Inspiration for a Character?

I form my doll's character in my head. Usually I have a wig style in mind, or find one that helps create the personality that I love, like I did with my Cecilia.

I love to draw, consider myself an artist (ego), and I began with sketches of her. I found the wig and drew around that. Gorgeous wig, what fits it's personality...I knew I wanted a sweet doll, so a tender, flowing wig was necessary. And I found it.

But yes...she is also minorly based on a story/art character of mine, Raine. But I made changes, and now she is to be Raine's younger friend...

 

Hahah, I posted in here earlier, but now I have come to a totally new epiphany on the subject X3 !

While I've had my doll for almost a month now, and loved her to death, I haven't really 'imprinted' her personality onto her yet... she was still just a doll in pretty clothes. You know, you have the personality and such all written out on paper, and then you have the actual doll beautiful as can be, but you just never tie them together properly? I figured it would just happen in my mind on my own eventually. The transition was a little more sudden than that ^^; .

I like to daydream, and tonight I started thinking randomly about making a comic about BJDs. I don't even remember why or how, but then I was envisioning Dawn, cartoon-style, animated and alive stepping into a doll meet and then conversing with the other dolls there. Immediately there became strongly apparent some personality traits I hadn't really developed much before... she was... vain. And showy. Catty, fiery, and kind of bitchy XD . She was in love with herself, and made fun of a Minifee sculpt, and I found out that she was a good actress and shallow when it came to love. She was pouty and prissy and full of life. Somehow very different from how I originally imagined her, yet somehow perfectly true to the character I originally envisioned. She had a voice and expressions and vibrancy.

Not all of it necessarily good though... ^^; . Eheh... and then she started complaining about how awful my stringing job was and how it was because I was lazy... but claimed she didn't like wiring because it felt stiff... and started telling me not to touch her faceup, even though I myself never cared about getting it dirty... and then she started making sly comments about how MAYBE if I used MSC instead of Testors she shouldn't get dirty so easily... Tonight while laying her down to bed (I've got a big one so she has a corner I can give to her =P ) , I had to take extra care to set her in a comfortable position because I could hear her bitching at me about how she didn't want to be tangled up all night. :rolls eyes: I have to say, while the change has its perks, maybe having this little epiphany wait a little longer wouldn't have hurt. XD Did I mention she's started pouting because she wants a boyfriend, NOW? That's ONE thing I'm putting my foot down on. Not for a long while, sister.

She has a new nickname I call her. 'Princess Dawn'. 'Cuz she can act like such a spoiled princess X3 . Guh, I'm glad at least that her BOYFRIEND won't be having these same problems... he's a much calmer, no-fuss type fellow.

ali

 

All my characters come from RP's, so before i get the doll I already picture them.. how they look, hair, eye color, styles and stuff.
occasionally i do play a little with different wigs or eyes, but mostly stick with the first idea

 

I absolutely adore role-plyaing and developing characters, and I think role-play can really make you obsessed with OCs, especially if you like to draw them a lot. ^^

Since I've been so absorbed in manifesting my characters into something others can visualize, learning about these customizable dolls jus lew my mind. Before then, I was confined to just drawing them from my imagination, and I even tried sculpting in clay, but 2-D pictures weren't enough for me and I never could sculpt them how I wanted. These dolls are such an inspiration in themselves.

 

I'd already written the first draft of my novel and done some paintings of my characters before I ever bought any of my dolls, so their looks and personalities were already pretty clear in my mind. It's funny, I didn't know anything about the bjd hobby when I bought my first doll, and I thought I might be very weird for basing a doll on a story character I'd written! Now I know it's very common, indeed.

