Dead Leaves
Saturday, 5 November 2011 06:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
siguneWhoops, I've been quiet... I'm working on commissions (proposals to be scanned & sent) + fest entries (Top Secret) and not on the comic so much (though some progress has been made with the script, yay!), and I'm also trying to fashion a dress for Morgana. The latter enterprise is arguably the least successful of the lot :( - for a n00b seamstress like myself, making a dress for a lady with resin boobs (of considerable size) is not a walk in the park. Dear me! So for the time being, she's mostly wearing yards of fabric with pins in it :/.
Autumn is really setting in now. We have lots of dead leaves in our small garden. They made me think of Morgana and her 'touch of death' (which you'll see in action soon). I took a few pictures of her with dead nature.
I know I'm a bit doll-obsessed these days, but it's just so much fun to have your characters sitting around in mini versions and to be able to create a 'real' look for them XD.
Autumn is really setting in now. We have lots of dead leaves in our small garden. They made me think of Morgana and her 'touch of death' (which you'll see in action soon). I took a few pictures of her with dead nature.
I know I'm a bit doll-obsessed these days, but it's just so much fun to have your characters sitting around in mini versions and to be able to create a 'real' look for them XD.
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Date: Saturday, 5 November 2011 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, 6 November 2011 02:53 pm (UTC)Morgana is kind of moody, so I thought this might work well for her :).
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Date: Sunday, 6 November 2011 02:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, 6 November 2011 02:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, 6 November 2011 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, 9 November 2011 09:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, 8 November 2011 10:52 pm (UTC)While you're researching the admittedly difficult dress/costume problem, you could always make her a simple shift for the moment. Simply cut (straight lines all around), drawstring neck, and a timeless (medievalish) garment that can serve as nightwear, casual wear for the time being or underneath anything you're going to try out later.
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Date: Wednesday, 9 November 2011 09:42 am (UTC)One of the main problems here is that I *need* to make dresses that are more fitted than history would allow, simply because fabric doesn't fall the way it does for a human. Dark Ages clothes are simply cut, but whereas that works fairly well with little Gawain and his flat chest, it makes Morgana look as though she's wearing a bag -_-. That's fine for an undergarment, but I'd like her to look a bit more elegant when fully dressed...
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Date: Wednesday, 9 November 2011 10:04 am (UTC)My current medieval garb is a ready-bought linen dress, but I have already bought some dove-blue linen for a viking apron dress I plan to make - erm - sometime... particularly since I plan to sew this by hand.
I unfortunately also have no ideas about forums or places to go online for information. Just one hobby too much for the moment... Right now, I 'm doing doll's clothes and bedding from time to time for my nieces, but usually only after my own ideas and without any patterns at all.
The only idea I have at the moment for the fitting/boob problem - which is, as I suppose, similar as making dresses for Barbie dolls, and I have done my share of that for my sisters - is, apart from the close-fitting problem, using very fine cloth that "falls" (do you say that) more smoothly. Like for a shift for a Barbie doll, I would have used a thin cotton hankerchief - only that for Morgana that would be too smal ;o).
Perhaps my way making doll's clothes can give you some hints or help, too. I usually had some leftovers form sheet/bed linen/ simple cloths my mother and gran made, and used these. And if I wanted to make a more complicated pattern, I usually made a dummy in a simple, cheap/leftover cloth first. Cutting the large outline for a dress, for example, without sleeves at first. Then closing the shoulders and the side seams with a stury thread and some large stitches, just so you get the outline. Putting it on the doll, and then - probably even with a thread in a different colour, and/or some needles - marking out (sorry, I don't know "sewing" English) the pattern changes necessary, like where darts/tucks were necessary, and where the cloth had to be cut for a better fit. But then it were Barbie dresses, very small and fiddly already, and my abilities were rather limited back then, so I didn't really follow through with this most times, just the beginning. In most cases, I later just used threads, ribbons or elastics to get what I want. After all, my sisters wanted usable dresses, nothing else. But looking online for Barbie doll patterns or instructions might be helpful.
Or wait - don't hey have patterns for these dollzone dolls, too? I suppose all you need is a pattern for a fitted dress that fits to your wishes around the bodice. The rest would be probably easy enough to adapt.
I do have a question myself. These dollzone dolls, how much influence do you have on the faces? And on the painted face (since I never would be able to do that for myself). I am sorely tempted to try my hand at a Minerva, and probably even a Snape... *whistles* I haven't started yet, since I haven't knitted for some time, but my to-be-knit viking doll still is in the waiting (with hand-sewn clothes, of course; but that would be a shift, an apron dress, and a medieval coat, all easy patterns done fast by hand in that size, which will be approx. 30cm for the doll.) - and these kind of projects usually take AGES with me... *blushes*
dolls...
Date: Wednesday, 9 November 2011 05:46 pm (UTC)The most important thing about ABJDs is that you are supposed to customise them. A company may (or may not - some don't) sell a full set, with clothes, wig and eyes, and if that is what you want, nobody is going to sue you for keeping the doll the way the company developed it. But the most common thing is to buy a naked doll and get all the other things separately.
You can do ANYTHING you like with these dolls. You can also buy a head from one company and put it on the body of another. You can change the face, you can amputate limbs or stick limbs together, you can dye your doll, stick a beard to it - whatever! BUT you have to do it yourself, or find someone who can do it for you. If you think a nose is too large, you can sand it down with sand paper, or it it is too small to your taste, you can make it larger with Epoxie or Sculpey.
Now - one disadvantage if you are looking for a Minerva or Snape is that dolls of this type mostly follow the 'Asian Aesthetic'. The vast majority of them is really pretty, and just about all of them look really young. It's up to you to be creative and turn a sculpt into a character of the right age and look. People do indeed do this, and you'll find examples of just about everything on the Den of Angels forum. They have a whole thread of Harry Potter dolls :D. There are a few Snapes around, but I've never seen a Minerva.
About face painting: some companies take requests (for which you may or may not have to pay extra), but perhaps more importantly, the 'doll scene' has plenty of excellent artists who take commissions. Me, I'd paint your doll for free, but I am not an excellent artist :p. I can do Snape eyebrows though ;).
The only doll that comes close to my idea of Snape is Unidoll Ark, who is no longer in production. There's a close-up of him here on dA (http://sigune.deviantart.com/favourites/40447264#/d1v97aw)...
Re: dolls...
Date: Wednesday, 9 November 2011 11:04 pm (UTC)