[POLL] Most important part of a doll's look

I picked overall concept because it's no good having the right face sculpt if the faceup is wrong , or the body isn't right for the face sculpt, and/or the clothes don't match the character, and you can't get the right wig. shoes, and/or accessories to work with it all.

Teddy

 

I choose faceup and overall concept. A good face-up can make magnificent a sculpt that is not very good, and the overall concept makes the doll coherent.

 

For me it is sculpt, and then the wig. Faceup isn’t all that important to me, because I do all of my own, and it’s pretty much the same faceup on all of my dolls with very minor variations
And then wigs... well if you’ve ever seen my girls you definitely automatically know wigs are important to me. I have a full rainbow pretty much.

 

I couldn’t have said it better myself, CloakedSchemer! It’s the overall concept for me too because everything has to be just right. I recently had difficulty with one of my girls. She was a doll I’d wanted for years, and when the company offered her in the perfect limited fantasy skin color, I jumped at the chance to bring her home. I chose the perfect body for her, dressed her exactly as I’d envisioned, made her the perfect wig, gave her gorgeous dark eyes, found the perfect name, and gave her a lovely face-up. But she just started to bug me, and I soon realized I wasn’t happy with her at all. It took awhile but I finally realized her eyebrows were too high for the look I wanted...yes, I know it sounds silly, but it was just her eyebrows that drove me crazy! I corrected them to give her a more intense look and voila...instant perfection! And now I’m completely in love with her.

 

For me I'm big on faceups and body personally but I also find the sculpt important

 

Hassssss to be the face up. That’s the first thing you look at when you see a doll.

 

Yeah, same for me. The happier or even just slightly turned up mouths just "speak" to me more.
I would make an exception for a doll that somehow looks like it's "having fun" ... there is a face for Alchemic Labo dolls that is called like the "bullying" face and it makes the doll look like it's making a silly face for a picture... I definitely resonate with that kind of behavior too haha

So the "because" for me is that I'm looking for things that are joyful in particular as an emotion.

Maybe someday I'll get a neutral one or two if they fit a character? Dunno!

 

I chose face up and the overall concept. But I love love love doll clothing and can be picky about what I dress my dolls in. My dolls do sometimes have to wear whatever I can afford...or heaven's above, make! , however, I keep a little bit of money aside in case I find a beautiful outfit for them to wear. And because my background of collecting is fashion dolls, my clothing tastes still run in that direction. Beautiful gowns and detail is what I really love right now. Having said that, I try to stick to the doll's character. If she gets wears ball gowns, she gets ballgowns. If she's a warrior, her clothing will reflect that!!

 

Everything is important)) The sculpture, the mobility of the doll, the grace of lines, the image that inspires you❤️

 

Oh yeah I definitely agree Clothing doesn't always have to be expensive to be nice. As you said it should fit the character and that's probably also why I love certain dolls from people but wouldn't have paid attention to a certain doll before. It really is a blank canvas and everyone has a different art style.

 

faceups can dramatically alter a sculpt, but I think the sculpt is just as important. though the overall concept kind of comes before all of that if you're someone who curates dolls after pre-existing characters, or someone with a set idea of what you're looking for (elf, vampire, satyr, etc.)

 

The sculpt. The sculpt is the foundation upon which everything else is built up.

 

I chose the sculpt and the body. The aesthetics and posability are the basis on which I buy a BJD in the first place. I don’t have an overall concept in mind for the doll beforehand. If I could choose a third attribute it would be the face-up.

 

When I look at a doll, i think to me, the silhouette value is important c: so i chose overall concept. There are so many beautiful dolls but i lean alot towards dolls with an interesting shape. LilyCat dolls, Dust of Dolls, and Enaibi dolls have the style of small shoulders, and very wide hips, and i just adore that but i love hearing what others find important to the dolls look

 

I chose faceup as most important (though I do think overall concept is a big one, as well as sculpt) because I have several dolls that have fooled people into either having no idea what mold they are (even if they're a fairly popular sculpt) or thinking they're a totally different mold due to just their faceups. Harley is one no one has ever guessed and I've had someone even swear she was a Delf Shiwoo XD (nope). In truth, her sculpt is frowning under her faceup, she's only smiling because I drew her mouth on.

On the flip side, the wrong faceup can really mess up the concept of a doll and even the whole sculpt. I just wiped my Granado Jupiter convinced I hated him, but blank he's so nice. Apparently it was my faceup I hated. I think a new faceup will make him so much better. And how many times have people seen sculpts in company promo pics and disliked them only to change their minds when seeing it with a custom faceup? It happens all the time. There are many who can't see past a faceup and see the sculpt, so the faceup is the deciding factor in whether they buy a doll or not.

Then there is the uniqueness that a faceup gives your doll. Yes, there are seven hundred thousand MNF Chloe's out there, but only one of them has the faceup that yours has.

 

Haha, it's so funny how much just a small change in the mouth shape can completely change the mood of the doll. Funny thing is, there are plenty of dolls with neutral or downturned mouths I love but when it comes to my own dolls and having them in person, they just don't work for me. I guess it's an empathetic thing to feel influenced by a doll's expression?

 

For me I think sculpt and face-up. I pick dolls primarily based on the head sculpt. If the doll comes with a nice body that's a bonus! But I've historically only bought bodies based on price. I think that a face-up can make or break my opinion of a dolls look as it can drastically affect the appearance of the sculpt.

Next is probably resin, since skin tone is related to the characters race and I wouldn't go for a resin that didn't make sense for a dolls character. But in general my dolls all get the lighter beige-y skin tones for cost savings and matching the resin I already have. If I had started with a tan doll, I might have made them all tan so none of them look pasty... but the costs... Also, I think how the resin ultimately ends up looking seems to depend on the contrast with the rest of the elements of the doll.

Eyes fall close behind since if they are sized or positioned weird the whole face looks off to me.
But its not critical since I can get the color and style right later without it being a bother.

Body, clothes, and shoes are also things I can kinda fudge and get right later.
I think accessories are totally optional. But a cool weapon or prop is quite fun.

 

My top two are - face sculpt, then body. I have to like both to purchase.
Face up is really important too, and eyes (I’m so picky about eyes), then the wig. I want each of my dolls to have very nice ones to suit my vision perfectly.

Clothes, accessories etc, I’m not so picky about. Though they’re fun!

I like all realistic resin colors though I like tans the most. I try to have a variety.

 

Honestly, I chose outfit!

 

Sculpt and face-up for me. First one may be tricky honestly because sometimes I do really like certain dolls whose sculpt I generelly dislike, but that's a rare ocassion. Generally there's "my type" and "not my type" sculpt-wise.
Faceup is as simple as it gets, the most important part of overall look for me. A messy faceup can ruin everything, a good face-up can make even the most unsightly sculpt look much better.