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Fan Art/Tribute Dolls: Your Feelings

Nov 5, 2007

    1. I think its about the same. Whether you spend 2 hours researching to find one picture of the back of a character, or the /perfect/ wig, or two hours designing a backstory, you've still just put in 2 hours of effort towards your goal. In the end, whatever challenges you to become a better creator for your dolls is a good thing.

      ANd thanks, Tez, about the avatar. That's 'Lasc', my rogue. AKA a Sabik.
       
    2. This happens to me frequently. In the most extreme case, I bought a head a few months ago (who's body should be here in a day or so, at last!), that I wanted to have as a character doll. And I was more inspired to own that character doll by a novel-length work of fanfiction than by the original series. Of course, even before Mr. Floating Head arrived, he informed me that he wanted his own character, and that he would be perfect as a bitter and temperamental best friend to my laid back but jaded OC, Shyam. Thus, an original character was born, not entirely of my own free will, and although there are some similarities that remain between him and the character that he was originally supposed to be, they are overall very different. (For the curious, the character that he was supposed to be was Dilandau Albatou from Escaflowne, and he ended up as Dylan Albatross. The names are much more similar than the characters themselves these days).

      My general view on tribute dolls is that I think that they can be at least as creative and interesting as OC dolls. However, my experience with fan-anything, other than the occasional short work of fanfiction, is that I can't keep it even remotely true to canon. I have to change it so that I can make it mine and really own it. I am also incapable of copying another artist's style when I draw or paint, which annoyed my art teachers to no end when we were supposed to copy masterworks.

      In regards to dolls that I see on DOA specifically, I have been very impressed by some tribute dolls, and underwhelmed by others. Which also describes my reaction towards OC dolls. In other words, it's not the inspiration or intent that matters to me here, it's all in the execution.
       
    3. I have to say Mercedes, that I absolutely LOVE your work.
      This is actually funny because I was just going through my collection of your books the other day thinking that I need to re-read them :)

      Anyway, I was first introduced to "Valdemar" series with Winds of Fate around 1992 when I saw it at the library in the new book section. With being an aspiring artist at the time the artwork on the cover caught my attention first. Jody Lee does beautiful pieces. Then I read the synopsis and had to read it. From then on I never forgot the title of that book and once I was out of college I started looking for your work again. I actually joined the SciFi book club so that I could order them. Unfortunately around 2002 I lost my job so I had to stop buying books. :(
      I have a lot of catching up to do. :)

      Well, since getting in to BJDs I've given serious thought about doing a doll based on your changeling character. I believe she was in the Owlflight trilogy. She was an experiment that was genetically/magically crossed with a cat. (told you that I need to re-read them) :lol:
      I created a mental picture of her while reading and I think it would be a great base for a character doll.
      But the first thing that I really want to do is create the gown from the end of The Black Swan. Your description of that gown and the ball just stuck in my head and I've wanted to create it ever since then.
      What better way than for a doll

      I really think character dolls are a sincere form of flattery. If noone liked your work, or anyone else's for that matter, they wouldn't want to see them come to life. And what better way to show that your writing has made an impact on a person than by doing just that.

      Thank you for all of your wonderful books and I look forward to reading many more of them.
       
    4. as much as i love 'fan art'...

      i don't hold it in high regaurd as i do 'original' art. it dosn't take much skill to carbon copy some drawing in your style. I don't see much creativity with it, unless it's like...crazy awesome and it's obviously not all about just copying the character. But, as most of us know (who are on deviant art a lot)...this is hardly the case.

      I don't know about anybody else but i've had it with final fantasy fanart. it's a game guys--not life. :D so, with that said... i don't see a problem with fanart if it's purely for like...gifts or something, or just to have fun. but to seriously do it to show your artistic ability.... i would reconsider your avenue. :D
       
    5. I have one of your books! Small world, heh.

      I think there is nothing wrong with fan dolls/clothing/etc.
      I don't think it necessarily means a lack of creativity but rather a wish to express love for the original, and having some part of that character you fell in love with originally. People do it all the time with writing fan fiction as well...the only time it becomes an issue is when a person claims something is their idea when it isn't.
      I personally don't have any tribute dolls, but rather dolls that are made from my own characters which may have at some point been inspired by some other source (Example: Daemon, my Dollshe Bernard, is named after and resembles the description of a character in a book I read, but is a completely different character altogether.)
       
