Rozaliin, the orange-white rat girl

My tries to create female dolls continued, and I once (3. Feb 2017) finished one new. She got called as Rozaliin, and as I planned, she is finally the girlfriend for my CM Breyer rider doll Asko.

It's made from orange foam clay, mixed from red and yellow (the simpliest and easiest color to mix, and still I know some people find it weird and difficult). This time I decided to paint the markings, and it was OK.

These are the first progress photos I took about Asko's lady. When I had already sculpted all needed. And yes, all the same time, no drying pauses between layers. Stupid thing but it works when you have no patience and you want to finish things quickly and see them becoming alive... Now, sorry if anyone is scared of seeing naked rat girls, there is no details. 

Her proportions were carefully made after Rämä, using him as a reference. I also wanted to make sure she gets right lenght limbs. I must say that this doll can be my most 'balanced' right now. Happy with it... And when I now, before publishing, look at these photos, I see some mistakes in anatomy but... Well, it still could be a lot worse.

And as you can see, I also used green wire instead of red. Not bad and it should not really matter, but I somewhat loved and also hated to see orange and green together... I don't know why, the tastes I connect the colors to don't match to each other.

Face is always the most important part of the doll, because it shows their personality. This girl got quite closed to what I planned, although her mouth looks slightly too big. Also the neck is attached to the head a bit too behind, what causes that it can look stupid in my eye. Her nose and eyes are OK to me, although I got the eyes placed a bit asymmetrically.

I take a ton of photos of same thing with different angles and setting, and can't decide which of the pics are best to publish... So, suffer from this boring photo flood. Mostly I took these because I think they can be helpful for those who need example of how rat noses can be sculpted (I do things realistically).

Ears she got to be too small, but I don't mind anymore. She can be what she wants to be, no one is perfect and so on. Left ear also got a small notch made with scissors. For some reason it's a lot scarier to cut doll ears instead of thumb rats, although you might think that bigger is easier.

As an important part of head-sculpting I sawed a notch to her skull's backside. That was because I was going to add a viscose mane for her, later. I used my beloved craft knife for the notch, if anyone wonders how. And I always wait the head to dry a bit (not fully) before sawing. 

After those photos I seemingly glued her leather areas: paws and tail. (Normally I also glue fabrics after them, but with this doll I didn't.)

Then it was time for some paint. I had planned that this rat is going to be one of my dream-rats in color: orange with 'badger' pattern, what means that she needed white belly area and a blaze! When the white areas are ready, I always add some skintone there to the mouth and nose, and around the eyes, maybe a bit to the body too. Maybe even a bit of bright red to mix with skintone to make shadings in nostrils and other hidden details.  

I pop the doll's eyes out for painting moment, then glue them back later. And hey, my worktable looks always that messy.

Captured a poor rat waiting for paint before starting, only because I want to photograph steps.

These are the paints I recommend. I use them for model horses too, so... Mont Marte Satin and Louvre, both acrylics of course.

All paintings ready, took the pic too late...

Painting the eyes is always nice, because, you know, it's the moment when the doll gets it's personality more visible. For this one I used just bright red and purple. It is so easy: paint the whole eye red, let it dry, then paint the pupils with slightly darker purple, let dry a bit and paint a next pupil layer - so it peels the previous layer with it and shows that brighter red. It just is easy and simple. When the paint had dried, I add few rough layers of bright varnish on the eyes.

And before anyone screams that "is there blood", I say it is not.. It's porphyrin. It dyes rat snot to red with some colder tint in it. I painted that with dipping a wet (dipped to varnish) paintbrush to a Derwent Intense pencil and stroking it carefully around her nose and eyes. I needed to be quick as I didn't want the varnish to kill the brush or pencil when it dries. After the painting I also varnished the porphyrins once to make sure they stay.

But that much porphyrin is a sign of stress or other problems, I think, so what have happened to her as her face melts...? Maybe she has an upper respiratory infection, what can get chronic in rats. 

