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Lenore is a collaboration that I did with my son, Carson. He likes fantasy art so I thought the Edgar Allan Poe challenge would be a good theme for us to collaborate on and come up with a doll that he would like to keep. He came up with the concept drawings and I executed the design. Here is the drawing that he did for the doll and costume. I had to change to pose so that her face wouldn't be hidden behind the book but tried to keep everything else as close as possible to his concept.
The costume was a challenge because the feathers had to be cut down to size to fit the dress. Many of the feathers had to be sewn down individually to the dress. Carson also designed the back of the dress to include a cape like train that was attached at the waist. Here is the concept drawing and actual fabric train and back of the dress.
The books she is sitting on were covered with fabric and then I printed out titles of books that Edgar Allan Poe wrote. The book that she is holding contains the entire poem of The Raven, which I shrunk down to fit the book cover I had made.
Creating Lenore
Lenore is a full body sculpt from polymer clay. Here are some pictures of Lenore in process.
When I sculpt the head I photograph it from all angles because it is easier to see when features are not quite symmetrical or balanced.
A full body sculpt is baked in a series of steps. I baked her head and then added it to her skeleton torso. Because she is seated and her legs are crossed I next sculpted and baked her legs.
You can see in this picture that I start with a basic skeleton shape and then fill
out the form.
After she is baked and before her costume is put on her make-up (face paint) and hair must be added.
Before hair is styled, she looks like she had a wild night and just woke up.
