Doll with personality

DP #2: Making the doll

Today I’m going to show you how to transfer your thoughts into a finished doll. I’m using the first part of Dolling with personality as a guide. You can find the article here.

Choosing the perfect base
A random base will not guarantee you a good result, even though you find it is easy to doll on. A base - and perhaps more important; the pose - has to reflect the character you are portraying. My character, Sinnik, is old and a drunk. Therefore she has to be crooked and small (stereotypes, eh?). I found this base at The Daft Empire and it a great match! She even has a fist I can stuff her walking stick into! I changed the skin tone and during the process of making the doll, I adjusted the base a little. I didn’t directly edit the base, but made her clothes while picturing what she would look like if I had edited the base. As I described her as plump, that was necessary to stay true to her character.

Face edits
Face edits is something I find quite difficult. You have a very limited space when working on a face, and there’s so much that has to be right for it to look right. The nose has to be exactly where it is supposed to be and the eyes have to be placed in the correct spot - unless you want the doll to look like a monster. Therefore I usually just stick to the original face of the base, making some adjustments. Still I never leave the face as it originally was. The face is probably the most important part of the doll, characterwise.
This time, I made some major changes to the face (considering who made them). I made her eyes a little watery, giving her a furious look, I added lots of wrinkles, and the final change was her double-chin. Her mouth was also altered, although it is not very visible.

Clothes and details
This is the part I enjoy the most! It’s quite easy - play around with different types of clothing, layers, textures and so on until you are satisfied. My doll ended up looking like a tent, the look I was aiming for. Her clothes are also heavily decorated (though I could have gone even longer adding embroideries and such), she has the bag I mentioned in DP #2, and there is also her walking stick. I didn’t pay much attention to fabrics and textures this time, but sometimes that may be very important.

This is not a very good doll, in my opinion, but she has character. When I look at her, I see a grumpy, yet sad, woman, who is found of embroidering. I could have added a background to tell you where she lives, I could have added a bowl of soup to tell you what she eats, but some things have to be left unsaid. I wanted her to be a mystery. A visible mystery, but a mystery nonetheless. Perhaps she is actually a 80-years old serial killer?

© 2008 Dolling Magazine. Cover doll by Sumi, base her own