Dolls "Changing" Expressions?

Glad I’m not the only one! When my doll’s girlfriend doll was off at the faceup artist he looked a little sad. When I place my two brother dolls together they seem happier. It’s probably all in my head but I really get that vibe from them!

 

You're not alone! I know it's just projection, but I often feel my dolls have different expressions depending on the context. It's more than just the light or the angle, sometimes I sense emotion in their faces that is independent of the environment. Most of my dolls have an expression as part of their sculpt, but the nuances of that expression just change when I'm feeling the change. Like my Echium. Sometimes Mo looks sad and wistful and I feel sad and wistful when I see him, but other times he looks baleful and malignant and I feel that change in expression. It's a cool trick of the mind's eye.

 

I noticed that with my Cashew (LY Kuroo). Though, I admit it took me a while to notice it. I'd fallen out of the hobby for a few years and when I came back I noticed that she seemed to change from a cute little frowny face to a very unhappy frown. It didn't help that her faceup was a bit dirty, the gloss on her lips had peeled off and her eyelashes were damaged. But she used to look inquisitive with her cute frowny face. I ended up removing her eyelashes, giving her a bath, re looking her lips and changing her eyes and wig. After that she looked sassy. Lol I do miss how she originally looked, but she's still cute to me. So I'll take the sassy.

 

My minifee Soo used to look so happy but now she looks... Angry? Or extremely bored. It's the same face up but she has a different wig and I had tried to put different eyes in her at one point but then switched back to her default eyes. I wonder if the position of her eyes changed when I put them back in. That might be what's making her look angry?

 

Eye position seems to make the biggest difference to me. The difference between "looking at something" and "thousand-yard stare" is the same as "slightly intrigued" and "wtf are you doing".

 

Lighting also changes the expressions of dolls a lot.

 

It's nice to know that I'm not alone in my observations. From day one, when
I have got Raul's head, unpainted, no eyes and a wig, I thought he was "crying". And since then, his expression has changed constantly, although he was "really happy" in only one photo, where I bought him a new sword. (Although his character is more suited to a scalpel). I guess I haven't given him the right gift since.
I think this is one of the features of BJD dolls that we love them for-the ability to reflect and broadcast our emotions.

 

For my doll, it was all in the eyes! She had deep brown eyes for the first few years I had her, and it gave her a very blank expression... like she couldn't care less? A .. wow explaining expressions is more difficult than I thought. I didn't have a problem with it, it's just her expression made her seem more reserved, quiet, and somewhat cold. Recently, I got her these new gorgeous eyes from Enchanted Doll Eyes. They're gray, and it seems to have a bit of shimmer or sparkle to them which totally changed the feel of my doll. Now she seems curious, naive, and child-like (which is good because she is a yosd).

 

I've DEFINITELY had this happen to me. Johnny is a mold that has a calm, relaxed smile on its face, yet it's possible to catch him looking sulky, frightened, embarrassed, or even despondent. How he looks depends largely on how I have him posed, and to a lesser degree on his eyes (they shift as the lighting in the room shifts). The bizarre thing about all of this is that my Johnny is a character who rarely smiles IRL, so his "shifting" expressions actually fit him! It's weird, but it helped me learn his personality a bit better.

 

Yes!!! I have several cases of this, but will just stick with two examples.

I have the Dollfie Dreams Len and Rin, I bought Len first and he was home a bit before I bought Rin. When I first met him, he always seemed to have a "yea? What do you want? look about him. Like he was only tolerating the company of me and my other dolls, then I brought Rin home. . . . . . and when he is standing next to her he looks so sweet and happy. A year later and I still see his look change when he is with, and without Rin.

My other example took years to change. She is my first bjd and when I first got her, she was a kind of sweet girl with lots of patience and simple tastes. As years have gone by, she has developed a kind of 'spunk' in her expression though. Still sweet, but more adventurous and wanting. Like a simple dress is not good enough anymore, she needs it embroidered now. . . and a skateboard in her size.