Facial Apertures

Prior to cutting out the jaw and eye holes, I draw their outlines on the head shell with a felt-tip marker. I drew in the irises and eyelids to see how he'll look. He looks kind of strange, I think. They always do at this stage.


The grey spots are places where I filled in cast imperfections and made the nose a little longer with MagicSculp

Next I cut out the parts where I outlined them with marker.

Cutting the jaw is tricky because I can't just drill a hole and start sawing. The part I cut out will be the front of the jaw, so I need to keep it as whole as possible. I scribe the lines with a craft knife. Next I cut a part of the horizonal and vertical lines with the knife. I use a coping saw blade with one pin removed and a handle built up from duct tape as a makeshift keyhole saw to cut out the jaw.

The eye holes are easier. The parts cut out aren't used in the final face, so I drill holes all around the eyes and use the keyhole saw to cut them out.

There's a lot of sanding and filling yet to be done. Here's the face and jaw alongside of some eyeballs and eyelids I pulled out of the parts bin to use. We'll get to them next.