A New Art Doll - this time, a Cat

I just can't help myself - I started a new art doll.  I don't know yet whether this cat is a boy or a girl or who he/she is or what he/she is doing.  But that will emerge of its own accord as I work on it.

I began yesterday by cutting a rough head shape from Styrofoam, then wrapped it with gauze (the stretchy kind used for bandaging) and coated the gauze with Mod Podge.  Once the Mod Podge was dry, I had a surface that paper clay would stick to, and I covered the entire surface with paper clay.  I made two half spheres of the clay and put them in place for the eyes.  Unfortunately I didn't take a photo at that stage.  But take my word for it - it was pretty crude and there wasn't much to see.  Oh, and I stuck the skewer in the bottom so I could stand it in a piece of Styrofoam to dry.

Today I worked on the next layer of sculpting.  I added a bit of volume to the upper sides of the face, then added upper and lower eyelids.  Next came the nose and muzzle, then the ears.  The ears are cardboard triangles, cut in a concave curve along the bottom to fit around the head.  I curled the cardboard ears to form nice curved (the ears attach to the head in shallow 'C' shapes) and lined the insides with a thin layer of clay.  Next I stuck them in place and added rolls of clay at the base of the backs to hold them in place.

Once the ears dried for a few hours and stiffened up somewhat, I was able to add clay to the backs.  Now it's ready to dry until tomorrow.