Making A Ball Joint Doll - Part 3 second layer or clay

So once the first layer of clay was dry I put on another layer to form the basic profile. I know it looks a bit weird and blobby but its just about getting the shape happening. There's no need to be fussy I can always carve back or add more.

Making A Ball Joint Doll - Part 2 first layer of clay

I've got to say I'm really getting into this :)
My paperclay came in the mail yesterday (just brought mine off ebay) so today I did my first layer of clay.
To make things easy for myself and to protect my plans Ive got a piece of glass as my work top (just took mine from a cheap second hand frame). Now there's really not much to this step, its just a matter of covering the core with a thin layer of paperclay. There's no need to be fussy with this step as you can easily add and subtract from it once its dry. Also holes for the joints can easily be carved out later so don't worry about leaving openings. Then its just a matter of waiting for the clay to dry.

If you need a bit more guidance I found this video very helpful.

Making A Ball Joint Doll - Part 1 drawing up my plan and making the core

So Ive started working on my ball joint doll. Above is my 1:1 scale plan. For my first doll I'm not trying to follow standard BJD sizes, Bella Flora will be 25.5 cm (not including the antlers, not sure if ill put them on yet).
On my plan Ive penciled in the core sections(areas that need to be hollow). There are a couple of methods Ive seen for creation the core and Ive decided to combine 3.

For the head I'm using a 40mm styrofoam ball that Ive trimmed back to fit better. Its important to check both the front and side view.

For the body cavity I made a template from tissue paper and cut out 2 front and 2 side from a cereal box. Then used sticky tape to connect the pieces and create a box.
For the template I highly recomend making the front panel symmetrical to reduce twisting.

For the top and bottom i just covered them with tape and added a piece of thin straw to create the neck.

Ive been collecting various sized straws for the arms and legs. Im using thin bendy straws for the arms and medium straws for the legs.

So now Ive got my very strange looking skeleton and I cant wait to get started on the sculpting.

If you have any questions I'd be more than happy to answer them.
Here is an great youtube video that helped me out a lot.