    6. I don't think there's anything wrong at all--it's no different than creating fanart, or fanfiction, or any other fanwork. I also don't think it's particularly uncreative. Much like cosplay, in the case of anime/manga/book characters, it's a great way to bring a beloved character to life--in any other case, it's a very devoted way to express love of the subject, and an art all its own.

      It can actually be a very creative process in some cases--for example, perhaps necessary mods or designing impractical, impossible clothing to look as it should.

      Actually, the name of my doll even is an allusion to a series I'm fond of. I keep labelling myself as 'uncreative' for it, but really I suppose it isn't so much, considering. And actually, despite the 'uncreative' origin of her name, it's honestly contributed to her character itself. (Explanation: Her hair resembles Urd's from Oh My Goddess! It wasn't really intentional as that was just the wig that 'spoke' to me, I just felt her hair should be that way when I saw the wig. I didn't go out of my way. XD Anyway, that got me to thinking on names... I realized that I couldn't name her Urd, but then I thought--the other two Norns from Norse mythology are Skuld, and Verdandi. Verdandi being the only one whose name was changed when the author of Oh My Goddess! used them (Belldandy). So, it became her name. :P Which lead to her (undecided at the time) race being a creature from Nose mythology. :3)
       
    7. Well, as a writer, most of the dolls I want to make are my characters- the ones that aren't are either my friend Dai's characters, or my friend Astrid (who doesn't come here). Though I see nothing wrong with it. One girl who came by our booth at ACen had a beautiful Fate doll that I couldn't help but love.


      ...Though I admit if I had money I'd make either a doll of Vocal the Zainin or of Outenkun. Either of those would be at least 50 kinds of awesome.
       
    8. Neither creativity nor cleverness. Simply a great deal of love for the character created.

      I have two fan dolls at present, both characters I love VERY much. Both dolls, as my characters, have deviated from their canon timelines and stories, although I like to think I have preserved their original characters' personalities. I had Baron made because my roommate remarked that he was dollfie-sized, and when I became obsessed with The Cat Returns, nothing would do but to have a doll made of him. Sydney was fun to create; I knew which company I wanted to use but picking her face from the existing sculpts was a really fun thing, and I think it helped me bond with her. She's one of my favourite characters of all time, and I write fanfic for her series, so having a physical form of someone bouncing around in your head can help bring that out. Plus, it's really fun to take someone's character and riff off it in your own way.

      Other people may think differently. But hey, it's their right.
       
    9. Coming from a costuming background, I know the difficulties and challenges of re-creating an existing piece of work accurately. It's hard enough to do this in the scale the original work was done in, but reduce that down to 1/3 or smaller? The challenge increases drastically. You have to use a lot of creativity to figure out how to make things that look accurate and to scale.

      Because I'm such an accuracy nazi, I've always found original design works to be easier for me in a way...if I change the color or fabric of something or decide to drape a different way because it looks better for my original design, no one will know. If I decide that my original character doll can have a blonde wig rather than a black one because that is what I can find in the style I need, the same is true...who would know? I have the ability to change things to fit my resources if I have to. But, if I were to change colors on a slave Leia costume because I could not find anything that worked that was in scale in the right color? Very visible and obvious, and it would look "wrong", because everyone knows what it's supposed to look like (and more importantly, *I* would know that it's wrong). I couldn't truly call it a re-creation of an outfit if it's not accurate. I would need to figure out how to find or make something that would look correct. It takes a lot of creativity to pull something out of the air like that and make it look right, believe me.

      Example: I spent days of trial and error trying to accurately make Uhura's dagger from Mirror Mirror in Elfdoll scale for Moira's costume. I experimented with various materials and combinations, until I found what would work and satisfy the accuracy beast. How is that less creative than spending days trying to figure out what clothing style an original character should have? It's investing mental resources to create something from scratch.

      I've seen some amazing re-creation "tribute" dolls, and have been lucky enough to see the amount of work and creativity that has gone into the making of a couple of them (Pam's Anakin being the most recent--and I know he was made specifically because it was a creative challenge for her). There is no less mental effort invested into them than into any of the original characters done by these artists, and often there is more. Just give it a try sometime.

