Ala posing

This is Ala, my second hand-made ball jointed doll.

Yes, her appearance could hardly be more different than Rikugou's (the first one).
I've learnt a lot from my first try and spent a huge amount of time researching and packing my computer with images of dolls and people before attempting this second doll.

Contrary to Rikugou, who I've made for a friend and isn't really my kind of character, Ala turned out almost exactly as I intended.
So yes, those overly thin, ridiculously long limbs are meant that way.

She's supposed to be the daughter of Leonardo Da Vinci. Apparently the historians forgot to mention her... Ah well, that's what you got for being a girl in those days...
Like her father, she's a brilliant inventor with many interests and pursues truth, knowledge and beauty.
She's also left-handed, stubborn and doesn't look very Italian (I suspect her mother was an Irish woman).

She's made out of papier-maché formed around a polystyrene core, with wooden joints. She's painted with acrylics and soft pastels and coated with matte lacquer.
She's wearing an acrylic wig (not made by me). At this point I didn't have any suitable eyes for her yet.

Her name means "wing" in Italian: I also made a large glider for her, based on Da Vinci's designs, that she can wear on her back (pictures will follow).

She's double jointed, which allows much more realistic posing than Rikugou, who's single jointed.