Exactly what the title says.
Other Hobbies – do you have them?
I do. And considering the fact that I talk so much about writing, you’d never know if I didn’t take the time to tell you. I collect Asian Ball Jointed Dolls. Not only that, I like to give them their face ups (for the most part anyway), and get involved with dressing them up to match the image of the character I want for them. I’m really sorry if some people find dolls creepy – I love them and want to share.
What’s an Asian Ball jointed doll, you ask?
This
Abaddon from one of my stalled WIP's
Abby – as I call him for short is a Cerebus Project Lu-Wen sculpt. The beautiful face is done by my friend Ka, and his eyes are silicon cat slit eyes turned sideways (he is a demon after all). There is no photo manipulation in this picture, just the sun reflecting off his eyes. Â And yes, Abby is a vampire if you can see the indents from his fangs in his lips… the angle doesn’t catch the teeth 😉 (but he’s really a demon just mind screwing humans 😀 )Â I’m not currently developing his WIP, but this is where I get the images for my characters.
I buy dolls. Abby and twenty others of mine stand 2 feet tall. This is generally classified as an SD (Super Dollfie – taken from the name by Volks (the Japanese company that originated the trend) for their 60cm dolls. They’re fully articulated and strung with elastic for tension. There are many more companies located in Korea and China.
This is another: Introducing Chaos – as a blank slate, and with character
Chaos - blank
Chaos - complete
Chaos is a Bambicrony Gun – and stands 27cm tall. He’s what’s called a Tiny. Most of my dolls are the two foot variety – in fact, twenty of them are. I only own one Tiny, and one MSD (mini super dollfie – stands approximately 45cm tall 1.5 feet). His face up took me 4 hours… it was hell, but he turned out perfectly. Chaos has a fantastic story – dark and twisted. One day I’ll get around to writing it.
Neither of these dolls currently feature in my WIP. But I do have four who do. The three main characters and one secondary character. I base the way my characters appear loosely on my dolls. It’s how I ‘cast’ my book. If that makes sense.
As you can see they’re fully customizable. From the eyes, to the hair, to the face-up (I’d say makeup, but it really gives the doll personality), to the clothes and even scarring or tattoos. You can customize these dolls to look like anything you want. There are hundreds, probably thousands of sculpts by now (though when I started collecting back in 05, there weren’t lol).
I love my dolls and as a writer I can say: I love their personalities and quirks, because in my head – they really do have them.
These are just two of my brood – I would have shown the ones from my WIP, but Sai fell flat on her face and needs a mod to her nose now (very sad), and to be honest, I just haven’t taken many pictures of those guys. The one you can see in the featured image is Psyda – a Volks Cecile Scarface. He’s gorgeous, rare, and very scarred 😉 I’ll show him in more detail another day.
I was thinking of making a weekly or fortnightly post to introduce them all. It’ll also make me take pictures and give them and my photography some attention. And yes, these two are boys, most of mine are boys – the guys look effeminate, and the girls look fragile. It’s how it works 😉
How do you visualize your characters? Do you use movie stars, dolls or are you artistically gifted enough to draw them yourselves? How do you keep your characters alive in your head even if you’re not working on their story?
Tell me – I’d love to know.
seriously??? these are AWESOME!!! wow.. I love them, they are so beautiful, and I can see their character in their features……. can I come over and play?
my hobby is knitting.. bleh, nowhere near as cool as yours!
I’ve never given a thought to how I keep my characters alive, they just live in my head.. uh! maybe I will try to give them some kind of physical form….
I think you have just inspired me.
Oh you like them? That’s awesome 😀 I’m getting all excited doing a post about them every week or two 😀 Means I can take photos and maybe do bio pages 😀
They can be a bit pricey – but there are companies that do sales on them for amazing discounts once a year. There are cheaper brands, medium brands and expensive brands. You can own one from $50-$5000 – and no – I’ve never paid, nor am I likely to ever pay that 😉 Depends on the size you like, the type of sculpt you like etc.
definitely do more posts.. I want to see more pictures… so so cool!
I cut out pictures or interesting people, places, things, from magazines, catalogs, online….I keep a set of files for them, some containing pictures over 20 years old.
Oooo older pictures are so awesome. I love the aged look they get. That’s a great way to do your characters 😀
Oh I love these! Abby is gorgeous I don’t own any but I love this site:
http://melancholykitties.com/
Check out the profiles section. I love Morrow…
I’m really happy you like them. That site is AWESOME – they even have clothes!