 

when my boy got here, he had a slight personality. like a small presence. but i just started to notice. he "reacts" when im upset. his facial features change, or the way he's positioned will look completely different than it did before depending on mood. its odd. but i know a lot of people have said the same thing about their dolls.

but its like my boy can "see" things others cant. its odd. like hes always looking at something else..or right through you, even if you are looking right at him. sometimes.

so i took inspiration from the things i like to watch (ghost adventures and ghost whisperer) and kind of laced it together with his personality. im getting his twin as soon as i pay her off, so im having fun creating a SL surrounding clairvoyant twins.

 

Most of my dolls start out as blank slates with a name slapped on. Some of them are still like that. I'm not fussed.

For my Soom big boy, my inspiration came several months after I'd already had him. I'd given him a Spanish name, but was unsure why other than I liked the name. Then while cleaning up my room, I found a chess set my brother bought for me while he was in Peru several years ago. The playing pieces are conquistadors and Inca warriors. So Xavier became a conquistador, and I recently commissioned historically accurate garb for him.

My Unidoll Jace isn't here yet, but I had been watching Carl Sagan and Cosmos snippets on Youtube, and the idea of a Sagan-ish sort of character just took off. So my Jace became Tycho, named after the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in tribute.

 

My resin kids are all a select one trait or concept that I pull from myself. From there, their backstories and the dynamic, rounded portions of their personalities develop from rolling the character around in the situations of their backstories.

For example, one of my boys Lucifer (or Luke) is the personification of guilt/regret. He's had a tough life after he was orphaned around ten, and to survive has done a lot of dishonest things. He deeply regrets his life and carrie the guilt with him everywhere, and that defines him throughout the stages of his life (child cries a lot, mid-teens he takes out his guilt on others, older teen he emos a lot, adult he is extremely sensitive and likes talking about feelings).

Another of my kids Yuki is the bratty side of my personality. I don't think there's much to explain regarding him being a brat.

My SD Abel is selfishness and subsequent callousness -> because he only looks out for himself, he often doesn't care about the feelings or wellbeing of others. Abel's twin, Cain, is sick and twisted thoughts and perversion. What can be done in bed and what shouldn't be done in bed, he's done it.

EDIT: Because of the way I give my dolls personalities, it's highly probable that if you know all my dolls' personalities you'll end up knowing all sides of ME more than just talking to me alone would do.

 

My first doll, Ren, was just a pretty doll for about a month. Then one day I dazed off in the middle of something and dreamed up scene in which she was with two other characters. I guess it was kind of an epiphany moment. I started writing it down, and each of their personalities started coming out.

 

I started to develop my dolls' characters while choosing which dolls I like best, and then picking a name for them, and then developing their characters from there. There was a time, while waiting during the Before Shipping stage, that I actually sat down and wrote a scenario of how some of these dolls would interact with each other, which really helped in cementing their personalities and relationship with each other. And then when they get home all I needed to do was to pick the right pair of eyes and wig.

 

Most of my dolls had fully formed back stories and personalities before they ever came home. The exception to this is my Soom Amber. I fell for her sculpt first then figured out a race for her (Unicorn) and based everything off of that. She's still developing and it will be fun when I finally get a clear vision of what her face-up should look like and what her story should be. I'm not even sure the name I've picked for her will stick. I guess my advice to you is work with your doll. Listen to the feelings you get from the sculpt and use them as a guide for developing a character. Go with your interests and let your creativity flourish.

 

It took me a while to find my dollies persona.

When I got Kisa, my megu, I never had a character before that. All I knew was I wanted a very japanese looking doll. And megu was just that! But once i got her my tastes started to change a little. Perhaps I was changing as a person because I found I wanted her to be more of an elegant modern type girl rather then a maiko type of girl. I got her a lot of wigs and finally settled for a brown with with pony tails that curled. Not normally my thing but I put that on her and its stayed on her head ever since. Her clothes have changed a lot too. From yukata to lolita dresses and finally to modern cute girly wear. Eyes didnt change alot. I got her blue but it was too dark so i changed it to grey and it was perfect!!~ Faceup ... I sent her out once for a faceup and she is still rocking it. I may change it now because she's had it for a long time and I see things in it that i want to change, but besides that she's perfect!! Her issue was clothes and wig!~

Toushiro, my sd13 syo, was pretty different. He was to be Kisa's over protective brother and I really loved the mold and I knew what I wanted him to look like and dress like. Once I got him he downed his red wig and tada!! But I wanted to change is default faceup. It took me years to finally be satisfied. I find that doing the faceup myself bonded me to him even more and I know what I want in a faceup so that was also a plus. His eyes were same and clothes I refined it a little and that was it. Main thing for him was the faceup~!

