My Sculpting Journey

Many years ago, I made an old sculpting thread following the progress of my anime boy, Spica. I wanted to add an anime boy head option, since even resin heads, there aren't too many options. I even went as far as to hold a preorder, but the results weren't that great.😅 But after sulking for a while, I didn't want to give up doll making entirely. I also wanted to create a new post mainly to bring a newer method of how I make dolls as well as the fact I ended up with Astrea Doll as my "company" name, lol versus the concept I made when I was 18. 

Here's the original post: 

And here's the guy all finished, but sadly he wasn't compatible at all with vinyl bodies easily. I did want to expand my group of sculpts however and try my hand at making more anime heads, especially heads compatible with DD and SmD bodies, with what's available with the current bodies. 

Polaris herself was sort of a random urge of sculpting since I still had my old test mold of Spica and I wanted to try my hand at hand sculpting her, so here are some progress photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/natsukiphoto/

While refining my sculpt Polaris, I thought how nice would it be have her in vinyl. But knowing the approximate cost, and being unsure if I would be able to sell any, I had to give up. It was until I remembered that Volks used to make their DDII bust out of resin. For a while I thought it was Volk's special formula as I could really only pull up rigid type of resins...until I was browsing the Smooth-On website and found semi-rigid resins. I also was getting quite envious of digital sculptors lol and wanted to try my hand at it. After some searching I found an online based program called SculptGL (same family as Nomad sculpt, but more like the first sculpting program by Stephane Ginier.)

So while toying around with the software I finally complete Polaris with the features I wanted her to have since I wasn't satisfied with my hand sculpting and with every refinement I made, there was always something else after a while I would notice that looked uneven to me. I then used Zbrush at my school to lower her resolution to make her more ideal for printing an am currently cutting the head open in a CAD software to finish her inner construction. 

 

But I'm having a bit of a dilemma, knowing how simple anime doll sculpts can be, does Polaris resemble any dolls on the market? Her sketches were just drawings to play with some faceup ideas, but I would like to personally avoid looking like other dolls on the market and avoid a lawsuit and then have to live in a box lmao. I'm also open to any criticism and feedback, I'm happy to hear anyone's thoughts really since I want to improve as an artist. I'm also going to document my experience with semi rigid resin to help other makers who want to create custom parts and heads for their own businesses, or customizations. 

Well, I think her ears are certainly different.  At least from the ones my 60cm Obitsu has.

I've seen your heads on insta before!! They are beautiful and it's a damn shame they didn't sell better. I hope your new sculpting journey is very successful! I don't know anything about 3d sculpting or printing, but I'm really excited to see how it goes for you. I'm curious what semi-rigid resin is like.

3 hours ago, Tam_I_am said:

Well, I think her ears are certainly different.  At least from the ones my 60cm Obitsu has.

Thanks for your feedback! Once I print her I need to refine the ears, since I wasn't able to get them quite right in the software 😅

1 hour ago, bananaaether said:

I've seen your heads on insta before!! They are beautiful and it's a damn shame they didn't sell better. I hope your new sculpting journey is very successful! I don't know anything about 3d sculpting or printing, but I'm really excited to see how it goes for you. I'm curious what semi-rigid resin is like.

Thank you so much! It was a shame, but I don't feel too bad about it anymore, since if I keep sharing and making, I think the results can change. From the example videos I watched, it behaves similar to rubber and vinyl, like its flexible, which makes it ideal for prop making and cosplay items. 

Polaris is so beautiful! You did an amazing job on her sculpt.

Imo it looks unique while having the feeling of a DD! I’d love to see a hybrid doll with her!

14 hours ago, chantelle said:

Polaris is so beautiful! You did an amazing job on her sculpt.

Imo it looks unique while having the feeling of a DD! I’d love to see a hybrid doll with her!

Thank you so much! I’m really surprised of how far my sculpting skills have come when I look at her clay counter part. I currently have a dds body, and can take a photo once I can get her printed. 

5 hours ago, NatsukiP said:

Thank you so much! I’m really surprised of how far my sculpting skills have come when I look at her clay counter part. I currently have a dds body, and can take a photo once I can get her printed. 

So exciting! I can’t wait to see 😄 

On 3/18/2023 at 11:42 PM, chantelle said:

So exciting! I can’t wait to see 😄 

Me too, if my lab mate is able to, we can print her tomorrow. 
 

Also small update, here’s the head all cut up for printing via a CAD program:

 

The cuts are a bit weird since I wanted to make it easier for the 3d printers and also because the areas I tied cutting weren’t coming out with the correct geometry. 

