Sculpting Life (OOAK baby sculpting)

So I started a new hobby in November. Ever since that email went around a few years ago about Camille Allen the marzipan baby sculptor, I've wanted to try my hand at sculpting a realistic baby doll. Not out of marzipan - Camille Allen did hers out of polymer clay.

Alex was born in July and every day I was dreading the fact he was growing up so fast. Those tiny fingers and adorable grabby toes!!! The little face with such cute little lips, I wanted to capture his adorable baby qualities by doing a sculpture of him. After researching the craft of One of a Kind (OOAK) baby sculpting and trying out one doll, I set forth making a full size baby sculpture from a kit I purchased online.

The kit came with 3 blocks of clay, cloth body, wig, glass eyes and a DVD by Pat Moulton - that's it.








And here is the finished result:

Here is the real deal - Alex. The model and inspiration for the doll.

To be perfectly honest, the doll ended up kinda creepy! It's just too realistic. When I told Pat about it she said that is common with open-eyed babies so the next one I do will probably be a sleepy baby and maybe 1/2 scale. This one took a TON of clay. And I had issues with cracking at the corners of the eyes and mouth. But you can barely tell, I filled the cracks with clay and used a heat gun to set, then sanded and painted. The doll could probably use a little more paint too. I guess the Genesis paints fade a little after they are dry and I didn't want to overdo it and put too much on. It's all a learning process. And thanks so much to Pat Moulton for giving me pointers and encouragement when I needed it!!!

How did I do?