Next is Ran. She is my most recent girl. I started to put a character to her, minus the name. I only got one outfit for her which was good because once i put a faceup to her with the wig, i just threw one some of old clothes I already had and It was so her. I didnt even need the clothes. The only thing was her eyes. I need to get new ones and ones that fit her more.

 

I actually am ordering a new doll to base my new character off of. His name is Cyn. I am a writer who only buys things she can write about. It is perfectly normal to do things like that. I actually don't see how you CAN'T base a story off of your doll. Every doll needs a bio! Right?

 

that's half the fun to me

 

Whenever I get a new doll in, and don't have the character fully in mind yet, I try him with all the different wigs and eyes I have. Sometimes it's just to mess around and see what combinations I can come up with, but every once and a while, I strike gold. Also, I tend to pick up inspiration from whatever I'm reading, watching, or just really like at the time. I try very hard not to "steal" or copy anything I happen to be reading/watching, but you can definitely see where the inspiration lies sometimes. Other times, it simply comes from how I think the mold looks itself when it gets here.

 

It's actually kind of weird for me-- I got the doll intending for it to be one character, but after I ordered him and kept thinking about him and did more doll research, all the dolls I found that would fit into my "family" ended up changing the story rather dramatically. So his character was the first to be conceived, and then all the rest kind of followed, with the story dragging along behind them.
So now I have a list of all the dolls I want to get (including descriptions of hybrids and the like) plus eye color, hair color, hair type, and personality.

 

lol, i know a lot of people have RP characters that they turn into their dolls, but i am an artist first and a doll collector second. so i was already drawing and developing my characters to the point where i couldn't find a doll that really looked or felt like my characters, so i decided to just give these dolls their own character!

 

I collect Pullips and I have a detailed picfic for them, so sometimes I buy Pullips just because I fall in love but other times I buy them to be characters in the picfic. With BJDs, since I won't be able to have as many, I plan on buying only the dolls whose sculpt I really love, then creating characters for them when they arrive. That way my story won't get ahead of itself and I won't find myself needing to buy more dolls. I think once I find the perfect eyes and wig I'll just *know* and the character my doll is meant to be will shine through.

 

... I guess I just thought about it... for example, I had one doll that I wanted to fit into my story. I'd gotten a general concept down, but I didn't know exactly what his character would be. So literally, I gave it some thought. Before I fell asleep maybe a couple nights in a row, I thought about what I'd like him to be and it just sort of happened... Or, you could just try using attributes. That's always a good way for me to do it, I look at a doll and think things like: "Does he/she have any scars? Would an earring look good here? Maybe a tattoo?" And once you've come up with some interesting attributes, explore how they got there. For example, "How did the tattoo get there? And why is it there, and what is it a tattoo of?" Then just keep building on it. You'll be surprised how much a collection of things like pink hair and a snakebite piercing with a sunflower ankle tattoo, or freckles and turquoise eyes, or even just a pretty face on a boy all build up into an extensive character profile.

 

I've probably posted here before but I don't remember so I'll do it again if I have lol

All of my dolls are based on my original characters I write about. There are very FEW who come home without a full backstory (ie: gifts, random I NEED YOU moments) I love having physical representations of my characters I write about because they are all so special to me. Some of the dolls are based on more than just characters but mainly its those I write about or who are very important to me. I try and find sculpts that fit my characters appearance and then go from there.