“MIHARU” Geisha – Polymer Clay Sculpture by By Tina Yu
Well, I just discovered Tina Yu on YouTube and her beautiful sculpted one of a kind dolls. Tina is not only a doll sculptor, but she draws her own inspirational pictures, that are masterpieces in themselves. This YouTube ideo is done as a speed video, but the pace is still slow enough where you can see the steps that Tina goes through in creating this masterpiece.
Tina has a Patreon Account, where she has the full version of this sculpt. You can join her Patreon account and support her. Watching her sculpt in real time would be worth anything that she charges through her Patreon account. I believe it is supported through donations, if I’m not mistaken. Having watched this one video, I can see that Tina Yu is an incredible talent.
Tina started by drawing the inspirational Geisha portrait above. She maps out everything she will sculpt. For beginners, pay particular attention to how she knows ahead of time how she will divide the hair into sections, she already has an idea of the eye-shadowing effects, the face painting as well as a general idea of how she will construct the bodice covering.
Tina then begins to draw out her actual sculpting template. She decides first where the eyes will be positioned and the actual size of the head.
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Covers the base with Clay
Next she positions the eyes. The eyes appear to be glass or acrylic eyes, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Tina makes her own eyes, so this is just my opinion. She surrounds the eyes with coils of clay to make sure they are evenly spaced and even. Then she goes around and covers the entire face with thin pancakes of clay until it is covered and smooth.
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Sands the Face after Baking
The free speed video on YouTube doesn’t show much of the actual sculpting of the features, and this is why if you are a beginner sculptor, you may want to join Tina Yu on Patreon to get her full length videos for a small monthly donation to support her. She is, as can be plainly seen, a master artist, and you will learn so much.
This is one of the best ear sculpts I have ever seen. In the third picture, she begins to sand down the face and she goes from finer grit to finer grit to achieve that porcelain-like finish.
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Next Tina creates the aluminum foil bodice/shoulder base, using the head to take her sizing from. She also demonstrates just a little bit of how she created the geisha hair style using black polymer clay and a thin needle tool.
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Starting to Paint the Face
Finishing the Painted Face
Again, the speed video doesn’t go into much detail on the painting, and this would be a very interesting video to see because the shading on the eyes is beautiful and the eyebrows are so perfect that she must have a trick or two to learn.
Look closely on the detail on the neck and shoulder area, just so realistic.
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Tina created this bodice arrangement without a pattern. It was hard to screen-capture the full effect of the bodice, so you owe it to yourself to visit TinaYu on YouTube and see the below video, and also Subscribe to TinaYu’s Channel and patronize her on Patreon.
I will post below some other contact information for TinaYu.
Polymer Clay Sculpture “Miharu” Geisha by Tina Yu “MIHARU” Geisha – Polymer Clay Sculpture by By Tina Yu Well, I just discovered Tina Yu on YouTube and her beautiful sculpted one of a kind dolls.