      Mercedes, if you ever make it out to Comic-Con on your convention circuit, you should come to our BJD meetup! Always a fun time, and we'd love to meet you :)
       
    10. I don't think of my Ichigo doll as a "tribute" so much as the next step of the obsession. :sweat
      I have a ton of Ichigo things - from figurines to a life sized cardboard standee.
      I have an extensive collection of Ichigo production artwork from rough sketches to a couple of hanken ( one of which cost me more than a Yukinojo would!).
      Bringing him into the realm of dolls was just the next step to bringing him closer to life for me.
      I have this driving need. I've written bad Ichigo fan fiction, drawn bad Ichigo fan art, done a halfway decent piece of Ichigo stained glass (finally something half way decent!), and the need is real, and the obsession insane, but I realize that, and run with it. ;)

      Creativity? Heck yeah. A lot of effort goes into recreating something. Just as much as creating something. My Ichigo and Kyouzou take at least as much effort and trial to characterize and place, as it does my five other original character dolls.
      As others have said, it's just that the challenges take different forms. With one, you have to take what you have or what you can get, and make it conform to an existing standard, and if you fall short it will be known.
      With the other, it's creating something out of nothing. And no matter the pursuit, that is always challenging.


      (BTW, Magic's Pawn/Promise/Price was my favorite set!) :)
       
    11. I think copyright is mostly there to protect creators from idea theft, right?

      For a very well established series and such, there's no harm in creating tribute characters are people would know the character/base world isn't the tributer's own creation and stuff

      but for more obsecure ones, even if they say "tribute of", people online has the tendency to overlook details like "This is not my original character, but such and such instead!!!"

      I'd be more concern over that than the issue of lack of creativity or such*_*
       
    12. being a humungus (if that indeed is a word) scifi fan i can tell you, creating a fan work takes a lot of creativeness.
      every fan cast their own veiw or take on the tribue and so, in a way its an original piece influenced by their fanning (LOL im not making scence ^^!)

      i think its flattering to the original creators that their original work has influenced someone soooo much that they make it part of their every day.

      hehe! *cant explain properly* :D
       
    13. I like the idea of a tribute doll, even though the idea of celebrity dolls doesn't always sit right with me.

      The reason why I view tribute dolls in a different light is due to the fact that, as others have said, it is a creative process trying to modify an existing piece of work into a specific character. During the process the original image you had for the doll is likely to grow and change and while you'll generally end up with a tribute you're pleased with, that doll more often than not begins to grow into a character all its own. I really love how a tribute can morph into its own entity through the journey that led to its creation. I wouldn't at all say the process described above is due to a lack of creativity, on the contrary, I think tributes actually lead to creativity and exploration into our own characters.

      I have, in the past, considered tribute dolls based on popular literature. I'll hold on to the idea for months before finally deciding that maybe instead of a full tribute I'd rather take a few of that characters attributes and put them into another being.

      There are still characters who I think would make amazing tribute dolls, and other characters that I'd like to borrow from in order to help create something else, but, at the moment, I don't own any tributes, even partial ones, myself. But talking about this and reading everyone elses' responses is giving me new ideas!
       
    14. Most of the people here seem 'okay' with dolls being based on someone else's characters. That said...

      I think it's ripping them off. You can never, never get them accurate to their personalities, since you didn't create them. I also am against fanfics, since with just one tiny step more of creativity, they could be your own characters. Same for the fan dolls. I understand doing a costume or something temporarily, but I just do not approve.

      Yes, I avoid looking at them. If I see a photostory or photoshoot with them, I will click away or avoid clicking in the first place. I don't need to see you ripping off of someone else's creativity, when you could be applying that work to something that is actually your own.

      I know a lot of people don't agree with me, and that's fine. I think that a single piece of fanart, or dresing your dolls for a picture are fine-if you don't keep them that way always.

      After all, how many slash stories are there here, when the characters would never, never be in that situation? Stick to your own characters. Use your own mind, don't try to use someone else's and warp it in the process.
       
    15. That does seems like a pretty harsh talk. It seems to imply that making fanbased stuff shows lack of respect to the actual creator. Well, the last part anyway.

      I have to say tho, as easy it is for someone to make seventy original characters in a week, some people really have the difficulty to create even one, from looks to personalities, like and dislikes. Sometimes the muse isn't anywhere to be found. Sometimes the process also kills the fun of trying to get to making the story. There's differences in the creativity of the human mind. Creating stories isn't really the same as creating characters. Some finds one easier than the other. I doubt my gf can create good stories to save her life but she creates characters a platoon at a time.

      I agree that if you're in the animu world, fanstuff are overdone and overkill but most of the time, people just want to have fun with, say, their 2D "crushes". There's nothing so bad in that. Plus, others would be able to relate to those characters in question without you having to begin everything from time=alpha to get to a scene/jokescene you really, really want to write about and have other people read without having to explain the entire background and history.

      And slash stories are slash stories. It's like fetishes. There's the understandable ones, and there's those that... well... makes you go "wtf?"
       
