Does your doll have a personality?

No, to me they are just physical objects like any others. Their (mostly) human look or the fact they got OCs attached to them doesn't change that. If my TV or toilet has no personality, my dolls don't have one either

 

If you mean like what I see, when I look at them, then yes. My new hybrid is a feminine doll. He is tall, extra slim and elegant. My other boy is simply hot and charming with a bubbly personality. Without any paintings. He is like a player. Even my mom tell that he is super sexy and totally hot. Well he is a shell, but the new one is not. I Am not a Story Teller type myself, and I enjoy costumizing and photoing them more, than building stories around them. Well they always have some traits and sometimes carriers, something based on their look. And they are between art project and comforting item...

 

All of my dolls have personalities - which is just another way of saying that the way that they look brings to mind a personality type that I've encountered in real people, and I find myself projecting it onto them. Frequently they are not at all who I was planning them to be when I bought them, which is both annoying and endearing. I actually think that this is the basis of the bonding that people refer to in connection with their dolls. The dolls that I have sold were the ones who simply didn't come 'alive' in my own imagination.

 

I'm someone who grew up assigning personalities to objects (and I suspect it's language-related)
So because my doll is prone to losing balance if I don't spend enough time with the process and her nature to kick whenever she gained the moniker of mischievous which is the opposite of her character

 

Absolutely.

For the most part their character comes from my getting to know their personalities - I tried doing it the other way around but the dolls wouldn't cooperate - Jane, for example, was meant to be a super-slick and sophisticated, fashionable, sleuth/spy/secret-agent type right out of the box she was a hippy, and that's just what she remains.

Some of their personalities became more apparent (and so their characters blossomed) only after other dolls joined the family and their personalities interacted. For example, while I knew that Nesta was the snarky older-sister type, she didn't blossom into that personality until tomboy Hannah arrived and triggered Nesta's love of fashionable clothes society (and her hyper-critical side when complaining of Hannah's lack of interest in either), and Cressida's personality as the "Little Peacemaker" between the two of them.

Arin was already a thoughtful, bookish boy, but the keenly observant side of his personality and impish sense of humour didn't become apparent until Nettle (the gullible, entitled, little "princess") moved in and he convinced her that a real princess would be able to pee through twelve mattresses....

Others arrived with their personality fully formed - Jean-Claude, the oldest boy in the family fully believes himself the leader in all their games and "adventures" (even though he isn't), and he secretly resents that sweet little Alphie (who is three years his junior) is already taller than Jean-Claude.

Edith sees herself as a dancer with a mass of curly blond hair. She does have blond hair, but it needs help to curl and, as enthusiastically as she throws herself into her dance classes, Edith is not a "natural" when it comes to dancing. But she's a sweet girl, who gets along with her siblings and loves her cat.

Teenager, cousin Phige see's herself as dark and moody, the product of tragic circumstances.... yet she is the only one of the many children in this vast extended family who isn't an orphan.

To describe the personalities of just a few of my resin gang.

{laugh!} We obviously approach life from very different perspectives. My toilets definitely have personalities. The downstairs one is sullen, and resentful, and takes pleasure in blocking on a regular basis in order to make his ire known. The upstairs toilet is of a much friendlier, sunnier disposition.

Teddy

 

When I shop for dolls for a character, I look around until I find one with the look that seems like it fits that character. This can be facial features, body type, expressions, etc... that fit the character in mind.
When I have a doll that I don't have a particular character in mind, I look at the body type, the sculpt, the expression, the faceup, and try to determine what kind of personality those lean towards. Like, if the face appears kind, I might make that character kind and gentle. Sometimes I have to play around with eyes, wigs, and clothes to really get a sense for a character

 

yeah, especially since only one of my dolls is a shell of an existing character - but she was chosen as a shell because the doll ended up having a lot of quirks that i associated with her character already

My old souldoll body and her head felt really elegant and because of the body’s age it felt like the most “mature” of the dolls i own despite not being sculpted to be mature or elegant (as in, the body more resembles a teen and the head was sculpted to seem sweet), so i feel like her character’s taken on a similar personality. Mellow from age and looks a bit babyfaced, but she’s seen or experienced a lot. Similar with my HZBJD boy, who’s also an older doll.