Now I want to do character pages and galleries for mine haha. We’ll see how much time I have 😉 Morrow is gorgeous. I have one of the Yuko sculpt – but she’s half finished.
Your collection seems pretty interesting and it’s cool you can use them for inspiration with your writing.
I wish I could draw but I have to admit my characters would probably be drawn best anime-style. Haven’t really looked for any star photos for inspiration.
Thank you – I love them, but I really do wish I could draw.
Anime style would be awesome 😀 Most of the dolls are anime style – at least, a lot of them are.
OK. Dolls usually creep me out. And yours do a tiny bit. But, it’s really cool that you make them look like your characters. And the 2 you put up are awesome.
Thank you 😀 I’m glad they didn’t creep you out too much. I’ll try to make sure pictures I put up aren’t too creepy 😀
That looks like a pretty expensive hobby.
But then what hobby isn’t?
Ref: visualizing
For me, my characters are more than just looks. Actually, it’s secondary to their makeup. I concentrate more on what makes them tick. Physical attributes are the last things I refine unless it’s integral to the story in some way.
Yeah, it is a rather expensive hobby, although I do save money by doing faces myself. Many come with a default face up, and sometimes I’ll leave it like that.
And I do have rather expensive favourites…
Each doll is a complete ‘person’ so it’s not just their looks but the way they carry themselves, their moods – Everything. Sounds a little odd, but it’s the best way for me to have a complete character running around.
I think the inner workings are more important than appearance – very true point.
Wow, K.T.! Those are some awesome dolls. They don’t creep me out at all, but then again, I’m also the guy at work who has almost 100 action figures posed all over his desk kicking each other’s asses.
As for visualizing characters, I do a mixture of things. I wish I could repurpose action figures to have the appearance of some of my characters, though I don’t have that kind of keen hand-talent. Most of the time, I think of who would play my characters in a movie (Nathan Fillion is totally going to be Eliast Faust, my magic-slinging town marshal!) and then I just roll from there. As for visually-creative outlets? God, I wish I had them.
You should be proud of this part of your creativity. It’s beautiful!
I wanna see a pic of your work desk! 😀 Mine’s not sooooo much. I just have a few action figures.
Ooo action figures! I have a friend who has all the Star Wars ones – enough storm troopers to set up the throne room scene haha.
You should try to repurpose your action figures! At least into action scenes. I wonder if there are any firefly action figures…
Thank you 😀 Sadly this part of my creativity is pure determination – I’ve never been drawing inclined before. Maybe one day I’ll put up one of my songs 😉
Oh my, my daughter would LOVE to collect these.
There are cheaper brands that would be great for kids. I just wouldn’t let them fix on the more expensive ones until they can buy them themselves.
I have friends who can make full on costumes for them etc – it’s a lot of fun!
I want them too!
Hah! Thank you 😀
WOW! Those are amazing! That makes it so much easier to keep your characters that you write about in your head. I wish I was that talented. Me, I just have an image in my head, a picture I can’t get out. 🙂 I WISH I was talented enough to draw. I suck! I have no idea how I can keep these characters from disappearing in my old age. LOL
As for other hobbies, besides writing, well, I have many. Mostly it’s quilting. I am currently working on my Christmas cards. I am fiddling with Fabric Origami and will be attaching the flowers to a quilted postcard and sending them out.
I soooooo want to make a Ren Faire dress for next year but…
Other hobbies I used to do before things got too expensive, chainmaille jewelry.
Hmmm, I read…I write. Those are inexpensive hobbies 🙂
I seriously go through bouts and get so frustrated sometimes that I just give up before I’m done. Also, it hurts the pocket book. The price of fabric and metal has increased tremendously…medical bills seem to come first. blarg! 😀
Quilting sounds like a lot of fun. And I LOVE Ren Faires. Fabric sales are the only time to go get fabric – I can’t sew to save myself but two of my best friends can sew really well 😀
I kind of do think dolls are creepy, but I also love them. I too photos of my Jem dolls from quite close up and I love those photos. hehe
Yeah, I may love them, but I realize they can be creepy. I’m glad you like them though 😀
That is so interesting. Awesome.
I used to do collages, but I stopped doing them. I journal in my characters’ voices, but I’d like to do something more visual.