eye mods

So, I think I mentioned last time that I was getting an Elfdoll Vivien head to attempt to replace Orkas' current head because it just wasn't quite doing it for me.

It arrived today and it's a sleeping one because I pretty much was willing to take whatever I could get my hands on. I guess if I was more patient I could wait until everyone gets theirs from the discontinuation sale and see if anyone is selling them but then that's kind of a crap shoot because if I don't get in on it then I could be out of luck.

I read somewhere ages ago that the eyewells weren't fully formed on the reminisce heads but I didn't know how to properly phrase the question to the seller and the pictures they provided made it look like the eyewells were properly existent. (Just so we're clear, they didn't try to mislead me at all. They were very helpful and took pictures for me and answered all my questions. I just didn't fully specify my intent when asking about the eyewells.)

So anyway, the head arrived and it does have some degree of eyewells but they don't reach all the way to the eyes, making it impossible to just perform a normal eye opening mod. I will have to bevel or carve the area to make them suitable for eyes.

I seriously considered just leaving it as-is and trying to get an open eyed version of the head as well and just using both and having this one be sleepy Orkas? Of course this seemed like a large financial investment for a head I'm not 100% sure will even work for Orkas. I WANT it to work for him. And if I could be guaranteed that it would I might go that route but I would probably just prefer one head over the other or get them both bodies. It would be dumb and expensive.

As you can see in the above picture, I decided against this plan. I started by marking the general shape I wanted, then I used a bead reamer to make a hold in the eye above the lower lid (because I want to leave that alone) and then I used some wood carving tools to start carving the area a bit.

I got both eyes carved in a little bit. I didn't go all the way up to my guidelines because my plan is to carve proper eyewells before I do that. I think the area in front is carved deep enough that I'll be able to tell when the eyewells are deep enough and be able to continue on my way. I misplaced the eye beveling tool I got ages ago when attempting to sculpt a head from scratch so I had to purchase a new one. Luckily I was able to find a dremel bit in what I think should be the right size for like a buck. Now to not-so-patiently await its arrival. If, in the interim, I find something else that might work I will not have to feel too guilty since said dremel bit was very cheap.

What I do feel guilty about is ruining a perfectly good sleeping head when they are potentially being discontinued. But I imagine I'll get over it if this works out okay.