Dazi May and her amazing ooak dolls

In my last thread, I talked about 1/6 eye detail and how it could be pushed forward. Well, this thread is the other side of that coin where style takes the front stage.

I stumbled upon this artist sometime last year and was blown away by the variety of emotional range of her head sculpts that she makes from scratch. Not only custom head sculpts but fully realized characters with their own clothes, hair, and bodies from the barbie lines or even TBLeague. She really loves her work but sadly due to some health care complications that had to halt her Etsy store and work. I'm hoping it's not the end but unfortunately, her recovery is not certain looking at how long she hasn't posted any new updates. Here are some samples of the many characters she has created over the years.








Take a look at her Flickr portfolio if you want to see more!


https://www.flickr.com/people/dazi_may/

These characters look phenomenal indeed. Yes, they do have a certain caricature-like quality, but they do have amazing detail and ... character.

How delightful! Thank you so much for sharing these unique creations!

Very sorry to hear of her health complications though.

Those are interesting but as Gubernator said, a bit cartoonish. Not that it is a bad thing I'm sure a skilled a sculptor can draw inspiration from it.

The old man sort of looks like that "diabetus" guy.

Theboo-bomb wrote:Those are interesting but as Gubernator said, a bit cartoonish. Not that it is a bad thing I'm sure a skilled a sculptor can draw inspiration from it.

The old man sort of looks like that "diabetus" guy.

I feel that her male characters don't have the same pop that the female ones have, and yes I have to agree with the "diabetus" guy lol

One of the reasons these figures have so much character is because of the expressions... she makes it so not only their facial expressions are lively, but also that their eyes are 'smiling'. This is achieved in large part by the shape of the eyelids. And in comparison, the reason why a lot of mass-produced 1/6 scale heads seem to be sort of blankly staring off into space, is not solely because of the way the eyes are painted or applied, but also because of the lack of expression in the shape of the eyes/eyelids themselves.

Emotions are something we need with the current stock of HSs. I applaud her work and dedication in creating such masterpiece!

skywalkersaga wrote:One of the reasons these figures have so much character is because of the expressions... she makes it so not only their facial expressions are lively, but also that their eyes are 'smiling'. This is achieved in large part by the shape of the eyelids. And in comparison, the reason why a lot of mass-produced 1/6 scale heads seem to be sort of blankly staring off into space, is not solely because of the way the eyes are painted or applied, but also because of the lack of expression in the shape of the eyes/eyelids themselves.

Agreed! I really hate that so many sculpts in the hobby have such severe and angry looking expressions. I mean, I get that for soldier or warrior characters most folk want them to look intense but I wish there was more variety!

Lynkhart wrote:

skywalkersaga wrote:One of the reasons these figures have so much character is because of the expressions... she makes it so not only their facial expressions are lively, but also that their eyes are 'smiling'. This is achieved in large part by the shape of the eyelids. And in comparison, the reason why a lot of mass-produced 1/6 scale heads seem to be sort of blankly staring off into space, is not solely because of the way the eyes are painted or applied, but also because of the lack of expression in the shape of the eyes/eyelids themselves.

Agreed! I really hate that so many sculpts in the hobby have such severe and angry looking expressions. I mean, I get that for soldier or warrior characters most folk want them to look intense but I wish there was more variety!

Yes.... the 'variety' at the moment (amongst female headsculpts, at least) seems to consist of 'intense battle face', 'blank dead staring', or 'attempt at looking sultry'.

Would be nice to have some cheerful/happy looking folks... such as for scenes of friends just hanging out together (not all of us have been able to embrace FaceApp, lol). I recall there have been some weird grinning female heads, but those failed to convey the smiling eyes and so just ended up looking even more uncanny.  ;p

Lynkhart wrote:

skywalkersaga wrote:One of the reasons these figures have so much character is because of the expressions... she makes it so not only their facial expressions are lively, but also that their eyes are 'smiling'. This is achieved in large part by the shape of the eyelids. And in comparison, the reason why a lot of mass-produced 1/6 scale heads seem to be sort of blankly staring off into space, is not solely because of the way the eyes are painted or applied, but also because of the lack of expression in the shape of the eyes/eyelids themselves.

Agreed! I really hate that so many sculpts in the hobby have such severe and angry looking expressions. I mean, I get that for soldier or warrior characters most folk want them to look intense but I wish there was more variety!

That’s why I like what Facepool has been doing since coming on the scene with their loose head sculpts — even though I don’t have that many, at least they are trying something that other companies are not.

The above sculpts from this lady (hopefully she gets better soon), as skywalkersaga pointed out, work because the “smiles” reach the eyes — most of the smiling sculpts out there this isn’t the case, and makes the sculpt look like a psychopath. Creepy.