Ariel the Undead Queen of the Sea (Twisted Disney)

Ariel the Undead Queen of the Sea (Twisted Disney))

Okay, so let me introduce to you the process of creating the first doll of my new series of dolls, inspired by Disney princesses, that i titled "Twisted Disney".

I'm sure everyone knows the story of little mermaid, that exchanged her beautiful enchanting voice for the chance to be where the people are. In Disney's version there's always a happy ending. But some of you might know, that the original story, that was written by Hans C. Andersen was much darker. So i took the liberty of creating my own version of the ending to the story and this doll was the product of that idea. Like i said before, i like dark, horror and gruesome themes, so i tried sticking to that in this project.

In my version of the story, she does not marry Prince Eric, her one and true love, nor does she turn into air spirit after the Prince marries another. But she does desire to have a human immortal soul just like in Hans C. Andersen's version. But unfortunately, she fails to get the Prince to fall in love with her and on the night that he marries another girl, the little mermaid is so heart broken, angry and filled with hatred for the prince, that she rips out his beating heart and eats it, with the intent of him always being with her. But once she comes back to her senses  and sees what she has done, she realizes that it was a curse that the sea witch put on her, but it's already too late. She got tricked and cursed by the sea witch, granting her the immortal part of the deal, but not the soul. She starts to feel her heart beat stopping and her flesh rotting as soon as Prince's blood touched her lips. And so, the little mermaid turned into a undead monster and is now doomed, to swim in the depths of the deepest, darkest ocean as the undying queen of the creatures that lurk deep in the darkness. She can never see her love again or her loving family. She is now damned to live in the darkness, alone with only her sorrow keeping her company and be forever mourning the loss of her love and swim around feeling the pain of her rotting flesh which is nothing compared to the pain that she feels in her dead heart. She can never again lay her eyes on the beauty that the world above the ocean has to offer, but every 100 years, exactly on the day she ripped her love's heart out, she can return to the surface, to feast on the hearts of the lovers, to feel the love in their hearts and relief herself of the pain and loss that she feels, for at least one night, in the eternity of her miserable undying life. 

So, let me ask you, is the price worth paying?

Now, let's begin with the project!

Since i'm kind of running out of space for my dolls, i got the idea, to just hang them on the wall! So, that's what i'm going to do!

1) Firstly i took one of the basic frames i have, that i ordered ages ago, and never used them. I used newspaper to build up the desired shape. I taped it all up with masking tape.

2) To stiffen it up, i used watered down wood glue (or PVA white glue) and paper tissue and cover everything i did in previous step. And trust me this technique is awesome! It's very durable and it worked for me amazingly through the years of  using it!

3) Then i gave it a base coat of black acrylic paint and sculpted some more details with air dry clay.

4) To bring out the details i decided to color it nice sandy color and give it some white highlights and used watered down black for all the shadows and little nooks in the ''sculpt''.

After it was all dry and ready to go, i painted a backdrop and installed it into the frame. I really enjoyed the process of painting, since i haven't drawn or painted for a really long time and i kind of missed it, to be honest, so this was an ideal excuse to paint again!  Not that i am any good at it, but i enjoy it and that's what matters! 

I was not satisfied with the look of it, so i sculpted some more! 

Since i was running low on my air dry clay and i didn't have the patience to order some more and wait for it to arrive, i made my own! It's called cold porcelain and it is amazing. If you are a crafter and a cook, you probably have all the ingredients to make it! All that you need, is some PVA glue, cornstarch, lemon juice, baby oil and some body lotion! There's a lot of different recipes out there, so feel free to find the one that works for you! I just eyeball it to get the consistency that i like.

And here's the end result! It is not finished yet, since now i need to add more of the crochet details, which will take a little bit of time! I still might add some more sculpted details at this time, but first i need to add the doll to fully see the composition.

Which, brings us to the doll! Finally!

I think this was the most nerve wracking thing i have ever done to the doll. I cut it open! I didn't know what i was doing nor if what i had in mind will work! So it was a really scary process.

I used watered down PVA glue to prevent the crochet stiches from fraying, left it to dry and then used a glue gun to make some texture of ripped flesh. I also crocheted some ribs and tail bones and stuck it inside before the glue hardened. I colored it with acrylic mixed with PVA glue to add even more texture and waited for it to dry and then did some red highlights and used watered down black for the shadows. 

It turned out great! And here are the results.

She is slowly coming to ''life'' and i love her! 

I already did her face up, but i wasn't sure about her eyes, so they might change at some point, not sure yet.

Here we go! I finally managed to finish this project! It took me forever to make this, due to lack of time and the sheer amount of the details i decided to put in, but here she is!

I did some changes to the background, since i wasn't really a fan of it at the end, so i just put some deep red velvet in the back to cover the hole. I also added a little color changing led light inside the jellyfish, just to give it a little bit more interest.

Now let me share some more photos of the project!

I can finally call this project finished.

If you read through this post all the way to the end, i would like to say

Thank You!

I hope you decide to come back, and check what my new project will entail!

If not, well, i hope you have a great day!

Stay creative and happy crocheting!

Let me know what you think about the project so far, down bellow!