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Which came first, the Doll or the Art?

Mar 20, 2010

    1. My dolls are essentially fanart of characters near and dear to me. The character always comes first for me, and I enjoy owning them because they are visual representations of characters that live very rich lives inside my head but who I am unable to draw because I am a terrible artist. I write for them all of the time, but sometimes I like having the visuals to go along with the text.

      My photography skills have increased not so much because of a love for the art of photography but because I want my dolls to look their best when presented online, and I can't do that if I am creating subpar pictures.
       
    2. I actually had to sit and think about this one, because I actually wonder why I got into BJD's in the first place. I saw the photographs and thought it would be fun to do that, but it turns out I am not good at photography and I don't enjoy the processing of digital images that much to fix them.

      As for characters, though I have a few from stories I wrote for myself and RPG's I've been in, I don't go looking for 'shells'. I am a perfectionist and nothing out there could be 'perfect' for a character. Also I am one of those OCD people who tend to keep things compartmentalized. Thus, my previously created characters don't cross over into the 'physical' al la dolls because I don't want them to.

      Making characters for dolls; I tried really hard to put a character to my Puki, have one ready and such but... it just isn't there. Growing up I was very much the "'It will tell me it's name" child for dolls and stuffed animal. It extends to adulthood (yes, my car has a name) although some play things, when I was little, had been named with influences I had; none had been me putting a character I have into them. Just because it 'gives' me a name does not mean I feel it has a soul (exp: it's a metal car with an engine made of steel that has many components to make it run). I am the same with my doll. She might over time develop a 'personality' of sorts, but no real character.

      Why I got into the hobby? :) I'd have to say, because I thought they were adorably cute, insanely gorgeous and amazingly built. It's one thing to sculpt a person out of clay, it's another to make that person be able to move and contort and have to think about what's in the middle of the sculpture, not just what you see on the outside. I'd love to sculpt one for myself in the future. Once I got my Puki I realized that she opened up so many creative doors. I enjoy sewing and while I am not a fashion student, I relish the idea of making clothing and styles on a smaller scale for ease (comparatively) of sewing and less amounts of fabric. I also look forward to getting into the world of miniatures and sculpting items (since sculpting is my current Art emphasis). My doll has had me research all sorts of air-drying, oven baked clay that I never knew existed and I've found different techniques that help me in ceramics and 3D sculpting as well.
       
    3. I love this question because there are so very many different ways to answer it -- enough that while I thought, "Ooh, I need to jump on that one!" with an answer when I first saw it, it's still taken days to really herd all the relevant thoughts together to manage it.

      I've always been an artist. I'm 36. In that way, the art came long before my BJDs. Heck, I even tried (and failed horribly, oh man) to sculpt a doll about a decade back. Note: I don't think art has to be 'successful' to still be art, either. It can be 'bad' art. My doll parts still littering a shelf downstairs are definitely bad art -- but they're still art. *cough* While that may sound tongue-in-cheek, and it is to some extent, the point stands. I draw, paint, write, digitally wrestle things toward image status of some kind, take photographs... all of it counts as art, and I'm at varying points from passable to horrendous at all of the above, depending on what it is and how adventurous I'm trying to get.

      That's just -me-. It's what I do. It's as natural as breathing -- all of it, whether it succeeds or fails, whether it's good or bad, whether I love it or hate it -- and I genuinely cannot begin to imagine what my life would be like without those things in it because I truly can't ever remember ever, ever being any other way. I was apparently born to die under a mountain of yarn, beads, fabric, and general art supplies. For someone trained in costuming/jewelry/art of any kind, 'art supplies' can become such a broad category of 'stuff' that it genuinely does boggle the mind.

      I've always had the art. I haven't always had the BJDs. I have, however, had some sort of doll or another at every point through my life that I can remember. I remember the first Barbie I received as a gift -- for my second birthday. It is actually my very earliest memory. So while I may not have always had BJDs, I've pretty much always had dolls of some kind around.

      It would be nice and simple if I could say, "Art first, dolls later!" but it just isn't that straightforward. At various points throughout my life, the dolls (whatever kind they are) have been a happy hobby and nothing more and entirely unrelated to the art. At other times, the art is unrelated to the dolls other than 'selling the art is a means to buy more dolls, yay!'. Other times, I've tried to learn new artistic techniques to make a doll, or make something for the dolls I have/had. Sometimes the dolls will inspire some artistic endeavor that has no direct link to them -- the colors in a doll dress might inspire the color scheme of a necklace for a person, for example.

