Doll Experiment - Part 9

This experiment has been going on for a while.  Papier mache' is not a quick medium to work with.  I guess I should recap what has happened so far.  I began by using a damaged doll as a mold.  Some inexpensive plastic safety eyes were added, then painted over.  I covered the doll in papier mache' then cut the mold apart and removed the doll.  I removed the arms and legs from the papier mache' figure.  The arms were re-positioned in order to give the doll a new pose.  The legs were filled with gravel  to weight the figure in order for it to stand on its own.  All the limbs were covered with more papier mache' to make the figure whole again.  On my last blog post I showed how I used items as an armature to give the doll some curves so that it looked like an adult doll and less like a robot. 

Since I blogged last I have re-attached the thumb on the right hand of the doll.  I wanted to give the hand the appearance of grasping an object.  The thumb was removed and a new thumb was made from paper and tape.  The thumb was covered with strip type papier mache' and then reattached to the hand.  Extra papier mache' strips were added to change the shape of the hand to match what a grasping hand looks like.  As the doll progresses and the accessories are added it something will be in the dolls grasp.  A ribbon or string will pass through the opening in the hand.   I will be blogging more about that in a later blog post.

I also sanded the doll this week.  I still have a little more sanding to do on the hands and feet before I begin painting.  This week I expect to finish sanding then begin painting the doll.  I will paint on at least two (maybe more as needed) coats of Gesso before I began adding any color to the doll.  The Gesso will cover the newsprint with white opaque paint so that it will not show through the other paints.  Gesso will also fill in any small pits or cracks that were not removed during the sanding.

The first layer of paint for the eyes was done earlier in the project so that I had a good idea of where the doll was going to be looking.  I needed that for helping me develop the pose.  I plan to go back this week and do more work on the eyes to make them look more realistic.

I am still trying to get things ready for the holiday.  I doubt that I will get much more done than that in the coming week.  I will be blogging on Thursday with the update.  I will not be blogging next Sunday as that is Christmas day.