What inspires your doll creations?

Where do you draw your inspiration from - books, films, real life?
Most, if not all, of my dolls on my wish list are character-based. And since my inspiration for characters can be anything from a random, stray thought to a character from a movie, to a person I know... Anything and everything inspires me, really.

Is it important for your doll to have a fixed character in a certain era, or to belong to a specific theme - fantasy, Victorian etc?
Fixed character - yes. Fixed style - definitely not. One, I don't always have the clothes on hand to keep them in the style they want. And two, I like to dress my dolls in various things.

Do you ever get the doll equivalent of writer's block? And if so, what do you do to get over it?
YES!!! Jeez, especially with a new doll. Usually in trying to figure out the character, but also with clothing. Sometimes I have a general idea of what I want, but I have no way of knowing exactly. If I like the doll character well enough, I'll draw them out and dress them how I think they should be. *sighs* This usually puts their clothes on the "to be commissioned" list.

 

Where do you draw your inspiration from - books, films, real life?
Mine comes form the doll itself. I see it and it clicks a trigger off in my head. Then I have to hunt around for the look I want it to have, I use everything around me to gain inspiration for that, actors, singer. I also have to create a personality for it which has tot set a light in my heart. They have to be important to me and likable.

Is it important for your doll to have a fixed character in a certain era, or to belong to a specific theme - fantasy, victorian etc?
Yes, always. Mine are always just regular people doing regular things, with likes and dislike. I never have fantasy dolls or dolls of another time.

Do you ever get the doll equivalent of writer's block - And if so, what do you do to get over it?
Yeah I had that really badly with my third doll, it just takes time. Let it come to you, now she's one of my most developed characters.

 

Where do you draw your inspiration from - books, films, real life?

My own characters. Always, always, always. I do not purchase a doll that does not have a fully worked out character with his/her own world, name, manners, and look before it arrives on my door step. Generally, this means that the character exists even before I buy the doll, though I have had a few exceptions where the doll and the character developed simultaneously. As far as inspiration for said characters... I tend to avoid other fictional works to draw inspiration from, unless it was a book I though had an awesome idea and thoroughly failed in execution, omitting important character or plot aspects. In that case the character may inherit some characteristics that I thought were necessary but the author failed to include.

I do draw a lot of inspiration for characters (and dolls, from personality to physical looks to clothes) from real people though. Either people I know, or historical figures. That's a lot of fun.

Is it important for your doll to have a fixed character in a certain era, or to belong to a specific theme - fantasy, victorian etc?

Generally, yes. However I love fashion so I actually have the vast majority of my characters space/time-jumping, either via being really frickin' old, or by some kind of a special circumstance. That means that there is a certain flexibility with them as far as themes or eras go, but they never venture outside of it.

Do you ever get the doll equivalent of writer's block - And if so, what do you do to get over it?

Well, since all of my dolls are pretty much based on characters that I had already created... No, not really, since any and all blocks would've been handled by then. The only kind of "block" i've ever had was when I could find clothes I liked that fit the character, but it was more me being picky than anything else.

 

Oh, man, where *don't* I get inspiration?

For the pyjamas I'm currently making my boy, I was inspired by finding the fabric. A fat quarter of flannel for baby quilts, soft green with tiny white polka dots. Minute I saw it I knew it was his jammies. Then I saw the burgundy flannel and they became *Christmas* pyjamas specifically, with some contrasting trim.

Other things that routinely inspire me are vintage underwear, Steampunk, glam rock, history, men's suits, corsets, and a host of fandoms, to varying degrees. And of course, theatre (since my dolly sewing relates very strongly to my interest in theatrical costuming).

=^__^=
Anneko

 

My friend (liyanasilverleaf) and I have been writing a story together for some time now and its our characters in that that kind of impress themselves on the dolls that we've found to use for that character. That for the most part is my main inspiration for getting, creating, loving my doll.

Is it important for your doll to have a fixed character in a certain era, or to belong to a specific theme - fantasy, victorian etc?

The funny things about this question is that our characters tend to exsit in two or three different times, so it doesn't limit what I can dress them up in. The only hard part is just what clothing from each period I want to dress them in, and in the cases of our immortal/god characters they have their 'godly' clothes as well. For the most part the character's personalities don't change too much so it's all a matter of how to translate that personality into hair and clothing, especially for the future type clothing for the characters.

 

I only have one doll as of yet, but I'm saving up for two more at the moment.
I basically come up with the character before the doll. I'm always writing and I consider myself somewhat of an artist, so I have about 50 different character sketches of my boy before I even had him on my doorstep. Mostly my inspiration comes from...well, everything. I love history, religion, fashion, music, cultures, poetry, etc. If you're lacking creativity, pick up a good book, flip through a fashion magazine, just look at baby names.
Sometimes an idea can hit you like a ton a bricks without even looking that hard.

 

It just comes to me. I think of it as a sort of free-form Zen accessorizing. I'm not an organized person. My brain is one big vat of goo, with 40 years' worth of effluvia and trivia and random likes and dislikes collected in it-- who can say what inspiration, on any given day, causes a chunk of something to suddenly float to the surface? There are characters that I wrote long ago, there are characters who invent themselves on the fly; there are some who stick to 1 theme or cohesive look, and there are chameleons who change with my moods; there are earthly contemporary humans, and there are imps and demons and one big merman.

Sometimes, a doll's look/name/voice/story/etc. will present itself as clear as a bell, as soon as I first lay eyes on the doll's teaser-photo... Other times, he doesn't really find his own groove until he's been here for awhile, experimenting through the wigs/eyes/clothes/etc. to see what clicks with him. I keep a vast selection of all types & sizes of almost everything, so there is a lot of most-excellent inspiration that happens while just futzing around. One of the very best ways to get to know a guy is to take nude photos of him, though, so there is also always plenty of that, to help a new doll reveal himself to me. ^^

These days, though: A lot of inspiration comes from simply shopping. Fabulous new steampunk release at DollHeart? Well hey, I hadn't intended for Doll X to wear brown, but I think he can make an exception for those boots... sure thing... *cha-ching*... Superqueen Eurodisco looks just in at Sadol? Heyyy, I know one of you guys must be the type who wears a semisheer flyaway leopard-print blouse... *cha-ching*... The devil is in the details.

 

Where do you draw your inspiration from - books, films, real life?
My inspiration for dolls comes from my own fictional worlds, which are in turn inspired by a combination of all those things.

Is it important for your doll to have a fixed character in a certain era, or to belong to a specific theme - fantasy, victorian etc?
My dolls are based on characters in set time periods, but their resin forms live in the here and now, in my house. They're aware that they're out of scale with the strange world they now live in .

My fiction is usually fantasy/urban fantasy/speculative fiction, and all the stories I have represented in resin at this point are from urban settings, some of them near-future. Costume-wise this means they're pretty normal. But there are some aspects of their looks, like one is a pop idol so he's flashy, one has a specific kind of redneck vibe, some have specific national backgrounds like Scottish, Chinese, Korean etc., so while they usually dress in casual street clothes, I do try to find them something reasonably authentic that way.

Do you ever get the doll equivalent of writer's block - And if so, what do you do to get over it?
Not as such. I did have a doll I got without a character in mind, and I had a period of time when I sort of un-bonded with him. Then I shelled him as a character I've had for a while, and have been happy with him ever since. I think playing around with different eyes, wig, faceup or clothing could also be useful to work through that if you don't have specific characters in mind.