    16. I originally got into BJD collecting becuase they are- in a way- very much like giant, beautiful action figures. I am a huge collector of action figures, and the jump from one to the other was not a big one.

      In fact, the main reason I started collecting these dolls was to make an action figure of a character that (at the time) did not have one avaliable. And I did, and I love him (even though he is off being remade at the moment.) It was a real challenge to put together the clothing, wig and the find the right doll. It was, indeed, very good fun to do.

      I am actually awaiting my second character-inspired doll. I can;t wait to get stuck into making him!

      Character wise, I do not actually rely too heavily on the original characters. Why? Because my dolls are cosplayers- the characters that they are when they are not in costume are just as much into the fun and frivolity of cosplaying and anime fandoms as I am, and it is a nice way to 'have both', as it were. They can be fan dolls some of the time, and my own characters the rest- it all depends on how I feel at the time. (Also, in regards to Suuchan's post, I try exceptionally hard to keep my characters in line with the original creations when they are 'in character.' I never attempt a photostory of script that will take me outside the recognised scope of teh character.)

      Do I think fan dolls are wrong, or in poor taste? Not in theory, no. However, there are exceptions. Just like I very much dislike fan stories with character acting out of character, and non-canon yaoi pairings (which are everywhere these days) so do I dislike dolls along those lines. I am still happy to look at them, but I will not read slashy photostories and some of them do actually make me feel nauseated and angry. I would feel the same way if they were done with official action figures, or drawings- some things are just always a bad idea! ;)

      Well constructed and well reprisented fan dolls, though, are wonderful to see.
       
    17. My point was that, no matter how close you try to make your doll behave according to that character, you are not going to get it.

      I have characters that I have worked with for years. If someone did a story with them, saying they did xxx in a situation that they haven't been presented with by me (in a story or roleplay), and they wouldn't ever do that, I would be kind of upset. I worked hard on making my own characters, and they just want to use it.

      Also, if you are going to do a fanfic, you put forth a bunch of effort already-what, it's too hard for you to change the hair color and name, and suddenly have your own character?

      I think that it shows laziness and disrespect for the original work if you try to do that sort of thing. You all may think it is fine, but I do not-I am very irritated by it. That is my opinion, it has been for many, many years, and it won't change.
       
    18. What you are endorsing there, to me, is a far greater disrespect to the creator of something than a piece of fanfic. Nothing like stealing someone's idea, changing one thing about it, and passing it off as your own for being disrespectful and tacky. :daisy
       
    19. You know, those are all good points. I think this whole tribute doll debate is also hard for some people to put into perspective.

      Building on about what you said about fan created works, I think sometimes, since the doll community is just so immersed in original characters and stories, sometimes it is easy to forget that isn't everyones cup of tea. Not everyone has a detailed back story for each and every doll they own. Not everyone has seventy characters inside their head. That doesn't mean their head is empty, however.

      Personally, I'm not into creating characters. I don't create a character then buy a doll to fit it. I buy a pretty thing that is pleasing to the eye and that I like and slowly but surely it eventually finds its place in life.

      I like to draw what one would say are “original characters” but they don't have personalities, they don't really have lives either, they just have their own appearance and perhaps a few attributes to fuel their image. And rarely are they anything more than a single drawing. My personal outlet doesn't lie in their back story and developed depth, but it doesn't mean I'm any less creative because of this.

      Creative writing, role playing, it isn't for everyone. Some peoples talents are in other areas. So basing a doll, or fan fiction, or what have you, on someone else's work doesn't always mean that person lacks creativity and it doesn't mean that person isn't capable of creating their own ideas either. It just shows that they enjoy that aspect of fandom.

      In a sense, it almost seems like another form of doll fueled elitism. I never thought that tribute dolls could be viewed as lesser creations, so this is all interesting to read.
       
    20. Actually, good fan fic is hard to write. I write original stuff all the time, but have never been able to sit down and write for someone else's character. I have friends that write fanfic who are very good writers and creative people. You might be surprised if you opened your mind a bit.

      I see fan work as a way for fans to be more actively involved in their fandom beyond just being a passive watcher or reader. They get to have fun with the show, movie, or books they love while using thier own creativity. Anything that encourages creative activities whether it's writing, drawing or customizing dolls is great in my book.

      We live in a world that doesn't really encourage creativity--too many people spend all their time sitting in front of a screen rather than using their imaginations, or they don't engage in creating things because they're afraid that they aren't good enough. It's nice to see people using their TV and movie watching as a gateway to more imaginative activitites.