I didn't know what to do with her limbs yet, so I decided to do the difficult thing and glue her mane on. I cut some reddish-brown viscose tufts, glued them and left to dry. Then I added glue to the notch at her head's backside, where I placed the tufts one by one. When the gluing was ready, I ripped loose hairs off, brushed the mane with wet paintbrush, showed them a bit scissors... And at the end it was a droopy mohawk. 

I had no idea what to glue to her limbs to be 'fur', as I had only few types of white fabric and they didn't be what I wanted. So as I had almost finished her already, I decided to add that thin, glossy white fabric as I simply had no anything else - but I already knew how this fabric worked, so, that was the reason.

Then she was finished. I quickly made her a blue vest-thingy, who does not really work as I wished... Of course it does not. But it hides her body, and yet even neck.

As much as I see unfinished texts and try to continue to write them, as much I stay noticing same irritating things in the photos. One of them are this doll's hands. I know they look stupid, maybe more stupid than any other dollhands I've made. But the fact is that I simply can't make them more realistic if I want to create them from leather and also keep them good for use. And arms should be hidden under sleeves, with every doll, so the only reason they show is that I don't really make good clothes. Those stupid vest thingies are only for the "something is better than nothing" -logic. My dolls aren't going to ride naked, if possible. Although no one of them (Breyer CM dolls not included) has trousers yet... 

The orange rex gal got called as Rozaliin. Roz for short. I often modify normal names to make them more different, as I want my dolls and characters to be... well, different and unique. The name fits her look. She also is getting a surname later, but I don't hurry with it. Why should I?

Right after finishing, her mohawk was a bit too droopy and messy, and looked like in those next pics. 

Here's a better mohawk seen, after I once re-brushed it.

The hem is... meant to be what it is; long and ripped. I can't cut straignht lines to fabric so I let it be what it already was.

Innocent, nice, safe, sharp, lively. That is how I wrote her personality to be in the dolls' page (not published yet...). So, she's honest and tries to be nice for all, if possible, but of course this rat can also get angry or sad or whatever. Everyone can if there's nothing too wrongly...

She also is those who mass produce selfies with a cellphone... Harm that I haven't yet made her one, as I simply failed my first try. But when I make her actual phone, I can say THAT is a smartphone who is not going to break it's screen after one drop!

But, anyway, Asko and Roz are my first 'complete' doll couple. (And, unfortunately, they also show too clearly my improving process in dollmaking. Just so different dolls - one CM and one OSC. Another problem is that I just don't know how I could make fingers to my dolls if I want them to be bendable at same time.)

Hah, both smile!

I wish I could once take a full 'family portrait' of that couple and their... pets, as they, I think, are not going to have kids. At least they need more horses. I could also like that Rozaliin could have her own matching horsie to ride and take care of... Her man has two right now, but he seemingly sells or leases one of them to another guy at the stable. (And Omar is too possessive of his horses to allow anyone to even ride them without him watching... Sorry, wanted to mention.)

And when time goes, Roz should get real punk rock stuff on instead of that stupid umbrella-vest-whatever.

She also is accidentally our fellow hobbyist in one way... She collects animal models! Not only horses but also dinos (my dream!). Roz photographs them in a homemade studio who's made from cardboard box. Viiskytkin is often with her to capture the mini world (or mini-mini world). As Rozaliin just recently moved to her guy's home, I guess that also Asko had been a model horsier for a while...

It was funny to make a 1:9 cardboard studio as I have already made two real ones to photograph Schleichs and other small items with... Here we see how Roz had already choosed one dino to photograph, and Viiskytkin takes test pics before actual photos. (That mini dino is from my childhood... And I have all my dinos with me yet.)

And then... work. How many of us can photograph miniatures when a real horse (heh) is next to the studio?

This text took too long time to get finished and published. I want to tell about my dolls a lot when one gets their own text, but with someones it's difficult. So... If I later know Roz better, it can be noticed via the blog!

To notice, I mention that I have decided to add pics as larger as previously now. The actual files are not different, they just show larger at the page.