Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can make this baby not look like an old man? I am doing a cake that is a crib and the baby is going to be climbing out of it. No matter what I do, I can't get him to look baby-ish. Any suggestions? Any suggestions for his hair?
Thanks.

I should add that I did eye lashes and that is why around his eyes are brownish.

honestly to me (don't get offended) The legs and arms look to big for a baby. And the whole torso looks big; But I'm sure its because you had to re-size the picture.

Maybe you could add a beanie or some kind of bonnet? Maybe next time make him a bit chubbier, especially the cheeks. Says me, who has never done a baby - you have done a great job!

i think he is a little too skinny, he needs baby fat on his legs and arms

The facial features too large I think...did you use a mold?

Babies have more "button noses"....and tiny ears....and I would not put the eyeball in the center of the white, but either on the sides, bottoms, or even the top, looking up with a "guilty" look if climbing out of the crib.

If you can erase the eyelashes (should be able to, with a q-tip dipped in alcohol/clear vanilla), I'd do nothing more but a very fine, spider web, two or three tiny lashes at the very corner, and that very lightly. And also very fine, spider webbish eyebrows as well.

Shortening the limbs a little bit will help too but others already said that.

He's too skinny, I think. Babies mostly are chubbier with not such defined features.

Try shortening the limbs and torso. Narrow the hips and give him a tummy. Soften his features, like a smaller nose and wisps for eybrows. and definitely Plump him up a bit. HTH

agree with everyone else, need to add some more "baby fat" overall body and arms & legs are just too skinny and chubby cheeks. Also some hair may help also - really curly maybe. Two possible ways for the hair, paint on with royal icing using a paint brush to make swirls of hair - or use an extruder and make individual curls.

I like you idea sounds really cute can't wait to see how the complete cake turns out.

Thank you for all the responses! I was thinking that he was too skinny, but i don't know how to make him fatter without a ton more fondant, which then I'm afraid of making it too heavy. He's a big piece - about a foot tall if you stretched him out. His body is aluminum foil and wire underneath. Do you think if I put a sleeper on him instead of just a onsie it might work better? His face isn't a mold - I did it myself and I agree about the cheeks. I'm not sure how to improve that without making a new head. I will take the eyebrows off - I didn't know you could do that with alcohol, so I am going to try it.
Any other suggestions would be lovely! Thanks.

he looks like I wish I could!

will gladly donate the needed baby fat!

limbs too long -- shorten them

torso too long -- shorten it.

babies have big heads and small chubby limbs and bodies

this is too adult proportional, instead of baby proportional

Is this better?

That is better. When you put him in the crib, make it look like he's dragging his blanket out with him. Put it in the hand that's outside of the crib and have it fall across the body, to disguise the proportions of the body...I don't mean cover the whole thing up, just drape the blankie here and there like the baby can't bear to leave it behind.

Also, a hat might be good...babies heads are big compared to their bodies so a hat would help the proportions a little bit.

Here's a tutorial I did on a baby, he' sitting up but you could easily make him laying down by just adjusting the legs and arms.

It might be helpful with forming his body,it's more of a pear shape.

Is it possible to squish the head a bit to make the face rounder or will that throw off the proportions?

I made his head last night, so it wouldn't work to squish it. I've thought of adding cheeks, but not sure how well I could blend them. I tried doing a bigger head, but it won't stay attached and I can't put a dowel or anything because the inside of the body is foil and nothing will go in. I'm hoping that if I put some blush on him, it might help. I like the blanket idea, Texas, I'm going to give that a whirl. I'll be putting it together tomorrow night or Saturday. Thanks for all the ideas!!!!!!

I agree with everyone else, the arms, legs and torso need to be shortened up. I would also take off the eye brows if you can since aren't really that pronounced on babys.

Hi...can I give you some advice? I'm an artist, I've studied and drawn the human form for quite a few years and I teach a figure modelling class at Bonnie Gordon School of Cake Design...well, my 1st class is on May 7th...but anyway...

You've got the proportions all wrong for a toddler. A toddler should only be about 4 heads high. That's how we measure people in drawing and sculpting...by 'heads'. It's a standard measurement used for proportions so, regardless of how big you make the head you can always get the body proportionate in relation to it.

An adult is around 7 1/2 heads high. Here are 2 charts showing adult, children and infant proportions.
http://www.idrawdigital.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/prop2.jpg
http://artintegrity.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/proportions.jpg
The arms and legs and torso on your figure are adult size in comparison to the head. They all need to be much shorter and pudgier.

I also would not have used tinfoil to shape the body. Just make it out of gumpaste and attach the arms and legs to it. You could actually do the torso and legs out of one piece of gumpaste since the legs are so short and stocky on a baby.

A child's head is large for it's body, and round, with the features in the lower half of the face. The eyes are big and spaced farther apart than an adult's. The forehead is large, the nose is small and round, the lips are full and pursed and the cheeks are pudgy. Here's a good example
http://drawinghowtodraw.com/stepbystepdrawinglessons/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/finished-baby.png

I would suggest to anyone who's going to do any figure modelling to get a lot of reference images off the internet before they start. I ALWAYS use reference and I've been drawing all my life. You can google image search 'toddler' and come up with 100s of photos of little kids in all sorts of poses to use when doing your sculpting.

Good luck with your figure. I hope some of what I've said helps you a bit.

Kept the proportion chart...good stuff!

Thanks SallyBratt for such helpful information. The charts are wonderful and the description clear. I want to go try some new figures now!! Great forum topic. Thanks OP too.

Great chart, it should be uploaded to photos

Do you have a baby doll in the house or maybe a neighbor who's kid has one you could look at for proportion?

SallyBratt, Thanks so much for the charts. Really great information.

Wow Sallybrat! Great info. Thanks for the charts. You have made me lass scared to try figures now. Thank you!

I threw your picture into Photoshop and made a few changes:
1. Made the nose smaller and took out the bridge part of the nose (babies have button noses)
2. Made the ears smaller
3. Took off the eyebrows
4. Smoothed out the swollen/puffy eyes

I think this would be easy to make on your side and does make the figure look more like a toddler.

Hope this helps.

SallyBratt...thanks for the information about body proportions. Will be very helpful moving forward!

So how did the toddler end up turning out? I'm interested in seeing the final result.

You're welcome everyone. Those charts are kind of hard to find sometimes. I can't even remember where mine went to that I got at art school.

Anyway, I did a bit of further photoshopping and shortened the arms and legs, moved the eyes and nose down a bit and made the cheeks a bit full and gave him a chin. i think he looks a bit more 'toddlerish' now.

I hope you're not offended by me doing this...it's really jsut to help you with the proportions.