Lenore and the Raven

Tonight will be more of a speedy blog...

Fall is upon us,and Halloween is my favorite, favoritty ,fave holiday.

When I think of Halloween one of the things I think of or people rather is Edgar Allan Poe.

I thought how could I make Lenore into a doll with a Tim Burton spin on it ....hmmm..

Trying on the wig

If you've never read it ,here is the poem.. LENORE by Edgar Allan Poe

  I started out with a Draculaura (click on pics to enlarge)

Adding the shading

I love Tim Burton and find a lot of his works reminds me of my own earlier sketches.. which is so Cool!

Shaping the eyes

Drawing the irises 

I went for dark green and gloomy

Details and lashes

Her dolly I wanted a look of horror, (House of Usher)

I started with a polymer ball and added a wire loop

starting to have the look of horror

I keep already baked tiny polymer balls for eyes

with eyes added and start of sculpt

AT this point I don't know what happened but I had to scrap it and start again ,this is the final sculpt

Final sculpt with wire and body getting added

I blush and darkened the eye sockets prior to baking... stays forever that way!

Almost there,beginning of paint

I also made the dress and I always always always forget to write it down but I did a little sketch just to show where some of the basic stitching went

THe Raven,... and I forgot to take pics...again.. but basically I started much like the dolly with a polymer ball......and I did a little sketch...wanna see it? here yah go!

wiring for the Raven

Now all of this together .. with some final touches.. and she had to have a little Poe book too

queenliest dead that ever died so young 

Nevermore Lenore...never more

Thank you for reading :)

Have a good Night!

Pixies,ghosts and Shoes

OK. so back to this...
IN my last blog I wrote about how I'm working on a Will-o-wisp....here's my take on it again

IN the last blog I showed how I did the hair and now we're onto the face.

Using dark and light turquoise I contoured the face.

what I wanted to do was and ornate feathery almost headband at the hair line which would allow me to use some glow-in-the-dark paint and have it cascade up into the hair.. so I started with this

the G-I-T-D paint I was using was textured as to why it's lumpy

ANd all I kept thinking was 'THis Looks Kyptonian'.. I HATED it,grabbed some acetone and with much effort cleaned off her whole forehead and started again.

I'll come back to her face in a minute.

Lets talk about doll feet!!

MOst doll feet are in a high heel shape and what I was going for was a ballerina foot... something graceful....so I had to do the unthinkable...I Cut off her toes!!

Cut off toes with several layers of glue on top

I found this great Glow-in-the-dark polymer and sculpted right over the glue.

Sculpted ballet shoe from polymer

I also noticed if you rub glitter on the polymer the glitter lays flat and creates a sparkly sheen!

I then coiled ribbons of the polymer to create an abstract lacing and adhered that to the leg with liquid sculpty... NOW heres' the trick.. HOw am I going to BAKE that ? You're wondering right now..

Well you don't... BIG SECRET RIGHT HERE-----> you prop up a blow dryer on high and aim it on the direction of what you want to get heated.. Yep,I'm dead serious.......you have to check it often,make sure everything is safe and not obstructing the blow dryer.. after about 10 mins turn off the blow dryer and let cool down and then do it again .. do this at least 3 times

The dress...

I took pieces of tule and air brushed a gradient blue 

I sewed the top on first and then added all the bottom strips separately

I sewed iridescent beads and made some Glow-in-the-dark beads too....I wanted the glowy orbs to surround her

 Super easy,roll little balls make holes and bake

... OH yeah that face again

I did an extreme smokey eye. The eye itself I painted a normal eye very lightly and then did washes of white and Glow-in-the-dark paint over to give a ghostly effect... not really creepy...for me a Will-o-wisp is both paranormal and fairy like so I wanted the face to be a mesh of both.

I added the tiniest rhinestones 

I made her orb out of the same Glow in the Dark clay for her to hold...between all the Glow-in-the-dark  stuff and the glitter my studio looked like Chuck Norris put a Whoopin on some fairies!

But in the end I think I can pretty close to the drawing.....yep the one on the top of this page

THis glows really bright in person

I'm still in the process of taking pics. Amazing and serendipitous. I had her finished the exact day of the person who it's for Birthday and I didn't even know!

Thank you for reading,Have a Glowy evening :)

Pixies and Ghosts, Oh My!!

New assignment.........WILL-O-WISP

Also referred to as 'Orbs' 'Ghost-lights' 'spook-lights'

They are looked at by both paranormal and fairy/folklore enthusiasts

(In European folklore, these lights are held to be either mischievous spirits of the dead, or other supernatural beings or spirits such as fairies, attempting to lead travelers astray) <---Wiki

These are the balls of light seen in the forest at night.

They are also said to be see in old photographs and are thought by some as spirits of visiting deceased relatives caught on film ( though scientists and disbelievers say they are merely particles of dust captured close up on the lens) 

I neither disbelieve or believe . Who's to say they don't exist....but who's to say they do..

they actually go on to say there is a scientific explanation for this occurrence.. so A-HA!! it does really happen and people have seen it!

photo credit Missouri ghosts.net

SO thats pretty much the paranormal side of it but what about the fairy side??

by Timmetrius

nothing says validation like Disney lol!

I found this and it looked really similar to the sketch I had come up with for this project

THis is my take on it... yes , this will become a doll... I will make it Happen!!...ok I hope it happens.... No! I will happen!!

OK SOo..

My client asked for a green doll ,normally she doesn't get specific but she said green

but I'm thinking not too green

SO I picked Frankie Stein

First I had to get rid of all that black hair

Frankie with only white hair

I rooted Mint Green longer strands

I started to make the blue gradient

I do this with several permanent markers.

Finished color

Normally I wash the hair to get most of the ink out ,but not this time

here's my video on how to do this

There will be more tomorrow this blog is getting long

but 

speaking of Pixies and ghost lights

Here is my little Pixie
 THanks for reading
Nighty