What Inspires you?

My dolls have a theme of urban fashion/chic style like the items you get from Urban outfitters, I'm mostly inspired by the many way to dress up your doll, the layers the colors, etc.

Like these:

 

I find inspiration in many things, books, comics,fashion, art etc. I save inspiering pictures in a folder on my computer and look at them when I ned extra inspiration for anything creative. I also find good museum exibitions realy inspiering.

 

Anything fantasy inspire me!

 

Wow, cool images!

I'm inspired by so many things that I can't really trace back all the stuff I like to specific things!!!

I used to know the roots better ages ago... certain books, certain pictures, certain movies... But now it's all just mushed together! Too many to mention--just like many others here have said.

For dolls, I love seeing Company photos. They are highly influential to me. I'm not great at seeing a doll and making it fit into a certain character or a different look. Sometimes, if I'm looking for something specific in a doll, I can do this, but usually I'll go about thinking... "hmmm... I don't know, but wow, I LIKE what I'm seeing" in certain photos of dolls--from the company or from owners with custom faceups or whatever.

I love seeing the customizing people do with their dolls. I usually won't try to copy one or the other, but I will keep it in mind as something I really like, and that may influence me later at some point.

Mostly, I just enjoy looking at dolls and photos and items... they are just so cool and pretty or intriguing or whatever... just fun to see. I usually won't end up being directly inspired, but you never know...!

 

I am often inspired by the things around me, and a picture or object can jolt the creation of a whole plotline. But, when it comes to dolls, I don't really get "inspired" to go create things for them or to mod them. There has only been one time where I had major "doll inspiration" and it really helped form my view on BJD collecting. I was at an anime convention, and it was the first time I had been since BJDs really took over. I had my first doll, a secondhand Bobobie Apollo, with me. I was walking around the dealer's room or the artist's alley, and I stopped by a booth with two dolls on display, a boy and an anthro cat-girl. They were dressed like pirates, with wonderful body blushing and faceups. I didn't meet the owner, but I did meet the owner's friend, who told me that the owner of those two gorgeous dolls only bought secondhand dolls, and turned them into beautiful, well-loved works of art. And that's when it just hit me and I said, "That's going to be me!" Since then, I have only bought secondhand dolls, and can't seem to justify buying a new doll. Not only do secondhand dolls cost less, get faster, and usually have extras, there's something so wonderful about taking a doll without a home and making it amazing.

 

Hmmm. Good question. Here's a small list

Anime
Pop Surrealist art (Kukula, a Simona Candini, Ania Tomicka)
Those girls who look like dolls and the work they put into it
Jesters and clow girls in high fashion spreads
Lolita fashion
Fashion magazines (Vogue, Fashion Quarterly, Simply You)
Is there a term for that sort of chemically sweet pop star like Rihanna, Katy Perry and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu? Like... Kitsch? Camp?
Audrey Kitshing
Alexa Porletti
Some old paintings from Baroque and Rococo periods
Marie Antoinette and other such high class
Classical music
Women's figure sport, like ballet, jazz and some contemporary dance, gymnastics, ice skating and acrobatic sports
Games like Touhou Project (that I just started playing, but love the art style), Joyville (Those iPad puppet apps) and Ib

Meh. Good enough. I'm not going to go on forever

 

Having been a costumer for nearly 40 years, I am inspired by fabric and clothing. Having adored miniatures my entire life, I am inspired by detailing and intricacy. Getting into BJD's is another outlet for all these things that inspire me and that I love.

 

I am inspired by many different things. I draw inspiration from the beauty in nature. I love storms, fields, the sky, stars, clouds, and everything in between. I also find music, poetry, photography, interior design/home decorating, sculptures, painting and photography to be inspiring I have several dolls that are nature-related. In all forms of art, I love seeing how colors were put together and how to create a feeling through colors, and I use this in my BJDs as well.

 

Oh... wow. What doesn't? Haha, let's see...

Well, a lot of different things inspire me, in different areas-- my visual (non-fan) art over the course of the past few months has been drawing a lot from underwater creatures and scenes... except for my desertscapes-- and also from fairy tales, Shakespeare, and alt fashion. My (non-fan) writing has taken more inspiration from real life lately, with characters drawn from things I'm more familiar with, but prior major writing inspiration wells have been WWII-era France, Victorian England, slow poisoners, ARGs... and fairy tales and underwater creatures. And robots.

(I engage a lot in fanworks, both art and fiction, and those tend to mix in more general sources of inspiration alongside the source material I'm drawing from too)

How does this all translate to dolls? Well, my wishlist tends to come from characters I write about/RP as-- dolls get added to the wishlist if they embody a character I already have, or sometimes inspire one.

Actually, there's something right there-- my dolls/the doll hobby in general sometimes inspire my art/writing!

But there's also inspiration that goes into what I do with my dolls. Vince is my 'outlet' doll-- whatever style I am into he's happy to wear. I'm still a beginner when it comes to making clothes for him, though... so he doesn't have too many great outlandish things. I'm torn about his next faceup because there are so many things I'd love to do with him! Too much inspiration...

 

I'm inspired by the known and the unknown. Everything. I feel my highest function (maybe my only function?) is to absorb abstract concepts, process them, draw my own conclusions and then apply them to our world in a useful way. I could be incredibly inspired by the architecture of a building that took many people many years to make and it could instantly start an idea flowing, or I could see a bit of rubbish on the ground and it could spark something that I eventually turn into something just as precious. Media could only ever be a fraction of it. Dreams, words that pop into my head, shapes I see in the world around me, smells and tastes and sensations...

It's such a difficult thing to pin down because it comes from so many different places all at once. It can come from literally anywhere, from a bottle of water to the legend of a mythical beast to carpet fuzz. I suppose to name some, I have especially been inspired by the clothing, behaviors, settings and conditions of certain time periods and of differences in cultures of the modern world. Outer space and spiritual things both inspire and sometimes frighten me. Music, making music, and the qualities of sound and energy fascinate me. Nature and animals and the history of the natural world - facts, personal encounters and future possibilities - really get me excited! There are few limits to what we can create or do, and though you might have a hard time seeing the source looking from the outside-in, my doll hobby (like everything else I do) is inspired by D), All of the above!