And then my JID daniel head, which the previous owner carved in scars- i struggled with what directed i wanted for his character so he sat blank for a while, and i was kind of upset his scars were carved in because he’s tan so i couldn’t easily fill them in and sand the apoxie down. But after a while I thought “well after his previous home, this is kind of fitting, that he has a previous obvious scar but now he’s at peace with it”. So i took that inspiration and went with it

 

All my dolls have their own personalities to some degree. I usually have som sort of plan for a doll when I get it, but it rarely turns out exactly like that.
The most extreme case Is my JID Boris, who was supposed to be a healthy, sporty, upbeat kind of guy. When I got him in my hands he felt not quite like that. I gave him a face-up, trying to figure him out. I snapped a picture to show him to my friends and when I got that image up on the screen I realized he was nothing like I intended. He is self-centered, a bit of a narcisist and kind of lazy. But oh, does that boy love the camera.
He is very different from what I evisioned, but it fits him so well that now I can't see him in any other way.
And it's not all in the sculpt, either. I've seen several other examples of the same sculpt, skin color etc. and they look like completly different people. So I guess thet is as close to a personality as row of plastic beads on a string can have.

 

Most of my dolls seem to have their own personalities. I don't buy them with anything special in mind. I just buy them because I really like their sculpt, then I wait until they arrive to see who they decide they want to be. Often it's obvious right away as with my IH Ringo who makes me think of Eeyore, but just as often it takes some time, a few wig changes, different eye colours, different outfits and occasionally a new face-up to see who they really are. It's also fun to decide a doll is going to have a certain personality and watch him or her develop into it... with a little help of course .

 

Since my dolls are shelling OCs I expect them to project the personality of the character they're shelling, but sometimes that's truer than makes me comfortable. Take my LR Andre, Dante. He's supposed to be shelling a foul-mouthed, rough-around-the-edges old school anarcho-punk. But his slouchy body and little smirk really sell it. It's impossible for him to sit up straight and he's always looking like he's about to burst out laughing with some cutting remark. Even putting him in ridiculous clothes (pink bunny shirts and juicy tracksuits) doesn't make him feel or seem like a fluffy pink bunny in a velour tracksuit. He just looks like he finds it all terrible stupid and hilarious and oh he will cut you in the parking lot after the show, and maybe smash a bottle while he's at it.
Right now I have a backlog of dolls in need of faceups and studying them has really helped me parse out the details that make a personality rather than an object. Even unpainted, I find myself drawn to the dolls that have something fun for my eyes to linger on, where it's a smile or a cute eye shape or just nicely coloured resin. Part of what makes dolls so much fun is that they aren't static items ( @Ara though I kinda get what you mean) they invite anthropomorphising. Then again, I'm also the type to anthropomorphise lamps and radios so...

 

Hehe, yes!
Some of them very much do, and it has lead to me going down certain paths with dolls that I was never intending at first. Much to my own angst.

For example, my 5th Motif Venitu. When he came home, I thought perhaps I would make him into an original character. I hadn't really decided what I wanted to do with him when I purchased him, I just loved the sculpt. But I was settling on this idea to make him a certain someone. So he was sitting around with some styling for this character idea when I noticed that he always seemed to be longly looking at another of my dolls. Lol. Ok. No, no. I'm just being crazy. But every time I looked at him, he seemed so....sad? So finally I gave up and sat him next to the other doll, as if to say, "well does this make you happy?". And...well...yes, he did actually seem happy? Venitu is not the most smiley of sculpts, but he had this little ghost of a smile now that he was snuggling this other doll. Aaaaand the other doll happened to be my Yuri doll from Yuri on Ice!!! So after much back and forth my brain was finally like ok, I give up. Apparently he was Victor. And he honestly has turned out to be one of my most favorite dolls and I've put a ton work into getting him to where he is today, but yeah....the doll decided he was Victor waaaaaay before I did.

 

All of my dolls are shells of characters, so it's kind of hard for me to think of personalities that aren't connected to the OC. The doll and character go hand in hand. Though Damien is really floppy and refuses to pose well regardless of what I try on him, and I'm not sure if he's lazy (which would fit his character) or stubborn and likes infuriating me (which wouldn't fit his character). Quillon has a "ready to kill" look about him in both his sculpt and his posing. Even my husband notices! Though this would also fit his character, he's kind of a jerk.