Okay so a few days ago I had printed out my head but...I had printed her out way too big! And I found a few areas I thought I should resculpt since I wasn't satisfied by the lower jaw area. I had covered her in some primer to make it easier to see some details. The head in real life, the chin was more narrow and cone shaped, I also felt that her nose and lips were much lower than I wanted. In the last 2 shots of Polaris, her cheeks into her chin became too narrow, and I hadn't indicated a plane to represent the underside of the chin, which also added to that narrow, cone shape effect. 

Here she is compared to my ddh 09 and 03 plus my own sculpt Spica

 

The last photo doesn't show it too well but the face was much longer and and the total head circumference pushing to about 10cm. So I had gone back and re adjusted my model to fix some issues the printed version was having. I typically sculpt in orthographic view since perspective in the computer often looks quite wonky, and the program I use, SculptGL doesn't appear to allow me to adjust the focal length. So far I've been switching between the views but zooming out in the perspective view to mimic real life perspective. Her head cap needs work again since I adjusted the back of the head as well. Hopefully I can figure out sizing this time around 😓 I also got around to really working on the ears too! So glad I got over that hurdle lol!

 

 

 

 

Edited March 29 by NatsukiP
Small edit: some photos duplicated at the end and wouldn't show up when I was first writing it, only after I had edited this post was I able to delete them.

Update~I finally got a chance to print her out, and begun the process of preparing her for casting. Also was able to hollow her out which allowed me to test for her on my DDS body. Still have to properly sculpt her neck and modify the eye shape a bit bit so far happy with the progress.

censored doll nudity under the spoiler, it’s Polaris head on my DDS body

Spoiler

 

 

She looks amazing! Her proportions are great 😄 

On 4/10/2023 at 11:22 AM, chantelle said:

She looks amazing! Her proportions are great 😄 

Thank you so much! So far she’s looking fairly good, I think I might be done with sanding sooner than I think since the outside is the part that really needs the most work. 

I really like the eye shape you gave Polaris! It feels a little like a cross between DDH-07 and DDH-09 - which imo is a very good thing, haha. Excited to see where this goes!

On 4/13/2023 at 8:00 AM, RetroKanojo said:

I really like the eye shape you gave Polaris! It feels a little like a cross between DDH-07 and DDH-09 - which imo is a very good thing, haha. Excited to see where this goes!

Hahaha you spoke my thoughts, I was thinking she kinda looks like their distant cousin or something. 

Little Update: Here she is with a full coat of primer and some eyes. So far 22 mm fits fine with space in the head. Going to try and make her eye wells tonight. And a lot of sanding as well 😅
 

 

Here’s a quick peek at her progress with eyes and on the body, I tore out her neck area to resculpt it since the original didn’t really fit that well, I’ve also put in her eye wells and mainly just waiting till every thing cures to sand and add more apoxy. 
 

Okay don’t mean to make so many post at once but I put another layer of primer on her and she reminds me so much of my first version of Spica!!! Also showed me that her face might be great for dd boy or SmD boy.  
 

here’s my older spica head, the original paper clay version since his released counterpart was the second iteration. I remember being really happy about him but not really happy with how huge his head actually was. 

 

and finally some shots of Polaris on a DDS body. Might adjust the neck hole depth a little bit but I’m liking the direction. She coming along quicker than Spica was especially since her surface was smoothed prior, just needed filling for the grape and dents vs paper clay which felt like playing a spot the difference game.

 

 

She's turning out amazing! I also agree she'd make a good boy, its fun her sculpt has that flexibility

1 hour ago, chantelle said:

She's turning out amazing! I also agree she'd make a good boy, its fun her sculpt has that flexibility

Thank you! I didn’t really intend she’d be a boys sculpt, I thought it would be nice to have that flexibility  but after seeing her come along I think her features would work well. You know I’ve always noticed heads like mature characters like dd Sheryl make great boys because her face is nice and long. 

I'm very bad at visualizing things in my head so that picture with Polaris on a body with eyes + wig really helped me. She looks stunning!  I have to admit that I am a boy doll enthusiast - my go-to head is the DDH-07 - so I'm biased, but I think Polaris would make a really cute buy as well!

On 4/20/2023 at 2:05 PM, RetroKanojo said:

I'm very bad at visualizing things in my head so that picture with Polaris on a body with eyes + wig really helped me. She looks stunning!  I have to admit that I am a boy doll enthusiast - my go-to head is the DDH-07 - so I'm biased, but I think Polaris would make a really cute buy as well!

Thank you so much! I should make some face up mock ups to see how an anime boy face up would look. 

