babies eyes seem to fill the whole eye, the
whites of the eyes shows less out of those little eye lids. That's why
Disney animals characters have big eyes, to look like babies, to touch
our hearts.

We will deal with baby faces in a whole different and to be built
tutorial because babies heads and faces have their own specific grids
and measurements. The brain grows twice its size from birth to two
years. That's why nutrition in those early years is so important to
prevent nutritional retardation. That's why babies skulls are not
fused shut, to allow the skull plates to overlap in birthing and to
expand for that additional brain growth that's to come. So babies who
are 3 months old and babies who are a year, a year and a half and two
years old will have different grids and measure to capture that
growth. Another time, another Challenge to ourselves. But I digress
what's the second question?

+++++
2.  Does the shape of the foil skull effect the shape of the face
when you're done?  I mean, I know you can build things up with clay,
but are all human skulls the same or are some shorter, some longer,
etc? (Can you say "Biology 101"?)  I'm asking because if I've chosen
a particular celeb to do, will the original foil skull matter when
I'm "building" his face later?

And please tell me we're gonna do the rest of the body next so I
have a legitimate excuse to look at those Playgirl pics of him ;-)
++++++

 Full-Face-grp One skull, three faces. The
only difference is in the amount of clay and where it is put. Asian
eyes are as big as Caucasian eyes, the forehead and the eyelid are in
a straight line from one another, there's no deep set eyes, we can't
put on eyeliner and open our eyes and SEE it, it gets folded in. That
mongolian fold on the eye is translated into MORE CLAY on the face.

One can do their homework and make an Asian Skull for Asian Faces, so
the cheek bones, the forehead, size... it'll be some what different
from a Caucasian Skull. But not by much... so being that I want Easy
Breezy Big Faces I made one skull, in a GENERIC skull shape. It
doesn't have prominent cheek bones, that'll be built up with clay. It
doesn't have an outrageous frontal lobe, like an eraser tied to the
eyebrows, that can be built up with clay.

All soft cartilage features like noses and ears, it's free form
because we're building it up with clay.

So what form the skull shall take would depend on how specific you
want a particular doll's face to be. If I had a target subject, like
you do. I'd build up as much as I can with foil and use the clay
sparingly. So if your celeb has a strong jaw line, I'd build that up
with foil, get the general shape in foil first. Then cover with a thin
layer of clay-skin.

The edge of the table makes the back of the skull tuck in if you bash
the skull against it. Sounds rough and it is, but it works... just
flashed on that back of the head problem mentioned earlier.

And yes, after we get the faces worked on to our satisfaction, there's
a dozen Challengers now, we will move down and out... down the torso,
that's one clay run. Then hands... the bane of hands, I have Prince of
Fire hand tute for those who are ready for that already. There's feet.
Then there's embedding hair extensions into raw clay scalps on cured
heads.

So we're pretty much set for the next year or so... LOL

Hey, it beats having to age sea shells for 20 years before grinding
them into powder, huh?

In the world of fast foods, sound bites and the 15 minutes of fame we
are going the OLD route. We are slowing down. Looking at what we do
carefully. Targe a real person to sculpt and we're going to be ZEN
about how much time it is going to take.

This is a gift we give to ourselves. Like taking out the time to learn
how to tat, huh Dorothy? huggles to Dorothy who was feeling a little
let down... post award malaise. Bless her heart.

So there it is then, that's all I can think of for now.

xoxo

NJ