My Little Mer-pole (Baby Mermaid) Part 1

I am back with a full figure project for you again, although this time it just so happens that the figure is a lot smaller than usual seeing as it is that of a baby (mermaid)!

I have recently been obsessed with a  set of  premium sculpting video tutorials (a from me to me gift), by one of my favorite OOAK (One Of A Kind) artists and she has inspired me to branch out and try other things instead of the status quo of female figures that I have stuck to in the past, so here goes (I hope you like it):

This is Amber, A Merpole Napping.

I think that she is so cute, but I might be a little biased...

Here's how she came to be:

 I started off with a pre-baked, that is to sat hard, ball shaped head on a bit of an armature. I filled out the body a little with the help of some tinfoil and paper tape (the type florists use).

 Here is a look at the entire armature. 

Because I hadn't quite made my mind up about how ling etc. I wanted her little tail to be, I left the wire quite long...

 On to the face. I took a flattened ball of clay and placed that over my little skull. 

Usually at this point I would draw in the face lines to help me get the proportions right, but babies faces are not quite the same as adult faces, so instead I just gave it a little indent where the eyes will be...

 A look from the side.

Next I needed some extra clay for the nose, and at first it looked rather alarming, but after smoothing in the seams and blending it all in, it didn't look too bad anymore. The bottom half of that GIANT nose also formed the little mouth and part of the chin.

As you can see, everything is still really rough, but it is definitely starting to get there... Whilst blending in that nose, I refined the lips a little and started to shape the nose.

I added some little balls of clay for the cheeks, because really what is a baby without those adorable little round cheeks?

Still a little scary...

(And now even more so! ) I added some tiny balls of clay to the eyes. Usually the eye socket would be filled with actual eyes, but in this case, seeing as she is sleeping, I needed some extra clay just there...

With the eye-'balls' smoothed and blended I lined the bottom of the eye-lid and shaped the eyes some more. 

I also used my pointed little rubber tipped tool to poke in the corners of her mouth and ended up with this really cheeky little grin...

A bit more smoothing and a tiny bit of brushing (I use a small paintbrush with a TINY TINY bit of baby oil on it to smooth out the harsher lines of my tools and things.) 

Don't forget to add the nostrils. All I did for that is poke two fairly deep little holes into the nose. You don't want them to be too deep, but alson if they are too shallow they might not show up at all...

Here I am just seeing how I would like her to be laying. If I want her little hand up like this I will need to adjust the little cheek so that it looks a little more realistic.

I always try and look at the work from all ancges to make sure that it all looks right, regardless of the view point.

 Here I have squashed the bottom cheek slightly. It is harder to see with that little faux hand in the way, but I think that just means that I did a good job - seeing as it all still looks right.

I also added the little ear and started working on the details of that.

To make the ear I simply took a tiny ball of flattened caly and put it in place. 

Remember that baby ears are a tiny bit too big for them but still proportional. The top of your ear lines up tight the middle of your eyes, and the bottom of the ear with your lips. A useful fact to keep in mind when adding ears to faces.

Another useful tip is to have a good reference photo close by rather than trying to make it up as you go. All ears are unique, but having the picture just allows you to be slightly more accurate.

Here you can clearly see the squashed cheek.

 Again cheecking from all angles.

So because I know that I was going to have her lay on one side of her face I cheated a little bit and, although I put a little bit of clay in for the bottom ear, I didn't spend a whole lot of time detailing it...

 Here the face is baked and ready to go!

I just realized what time it is here and I really need to go, so if you'll forgive me I will tell you all the rest of the story as soon as I have a sec, but for now we must leave it here...

Sorry.

Until next time

ACL

PS  I have been using a new communications platform, and if you are interested in contacting me with questions and/ or comments, find me instantly (messages are sent to my phone) here:

https://reaches.me:8443/urlchat.html?guestid=6aa28459a91aad02692a9334f633919a

Its a fairly unique platform with a huge range of uses, but I like the chat. Alternatively, download it form the PlayStore. Search for chatWORLD or follow this link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.world.chatworld&hl=en