For some updates~
 

Since I finally got Nomad Sculpt, I can finally cut out the interior of the head since my previous go to, sculpt GL won’t allow me to. So I decided to try remaking Spica seeing how I previously tried making a new 3d version of him….but I printed him way too big lol. Buttttt good news is that his head cap was the perfect size for Polaris so I stole that since I could print out another one. But looking at the head size he actually was about the same size as my mature anime boy Vega…so I decided to also use this as a chance to try my hand at regular resin casting and prepare Vega😅

Here’s Polaris with her head cap, starting to prepare her interior for casting.

then here’s new Vega with Polaris, his eyes were the same size as hers so it gave the effect of a way bigger head. So I began to start making his eyes smaller and trying to slim down his face. 
 

Trying to also get the same features as Vega when I remade him in 2020 since I loved how his face turned out then  

I’ve also been doing research about which resins to use and came across this channel that did a comparison of different types of semi-rigid resins. 
 

Personally I love this channel for all the experimental projects and tips he gives. 

I ended up deciding Smooth-On Simpact 85a since I had previously used their products and it cures to a bright white so I didn’t feel too nervous to use and attempt to color it. It was also quiet rigid but flexible so it will hopefully give the effects of hard vinyl as I saw in his video and others. Hopefully I can buy all my supplies soon tho and start casting. 

5 hours ago, NatsukiP said:

I ended up deciding Smooth-On Simpact 85a since I had previously used their products and it cures to a bright white so I didn’t feel too nervous to use and attempt to color it. It was also quiet rigid but flexible so it will hopefully give the effects of hard vinyl as I saw in his video and others. Hopefully I can buy all my supplies soon tho and start casting. 

This is really exciting! Semi-rigid resin looks pretty promising based on what I saw from the video. Hope it goes well for you 😄 

Edited April 24 by chantelle

I think Vega would make a great sculpt for a Part 3 Jotaro Kujo 

A very different vibe from other boy sculpts I've seen! (Although I've arguably not looked too deeply into the resin side of things) It's very refreshing!

On 4/24/2023 at 1:30 AM, chantelle said:

This is really exciting! Semi-rigid resin looks pretty promising based on what I saw from the video. Hope it goes well for you 😄 

I hope so too! I’ve been super curious about the really flexible resin shown too, especially since if you cast it thin enough it might mimic soft vinyl, kinda makes me want to also try making body shells….😏 but going to force myself to finish 1 project at a time lmao. 
 

On 4/24/2023 at 4:57 AM, RetroKanojo said:

I think Vega would make a great sculpt for a Part 3 Jotaro Kujo 

A very different vibe from other boy sculpts I've seen! (Although I've arguably not looked too deeply into the resin side of things) It's very refreshing!

hahaha I think it’s a great fit, will have to try adjusting those cheek bones tho since I felt they were a little bit low. And thank you! I have to admit I definitely was looking at a lot of resin 70cm boys since I felt they had the right facial structure and proportions since most of them resemble anime characters anyways minus details like nostrils and tear ducts. 

On 4/25/2023 at 11:27 AM, NatsukiP said:

I hope so too! I’ve been super curious about the really flexible resin shown too, especially since if you cast it thin enough it might mimic soft vinyl, kinda makes me want to also try making body shells….😏 but going to force myself to finish 1 project at a time lmao. 

Body shells sounds like such a good idea! Imo it would be great for custom parts for DD!!! 😄 I’ve seen a lot of silicone custom parts but not really in other materials so theres a lot of potential 

I have a 3d body model that I started working on, but once I got Nomad I think I might have to try remaking it since now I can cut out the joint areas and hollow the joints. Will reveal once I get the model to a nicer state 😏 

 

Now onto the updates~ 

So after staring at the head for a while, I didn’t like how sharp her chin was since the shape made her face look really narrow, so I added some more apoxy around her jaw and sanded the chin a little bit. 

and after that I wanted to see how a more boyish face would look, and personally I think it works as a super cute boy lol maybe a different style would make it manlier but I think it’s a good head to hybrid on a ddboy or smd boy since the neck is slender on those bodies. 
 

Vega I forgot to post him on my switch 65cm body and my granado vindoll body to see how he looks. He’s still looking a bit rough and his eyes are messed up, since he can’t properly wear eyes without them being at a weird angle, as if their looking down, when meant to look straight ahead. 
 

left to right if anyone’s curious: Vindoll 68cm, Obitsu Parabox boy 48cm, DD sister 54cm with shoes adding 1cm, and Switch Humming Dolly 65cm

 

(definitely feeling bad for my own dolls, my new boy has to hold his sisters head 🤣)