      Inspiration has just never been a straightforward matter for me. I don't have a muse, or a few muses, I have a hive of the little devils buzzing noisily at all hours of the day and night, vying for attention as to who gets attention first. Some are characters I've made up for RPGs, some are just vague ideas, some are collections of poetry, and some are dolls. It all goes back and forth. Sometimes the inspiration comes first and the doll comes into the house to 'fill a role', be it a character, some sort of archetype, or just 'hey, that's the perfect model for that outfit I've always wanted to make!' (yes, I do have one of those in the collection). Other times, the doll is itself the inspiration for something new.
       
    4. A little of both, I guess. I never got art classes in my youth (was stuck firmly in the superbrain-in-a-jar academic track) so I've always been self-taught-Everything. But I was never into photography until I got the combination of a digicam + dolls - because in the old film-camera days, every single snapshot I ever tried sucked - but now you can't stop me taking pictures of everything. And I was never a good painter, was never taught, never learned to really work properly with the materials, until I learned how to do faceups. It also helps to hang around other artsy people who actually went to art school & can help show you the nuts-and-bolts, too (I am forever indebted to Idrisfynn & St. James for most of my faceup knowhow & confidence!). But for these things the doll did come first.

      On the other hand, a hobby like this full of fiddly little precious bits & intense work was just a natural outgrowth of the other art fields & hobbies I've always been into (writing, cartooning, sculpture, tattoos, action-figure collecting, mad accessorizing). And a hobby based upon collecting fabulous-looking people was a TOTALLY natural outgrowth of my writing & poetry & character-sketching habits!-- My head has always been one giant cosmic waiting-room full of daffy critters, slouching around the coffee-pot & waiting their turn to be born. Whether or not they ever go very far, I just like birthing 'em: drawing them as cartoons, or writing them into a poem or story, or even just making a throwaway character-sketch.

      So, discovering this awesome new way to give birth to a character that you already have-- I got hooked right away! If a doll doesn't automatically fit a character, there's endless modification possibilities to nail every single little detail you want, which rocks. However, it's also a great way to create a character on-the-fly as you go along. More & more often these days I've been buying sculpts without a planned character, and I meet him at the door. Then I get to make up his details as I go along, photographing & sharing him like crazy the whole way, which is almost more fun-- doing it in front of an audience, so to speak!-- because you get feedback. ^^

      I don't have just one way of operating, it's all very freeform. Call it Zen and the art of doll collecting...
       
    5. Thanks everyone for your very thoughtful answers to this question- it's been enjoyable and thought-provoking reading what you all wrote.
       
    6. For me art would be first. the beauty of a wonderful body, the bone structure of a beautiful face. You can make your own fantasy world any way you want. We all need to get away at some point and time.
       
    7. all these answers are long and extremely complex, but to me the dolls are just fun. i love dressing and undressing them and trying on different outfits and wigs and eyes to change their personalities. i have always had a camera, at least as long as i can remember and i love taking photos, but i never put the two together until i joined doa.
       
    8. I'm an artist and art teacher.

      I wanted a camera when I first entered college. All I had previously were disposable cameras. I hated them.

      I saved enough money for a doll. I found BJDs beautiful and perfect for modeling. I love 3-D art-forms. I consider BJDs to be forms of art.

      My parents saw my pitiful attempts at doll photography with disposable cameras. They pitched in a bit. I saved enough for a digital camera.

      I took some Ceramics courses and loved them. I also took Photography courses. I found connections between Ceramics, Photography, and BJDs.

      The art came first. BJDs help in my explorations in art and furtherance of my concepts and inspirations.
       
    9. I'm mostly just a doll collector. I've collected dolls throughout my life, but these dolls just seem to me to be the ultimate kind to collect because of their expressive faces and the ability to pose. I made porcelain dolls and sculpted dolls for many years, but I considered it a craft rather than art. The notion to photograph them never occurred to me until I found DOA and although I have improved, I doubt that I will ever achieve the level of photography I consider to be art. I make up personalities for my dolls and little stories, but nothing elaborate. It seems to me that many people on the forum describe themselves as artists, even people who have only recently purchased a doll and are posting photos of their truly terrible faceups in the critique section. I can only conclude that my idea of art is very different from most people. My dolls inspire me to create, so I would have to say that art or at least the possibility of achieving it came first.
       
    10. Me too <3

      I don't search for "excuses". Since the moment I met BJD, I said "I want one". I never planned characters, photos... nothing!