 

Yes, we joke around here that my two SDs are perfect for the characters that they are meant to shell.

I keep my dolls in a display case away from any natural light. My bjds used to have a shelf all to themselves and the rest of the case was dedicated to my fiance and my figurine collection. I like to have all my dolls posed even when just sitting around and most of the time, the dolls actually fall into place with the poses I want or they do something that works even better. However, when my newest doll, an Aimerai Lan, arrived and I attempted to add her to the case, suddenly, my two SDs would not pose at all. They were stiff, they refused to stay in the case, and they had gone from almost always posing together to absolutely rejecting it. They had almost just as much space as before yet now they it seemed like they were throwing an absolute fit. My Volks Rinon is known for being temperamental, she's never been kicky except when being put somewhere she doesn't like - or at least that's what I call it, like she refuses to go into her box for long periods of time and if I try to keep her there, she will practically keep the lid from closing on her. Anyway, I was worried that she no longer liked being around my iplehouse doll anymore and after several days of no change, I temporarily moved them both out of the case, adjusted it, moving all the other dolls to the second shelf, and moved them both back up to the top shelf where my Volks Rinon simply glided into place, complete with perfect head tilt.

The thing is, the idea that these two characters would pretend to fight and not get along for the sake of getting something they want (like a shelf to themselves) is so in character I can't stand it. I can never reshell them nor would I want to.

 

When I started really getting into the hobby I used dolls to aid my writing and creative process.
But my writing has taken a turn and I don't need to do that anymore. Also my writing became quite dark so I didn't want to use dolls anymore.
Having personalities makes photography more rewarding and a lot easier so I just let things go

With my newest doll I had no preconceptions, to me he was simply a stunning work of art, and my grail doll.
When he arrived home I planned on having some basic clothes so the poor boy wasn't nude lol and from there I just waited for his "personality" to show/develop.
He had a few previous owners and took three or four months to settle in, and choose a name. He is the shyest snuggliest doll I've ever owned.
He is my first and only pre-owned doll.
Finding a name was incredibly challenging he seemed to reject every suggestion.
He does not fit in with my other boys but he is my grail and I'd like to think this will be his forever home
I am the first owner of the other three boys and they are all pretty full on personalities, I knew their style and characters after a few days. (None of them took to the characters I envisioned)
They had characters that I chose but had other plans so I guess just letting things evolve naturally is the best way to go.

If you see them as nothing more then art nothing wrong with that.

 

Oh, for sure. My dolls are shells for my OCs, and I always have names, personalities, etc planned when I get them. A few have gone as planned, but more often than not they don't.

One example is my Spencer. He was planned as a sweet, gentle, soft-spoken, "jeans and t-shirts" kind of person. But from the moment I put him together and dressed him, I knew that wasn't going to happen! . Nope, just from everything like the look on his face to the way he poses... he's a foul-mouthed, snarky, slightly narcissistic fashion plate.

 

My first MSD, a Dream Valley Rosa, seems to have an imperious expression, like a hard to impress queen. I was a bit worried she'd look unhappy to me when I got her, but I love her face. I've changed my initial idea for her name to Morrigan to suit her character.

 

Uh yes and no? They're definitely based off my OCs, but the dolls themselves are there to be displayed. I don't do photo stories and I dress them however I want on a whim. There's only one right now whose in line with a story idea, but that's pretty much it. I'm pretty basic about owning my dolls.

 

So Russian is what I explain as a gendered language- (similar to french) words can be male, female or neutral which is often reflected in word endings (No la or le or les here).
Кукла=Kukla (Doll) is a female-gendered word and so is Сумка=Sumka (bag). Then when we speak about objects it is pretty normal to use personification- a creaking chair can be called "grumpy" or "a grump" or a shopping cart that doesn't get stuck can be called "obedient" or "Well-behaved". I remember being told it's inappropriate to use these types of phrases when I was learning English.
Some doll accessories I own have "personalities", my clothes have "personalities" because of a quirk of design or how they behave in day to day use. It's something normal for me but is very strange for many people who I've talked to and thought it was bizarre.