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Obachan the Leaf Doll: Another way to sculpt a face. How to apply "skin" in leaf shapes to simulate muscles. How to simulate fabric from clay.
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 Obachan Thumbnail Pages:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
1,  The reason why I call this the leaf doll is because the muscles of the doll are cut out with leaf shaped Kemper tools. Muscles are leaf shape or a stretched oval, which can be made with the tip of the leaf tool tapped down for one end, turned around and tapped down for the other end and then cut it out with an exacto knife. 
2,  The leaf shapes are applied to an aluminum foil armature that has one layer of foundation clay. Foundation clay is without muscle definition or gender markers. It is when you add the leaf shapes on it that you see the muscles take shape. This pages starts the sculpting of the face. 
3, In the tutorial of sculpting a man's face we started with a grid and then added muscle mass. With this alternate method we have the grid in our mind's eye and we build up with scraps and then smooth and even the bits into muscle mass. More than one way to peel a shrimp.
4,  In the tutorial for sculpting a man's face we aimed for a Caucasian brow. Here on this page we're fashioning an Asian brow, where the forehead and the eyelid are about at the same elevation. Youthful faces are free of lines. Gravity hasn't pulled the skin down because it's still strong and elastic. At rest there are no laugh lines, no crow's feet.
5, After the area around the eye is as good as it'll be with the eyes shut, open the eye. By sculpting the eye first as shut and then opening it you'll get a bunching up of the clay that simulates an orb in the socket. You don't have to add clay or sculpt down from the top.
6,  With age our skin looses its elasticity and gravity starts to pull it down. There's bags under the eyes. There's lines at the outside corner of the eyes and at the laugh lines that go from the side of the nose to the border of the mouth muscles.
7,  But age is not without it's own magic and delicate charm. On this page see how this old woman becomes the envy of all, even when her body isn't sculpted yet. By using aluminum foil armatures you can pose the doll and on this page you see her posed.
8,  Give the face a sly smile and pose in a scene and a whole tale unfolds in your imagination. Naga Man's look of surprise now makes sense.
9, When you find the pose you want for your doll, un fold it from the pose and start smoothing the leaf shaped cut outs. The sculpting goes quickly since the added mass is cut into muscle shape already. Then pose the doll again. A dowager's hump and deflated breasts are part of this old woman's body. Her body is not going to be seen, it's made that way so when the kimono covers her you'll still know she's old.
 10,  Even though the body is covered I feel more comfortable knowing the body looks as it should nude. Some folks use wadded up tape and just make polymer clay heads, hands and feet. My feeling is the body still looks like wadded up tape and not an old grandmother, or young babe. Hearts of gold cane is reiterated for the pattern on this clay "fabric", but that's another webthread.