Making a Ball Jointed Doll: Mars
In this blog post, I will share the steps I’m taking for making a Ball Jointed Doll, named Mars. I chose to make a 1/6 slim male BJD. Follow me in my sculpting journey!
Drawing the template
I started drawing the template for Mars on June 5th, 2020 and finished inking it on June 6th, 2020. For size reference, I kept a Monster High boy and a Limhwa ToYou nearby to make sure he would be about the right length.
Last phase of the template drawing. 
Second phase of the template drawing. 
First phase of the template drawing.
Preparing the hollow parts of the BJD
Before starting with preparing the hollow parts on June 7th, I backed the drawing on a piece of cardboard and wrapped it in cellophane for protection.
For the torso I carved a piece of Styrofoam roughly in the right shape.
To make his legs hollow, I used drinking straws, but these are a bit too wide for the ankles. To make sure that the ankles will be sturdy enough, I rolled up a piece of sturdy packing paper with a satay skewer and taped a short piece of it to both of the straws.
I used the paper rolls for the entire length of the arms, because I needed the diameter to be smaller than that of the drinking straws.
BJD Template wrapped in cellofane 
Styrofoam torso for BJD 
Straw leg insides for BJD
BJD torso sculpt first draft
I decided on using Ladoll air dry stone clay, which is very lightweight and easy to use. The texture is very fine and you can easily make revisions after the clay has dried, just use some water! The clay can also be carved and sanded to refine the details, where needed.
After working on it for some hours, this was where I finished for the first day of sculpting.
BJD torso sculpt first draft 
BJD torso sculpt first draft
BJD torso sculpt and limbs
Phew, beginnings are hard! The legs look very different from each other at this point, but the arms are roughly the same shape already. His weirdly thick left leg started cracking at the knee, so I decided to leave it for the day and try to glue the crack to repair it.
Male BJD body clay sculpt 
Male BJD body clay sculpt
Did you make your own doll?
Did you make your own Ball Jointed Doll? Any tips to share? I would love to hear from you! Share your project and comments in a reply!
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