Fallen in love with someone else's doll

I'm glad I found this thread because I'm going through a very similar situation right now!

It's been hard for me to find a male sculpt that I love, but I ended up finding this one specific sculpt that melted my heart! I fell in love with this male sculpt and the way this one girl on social media presented him and I loved the character she created for him! I bought the same head directly from the company and later sent him to a face up artist. His face up was inspired by her doll, I even bought a similar wig and similar colored eyes! Sometimes I feel guilty like I'm copying. He ended up looking completely different than her doll, which was my intention from the beginning because I already had his own specific character in mind.

Even though I loved the way I presented my dolls head and the character I created for him, I worried that maybe I wouldn't love my doll the way I loved her doll, but then I remembered that I've seen other people with the same sculpt, but each one had it's own unique style and I still loved it so I know that I truly love him and not only because the way that other girl has presented her doll!

Before falling in love with that sculpt I got inspired on Instagram by another BJD owner to create this specific character and make a BJD family! I had a different male sculpt in mind during that time and had his story all planned out, but wasn't quite in love with that sculpt until I found the one I love now!

I'm still working on getting a body for my floating head! When his body arrives I feel like it will be easier for me to create more of his own character and backstory and should be complete by the end of this year!

It's perfectly normal to be inspired by other people's dolls. I've seen others on I social media do it all the time! Getting inspiration from someone else's doll is perfectly fine, but there is a big difference between copying and inspiration.

 

I've admired a few dolls, loved their faceups and wardrobes as well as the characters created by their owners, it's beyond just the mold. Barring buying those specific dolls in question, I know I wouldn't be able to recreate that magic. All I can do is take inspiration from them since trying to flat out copy the doll is in bad taste and wouldn't be the same.

 

Yes, ofc, it's pretty common I think, because myself in this hobby was because of someone's else doll XD.

 

I've been very inspired by other people's dolls, but haven't completely fallen in love with many... There was a doll SDink customized and sold, and I LOVED him so much! But I actually already had the sculpt! Looked entirely different, of course... even different resin color... so I should have tried to buy that doll. *sigh*

But I do feel that trying to re-create a doll I like is pretty much a lost cause. No matter what you do, it's never going to be like another person's doll... I've even seen full-sets that still don't seem to look the same! That's the thing about bjds... just having a slightly different pose or lighting or style of wig can make a huge difference. Plus there are so many sculpts around, even when I have a fullset... I really don't see a lot of others like it, no matter how popular.

My Sard, for instance... there has to be a gazillion Sards and Dias out there... but they all look so different. Mine was painted by Soom and there should be a ton of similar ones out there, but I still don't see any look that much like him...!

Plus... try to make bjd twins. It isn't easy! If they are painted even a bit differently and do not have exactly identical wigs/eyes/outfits... It's not easy to make them look the same.

So... Falling for someone else's doll will happen. And sometimes I'll even try and get that sculpt... but I'm pretty much sure from the get-go that I won't be able to re-create someone else's doll, so I really don't worry about it.

 

I'm not sure if I was totally clear and I'll take a little detour halfway through this response to explain another thing. I think we agree with each other, there's just some more points I want to make while we're on the subject.

Yeah, I'm not saying "copy people to the point of copyright infringement and sell it, total end result copies of people's characters are chill" because that's more like fan fiction - I'm saying people on the internet are prone to attacking others and getting defensive over what they think is copying. Fanfics with OCs tend to have better OCs than their interpretations of other people's characters, in my experience, so conglomerates of inspiration that make an effort to move away from source material and become the artist's own babies tend to have more life in them.

This isn't always about doing studies of work by that artist directly, either, though that is okay as a touchstone, blah blah blah, what I said earlier. I've seen things implying someone "owns" concepts like skull face tattoos... even though plenty of people were inspired by the awesome facepaint in American Horror Story. And plenty of horror based makeup artists on YouTube. And like, Halloween, and art from the Middle Ages depicting death.

Basically the metaphor here is that nobody owns skeletons.

I have characters I've had since I was 13 that are remarkably similar to some people I found later, and I had no idea who these artists were. This happens frequently when people have similar inspirations and life experiences.

I actually met someone somewhat famous on the internet who is practically my doppelgänger and they sicked their entire fan base on me over... uh... things I came up with long before I started posting art online. We're pretty good friends now, but ten years ago, they were crazy possessive over like, everything that makes us relate to each other so well today. We still frequently come up with ideas independently that we didn't talk about at all.

 

Sorry about the double post, DoA glitched on me super weirdly??

In the end - if you make an effort to move from source material and add in your life experiences and other interests and whatnot, you'll breathe life into your work and come up with something new.

 

I rarely purchase a doll until I’ve seen others. I like to see what people do with their dolls that make them special. My holy grail doll is on Pinterest all the time and I keep saving her pics over and over. One in particular belongs to dollfanz. Her Wendy Weird by Nikki Britt is my grail doll. I may never get the chance to own her but I covet her a lot.