      I just love them ~<3
       
    11. I haven't made my character into BJD yet. :( he is still in my mind. And I know that because I only have 2 characters I'd ever consider I REALLY want IRL, that helps me keep from buying lots and lots of dolls in the future.
      but when I get the money for it, believe me, I'll go rampage and have everything decked out and done within 3 months. *laughs*
       
    12. It's not always a clear-cut thing with me, but all of my dolls have characters in my original stories. By and large the characters preceded the dolls and my entrance into the whole hobby, but some have come along later. The resin-come-latelys all get characters in stories, though. I've discovered I don't bond with them otherwise.

      Photography is definitely only linked to BJDs for me. I didn't own a digicam until I got my first BJD. I enjoy drawing but have no training and little ability; I have no talent for photography at all, but am cautiously optimistic that I'm taking better pics than I used to. Faceups are a type of painting I'm increasingly able to do. The dolls are bringing me into creative areas I've only ever dabbled very lightly in.

      As shells for characters, they're useful, too. You have to get a quite solid idea of what they really look like in order to shell them, and as characters from different worlds interact you make realizations about unexplored areas of their personalities or personal histories. Interacting in a different way with your own fictional characters, art, photography, sewing skills, etc., leads to all kinds of personal discoveries, IMHO.
       
    13. First off, cool question (:

      My initial thoughts were to just draw them and create characters for them, but that quickly shifted to photographing them as well, and then to expanding on their world. I've always drawn, and I had been wanting to get into photography anyways.
      I think that BJDs expanded my means of making art, but the 'art' came first.
      They really are just like my other characters, just in physical form and more expensive :lol:
       
    14. For me it was visual art that came first. I am an illustrator and I the personal excuse to get the dolls was to use them as tools for my art. They represent my OC's which have been around for a long time. Because of the dolls I have also taken up photography, which until now I had no real interest for.
       
    15. Actually the character comes first for me xDDDD
       
    16. this question is great, but i truthfully came up with my characters before the doll [:
      and i just search around on doll sites until i find the doll that best fits my character altogether, i mean i used to draw out my boys all the time, molding them into what they are today, and then i found the BJD community, and it was like an instant addiction, i could have my boys in my hands as a real object, it was quite wonderful to find a community like this.
      ^^
       
    17. My dolls will be bought for the purpose of character development, and for exploring a whole new art form. BJD collecting has made me consider taking up painting and ever sewing, two things I'd never had in interest in before. I've always been an art person, but this hobby is opening up doors to possibilities I never thought to explore.
       
    18. I suppose technically art came first. I'm a notorious doodlebug (or I was anyway; I truthfully do not draw at all like I used to even over a year ago. I figure when the public school system is teaching you nothing it becomes a good time to draw; now that I'm getting an actual education there's not so much wiggleroom >_> But anyway, OT)

      That isn't to say I don't believe the relation of the two isn't totally symbiotic in my case. I've loved dolls since I was little and really, I've been collecting them the whole time. (Call it a break of about 4-6 years between my last Sailor Moon doll and my first BJD.)

      What's weird for me is that it's only recently that the two converged. I've been in the hobby since 2006, but only last year did I do as much as my first restringing or costuming, and only now am I ever doing my first mods or faceup attempts.

      It's as if the two were in parallel development my entire lifetime, and have only just crossed each other to give me a hobby that is BOTH doll and art.
       
    19. An interesting thought!

      If I didn't want to better my photography skills, or if I didn't write...would I want a BJD?

      I think the answer would still be 'yes' because my hobbies are still my hobbies. But if I didn't have Emma to photograph, then all I'd have is my cats. And you can only do that so many times.

      My writing wouldn't suffer at all, though.

      Plus, I love dolls - porcelain, Barbie, just any doll that catches my eye.
       
    20. I am an artist who took a dive into the hobby because I saw a new medium to express my skills with. Strangely photography is not the faucet of the hobby with drew me in but rather the art of altering the doll itself: modification, customisation. I can turn the 2D fantasies from my illustrations in to a 3D realisation with my dolls. It is a lot of fun for me and when I don't have the will to draw I can always turn to them to help keep the creative juices flowing.

      Admittedly I love that other people have characters that the dolls become and I have tried to develop one or two myself before the doll arrived. I am too fickle though for any concept beyond a name to stick. I'm still trying because it seems like it would add even more meaning to these works of art and everyone looks like they're having so much fun!