 

Absolutely! Sometimes you find a doll you know you'll really love because you saw someone else with the same type. That's actually why I love Doom Bomi so much and really want one. Because I've seen other people with her and seeing them play with her and pose her makes me really want her as well.

 

Yes, absolutely!

 

I have fell inlove with other's dolls. Even purchased them. But when they got here I did not bond. So now I am more picky. Just because I love seeing them doesn't mean they are meant to be with me.

 

I have (and still do) really admired other peoples doll but I've never actually wanted one of them as of yet. I really want my dolls to be mine if that makes any sense, I've even shied away from dolls or heads with faceups because then they feel like they are someone elses character. I had this just recently with a new doll who had a gorgeous faceup but he just didn't feel like he was mine, so rather than let him go I wiped his face and redid it and now he truly feels like he belongs here.

 

i think falling i love with other peoples dolls... can be such a positive thing! without falling in love with someone elses bjds, i wouldnt have become part of this community in the first place. also, i often see the dolls i admire as inspiration...they give me new impulses on how to style, modify dolls.

 

I've definitely been down this path before! I used to study mortuary science, and as a result I have an interest in all things macabre and bizarre. But I had no idea there was ever a ball-jointed doll that fit that bill until I ran into Bonbon von Hellsong. I don't remember who owned Bonbon other than it being a DoA user, and indeed I can't even find Bonbon's profile here anymore. But Bonbon had an Angel of Dream event head in the shape of a skull, and her owner had her decked out in this unusual combination of fairy kei and Dia de los Muertos styles, complete with pink and blue teeth and a wig that looked a little like cotton candy. Oh, how I loved Miss Bonbon, to the point that I began seeking out a skull sculpt of my own. I've had no luck so far, but that's beside the point. I do believe that brings me to the questions presented.

So If you love a doll but it's because of how someone else created him is it worth purchasing the doll? Or do you simply just adore them from afar? Mmmm...both in my case??? I'd have offered to buy Bonbon if she'd been up for sale, but she wasn't up for sale so I just admired her and the artistry it had taken to paint those little teeth.

Have you ever worried whether or not you can create/ own a doll you'll love as much as somebody else's creation? Nope! As unique as that Angel of Dream skull head was/is, just owning one would please me. I mean, it's not just a head painted to look like a skull, but an honest-to-God resin skull!

How do you see past someone else's creations and see them for their sculptural potential and who they/ you want them to be to you? It's not hard, really. I see if I can't find pictures of the sculpt without any paint. If I can find pictures, I envision the sculpt with different paint schemes until I find something that I like. In the case of Angel of Dream's skull the mere fact that such an unusual sculpt existed was what attracted me. Bonbon's fancy paint just cemented my love for that doll in particular.

 

I do end up falling in love with other people's dolls but it's more of a quick crush than completely in love. I get obsessed for short periods of time but then realize I probably won't be able to raise the same doll the same way. The last doll I really liked was this custom-make Lut's MDF Avalanche here. I was actually googling pictures for E-Line Ys but ended up liking this doll owner's MDF XD

 

Yes, my friend's Sapphira from B&G. I actually don't care for male dolls as much but I like him a lot. So gorgeous.

 

Falling in love with a friend's doll was what finally convinced me to buy my own. Even though she wasn't the first, I did eventually get a CP tan Lishe with factory face-up. I didn't style her like my friend's doll though they both wear a lot of medieval inspired clothing. My friend didn't mind & if I hadn't seen her doll I never would have gotten into this hobby as all the photos I'd seen of BJDs were very anime styled & those completely turned me off. Me friend was my first evil enabler!

 

There are a lot of dolls that I'm fond of who belong to other people... and there have definitely been times when seeing what other people have done with a sculpt opened my own eyes to its potential, resulting in my eventually adding a doll of that type to my crew... But in only one case have I liked a specific, individual doll enough to buy him when his first owner put him up for sale, with the explicit intention of keeping him pretty much exactly as he was.

That would be Kessari, who retained both his original name and general style when he came to me. And yes, I had his first owner's permission to do that.

 

I remember I had this with one Volks Yugiri owner. I loved her make up, loved her in every stylisation and wanted to have Yugiri with really similar make up. Of course I didn't do it and now I'm seeing it the other way, but back then, oh boy! I was waiting for her soo much. Magical time.

 

That is precious and very relatable. Loo.Luisa have wonderful dolls and they are very inspirational.

It is very dangerous though as I have experienced the same thing. I ended up selling the same sculpt of the doll I had a crush on because I realized I like the doll's personality and his face as is. It will be very disrespectful of me to just copy from another collector when I have other ideas in mind. He still exist and I adore him from afar.

It helped that he got a doll boyfie (gosh, I feel like I had a deep crush on that doll which is weird), and it made it easier for me to "move on".